Ted Lasso – Rainbow

By: Alejandra Gil M

The episode starts with Nathan (Nick Mohammed) making a reservation at a place called A Taste Of Athens for his parent´s 35th wedding anniversary. Jade, which is what they call it and also the hostess’ name. He would like to get the window table but it doesn´t go as smoothly. Roy (Brett Goldstein) is on the TV doing his pundit gig. He´s asked about Isaac´s (Kola Bokinni) lack of leadership, but Roy thinks he´ll figure it out. Back to Nathan´s request he manages to get the reservation but not the window table.

At Richmond the team is watching their last game, which ends in a speech from Ted (Jason Sudeikis) supporting “rom-communism” stars such as Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore the three Kate´s (of course) and Reneé Zellweger among others. The point is that if they go through some light hearted struggles and still end up happy then so can they. All will end up exactly as is supposed to according to Ted. Isaac is still struggling so Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) asks what´s going on with him. No one exactly knows at this point, which also concerns Dr. Sharon (Sarah Niles). She asks if they need her to talk to him but Ted says they´re good.

So, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is still on Keeley´s (Juno Temple) dating app Bantr. She hears Rebecca giggle while handing out Nespresso machines to the players. She reminds Rebecca that it all comes back to branding and what she wants out of the app. So, she´s invested on texting while Higgins (Jeremy Swift) enters her office without making a sound to get her help with payroll. She asks him if he saw what was on her screen. He then gets a text from his wife with “She´s My Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones as the ringtone. Rebecca asks Higgins about how he met his wife and he tells Rebecca something very important: the best brand is just being yourself. This makes her answer back on the chat. She´s on that she´s looking for love. Nate attempts to take a Nespresso machine, but is disheartened when Keeley says that they are just for players.

At Keeley´s office she sees Nathan roaming outside. She invites him and he asks her to make him famous, but she has a better idea in mind and takes him to Rebecca´s office. Rebecca explains that he just needs to be assertive and notes they have some work to do. While Roy is trying to eat a kebab in peace Ted arrives and has an interesting offer. He asks Roy to join the coaching team. Roy refuses and says he already has a job he´s good at. Ted asks for his help with Isaac instead. Roy takes them to the neighborhood he grew up in where he learned football. Isaac plays with local kids and seems to get out of his head. Later, Roy makes it clear to Ted that he´s never going back to Richmond.

Rebecca and Keeley are trying to help Nathan be more assertive, which is not going well. However, it leads to a demonstration that makes Keeley look at Rebecca in awe and say, “You´re amazing. Let´s invade France.” Nathan takes his parents to the restaurant, but doesn’t nab the window table. He takes a moment in the bathroom where he practices Rebecca’s advice. He heads back to the hostess and demands the window table. He gets it.  At Soccer Saturday when Roy is being asked how he thinks the players will do he says he doesn´t know, which is an honest answer but not what the commentators are expecting. It turns out in a wonderful speech about the pressure players are always under to be great. They show him a clip of Richmond warming up in an usual way. We can see Isaac enjoying himself, and Roy leaves the TV stage running while “She´s My Rainbow” plays in the background. He faces a few obstacles, like his messed up knee and having to pick up a ticket before they let him in. He finally enters the stadium and walks towards the coaches.