Death, Dying & Deviled Eggs

Eric: Who called that play?! Vince:I don't know coach I blacked out.

Vince evokes Will Farrel from the Debate scene in "Old School" after running the Wildcat spread with Luke for a touch down. Eric knows a good thing when he sees it so after big Tink falls on a fumble caused by Vince's sack, Coach lets the Wildcat run. And wouldn't you know it, he even puts in a halfback pass, a.k.a. a flea flicker. The announcer throws out one of my favorite words ever, Trickeration, as Luke hits pay dirt. I'm not one to gloat but I did make a pretty nice call in the preview leading up to this episode, I must say. Enough about me though, let's get back to the episode at hand.

Post game locker room scene shows the team paying a moment of respect to Matt Saracen's fallen father. A member of the football fraternity lost a loved one, so the team pays its respects. I really liked this scene. Whether you are religious or not, seeing Landry a.k.a. "Twinkle Toes" lead the team in prayer was a nice moment.

Julie and Landry show up to Matt's for "Bad Movie Night" and he is watching a video of his dad. He tells Matt they are doing a good job in Iraq and that they will be out of there soon. Matt remarks that the video is from Christmas a couple years ago. Peter Berg subtly makes a sneaky political comment I feel here. He lets the real world creep into the Dillon bubble in this tiny moment.

Parental woes seem to be a major theme of this years story lines as I guess they have throughout the show's history. Vince is woken up by Coach who is calling him to let Jim know he was co-player of the week and is invited to speak at the Pancake Breakfast. Vince says he likes pancakes, but I have a feeling he likes running water better. When he gets off the phone with Eric, his chest is puffed out with pride. AS he picks his mother up off the bench shortly after he looks off to his right with embarrassment and anger in his eyes. I really hope Vince can stay out of trouble. His speech to the little kids was great even if it came from a bad place. Listen to your own words Vince. Don't panic and trust in Coach Taylor.

Then there's Becky, who's father never shows up apparently to see her sing. When she looks over to the empty seat, which I guess they were saving for him, it made me think of Joe Cain in The Program who's father never saw him play a game either. He looks to an empty seat left for his dad in the last game only to see it still empty. He and Becky both put it behind them and went on to perform at the top of their game. Becky finishes 2nd Runner up though which Tim realizes is like third place and agrees that yes "Third Sucks." What really sucked though was that scene of Becky's mom yelling at her ex-husband on the phone backstage at the pageant. Seriously? We sat through 15 seconds of that nonsense. Fifteen seconds that could have been used for another football play in the opening. Waste of space. Tim barely salvages the scene when he earlier comments on the girl who is playing the xylophone or the "exodaphone," as he calls it. I also liked how Becky corrects the Pageant host when he introduces her song. She remarks, "Oh it's just Wicked." Loved that. I did not love how she calls Tim at the Saracen's house 5though. A little ridiculous if you ask me but I did enjoy it when Tim asked her "whats wrong is the trailer on fire or something?"

The air is toxic around Matt's house so Landry and the "Riggins Clan" decide to get Matt out of his house away from all the "Death, Dying and Deviled Eggs." Away from all the "phonies" like the McCoy's. Matt took the words right out of my mouth when he opened the door to find JD and his dad holding a gift basket. "Are you serious?" The McCoys are no help, but Tammi certainly was. She is great in a crisis like Julie notes. She slapped that funeral home director upside the head and set him straight. Great scene for Tammi who finally got to dish out some justice after being the victim for the last couple weeks. I told you our girl could take care of herself and everyone else around her. Tammi was out there like a lioness on the hunt while Eric was at home watching Gracie Belle. It was a brief moment but one of brilliance when we got to see Smash running on TV in a college game. Six carries for 38 yards is nothing to scoff at.

While Smash is still making memories in college, the Riggins brothers, Landry and Matt take to the field to relive some glory days and crush some beers for tears. Billy recalls a play made by Matt"Mayday" Saracen. Tim shakes his head and says we never called Matt "Mayday" a day in his life. But "cobra" might stick. "Why would you kill Cobra's beer Billy?" Why? Matt begins to vent about having to give the eulogy. He feels like his father joined the military to skirt his parental obligations. The boys decide to go let Matt have a look at his father to make sure he is in fact in that casket. In one of the more moving moments in the shows history, Matt wears the anguish of a nation at war on his face as he looks at his father's remains. Never at a loss for manners he still manages to say Thank You to the mortician as his world is caving in around him. He continues to be the upstanding young man that he is when he apologizes to Tammi for being rude at the dinner table. We all watched along with the Taylor's as Matt broke down at the table. "I'm sorry I'm just having a moment here, I don't think I'm OK...I put all my hate on him so I could be a better person to my grandma, my friends, to your daughter." Eric who can't deny his fatherly instincts asked Matt if he had driven over to the house when he first walked in, no doubt aware that he had been drinking. Eric also though runs out and walks Matt home in the following scene. God bless that man.

Matt's eulogy was amazing. He accepted the fact that maybe he saw a different side of his father that most did. Maybe he didn't really know his dad for who he really was and like it or not he did do some good in this world. the scene really speaks for itself so I uploaded it here for everyone to take another look.


Every dark cloud has a silver lining though and ours came in the form of Lyla Garrity. Gosh, I missed her so.

While Tim has the love of his life back in town and my fears of her stealing him away from us begin to grow, we are seeing the emergence of Tim's heir apparent Luke Cafferty. We see Luke running outside of practice just like Tim did when he wanted to turn his game around. He drives a beat up pick up truck, and is not afraid to take his shirt off for the ladies as well. Becky was jockin ol #44 up and down after he paid for her candy and beer. When he asks her is she wants to go to a car wash I couldn't hold back my smile. What a line! "I mean look at that thing," he says referring to his truck. The line of the episode also was provided by our man Luke when he called Dillon's shining star "J.D. McDick!" I rewound that clip about five times.