Friday Night Lights: It Ain't Easy Being J.D. McCoy

Posted by: Sarah Miller  •  February 22, 2009 @ 7:50pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

This week: Tim Riggins takes a special interest in J.D. McCoy, Matt and Julie get to spend some quality time together and Landry must find a new bass player for Crucifictorius.

Tim Riggins and the other veteran Panthers are organizing the annual freshman hazing ritual: the naked mile. J.D. must take part, and he gets to run an extra mile because he's the superstar quarterback. There is more nekkid boy butts going on in the first five minutes of this episode than anybody really needs to see in a lifetime. As part of the proof that he ran the two miles, J.D. has to go into the locker room and grab the team photo from last year- it conveniently just covers his important bits when Coach catches him. J.D. begs Coach not to tell his Dad. Coach wouldn't dream of it.

Mr. McCoy is all business when it comes to J.D. and football. He's got his superstar on a tight leash and he won't even let Katie make a joke about cheerleaders. Meanwhile on the field the team isn't responding to J.D. the same way as they did for Matt. They don't know him as well and they don't trust him. Coach pulls Tim Riggins aside and asks for his help to hang out with J.D. so that the rest of the team will accept him. It's time for Tim Riggins to step up and be a team leader. And thus begins the miseducation of J.D. McCoy.

Riggins picks J.D. up after practice and gives him the Tim Riggins certified tour of Dillon complete with the landing strip, best dive bars in down and Lisa's house about which Tim just says: "You'll know." J.D. asks Tim if Coach put him up to this little hang out time. Riggins says no but he's not a very good liar. The Panthers win their game against Westerby on Friday night, and Tim tries to take J.D. out to celebrate and 'make some memories'. But Mr. McCoy rushes into the locker room to break up the party- J.D.'s going to Applebys with his Mom and Dad!

Lyla shows up after Saturday practice to ask Tim if he's going to take her to the school dance. And folks, she is wearing what is probably the cutest green dress and cowboy boots combo ever. Tim asks if she's going to be wearing something as sweet as that to the dance, because if she is he's in. They make it to the dance for about two minutes when they run into J.D. who is there (in a tie and jacket no less) because his mom thought it would be a good idea. When he learns that J.D. doesn't have any plans to cut a rug, Tim seizes the moment and takes whisks J.D. and a protesting Lyla off to a house party to 'make some memories'.

When they get there Tim gives J.D. a quick pep talk, tells him to relax and then heads off to smooth things over with Lyla. When J.D. bumps into the rest of the team at the keg, he tells them that he doesn't drink (or eat candy, or drink soda). Minus 10 cool points. But they barely get through calling him a Daddy's boy before J.D. is bowing to the peer pressure and pounding them back. Eventually Riggins and Lyla have to pick him up off the floor and drag him back to the truck. On the way J.D. tells Lyla she's the prettiest girl he's ever seen in his life and her and Riggins are gonna make some cute babies.

On Sunday morning, Mr. McCoy marches J.D. over to Coach to apologize for getting drunk the night before. It's very loud and obnoxious and it's hard to tell who is more embarrassed, Coach or J.D. and Tami winds up having to come over and diffuse the situation by handing Gracie Bell off to her daddy.

While J.D.'s is getting introduced to the Tim Riggins philosophy of life, Matt Saracen is trying to adjust to life on the bench. Gramma is not too happy about Matty's demotion, and she insists she's gonna deal with it. There is a very uncomfortable moment when Matty and Gramma bump into Coach and Julie at the supermarket. Gramma proceeds to give Coach a piece of her mind, while Matt and Julie shrink towards the cereal aisle. It's tense for a few minutes but don't worry folks, it ends with a hug and Matt and Julie get to flirt the whole time.

On Saturday morning Matt shows up on Julie's doorstep and asks her if she wants to go to the lake. They drive out to the lake in Landry's borrowed car and splash around in the water and have a heart to heart about Matt's demotion. Matt asks her if she's ever been fired from a job or anything and she tells him about the time when she babysat for this family and they never asked her back... real heartbreaking Julie. But Matt admits that as much as the demotion sucks, it's the first Saturday where he's ever had to wake up and not think about all the things that he did wrong. Plus he gets to splash around in the lake with Jules.

They hang out all day and eat hogdogs cooked over the campfire and one thing leads to another and...you know... sparks fly. Matty drives her home in the morning and there is this awesome scene where Julie goes and looks at herself in the mirror and gets this cute did-that-really-just-happen? smile on her face. And girls the world over are smiling too because they all do the same thing. The day in church they can't help but smile at each other across the room. Awwww! I just died of cute.

Street's Baby Mama is leaving to go back east and be with her family. She gives him a nice goodbye smooch so they aren't leaving on bad terms, but Street is pretty broken up about it anyway. In addition to his family drama, the renovations on Buddy Garrity's house aren't going so well. With his family gone, Jason is taking things a little too seriously, and being (as Tim puts it) abrupt with everyone else. But Street moves way past abrupt when he comes home and finds Herc punching holes in the wall and Tim and Billy have bought a $1700 bidet for the upstairs bathroom.

At the hardware store, Street runs into Coach who asks him if he's got a "Honey Do" list too. Good one, Coach. Street tells him about the house flipping plan and it's like he's giving an interview on ESPN or something with the whole everything-is-great-we're-giving-it-one-hundred-and-ten-percent deal. Coach isn't totally buying it. He ends up going over to Street's house and giving him a half-time pep talk and some construction help.

Tami has been trying to get Coach to be her hot husband date to the school dance, but he's not that into it. Neither is Julie. Coach eventually does show up to the dance –very late and Tami is unimpressed that he has paint in his hair from the home renos. But Tami forgives him during their first slow dance. It's hard to stay mad at Coach Taylor. Meanwhile Baby Mama calls Jason enroute to the east coast and there is probably the cutest scene ever with Street singing "there's a hole in my bucket' into the phone for little Noah. Even Tim Riggins is moved.

And speaking of babies...Tyra gets a nasty surprise when a lady named Ally shows up on her doorstep and asks her to tell Cash that he owes her and Tucker $1600 in child support. Tyra initially breaks up with Cash and tells him to leave her alone, but she eventually lets him sweet talk his way back into her house. He insists that Ally is crazy, that the kid isn't his and that he loves Tyra and only Tyra. I'm not buying it.

But Tyra is not the only one with problems: all is not well for Landry and Crucifictorius. The other band members aren't too excited about Landry's heartache and wallowing over Tyra. Castor (remember Landry's friend from season one?) quits over 'artistic differences'. So Landry and Jimmy the drummer have to audition a new bass player. Enter really cute, nerdy and awkward chick bass player named Devon. After one song she's in. She looks over all of Landry's songs and tells him it seems like all of his songs are just one epic song about one girl, and he needs to get over her. Insightful.

That's it folks: tune in next week when Landry makes a new friend and J.D. has to face his toughest competition yet!

Tags: Friday Night Lights, Season 3 , Episode 6, I

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