Season four begins! HURRAH.

It’s August in FNL land, which means the little snowglobe of Dillon’s been shaken up and set down.

Coach's day does not start well. He has a new red "East" hat whose brim needs breaking in. He's scoping out new employer East Dillon High's facilities. The guy with keys, who thinks he’s trying to break in (he is kicking the door), doesn’t know or care who he is.

He has a bunch of misfits at team tryouts—overweight, skinny, attitude-filled, bling-wearing kids who all wanna be QB. They too don’t care who he is, at first. A juvie (the new kid, Vince) fresh from petty larceny, is brought to the field in a cop car. (Hey, there are black cops in Dillon now! Where’d Landry’s dad go?) Vince has only played "Madden" football, not the real thing. But he can run fast, as the cop who chased him attests. Eric takes a 15-year-old vcr to Sears for repair, where an idolizing salesman convinces Eric to hire him as an assistant.

Tami’s still principal at Dillon High. The boosters are yanking her chain, making her do the first game coin toss, which conflicts with Eric's first game at East. Joe McCoy even tells her to choose heads. She gives him the Stink Eye and he says he’s teasing her. The new coach and Joe ride around in a golf cart, with Buddy chasing after them. (He looks like he's dropped a few pounds, btw.)

RIGGINS! Oh thank god. It feels like an eternity since we've seen the flesh & blood man in action, but he's back, and in pre-Lyla form, which is far more interesting than happy Tim, although we all want him to be happy, but enough is enough. He's slumped over in class at San Antonio as the teacher blathers on about literature, but some words do make it into his beautiful brain: "Every hero has a journey." A light bulb goes on (off?), and he literally bolts, mid-lecture, to pursue said journey, to Grizzly Bear's "Deep Blue Sea." 

Priceless: Tim's in his truck on the highway, pile of books on the seat next to him. He reads each title, then chucks each out the window, one by one. Then his backpack. He's perversely happy.

Back at Billy's, he's eating dinner - at a table - with preggers Mindy and Billy. She asks Tim what he's gonna do, and he says Riggins Rigs, then "Tater me." Heh. The newlyweds are not happy that Tim's back—no space or privacy, Tim ditching school.

The brothers are painting the baby’s room (Tim's old room, I guess) a neutral tone that Tim calls puke. Billy’s tense as all get out, and picks a fight. (Derek really whales on Taylor, here, btw. Watch the pretty face, please.) He's sorely disappointed that Tim bailed on college, who says he never wanted to go in the first place... duh. Billy says "There's no room for you here." Tim, in a dark corner, says "all I wanted to do was come home." *bawl*

Tim's in a bar, nursing his ear bleeding from Billy. Cougar bartender gives him a tequila shot, asks his name. He gives her a ludicrously seductive look that really should be outlawed but is 100% guaranteed to work. Next thing, he rolls out of her bed, hungover. Unfolds his perfect eight-pack abs, clad just in his slinky black briefs. Lordy. Call the fire department.

We hear "Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light" being sung. It’s actually Cougar's daughter, Becky, practicing in the kitchen for her Panthers game performance, as Tim does the walk of shame (actually, this term doesn't work here, as we know Riggs has no shame) by her, fly undone, indifferent. She seems used to this situation and asks Tim if her mom will be in any kind of shape to be able to drive soon, and Tim gives her a nod and a smirk. Uh, NO. Another completely sinful patented Riggs look.

But the truck dies while he's giving her a ride. She has to walk, and says since her momma don’t sleep with guys twice, she probly won’t see him again. I'm thinkin' she will, one way or another. Also, it's not a good sign that Tim - now a mechanic - can't fix his truck. Hmm... dramatic foreshadowing, perhaps?

Other new lows being hit... Matt's delivering pizza. To JD! Who has suddenly become a total douche bag, snarking on Julie waiting in the car. Drunk, at a party, he later hits on Julie, picking her up like a caveman. Matt, who doesn't want to be there to begin with, defends her. Plus, Matt's drawings get shot down by Dillon Tech's "art teacher." And Grams thinks he's still QB at DHS. Poor Matty. Repeat.

The Taylors are having a serious rough patch. Coach grapples with a crap team, no money, coaches quitting (well one coach from Dillon joins him, and he gives him the hat off his own head), players mutinizing. Tami feels resentment from everybody over the redistricting. Julie switches to East, parroting her mom saying Dillon and East are the same. Landry is now at East, one of her sole remaining friends. He's also one of the only two white boys on the football team, and has become a team leader by default. Go Lance! But things are bad on the field. At halftime, East trails by like 54. Coach does the unheard of and forfeits the game.

I forgot how low things in Dillon can get, but part of why I love this show is that it spares nothing. Peter Berg directed this ep, only the 2nd one since the series pilot, full of edges, reality, sadness, and the expectation that these characters will prevail. (And Taylor Kitsch!) One good, if strange, omen, is that Eric has brought his slogan with him. Everybody: "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!"