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Episode recap: Friday Night Lights Season 3 Finale, “Tomorrow Blues” (S.3, E.13)

We come to it at last. The final episode for the third season of what is, unquestionably, the best show on television. If you’re one of the many without Direct TV, the wait has been a long one. And if you had the good fortune of living in Georgia on Friday night, at 9:00pm, you were treated to graphs that showed possible tornadoes popping up in the state. Tornadoes that never came.

I’m grateful that nothing happened, but next time, particularly when we all know thirty minutes in advance that nothing is going to occur, don’t interrupt the best that primetime television has to offer. You hear me, Dagmar Midcap? Never again.

"Tomorrow Blues" is a fitting title for the episode. Everyone is depressed about the future. Matt and Julie and Tim and Lyla wonder about what lies ahead for their respective relationships. Tami and Eric wonder what will happen with the coach’s job. Tyra and Landry worry about what college (if any) Tyra will attend.

With all this going on, you’d think the finale would be pretty depressing, but it isn’t. Bittersweet? Yes. Melancholy? Not so much.

The show actually starts in a very unusual fashion: it flashes five months ahead. I’m not sure I remember the series ever skipping a couple of days ahead, let alone five months. And in the beginning, everything seems fine. All the couples seem to be on cloud nine, there’s no conflict of any kind to speak of.

And then, Tami is called into a meeting with the vice-principal, and he informs her of the fact that Eric may not have his job next year. If Eric wasn’t aware beforehand that other people were gunning for his job, he sure found out when he and Buddy visited a prospective student. There, the dad talks of how the assistant coach and Joe McCoy have been making the rounds as if they’re already running the show.

Ah, Joe McCoy. If he’s not beating up his kid, he’s stealing jobs. You understand why he has so many friends. The standoff between Joe and Eric is pretty great to watch. The intensity in Kyle Chandler’s eyes burns right through the screen. Unfortunately, McCoy, sleazy as he is, pretty much does run the show, informing the coach that his job will be intact if J.D. starts no matter what, and if Wade (the assistant coach) calls all the plays. Eric says no, in so many words.

When going over the plans with his wife, Eric decides there is nothing he can do. Tami disagrees, and she advises Eric to fight for his job. He feels too proud to essentially beg the Booster members for his position. When the meeting does take place, Eric shows up, speaks very frankly about his job, and leaves. We discover later in a great scene during Billy’s wedding (Tami squeezing her husband’s hand and looking solemn) that Eric’s job is probably going to Wade, though he’s offered a position as head coach for the East Dillon high school. That’s reality for you. You can look as handsome as Kyle Chandler with a wife as hot as Connie Britton, and still get passed over when money’s doing all the talking (courtesy of Mr. McCoy).

Matt gets into a prestigious art school, and as a result, he finally puts his grandmother in a nursing home. The scene where Matt and Lorraine arrive in this foreign place is a pretty touching one to watch. Julie finally gets a car of her own, and once inside, the realization of her true love leaving her behind sets in. At Billy and Mindy’s wedding, she decides to spare both of them any pain and break up with him. Matt informs her that they will not break up, and that everything will work out between them. Immediately after, he takes his grandmother out of the nursing home and brings her to the wedding, telling her that he will stick with her just as she stood by him. He’s not going to the art school. It may not be the best thing to see as a viewer, but it makes perfect sense for Matt. Not to mention, it seems to suggest that he’ll be back next season. Yes?

As far as the others go, it’s a lot less clear if we’ll see their bright and beautiful faces around Dillon again. After all her complaining and doubting, Tyra visits the admissions officer for the University of Texas, where she is wait-listed. . .along with a thousand other people. It sends Tyra on a rant that drives Landry crazy. He pulls her aside and informs her that no matter what happens or what anyone thinks, he believes in her, even if she doesn’t. His advice seems to have paid off, because Tyra gets into UT. In reality, a girl like Tyra probably would have faced a different result. But hey, why not, she deserves it. And the show makes good on reality on a regular basis anyway.

Buddy (and Tami) meet with Lyla and try to get her to reconsider Vanderbilt. San Antonio State is good for a Riggins kid, but not for her. When she asks where the money would come from, Buddy says that he’ll swallow his pride and ask his uncle for money, someone who he is not entirely fond of. Lyla gets the money, and she gets into Vandy, but during Billy’s wedding, she tells Tim she won’t go so she can stay with him. The Tim Riggins from the first season (and maybe the second) would have said okay, and this would be a done deal. But this kid has grown up before our eyes, and when he tells Lyla to go to the school she’s wanted to go to, it doesn’t just feel like he’s saying it to be politically correct. It sounds real.

Tim does relapse, so to speak, in the last few minutes of the episode. Since Lyla isn’t going to his college, he tells Billy, why should he go? He can just stay with his brother, drink beer all day and help with the repair shop. But Billy tells him no. He’s lived the life, and he’s still living it, with a kid on the way that probably won’t be born to parents who have everything going for them. Tim has to go to college. In a way, he’s the only hope for the Riggins family. I’d just like to add that I’m very pleased with Derek Phillips’ screen time this season as Billy. He was in virtually every episode, and he was great the whole way through. He saves his most touching performance for the finale, and it’s, dare I say it, his best turn.

The episode ends with Eric and Tami walking into the stadium for East Dillon High. It’s a dump. Eric will have his work cut out for him. Who knows what the future will bring?

Many reviewers who saw this back in the fall talked of how it felt like a series finale, and you can see why. Everything comes together quite nicely and without any sort of force. This felt like more of an end to a show than ER did, but that’s just me I guess.

Now that we’ve got two more years of excellence for sure, can we expect to see some guest appearances by Gaius Charles and Scott Porter? Or Smash’s fantastic mom? What will happen to Billy? Buddy? Are Riggins and Matt even coming back? Will the McCoys (who are terrible people but played by some terrific actors) return and run Dillon into the ground?

I wish I had Direct TV, or better yet, access into the FNL writers’ room. But I have to say, if they left the season with only the possibility of the Taylors returning, it would work. They’d make it work. I’m confident of that, as this season was, hands down, the best one for Friday Night Lights yet. And that’s saying something.

See you on the field next season.

CLEAR EYES

FULL HEARTS

CAN’T LOSE