This is famously weird stuff, but it plays better on second viewing. The sensual pleasures are real. Street gets drunk and sings "La Cucaracha" to a cheering karaoke crowd.
On the way back to Dillon, Lyla and Tim and Jason stop at a bar, have a drink. FNL was always sexy, but this is the only time you could ever call it kinky. There's an undisguised tension in that scene, a clarity about the Lyla-Tim-Jason trinity that the show wouldn't even try to find again.
I'm not saying that the characters were diminished, far from it. Lyla's season 2 farewell to Jason is beautifully sad, and Jason's season 3 farewell to Tim is the show's crybaby high point, and the ultimate season 4 parting of Tim and Lyla is poetry, a Hemingway short story about old love in an Airstream.
But in this moment, in this nameless bar somewhere in the borderlands between Mexico and Texas, you can feel the potency and passion of this three-way love affair. And then they return to Dillon, and Jason has a one-night stand with a waitress, and somehow, against explicit biological odds, there is a baby: A veritable miracle, new life in a season that started with brutal death.
In season 1, Friday Night Lights created a portrait of a town. In season 2, the show tries to expand its vision far away. Coach Taylor is down in Austin. The menage a Street goes to Mexico. Smash cares less about his final season with the Dillon Panthers than about his bright future in college. The show follows his wandering gaze. This is the least football-y season of the show. Characters who were once football-adjacent might as well exist in a distant parallel universe.
Cheerleader Lyla is a reborn churchgoer and a radio host. Jason Street leaves coaching behind for his true destiny as a car salesman. Tami was never just Mrs. Coach — her status as a guidance counselor was an important school-focused counterweight to Panther madness — but in season 2, she's embedded in the domestic sphere, beset upon by a moody teenage daughter and a moody woman-child sister and a distant husband and little Gracie Bell won't stop crying.
In episode 6, Tami gets back to work, and you start to feel the show course-correcting, like an ocean-liner gone astray. This was actually a common experience when you watched TV dramas in the s, mid- 24 , mid- Lost. That was the era of shows ending on wild season finale cliffhangers. Some finales were brilliant and destructive, breaking their shows' narrative spines asunder.
The year Friday Night Lights debuted, Battlestar Galactica ended its second season with a time jump and the protagonists' nigh-total defeat. The O. The Sopranos put Tony in a coma. The Office transferred Jim to the Stamford branch. Grey's Anatomy killed Denny. Some of these decisions were brilliant, some terrible.
All of them reflect the spirit of the moment, the medium pushing its own boundaries. And all of them ran counter to what was still the essential nature of television circa then, its fundamental desire for a recognizable status quo. It took five episodes for Battlestar Galactica to fly spaceward again, seven episodes for everyone in Newport to forget Marissa ever existed, eight episodes for the Stamford branch to get absorbed into the central Office.
Tony woke up from his coma, maybe? Grey's Anatomy brought Denny back, sort of, then brought him back again, sort of, then just started killing everyone, a Beloved Character Murder Spree that won't end until the show does, no one left alive in post-apocalyptic Seattle except probably Alex Karev.
In this sense, Friday Night Lights season 2 suffers most of all from the brilliance of the Friday Night Lights season finale. At the tail end of the season, Coach Taylor is offered his dream job, a coaching job at TMU, with a clear track to being head coach someday; hell, maybe even a job in the NFL. After he wins State in the finale, the Coach says he'll turn down the job. But Tami is too tough — and the show too bittersweet — to refuse that easy victory.
Maybe there are some shows that could have sustained the drama of their separation, or that could have created new separate dramas for these characters. The same year Friday Night Lights debuted, The Wire was airing its essentially perfect fourth season, which barely features the show's nominal protagonist and introduces an entirely new central setting.
But almost immediately, it's clear that Friday Night Lights season 2 can't sustain its boldest narrative decision. Keeping them apart is just a bummer, and the show admits that almost immediately. At the end of episode 2, someone asks Tami: "This whole ordeal, this living apart from your husband thing? What was the point of that exactly?
Tami responds: "I don't know. That was just my idea. It was just a stupid idea. It wasn't, actually! A coach like Eric — with big professional dreams and the understandable desire to provide for his family — couldn't possibly refuse the TMU job. And Coach Taylor's ensuing decision to reboot his career backwards is one of the show's least believable professional decisions. The most believable part of Eric's resignation is the TMU head coach's wide-eyed disbelief: "Hope you know what the hell you're doing.
But season 2 is bleak enough to suggest that the Taylor family's unlikely wish fulfillment — Dad's home, Coach is back! Eric can only return after Buddy pushes out the new Dillon coach, a tough-faced man named McGregor. On his way out of town, McGregor visits the Taylor household late at night. It sounds like a threat that the show takes seriously.
But he never sees Coach Taylor again — not as far as we know, anyways. Maybe he was supposed to return as season 2's final act antagonist, like Voodoo Tatum in season 1.
The Writer's Strike put any such plans to bed. This would be a bummer, if the season had been telling a coherent story. But if this season fails as a narrative, it works as an extended laboratory experiment, a show testing itself. If you've watched all of Friday Night Lights , you can spot some of the show's finest moments in embryonic form here in its least successful season.
Infamously forgotten Santiago is a proto-Vince, Howard a last-chance kid with criminal pals struggling to rise up from the "rough" side of Dillon. The show tries hard with Santiago, giving him a whole arc with his old pals; like Vince, he has one Old Pal in particular, who keeps pulling him away from school and team into bad old habits. This is, unfortunately, the only season Friday Night Lights would try to delve into Dillon's Latino population, and the results are not encouraging.
But you can feel the show starting to set up its own internal critique: You can sense how, on some level, the general whiteness of the main-character Dillon Panthers is a problem the show wants to solve. Santiago's role as foster-son also helps to establish a series-defining arc: The ascension of Buddy Garrity from Glorious Gasbag to Caring Parent.
Tim Riggins would evolve in parallel, over the course of the show, from bad-boy hedonist to noble self-sacrificing good dude: That evolution begins in season 2, when Tim briefly becomes Julie's big-bro protector — a role he'll play, in much stranger and more poetic circumstances, for Becky in season 4.
Some of season 2's best ideas are short-lived, but they would come back in interesting ways. Coach McGregor gets pushed out because Buddy wants him out: It's established in the early episodes that McGregor doesn't think much of Buddy's unwieldy influence.
Buddy strikes back quickly, but the show would pick up the thread of the idea that he was losing his grip on the Dillon Panthers. The high school students would breakup, but eventually rekindled their romance and got engaged in the final season. Jason regains feeling back in his right hand and learns of a dangerous experimental surgery being conducted by a clinic in Mexico that can possibly help him walk again. He calls Lyla for help after failing to dissuade Jason from following through with the surgery.
Tim is seen briefly in jail at the beginning of the first episode of season five, and returns in the final four episodes of the series.
His optimism is now tinged with a dark anger that runs through his stance. Born in April , he was 25 years old when Friday Night Lights debuted in October , even though his character, Tim Riggins, was just a sophomore at the time. Sophomore characters are big in high school series. Like many actors, Kitsch has also moved back to the small screen recently, with a role in True Detective season 2 and Waco. As Death, Gambit was able to transform two of his teammates, Dazzler and Northstar, into beings like himself by hitting them with his charged cards.
After battling Cannonball, Death-Gambit was stabbed by Magik and Pixie with their magical swords enabling Gambit to reassert control over his form once more. Look over to the right side for the Gambit badge. One is to earn the Malfeasance exotic hand cannon through an exotic quest that did not appear until last week. The second secret Triumph is called Protect the Runner, which requires one player to deposit Motes during a match without losing any, and winning the match.
With Julie as QB and Tyra as linebacker, all bets are off. With Smash Gaius Charles spearheading the protest, the team is in for an upset for their next playoff game.
While Coach Taylor Kyle Chandler deliberates between firing one of his best coaches and succumbing to his players' demands, Julie's Aimee Teegarden friendship with Tyra Adrianne Palicki becomes more and more destructive. With some of their best players protesting, will Dillon be able to come out with a victory come Friday? Sexual Healing -- The Panthers are deep into the playoffs and all players feel untouchable. Julie drops a bomb on an unsuspecting Matt when she says she's ready to have sex for the first time.
While Matt plans how to make the night unforgettable, Tami stumbles upon him at the supermarket buying condoms, which, needless to say, doesn't go over too well with her. Meanwhile, Tim's relationship with his father takes a turn for the worse.
Drama builds when a hurtful secret is embarrassingly revealed and a family's future hangs in the balance. Why can't we be friends? He, in turn, imposes on the Taylors and moves in with them. With her family falling apart, Lyla turns to Jason, the one person she can count on. But, after driving to surprise him at the quad rugby camp, Lyla notices for the first time that Jason's accident has changed him.
Meanwhile, Smash thinks something is up with Waverly guest star Aasha Davis when she uncharacteristically takes him for a midnight swim.
Meanwhile, Jason gets some devastating news from the quad rugby recruiters in Austin. Elsewhere, Riggins befriends a single mother and her son. For love of the game -- Coach Taylor feels the players are losing their grasp on the beauty of the game of football as distractions such as envelopes full of cash begin to mysteriously show up in the players' lockers. An unexpected accident suddenly poses a problem and the team's home field advantage in the final game before the state championships is threatened.
Coach Taylor takes it upon himself to not only find a new home field, but also to remind the players of their love for the game. With the pressure of the game building and the off-field distractions escalating, Coach Taylor and the Panthers have to get priorities in order to come out with a victory. While Coach Taylor deals with changes in his career, Riggins Taylor Kitsch deals with his new inappropriate relationship with the single mother next door.
The tense drama unfolds around the women of Dillon and football takes a backseat. Season finale -- The state championship - It's all come down to this one final game - the Dillon Panthers are gearing up for the state championship and all eyes are on Coach Taylor Kyle Chandler.
After growing speculation from everyone in town, the news finally spreads as to whether or not Coach is going to leave Dillon for his dream job at TMU Texas Methodist University. Tami Connie Britton , on the other hand, gets some exciting news of her own - an unexpected surprise over ten years in the making. As the season winds down, questions of struggling relationships and broken friendships are answered. More importantly, the fate of the Dillon Panthers football season comes to a thrilling and unexpected finale.
With summer coming to an end, the defending state champion Dillon Panthers look to continue its success despite a lot of changes taking place. Eric Taylor Kyle Chandler begins his career as head coach at TMU and immediately discovers the hardship of being separated from his family as Tami Taylor Connie Britton heads into labor with their second child. Meanwhile, Tyra Collette Adrianne Palicki is revisited from someone in her past that will alter her life forever.
It is the first day of school at Dillon High and with new beginnings comes a lot of changes. Tami's Connie Britton new life as a mother of a newborn and a teenager proves to be very tough, especially with the separation from Coach Taylor Kyle Chandler , who continues his coaching job at TMU. Matt Saracen Zach Gilford is slowly watching his 'perfect' life slip away, while best friend Landry Jesse Plemons tries to embrace his newer, better lifestyle despite a recent event that really changed his life.
However, the new school year proves to not be bad for all as Brian 'Smash' Williams Gaius Charles is constantly being praised by coaches, scouts, and fans.
It's the first Friday night for the Dillon Panther football team and things do not go as expected. Coach Eric Taylor Kyle Chandler returns to see his old players and old team in shambles. Meanwhile, Tim Riggins Taylor Kitsch faces a scary situation that results in him reaching out to the last place on earth he would ever expect. Jason Street Scott Porter investigates alternative options for his paraplegic lifestyle.
Riggins, who is concerned about Street, turns to Lyla Garrity Minka Kelly who is busy trying to help a new comer to Dillon. Meanwhile, Coach Taylor Kyle Chandler makes a huge career move that will change his life. A big development in a police search causes tension between Tyra Adrianne Palicki and Landry Jesse Plemons as Landry starts to consider confessing what he did to the authorities.
Coach Taylor Kyle Chandler returns to Dillon, Texas as a head coach but it will not be an easy homecoming. He has to deal with a divided team, led by the conflict between quarterback, Matt Saracen, Zach Gilford and star running back, Smash Williams Gaius Charles. Also, Landry Jesse Plemons finds out that the only thing he does actually control in his life is football. Key evidence implicates Landry Jesse Plemons in the murder investigation prompting him to come clean with his father.
Tami's Connie Britton more free-spirited sister, Shelley Jessalyn Gilsig , comes to help Tami out with the baby, but only manages to make waves in the Taylor household. Brian 'Smash' Williams's Gaius Charles day has arrived-the star running back is the main attraction on the first official day that recruiters can talk to top high school players.
Although Matt Saracen Zach Gilford is enjoying his new cheerleader girlfriend, he is finding himself increasingly attracted to his grandma's live-in nurse. Meanwhile, Julie Aimee Teegarden , jealous of that Saracen has moved on, confides in a new teacher. Brian 'Smash' Williams Gaius Charles goes on his first recruiting trip to a prospective college but events take place that cast doubt on his future there.
Saracen Zachary Gilford asks his cheerleader girlfriend for an open relationship. Meanwhile, emotions escalate in the Taylor family as Tami Connie Britton is upset with a young teacher that she feels is getting too close to Julie Aimee Teegarden , while Eric Kyle Chandler explodes on Tami about her relationship with a different associate of theirs at the school.
Tyra Adrianne Palicki is asked by her former attacker's brother to meet in person and make amends, but she asks Landry Jesse Plemons to go in her place. Elsewhere, Jason Street Scott Porter contemplates his new future, as Herc guest star Kevin Rankin sets him up with an online dating service. A tornado hits the Dillon county area damaging Laribee high school, a rival high school.
Lyla Minka Kelly struggles with the fact that her mom is going to get remarried. Elsewhere, tension builds between Landry Jesse Plemons and Tyra Adrianne Palicki as they try to further their relationship as a couple with the murder incident now behind them. Brian "Smash" Williams Gaius Charles is facing a lot of pressure as many major colleges are looking for a verbal commitment to their program and he has his heart set on one.
Meanwhile, Coach Taylor is feeling the stress as he prepares the Panthers to take on Laribee High School in the biggest game of the season. Panther problems -- Brian "Smash" Williams' Gaius Charles confrontation at the movie theater has turned from bad into worse as charges are being pressed against him.
Smash must now decide whether he must swallow his pride and apologize or stand up for what he believes is right. Elsewhere, Jason Street Scott Porter finds a new career.
Matt Saracen Zach Gilford reaches a tough point in his life where nothing seems to really matter to him anymore. Landry Jesse Plemons may have a new potential love interest that could shake up his relationship with Tyra. Brian "Smash" Williams Gaius Charles is determined to get a football scholarship to college despite the recent events that have transpired.
However, Brian is very shocked when the most unlikely place offers him what may be the opportunity of his life. Tami Taylor Connie Britton runs into her ex-boyfriend from high school, a big real estate mogul, and he decides to stay in Dillon for a few days. A few days proves to be too long as Coach Taylor Kyle Chandler begins to feel a bit jealous. Elsewhere, Jason Street Scott Porter hears the biggest news of his life since his accident and must decide if he is willing to change his life completely.
Lyla seems to be enjoying her current relationship with her Christian boyfriend as she goes with him to meet his family. McCoy guest star Jeremy Sumpter arrives on the scene.
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