Until They Meet Again: Matt and Julie

forever

For the first time in four seasons, I actually put off watching Friday Night Lights. Well, that’s a lie. I didn’t put it off so much as it just wasn’t available to stream online until Friday. And then after watching the episode, I needed to reflect before putting down in words exactly how I felt before, during, and after my viewing experience. I took time to contemplate life and love and most importantly I needed time to cry and to cope. And although I am still overcome with grief over Matt’s departure, I am ready to discuss it.

Zach Gilford’s farewell to Dillon, Texas was perfect in every way. As we have mentioned in previous posts, this season as a whole has been on the money. Yet, my one and only contention with Season Four episodes prior to this one is the lack of romance and love-making. I wondered why we weren’t seeing Matt and Julie being cute and cuddly or Tim fooling around with a different girl every episode. And then it hit me as I watched this episode: it’s all about the timing. The show saved up all the love and brought it out in this week’s episode in a big way. Between Tim and Lyla and Matt and Julie, there was enough love and looks of deep affection to keep me warm all winter long.

I will speak only briefly in regards to Tim and Lyla because I think Zach’s departure deserves more attention– as in a novel’s worth of attention. A quick note to Taylor Kitsch: You could use a little trim as your hair is approaching ponytail length, and that is just not acceptable. Keep the grease, but get a trim, okay? Oh, and please continue to help the Lions during practice because seeing you in a jersey again was the best Chrismukkah present that a girl could ask for!

It is quite apparent that Tim and Lyla are both hot commodities and they have amazing chemistry. He’ll never get over her. But he’ll also never get over the “Texas Forever” life motto he swears by. Alas, Lyla must return to school and move on without him. Matt and Julie on the other hand, may be apart right now, but they are on equal playing fields in terms of brain power, talents and life goals/directions. They both understand responsibility, commitment and compromise. They will end up together, which is why Matt’s departure was the most heart-wrenching goodbye on Friday Night Lights to date.

Matt and Julie have always been my favourite FNL pairing. Their lead-up to becoming a super couple was very gradual and awkward but so satisfying when it finally came to fruition. Their first break-up was uncalled for and left me in a state of mourning. But their reunion was so carefully planned that it made us forget all about the stupid Swede from Season Two that looked nothing like a Swede. This latest episode reminded me just how much they really do love and care for each other. How cute was it that Matt didn’t want Julie’s parents to be mad at him? And while he was so worried about their perceptions of him, Coach comforts Tami, assuring her that Julie is safe as long as she is with Matt. Julie’s admittance of the guilt she feels over Matt’s state of unhappiness was such a raw moment. The acting was brilliant. The chemistry was undeniable. They are perfect for one another, but unfortunately, they still have individual growing to do.

Every time Julie cried, I cried with her– at the concert when she pleads for him to stay in Dillon, in Matt’s car in her driveway as she says, “I love you Matty,” and especially when she slides down her wall in pure agony as she tells her mother, “I think he’s leaving.” That’s how much they love each other– her intuition told her he was going and still she didn’t stop him because she loves him enough to let him go. But hopefully this isn’t a permanent kind of letting go, because as cliché as it is, this is one couple that was meant to be.

With the knowledge that Zach Gilford is returning for two episodes later on in the season, I am going to hope and pray every single night to my TV God that Matt returns with the intention of seeing Julie graduate and to take her away to the college of her choice, which will conveniently be located wherever he has wound up between now and then.

The writers of this show have always been able to pull themselves out of sticky situations. They bounced back from the atrocity that was the beginning half of Season Two, and they were able to cushion the blow for us when we had to say goodbye to Jason and Smash and now to Lyla and Matt. But the writers have their work cut out for them if they think they can involve Julie in any other romantic relationship. I like Aimee Teegarden and I think she deserves more screen time than what she has been getting as of late, but her future storylines cannot involve an interest in another boy without me seriously eating my feelings to such an intense degree that it will lead to an early onset of every possible heart/cholesterol disease. I’m hoping that we’ll get weekly updates about Matt as he maintains a healthy long distance relationship with Julie. Long distance isn’t totally impossible, right? RIGHT?!

Let’s try and end this on a hopeful note, shall we? The last glimpse of Matt Saracen was picture perfect. The slight smile he let out as he drove along the open road, the world now his oyster, was reassuring. This is his well-deserved chance to find himself, but no one else, since he’s already found “the one.”