This episode is named after Tami’s decision to stay in Dillon and have her baby while Eric left for Austin to coach for TMU. I thought it was odd at the time that Tami would insist on staying in Dillon, but if the Taylors had all left for Austin, there wouldn’t be much of a show to watch.
Tami is hanging on by a thread. It was pretty ironic that she told Glen that he had to connect with the kids and then Julie came into the kitchen and yelled at her. Her rant in Glen’s office was terrific, but not in the usual witty way. Based on the scenes for next week, she may be getting some much needed help soon.
Eric is struggling in Austin, but his interaction with Antwone in the car led to a hilarious line. When the two were talking about Antwone taking gifts from boosters, he said, “This started for me in pee wee. I got ice cream.”
Anyway, the split is just one of the many conflicts within the series, which have given the show a much darker feel than season one, and it seems like the series has lost some of the lightheartedness that made it so great. This has a lot to do with Landry’s situation, which just got a little worse now that he realized that he lost his watch while getting rid of the stalker’s body. Methinks that will come back to bite him at some point. He did have a great line when he met his new rally girl – “Do you think all humans are capable of evil?”
For the moment, the incident has brought Landry and Tyra closer together, and at the end of the episode, it appeared that the unrequited love finally became…um…requited.
There is also less humor surrounding Matt since he’s becoming more and more jealous of Smash and the depression/anger that will no doubt stem from being dumped. (By the way, what is with Smash rapping all the time? That just seems really odd to me.) There is some potential, however, with the introduction of the new in-home nurse. She’s sassy, pretty and is moving in, so I wouldn’t be surprised if something romantic develops between the two now that Julie is out of the picture (for the time being).
Buddy also provided a lot of the humor in season one, and he’s going through his own depression over the loss of his family and over his reduced role as a Panthers booster. His meltdown at the party was painful to watch, but it did lead to a funny interaction between Lyla and Riggins when the former asked the latter about what was wrong with her dad. Riggins responded, “I don’t know, Lyla. Maybe he’s had one too many. What do you think?”
It’s clear that the Riggins/Lyla relationship is going somewhere, but I’m not sure if Lyla is going to drag Tim over to the light side or if he’ll convince her to give up clean living to spend some naughty time with him. It could turn into a battle between Jesus and Riggins, which is especially funny considering Landry’s “WWRD” bit in the first episode.
Finally, I sure hope Jason doesn’t go to Mexico to have experimental spine surgery. That just sounds like a bad idea from the start.
Hey, maybe that was the inspiration for the episode’s title.
