Friday Night Lights 4x05

The Son

By Katherine Keller
January 11, 2010

After the bombshell dropped at the end of last episode, we begin mid-game on the EDH field, a nice comment on the fact that life goes on. The Lions are losing. (But they have cheerleaders now, and one of them is Jess! Woot!) Fed up, Vince and Luke start calling their own plays and Vince scores. (I see it coming, this is the "Vince can do no wrong on the field" episode.) Coach Taylor is about to start ripping into them for calling their own plays when Coach Stan runs over and squees to Coach Taylor about what a brilliant play he just called. (Snorfle!) Coach decides he'll go with the wildcat offense, but first they must get the ball back, which Vince does. This sets up a play where Vince throws a pass to Luke who runs it in for the score. The Lions lose, but they enter the locker room psyched. Coach Taylor calls for them to take a knee in memory of Matt Saracen's father and has "Lance" lead the prayer.

Matt Saracen plays a video of a past Christmas greeting from his dad when Landry and Julie arrive, and Landry tells him that he'll be joining them for bad movie night. Julie asks about the video, and Matt plays it, explaining that it's a few years old. "We're doing a good job here. Going to be out of here soon," Henry says (Oh the irony, because as we know from S1 and S2, Matt's father practically ran back to Iraq every time.)

Vince is sound asleep on a pull-out sofa in a tiny apartment when Coach Taylor calls to see if he's seen himself in the paper as the co-athlete of the week. As part of this honor, Vince is expected to show up at a pancake breakfast and talk to the pee-wees. Vince gets up and heads into the kitchen and discovers there's neither electricity nor water. He calls for his mom and eventually sees her passed out on a bench across the way. He tenderly picks her up and carries her inside.

I see a gold hula hoop, a bright blue dress, and #8 on a white ribbon ... we must be at the Miss Texas pageant. What follows is a montage of the talent show. Tim and the Cougar are there, but next to Tim is an empty seat. Becky keeps looking over expectantly, so does Cougar. Turns out that, once again, Becky's father is a no-show. Becky puts a brave smile on her face and gets up to sing "Popular" from Wicked. Tim sees her looking at the empty seat and the look on his face is just ... he knows. (Oh dear God, does he ever know.)

Bless his crooked heart, Buddy Garrity's at the Saracen wake, trying to comfort Matt by telling him his dad was a hero. Matt's got an overwhelmed, numb look on his face as the words wash over him. Julie goes over to comfort him, and Matt reveals his dad died by stepping on an IED. He's cranky and emotionally drained and just wants the wake to be over.

Cut to Cougar bitching on the phone to Becky's father. "I don't care if you are hauling pieces of Jesus' cross back to Bethlehem!" she shouts, oblivious to the scene she's making. Becky tries to shush her mother, but ....

Cut back to the wake. Grandma answers the phone and it's for the completely baffled Tim. Yes. It's Becky. It is taking everything in Tim to not rip her head off over the phone. In scene that's a mix of both cluelessness and manners, Becky thanks Tim for coming, it meant a lot to her. And Tim, being polite back, thanks her, telling her that she did good and wishing her good luck. Becky smiles and it's clear she's about to keep on talking but he cuts her off. The shot of the emotions strobing over Tim's face (grief for Matt, embarrassment, and his empathy/frustration for Becky) as the scene closes is perfect.

Things aren't going much better for Matt, who's talking with a local Army representative trying to find out more about Henry Saracen. He's heard that Henry was quite the funny guy, a joker who did a lot to boost morale. This is news to Matt (and FNL fans). Matt's unraveling when Landry fetches him and says that tomorrow night Matt's got a date with him and the Riggins brothers. There's a knock at the door. It's JD and Joe McCoy, offering condolences on behalf of the Panther Booster club. "Are you serious?" Matt asks. Joe goes into a saccharine spiel and Matt shuts the door in his face. (I laughed so hard I cried.)

Luke's jogging when JD McCoy comes up and starts bragging on how he's the co-player of the week, and who's this Vince Howard guy? Luke replies that oh yeah, he knows Vince because he spent a few hours in jail with him last week due to JD and Co. bailing on him. JD's sorry and invites Luke paintballing. Reluctantly, he accepts.

Down at "The Grief Store" (what a gloriously tacky name for an undertaker!) a shellshocked Matt, with Tami along for moral support, gets an up-sell from a mortician who stresses more than once that "Veteran's Affairs will be picking up most of the bill". When the mortician mentions embalming, Matt asks if he can see his father's body but is dissuaded and advised to have a closed casket. At that point Tami swings into action and asks since it's going to be closed casket, then why are there all these charges for a viewing day, etc? Finally, Tami advises Matt to go back to the car and sit with Julie and Grandma, and as soon as he's out of the room, she cuts out all the bullshit. "Does that boy look like he can pay $9000 to bury his father?" A little bit later in the episode, we see Matt and Julie sitting on the steps and she invites him over for dinner later that night. (The body language between them speaks volumes, too.)

Vince breaks my heart again when he and Angry Necklace Guy get lessons from a thief about what kind of car to look for and how to steal it. "Don't panic. Stay cool. And then you get paid," he says. Part of what makes the whole scene so sad is Vince's (warped) work ethic and sense of duty. But I'm also having a moment of FNL love, because Football is not a magic wand that fixes every kid's problems, and Coach Taylor is not the Great White Hope. Football gives Vince pride and purpose, but it doesn't fix his home life or stop him from making bad choices. (Vince also contrasts with Smash, who, when he needed money, got a legit part-time job. But Smash had the example set by his mother, which means he had different ideas of how to earn money, plus the skills required to fill out an application and interview for a job. Has Vince ever had a parent who worked a regular job?)

Coach Taylor reads to Gracie Bell as a college football game plays in the background. Smash is playing! (Woot!) Tami and Julie return from Matt's house, and as Tami takes Gracie away for a nap, Coach sees that something's troubling Julie. In a wonderful father-daughter moment, he takes her in his arms and comforts her. "I'm not going anywhere," he whispers, intuitively understanding her fear and anxiety.

JD McCoy's favorite football player is Johnny Unitas. He gives a (perfectly coached) inspirational speech to the Pop Warner kids (and yes, Jess and her little brothers are there!) at the breakfast. "Boy Scout's pretty arrogant," Vince mutters to Coach, who replies, "But he's got a hell of an arm." When it's his turn, Vince is completely tongue-tied and finally stammers out, "Don't panic. Stay cool. And then you get paid," as he holds up the award certificate he just got. Oh, Vince, you are just going to break my heart as much as Tim Riggins did, aren't you?

Tim, Billy and Landry take Matt down to Hermann Field (WDH) and their drunken horsing around is a glorious shoutout to "the field of dreams" from S1. Matt eventually talks about how he's supposed to give the eulogy. And then he unloads:

"I gotta get up there in front of everybody and say good stuff about this man. And all I really want to say is, here lies Henry Saracen: his mother annoyed him; his wife couldn't stand him; and he didn't want to be a daddy, so he took off to be in the Army, because that was the only way he could come up with to get out of here and ditch all your responsibilities, and no one could call you out on it. And that worked out great, so you just decided to enlist four more times, and that ended up getting you killed. And here you are. And all you left behind is a mother with dementia, a divorced wife, and a son who ... delivers pizza. Thank you for coming, 100 people I do not know."

And as much as Matt's rage and anger and pain sear the screen, the most telling reaction is Tim's, because ... in so many ways, that's the story of his relationship with his father, and that pain is written all over his face. (I meta about the theme of fathers in this episode over here.) Because it's a closed casket funeral, Matt doesn't even know if it's really his father in the box. "Well," Tim says, "there's only one way to find out."

They do it. They drunkenly barge into the funeral home, and oh, FNL, I love you that the mortician is more than just a money grubber. It's just a bit part, but it's a three-dimensional part. And you can see the grim knowledge in his face — he's sincerely trying to spare Matt some pain — as he relents and leads the guys back to where the casket is. Billy, Tim, and Landry hang back as Matt goes over and ... oh my heart, oh Matt. Zack Gilford owns this scene so completely I am beggared for words. It's all in his eyes, and the set of his jaw, and the way he swallows like he's trying to down a rock.

JD McCoy howls and cuts loose with his paintball gun in a residential neighborhood. Luke, behind the wheel of a beat up Ford pickup, doesn't like how JD and his other buddy are acting. Then JD shoots at a pedestrian, thinking it's funny. Luke angrily pulls the truck over at a gas station and tells JD and the other bozo they can get out. "How's it feel being second best on the worst team in Texas?" JD asks and shoots Luke at close range, bowling him over. Luke's through with them and drives off, to JD's utter disbelief.

Outside his trailer, Tim nurses a beer and listens to the crickets. Becky comes over and (bless him) he asks her how things went at Miss Texas. She's second runner-up. She asks about him and Tim says, "I saw something that ... rather, I saw someone see something that .... Did you ever feel just completely useless?" My, what a road that Tim's come on. So angry and self absorbed in S1, but now he's patient, compassionate and giving to others. Becky tells him to close his eyes, and to humor her, he does. She leans in, kissing him. He gently but firmly pushes her way. "This can't happen. I can't do this."

Twix, gummy bears, chocolate doughnuts and beer. The comfort food that Becky takes to the convenience store counter is an interesting mix of child and adult. The clerk adamantly refuses to sell the beer, but up comes (shirtless and looking mighty fine) Luke Cafferty to the rescue. He has a fake ID. He asks if she'd like to tag along as he takes his paintball spattered truck to the car wash. She agrees.

Matt shows up at the Taylors' moments after Tami's covered his plate over with foil and promptly melts down about carrots touching the meat. In tears he finally admits that he hated his father and he wanted to tell him to his face how much he hated him, but: "He doesn't even have a face." He turns and runs. Coach calls after him, and once again, this is not a Very Special Episode because Coach doesn't give a speech, doesn't have any inspiring words, just says, "I'm going to walk you home." Coach Taylor knows that this is the time for actions, not words.

The funeral begins with a montage of Matt, Shelby and Grandma getting ready. As we see the various people arrive, one of them's Lyla Garrity. (And yes, a look passes between her and Tim.) Landry and Devin and Billy and Mindy Riggins also come.

Matt's short eulogy includes a memory from when he was six. He, his mom and Grandma went to the supermarket and Henry grabbed the wrong toilet paper, which miffed Grandma, so he responded by filling the shopping cart with toilet paper. The story makes Shelby and Grandma smile. Matt also mentions how much his dad loved the Army.

As Julie watches, Matt takes over from the gravediggers and shovels the earth into his father's grave. It's a beautiful scene as Matt does the last thing he will ever do to, for, or with his father, and also literally buries his past.