Published: Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 11:04 PM ��� Updated: Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 11:13 PM
"Lights Out? just had its? eureka episode.
After weeks of buildup and countless scenes of the series? hulking lead Holt McCallany training, Patrick ?Lights? Leary steps into the squared circle against the borderline insane Javier Morales, providing ?Lights Out? fans with a solid mid-season payoff that?s part boxing movie, part FX-drama and overall one of the best episodes of anything I?ve seen so far in 2011.
I?m not a boxing fan. I?m actually more into the mixed martial arts style of fighting that most of the characters in ?Lights Out? would have me tarred and feathered for watching. But ?Crossorads? had me up and cheering for Lights like I was watching a real sporting event.
I?ve complained about how many episodes it has taken for Lights to get back into the ring, but Warren Leight and company made it worth every second spent waiting. Johnny?s (Pablo Schreiber) speech about how Lights is ?going home? when he steps in the ring really rang true for the character, and after weeks of watching this mountain of a man deal with ramification after ramification from his fall from boxing grace, you can?t help but feel ecstatic for Lights when he finally asserts himself in the ring.
It helps that Morales? character is so over-the-top in his deviousness. He?s not a recurring character, just something for Lights to punch through on the way to the season finale (likely the Reynolds bout), so I have no problem with the ludicrous way the writers presented him. I need to hate him. I need to achieve some kind of fandom toward Lights. Done and done thanks to ?El Diablo.?
This episode is a quick study in how rapidly Lights life can go incredibly right and incredibly wrong because of his decision to step back in the ring. The win over Morales and the fight itself seem to end his separation from Teresa (for now) and repair his relationship with Johnny. But in the same day or two, Deanna is breaking down from holding onto the secret about Lights? pugilistic dementia, and Margaret?s now burdened with that diagnosis as well.
Meanwhile, the prospect of the title bout with Death Row Reynolds has placed a serious wedge in the relationship between ?Pops? and Lights, quickly squashing the post-fight euphoria Lights had going for oh, about ? two minutes of screen time.
The conflict between Pops and Lights should be interesting going forward. The divide has been building subtly throughout the training sequence as both men want the same thing but have wildly different ideas about how to get there. Pops may not be aware of the extent of Lights? injuries (or he might just be ignoring it), but he still wants to do everything he can to slowly bring Lights back up to fighting speed without seeing his son suffer permanent damage. Lights has the same goal of getting back to the top without taking too much hurt, but he thinks it?s a one-stop journey.
The only dampener is that, at some point, I assume Pops has to get back in Lights corner. Unless Leight has designs on us watching Stacey Keach drink scotch and smoke cigars the rest of the season.
Without a doubt, the strongest episode of ?Lights Out? we?ve seen this season. FX usually delivers when its? time for one of its series to pay off on a major story arc, and this was no exception.
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