Mark here...another great episode! This one deals with the blowback from the Lyla-Tim affair being found out. Tim and Lyla each pay a price. Tim has several members of the team take baseball bats to his car. Lyla has to deal with Jason breaking up with her and being the subject of high school gossip. It ends up being an opportunity to see the better side of Lyla's dad for a change. When Lyla has to leave the field (during cheerleading), Bud goes to comfort his daughter. It's a rare bit of humanity from Bud, who up to this point had been nothing but smarmy. When Lyla confesses being unfaithful, he hugs his daughter and shows his love for her. At the time of the game we also get to see Tyra and Jason...not getting romantic! Tyra shows up to Jason's room with a bottle of liquor to mutually drown their sorrows. It's a nice scene. At first I was worried Tyra was just showing up to try and hook up with Jason to get back at Tim, but it turned out she just wanted to commiserate.
We also get to see more of Smash as they head back to his former hometown for a game. He's still taking steroids and under pressure. He has some heart/anxiety issues and confesses to his sister that he's taken steroids. Nothing more really comes of that. We also learn that his father died and that there are some issues there. His mother shows some depth as well. Previously she had sort of been the "sassy black mom", but in this episode we get a bit of background and learn that Smash's dad may have had issues. The mother makes a point of avoiding talking about him, but finally confesses she really loved him but clearly still has a complex relationship with him, even with his death.
There's also a subplot with Saracen taking Julie Taylor on a date. The date goes awry when Matt has to go back home to take care of his grandmother. He thinks this makes the date a disaster but ironically it makes Julie see a more sensitive side of Matt, so maybe there's a future there?
Hey Laurel here. Again I agree with Mark on all counts. I hope in the end that Jason, Lyla, and Riggins all become friends again. I know Lyla and Tim did this terrible thing and Jason has every right to be mad at them, and should be, but I hope that with time they can all get over it and be friends again. You don't find good friends every day, and even though they totally fucked up I think at the end of the day all 3 of them really have a chemistry with each other.
Also regarding Matt and Julie, after the game Matt kisses her! She freaks out and says she has to go but that could mean anything?
Also at this point one of the things that Mark and I really both like about the show is that all of the characters are whole characters. They all have their good and bad sides, and when the characters do bad things you can sort of see why they do them, even if you don't agree. Until now Buddy has really been nothing but smarmy but this episode with the way he treats his daughter and the way he works with Tammy Taylor we sort of see another side of him. (side note, with Tammy he has to negotiate with the opposing team and realizes that they would be an effective "good cop bad cop" team, where he is the bad cop). There are lots are multi-dimensional characters - Tim and his brother are bad boys with a heart of gold, Tyra is the bad girl who tells it like it is but she is also kind of a genius, Lyla is the goody good girl but she does a really bad thing, etc. It makes for a really interesting show and you can't really predict what happens next.
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