Friday Night Lights Review: The Last 18 Years

This week in Dillon, Texas, with the school board vote drawing near that will decide the fate of the new shared football program, tempers are boiling over in both East and West. Meanwhile, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) gets a visit from his old friend, Billy (Derek Phillips) and Mindy (Stacey Oristano) get some surprising news, and Eric (Kyle Chandler) and Tami’s (Connie Britton) relationship experiences a surprising on-screen first.

The big event this week isn’t the state championship game; it’s the school board’s decision on the Dillon football program. While Coach Taylor tries to keep his team’s focus on state, everyone around him has questions he can’t answer. The real shocker, though, is the wedge it’s driven between him and Tami. She comes back from her job offer in Pennsylvania wanting to talk about their options, but Eric refuses to talk.

Seeing these two fight is both scary and awkward, because it’s never really happened before…and it’s hard not to side with Tami. She wants this job and, as she points out, she’s spent 18 years following him for his coaching career, which hasn’t really taken them anywhere. Of course Eric is inevitably offered the coaching job when the Panthers are set to absorb the Lions. Tami, in one of my favorite moments of the series, tells him what he hasn’t had the grace to tell her—congratulations.

I’m hoping Coach can heed his earlier thoughts from the episode when he lets Buddy (Brad Leland) know he can’t coach for the Panthers again, not after how he was treated before. In the end, is it really going to come down to a choice between Dillon Football and his wife for Eric? It’s hard to imagine, but that’s the way things are looking. This seems kind of like the perfect out for him though, to do something for his family and find a way to keep football in his life in PA.

Another big highlight was the long-awaited return of Tyra (Adrianne Palicki). With Billy and Mindy just getting news that they’ve got twins on the way, Tyra first drops in on Tim working at Buddy’s before heading home. She’s a character I’ve always missed, someone so trapped by circumstance who eventually breaks out and doesn’t look back. It was heartbreaking last season when she stood up Landry (Jesse Plemmons), but worth it to have this hour with her again. Eventually her and Tim end up in bed and, I’m hoping, run off in the sunset together.

Keeping with the theme of old characters popping up again, Julie (Aimee Teegarden) and Tyra share a great moment comparing Dillon to a drug—when you’re in it, it seems like the only possible reality. In the last few minutes, even Matt (Zach Gilford) pops back in to spend Christmas with his grandmother in a mixed emotional moment where she’s so excited and surprised to see him, but hard for us as her deteriorating mental state shows when she can’t remember his dad is dead…or that it’s Christmas. It’ll be nice to see how the new and old classes of Dillon mesh in the final episode.

As for the East Dillon crew, Becky (Madison Burges) apologizes to Luke (Matt Lauria), acknowledging that Tim and she aren’t anything that will happen. After some sage advice from Tim, Luke believes her and sets out a little unsure of his own future. Vince (Michael B. Jordan) and Jess (Jurnee Smollett) speak to the school superintendent about the football programs and, when things don’t go their way, share a tender moment in the East Dillon locker room. The final moments with Hastings (Grey Damon), Luke, Vince, Tinker and Buddy Jr. on the field pulled me back to the beginning of the season and the brotherhood feel the team had with each other, which thanks to Vince’s antics has been missing the last few weeks.

So many questions need answered. Will Eric take the coaching job with the Panthers? Is Tim Riggins Alaska-bound? Will Tami stand by her husband? I don’t know that I’m emotionally prepared for next week’s series finale of Friday Night Lights. How do you say goodbye to one of the best dramas on television? If five seasons have taught me anything, it’s that the answer isn’t a simple one.

Season 5, Episode 12 “Texas Whatever” (original airdate July 8, 2011)

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

Images courtesy of Bill Records and NBC.