This week’s Friday Night Lights brought major plot developments. Tami’s post-baby spirits seem to have improved; Matt has turned the break-up tables on Julie; Lyla, Tim, and Street wrapped up their time in Mexico; and Landry and Tyra’s relationship (and homicide-suspect status) faced major upheaval. The one factor that most of the episode had in common was teamwork: with Coach Taylor back, the Panthers tried to come back together as a team, while the Taylor family mended some fences, Tim and Lyla teamed up to help Jason, and Landry and Tyra scrambled to work together to keep their secret.

Coach was starting to feel like it was time for him and Tami to rev up their sex life after baby Grace’s birth. First he tried romantic candles, then cooking, cleaning, and sending Tami off for a girls’ evening of boozy book club. Neither worked, and both times she turned him down good-naturedly (while making fun of him, a little). In the end, all it took was a quiet evening at home after the Friday night game. That was a nice little glimpse into their marriage.

Meanwhile, Julie (having been brought nearly to tears last week by the sight of the Swede’s recycling bin and bong) realized that she gave up a good thing with Matt, and tried to win him back by inviting him to The Decemberists concert. (Do kids in small town, Texas really listen to The Decemberists?) Although he agreed at first, he later declined, telling her he was still angry. Good for him!

Coach tried to patch things up between Matt and Smash, but when practice drills and trying to talk to them over a chili dinner didn’t work, he ended up benching them for much of the week’s game. (I guess this would be as good a time as any for me to mention that I know next to nothing about football. I actually played one unfortunate season on the defensive line of the Delta Delta Delta intramural flag-football team, but all I really understood was that I was supposed to try to knock the girl on offensive line over and take the QB’s flag. Anything beyond that, and I was lost, and I’m usually kind of lost during the game segments of the show. I pretty much process “they’re losing” and “they’re winning.”) Anyway, Matt and Smash made up during the game, united against the common enemy of the opposing team. This was with a little help from Landry, who delivered an adorable “We can win together or lose alone” speech in the locker room, and did... something good during the game that I didn’t quite understand.

In Mexico, Tim’s plan to dissuade Jason from the surgery was to take him out on a charter boat. Although Lyla was skeptical that it would work, she went along with it. Talking didn’t change Jason’s mind, but spontaneously flinging himself over the edge of the boat for no good reason evidently did. He was able to swim to shore, where Tim and Lyla immediately showed up in a Jeep, even though they had just been on the boat a few minutes earlier. They packed up to head back to Texas, stopping to have a little Y Tu Mama Tambien moment at a roadside bar along the way. For a second, I thought things were about to get way too racy for a 9 pm network show.

In the season’s most disappointing and melodramatic plot line, Landry’s dad found out why Tyra was at the police station, and quickly put together the connection that the man was killed at about the same time Landry and Tyra started hanging out so much. After asking Landry about it, he paid Tyra a visit to tell her to keep away from his son. Tyra, having apparently watched a lot of teen movies, resorted to the old “pretend I think I’m too good for you to spare your feelings” trick, bringing Landry way down after his game-night victory.

Next week, it looks like Tami will be heading back to work, and Riggins might be off the team.

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Amy Kane spends as much quality time with her television as possible, when she's not busy at her day job as a cube dweller.