Friday Night Lights, 3x10, “The Giving Tree”

Episode Title: The Giving Tree
Writer: Elizabeth Heldens

Director: David Boyd

Originally Aired: 03/20/2009
Grade: A-

“Do you need solace to watch nekkid women?! Is that what you’re sayin' to me?” In a long, long list of awesome Buddy Garrity lines, that might just be the best. Not to detract from all the other badness that happened in that scene--yeesh, he was already $70,000 in the hole, and he managed to rack up another $30,00 worth of damage to the Landing Strip--but that was such a perfect line.

Tim didn’t have much to do in this episode, but the quiet “please” he added when he told Buddy he needed to go was a lovely moment.

I could see the outcome of the Tyra/Landry tutoring scenario coming. And honestly, it’s kind of fucked up. On the one hand, Tyra has a bad habit of running to Landry to save her, even though she says she doesn’t want a romantic relationship with him. Maybe that’s being a user (despite the fact that she obviously does care about him a great deal). Maybe Landry’s bandmates were right to talk him out of helping her, for his own sake and to try to break her of her bad habit.

On the other hand, a) as far as the SATs are concerned, this is Tyra’s future on the line, and b) this is high school, and being self-absorbed in high school is pretty much the norm. It’s not like there won’t be plenty of time in the future to break Tyra of her bad habits, preferably at a slightly less important time for her. What should have happened is for Landry to realize his friends had a point and bring it up with Tyra, but still help her with her SATs. (Of course, even adults don’t show that level of maturity much of the time.) In any case, Tyra’s reaction to Landry’s accusation is pretty much why I can still love her despite the fact that everything he said was true.

As irritating as Life Coach Lyla can be, I was glad she was miraculously able to be there for Julie through the awkwardness of the Taylors finding out she and Matt were having sex. Julie needed someone on her side, needed someone to confide in, and it wasn’t going to be Tyra this time.

Tami handled the situation with Julie with poise. She said all the right things, and she cared about all the right things. The way her eyes widened when she heard that their idea of birth control was “condoms” was also a nice touch, and hopefully she’ll find a way to introduce birth control pills to the mix. Eric and Matt’s conversation, on the other hand, was in some kind of code, and I’m not even sure if it meant, “Sleep with my daughter again and I’ll find a way to make you dead” or “You’re a nice kid and she could’ve done a lot worse. Make sure you keep treating her right.”

JD’s dad continues to be creepy…

I’m going to assume that had CT not found out that Matt was sleeping with Julie, he probably wouldn’t have gotten kicked from the game. He’s got a bit of a temper, sure, but he knew what to expect that night and even warned the other players, so he had to be working out some of that Matt-directed aggression.