Poll Not including Coach/Mrs. Coach because please, everyone ever ships them. I fucking love the contrast between Vince and Luke and the way they set up a parallel (sort of if you stretch it) to Jason and Tim this week with the Luke-Tim conversation. I cried when Vince went to see the superintendent with Jess and said that football had saved his life, had given him everything. But for Luke it's like: for the two years we've known him, things have changed him and he has grown but the Lions didn't open any windows for him. His only offer is a nowhere school he can't see himself at. Before the Lions he was the Panthers' star runningback (...or whatever he is), a commodity. He might very well be picking his favorite scholarship if he had stayed with them. All his concerns in the beginning of s4 have come true. Even though the Lions have succeeded, he is not going to reap the benefits of that the way Vince is. He's no one's golden boy.
The returns of the oldbies have got me thinking about the pilot, and the trajectories these characters were on then. It's funny because what the pilot does is rip that out from under them, but in the end: did it really? Jason was paralyzed, but he is in New York now, living the dream, working as a sports agent with his wife and his little boy. Smash got his scholarship and made himself a star. Matty played football, but he left it behind after high school and went to art school. Landry is probably just being a nerd at Rice. And Tim... is a deadbeat who peaked in high school. Obstacles and opportunities came up along the way, but they are essentially exactly where you might have guessed they'd end up after watching 30 minutes of the pilot episode (with the exception of maybe Tyra: but that was Tami, not the Panthers). Football giveth and football taketh away but maybe it only changes people so much.
UGH I REALLY CAN'T DECIDE IF I WANT LUKE TO GET A GOOD OFFER, actually, like I want him to be happy but at the same time the lack of one is such an interesting place for that story to go?
I love, so fucking much, the Coach/Tami storyline. This is the most difficult story we've been told of them as a married couple and it is so fucking good. There was a scary undertone to the scene where Tami told Julie that she and Eric loved each other much, and you could see that Julie felt it too (ughhhhhh Aimee Teegarden I hope you go far after this ugh HOW IS IT OVER). I love that they threw us that red herring earlier in the season, with that Florida school that wanted Coach when this is the real threat. And I love that Coach is wrong here: SO WRONG, but his pigheadedness suits his character so well. There's this underlying determination to Tami and like, IDK YOU CAN SENSE THAT SHE KIND OF WANTS THIS JOB MORE THAN SHE WANTS ANYTHING, right now, anything, and god it feels weird to say this but I am almost afraid of this next episode. BUT GUYS THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BREAK UP MR. AND MRS. COACH IN THE LAST EPISODE AFTER ALL THIS, ARE THEY?! They can't. Coach said he can't go back to the Panthers!! Even if he is clearly kind of considering it!
I want them to go to Philadelphia but the truth is there will be losses if they do. Ugh JESS, she has just gotten everything she wants and it'll probably (definitely) be ripped out from under her if Coach isn't there next season. She could find another way, but she couldn't. (HOW GOOD WERE THE JESS/VINCE SCENES?!?! Augh they are SO GOOD I CAN'T.)
TYRA COLLETTE!! I have been waiting for her return for TWO YEARS. Adrianne Palicki said we would be surprised by her, that she was so different, but the only thing different was her hair color, she was so Tyra. So the Tyra you knew she'd be after time away in Austin. I loved how out of place she looked in the fray of Angela/Billy/Mindy/Becky/baby. And her scene with Julie was adorable. I had read something about her and Tim but I legit didn't think they would hook up! WEIRD. I was okay with it, though, it made more sense than you would think.
TIM RIGGINS I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH YOU
Also god I love Becky forever, she is so dumb teenage girl and so mature at the same time.
HOW ARE THEY GOING TO TOP THIS NEXT WEEK, is what I want to know, but I guess we will find out next week since there's no way they won't.