The Televangelist: ‘Friday Night Lights’ episode 9

Uncertain futures were the name of the game in this middle-of-the-road episode of ‘FNL,’ with everyone trying to take one step forward by taking two steps back. In the Riggins house it began with Billy and Mindy breaking up because he doesn’t want her to work at the Landing Strip once married. (How can she be shocked by this?) Tim was in denial of his possible collegiate future, and blew off an interview to go on a bender in old-school Riggs style. Tami decided to deny her birthday’s claim to her age by not having one, and Tyra’s attempts to leave Dillon behind were thwarted when Cash-the-cowboy turns out to have a serious dark side.

By the end of the episode, a few of these issues had been resolved — specifically, all those in the Riggins household. Billy and Mindy were back for what we can only hope will be more white trash comedy, and Tim ends up being the first Riggins to attend college. (Let’s hope he actually goes.) The only character with a purely positive trajectory this week was none other than Matt Saracen, who led the Panthers to an (unsurprising) last-minute victory, which also served to briefly bring his mother and grandmother out from their Cold War.

It seems like the Panthers haven’t played more than four games, but here we are miraculously in the playoffs for the state championship. Fourth and seven, up by three, risking the opponent having excellent field position for a final play (and we know how dangerous that is since no high school teams seem to have any defense), out of timeouts, what to do?