Friday night lights – Episode 8 – “Crossing the Line”
(Also known as Tim Riggins’ very bad; awful; not-so-good day…)
Another winner, but then again, aren’t they all?
This episode was just filled to the brim with some hilarious and some not-so-hilarious but very real quotes.
So let’s try to remember some of them…
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“You got peas, why can’t I get what I want?”
We find out some more info on the Riggins’ boys and their lives without their parents. Apparently their dad is a caddy at some golf-range, somewhere not too close by. His apparently only sent two checks in the six years his been gone, and I’d guess that’s about the amount of days his spent with his son in this time as well…
Apparently Timmy is still a bit disillusioned about his daddy and doesn’t want to believe Billy when the older brother is just fed up with their entire situation. It goes from bad to worse, Tim decides he doesn’t need a brother who acts as a father and says he’d be better of without Billy. (This after the two brothers had one hell of a brawl in their lounge, in front of some freaky full-length cardboard cut-out of a model in her swim-suit. It made for some weird visuals I tell ya!)
Of course at the end, when Timmy comes home, black eye and all (more on that a bit later) Billy takes on his over-protective brother role ones more and pushes those aforementioned peas into Tim’s hand and helps his brother out.
See Tim, no matter how much you want to deny it, you do need your brother, he’s your bro, your father, your mother… He’s all you’ve got!
“So have you thought some more about what I asked you… About going on a date?”
“I’m considering it…”
Matt and Julie continue being all kinds of cute in this episode. Julie tells her parents that Matt had asked her on a date, and the *bleep!* has hitteth the fan in a big way in the Taylor house…
“My football player wants to do a three-way”
…Speechless Tami…
One of Tami’s kiddies that she’s supposed to give some guidance counseling to, comes to her with this very real, very sad statement. Apparently the boy will only be her boyfriend if she agrees to do a three-way with him (and, I don’t know, another rally-girl?). Anyway, Tami’s little disillusioned belief that her daughter (the same age as this girl) has been sheltered from such things just shattered around her…
We don’t get to see her “guidance” on the subject, but I can only guess that made for one extremely uncomfortable session…
Of course, on that same day, she finds out about Tim and Lyla’s little trists and then to top of this very bad, awful, not-so-good day, Julie tells her and Eric that she’s considering going on a date with Matt Saracen. Yip, Tami had a lot to deal with in this episode.
“When you think a boy is thinking about you, you’re wrong, he’s thinking about sex and food…”
Oh Eric, how could you forget FOOTBALL! And Beer! Everybody knows boys have at least four things on their minds – Sex, food, sports, alcohol and maybe cars! Sheesh, you were a boy once, you should know these things!
Eric and Tami fight about Julie and Matt’s impending relationship. Eric believes Matt is a good boy, whilst Tami says he may be at the moment, but he’s the new QB and things can turn messy very quickly. I have to agree with Tami there, nobody can stay as innocent as Matt is at the moment forever…
So Tami persuades her husband to have a father-daughter talk with Julie, and it’s the sweetest, most real father-daughter talk I think I’ve ever seen on the small screen, all of it over a very bad game of ping-pong.
He tells Julie that she’s a sweet, sensitive girl, and he doesn’t want to see her get hurt.
Her answer?
“I love you too dad”
SO Beautifully sappy!
“Go to your room, open your books and read. How’s that for a SAT-Prep course?”
And so we get to one of the heart-breakingly sad parts of the episode. Smash wants to continue on his Roid-way, but realizes that the drug costs a few more dollars than he have available. Thus he concocts a story about some SAT-prep course he needs to take and asks his mom for the money.
His mom tells him out-right she doesn’t have that type of money, and that he should just study on his own. Smash of course realizes that no amount of studying will get him the money he so desperately needs and thus asks Matt for help in getting him a job at the place where he works.
Matt helps him out, they have some pretty funny scenes where Smash tries to teach Matt how to work with the “women-folk”, but Matt finally sees Smash rummaging around in the cash-register. When he confronts Smash, Smash says he was just checking if everything was there, but it’s clear Matt doesn’t believe him. They argue about the fact that Matt could lose his job if Smash steals whilst on Matt’s watch, but Smash still doesn’t tell Matt the real reason he’s in need of the money.
This story-line ultimately leads to conclusion in church! And no, Smash doesn’t ask redemption or something like that… It turns out that Smash’s mom had contacted their minister and he pleads with the congregation to help out this young man in their community that would like to make so much more of his life. All the while, Smash sits there, a look of wonderment and unspeakable guilt on his face, as he realizes just how wrong it would be for him to take this money…
But ultimately the wrong once again wins over the right, and he takes the money to the gym, where he buys a months’ supply of steroids… I just have to give Gaius Charles (the actor who plays Smash) some major props here, he played this story-line like a pro. I felt so badly for this young man… This boy, who could so easily have been an absolutely one-dimensional character, has developed into a confused young man in front of our very own eyes, and a lot of that has to do with the way Gaius has portrayed the character.
“No seventeen-year-old should have to go through what you are going through.
You're dealing with it.
You're doing what you're supposed to do.
You're being a man about it.”
Jason wants to take part in a wheelchair-rugby skirmish, but his Physio? (Phil) doesn’t think that’s the best idea. He makes it clear to Jason that it’s still too soon, that if he gets hurt it can set him back months and that he may even lose all feeling in his hands.
But Jason is a man, and he goes with his heart, thus he decides to still take part in the skirmish.
“Just because we’re crippled, doesn’t mean we have to take the crumbs”
Herc (Jason’s roommate), wants to know why Jason is still seeing Lyla, if he’s so sure that she’s cheating on him. Jason tells him that he asked Lyla (this happened at the start of the episode) and she denied the “affair”. Herc riles Jason up some more, they fight, they fall out of their wheel-chairs, Herc gets inspiring and ultimately they call for Phil, in a very amusing fashion to come and help them back into their wheel-chairs.
“Go… LEAVE LYLA!”
Jason takes part in the skirmish, helps to win the game and is on a euphoric high. Said high is depleted a bit when Tim comes and sits in front of him, praising him on his game. Jason has had it with his two-timing friend and girl-friend and swings one MAJOR punch at Tim (thus the black-eye previously spoken about). He tells Tim to leave, and the other does as asked. When Lyla tries to interfere he goes off on her as well, yelling at her to leave…
I really like the way Jason’s character has developed, from QB star, to tragic fallen hero, to a guy that is finally starting to live for himself. Some great character-development, and all of this in only EIGHT episodes!
One final thing, where’s Buddy at? Can’t believe it, but I’m actually missing the slime-ball! :weird: