The Televangelist: 'Friday Night Lights' Season 4, Episode 10

• nbc.com
• "We are NOT Mary and Joseph!"

The theme of Friday's episode "I Can't" comes at an interesting point in the season. With three episodes left, major characters changed their trajectory with these two words - Tim tells Billy their days of stripping cars is over, Vince sends his mother to rehab after he tells her he can't go it alone, putting her into private care and joining up with a bad group to do so. This latter decision was a result of someone else saying "I can't" — Vince's new unofficial mentor Virgil, who would have liked to loan him the money but simply did not have it to give.

Virgil is an interesting character. For most of what we've seen of him, he's been gruff and cold, but you know he's a good man. Without direct explication, we have been able to pick up that his wife is probably dead (but definitely gone), and that he has strong, adverse feelings towards football. In the last few weeks we've also come to find that Virgil was himself an East Dillon Panther - so when did his feelings towards the sport turn sour? In this episode Virgil admits some frustration from his past about "having been Vince," i.e. "the most athletic person on the field, being told to follow the playbook instead of your instincts." Is that all that caused the bust-up? Was Virgil slated for fame but fell short because of a coach who boxed him in? Yet one of his sons plays in the Pop Warner league, and by the end of "I Can't," Virgil was right there on the sidelines, cheering and coaching. Virgil has quietly been one of the more interesting characters this season, and I would hate to see his transformation from gruff disciplinarian with a mysterious past to compassionate father and Village Elder be forced and arbitrary, as it felt in this episode.