Friday Night Lights: Tami Knows Best

Posted by: Sarah Miller  •  January 25, 2009 @ 5:53pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

This week: Tami and Buddy Garrity face off over the jumbotron, Gramma Saracen's worsening dementia forces Matt to grow up quicker than he'd like, and Tim Riggins eats a raw pigeon.

Tami is in hot water with the boosters and the rest of the town over her decision to re-allocate the jumbotron funds towards academics. Buddy Garrity does not like being told 'no' and he enlists the help of the mayor to bully Tami into changing her mind. Tami is not receiving much support from her fellow teachers or Coach over it either. The local Dillon papers are writing about trouble in their marriage and Eric is caught between wanting to support his wife, and trying to keep peace with Buddy and the boosters. To top it off, even though he doesn't support 'that damn jumbotron', Coach wonders if Tami has made the wisest decision to square off with Buddy Garrity right from the get-go. In the end, Buddy Garrity and the Mayor go to the superintendent of the school board and the jumbotron funds are frozen, pending a hearing.

Tim Riggins is getting interest letters from college, but Lyla and Billy seem to be the only ones excited about it. Lyla is also getting a hard time from her dad about Tim. It seems Buddy Garrity is not convinced that Tim Riggins is the ideal man for his daughter. Lyla dresses Tim up to go for dinner with her Dad and Mr. McCoy, insisting it will be good for him to schmooze with a guy who went to Ohio State for college.

Trying to do something nice for his lady, Tim googles Mr. McCoy to get some talking points before the dinner. But when Buddy pulls Tim aside for a little pre-dinner 'pep talk' he freaks him out and the dinner does not go well. He freezes up when Mr. McCoy asks him questions and accidentally orders raw pigeon. Poor Tim. Lyla is unimpressed, and they have their first real fight in the truck on the way home. Tim thinks Lyla is trying to turn him into something he's not, and maybe he's just too simple of a guy for her. Lyla stalks off in a huff, but after cooling off she realizes that maybe Tim is sort of right, and brings him a make-up cheeseburger (that's not a euphemism, it's a real cheeseburger). You know things must be really ok between them because Lyla walks in as Tim has taken off his pants and is hanging out all risky-business like on the couch with Tyra (who is Chez Riggins waiting for Mindy and Billy) and they still make up. Aw, true love.

Gramma Saracen's health and memory are getting worse and Matt is having problems getting her to take her pills. The doctor tells Matt that she is no longer able to handle her own affairs, which means that she can no longer be considered his legal guardian. Matt goes to see a lawyer to find out his options, and learns that he needs to become an emancipated minor if he wants to continue to take care of Gramma. The catch is that he needs one of his parents to sign the papers.

In the midst of all his problems with Gramma, Matt turns once again to Julie for someone to talk to. Julie just got a job at Applebee's, and she runs into Matt kicking the crap out of some cardboard boxes (to let off some steam) when she goes on a garbage run. Julie is not particularly full of wisdom or insight, but she listens to Matt and gives him something else to think about besides his familial woes.

So Matt borrows Landry's car and takes a little road trip to see his Mom, to get her to sign his emancipation papers. She is understandably surprised to see him, and has no idea that Matt's dad is in Iraq or that little Matty has been taking care of his Gramma all by himself. She signs the papers, and Matt heads home. On his way, he picks up Julie from work and they get to have a moment while they admire the Celica she is gonna buy together. Julie thinks emancipated minors are hot.

Smash is really struggling with his comeback tour. His speed is taking a long time to come back and without a set try-out date he wonders what the point is of continuing to train so hard. Coach promises him that he'll get him a walk-on try out with somebody, but it's proving difficult to convince any of the college coaches to allow a try-out in the middle of the season. Adding to the problem is that Smash is happy with his job managing the Alamo Freeze, and he's scared to put himself out there again on the football field.

Coach tells Smash to show up to the field in full pads for a nighttime practice, where he is surprised to find the rest of the team waiting for him. They scrimmage with Smash running a few plays and making sure he takes some hits. At the end of practice he scores a slow motion touchdown and it's very dramatic. The Smash is back, baby! And then, Coach gets a phone call: Smash has got a walk-on at Texas A&M!

Tyra is running for class president, but other than Julie and Landry, no one seems to want to take her seriously. Someone vandalizes her campaign posters, and the new guidance counselor tells her that she can't expect to get into the race late and do a half-assed job and still have people take her seriously. Following some bad advice from her mother, Tyra decides to "smoke 'em if you got 'em." She invites her sister and all her stripper friends down to school to help her campaign, and generally plays to the lowest common denominator.

Although she wins the election, Tami tears a strip off of Tyra for relying on her looks and reputation as a party-girl to get her elected. She tells Tyra it is time for her to start taking control of her own life, and earning back her self-respect or she won't have the principal backing her up anymore.

That's it folks, tune in next week for the jumbotron hearing, Coach feeling the pressure to change up his quarterbacks, and the Riggins brothers getting into some 'Risky Business' together.

Tags: Friday Night Lights

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Original Comments Posted (2)

mandi says...

My favorite part was when Julie told Matt that Grandma was yelling at the line cooks to make her some chocolate pudding. That reaction was priceless.

Also, re: Lyla and Tim. The scene in which he says "I'm not retarded" and she responds "I know, but sometimes you act like you are"? I definitely thought she said "Sometimes *I* act like you are." It made me laugh really hard.

Jan 26, 2009 12:22am

sarahm says...

Haha, I know I loved that part too. "I know how to Google, I'm not retarded!" Tim is seriously so funny sometimes.

And I just love Julie because she's so awkward, just like me.

Jan 26, 2009 12:24am

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