This episode was so miserable and so heartwarming all in 40 minutes and I’m still trying to wrap my head around how I’ve been so lucky as to find another show that does that as well as The West Wing! For simplicities sake I’m just going to break this review up into those two categories.
The Miserable
- Billy wanting to do better by Tim but having money troubles, and then on top of that, losing his job. The fight between these two was also one of the most uncomfortable things so far on this whole show. I know that they’re siblings, and siblings fight, I know, I have one. But it’s different when it’s kids. Billy is an adult, and he’s responsible for Tim, and watching them throw each other around the room was horrible.
- Smash. Smash buying drugs. Smash lying to his mother to get money for drugs by telling her needed it for a tutor for exams. Smash getting caught by Matt trying to take money from the till after he’s vouched for him. The church all donating money to Smash for his education. And Smash using that money to buy drugs. I get that he’s scared that he won’t make it as a footballer, I get that he’s desperate to get his family out of poverty, but he’s just doing everything so wrong. I want to protect him from making bad life choices. The extent to which I already care about these characters…
- Jason knowing that Lyla cheated with Tim, and then Lyla lying to Jason’s face about it and then calling him crazy. He’s already been through so much, and there was just no way out of this that didn’t suck. They should never have done what they did and they were doomed from the moment it happened.
- Jason punching Tim. This one I’m actually both miserable and glad about. On the one hand Jason is standing up for himself, and not letting them walk all over him. But on the other hand, they were best friends, and watching that fall apart was incredibly unpleasant.
The Heartwarming
- How much Billy stepped up to be the responsible adult in this episode, and he’s not perfect but that’s okay because he’s trying! He tries to get Tim to eat better, he goes to Eric to ask for advise about collage football, and I felt so emotional watching that last scene between these two brothers, and all they were doing was sharing a goddamn sandwich!
- Eric’s talk with Julie about guys filled me with all the feels, we’ve seen him give these really good pep talks to the team but he finds it harder to talk to his daughter, and instead just warns her that boys think about nothing but sex and they lie all the time to get it and it’s cute and funny and give me more scenes like this between these two please.
- Jason’s new found sporting talent, and just his sheer enjoyment of that game was an absolute joy to watch. He’s found something that he’s good at, something that he can replace football with and it’s so wonderful. Also, despite the fact that they’ve been terrible people, and that everything ended up falling apart, that fact that Tim and Lyla both showed up to give Jason there support was so fantastic. They’ve made a huge mistake, and they can’t ever take that back, but the love him so much.
Samantha Gray 