Robin Thicke Debuts Emotional Ballad ‘Forever Love’ At The BET Awards

At the 2014 BET Awards, Robin Thicke performed an emotional ballad — ‘Forever Love’ — in an attempt to, you guessed it, win back estranged wife Paula Patton.

Robin Thicke, 37, debuted “Forever Love” off of his upcoming album Paula to the crowd at the BET Awards on June 29, and it was pretty emotional. As you might have guessed, Robin sang the song in tribute to his estranged wife, Paula Patton.

Robin Thicke’s BET Awards Performance: Debuts ‘Forever Love’

“Good evening, my name is Robin Thicke,” Robin told the crowd. “I’d like to dedicate this song to my wife, and say, ‘I miss you, and I’m sorry.’ This is called ‘Forever Love.’”

“Forever Love” is a soft, emotional piano ballad, which had Robin up on that Nokia Theater stage solo, with a little manufactured smoke wafting around him for dramatic effect. It’s difficult to feel bad for the guy at this point, as he’s not really given Paula a chance to consider his various proposals; he’s made his position pretty clear and he just needs to chiiill.

Miley Cyrus Causes Robin Thicke & Paula Patton Split

Robin Thicke and wife Paula Patton have split after 22 years together and 9 years of marriage. Starring Katrina Mitzeliotis

“I know that you and I have tried so very hard to find a different result,” he sings, and, “Any time you need a friend, baby, I will be the one that you want,” which seems doubtful.

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“If you ever doubt it now, baby, I will be there picking you up. You can lean on me any time, baby, for anything you want and need. Yeah, see, I don’t need any reason, memory, or a season. Every day I will believe that you and I are meant to be,” he sings. “You’re my forever love.”

At the end of the performance, an old picture of Robin and Paula flashed on the big screen behind Robin and his piano, with “PAULA” written in huge letters above. Yikes.

Host Chris Rock summed it up best, following Robin’s performance: “He’s singing like she don’t know him. I miss the other song, ["Blurred Lines"], the one that sounded like Marvin Gaye.” Bless.

Robin Thicke Needs To Chill Out On The Public Declarations; Paula Patton Is Not Into It

Robin and Paula split in Feb. 2014 after 9 years of marriage, and a 22-year relationship. While their mutual statement claimed that their split was mutual, Robin was not shy in telling the world not long after that it certainly wasn’t — that he wanted her back.

Ever since their separation, Paula has been seemingly unmoved by his various public declarations, and many have criticized Robin for placing undue pressure on his estranged wife. After all, it seems like Robin ignores “Blurred Lines” as well as clear, solid ones. Furthermore, it’s getting a little creepy – in his video for “Get Her Back,” he can be seen bleeding and crying as a Paula lookalike strokes and caresses him.

No pressure, Paula! Robin seems pretty keen to give you all the space you need to decide. Or, rather, he seems like he really respects the decision you’ve already made.

Robin Thicke ignites discussion with ‘Paula,’ but these songs aren’t worth talking about

Robin Thicke performs at the Virgin Mobile FreeFest 2013 at Merriweather Post Pavilion. (Josh Sisk/For The Washington Post)

There’s at least one Remy Martin delivery truck that rolls through the streets of the District displaying Robin Thicke’s handsome face, blown up 15 times larger than real life, a static photograph that winks. On the side of the truck is the cognac company’s slogan: “Things are getting interesting.”

That’s true. Things are constantly getting interesting for Thicke, but never for his music, which is both incredibly dull and incredibly popular. The disparity might make him the leading hack of his generation, but if he stays on course, Thicke won’t be remembered for his songs. He’ll be remembered for all of those interesting things.

Such as: the hard-to-explain popularity of his just-okay mega-hit “Blurred Lines.” Such as: the controversy over whether the lyrics to “Blurred Lines” were about non-consensual sex. Such as: that time Miley Cyrus danced a little too close to Thicke’s pants on MTV. Such as: a snapshot that surfacedof Thicke grabbing a body part that did not belong to Paula Patton, his wife of nine years. Such as: the couple’s galactically publicized separation this year. Such as: Thicke’s attempt to win her back by naming his new album “Paula.”

So here comes the grown-up Lloyd Dobler in his rumpled Rat Pack tux, not crawling so much as sauntering. (Things are getting interesting.) As far as mea culpas go, this one is inexplicably smug, bawdy and incoherent — as if Thicke figured out how to transpose an Anthony Weiner selfie into R&B.

The latent desire for self-
humiliation lurks in the heart of every performer, but the 37-year-old Thicke is taking it into new terrain. And whether he’s doing it out of complete obliviousness or pure opportunism, he’s also humiliating Patton. That’s just one of the reasons that the singer’s critics took to their laptops when the track list to “Paula” was announced, asserting that songs titled “Lock the Door” and “Still Madly Crazy” were romanticizing stalking.

Few had heard the album, but that didn’t slow the conversation. In the
social-media age, pop culture has become a safe place to talk about the most difficult subjects. We might flinch at reading about rape on our college campuses or in our military, but we’re eager to talk about it through the lens of “Game of Thrones” or a Lady Gaga video.

In pop music, those tough discussions seem to take place more frequently around race — such as when country alpha-male Brad Paisley pens a song called “Accidental Racist,” or when rapper Kanye West puts a Confederate flag on a T-shirt, or when pop singer Lily Allen makes a feminist music video that viewers deem racist. The messages sent out can end up mutating into very different conversations.

Artists are struggling to catch up to this reality, often flustered by their inability to control the debate while frequently failing to grasp the tremendous impact their work has on shaping our collective cultural life. When the entertainment industry douses the world with your art, it’s the world that gets to sort out what your art means.

Thicke’s new album seems to have been made with only a half awareness of this. It asks to be taken seriously, but exclusively as a plea to “get her back,” as Thicke croons on the album’s tepid first single. And while his lyrics feel as lazy and careless as ever, Thicke is also shrewd enough to defuse his most provocative lines with silliness.

“Lock the Door” is the biggest
eyebrow-raiser, a gospel-ish tune about being locked out of the house in which Thicke eventually pleads, “At least open the doggie door, throw a friend a juicy bone!” On the minimal funk of “Black Tar Cloud,” he blames himself for his broken home with quirky metaphors: “I was licking your wounds/I thought we were straight/I thought everyone was gonna eat the chips/Turns out I’m the only one who double dipped.”

But there’s little humor to be found in the piano-driven blues of “Love Can Grow Back,” which opens with a skeevy line — “You’re way too young to dance like that in front of a man like me” — then devolves into come-ons that feel baffling and gross.

Just plain baffling is the peppy bravado of “Time of Your Life,” “Tippy Toes” and “Living in New York City,” three ditties that may or may not be catering to the “Jersey Boys” demographic.

Throughout, Thicke fails to sell whatever it is he’s trying to sell. And because this album’s production is so tame and thin, he often sounds like a man finessing his Marvin Gaye impression while the Weather Channel drones in the next room.

And while the guy obviously knows how to push buttons, it seems that because of the mediocrity of his music, Thicke will eventually escape the controversies that have followed him. He’s inviting us to gawk at a spectacular celebrity split, but he doesn’t have a “Blurred Lines 2” in his back pocket.

If he isn’t on the radio, he isn’t in the discussion. That’s when things finally stop getting interesting.

Robin Thicke to Paula Patton at the 2014 BET Awards: "I Miss You and I'm Sorry"

Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Interscope

Robin Thicke is taking his lovesickness to the stage yet again!

The crooner performed a ballad off of his latest album dubbed Paula—which, of course, is dedicated to his estranged wife Paula Patton.

Shortly before taking the mic, Thicke told the crowd, "I'd like to dedicate this to my wife. I miss you and I'm sorry."

But this isn't exactly the first time we've seen him get emotional about his personal life onstage.

In fact, he first debuted the single "Get Her Back" at the Billboard Music Awards in May. And if that wasn't enough, he's also publicly pleaded with the actress to take him back and has dedicated various love songs to her in concert during his spring tour.

VIDEO: How Robin Thicke tried to save his marriage to Paula Patton

Paula features 14 songs all written and produced by the "Blurred Lines" singer and is scheduled for a July 1 release date.

The album opens up with "You're My Fantasy" and features a few soon-to-be-hits like "Love Can Grow Back" and "Too Little Too Late."

And yes, those are the actual names of the songs.

It's been several months since the couple announced that they were separating after nine years of marriage.

At the time, the two released the following statement: "We will always love each other and be best friends; however, we have mutually decided to separate."

Former Auburn tight end Phil Lutzenkirchen killed in wreck near LaGrange, Georgia

AUBURN, Ala. — Toomer’s Corner has always been a gathering place for Auburn fans to celebrate the successes of the Tigers’ athletic program. Sunday, it was a place to celebrate the life of Philip Lutzenkirchen.

A former tight end for the Tigers and one of the most popular Auburn players in recent history, Lutzenkirchen died in a one-vehicle wreck early Sunday morning outside of LaGrange, Ga.

He was 23.

Gene Chizik’s time as Auburn’s coach from 2009-12 coincided with Lutzenkirchen’s four years on the Plains. Chizik called Lutzenkirchen the type of person “every parent aspires their son to be.”

"He was compassionate, determined, honorable and full of love, integrity and respect. In 27 years of coaching, I have come across what I would consider to be a few ‘rare’ young men. Phillip was certainly one of those ‘rare’ ones," Chizik said in a statement. "He truly, lived his life for other people and always found time to give to others. His family values taught him to be a great friend and teammate of everyone he came in contact with. My deepest sympathy is extended to his parents Mike and Mary, his sisters, and all of his extended family. We should all begin by honoring his life because he lived a life worthy of that. In his 23 short years, he has certainly left an impactful legacy to everyone he touched. I will miss him deeply."

Lutzenkirchen’s fatal accident occurred in Troup County, just southeast of LaGrange, at approximately 3:06 a.m. Sunday, according to Master Trooper B.N. Talley of the Georgia State Patrol, who responded to the scene.

“It happened at the intersection of Upper Big Springs Road and Lower Big Springs Road,” Talley said. “The vehicle was a 2006 Chevy Tahoe and the driver missed a stop sign at the intersection of those two roads, which is more or less a ‘T-intersection.’ They traveled through the intersection off into a churchyard. They were out of control for about 450 feet.”

At that point, Talley said, the vehicle overturned, flipping several times and ejecting three of the four passengers.

“Philip was one of them,” Talley said,” and he was killed at the scene.”

The driver of the vehicle, Joseph Davis, was also killed. According to the official police report, blood was drawn from Davis “to determine if alcohol impairment was a contributing factor” in the accident.

Lutzenkirchen, who was seated behind Davis, was not wearing his seat belt. Talley said they “are still looking into” how fast the vehicle was traveling when it ran through the stop sign.

The other person killed in the wreck was Davis, 22, who went by his middle name, “Ian.” Davis, a catcher, tried out for the Georgia baseball team last fall during open tryouts. He did not make the team, however, getting cut when the Bulldogs had to set their final roster at the end of fall practice.

Nonetheless, his loss was felt by Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin.

"Heartbroken to hear that Ian Davis has passed away. Just a great kid that had so much ahead of him," Stricklin tweeted from his personal Twitter account. "Thoughts and prayers go out to his family."

The two other passengers in the vehicle — Elizabeth Ann Seaton Craig, 22, of Eatonton, Ga., and Christian Tanner Case, 20, of Dadeville, Ala. — were taken to the West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange. Case, sitting in the front passenger seat, was wearing his seat belt. He was treated and released from the medical center. No update was available on Craig's condition. She was sitting in the back seat and not wearing her seat belt when she was ejected from the vehicle.

Iron Bowl hero

Lutzenkirchen caught 59 passes for 628 yards and 14 touchdowns in his career. His 14 touchdowns are the most in school history for a tight end, while his seven scores in 2011 set a single-season school record for the position.

But it is the pass he caught from Cam Newton in the 2010 Iron Bowl that fans remember the most. It capped a furious rally from 24 points down as the Tigers upended their rivals, the Alabama Crimson Tide.

“I’m deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Philip Lutzenkirchen. He was a great young man who touched the lives of everyone he knew in a positive way,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said in an official university release Sunday. “On the field, Philip was a great player and competitor, but more importantly, he was a great teammate and friend off the field. My thoughts and prayers are with Philip’s parents, Mike and Mary, and all of his family and friends who are grieving his passing. This is a sad day for the entire Auburn family. I find peace knowing that even though Philip was taken from us too soon, that he lived his life to the fullest, leaving a lifetime of great memories for his family and friends to cherish forever."

Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs also extended his condolences.

“Philip’s death is a devastating tragedy for his family, the Auburn family and his countless friends. Today is also a profoundly sad day for the Auburn Athletics family, who loved and respected Philip not only as a great player but more importantly as a friend and the epitome of an Auburn man,” Jacobs said in a statement. “I came to know Philip well and I admired everything about who he was and the way he lived his life. He had a strong faith, a big heart and a burning desire to help others. Philip was a bright light this world desperately needed, and his death leaves a void that can’t possibly be filled. My prayers, my thoughts and my heart go out to his wonderful parents, Mike and Mary, their entire family and his many grieving friends."

Lutzenkirchen’s passing reached the NFL as well. After Lutzenkirchen’s career at Auburn came to an abrupt end in 2012 due to a hip injury, he entered the NFL, signing with the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent last year. He was released by the team in August.

But his death hit particularly close to home for Rams general manager Les Snead, who played tight end at Auburn in the 1990s and was a member of the Tigers’ undefeated team in 1993.

“During his brief time with the Rams, Philip was a consummate pro,” Snead said in a statement. “On behalf of the St. Louis Rams organization, we would like to send our condolences to his family. As an Auburn alum myself and with (St. Louis head) Coach (Jeff) Fisher’s ties to the university through his son Trent and daughter Tara, we join the Tigers in grieving this tragic loss.”

After being cut by the Rams, Lutzenkirchen returned to Alabama, where he had been working at a wealth management company in Montgomery. In May, he began lending his services as a volunteer assistant coach at St. James School in Montgomery.

"They're running what (Gus) Malzahn runs, so I'm helping out with the tight ends and fullbacks,"Lutzenkirchen told AL.com earlier this month. "It's good, I'm really enjoying it. We have a great group of kids at St. James. There's not a whole lot to do in Montgomery and I wanted to get back involved with sports."

Ironically enough, one of the players he had been working with — tight end Jalen Harris, a prospect in the Class of 2015 — committed to Auburn on Tuesday.

Sunday afternoon, Harris took to his Instagram account, posting a picture he had taken with Lutzenkirchen after giving his commitment on Tuesday. Alongside the picture, Harris provided a message, giving insight on all the things Lutzenkirchen had taught him, whether it was football, life or just “being a man.”

“These past couple of months have just been a blessing, it’s like God sent me an angel and now you can really watch over me. I will do everything in my ability to carry on your legacy on and off the field,” Harris’ post read. “Just thank you for everything from being my coach, mentor, and a brother to me. It’s killing me right now knowing you’re gone, but (I) will push through because I now that is what you would want. Thank you again coach, everything. You are the definition of a true ‘Auburn Man’. There are not too many people like you in the world. You are my hero and I love you.”

Below is the official police report, first obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Troup County Fatal Crash

The Georgia State Patrol in LaGrange was called to investigate a one-vehicle crash this morning in Troup County that resulted in two fatalities and two injuries. The crash occurred around 3:05 a.m. at the intersection of Upper Big Springs Road and Lower Big Springs Road, just south of LaGrange.

A 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe was traveling on Upper Big Springs Road and failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Lower Big Springs Road. The vehicle traveled approximately 451 feet out of control through a church yard and overturned several times before coming to rest on its roof.

Killed in the crash were:

Driver: Joseph Ian Davis, age 22, from Atlanta....partially ejected Back seat passenger: Philip Lutzenkirchen, 23, from Marietta...ejected.

Injured were:

Back seat passenger: Elizabeth Ann Seaton Craig, age 22, from Eatonton, GA....ejected and taken to West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange; Front seat passenger: Christian Tanner Case, age 20, from Dadeville, AL.....restrained, and treated and released from West Georgia Medical.

Blood was drawn from the driver to determine if alcohol impairment was a contributing factor.

‘The Leftovers’ Recap: Trying to Explain What Cannot Be Explained

Paul Schiraldi/HBO“Dogs are just animals, man. They see something like that, and they just snap. All bets are off right there. No more chasing sticks. …They just go primal, man. Same thing’s going to happen to us, it’s just taking longer.”

These words come halfway through the premiere of HBO’s “The Leftovers,” and they feel like an overture for the series itself, a grim, occasionally goofy melodrama about the funny and very-not-funny ways that people respond to trauma and loss. A teenager burying a dead dog notes that his town’s canine population “went nuts” after the Rapture-like events that serve as this show’s theology-tinged backdrop. The humans, we are not surprised to learn, are going nuts, too.

One day, 2 percent of the Earth’s population abruptly disappears. Spouses and children are gone; so are the pope, Shaquille O’Neal and, peculiarly, Gary Busey, along with unknown millions of everyday sinners whose worthiness for being summoned by God seems suspect.

This is “The Twilight Zone” by way of J. J. Abrams: a morally provocative, fantastical premise played out through a well-coiffed cast of actors with “Gossip Girl”-caliber good looks. The setting is an Anytown, U.S.A., by the name of Mapleton, N.Y., and I found myself thinking of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” a “Twilight Zone” episode where law-abiding citizens turn violently against one another after unexplained phenomena — flashing lights, self-starting cars – bedevil their neighborhood. The clear lesson, of course, was that the monsters are in ourselves. Faced with the unexplainable, the characters in “The Leftovers” waste little time proving that premise, though as the Times television critic Alessandra Stanley says in her review, “The premiere withholds as much as it reveals.”

The series is based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, who specializes in skewering suburbanites’ unhappy lives. Squint, and you can see Kevin Garvey, the protagonist, as a Cheever-esque victim of middle-age ennui; his estranged wife, Laurie, as a castaway from a mediocre marriage; their troubled daughter, Jill, as the latchkey kid gone to seed.

That the domestic drama unfolds on a supernatural stage amps up the stakes and injects an eeriness into the proceedings. No one knows how or why the Sudden Departure happened; a glimpse of a congressional hearing shows scientists and politicians alike at a loss. “God sat this one out,” one grouses.

The vanishing itself is glimpsed only at the episode’s start, mostly in the form of frightened 911 calls against a black screen. The device resembles the opening of “Zero Dark Thirty” — emergency workers calling in the World Trade Center attacks — and I doubt it’s unintentional; another scene features two people falling from a building, one of several callbacks to the cataclysm we faced in our own world.

Unmoored, the characters look for solace. Garvey, played by Justin Theroux, is yet another HBO paterfamilias with a soft spot for animals, reserving his deepest ire for the strange man who keeps shooting Mapleton’s dogs. Garvey’s son, Tom (Chris Zylka), has run off with a survivalist-style cult, led by a snake-oil healer named Wayne who charges premium rates to comfort the troubled. A congressman seeking Wayne’s counsel hands Tom an envelope filled with cash — even after the Rapture, it seems, the wealthy and well-connected still want to buy their way to happiness.

Mapleton’s teenagers, including Tom’s sister Jill (Margaret Qualley), seem more sullen than the usual specimen, indulging in hedonistic games that involve branding skin with a red-hot fork. Jill claims to be untroubled by the Sudden Departure, although a poster on her bedroom door features a band called the Evaporators.

Laurie, played by Amy Brenneman, has taken a vow of silence to join up with an ascetic cult, whose members wear white, smoke cigarettes, and silently stalk the people of Mapleton, watching them like smug existentialists dragging on Gauloises. (It’s no surprise that Garvey is spotted at one point perusing a paperback of Camus’ “The Stranger.”)

When the mayor plans a parade for the anniversary of the vanishing, dubbing it Heroes’ Day, Garvey warns that Laurie’s cult, the Guilty Remnant, will disrupt and cause trouble. “Everybody’s ready to feel better,” the mayor insists.

It’s hard, of course, to sweep this sort of thing under the rug. The parade is earnest but insufficient, a community’s feeble attempt to cope with forces beyond its grasp. The Guilty Remnant arrives with signs that read, “Stop Wasting Your Breath.” Garvey, injured in the ensuing riot, pleads with Laurie the next day to return to him and their children. She turns away.

“The Leftovers” puts rational people in irrational circumstances, and lets the layers of civilization slowly unpeel. At episode’s end, Garvey, the only character who has not snapped, has his trigger moment: on a moonlit street, drunk and bloodied from the riot, he watches a deer being torn apart by wild dogs. A man appears, the dog-killer Garvey had been chasing. This time, Garvey grabs his gun and starts firing, too.

“They go primal, man.”
This series could be one long, strange trip.

Were you intrigued or put off by the episode’s grim plot and unrelenting piano soundtrack? The sprawling cast and sci-fi backdrop promises many narrative possibilities, but are you prepared to devote 10 hours to a study in extreme grief? I am curious if the show will add more playful elements or move deeper into the dark worlds portended by the premiere.

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The Leftovers Series Premiere Recap: A Hole Ripped Out of the World

Hello, Vultures! My name is Kelly Braffet, I’m a novelist who loves TV and recaps, and I couldn’t be more excited about getting to do this one. Since my books are all about bad things happening to fucked-up people, The Leftovers is kind of perfect for me. I’ll also cop to being fascinated by end-times theology and fanaticism in general — my last novel was calledSave Yourself, for god’s sake. So author Tom Perotta’s decision to approach the Rapture from a secular and psychological point of view, carried through in HBO’s show, which he also co-executive produced, lit my lake of eternal fire. The problem with disaster movies, for me, is that they’re usually about people dealing with the disaster; I’m much more interested in people dealing with being people dealing with a disaster.

There were elements of this premise that made me nervous, though. The disappearance is a disaster so widespread and all-encompassing that it need only be referred to by its (increasingly ominous-sounding) date, which will sound familiar to anyone who’s, oh, you know, alive. Because we all remember that other disaster referred to by its date; we all remember the photos, including those of wide crowds of numb-looking people dressed in dust-covered business casual. Well, one of those people was me—numb, covered in dust. In the years since, many a director and screenwriter and author has explored the resonance of that day and its aftermath. I understand the world’s need to do that, but I’m not going to lie: more often than not, they make my teeth clench, and I tend to avoid them. United 93 might be fucking amazing, but I will never, ever know, because I will never, ever see it.

I have, however, read Perotta’s book, and while the 9/11 resonances were there, he approached them from a perspective I liked. When something rips a hole out of the world, no matter how personal or public the tear, the cracks in what’s left suddenly start to tremble and widen, and whoever you are, you’re forced to deal with that. You’re forced to navigate that hostile, cracking terrain on your way to work and school and the grocery store. When the thing that ripped your heart out also ripped out every other heart in the country, to one degree or another, you’re also forced to listen to endless chatter from politicians and talking heads about what it all means, and how you should feel, and what we’ll all do now. And there’s a push and pull between wanting to listen, because you’d certainly like to know the answers to those questions, and loathing every minute of it, because you know nobody else knows them, either. In The Leftovers, there’s a moment when Chief Kevin Garvey is sitting in a bar, having just done a terrible job quelling a riot. All the guy wants is a beer – but it’s the anniversary of the disappearance, October 14th, and there’s a TV in his face, some 24-hour news cycle nattering on and on all the famous people that got maybe-Raptured. “Turn that shit off,” he snaps at the bartender. As someone who once declared September 11 National Media Blackout Day, I can relate.

For me, that’s where this series premiere succeeded the most. These people have been cracked open, and the cracks are just near enough the surface to show, but just buried enough that they’re sort of getting by. Justin Theroux, as Kevin Garvey, and Amy Brenneman, as his estranged wife – who left him for a group of silent white-clad cultists, who smoke cigarettes and eat with sporks – carry their pain just close enough to the surface for us to know it’s there. Theroux’s precarious balance of grief and tightly-clenched determination and Brenneman’s exhausted sadness generally feel real, and appropriately complex. (It’s only occasionally clumsy, as when Garvey stops on his way up the stairs of his home to smash a family photo with his elbow. That made me wince, and not because it looked like it hurt. The artfully broken glass, revealed later – Garvey and his daughter on one side of a crack, his wife and son in their own separated shard – made me wince, too. But that’s on the writers, not the actors, and I tend to be a little generous with pilots. Exposition is hard.)

But enough of widescreen thoughts.

The Chief
This is one of the few shows I can think of when the main character actuallystarts with a depression beard. When Garvey is on the job, Theroux has a tendency to maybe overplay the hard-bitten cop snarliness just a bit, but his tone with Garvey’s daughter Jill felt spot-on: baffled, wounded, tired. I also really dug his interactions with Amanda Warren’s Mayor Warburton, as they go a few rounds about the threat the white-clad cultists – the GRs – might or might not pose to the upcoming Hero’s Day celebration. I’ll admit to some incredulity at the idea that Warburton wouldn’t at least consider that the creepy cult with a history of disrupting town events might also disrupt Hero’s Day, but Warburton is a snarky, steely-spined marvel, frankly, and if she doesn’t get more play in future episodes I’ll be highly disappointed. (The chief is right about the cultists, as it happens.)

Of course, since this is a Damon Lindelof project, we can expect some random weirdness. Here, it’s a deer: first stuffed, appearing then disappearing in a front yard; then alive in a dream; then unseen, but apparently guilty of trashing Garvey’s kitchen. That deer, and the prospect that Garvey might be seeing it in corners for the next ten episodes, worried me. When the deer finally shows up in real life it’s almost immediately torn apart by a pack of feral dogs, and yet I still half-expect the damn thing to come back. What happens next, though, when the dog-killer Garvey’s been half-heartedly looking for the entire episode shows up, and convinces Garvey that the wild dogs need to be killed – I thought that was wonderful. The tears in his eyes as he fires, man. Ouch.

Jill
Then there’s Garvey’s daughter Jill, played by Margaret Qualley, who is so very beautiful that it’s kind of hard to believe that her unrequited love for her classmate wouldn’t be requited in about an eighth of a second, but whatever. She’s a compelling character (although I’ll confess to a soft spot for damaged teenaged girls) but doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this episode, other than a little acting out. The scene where she and the Prius twins, whose names, if thrown, I never caught, bury a dead dog is kind of lovely, though. The three teenagers, leaving a party to bury a dog – to give it, and themselves, the closure and respect the vanished people never got – was sad, and their mixture of awareness and deflection feels very adolescent.

Laurie
Oh, Laurie, with your grown-out highlights and your constant smoking. Smoking is bad for your skin, Laurie. I will show you pictures of my aunts to prove that this is so. But, as the sign painted on the wall of the GR’s dining room says: WE DON’T SMOKE FOR ENJOYMENT. WE SMOKE TO PROCLAIM OUR FAITH. (The smoking is one of those things that I understand because I read the book, but I did wonder if it would make any sense to people who hadn’t and if they’ll eventually tease that out over the show’s run.) Laurie never speaks in this episode, although she does get to scrawl pointedly a few times. But when Garvey leaves the bar and comes to the GR house, trying to get her to take a walk and sit on the grass with him – ouch, again.

Tom
Tom, Garvey’s son, is the only character so far who’s out of the idyllic little fucked-up town. He’s somewhere in the southwest, working as a lackey for the handsome but very creepy guru, Wayne, and ignoring his father’s phone calls. Chris Zylka has the sincere, anaesthetized cadences of the truly faithful just right, but something about Tom makes me think that he’s walked right up to the edge of faith, looked over, and seen nothing but vacuum. Maybe it’s the way that, when asked if Wayne is the real deal, he says, “As real as it gets,” which is a little noncommittal. Maybe it’s the way he kept an anxious eye on the guards as he passed clandestine gummy worms to one of the many attractive, bikini-clad young women draped around Wayne’s pool. Maybe it’s the fact that Wayne is a fanatic who shows up in Tom’s room in the middle of the night to do shots and predict the beginning of the Tribulations while playing with a knife and warning Tom to keep his hands off the gummi worm girl. Or maybe it’s the fact that Tom ends the episode alone in the crystal-blue waters of that same pool, screaming in the only place where the water can muffle the sound.

Meg
And then there’s Meg, who’s the assigned target of Laurie’s Watching. Meg is getting married but doesn’t seem overly enthusiastic about it: when her fiancé waxes poetic about the fact that they’re about to exchange vows, she points out the wedding isn’t about vows, it’s about “picking fucking centerpieces.” (The moment when Laurie smiles and leads her into the house is the one moment of true joy that Laurie gets in this episode. Her son might be wavering, but Laurie is a true believer.)

Random Things

• In the city meeting, going over last-minute details for Hero’s Day, somebody says, ““I still don’t think they were heroes. My brother-in-law disappeared and he was a dipshit.” Mayor Warburton replies, “They’re heroes because no one’s going to come to a parade on We Don’t Know What The Fuck Happened Day.” Speak it, both of you. Dying doesn’t make someone awesome, and marketing is everything.
• I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: hell hath no fury like a teenaged girl with a hockey stick.

A note: I’ve read the book on which this television series is based, but I don’t plan on predicting what is to come. If you’ve also read the book, please refrain from spoiling any future plot points in the comments section below.

Costa Rica v Greece: Fairytale continues as minnows reach World Cup quarter-finals after penalty shootout

Costa Rica vs Greece World Cup 2014 match report: Result 1-1 (Costa Rica win 5-3 on penalties) - Keylor Navas's shootout heroics sends 10 men through to quarter-finals

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Costa Rica’s World Cup fairy tale will extend to a quarter-final against Holland on Saturday after goalkeeper Keylor Navas’s penalty shoot-out heroics eliminated Greece here.

It was Michael Umaña who scored the winning penalty for Costa Rica, their fifth, after Theofanis Gekas’s strike had been repelled by Navas’s strong hand — the only miss of the shoot-out.

“Last night, I dreamt, this, it seems untrue,” Umana said. “I was relaxed because I dreamed it. I dreamed it but I didn’t tell anyone. I felt very confident.

“This is for my family. It’s for the colleagues who got injured before coming here. They’re not with us, but they gave us a hand on the pitch.”

While Umana was euphoric, there was also relief for the Costa Ricans, who had been forced to play for 54 minutes with 10 men after the 66th-minute dismissal of Oscar Duarte.

They were leading at that point through a 52nd-minute Bryan Ruiz goal, but had to endure long periods of pressure before the Greeks secured an equaliser in stoppage time at the end of 90 minutes

But though Greece went on to dominate the extra period, Fernando Santos’s team were unable to finish off the exhausted Central Americans and Navas and Umana secured shoot-out victory.

With it, they ended any fear that Costa Rica, who became only the third Concacaf nation after the United States (twice) and Cuba, to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals on foreign soil, would freeze on the big stage.

Yes, they had beaten Italy and Uruguay and held England to a goalless draw while qualifying as winners of Group D, but the opportunity to surpass the tiny country’s heroes of

Italia 90, who made it to the second round, was a moment of history which for much of the game appeared to weigh heavily on the Costa Ricans.

There was little freedom to their play, despite the best efforts of the creative Ruiz and energetic forward Joel Campbell. Greece were able to suffocate the game and turn it into a battle of attrition. As they proved when winning Euro 2004, Greece are the masters of shutting a game down and maximising any glint of a chance that comes their way.

The Greek triumph 10 years ago in Portugal was achieved despite scoring just seven goals in six games, while none of their seven victories at major tournaments had been by more than one clear goal.

Santos, the coach whose contract expires today, has bristled at suggestions his team are dull and destructive, but there has been little evidence that Greece have added a creative edge to their game that has been absent for over a decade.

However, what they do, they do well and it would be unfair to dismiss the disciplined defensive qualities the Greeks possess. Their approach certainly stifled Los Ticos, with Christian Bolaños the only player to go close to testing Greek goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis during a stultifying first half.

It was Greece who carved out the better chances before the interval, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and Georgios Karagounis going close from long range before Dimitrios Salpingidis was denied on 37 minutes when Navas produced a crucial save from the PAOK midfielder. The breakthrough that the game desperately needed came seven minutes into the second half, however, when Ruiz stroked the ball into the net from 20 yards.

Clever build-up play by Campbell had released Bolaños down the left before the midfielder pulled the ball back for the Costa Rica captain.

Ruiz appeared to have some work to do if he was to test the Greek goalkeeper, but after being left unmarked, he guided a left-foot shot into the far corner of the net, with Karnezis rooted to the spot as the ball trickled past him.

The goal energised the Costa Ricans and they were unfortunate not to be handed the chance to double their lead within a minute when Dimitrios Salpingidis handled a cross in the penalty area.

Australian referee Benjamin Williams missed the incident — a failure which appeared to unsettle the official, who proceeded to issue an array of cards in an attempt to reassert his authority.

One of them, a second yellow awarded to Duarte for a foul on Jose Holebas, gave Greece renewed vigour, although it took another 24 minutes before Sokratis stunned the Central Americans by bundling in an equaliser to take the game into extra-time.

Greece went closest to winning the game in the extra period, but Kostas Mitroglou spurned two clear chances.

It came down to a test of nerve from 12 yards, though, and it was Los Ticos who came out on top.