So Vince hits his crisis point. Jess breaks up with him. He gets the bug of his dad in his ear. And we get the fall out from the game that the discord he's sewn has messed up. Vince suffers for it. Coach makes good on his benching. Luke steps in and delivers as needed, and it all basically works out.
At least for now. There's no promise that Vince has learned his lesson, just a sense that he sees that Coach is serious, and that with his mom wanting to encourage a relationship between her husband and her son, even she says not to take everything Ornette says at face value. Vince, as Coach puts it, thought he was above the rules, and now he's brought back down to Earth, shown that no one is bigger than the team or bigger than the rules.
I'm still not crazy about this storyline. Vince getting a big head, even with his dad's encouragement, seems kind out of nowhere. I get that it's bundled up in complicated feelings about his dad, but still, the rest of this feels pretty obvious in its trajectory. I like what they're going for, but it doesn't have the impact it needs to given how rote much of the story feels.
That said, it's always nice to get some time with Matt and Julie. The final scene where they kiss on a smoky Chicago street laid it on a little thick for me, but I really enjoyed the "I don't want to be your safety net" moment. I appreciate that Matt is mature enough to want Julie to be there, but to recognize that, as she once told him, she has her own life and she needs to live it and not be dependent on him. The two of them have such a good rapport, and it's a nice way to go with their reunion.
The business with Epyck feels even more rushed than the Vince stuff. I liked her scene with little Gracie, showing that there's a softer side as promised by her Foster Mom. But the whole stealing accusation that leads to a physical altercation with Tami caught in the crossfire feels like a standard page out of the high school drama playbook. We're supposed to feel the tragedy of it, but we've barely gotten to know Epyck, and the storyline's been pretty weak to begin with, so the whole "unfortunate students fall through the cracks" angle doesn't really land.
Oh, and Becky gets work at the strip club...? I mean, there's something to the idea that a kid would never see that kind of money otherwise and is enticed by it, but it's a weird direction to take the character (even if it's foreshadowed by her eye-ing Mindy's take.) But it leads to two better storyline. The first is Luke introducing Becky as his girlfriend to his parents, which is a really nice moment. The other is the reveal that Mindy is pregnant. Billy's reaction is sweet, and Mindy's concern and trepidation feels real. Again, Billy and Mindy are likely the most realistic couple on the show, and it's nice to get to see them deal with these sorts of issues.
Overall, this wasn't the greatest episode, but it was good enough, with solid if semi-perfunctory progress in most storylines.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-08-24T01:55:56Z— updated 2020-02-28T00:10:39Z
So Vince hits his crisis point. Jess breaks up with him. He gets the bug of his dad in his ear. And we get the fall out from the game that the discord he's sewn has messed up. Vince suffers for it. Coach makes good on his benching. Luke steps in and delivers as needed, and it all basically works out.
At least for now. There's no promise that Vince has learned his lesson, just a sense that he sees that Coach is serious, and that with his mom wanting to encourage a relationship between her husband and her son, even she says not to take everything Ornette says at face value. Vince, as Coach puts it, thought he was above the rules, and now he's brought back down to Earth, shown that no one is bigger than the team or bigger than the rules.
I'm still not crazy about this storyline. Vince getting a big head, even with his dad's encouragement, seems kind out of nowhere. I get that it's bundled up in complicated feelings about his dad, but still, the rest of this feels pretty obvious in its trajectory. I like what they're going for, but it doesn't have the impact it needs to given how rote much of the story feels.
That said, it's always nice to get some time with Matt and Julie. The final scene where they kiss on a smoky Chicago street laid it on a little thick for me, but I really enjoyed the "I don't want to be your safety net" moment. I appreciate that Matt is mature enough to want Julie to be there, but to recognize that, as she once told him, she has her own life and she needs to live it and not be dependent on him. The two of them have such a good rapport, and it's a nice way to go with their reunion.
The business with Epyck feels even more rushed than the Vince stuff. I liked her scene with little Gracie, showing that there's a softer side as promised by her Foster Mom. But the whole stealing accusation that leads to a physical altercation with Tami caught in the crossfire feels like a standard page out of the high school drama playbook. We're supposed to feel the tragedy of it, but we've barely gotten to know Epyck, and the storyline's been pretty weak to begin with, so the whole "unfortunate students fall through the cracks" angle doesn't really land.
Oh, and Becky gets work at the strip club...? I mean, there's something to the idea that a kid would never see that kind of money otherwise and is enticed by it, but it's a weird direction to take the character (even if it's foreshadowed by her eye-ing Mindy's take.) But it leads to two better storyline. The first is Luke introducing Becky as his girlfriend to his parents, which is a really nice moment. The other is the reveal that Mindy is pregnant. Billy's reaction is sweet, and Mindy's concern and trepidation feels real. Again, Billy and Mindy are likely the most realistic couple on the show, and it's nice to get to see them deal with these sorts of issues.
Overall, this wasn't the greatest episode, but it was good enough, with solid if semi-perfunctory progress in most storylines.