By: Kelly Kearney
While the winning Lady Greyhounds navigate a difficult setback, Roy and Keeley steer their ship into warmer waters after a season of chilly encounters and broken hearts. On their way to the Wall of Legends ceremony, the two exes face multiple roadblocks leading them down a path that surprises them both. Meanwhile, Higgins uncovers a plot to sell off Richmond’s shares and is determined to figure out who is behind it and what they want. With Zelda occupying a spot next to Rebecca as her new advisor, Higgins has the time to go undercover and sniff out the rat. It’s a heartwarming rom-com of an episode that reminds us why we fell in love with Ted Lasso in the first place.
The Winning Streak
We open with clips from the Lady Greyhounds’ winning streak as they climb the rankings from dead last to top contenders. Tucked between the highlights are the players adding their own “Yes, and baby” statements next to Ted’s “Believe” sign. The wall is full of inspiration and the lockerroom–full of smiles for a team working toward its next wins.
On the pitch during a game we see that Gemma (Abbie Hern) continues to be the star player, scoring two back-to-back goals until the coaches debate whether to pull her out and give her winning foot a rest. They need her for the next game, and she’s too important to the team to risk wearing her out. Gemma notices the debate and lets the coaches know they better not be thinking about pulling her now that she’s on a roll. Alice (Taynya Reynolds), shockingly, agrees and tells Ted (Jason Sudeikis) and Beard (Brendan Hunt) to let her try for a hat trick before they replace her.
That was the wrong move. As Gemma controls the ball, ready to put up another goal, she twists her knee and has to be pulled from the game. Alice is in a panic–guilt, fear, and her own triggering experiences haunting her, are written all over her face.
Later, upstairs in Rebecca’s (Hannah Waddingham) office, Ted, Keeley (Juno Temple), Zelda (Tracey Ullman) and Higgins (Jeremy Swift) discuss Gemma’s injury. Depending on what they find, she could be out for six to eight weeks or, worst-case scenario, months or even done with the sport entirely. Everything is up in the air–inclduing the team’s future wins, but Ted advises everyone to remain patient. The swelling needs to go down before they know exactly what they’re dealing with. Then the team doctor, Dr. Strudwick, can take a look.
For some reason, he isn’t exactly jumping at the chance to check out the star player, and that doesn’t sit right with Keeley. She knows how quickly the doctor would be available if it were the men’s team facing a major injury. Zelda offers to help Rebecca light a fire under the doctor and get eyes on Gemma, and everyone is grateful for their new advisor’s help, even if her tactics are a bit outside of the box. Rebecca also mentions that she sent Zelda a gift basket, no doubt a thank-you for that rather racy gift and the very large assumption she made about Rebecca last episode. Smirks are traded, and then Keeley admits she would rather stick around in case the doctor wants to check on Gemma. Really, she just doesn’t want to go to Chelsea with Roy for the Wall of Legends ceremony. She’s been avoiding him since that misunderstanding she overheard at New Year’s. Her heart can’t take it after she thought Roy professed his love to Dr. Erin.
Higgins tells her Gemma is staying with her parents in the posh part of town–apparently Alice was right and she does come from money. Ted thinks Gemma needs space, so they all agree to respect that and quit hovering.
She Drives Me Nuts
Alice ignores Ted’s advice and heads straight over to Gemma’s palatial estate. After her friendly, albeit simple, mother, Bunny (Caroline Sheen) mistakenly assumes Alice is the gardener–class warfare at its finest– she escorts her daughter’s coach through the house to find her daughter camped out on the couch. Making small talk, Alice spots the gift basket from Rebecca, and comments on what a nice gesture it was. Sure, if it wasn’t full of tree nuts of which Gemma is severely allergic.
Awkwardness aside, she offers to help Gemma however she can during her recovery, but the football star wonders if maybe this is the end of her sports journey. She says she doesn’t live for the sport the way Alice does, and maybe concentrating on law and that prestigious internship she was offered would suit her better. It would certainly set her up with a well paying career in the legal world. One where kneecaps usually say functional.
Alice is shocked by what she’s hearing. Gemma? Give up football? Even the peppermint tea Bunny makes doesn’t soothe her after this news. She accuses Gemma of quitting and practically runs out of the house before anyone can stop her.
Back at Richmond’s offices, Ted stops in to congratulate Roy who is in a saltier mood than usual. He doesn’t want to go to this ceremony honoring him, and he especially doesn’t know how to face Keeley after what happened with Erin. “She drives me nuts. I fucking love her,” he tells Ted, who probably already ordered the love birds a set of decorative bathroom towels with that quote written on it. He advises Roy to come clean and tell Keeley how she feels, but after he sees the two interact, and how much animosity and bickering the duo go through just to get ready for an event, he retracts his advice for later. When Roy asks when he will know the right time, Ted gives him a piece of advice his father told him wherever he asked where the bathroom was. “It’s wherever you go.” Maybe this road trip will bring the two closer together, but the way they are at each other’s throats, it doesn’t seem likely.
Upstairs, Higgins is going over paperwork when something catches his eye. There’s a discrepancy in the team’s shares and ownership. The numbers aren’t adding up.
Doctor’s Orders
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Zelda try to convince the doctor to look at Gemma’s knee sooner, but he continues to put it off until later in the week. When Zelda prompts Rebecca to fire him, hoping that will suddenly open up a time slot, he accepts the firing and claims it’s a relief. He’s too busy for both the women’s and men’s teams anyway, and then bids Richmond a very pompous adieu. Now they don’t have a doctor at all, and Gemma’s knee needs one ASAP. Maybe Zelda’s advice isn’t always worth taking?
Those “different perspectives” also include Gemma, whom she sees as a former player, and not someone temporarily sidelined by an injury. She counsels Rebecca to leave her behind and start planning for the Greyhounds’ post-Gemma life. That’s when Higgins interrupts with news of his own. While prepping for the shareholders meeting, he learned that many of Richmond’s fervent supporters have been selling their team shares. He’s not sure why and offers to dig into who is behind it.
Down in the coaches’ office, Beard goes over the team’s options now that Gemma is out. They don’t have a proper replacement, but they’ll do the best they can with who they have. Fingers crossed she won’t be out for long.
After a back-and-forth with Ted over the proper Celtic spellings of twin players Niamh and Siobhan, the two who might be able to replace Gemma, Ted notices the locker room is unusually quiet. Assuming the team is worried about their star player, he offers to cancel practice, but Alice immediately says no. They need to keep the women playing and push forward into a post-Gemma reality, just in case. Of course, Alice’s heart isn’t in it. She looks worried, her mind clearly elsewhere. She knows an injury means preparing the team to play without their star player, but Alice can’t shake the feeling that football is where Gemma shines.
The Worst Road Trip Ever
Meanwhile, Carolyn is whistling over Roy and Keeley’s outfits, making inappropriate comments and calling them “hot.: They’re both dressed to the nines and ready to head to Chelsea, and who knew it would be in style. They head out to Roy’s new car, a tricked-out, bulletproof G-Wagon, meant to impress. Too bad Keeley isn’t.
Roy tries everything to turn her head, but she doesn’t take the bait. EVery bell he brags about and whistle he mentions, goes right over Keeley’s head. Things go from bad to worse when Keeley knocks Roy’s phone down between the seats and that’s when everything that could go wrong goes wrong. In her panic to find the phone she accidentally crushes it and one of the only ways to operate the car. Luckily Roy has an old fashioned key, and he’s forced to turn it on manually. Keeley has taken the wind right out of his cool-car sails.
Elsewhere, Higgins calls shareholders, but nobody wants to talk about the man who convinced them to sell. Who is this man, and why is he meddling with the football club? Leslie is no closer to figuring it out, so he heads to Mae’s for a drink and a think.
Guilt Trippin’ and “I Told You Sos”
Down on the pitch, Alice overhears Margy (Mercedes Assad) and Mady (Annelise Heywood) talking about how the decision to keep Gemma in the game caused her injury. If only that substitution had happened instead of Gemma going for the hat trick, they might not be facing the rest of the season without their best player. Alice is struggling with that idea too, and the guilt she’s feeling over it is written all over her face.
On the road to Chelsea, Keeley and Roy argue over just about everything. The speech Roy was forced to write was on the phone Keeley broke while maneuvering the seats in the car, and now he’ll have to come up with something off the top of his head. Keeley mocks him for having to “recreate such a poetic tapestry of language,” that we can all assume is littered with F-bombs and grunts. That’s when Keeley yells for him to stop. Ahead, is a tight squeeze for the oversized jeep and It doesn’t look like his car is going to fit through the narrow gap. He, of course, assumes his cool ride will clear it. His new chrome baby was designed for “a superior urban driving experience,” there is no way it is getting stuck.
They go back and forth until he pushes forward, and, of course, the vehicle gets stuck. As Keeley predicted, the SUV is too wide and gets trapped between the cement barriers, leaving its wheels spinning and both doors locked shut. Not only can’t they free the car, they can’t free themselves. When they try the windows, Keeley presses the button at the same time Roy does, shorting out the electricity and leaving them truly trapped.
It might not have happened if Roy hadn’t rewired the car to run his PS5 all the time, and that is what finally impresses Keeley. Not that she wasn’t right about the car not clearing the space, she has no problem reminding Roy of that, either, but at least her cool-car compliment puts a smile on his face.
Believe and Let It Out
On the field, Ted still keeps getting the twins’ names wrong. He’s a visual learner, and when it comes to Celtic spellings, it’s a curse. He isn’t the only one cursed in the coaches line-up. Alice’s nervous twitches and thousand-yard stare have the coach questioning if she’s alright. She checks herself and says she is, but then excuses herself and heads into the locker room early. Ted clocks the mood coming off her, and it’s anything but alright.
Meanwhile, Roy and Keeley are still trapped in the car, trying to find a way to Chelsea’s Wall of Legends ceremony. To make matters worse, Keeley gets a message from Rebecca saying Dr. Strudwick isn’t just refusing to see Gemma. He’s quit the team altogether. Roy admits he never liked the guy anyway. He might have been the team surgeon, but Roy never went to him. That’s when Keeley asks if Dr. Beaumont could see Gemma. Immediately, Roy gets nervous, but she begs him to give the woman a call. Still not thinking it’s a good idea, he tries to let her down easy but she turns the tables on him. This isn’t about him, it’s about Gemma.
As the two shout back and forth, the cars lining up behind them honk their horns– blaring until Roy has had enough. He leans down, takes off Keeley’s pointy high heel, covers her head and smashes through the sunroof.
In a moment straight out of every heart-stopping rom-com — with a killer soundtrack to boot — Roy climbs out and pulls Keeley out with him, gently placing her on the ground with her arms confidently wrapped around his neck.
He then hands the keys to his “piece of sh*t” $100,000 car to a fan in traffic, as he and Keeley hoof it to the stadium, hoping they won’t miss the ceremony.
Back in Richmond’s locker room, Ted tracks Alice down, and she’s having a full-blown sobbing panic attack. Ted knows what to do, and quietly sits next to her, breathing deeply until their breaths match and Alice calms down.
Beard interrupts and realizes he’s walked into something, but Ted downplays it. Alice, much calmer now, heads into the locker room to talk to the team post-practice.
Unfortunately the team’s moods are low, deep in their feelings and worried about their futures, but Ted puts their minds at ease.
“There is crying in football. There always has been,” he starts off. Lionel Messi is a beast, but he still cried when he won the World Cup. Ted starts naming other famous athletes who cried when their emotions got the best of them–real warriors who dropped their masks and let emotion take over. Even Roy Kent cried at his retirement game. There is no shame in that, he tells the team, but mostly Alice, whose eyes are still puffy from her meltdown.
To move forward, they have to believe that. So, he slaps a Post-it note up with the others: “Believe and let it out.” Alice takes that message to heart, but so does Roy, who makes numerous attempts to stop Keeley’s sprint to the stadium and tell her how he feels.
Everyone Has Enemies
Meanwhile, Higgins goes door to door until he finds out that men in suits have been offering people whatever they want to sell their shares. “It’s harassment,” one woman says, and she won’t sell.
As Roy and Keeley make their way underground to catch the Tube, the man, the myth, the f-bomb slinging legend, refuses to queue up. He’s afraid of the train, and Keeley can’t help but kick him. How does his foxy doctor girlfriend feel about having a coward for a boyfriend?He isn’t sure. They broke up.
Record scratch!
Keeley’s insults turn into quiet contemplation as the two actually get on the Tube and find themselves sandwiched between people. They get closer, within kissing range. Eyes locked, lips moving closer…until the lights go out, and Roy’s worst fear comes true. It’s a power outage on the Tube! Perhaps the train can run on Roy and Keeley’s chemistry because it is suffocating the room with its cuteness.
Back at Richmond’s stadium, Alice pays Rebecca a visit to talk about Gemma and what happens to an injured star player when she can’t play. She makes Rebecca promise not to forget Gemma–no matter what the MRI results say. There is nothing worse than feeling like you’re no longer needed. It rips the heart out of any player, and Alice should know, she was once in Gemma’s spot.
Rebecca promises she’ll do right by Gemma, and that includes a little research about her players, like finding out what they’re actually allergic to before sending them gift baskets. Every interaction these two have had has been adversarial, with Alice questioning Rebecca’s commitment to the women’s team and her feminism, putting the boss lady on edge. But now Rebecca sees Alice from a different perspective. She’s just a woman who deeply cares about this injured player and, for whatever reason, will not admit it. Isn’t it time she does?
After a long day of tracking down the shareholders, Higgins is no closer to finding out who is behind the scheme. He winds up at Mae’s pub and gets a peek into the underbelly of her “snitches get stitches” motto. The woman is holding a bat in the shadows of a basement, whispering truths and breaking pub code about loose lips. Mae is Richmond’s Deep Throat, and these sold shares are Higgins’ Watergate papers.
It’s all top secret, but Mae was also approached but she refused. She has loads of shares, and besides, this group was very pushy. When Higgins digs in a little further for a name, she tells him everyone has enemies, even if they don’t know it. It’s the secretive part that feels personal. She then advises him to follow the anger, and now he seems to know the answer Rupert is up to his old tricks again, trying to steal the football club by shoring up shareholder power, but Rebecca is into him and that gives her a better start.
Don’t Quit Because You’re Scared
Next, Alice barges into Gemma’s house to give her an undressing — a verbal one. Calm down, shippers, this is about how similar they are. She goes on to explain how they both love football, no matter what Gemma previously said. Alice admits she is so jealous of her talent, she can’t stand the idea of her giving it up. Gemma shines on the field, like she belongs there. She looks free, and Alice knows that feeling. She also knows Gemma won’t be happy giving it up. “Don’t quit because you’re scared, or someone else is, because I think on the other side of you being scared is you being free.” Alice’s passionate plea gets to Gemma, and that spark lights up in the player’s eyes.
In Rebecca’s office, Zelda is having a hard time finding a replacement doctor. She does have an excellent vet, though. Rebecca cringes at the idea and tells her to hold off until they find a human doctor. When it comes to advice, it doesn’t seem like Zelda is batting a thousand ever since she took the job as Richmond’s advisor.
It’s late, but Higgins rushes in with a folder in one hand and a pretty good idea of who’s behind the sell-off of shares. Someone is making a play for the team, and they’re doing it to get back at Rebecca. There can only be one answer to who has it out for her: Rupert. Zelda takes a sip of her drink and reiterates a line she said before: “Never underestimate the power of anger as fuel.”
The Wall of Legends
After the fiasco of the stalled train, Roy and Keeley hop on an electric scooter and make their way to the Wall of Legends ceremony. The two are still bickering, but now they’re doing it like a couple, poking jabs and making fun of each other.
When they finally arrive, they rush in to find the room empty. The ceremony is over and the only people left are the two custodians, Jimmy (James Puddephatt) and Matt (Delroy Atkinson), who happen to be old friends of Roy’s.
Since Roy memorized that speech, Keeley and his two pals convince him to give it a whirl. It might be an audience of three, but a legend should still have his moment to shine. The speech starts off a little spotty, but the nostalgia and pride are all there. From the stage, he can see Keeley, teary-eyed and proud. He then pauses his speech to ask, “Where’s the bathroom? Anywhere you go.”
Keeley looks confused, cautious and bursting with pride that he made it to the Wall of Legends and fought through every obstacle to get there with her. It was the most fun he ever had because it was with her, he admits. He never feels more like a legend than when he makes her smile.
He steps off the stage and lifts her onto it, reminding her that she never liked him putting her on a pedestal, even if that’s where she belongs. The difference is, now Roy realizes he belongs right beside her. He steps up because he is worthy of her love. And that’s all Keeley needed to hear. Seeing him with Erin and worrying that he might never come back to her shattered her heart. She knew then that they were meant to be.
The moment is so sweet and so perfect that even the custodial staff is in tears. Finally, everyone’s fear is over and the couple is back together.
Getting Back on the Pitch
The following day, Alice stops by the hospital to check on Gemma before she goes in for her MRI. It’s a good thing, too, because Gemma’s mom bailed to go shopping. So the star athlete is by herself.
This is when Gemma comes clean and admits that Alice yelled at her the day before work. She called her advisor and asked to defer a year on the internship. She’s going to concentrate on getting better and getting back to playing football. Alice was right, she feels alive on the pitch, and she isn’t ready to give that up.
The assistant coach is pleased, and so is the entire team, which is waiting outside to wish Gemma good luck. They crowd into the room with well wishes and all the support Gemma needs to face her unknown future. Even Rebecca shows up, this time with a more appropriate truffle-filled basket. Chocolate with a side of team cheers is how you show your players you’ve got their backs, and Gemma feels that now thanks to Alice and everyone there supporting her. Her teammates have her back no matter what the scans say. That gives her the confidence to head into the MRI brave and determined.
Meanwhile, the teammates dazzled by Rebecca’s generosity — and let’s be real, her drip is a head-turner always — start to worry the boss lady will scan their socials like she did Gemma’s to learn what they love. Not all of it is safe for her eyes, and Rebecca jokes with them that she is going to dig up their dirt one by one. It’s nice to see her finally interacting with her team and unafraid that anyone–especiallly Alice, is questioning her dedication to them or to women’s sports.
After all the chaos, setbacks and emotional detours, the Greyhounds are back where they belong: together. Gemma has a reason to fight her way onto the pitch, Roy and Keeley have finally found their way back to each other, and Rebecca is learning that supporting her players means knowing the people behind the jerseys. If this is what the final stretch of Ted Lasso looks like, bring on the happy tears and the mustachioed morals to life’s story, because we are locked in.