Everyone’s favourite football coach, Ted Lasso, finally returned to our screens this week after more than a year’s wait.
The award-winning comedy series is back for its third and final season, as Jason Sudeikis has already confirmed. The stakes are much higher and the first episode proves exactly that.
Season 3’s premiere shows us how everyone is dealing with the aftereffects of season 2’s finale.
The coaches and the team are adjusting to not having Nate on their side anymore, Rebecca wants her team to defeat West Ham more than anything else now that her ex-husband Rupert owns it, and Keeley is learning to deal with the stress of having her own company.
The characters’ relationships are also getting a little complicated, with break ups and new partners. Keep reading to find out more.
1. What Happens in the Episode?
Season 3 Episode 1 starts with Ted saying goodbye to his son Henry after spending six weeks with him in London. Henry gives him a Lego trophy to keep till he wins the actual Premiere League Trophy.
Ted is still talking to his therapist, which is a good sign.
Back at AFC Richmond, it seems like almost all pundits have predicted that the team will finish at the 20th position, which demotivates the team and also has Rebecca extremely stressed out. She suggests that they get some new players but Ted assures her that the existing players are more than enough.
Ted decides to take the team to the London sewers to teach them how to deal with all the negative comments. He tells them to make a sewage system inside themselves to let get rid of all the comments being made about them and to lean on each other if they ever needed help.
Nate is still adjusting to his new position as manager of West Ham United. All he wants is to be seen as an authoritative figure and to be shown respect.
At a press conference, he takes the opportunity to mock Ted when a photo of the team training at the sewers gets leaked. The response from the reporters boosts his confidence.
Rebecca goes to meet Keeley at her new office where Keeley confides that her new job has made her extremely busy and she barely has time for herself. But Rebecca assures her that everything will be alright.
During their conversation, Keeley also tells Rebecca to not get too worked up about the recent backlash and to let Ted handle it his way.
When it’s time for Ted’s press conference, a reporter asks Ted to respond to Nate’s comments. Ted replies by saying that he agrees with Nate and that he knows Nate will be an excellent coach for West Ham. His self-deprecating jokes win over the reporters and he starts getting praised online for taking the high road.
2. What Does the Ending Mean?
After Ted’s conference, Rebecca seems quite impressed with his approach. We might see her agreeing with him more this season, rather than being aggressive about wanting to defeat West Ham, a side of hers we saw in the first season when she wanted to sabotage Richmond.
Nate’s feelings of insecurity seem to be coming back after he sees Ted’s response to his comments and the media’s reactions. He is a lot more furious with Ted now and this hatred might start showing on the field once the Championship starts.
Rupert gifts Nate a fancy new car as a token of his appreciation. He is trying his best to keep Nate on his team by also complimenting him every now and then.
Keeley and Roy have decided to take a break, according to Keeley atleast; Roy on the other hand calls it a break up. With Roy as the new assistant manager of AFC Richmond and Keeley managing her new PR Company, the two of them won’t have time for a relationship.
Roy and Keeley break the news to Roy’s niece Phoebe, which she takes pretty well since they tell her that she can still meet Keeley whenever she wants. But later in the car, she tells Roy that he’s being stupid. The look on Roy’s face tells us he might agree with her.
There are a few scenes in the episode which show Ted doubting himself and questioning why he has stayed in London for so long, despite the purpose of him going there (being hired by Rebecca to sabotage Richmond in season 1) not existing anymore.
In the last scene, Ted video calls Henry after Henry is back in the United States. While talking, Henry tells Ted that he should try to be friends with Nate which Ted agrees with.
When Ted asks Henry why he thinks Ted is still in London, he says, “to win the whole thing.” Ted laughs and says that winning isn’t everything but Henry tells him that he should atleast try. With these words, it seems like Ted has realised his purpose.
Finally, Henry shows Ted a gift he got from his “mom’s friend”. But we all know that this means she probably has a new boyfriend. Let’s hope this new information won’t become a major distraction for Ted in the later episodes.
3. What Can We Expect in Season 3?
The first episode of season 3 was sets up the rest of the season quite well. By episode 2, the Premiere League Championship will most probably start, and so will the intense rivalry between AFC Richmond and West Ham United.
Rebecca might learn to be more like Ted and not let her hatred for Rupert make her go to extreme lengths to defeat him.
Ted’s interaction with his son makes us believe he might try to patch things up with Nate and not lose the friendship they once had. Hopefully, Nate can look past what has already happened and will be willing to forgive Ted.
There is still hope for Roy and Keeley’s relationship. I think they will realise that they need each other and will find a way to balance their careers as well as their relationship.
Ted’s chance at rekindling his relationship with his ex-wife might be over. But let’s hope he doesn’t let this affect his abilities as a coach and that he will be successful in helping his team win the Premiere League Championship.
There will be a total of 12 episodes in season 3, so we have plenty of time for our questions to be answered. Episode 2 will release on March 22, 2023, on Apple TV+.
4. About Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso is an American sports-comedy streaming TV series developed by Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis, Joe Kelly, and Brendan Hunt. It’s based on a character of the same name that Sudeikis first portrayed in a series of promos for NBC Sports’ coverage of the Premier League.
It follows the life of Ted Lasso, a coach of college-level American football who is unexpectedly recruited to coach an English Premier League team, AFC Richmond, despite having no experience at all in association football.
It stars Sudeikis as the titular character, Ted Lasso, joined by Hannah Waddingham, Jeremy Swift, Phil Dunster, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Nick Mohammed, Juno Temple, and Sarah Niles among many others.
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