Smash and Waverly sit outside his house and watch the kids play football in the yard. Waverly is in mid-explanation that she "basically" has been diagnosed as bi-polar. That's all well and good, but I do not hear an explanation for why she is wearing a terrifying cowl neck in this scene. I believe Nina Garcia will require an accounting of that sooner or later. Smash awkwardly brings up "when [she] was in Africa" so that she can spell it out to us that she never was in Africa. She was doing an out-patient thing near her aunt's in Dallas. She continues explaining, saying that she gets extreme mood swings and that the swings can even lead to thoughts of suicide. Smash looks at her blankly, and she tells him that he looks terrified. He demurs and says he just needs time to digest.
Hotel room. Linens strewn about. Buddy and Lyla are putting together a photo album. He smarmily remarks how "fantastic" it's going to be. Lyla asks her father if the photo album is the right thing to do. Buddy is sure, saying he saw it on Dr. Phil and that her mom is going to melt when she sees all the old memories and hears that father and daughter worked on it together. Lyla is like, "Uh, I'd prefer not to have my name on this piece of schlock. Now, if you saw this idea on Ellen..." Lyla says she doesn't want to "take sides." Her father looks hurt and Lyla looks way too wise for her age, and suggests her father give her mother more time. Buddy says he can't give Pam any more time because he can't be away from his family any longer. Lyla asks why he did it then, and he responds by going ickily Jimmy Swaggart-y. Buddy reminds her that he is a sinner, and a weak man, but that it was one mistake and he'll never do anything to hurt the family again. I guess he is assuming that no one has any problem with him singlehandedly keeping The Landing Strip in business with his patronage.
Tim pulls up to school to find Bo in the center of a circle of four gigantic monsters. These monsters are easily four feet tall. While Bo appears, in comparison, to be about the size of a Snork. Tim runs up and makes them stop pushing the poor kid around. When they claim they're "just playing with him," he responds by grabbing one of the kids by the jacket, leaning in real close, and telling him that "if I so much as see you lookin' at him the wrong way, I'm gonna find ya and punch a hole in your chest and rip your heart out." Awesome. Now that is some solid Texas parenting-by-proxy. The mini-monsters run off, and Tim kneels down to Snork level and apologizes for being late. Bo is breathing kind of heavily and wiping at his face a lot. He confesses that this happens every day after school, but then immediately looks on the bright side and squeaks, "I can't believe Tim Riggins is pickin' me up from school!" I'm desperately looking for answers for why the little dork is endearing in this scene. I think one answer is that he is apparently not supposed to be the charmingly wacky (and thus hateable) five-year-old kid he appears to be, but instead is a tremendously and weirdly tiny eight- or nine-year-old. The other answer is probably just that he looks like Sandy Duncan, and who can fail to be charmed by Sandy Duncan?













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