Friday Night Lights

Lions practice. Bling from the weigh-in, who also caused the former assistant coach's bloody nose, cannot sit still and listen to Coach for two minutes; no, he has to tell Landry that he looks "like Opie". Not the new one, my friend. When Landry ignores him, he pours Gatorade on him. Landry tells him to shut up and listen to Coach, but Bling's having none of that - he tackles Landry to the ground and the entire team gets up, yelling "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT". Let's see if they exhibit that bloodlust in their first game, shall we? Cut to the inside of the locker room, where the whole team sits in stony silence. Coach walks in and he has HAD it, y'all, pronouncing them all cowards and dumbasses, telling them that they don't fight on HIS FIELD or in HIS COLORS. Nice! He tells Landry and Bling to "make it right" and Landry steps to immediately, apologizing to Bling and extending his hand, but Bling looks him up and down contemptuously, saying he will have none ("Screw you, Rudy"). Coach instantly and magnificently LOSES it, getting in Bling's face and screaming for him to GET OUT OF HIS HOUSE and encouraging anyone who might be so inclined to follow him. Five or six players leave, several of them African-American, as Bling is - which is why, I think, Coach gets in Vince's face and asks him if he wants to leave as well. "I want to play, Coach," Vince says softly. "I want to play." Man, I forgot how Kyle Chandler could really bring the CRAZY. Fantastic scene.

Next morning: Barmaid's house. A girl sings the Star-Spangled Banner at the top of her lungs as Tim Riggins slowly gets up from the barmaid's bed, and while a shirtless, boxer-brief-wearing Riggins would make anyone want to stand up and salute, I have a low tolerance for people singing on TV.  Tim walks out to the living room, boots in hand, and the girl in the kitchen stops singing. She asks if he's not "Panthers' Tim Riggins." Do we have another disarming young tot who feels compelled to call our boy by his first and last name? I think we do. The girl asks if her mom is going to be in any condition to drive anytime soon, and Tim smiles and tilts his head to indicate not so much. The charming tot insists on a ride to school - EDH, don'tcha know - and we cut to Black Betty's engine, which Tim is working on while the girl talks his ear off about how he used to be a local hero and now he's just a regular guy, and it's massively annoying. When she asks what he's going to do now, he tells her that she'll have to walk to school. She flirts with him before she leaves, and then she's gone. Girl, ease up.

Coach reviews his team roster, which has more than a few empty spaces on it, and discusses it with stalker assistant coach. Eric finally snaps at him, telling him to stop repeating everything he says, when one of the coaches from the Panthers walks in (not Mac). He tells Coach that they have no chance of winning the upcoming game, but says he's there to "coach 'em up." Eric throws him his Lions cap and looks hopeful for the first time since the season started. There you go!

Game Day. Lions and Panthers signs cover the town. Tami tells Eric she's sad she has to miss his first game, and then suggestively flirts that she's gonna "flip my coin" and then sneak out to see the Lions play. Eric starts macking, and Julie decides that this is the perfect time to (a) interrupt and (b) announce that she's going to go to East Dillon High. Tami is bug-eyed, of course, as Julie lists that all her friends go there or have graduated, everyone at DH is a Panthers freak, Tami said EDH is just as good a school, so it's all decided, then. She's out the door as Tami can barely muster a "NOOOO", and Eric just stands there, shell-shocked.

Lions locker room. In a nice callback to Riggins, one of the Lions has jittery legs, but it's not out of hunger to win, it's fear. One of the boys hums tunelessly to himself, another one rocks back and forth, they're all psyched out of their heads. Vince and Landry look around, a little freaked out. Coach comes out and tells them to give 100%, and people will look at them differently tomorrow, but something's off: when he says "Clear eyes, full hearts", Landry's the only one who initially responds with the "Can't lose" refrain. As the Lions file out, pumped up, the camera lingers on the "NEVER OUT OF THE FIGHT" stenciled on the locker room wall. Once on the field, we see the Lions have none of the pomp and circumstance of Dillon's Friday game - just half-empty bleachers and the barmaid's daughter singing the Star-Spangled Banner. She goes sharp on the high note and a few others, but I think we've all been there. Across town, of course, it's a different story: Panthers chestbump on the sidelines, the local TV's covering the game, cheerleader pompoms are flying. Wade tells Tami that if they win the toss, they want to play defense first. Tami nods dutifully and heads out to the field, with Wade shouting after her that they want defense; JD, Luke and another player follow her to the coin toss. She chooses tails - nice recall to the fact that Monty wanted her to choose heads - and when it comes up tails, she tells the ref that Dillon wants the ball. HEE! JD scrambles to protest that they want to play defense, but Tami's already walking off the field, telling Wade "y'all have a great game" as she goes. HA! THAT'S my girl.

The Lions, of course, are struggling. Vince (#5) runs fast, as the sheriff said he did, but these kids are rusty: they fumble the snap, they're not used to getting tackled and they're not sure of the plays. Coach rants and hollers from the sidelines as best he can, but once they start throwing interceptions, they kind of give up, and then it's all over. At halftime, the score's 45-o. In the locker room, Landry's spitting out blood; Vince's foot isn't broken, but it's a messed-up sprain. Vince says he can still play. Coach checks in with his boys around the room, and they are a collective hot mess. When he gets to Landry he checks the boy's tooth. Landry: "ArgharghARGH!...  I think it's alright." Aw, LANDRY! Eric walks out to the field just as Tami walks into the bleachers; he calls the ref over and says that they're done. The ref tries to talk him out of it, but he's adamant: "We've got to forfeit the game, is that what you want to hear?" The ref walks out and makes the announcement; the few people remaining in the fans start to boo. Oh, OUCH. I don't know that Coach has ever called a game. That's a brutal, but honest, beginning.