Friday Night Lights – East of Dillon, After the Fall and In the Skin of a Lion

This article may contain spoilers.

Entering its fourth season, Friday Night Lights is proving yet again why it holds the critics’ claim of being the best show on television. It is not just a show about football. It’s about the people that make up this extraordinary town. It could be any town in America. It just happens to be Dillon, Texas where football can make or break any young athlete’s chances at a life outside of Dillon. Football may not be the end all, be all of dreams come true, but it can provide a way to make a career beyond high school. It also provides the life lessons most kids need in order to succeed in adult life. They may not all go on to be football stars, but it does give them good habits for life — to work hard, strive hard and push hard for your dreams. It teaches kids to not only dream, but it also instills the drive to achieve those dreams. Life is hard. So it is crucial to gain the skills to survive. High school only lasts four years. Then what?

If you live in Dillon, Texas, then you are lucky enough that Coach Eric Taylor and Tami Taylor are going to do everything within their power to make sure you get a chance to attend college and make your dreams a reality.

Having successfully shepherded Jason Street, Smash Williams, Lila Garrity and Tyra Collette on to college and forward in their lives, the fourth season follows the continuing journey of Tim Riggins (who ditched college), Matt Saracen (who is pursuing his art dream), Landry Clarke (who is now playing football at East Dillon), Julie Taylor (also attending East Dillon High) and J.D. McCoy (now star of the West Dillon Panthers). Joining them on this journey are newcomers Vince Howard (rebellious running back at East Dillon), Jurnee Smollette (Landry’s new friend), and Becky Sproles (Tim’s landlady’s daughter). Last, but not least, are Coach Eric Taylor (new football coach at East Dillon High), Tami Taylor (West Dillon High’s principal), Buddy Garrity (staunch football supporter), and Joe McCoy (arch nemesis of Eric and Tami Taylor).

After Eric and Tami stood up to Joe McCoy and reported him for domestic abuse of his son, Joe got Eric fired from his job as coach of the West Dillon Panthers. The only coaching job available to Eric was the coaching position of the East Dillon Lions — a team not known for its winning streak. In fact, it is highly doubtful that East Dillon remembered it had a football team because the field had gone brown, the football uniforms were over 35 years old and none of the kids even knew how to play football. But if there is anything that Eric Taylor does best, it is taking raw talent and turning it into something miraculous. He creates amazing football teams. Not by recruiting the best talent, but by recognizing the inherent skills each player has and molding it into the best that person can be. He also creates teams — not just star players. The secret to football is having the best team, not the best players.

But like anything great, it does not happen overnight. If anything these first couple of episodes have shown is that it takes time to win people over and convince them that you have their best interests at heart. Eric had to persuade not only coaches and players to give it their all on the playing field, but also to get the community to stand behind their team and participate. A football team cannot play for a non-existent crowd in empty bleachers and it cannot play without uniforms. It also cannot play if its team refuses to show up for practice. It is an uphill battle, but Eric’s tenacity is winning them over.

Like her husband, Tami has had her own battles to fight. No longer one-half of the winning combination that took their school to the state championship, Tami finds herself confronted by an old school methodology that “if you’re not with us, you’re against us.” But all Tami has been doing is her job. Once she found out a student had faked his school records so that he could attend West Dillon and not East Dillon, she had to make him leave. As unpopular as this decision was, it is her job.

But it’s her job that’s on the line with Joe McCoy hell-bent on destroying her and her husband. With the aid and support of the football boosters, Joe is able to shine a spotlight on the fact that Tami kicked out one of the star players of the Panther’s team, which worked to her husband’s benefit as the East Dillon Lions got a star player. Joe McCoy also threatened to start an investigation of past illegal team practices that may have occurred under Eric’s coaching reign. The war is only just beginning in this battle of who is going to control the power over the Lions and the Panthers and if Tami will be able to keep her job as she continues to do the right thing at the expense of popularity.

In a surprising twist, Buddy Garrity forsook his comrades in arms at the Panthers booster club and took the side of the Taylors in the face of great adversity and animosity from the other boosters. It was a cheer worthy moment, but it will also surely incite further dissent among the two camps.

With the adults drawing the lines and taking sides, we see the kids trying to find their places and do the right thing. Tim Riggins, having dropped out of college, went in search of a job and a place to stay. In the process, he volunteered to help out coaching with the West Dillon Lions and scored a trailer to rent. But then quickly found himself in a tricky situation after his landlady’s teenage daughter, Becky, set her sights on him. On the upside, he has won over former Panther Luke Cafferty and may just help mold him into a wonderful Lions defensive back.

Landry is working hard also to make friends and befriended Jess Merriweather, daughter of former football star Vernon Merriweather. Landry is also turning out to be one of the most versatile players on the Lions’ team, having scored a special teams position.

Then Matt is trying his hand at learning to be an artist and finding it to be more challenging that he envisioned — especially after his community college teacher recommended him for an internship with a local artist, who seems determined to use him strictly for manual labor hauling bits and pieces of metal.

Julie is still caught up with the tug of war with her parents on how much they can dictate how she lives her life and simultaneously trying to figure out if she’s holding her boyfriend back from achieving his dreams.

With the added fresh faces of Vince Howard, Luke Cafferty, Jess Merriweather and Becky Sproles, there is plenty of human drama to become entangled with in Friday Night Lights. It continues to be a riveting and rewarding journey as we follow their stories and are allowed to share in their joys and triumphs over adversity. May we all be so lucky as to be blessed with many more stories to come.

What Worked

Returning to its roots of taking a fragmented team and showing them how to work together and succeed is a magical formula. It is a delicious treat to get to know the newcomers and to see how they mix with the returning characters. Even diehard Tim and Lila fans might be surprised to find that Tim and Becky are turning out to be a cute pair — even if it is forbidden love. And Landry and Jess are just adorable, which is a refreshing change of pace from the non-stop drama of his relationship with Tyra.

As the villain of the story, Joe McCoy is mesmerizing to watch. His knowing smirks are becoming legendary and the more he smiles, the more we know he is someone to be feared. It is chilling and foreboding to know that he is constantly plotting and will use any means to get what he wants. It makes a nice counterpart to Buddy Garrity’s new found support of the East Dillon Lions and the inevitable show down will be fun to watch.

What Didn’t Work

It was jarring to watch as Eric gave Vince’s mom the $20 when he was trying to locate Vince. One look at Vince’s mom practically screamed junkie or alcoholic and it was hard to believe that Eric would enable those kinds of addictions by providing her with cash. But I suppose it was another example of the lengths he would go to in order to get Vince to get his act together.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

‘East of Dillon’ was written by Jason Katims and directed by Peter Berg. ‘After the Fall’ was written by Kerry Ehrin and directed by Michael Waxman. ‘In the Skin of a Lion’ was written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman and directed by Patrick Norris. Friday Night Lights stars Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Aimee Teagarden, Taylor Kitch, Zach Gilford, Jesse Plemons, Brad Leland, D.W. Moffett, Jeremy Sumpter, Michael B. Jordon, Matt Lauria, Madison Burge, Jurnee Smollette, Derek Phillips, Alicia Witt and Steve Harris. Friday Night Lights airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on DirecTV.