Writer: Kerry Ehrin
Grade: A
I’m a bit frustrated that the writers were unable to make up their minds whether East Dillon High students went to what is now West Dillon High last semester, or whether EDH is populated with new students who popped up out of nowhere. It was explained within the show as the former, but it’s being presented as the latter, perhaps unintentionally. I can accept that there are a lot of new faces; maybe they were still in middle school in the first few seasons, or they just didn’t run in the same circles as the Panthers and Panther hangers-on we followed before. Still, it’s a little confusing that none of these EDH students make references to their old school, or to the people we know still go to that school, or to Principal Taylor. And why did Julie look like she didn’t know anyone on her first day at EDH? And why would Jess and Landry be complete strangers? I’ve always had the impression that Dillon is a pretty small town, and having grown up in a small town myself, I feel like these kids should all at least know each other’s names even if they never really hung out together at their old school.
All of those factors combined make it feel like several hundred teenagers and their families moved to Dillon just to go to East Dillon High, and considering a) the entire redistricting effort we saw last season, and b) how underfunded the “new” school is, that makes no sense whatsoever. I can overlook it, for the most part, because I’m enjoying the story the writers are telling, but the awkward way they’ve handled the “new” school does occasionally pull me out of the narrative.
On a more positive note, I was thrilled to see Tami call Joe McCoy’s bluff regarding his threat of digging into the shady mailbox’s history and calling state wins into question. I knew he was blowing smoke the second he made the threat—there’s no way the boosters or the town in general would be okay with McCoy getting Panther state wins retroactively forfeited and tarnishing the team’s reputation. I initially thought it was a desperate move, but then I imagined McCoy and Aikman sitting around trying to come up with something to make Tami back off, and I realized that it’s more an example of how arrogant they are. They actually thought Tami would be dumb enough to fall for something that they would both know better than to actually do.
Finally, considering how dismissive and almost abusive Sherman was about Matt’s drawings, I’m curious why Sherman chose him in the first place. Did he actually see something promising in Matt’s work, or is he just a bitter, jaded asshole who picked what he thought was the worst of the bunch in the hope it might give him someone to push around? If it’s the latter, apparently he didn’t get the memo that Matt has “pluck.”
Other Stuff
-Matt Lauria nailed Luke’s devastation when Tami gave him the bad news. I even shed a couple of sympathetic tears. Poor Luke.
-I wanted to slap Taylor for giving Vince’s mom that $20—he had to know she was just going to use it to get a fix—so I couldn’t blame Vince for being pissed.
-I can’t help but be a little worried by Becky’s transparent attempt to get more time with Tim by calling Riggin’s Rigs for a tow. And I’m not imagining that she was purposefully hanging around outside in a skimpy t-shirt so Riggins would see her, right?
-I was touched by Tim’s smile at seeing Coach, and by the restrained joy they both felt when Coach accepted Tim’s offer of help. They’re both struggling to adjust to new life circumstances, so it makes sense that they’d find comfort in one another’s company.
-The WDH students being so attached to Luke already felt a bit contrived. The Panthers have only had one game with him! I guess we could assume he was on the JV team until this season, and maybe he was popular because he stood out there, but there’s been nothing in the writing to indicate that.
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