Friday Night Lights, Season 5

Matt Lauria as Luke Cafferty and Madison Burge as Becky SprolesI want to take your two entries, decant them into a decorative bottle, and sell them in the Slate gift shop as "Elixir of Brilliance." I am not sure I can add anything valuable: I agree utterly about the afterschool-special speed (and afterschool-special clumsiness) of Ornette's downfall. If they'd given him 30 more seconds of screen time, he probably would have confessed to Landry's Season Two murder. The gutting of Ornette is the worst mistake FNL has made this season, ruining its most interesting new character and scrubbing away moral ambiguity for the sake of saccharine mommy-hugs.

Hanna, I also genuflect in your general direction for that interrogation of Tami's educational philosophy. It's not that her criticisms of standardized tests are wrong—they're perfectly reasonable—but she's incoherent about how those criticisms translate into practice for Graemore. And does she really want to run admissions for a college where the president summarily fires the dean of admissions for being prickly and defensive? (If being prickly and defensive got you fired in journalism, newsrooms would be empty, which, come to think of it, they are. …) President Good Dad may be going home to tuck in his little darlings, but he's got blood on his hands!

Are you done salivating over Tim Riggins yet? I can live with Tim Riggins joking, Tim Riggins drinking around a campfire, Tim Riggins fish-out-of-watering at the country club, even Tim Riggins bathed in the golden light of the Texas late afternoon. But Tim Riggins brooding? Ugh. Revoke his parole.

That said, I don't share your disapproval with his Landing Strip bust-up. Becky shouldn't be working there. It's wrong. She's selling schoolgirl fantasies to the strip club customers, and barely covering her 17-year-old nethers. It's gross, wrong, almost certainly illegal, and definitely the wrong way for Becky to prepare herself for college.

As the finale approaches—two weeks, sniff—can we do a little wagering about the final dispositions of our beloved Dillonites? A few questions for you to answer here, and for readers to answer in the comments.

1. Will the Taylors end up in a) Dillon; b) Shane State; c) Graemore; d) Elsewhere?

2. How will Tim Riggins be redeemed?

3. Will Luke get a football scholarship?

4. Where will Vince go to college?

5. Will they win State?

My answers: 1) Dillon; 2) He won't be; 3) Yes; 4) Texas A&M, with Smash; 5) Of course!

Your answers? Your other questions?

—David

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