Ted Lasso – Smells Like Mean Spirit

By starrymag | March 22, 2023

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

Your long-awaited kind-core coach…er…trainer, is back with even more laughs but a heavier hint towards drama as team Richmond–fresh off their invitation back to the premier league has their golden moment tarnished by the public’s preseason predictions. The Greyhounds are ranked dead last in the league–according to the papers, and the echo chambers blasting them on social media have even the optimistic Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) concerned they can’t ride last season’s wave of success to a championship win. It’s so unlike Ted to forget about the sign hanging over his office door that reads “BELIEVE” and now it seems as if the pressure is getting to him. It’s a doubt we’ve seen from him before when it came to his marriage to Michelle, and now it has him asking the question: could staying in Richmond be making things worse for the team, but most importantly, making it harder on his family back home? Ted took the coaching job as a gift to his wife–now ex, by offering her space from his unconquerable need to fix what ultimately became their crumbling marriage. Now here he is again, saying goodbye to his son at the airport and wondering just exactly what he’s doing across the pond from the boy he’s been watching grow up over Facetime. Our Ted is at a crossroads and seems unsure of where he belongs.

 

Ted Lasso Hates Goodbyes

After managing to pull the team out of regulation last season, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) spent a 6-week break with Henry (Gus Turner). Like all good things, this visit has come to an end and Henry is flying home to Kansas while his father is sitting in the airport staring into the camera with a broken smile hiding the pain behind his eyes. Ted does his best to stay positive for his son, but the goodbye part of this UK job is always the hardest. After two seasons of flights, video calls, and all the realities of living 5,000 miles away from your kid, Coach Lasso is starting to wonder if he’s cut out for this long-distance gig. Could these miles between them, which he saw as helpful in season one, now be harming his father-son relationship? Henry seems fine with it; in fact, he’s excited over his dad’s recent successes and hopes the Greyhounds return to the premier league and win a championship title. The kid has so much of that Lasso-style hope that he gives his dad a handmade premier league trophy as a stand-in until he brings the real one home. Henry is dreaming big but his Dad’s heart just doesn’t seem to be in the game right now, and if it isn’t, doesn’t that mean the team will ultimately suffer? It’s a dilemma that no amount of puns and shortbread can solve. Our chipper coach is in a mood and it doesn’t help that everyone on team Richmond is expecting him to pour his heart and soul into winning. What’s always been fantastic about the world of Ted Lasso is how the show marvelously straddles the line between comedy and heartbreak without ever shying away from Ted’s struggles with panic disorder and his mental health. It’s a sensitivity that the show manages to seamlessly mix with positivity and it shines through even the lowest points of these characters’ lives. As we learned in his sessions with the team psychologist, Ted spent most of his life making others feel safe, but now he could use a bit of his own advice because that never-ending optimism is fizzling. Especially now that his protege turned villain, Nate (Nick Mohammed) “The Wonder Kid” is coaching the Greyhound’s rival team! Rupert’s (Anthony Head) bought West Ham and now it’s the one to beat. If Ted’s boss has anything to say about it, the Greyhounds have no other option but to win, if only to stick it to Rebecca’s (Hannah Waddingham) smarmy ex. It’s Rebecca vs. Rupert and Ted vs. himself in this opener, setting the stage for a tough season of footie and an even tougher goodbye to the show that has infected the often dark and broody TV landscape with a mustachioed smile.

What’s the Buzz?

Henry isn’t the only one dreaming big, now that Rebecca’s smug and spiteful ex, Rupert bought the #1 ranked West Ham and hired Nate to lead them to glory, the pressure on Ted is heavier than ever. Thankfully, he still gets to hash out his issues with everyone’s favorite head shrinker, Doctor Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles), or as Ted calls her, “Doc.” Doc is still unraveling Ted’s issues over the telephone now that the two have built up an interesting rapport where Ted agrees to open up about his past if she lets him rattle off a few Lasso-level personal queries about her life, love, and which team sports she’s currently into. In true Sharon fashion, Doc never gives into Ted’s demands, but also never dissuades him from his need to fill space with words. She might not be ready to reveal who she’s been dating (who is that man in her bed?) or what Rugby team she’s counseling now, but she’s always just a phone call away from the issues pinballing around that American coach’s brain. She’s proven to be a dedicated doctor and listener, albeit begrudgingly, to Ted as he works through his issues of disappointment over his own father’s abandonment and how he masked the man’s tragic death with kindness–while never letting the former get in the way of the latter. All of Ted’s issues go back to his Dad and how a devastated son spent a lifetime trying to overcompensate for that loss with positivity. It’s why that pain he hides behind the laughter keeps rearing its teary-faced head, so thank goodness for Doctor Sharon.

After saying goodbye to his son, Ted just can’t seem to find his positivity, not that he doesn’t try. When he heads into work everyone is on edge about the recent news that West Ham is the team to beat while Richmond is set to end up 20th in a league of 20. To say morale is down would be an understatement, and typically, the cure for that would be Ted but this version of their coach doesn’t have it in him. At least not yet, anyway.

That could change when he interrupts Rebecca’s West Ham rants with Higgins (Jeremy Swift) for a strained smile and a box of daily shortbread biscuits. That smug and spiteful ex of hers has once again burrowed under her skin. Anytime Rupert one-ups Rebecca she is livid and it doesn’t help that all of the pundits and bloggers–including Higgins’ freelancing son, have the Greyhounds finishing last. She wants her team to win and Ted’s laissez-faire attitude isn’t exactly filling her with confidence. Rebecca proposes they add some new blood but Coach Lasso thinks new players could mess with his team’s dynamics. He says he’s confident his players will do “just fine” but that’s not good enough for “‘da Boss Lady” as she’s named in Ted’s phone. She reminds him of what he said…ah…spewed at her after the Man City loss and how he promised they would win “the whole f***ing thing.” Now she’s counting on him to make good on his word, but doesn’t have time to find out how he plans to do that because she’s late for a very important lunch date with her bestie and the new CEO of her very own company, Keeley Jones (Juno Temple).

The Underdogs

Down in the locker room the news about “dead last” spreads throughout the team. Statically, promoted teams are often demoted back to regulation after one season, but Jamie (Phil Dunster) with his third and now floppy hairstyle of the series, puts an end to his teammate’s worries. The Greyhounds can’t lose if he’s on the team! It’s nice to see that Tartt’s ego didn’t take the bench in the off-season, it’s alive and well and weirdly enough, might be right. The team dynamics have gelled like Ted told Rebecca, and even Jamie is just one link in a chain of Greyhounders which is a far cry from how he acted before. Growth–everyone on Ted Lasso is experiencing it and not just in hairdos.

Inside the coach’s lair, Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) is hard at work coming up with winning strategies. When Ted arrives,  Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) is impressed that his old pal knows what any of Roy’s plays mean. The guy who could never remember what offsides meant, spent many days playing FIFA with Henry and now he’s a football expert. Roy says his 4 on 4 plan is an old faithful and doesn’t think it’s the right time to confuse the players with new plays. That’s how underdogs win, but Ted cringes at that term and asks Beard why they never hear the term “overdogs.” As always, the lexicon of Coach Beard is unmatched and offers up a definition that boils down to West Ham being the top dogs in this little tournament fight. So how do you fight that underdog mentality? By taking a Ted Lasso field trip down under. No, not to Australia, although according to Ted it takes nine to make a decent Aussie-led Rugby team, they’re going where no London footballer has gone before–under the city!

While the underdogs go underground for some team bonding, we catch up with Nate doing top dog stuff like parking his head coach jalopy next to his boss’ Ferrari, and then snubbing his nose at all the underlings he thinks are beneath him. Nate finally got the respect he wanted but at what cost? He has no friends and the truth is, he might be relishing his newfound fame but he is still the same loaner who searches for his worth in other people’s opinions. To be fair, he isn’t all gone, there are flashes of the old Nate trying to peek through that ego he uses like a weapon against his staff, but if you blink, you might miss it. He’s fully embraced his Wunderkind persona if people could just stop mispronouncing it as “Wonder Kid.”

Growing Pains

Speaking of filling big shoes, Rebecca swings by the CEO of K.J. (Keeley Jones) PR’s office for a squeal and squeeze with her bestie. Keeley has really taken to this boss lady role; even Rebecca is in awe of the office pool she’s managed to fill with awkward workers clickety-clacking away to make her new venture a success. Unfortunately, not everything is wonderful at the top, which Rebecca can sympathize with. Keeley is still on the outs with Roy, because as the CEO of a new company, she’s so busy she’s even had to double-book Rebecca alongside her daily crying session. Our quirky girl is overworked and spilling big mascara tears all over Rebecca’s silk blouse, not that she minds, we find out later that she and Higgins have an entire closet full of Keeley’s signature look. Rebecca’s chest is always available for her friend’s exhausted head, and Keeley is very tired. She can’t even take Rebecca up on her dinner offer because she already had to reschedule telling young Phoebe (Elodie Blomfield) about the breakup with her uncle. Tonight’s the night and it’s all a dreadfully heartbreaking mixed-up mess of success for her and she’s just trying to hang on long enough to make this PR firm work. She’s also trying to figure out what her CFO, Barbara (Katy Wix) does. Keeley has a lot to learn about corporate life.

Over on West Ham’s pitch, Nate is also experiencing some growing pains when he’s summoned to what can only be described as Rupert’s villainous lair. To say his office is giving off strong Buffy the Vampire’s “Big Bad” vibes would be an understatement (and ironic considering his role on that show). Rupert is in an entire mood right now, while he gloats from the driver’s seat of the #1 team he’s hoping will send his ex careening off a mental cliff. But Rupert didn’t call this meeting just to brag he was also towing Nate’s crappy car out of his luxury lot. No lime green rusted-out tin can is going to park next to his Ferrari. It seems all Nate wanted was to be noticed the way Ted did the day he bought him that suit, and what he got instead was a heartless status junkie boss who only chose him to stick it to his ex and her American coach. At least Ted never used Nate, but Rupert certainly is.

While Rebecca is hoping to see her team fired up on the practice pitch, Ted and the team are nowhere to be found. That’s because the regulation curse got them off to a bad start. Those predictions are blocking the players up and like a clogged drain down in the sewer system, Ted is going to teach them how to unclog it. His lesson of the day is about how London lifted itself out of Black Plague disease thanks to a complicated series of sewage pipes that connect and transfer millions of people’s waste. When one pipe is full it flows to another, and Ted wants the men to take the system’s advice. If your teammate is overwhelmed they can borrow the confidence of another. Be the sewage system London can count on, boys! No problem is too heavy to carry on your own if your whole team helps you lift it.

While the underdogs are underground, top dog Nate is topside holding a press conference to trash his former friends and drag Ted Lasso through the sewer…literally.  Photos of the Richmond team leaked of their little field trip and now Nate can’t help but compare the contents of those pipes to the quality of their coach. He almost choked when the cameras rolled but after flashbacks of his judgemental father and his resentment towards Ted, Nate turns into the killer Rupert hoped he’d be. So much so, his new boss gives him his own Ferrari as thanks for putting on a good show.

Keeley and Roy Call it Quits…Maybe?

When Ted gets word about Nate’s presser he heads upstairs to where his friendship with Rebecca takes a backseat to business. She’s visually upset and expresses her anger over what people are saying about her team. She is embarrassed, “everyone is laughing at us, Ted. At you, at me, at the team. Rupert is laughing at me, Ted, and I am begging you to fight back… please.” And Ted does just that, but in his own way, not like Rupert’s “junkyard dog” as Ted refers to Nate, but with self-deprecating humor and it’s a favorite of the British press. He praises “Nate the great”  in a passive-aggressive way and then turns his entire press conference into a self-own, “I’m an American idiot ” joke. The journalists love it and the room is laughing at Ted’s expense. He might be delivering a folksy o-shucks charm, but behind that smile is a man who is very comfortable being a punching bag as long as it makes everyone else around him feel like winners. He even starts a series of jokes about his own mental health struggles saying, “I’ve had more psychotic episodes than Twin Peaks.”  You want to laugh with Ted, but you also want him to recognize what his team, his friends, and even Rebecca sees in him. He’s a good coach but an even better man but “Smells Like Team Spirit” Ted is a bit blinded from his shine.

We stop over at Keeley’s house where she and Roy tell Phoebe about their break up… or is it just a break? The two can’t even agree on that at the moment but what they can agree on is how Keeley must remain an important person in Phoebe’s life. They worried the young girl wouldn’t understand but she was more grown up than they thought. She’s just happy she still gets to see Keeley, who she loves. Too bad her uncle isn’t sure anymore.

After the successful clap-back press conference, Ted admits to Beard about how he’s struggling to find a reason why they’re still in London. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to find one anytime soon when later that night he talks to Henry, who is safely home and thrilled over the new toy his mom’s friend, Jake, gave him. “Who’s Jake?” Ted questions, but he already knows this friend means Michelle is dating. The reality of his divorce knocks the wind out of him, only making him miss home more. In their first year back in the Premier League, the Greyhounds need their coach’s heart in the game, but right now, it seems thousands of miles away.