Friday Night Lights

Previously on FNL: Saracen decided to stay; Billy read Tim the riot act about going to college; Coach Taylor was ousted as Panthers coach, and Monty-puppet Wade got his job; CT took the head coach job for the newly re-established East Dillon High; he and Tami went to visit the wasteland of the East Dillon High football field.

It's a rough start for our beloved Dillon boys: Saracen's delivering "Panthers Pizza," Tim's baffled by college, raccoons are nesting in the travesty that is the Lions' locker room, Landry's been redistricted into East Dillon High, and Buddy is persona non grata on the Panthers football field. Up is down, ladies and gentlemen. At East Dillon, Eric stares at his desolation of a football field; he picks up an empty beer bottle on his field and throws it in disgust. Texas Forever, y'all! Elsewhere in Dillon, a shirtless, hot, young African-American man is pretty effectively running from the cops. A police car cuts him off and the officers yell at him to get on the ground. He puts his hands on his head - welcome to the gun show, btw - and the officers cuff him. Back in the locker room, Eric weighs the new team in. I think it's safe to say it's a more ethnically diverse group than the Panthers were. One of them initially refuses to take off a big gold chain, leading me to term him Bling. All of them want to play QB, but they're useless on the field. Coach calls practice after 18 minutes and tells them to go home and think about whether they want to be here or not. After they leave, Coach marks the field lines when a cop car pulls up; a police officer, Detective Shaw, gets out with the kid who was running from the cops earlier. Shaw, whose brother Mike played for Coach years back, asks Coach to take the kid on, which will keep him out of juvie. The kid introduces himself as Vince; the sheriff, hilariously, says that the kid is great at running, as we saw earlier. Coach asks Vince to show up at 6AM sharp. "Six AM sharp means quarter 'til six," he clarifies. Hee! Vince will be there. At the second practice, CT's only assistant coach quits the team, just because one of the players accidentally hits him in the face with a football and bloodies his nose. The kid apologizes sincerely, but the Asst Coach could care less. Good riddance, but now Coach is literally on his own.

Credits, from which all Panthers colors and flag-waving has been removed. I really like how committed the writers are to this new storyline.

Tami has apparently been called to the Panthers' locker room. When she arrives, Wade stands up to applaud her for "all the hard work (she) put into redistricting" when she arrives, telling her how strong the Panthers team is as a result of it, and thanks her "for steppin' up and doin' the right thing." Monty, grinning broadly, informs her that they want her to do the coin toss at Friday's game - the night Eric will have his first game as coach of the Lions. You know, I almost forgot how despicable this character was. Buddy and CT's former coaches sit in silence around the table, ashamed and mortified. Monty goes so far as to tell Tami that she could call heads, just to emphasize how very IN CHARGE he is, and then laughs at her disbelief, claiming he was kidding. Tami draws strength from her well of awesomeness and diplomatically thanks them for the honor, saying she'll think about it as she leaves.

Tim Riggins, bless him, is sitting in a college classroom, listening to his female professor talk about Odysseus. "Every hero has a journey," she explains, saying that Odysseus' journey helps him to appreciate his earlier life and the home he left. You don't have to tell Tim Riggins, lady, who is already packing up and driving back to Dillon, throwing his textbooks out the window one by one, smiling with obvious relief once they're all gone. Oh, Timmy. Back in Dillon, Saracen talks about his art with a community college instructor; she tells him she wouldn't call it "art", but "drawing without a point of view." Saracen responds that the University of Chicago liked his art, and they're a much better school than Dillon Tech. The instructor reasonably asks why he's at Dillon Tech, then, and Saracen has no response.

Tim, Billy and Mindy sit at the Riggins dinner table; Mindy asks Tim what his life plan is. Ha! Oh, honey. Tim tells her that he'll work at Riggins' Rigs, Billy's garage, and he'll stay with them. A very pregnant Mindy rises, asking Billy for a moment of his time to ream him out over this latest development, and Billy follows, seething at an oblivious Tim as he goes. Dare I hope that this will dissolve into another bout of infamous Riggins wrestling before the ep is out? Stay tuned, gentle viewer.