As Friday Night Lights wraps up its fifth season on NBC, the ESPN channels are rerunning the series from the beginning, which gives us an excuse to head back and experience it all over again. Here we take a look at a key series moment from Season One, Episode Two: "Eyes Wide Open."
(S0102) Yesterday we discussed the key moments from Friday Night Lights' pilot episode. Today I'm going to move ahead and break down some of the important scenes from the show's second episode. The pilot is such an amazing hour, one would think that it would be tough for the next episode to match its excellence. While "Eyes Wide Shut" may not have the sheer volume of critical moments, it comes pretty close to equaling its predecessor in terms of importance.
Before we jump into the key moments, let's take a minute to talk about the way these early episodes are structured. I had forgotten that for a portion of the first season each episode is formatted to take place over an entire school week, culminating in the football game on Friday night. This set-up is pretty effective here; it does a good job of building excitement and showing just how much these Friday night games mean to this community. That said, I'm glad FNL moved away from strict adherence to the format. If they had kept with it, there is a chance that it would have handcuffed the story telling (for evidence of this, look no further than the first season of The Killing).
And now on to the key moments of "Eyes Wide Open."
Early in the episode we find Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) alone in the Panthers' video room, watching the hit that crippled his best friend on an endless loop. He doesn't cry, he doesn't smash the VCR, he doesn't even speak. He just sits there watching. This moment is key for two reasons. First, it gives us one of our first looks at the way Tim handles grief and pain. He shuts down, he internalizes. At times he lashes out, but mostly he just bottles everything up inside and unleashes it on the field. Secondly, the scene is sort of a showcase for Kitsch, giving him a chance to display some emotion. The problem is at this point in the series Kitsch isn't exactly a great actor. It's fun to watch these early episodes, because it's clear that he is still figuring out the craft. Later on, Kitsch masters the character and turns in some of the best performances on the show, but in the first season he's a little bit rough around the edges.
The pilot episode was a bit light on Tammi Taylor (Connie Britton) moments, which kind of surprised me given how important she is to the show. "Eyes Wide Open" features the first great Coach/Mrs. Coach scene of the series. Eric (Kyle Chandler) is freaking out over his future without Jason Street (Scott Porter) behind center. Tammi soothes his nerves in a way that only she can. "I know what you're gonna do. You're gonna mold Matt Saracen," she says. This "molding" concept becomes a recurring theme on the show as Coach proves over and over again that he's the ultimate "Molder of Men."
Later in the episode, Coach pays a visit to Matt's (Zach Guilford) house. Matt is clearly uneasy about inviting Coach inside, wary about what he'll think when he finds out that he takes care of nutty Grandma on his own. When Coach discovers the truth about Matt's living situation, he, of course, doesn't think less of him. He realizes at this moment that his new quarterback is a special kid, one that he can mold into a champion.
"Eyes Wide Open" ends with Coach giving Matt one of his trademark pep-talks, followed by a lesson in dealing with crowd noise. Eric asks Matt, "Last week, when you threw that pass, were your eyes closed?" Matt answers honestly, "My eyes were open. Wide open."
