Friday Night Lights- The Perfection in the Ending

There should have never been doubt in anyone’s mind how Friday Night Lights would end. I almost forgot my promise to be very careful about keeping any spoilers out of the title, excerpt, or opening paragraph of these posts; but I can keep that promise and still tell you exactly how the last story of Dillon, TX was told: It ended perfectly.

It didn’t matter if the Taylors stayed in Texas. It didn’t matter if Becky and Luke reconciled. It didn’t matter if Riggins kept is land, or Matt proposed to Julie, or if the Lions won state. Whatever the story was, all that really mattered was that it was told right. The good news for everyone, though, was not only was the story told right, but they also damn well told the right story.

I always knew that Eric Taylor was going to end up following Tami to Philadelphia. Like I said last week, when all the chips were on the table, Eric always ends up doing the right thing (a trait he shares with everyone in his family, I might add). There’s no doubt in my mind that he will be a high school football coach the rest of his career, because that’s where he belongs. And, despite now being the breadwinner of the family, that means Tami will always be a football coach’s wife, a role she was born for. But now, she won’t be defined by that, and she gets the opportunity to continue to be an outstanding educator. There is no one that can handle both with the grace she’ll need like Tami Taylor.

Tim needed someone to kick him out of his funk, and while I wasn’t happy that Tyra was the one to come back to do it, in the end I might eat a little crow. In my dream Friday Night Light world, Tim and Lyla, and Landry and Tyra, would find a way to be together. Thankfully, I’m don’t work in the FNL writing room, because those idealized endings would be pretty darn stupid. Instead, Tyra telling Tim that she’d been in love with him since she was five was about as honest as anything in this episode. As was the recognition that their dreams weren’t in the same place right now, but that didn’t mean that that wouldn’t someday be.

Becky’s journey to becoming a de-facto member of the Riggins family was one of my favorite arcs of the season. There was no way that she was going to live with them forever, and I’m oddly glad we got an opportunity to see that end. Not because it was a happy thing to celebrate, but because it solidified how close she’d grown to Mindy, Billy, and Stevie. While it was Tim that told Becky she was family, one of the best moments of an episode defined by great moments was her reminding Mindy that family is forever.

In the end, that is what Friday Night Lights was always about, much more so than football, or even small town Texas. The Taylors may have always been in the forefront, but only as the example to compare every other family, traditional or otherwise against. Be it the bonds of brotherhood born on the gridiron, or the sisterhood between Becky and Mindy or Tyra and Julie, or even Buddy Garrity as that creepy uncle most every family has, Friday Night Lights proved that no family is perfect, and that there is no perfect definition of family. But family, however you define it, is impossible to live without.

This is show that is incredibly hard to say goodbye to. While it was almost cancelled more times that we can probably count, and it will probably never be properly appreciated for how good it was, it had an incredibly loyal fanbase. Those of us who have been lucky enough to enjoyed every moment (whether we liked all of them or not) are going to miss Dillon, the Taylors, the Panthers and the Lions, and everything else about Friday Night Lights.

The little things were right, too:

• The brothers Riggins agreeing on what was not incest.
• One last scene of Landry finding a way to tell Matt he was being stupid (Landry will always be one of my two favorite characters on this show … I’ll let you guess the other.)
• Uncle Riggins and Steve, and their educational tour of Dillon.
• The way Eric told Tami about Matt’s proposal … “I think we agree on this!”
• The look on Tami’s face when she saw the ring on her daughter’s hand.
• Knowing what Eric’s decision was the minute he saw the Braemore paperwork on the table.
• One last Taylor mature family moment, and Julie standing up for herself.
• The way Ornette can be so full pride for his son, and yet so stubborn about his own broken pride.
• Becky’s big heart, and instant forgiveness to Luke.
• Buddy Garrity being, well, Buddy.
• The feeling of wonder that played out on the Lions’ face as they walked the Cotton Bowl field before the game.
• Watching most of our last FNL football game with the music of Explosions in the Sky to keep us company.
• Tinker in a Panthers uniform, despite his doubts.
• That Billy as Tim’s real brother would fill in for Street, his brother from another mother, as they live Texas Forever.
• And finally, that the phrase, “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” won’t be forgotten in Texas as it is introduced to a new team in Philadelphia.

Clacked by Ivey West
on Feb 10, 2011 @ 20:48 EST5EDT