Carroll Field is where the bad kids hang out and do their bad things, like shoot each other. Eric finds this out the hard way, going to look for Dallas, the sweet kid who helped Luke mend the fence, and witnessing a shooting (involving none of our protagonists). He and Buddy plan to try to restore the broken lights, one step toward cleaning it up. Buddy keeps saying they want to "take back the field," which of course pushes all the wrong buttons with Jess' dad, who runs Ray's BBQ, and the ex-con he's enlisted to act as community liaison for the white dudes, Eric and Buddy. They decide to get the lights turned on and arrange, what else, a football game between the Lions and the Gangstas. Ah, the balm that heals all wounds.
Vince, with a perp record, can't get a job, so asks Eric to help him, which is a big step in itself. Who should step up but Jess' dad, Virgil, who hires him to bus tables, warning him to keep away from Jess. The gangstas stop by, basically demanding freebies, and get chased away by Virgil. Vince still gives Jess The Eye, and can't believe it when Landry shows up to help close up and "wash dishes." He and Jess seem to be cookin' along, smooching in his Impala. And Landry throws a pretty mean pass to Vince in a wildcat play in the game. Guy's multitalented.
The big drama this week is that Becky's pregs, and yep, Luke's the dad. (Thank god it wasn't Tim.) She now switches from needing a daddy into insisting on being totally independent about getting an abortion, though she tells Luke straightaway and asks him to split the cost. She's even freaking out Tim by acting strange, and sweetly, he thinks it's because of The Kiss. He's leaving the shower half nekkid and runs into Becky, who's all abrupt with him, and he stammers and scratches his wet head. Good times, he muses. Becky and Luke have a patented FNL serious-conversation-sitting-on-a-pickup-truck, and he expresses concern that she's being too hasty about getting an abortion. But she reminds him that if she had the baby she'd just be 17--same as her mom, which freaks her out completely.
Tim tries again to communicate with her, knocking on her door repeatedly, telling her Skeeter needs her. She finally answers, snaps at him, and he apologizes for kissing her, saying it was a big mistake, and that he just wants their relationship to revert to what it was before the kiss. SLAM. Wrong answer, Riggs. She later goes to his trailer and tells him what's really the problem, after saying, first off, it really hurt that he called the kiss a mistake, because it meant a lot to her. It did seem to mean something to Tim too, but he knows he never should've gone along with it. God, he's so lost, and now his emotional life has been reduced to the mercy of a 16 year old girl. The ep closes with him hugging her, natch. You could already feel the chill of Tim's diminishing presence on the show. Oh sure, he'll have his big exit arc at some point (well - there are only 4 left this season, so it's gotta be soon), but in the meantime, it's just scraps. Sad, leftover scraps. I also wish Madison Burge were a better actress, because even though I was sympathetic with her this week, I really didn't feel it like with most of the rest of the cast. In other words, I didn't cry.
Julie moves ever farther into her fate as a granola-eatin', Birkenstock-shufflin' college student by signing up for Habitat for Humanity, per her mom's suggestion. And lo and behold, the manager of her project is a hunky blonde boy. But in a bit of a stretch, she turns down his offer to grab something to eat, saying why don't we just kiss and get it over with? Writers, really? So that's her reaction to Matt just up and leaving - wild abandon? Not in character, sorry. Anyway. She's gettin' some TLC and she's happy, which makes Tami happy.
Glen goes to East Dillon to apologize to Eric for mackin' on the wife, which Tami hadn't told him about. Kyle Chandler's reaction to this surprise declaration is absolutely priceless. Honestly, that 30 seconds should merit him an Emmy. It goes: ignorance, disbelief, puzzlement, comprehension, guilt (at drifting apart from Tami so that she didn't even tell him), anger, eye daggers, eye stabbing, musing at the absurdity, finally winding up at pity because Glen looks like he's going to pee from fear, and he's imaginarily lying in a bloody heap at Eric's feet. Later, in the ep's requisite pillow talk scene, he confronts Tami, but they laugh about it, because really, who could take Glen seriously as a threat? Joe McCoy is called to Tami's office because JD got detention for his douche-baggery, and Joe reveals he and his wife split. This mainly seems to exist to reinforce that Tami and Eric need to find more time together, or they may suffer a similar fate. They take a detour to a lake where apparently they made it once upon a time. Sweet. But were was Skeeter? Billy? Mins? The chop shop? And where the heck is Saracen?
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