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Welcome back to our Friday Night Lights rewatch!
Last week, Eric refused to fire Mac, who redeemed himself a tiny bit by standing up for Smash against power-tripping cops; the Black players re-joined the team for a testy game that gets called early in Dillon’s favour; Jason put school on the back burner for quad rugby; Julie, Tyra, Matt, and Landry got caught by the cops at Mindy’s strip club; Tami was increasingly uncool over Julie and Tyra’s friendship; and Matty gave Julie apology earrings as they officially DTR.
Stephanie also asked me what I thought of Eric and Tami’s parenting choices as of late, and OOF, do I have opinions! Eric wisely defers to Tami, given how poorly things turn out when he goes rogue, except Tami’s also being unreasonable now. The contrast between how level-headed she is on the Mac stuff and how the internalized misogyny is jumping out re: Tyra is fascinating. Empathy has always been Tami’s superpower, but she no longer seems to have it for the Collette ladies. This also makes me want to revisit the previous Tami/Tyra interactions, because that’s an awful way to think of your students as a guidance counsellor! What happened to the Tami who wanted more for her?! To quote another Tyra: WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!
… anyway. Let’s get to the drinking game, shall we? Lol.
The Official FYA Friday Night Lights Season 1 Drinking Game
Drink once every time:
You want to give Matt Saracen a hug
Tami Taylor drinks a glass of white wine
Tami Taylor says “y’all”
Landry Clarke goes off on a tangent
You’re Team Tyra Collette
Buddy Garrity makes you roll your eyes
You think, “It’s JUST football, people.”
The quick camera cuts make you reach for the Dramamine
Drink twice every time:
The Panthers score a touchdown
Tim Riggins makes poor choices
There’s a classic Coach Taylor pep talk
Grandma Saracen says something sassy
Take a shot every time you hear:
“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!”
“Texas Forever.”
Finish your drink when:
Hands slap the Panther “P”
Jason’s incident happens
Book club admits they don’t read the book
On to the episode!
1.17 “I Think We Should Have Sex”
Julie thinks she and Matt are ready to graduate from makeouts to S-E-X, so he and Landry go shopping for condoms… only to be spotted by a concerned Tami, who then tries to talk Julie out of it. Which only makes her MORE determined, as well as Tami and Eric more freaked out. But the Taylors really had nothing about, because Julie and Matt opt for foot wrestling over sex (not a euphemism). They still end up taking their relationship to the next level, but emotionally rather than physically, by exchanging “I love you”.
Reigning Deadbeat Dillon Dad Walt Riggins is still in town, bonding with Tim over small-scale scams and backseat coaching at football practice. But then the team’s expensive video camera goes missing, and Walt is the prime suspect. Tim defends his dad against the allegation, but OF COURSE Walt stole it and Tim is quietly broodingly devastated. Tim returns the camera, kicks Walt out (of his own home, presumably, which is a real power move), and retreats to the comforts of self-destructive behaviour by drinking and fighting until he gets rescued by Billy and Tyra.
Jason and Herc have been invited to quad rugby national team tryouts in Austin. While Herc is busy with partying and chasing women, Jason gets to know tattoo artist Suzy, who suggests a tattoo of the Sanskrit word for “peace” for him (which I’d argue is not much better than the established douche markings of Chinese characters and barbed wires).
Buddy discloses to an unwilling Eric that he strayed outside of his marriage, but he’s putting an end to both the affair and Angela’s employment. With most of our prominent Dillonites (?) gathered for Sunday church, Angela rolls up with Tyra in tow to slap the shizz out of Buddy, revealing the affair to EVERYBODY.
How many times do I have to take a drink?
15 drinks, 5 shots.
Did the Panthers win?
No football game at all, with it being swapped out for quad rugby. (And no mention of the current championship run, so it feels like some of these storylines might have been shuffled around, esp. since Walt’s subplot seems to pick up right after the last time we saw him.)
MVPs of the Week
Lovebirds Matt and Julie share top honours! For most of the episode, Julie was the frontrunner with her zeal for gathering data points and asserting her agency for what she thought she wanted. But Matty’s right there with her: delivering the smooth line about the taxidermy deer staring at Julie for being ridiculously good-looking; checking in on her for enthusiastic consent; and giving me the biggest laugh of the series so far with “But don’t touch me right now. Just give me a minute, please.” Her obvious relief that he’s not in a rush to have sex and them just being goofballs together were also v. cute.
Oddly Sweet Play of the Week
Even though I’m not a fan of the whole team knowing Matt and Julie’s business (esp. given how gross their locker room talk has been before), the players were actually really supportive of Matty in making sure he’s using proper protection* and even lending out a sex cabin of taxidermy horrors!
* Lol Smash’s disclaimer that he’s not trying to encourage sex out of wedlock.
Best Taylor Couple Moment
Once again, Eric was a big ol’ jerk by lashing out at Tami. But then we get her incredible speech about parenthood and his apology. (Although not the best one, since he’s “sorry if I hurt you”.) I’m noticing that the recurring theme of their relationship is Tami being amazing and Eric apologizing lol.
Tim Riggins’ Finest Moment
Another rough one for Tim, as his bad choices amounted to 4* of the 5 shots in my drink count: pool hustling with Walt, falling off the wagon, littering lol, and picking a fight. (There could have been another, but I didn’t want to dock him for defending Walt to Eric.) Returning the video camera might not have been his visually finest moment, but it certainly was the lone bright spot for Tim.
* Sassy Grandma Saracen was the other one.
The Taylor Advice of the Week
While I didn’t really disagree with most of Tami’s sex talk to Julie, Tami was probably more similar to her own judgy mother than she would have liked. Yes, it’s a big deal and Julie is young, but FORBIDDING her from having sex is wild. (Same goes with Eric threatening to get her to a nunnery, but we already knew that he’s extremely sex negative when it comes to his kid.) Even when Tami realizes that they can only hope their “smart, responsible, moral girl” will make good choices, there’s still a tinge of sex shaming. (It also reminds me of Lorelai Gilmore’s “I’ve got the good kid”.)
On a somewhat lighter note, the better Taylor* advice was Eric asking to be excluded from this narrative, one that he has never asked to be part of, in response to Buddy’s infidelity confession.
* Pun unintentional, but when it fits, it fits.
Post-Game Breakdown
- Early in the episode, I wrote down “Punch Walt”, so clearly it happened to the wrong Riggins!
- Lol at the fake brand of condoms being called Inconceivable. Bravo, props department!
- In this show’s continuing habit of pairing teenage characters with grown-ass adults, Suzy HAS to know Jason’s only 18, right?! He told her about his last game and she might have even seen his birth date when she processed his application, which would make it worse?!?!?
- I get that Jason was a top athlete before his injury, but this is still mere months afterwards and he’s playing at national team levels for quad rugby?!??? (Granted, I have no idea if there are similar real-life examples, but A LOT has happened in a very short time!)
- With all the Austinites in our rewatch party, it’s hilarious that the geographically furthest member got the first episode set in Austin.
Join us next week as Mandy C. recaps “Extended Families”. My question for our resident FNL newbie and all y’all: is the much maligned Julie Taylor as terrible as advertised or better than you thought she’d be (or remember her being) so far?
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Ok “QBD” is my new Riggins acronym: quietly broodingly devastated. So good!
Ugh, I have cringe residue from Lorelai’s “I’ve got the good kid.” Her worst moment, IMO!
And technically I’m now geographically the farthest, but I was born in Austin, so your point stands!
– QBD is the MLD’s MO, tbh! 😂
– What you wrote about Lorelai’s “I’ve got the good kid” obvs stuck with me (even after 11 years 💀), so I immediately clocked it for Tami too. Which tracks for the era of asking teen pop stars about the state of their virginity, but like DANG, so much toxic shit was normalized when we were growing up!
– LOL DUH, of course you’re the farthest now 😅 in my head, I was just like, “Texan, Texan, Texan, Floridian”. Depending on whether Steph’s been to Austin, I could still be the one who’s least connected to it lol
I lived in Texas for a year or so when I was 4-5, but I’m not sure if I ever went to Austin. Definitely haven’t been there as an adult! Not FNL-related but to further the conversation about toxic shit being normalized in TV, I’ve been catching this TikToker’s critiques of Cory Matthews and how he treated Topanga in Boy Meets World (which I watched casually on like reruns when I was young) and HOLY SHIT he’s absolutely HORRIBLE. I’m sure people disliked him then too, but it was wildly insane how rudely he treated Topanga all the time and she went on to marry and have children with this fool and it was all treated as so romantic.
Walt leaving and telling Tim to watch “how easy this is” to do has stayed with me for years and years. And of course I understand acting, but I still thrill to the fact that Brett Cullen is both Walt Riggins and Payson Keeler’s dad from Make It or Break It. THE RANGE 😂.
Omg thank you for reminding me that I keep meaning to look up what he’s been in! He’s definitely one of those actors who’s been in tons of things but I couldn’t place. (There are A LOT of ’00s credits that it could have been, but the most likely might be Lost.)
Oh, shit, yeah it’s Goodwin! I have been rewatching LOST over the last few months and I didn’t even clock they were the same person, even though I was like, oh this guy is very familiar! (My blinding rage at how horrible a dad he is took priority.) (Also yes, he’s been in a ton of stuff but his 4-episode arc on LOST is definitely what I “attribute” him to, not all the other stuff he’s done, haha.)
I was definitely never a Julie-hater like I’ve seen many people rag on her, and I think especially in this first season she’s pretty relatable and normal teen and I think she’s fine right now. I think she became more annoying in future seasons because of some of her actions, but I also have very fuzzy memories of this show’s plot points at times so…I’m curious to see how I feel about her this time ’round. (As you mention above and we’ve touched on in our DMs, MW, my view of Eric is certainly very different this time around, or at least from what I remember–maybe he also grows in later seasons and that is what we’re remembering, or maybe we were just gaslit into thinking his behaviors were “good enough” because so many other on-screen husbands wouldn’t even bother to apologize or capitulate to their wives.)
Like, yes, I don’t disagree with Tami warning Julie to wait for all the good reasons she’s mentioned, especially because we see more of Julie’s inner life and WE know she ISN’T really displaying behaviors of someone who is actually ready either (and also just the benefit of having a fully developed adult brain and hindsight), but it always reeks of misogyny when no one is giving this same desperate argument to not have sex for the same reasons to the guy in the situation. Like he couldn’t potentially be emotionally damaged from not being ready, or having to be a teen father (obviously not AS bad for him not having to BE pregnant, but still), etc. etc.