Episode 3 really set the stage for a lot that could happen throughout the rest of the season – there were so many loose ends throughout the episode.
Interestingly the episode begins with game highlights since Episode 2 didn’t have game footage. Unfortunately the team loses, which is the focus of much of the rest of the episode. What will the team do now that they have lost? What will the implications be? Will Coach Taylor keep his job? This last question was one that I found really strange. It was only the second game of the season and his bread and butter player was gone. I would assume that many players on the team would be having a hard time, especially his best friend Tim Riggins, so shouldn’t they be allowed time to grieve? Nope. That is not the case in Dillon. Football really is everything. The team is supposed to win so when they don’t, doubts arise. Matt Saracen is not to blame for the loss, but there is still a lack of faith in him from both his team and the town.
Buddy Garrity, the town’s big shot and one of the high school’s boosters (also Lyla’s father), thinks that something needs to be done about the QB situation so he gets involved. This is fairly typical of his character even with it just being the third episode. He gets Coach Taylor to visit a Hurricane Katrina refugee named Ray “Voodoo” Tatum that was a state champion QB in Louisiana. Recruiting isn’t allowed in high school football so this incident must be done under the radar – even though they see a rival coach leaving the Tatum hotel room as they arrive. Buddy offers Voodoo a place on the team, his family work in the town, and the support of the entire Dillon community. Coach Taylor, on the other hand, tells Voodoo that he can try out to be on his team and that if he has the ability he will play. Hands down, Coach Taylor has his head on straight. He knows the right way to go about things, even with people like Buddy Garrity pushing him to go about things in a wrong way.
After this encounter, Coach Taylor takes control of his team, which had been acting up that week during practice because of the loss. Smash complains about Coach Taylor and Coach Taylor “gets even.” He wakes them up late and makes them do wind sprints in the rain. He reminds them that they must work hard and work together. They are a team.
Take a look here. This was one of my favorite scenes in the series so far.
This scene reminded me of the movie Miracle about the 1980 Olympic Men’s Hockey Team that won gold. They had to prove themselves, just like Coach Taylor’s team did. Take a look:
The most shocking part of the episode was the connection made between Tim and Lyla. Yes, Jason Street’s best friend and girlfriend have a little moment at the end of the episode (they make-out). Lyla is upset because her and Jason just got in an argument and that Tim hasn’t gone to go see Jason yet. She’s yelling and crying at Tim, and he just wraps her up in his arms. Sounds cute, it would be if it weren’t these two people and if Lyla didn’t go running back to Jason after the argument like nothing ever happened with Tim. Stupid emotional girls…
At the conclusion of this episode, I was curious about what would happen in the following episodes. How is Matt Saracen going to take Voodoo coming to the team? Will he try to compete for the starting job? How will the team rebound from the loss the week before – will those wind sprints in the rain have done the trick? What’s going to happen between Tim and Lyla – will anything else happen? Will she tell Jason?
This episode was so intense and my favorite so far. If this is how the show keeps going, I think I’m really going to enjoy it as both a viewer and a critic.
