Friday Night Lights Review: Return of Jason Street

It’s Rival Week in Dillon Texas, marking the first time since last season’s big upset that the East Dillon Lions will take on the West Dillon Panthers. Tempers start to rise, and not necessarily just because of the stress of the upcoming game.

While the Lions get ready for this week’s game, the booster club (led by Buddy Garrity) (Brad Leland) stages a sit-in on the field to ensure no Panther supporters come and demolish it before game time. Jess (Jurnee Smollett) asks Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) for a recommendation letter so she can get a job with a summer football camp, showing her interest in the sport isn’t just because her boyfriend’s the quarterback. Coach asks her to write something up and leave it on his desk. While standing guard later that day, the boosters learn of a new website that reveals many of the Lions’ juvenile criminal records, including Vince (Michael B. Jordan) and Tinker.

The site outs pretty much only the black members of the team, excluding Hastings (Grey Damon), Buddy Jr., and everyone’s favorite farmboy Luke Cafferty (Matt Lauria). Their confidence is somewhat shaken with everyone in town now thinking of the team as a gang of thugs, but Coach tells them to worry about practice today and getting their justice on Friday night at the game. In the meantime, he goes to meet with the coaches of the Panthers and demands the site be taken down, but they claim they don’t know who’s responsible.

It looks like Julie Taylor’s (Aimee Teegarden) going to be finishing out her first college semester with an independent study from home. She’s frustrated by living with her parents again and being asked to take on responsibility around the house, while her parents seem genuinely disappointed in everything their daughter’s done since leaving home. Tami (Connie Britton) eventually heads up to the college to pick up some paperwork and has a run in with Derek (Gil McKinney), Julie’s married TA affair. It’s awkward when they recognize one another, but I kind of wanted a bigger show down. Tami is a class act, though, and probably wouldn’t stoop to the level of slapping him and calling him a whore in front of everyone like his wife did to her daughter. Still, would’ve been fun. Julie gets emotional later when Tami tells her about what happened.

In a moment that literally brought a smile to my face, Coach has a lunch reunion with Jason Street (guest star Scott Porter). Street’s now a full agent and has married the mother of his son. The two joke about what color he’ll look better in, blue or red. Turns out college athletic departments are still pretty eager to bring on Coach Taylor, but he’s really not interested, having tried that once already. Street said he felt he just had to ask.

At home, Jess is surprised when Vince’s dad Ornette (Cress Williams) has not only moved back in, but is presenting him with gifts from college recruiters, which she knows he told Coach he wouldn’t take. Vince is concerned the leak of his record will turn off scouts, but Ornette’s been calling around telling other colleges TMU has already made an offer in an effort to step up interest.

Later at practice, Street comes to watch Coach with his new team while Ornette starts yelling out tips from the sidelines and talking to Street about how great a player his son is. Vince heads over on a water break to talk with his dad and Street about potentially going pro. Street tells Coach that Ornette is a big problem. Coach also tells Jess he made a personal call to the football camp on her behalf.

The Taylors decide to throw a barbecue to celebrate Rival Week. All the players, their families, and other community members attend. In an effort to make Becky (Madison Burge) jealous, Luke ignores her and flirts a little with Julie, all on the advice of Billy Riggins (Derek Phillips). Ornette takes a call from some scouts and Coach confronts him about their agreement that all calls would go through him. Ornette tells Coach that’s not how he remembers the conversation and he basically isn’t bowing down to some high school football coach when his son might be a pro player one day. Okay, maybe he didn’t use all those words, but I’m sure that’s what he meant.

Later that night, Coach gets a call from a university in Florida offering him a head coaching position. On game night, the Lions manage to stay ahead of the Panthers in a very aggressive and downright dirty game, upsetting some of Coach Taylor’s staff. At the end, with only a few seconds left, Coach tells Vince to take a knee and run the clock out. But, seeing his dad gesture at him from the bleachers with the scouts, he throws a 60+ yard pass to score one final touchdown.

After the game, Luke and Becky walk past each other and he apologizes for ignoring her, saying it was on some dumb advice and, in our second smile-to-face moment, they wake up and realize they belong together and kiss. Disillusioned, Coach drives out past Vince and his dad with the scouts.

What a week. Sure, the Lions remain undefeated but how much integrity is going to be left if they keep winning games like this? Every viewer’s got to be hugely disappointed in Vince after this week, not because he’s picking his father over Coach, but because he’s so easily pushing Coach aside after all he’s done for him. While bonds of family may be strong, Coach is the reason he’s going to have an opportunity to go to college at all…and in no way stands to benefit from it. He’s not getting any free shoes in the deal. I wonder how far this will push Coach towards the college job.

The Luke/Billy training session this week shows just how far Billy’s come as a character. After the revelation to Luke that Mindy works at local strip club The Landing Strip, I’m waiting for the very special moment when he and the guys go in for a show and see Becky working under some false name. Though, I’d be mortified for Becky. Seriously, stay off the pole.

Season 5, Episode 7 “Perfect Record” (original air date May 27, 2011)

Friday Night Lights airs Fridays at 8/7c on NBC.

Images courtesy of Bill Records and NBC.