I have developed feelings. Like, serious feelings.

Friday Night Lights - Who Do You Think You Are?
The Taylors consider daycare for Grace, Lyla takes a job at a Christian radio station, Matt has a realization about his feelings for Carlotta, and Smash's love life is scrutinized by those close to him.

The “previously on” shows Santiago! This is a good sign.

As the ep opens, Eric and Tami are enrolling baby Grace in daycare. Eric is concerned about the daycare center, so Tami goes alone to drop Grace off. However, once she gets there she finds she can't do it. This is actually a pretty cute scene, and makes me like Tami again. Eric talks to Mac about the situation, and Mac proves that although he semi-redeemed himself for saying something racist in first season, he has no problems being sexist [albeit kind of funny]. He tells Eric that women want to stay home and take care of babies, and that Tami should quit her job. Eventually Tami decides on her own that this is what she should do, but Eric convinces her that they have other options. It takes 4 tries, but eventually Tami leaves Grace at daycare, though only because Eric is there to support her.

Meanwhile, in the most boring storyline ever, Carlotta tells Matt that she has to go back to Guatemala because her family needs her. I don't know why, but the whole Matt-Carlotta story has never resonated with me. I realize this was supposed to be a really sad ep for Matt [and I do love me some Matt Saracen] but it just … wasn't. Anyway, he tells Carlotta he loves her and then she leaves a day early without saying goodbye. Big whoop.

In more exciting news, an old friend of Santiago's named Devon pops up again, and it's Weevil from Veronica Mars. He wants to drag Santiago back into his evil clutches, but Santiago refuses. Buddy meets Santiago's friends and tries to be all “cool” by inviting them over on Thursday night. In reality, he's nervous because the kids are all "thugs" and he takes all of his valuables to Eric's, blathering on about being worried, should he trust Santiago, he should, shouldn't he? It's cute. He ends up taking his stuff back home and Santiago sees him setting everything back up. Santiago's small gathering turns into a huge rager, and the whole time he's nervous and compulsively cleaning. After the party, he realizes that Devon has stolen Buddy's watch, so he goes after him and they get into a fight to the strains of “driving rap music,” according to the subtitles. There is a lot of fighting on this show recently; lots of testosterone being thrown around. Devon tells Santiago he has forgotten where he comes from, and that Buddy wouldn't care a bit about him if he didn't play football. Santiago goes home beat to hell, and Buddy takes care of him. Awwwww.

In equally exciting news, Noelle invites Smash's family to dinner to meet her parents and once they get together, all the parents tell the couple that they don't want them dating because the folks of Dillon are small-minded. Smash tells his mom that she has humiliated him. Smash takes his little sister Noannie to a movie, but really he is meeting Noelle for a secret date. Everyone at the theater [read: all white people] looks at them like they are lepers. At the movie, some [white] boys sitting behind Noannie start harassing her, so Smash intercedes. And one guy says “You got one of ours, why shouldn't we get one of yours?” So Smash punches him in the face. And they run out of the theater. Later, Smash asks Noannie not to tell their mom what has happened, even though she is really upset.

Finally, in the second-lamest storyline of the night, Lyla gets a job at a Christian radio station working as co-host of a call-in show, and she meets the adorable Chris (Logan from Gilmore Girls, although very un-Loganesque). Riggins & Herc call in, with Riggins pretending to be a girl, and ask stupid questions. Street makes only the briefest of appearances in this ep, asking Riggins if this is his way of telling Lyla he likes her. Lyla goes to Riggins' house and tells him that the radio show is important to her and she would appreciate if if he could respect that, so then he feels bad and suddenly realizes he's in love with her. The reveal was actually pretty cute, with him listening to her on the radio and then saying "Damn it, Lyla" as he realizes he loves her. However, because it's these two, I say "puh-leeze." So he buys flowers and goes to the station, but he sees Lyla and Chris kissing so he throws the flowers down and storms out.

I actually like the Lyla-Chris story, it's nice to bring in new blood, but the Riggins part just strikes me as ridiculous. I guess I don't see why Riggins is supposed to be in love with Lyla, plus I prefer the brooding playboy Riggins to the heartfelt flower-buying Riggins. Additionally, Chris was not given any real personality; he was just there to attract Lyla. I guess in a way this is realistic; when you first meet a person you don't know everything about him immediately. But a little more character development would have been nice.

This episode was rather boring overall, and brought up even more holes in the continuity of FNL. When Riggins calls into Lyla's show, he is hanging out at Street's place. So … why was he living with the Taylors when he could have been crashing at Street's? Additionally, the return of Landry was a little out of place. We have weathered a lack of continuity in relationships through the Smash/Matt feud, the Landry/Tyra love affair, the Julie/teacher connection, and now it happens again. Matt and Landry are joking around, cool as can be, although the last time we saw Landry wasn't he all brooding about being let off the hook for the killing? It just felt weird. Plus Landry looked really different, didn't he? Like more blonde, or something.