Breakups and makeups on 'Friday Night Lights'

Tonight was Relationship Turning Point Night -- and CW Guest Star Night -- on Friday Night Lights (wow, that's a lot of "nights" in a single sentence). Some of it -- Coach and Mrs. Coach, as always -- was poignant and beautifully acted, and some of it, well, it went on a little thick.

(I'm fully ready to turn over the care of these spoilers.)

Unless you count a conversation between Eric and Mac in the film room that was more about child-rearing than game-planning, this week's episode was entirely football-free. And while the show doesn't have to be all about football to succeed, the game is, after all, the organizing principle of FNL. The balance between on- and off-field stories has gotten out of whack at times this season, tonight included.

The lack of a game, or even on-camera practice, allowed more time for a not-very-successful storyline involving Smash and his girlfriend, Noelle, who first get ambushed by their parents, who use a joint family dinner to urge the interracial couple to quit dating. Dillon's a small town, Noelle's parents argue, and some folks won't be as open-minded as they are. Somewhat surprisingly, Smash's mom agrees -- though her conviction could also be tied up with the fact that Noelle has been turning her son's head every which way with college recruiters.

Smash and Noelle, of course, don't really accept the idea, and arrange to meet in secret at a movie, using Smash's little sister as a cover story. While they're making out, oblivious to the eye-rolls of small-minded folk in the theater, a quartet of teenage tools harasses little sister, one of them going so far as to say to Smash, "You've got one of ours, why can't we have one of yours?"

The thing is, an interracial couple in a small town just might be the subject of tsk-tsking and gossip and the like, and that might have made for an interesting ongoing storyline. All we've seen of Noelle, though, has been in the context of her Svengali-like hold on Smash during the recruiting process, so we have next to no sympathy for her or even a real sense of how much she likes Smash. So we get a heavy-handed morality play instead.

It's a shame, because everything else in the episode, even the Matt-Carlotta romance, worked pretty well. Carlotta informs Matt that family issues are forcing her return to Guatemala, which forces the QB to confront his feelings for her. Thankfully, Landry is there for his friend, telling Matt how proud he is of him that he's in a relationship with "the hot maid."

(Aside: How long has it been since we had a Landry-and-Matt-talking scene this season? I seem to recall a couple in the first episode or two, but in yet another unfortunate side effect of the Incident, Landry has been more or less cut off from his best friend and the source of some excellent comedy.)

I really liked the understated way in which the show handled Carlotta's departure. Matt tells Carlotta he loves her, and you get the sense the feeling is mutual, but there are no grand gestures, no mad dashes to the airport, no rending of garments. It was a wrong time-wrong place situation, and as silly as the storyline seemed at the beginning, it ended on a nice note.

Santiago, meanwhile, feels the pull of his old life when his buddy Weevil Davin shows up. As it turns out, though, Santiago is kind of adjusting to living with Buddy and being part of a team, which of course disgusts his buddy from the old neighborhood.

This story could have turned out as heavy-handed as the Smash plot, but it worked a little better for me, partly because Benny Ciaramello, who plays Santiago, is a very expressive actor who can convey a lot without speaking, and partly because Brad Leland is awesome. The scene where he spills his guts to the Taylors about the mixed feelings he has about Santiago's buddies was just a wonderful thing to watch; Buddy's redemption journey is one of the best parts of the entire series for me this season.

I also loved the look Eric and Tami exchanged at the end of Buddy's monologue -- which was one of, Hey, maybe our problems aren't so bad after all. The Taylors spent the episode trying, failing and finally coming to terms with putting Gracie in day care, with Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton once again putting on a clinic in how to play a married couple on television.

The American Beauty-esque dinner-table scene -- with a deeply uncomfortable Julie caught in the middle -- and their chat on the porch showcased once again how much an equal partnership the Taylors' marriage is: Tami fesses up to thinking about giving up her job, and Eric comes back with "Let me tell you something -- you're not gonna quit your job, so get that out of your head." He mentions TMU, and it's not "I gave up the job" but "We gave up the job." Then, "You're a damn good mom, a damn good counselor and a helluva hot wife." Seriously, we should all be taking notes, because Coach is, when he puts his mind to it, pretty much the perfect husband.

Finally, Riggins comes to realize his feelings for Lyla after he calls in to make fun of her new Christian radio show (and hey, Street sighting!), and she subsequently confronts and shames him. He may be too late, though, because Lyla is cozying up with her co-host Logan Huntzberger. He buys flowers and everything, only to find Lyla kissing Logan. Previews for next week suggest there's more to come, but as with the Matt-Carlotta thread tonight, I appreciate that the show let Tim be quietly disappointed, with no property destruction whatsoever.

Odds and ends from the episode:

• Eric to Mac, who's just expressed his belief that a woman's place was home with the kids: "You know what, that sounds really stupid and ignorant when you say it out loud." Mac: "Sometimes the truth is stupid and ignorant."
• Pre dinner-table fight, the scene with Tami, Eric and Gracie at bedtime was very, very sweet. I kind of wonder if Coach's babble at Gracie was fully scripted or if Chandler, who has two daughters of his own, was ad-libbing a little.
• Coach's recitation of his online day-care research to Tami. "Studies say day care helps kids to socialize. And in years to come, if it turns out day care screwed her up, she's got you for counseling."

Your thoughts on this week's Friday Night Lights? Is Eric Taylor the ideal man, and will Tim Riggins ever sort out his feelings? And shouldn't the Panthers be playing a little more football?

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