'Friday Night Lights' Season 5, Episode 5 'Kingdom' Breakdown

Written by Bob Suggs Thursday, 02 December 2010 00:00

TV Shows - Ended - Friday Night Lights

← 'Friday Night Lights' - Season 5 'Keep Looking' Breakdown		'Friday Night Lights' Season 5, Episode 6 'Swerve' Breakdown →

[' Friday Night Lights - KingdomFriday Night Lights' - 'Kingdom'] There's a lot of transition going on in this season of 'Friday Night Lights,' and this episode epitomized just how much. It's more than just new faces at East Dillon, more than the team coming together on the field and off, and more than the families reuniting or growing apart (depending on the situation) and more than the passage of the football season.

Last season, the ignominious start for the East Dillon Lions with the forfeit to South King High had been controversial. That game still haunted some, and no matter how Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) tried to keep the focus on today, the past remained a sore point.

There was no way a road trip for another bout with the South King Rangers, was going to be just another game for the Lions. Eric told the team, "Success is not a goal, it's a byproduct," and he believed it. For others, however, the game was all about revenge and redemption.

On the field, Eric's high-minded ideals went out the window when the Rangers took a lead by playing dirty. The other team was also taunting Vince and the other Lions. It was just like what happened in the NFL last weekend, when Tennessee's Cortland Finnegan provoked Houston's Andre Johnson into a fist fight. (It was all over the news, did you see it?)

'Friday Night Light' reflected the reality of the game within the game on the field. So when Eric told Vince to play by 'their' rules, it was satisfying, but all fictional. The Lions routed the Rangers by breaking the rules, and after winning, the press called Eric's team undisciplined. It left a bad taste in Coach Taylor's mouth. That wasn't a teaching moment; it was what he didn't want it to be -- a revenge game.

There was good that came out of the road trip. The transformation of Buddy Jr. (Jeff Rosick) included being hazed by the team. It was nothing serious -- no shaved head or anything -- and he got into the game. He was terrible, but he bonded with his teammates and you can see him changing from the spoiled brat he was just a few weeks back. Hastings Ruckle (Grey Damon) also revealed more of himself, but he's an iceberg and we're only seeing the tip.

Ruckle did lead the guys to a post-game party among the hippies/gypsys/undesirables in Kingdom. Luke (Matt Lauria) got drunk and proved his love for his teammates by getting branded. Naturally, the others followed and it was up to Jess (Jurnee Smollett) to clean up the mess. She called them all idiots, but they took pride in their decision to become blood/branded brothers.

Vince (Michael B. Jordan) was part of the ritual. He also told Luke about being wooed by TMU, even though Coach Taylor advised him to keep quiet. Wise to the ways of the college game, Eric reached out to Vince and his father, offering to handle all inquiries for Vince's college career.

The fact that Vince's dad cannot be trusted is a problem. He's an ex-con. He's going to do something unscrupulous, you just know it. When the TMU recruiter sat with Vince's dad at the game, the dominoes began to be set up.

Again, this is another ripped from the headlines sports story. Cam Newton in Auburn has been cleared of any wrongdoing, but his preacher dad was supposedly shopping his son's services to Mississippi State for $180,000. Can't you see Vince's dad taking thousands to convince his son to go to TMU?

Finally, it was a quiet week for Tami (Connie Britton), although she was missing Julie (Aimee Teegarden). Off at college, Julie was so deep into her affair with Derek (Gil McKinney), that she was skipping classes and letting herself believe that it was all right to sleep with a married man.

Derek explained his marriage as an arrangement, "We like each other, but we don't love each other. Or it's the other way around," and Julie bought it. ...Until Derek's wife confronted Julie in her dormitory, slapped her face and bellowed through the halls, "Julie Taylor is a slut."

After that kind of humiliation, Julie did the only thing an 18-year-old could do ... she drove home to see mom.

'Friday Night Lights' is on Wednesday nights at 9 PM on DirecTV's 101 Network.
Quote this article on your site

---

< Previous		Next >