Who are you in your heart? When you're not sure people are looking? Most of the main characters in this episode are trying to find out, and as the minister at the beginning points out, that secret part of you can only be secret for so long.
That comes through most prominently in Smash's story, which is the best of the episode. The story of growing up in a poor area, of not having a father, of wanting to do everything you can to be the man of the house, is a complicated one, and the show doesn't shy away from that. While the talk about Smash's father comes out of nowhere to some extent, the idea that there is this other place, this other live that Smash might have had, where he had a rose-colored view of his dad, is a compelling one. For all of Smash's braggadocios ways, we see him cry at his father's grave, and we see him learn that there were other sides, secret sides to his father, that he never knew about either. There's a lot going on under the hood there, and seeing Smash save the day, go to hug his family, and ask to go home, with an understanding of his mom and his bad that he didn't have before, is a sweet, affecting thing.
The same is true of Matt's date with Julie. Things seem to be going down the tubes when the tickets to the movie they wanted to see are sold out, and not only that, but Matt tries to pull a "do you know who I am?" on the clerk. It's not a good look, and you can tell Julie isn't exactly enamored with him. But then she sees him singing his grandmother out of her panic, putting her to bed, and realizing that however much he's trying to take Smash's advice or playing up to Landry's fear that he's going to "cross over" and become just another jock, there's the part of him that loves his family too, and does the hard personal things to take care of them. That's the real side of him, and the side that Julie appreciates. (Plus, Landry got some time to shine in this story too, and made his most amusing impression yet with his lyrical predictions and sartorial recommendations.)
We even got a bit of this same thing with the story of the other side of the Dillon love quadrangle getting out to the crowd. It's no coincidence that the opening of the films cuts between Brian shooting up and Lyla preparing apology muffins for Jason while the minister talks about keeping secret. Lyla has a well-kept reputation and as word gets out about what she's done, blowback starts to emerge. And yet, there's some unexpected sweetness from it. The way that her father, Buddy, comes to comfort her, ignoring even the game, and telling her that no matter what mistakes she's made, she's still his daughter and it's just a game, shows that for all the unsavory wheeling and dealing that we've seen from the Garrety Patriarch, there's part of him that are good and true as well.
And he took Tami's advice! It's a nice little detail that even though he wasn't as on board with Tami aim to be more sensitive to the concerns of Gatlin's city fathers when negotiating better hotels (a situation she still manages to smooth over), she got through to him when she told him to just be there for his daughter and not try to fix things, no matter what the problem was.
The only real drag on this episode was the Tim Riggins part of it. (Though the Tyra/Jason drinking party felt like more pointless Dawson's Creek business as well.) The idea that these players we've barely seen before are so devoted to Jason that they're ready to mess up Tim, only to be totally mollified when he plays through the pain, equates to a super rushed storyline that felt like a forced attempt to try to fit Tim into the whole "showing who you really are" theme. It's the most glaring part of the episode that didn't work.
But overall, there was a lot going on in the episode, and the vast majority of it worked, particularly Smash's story which was moving and spotlighted the type of concerns and stories we don't normally get to see on television.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-06-19T20:38:56Z
Who are you in your heart? When you're not sure people are looking? Most of the main characters in this episode are trying to find out, and as the minister at the beginning points out, that secret part of you can only be secret for so long.
That comes through most prominently in Smash's story, which is the best of the episode. The story of growing up in a poor area, of not having a father, of wanting to do everything you can to be the man of the house, is a complicated one, and the show doesn't shy away from that. While the talk about Smash's father comes out of nowhere to some extent, the idea that there is this other place, this other live that Smash might have had, where he had a rose-colored view of his dad, is a compelling one. For all of Smash's braggadocios ways, we see him cry at his father's grave, and we see him learn that there were other sides, secret sides to his father, that he never knew about either. There's a lot going on under the hood there, and seeing Smash save the day, go to hug his family, and ask to go home, with an understanding of his mom and his bad that he didn't have before, is a sweet, affecting thing.
The same is true of Matt's date with Julie. Things seem to be going down the tubes when the tickets to the movie they wanted to see are sold out, and not only that, but Matt tries to pull a "do you know who I am?" on the clerk. It's not a good look, and you can tell Julie isn't exactly enamored with him. But then she sees him singing his grandmother out of her panic, putting her to bed, and realizing that however much he's trying to take Smash's advice or playing up to Landry's fear that he's going to "cross over" and become just another jock, there's the part of him that loves his family too, and does the hard personal things to take care of them. That's the real side of him, and the side that Julie appreciates. (Plus, Landry got some time to shine in this story too, and made his most amusing impression yet with his lyrical predictions and sartorial recommendations.)
We even got a bit of this same thing with the story of the other side of the Dillon love quadrangle getting out to the crowd. It's no coincidence that the opening of the films cuts between Brian shooting up and Lyla preparing apology muffins for Jason while the minister talks about keeping secret. Lyla has a well-kept reputation and as word gets out about what she's done, blowback starts to emerge. And yet, there's some unexpected sweetness from it. The way that her father, Buddy, comes to comfort her, ignoring even the game, and telling her that no matter what mistakes she's made, she's still his daughter and it's just a game, shows that for all the unsavory wheeling and dealing that we've seen from the Garrety Patriarch, there's part of him that are good and true as well.
And he took Tami's advice! It's a nice little detail that even though he wasn't as on board with Tami aim to be more sensitive to the concerns of Gatlin's city fathers when negotiating better hotels (a situation she still manages to smooth over), she got through to him when she told him to just be there for his daughter and not try to fix things, no matter what the problem was.
The only real drag on this episode was the Tim Riggins part of it. (Though the Tyra/Jason drinking party felt like more pointless Dawson's Creek business as well.) The idea that these players we've barely seen before are so devoted to Jason that they're ready to mess up Tim, only to be totally mollified when he plays through the pain, equates to a super rushed storyline that felt like a forced attempt to try to fit Tim into the whole "showing who you really are" theme. It's the most glaring part of the episode that didn't work.
But overall, there was a lot going on in the episode, and the vast majority of it worked, particularly Smash's story which was moving and spotlighted the type of concerns and stories we don't normally get to see on television.