The Search

"The Search" is the second episode of Coach Season 3, and the 14th episode overall of Coach. It first aired on July 2, 2021.

## Story

The episode opens with Springsteen having flashbacks of various events in the NFC/AFC East Saga: him getting hit with a car, sitting on the Beach with his father, and waking up from a coma. Carl watches him, and tries to pin blame for his and Joe's deaths on Bruce. Springsteen rejects this, and Carl suddenly disappears.

Springsteen leaves the basement and goes upstairs, where Bruce invites him to play solitaire together. Springsteen asks about ghosts, but Bruce interrupts him and rejects the idea that ghosts are real. Bruce starts the game by flipping over the King of Clubs. The sword on the card reminds Springsteen of Rocky stabbing Carl to death, and he flees the room, leaving Bruce alone and frustrated.

After the title card, the scene changes and picks up where the previous episode left off. Tohm, trying to find Tom, is explaining his situation to Frederick. Frederick is still confused about how Tohm got into the AFC East's house in the first place. In an attempt to explain this, Tohm tries to point out that the room is filled with Packers memorabilia, but Frederick is unable to see it and gets more confused. Tohm then realizes that Frederick doesn't know that he lives in the Crawlspace/Tom's mind.

Frederick asks if Tohm is on drugs, or ate anything offered to him by Wildflower, both things that Tohm denies. Tohm then asks whether Frederick's noticed any strange things lately. Frederick spots Carl briefly in another part of the room, but lies and denies seeing anything. Frederick puts on Carl's sunglasses in an effort to act casual, but then reveals that the weather has been freezing cold, even in the middle of summer.

Spooked by the sunglasses, Tohm asks where they came from. Bruce arrives, and explains that Carl got killed by Rocky. Tohm asks Bruce more questions, determining that he hasn't seen Chomas anywhere, but that Rocky was acting strangely before killing Carl. Tohm realizes that Rocky had been possessed, and that Linda is in danger. Panicked, Tohm rushes out of the house, leaving Frederick and Bruce behind.

The brothers chat, and Bruce says that he and Springsteen flushed Frederick's crown down the toilet, which leads to Frederick chasing him around the house. Springsteen and Carl's "ghost" hear the commotion from another part of the house. Carl continues wearing down Springsteen, telling Springsteen to trust him and not trust Bruce.

The scene changes to Wildflower sitting outside of his house, talking to William and Margaret. Tohm walks up, asking for help getting into the Void.

## Trivia/Speculation

* The final scene of the episode, containing Wildflower, first appeared in "A Washington Football Team Fan Reaction to the 2020-2021 Season"
* Despite Bruce's claims, he and Springsteen didn't actually flush the crown down the toilet. The AFC East crown sits on the shelf behind Tohm throughout the episode.
* The solitaire cards have a hidden message contained in them. The cards are, from the left, Ace of Diamonds, Jack of Spades, 3 of Hearts, 2 of Clubs, 9 of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds, and 10 of Hearts. According to blackjack rules, these cards represent the number 1, 10, 3, 2, 9, 10, and 10. If you combine a couple of these numbers and then correspond them to the letters in the alphabet (1=a, 2=b, etc.), you get "AMBIT" (1=A, 10+3=M, 2=B, 9=I, 10+10=T). This is a reference to Ambition, who is later revealed in the season.
* When Frederick sees Carl, the background music is A Hand in the Dark, Carl's normal theme song. Whenever Springsteen sees Carl in this episode, the background music is a different song.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEIJ9FuP0nY