After three heartwarming and wholesome seasons, the Apple Tv+ series Ted Lasso has come to an end. What started as a show where an amateur American coach is hired to train an English football club just because the club manager wanted to seek revenge on its ex-owner (and also her ex-husband), has grown into a series that taught us so much about life, love, career and interpersonal relationships.
The show went way beyond an escapist feel-good comedy, not shying away from bringing controversial topics around politics and mental health to the forefront. I’ll admit, the second season fell flat in certain aspects. However, the third season tied all loose ends, focusing on every character’s arc and closing their respective chapters while simultaneously tackling issues inspired by real-world events. From teaching us important life lessons to highlighting important societal issues in the world of sports, here are all the times Ted Lasso Season 3 brought a smile on my face.
1. Let The Poopy Flow
Being at the bottom of the table and possibly getting relegated from the Premier League, the Richmond team is low on motivation in the opening episode. On top of that, negative predictions from football pundits distract the players from concentrating on their training. Seeing this, Ted takes the team on an off-field trip to clear their heads. But to the team’s surprise, that off-field trip was down the sewers (a classic Lasso thing to do).
When the players ask Ted why they’re down there, he says that their brains are blocked by other people’s ‘poopy’. They need an internal sewer system to let all the waste out and rely on learning from each other instead. Anything they don’t need should flow right out, just like sewage. He means that people will always have something nasty to say but you shouldn’t let their discouraging words deter you from working towards your goals and striving for success. Let the poopy flow aka filter out that negativity.
2. The Queer Trope In Sports
While the tides of change have come and there are many careers that have accepted and recognised individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, there’s still a long way to go. In sports, people are still hesitant to own their sexual orientation publicly. Ted Lasso addresses this topic beautifully with the character, Colin Hughes. The closeted Richmond player leads two lives due to his sexual orientation. He’s afraid to come out and thinks people might perceive him differently if he does.
When Trent (ex-sports journalist at The Independent who is now working on a book on the Richmond team) sees Colin kissing another boy, he keeps quiet about it. Knowing he went on to write about Ted’s panic attacks in the previous season, it was possible for Trent to notoriously out him in his book. But Trent is more evolved and empathetic this season. When Colin finds that Trent has followed him to a gay bar, he immediately leaves. But Trent confronts him and says he knows about his sexuality and never revealed it to anyone because he’s gay too. Finding someone he can finally be himself with, Colin opens up to Trent, and the two form a beautiful bond.
There comes an episode when Colin does break it to his team in the locker room that he’s gay. The entire team including Ted handles the news in a very supportive manner, which encourages Colin to perform well in the second half of the game and become the man of the match.
3. Athletes Are Only Human
Before Colin came out, Isaac (the team caption and Colin’s best friend) learns about Colin’s sexuality after seeing a photo on his phone and gets disappointed that he didn’t trust him enough to share it with him. The very same day, Colin and Isaac have a fight on the field and underperform. During half-time, a fan from the crowd hurls a homophobic slur at Isaac. In a fit of anger, Isaac attempts to attack the fan for which Isaac gets a red card. The rest of the team thinks Isaac is gay but that’s when Colin tells the truth to everyone about his sexuality and tells them that Isaac was simply keeping his friend’s secret. Roy Kent, on the other hand, empathises with Isaac because he understands that his anger on the field came from a place of hurt. Later that day, Roy also addresses this issue during a press meet and says that athletes are only human and how they react sometimes has nothing to do with people personally; they too have bad days.
4. Standing Up For Yourself
Keeley Jones is extremely upset when she wakes up and discovers an intimate video she once made for her ex-boyfriend Jamie Tartt has leaked online. She’s not the only one though; she’s part of a larger scandal of famous celebrities’ whose private content is hacked. This episode hit home for many as this is something that has happened with people or someone they know in the real world. In such cases, people often forget about the victim and only care about giving their opinion, which we see when the Richmond team discusses this topic in the locker room. At that point, they didn’t know Keeley was involved.
Going straight to damage control, Keeley’s girlfriend and boss Jack urges her to write a public apology saying she is ashamed of her actions. Unfortunately, this is also what many companies do in reality. However, Keeley stands up for herself and refuses to apologise as she feels she’s done nothing wrong. She says it was her choice and never regretted sending the video. The episode mirrored how the society behaves when an incident like that occurs and leaves the victim alone to fight for themselves.
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5. Football Is An Emotion
Rebecca’s character sees a massive growth this season–from being someone who was driven by revenge and hungry to destroy her ex-husband to getting over the hatred, becoming a bigger person and being an independent, strong woman capable of making huge decisions. Hesitant at first, she decides to attend the meeting arranged by Edwin Akufo, where he makes his case of forming a super league with the most wealthiest teams playing against each other (inspired by the European Super League that was discussed in the real world). While it’s a profitable strategy for the clubs, it’s not something all fans would be able to afford.
Realising the damage and inequality it would cause in football, Rebecca steps up and points out how everyone is simply being greedy and taking away football from those who genuinely love it. “I don’t want to be part of something that could possibly destroy this beautiful game. I would hate for all those little kids and grownups out there to ever lose access to that beautiful, passionate part of themselves,” she says. This episode tried to show that football is much more than a sport. It makes people laugh and cry, connects people on a global scale and is an emotion all together.
6. The Power Of Forgiveness & Second Chances
Ted has always been a character that forgives people, in the hope they’ll do better if given a second chance. He did it with Trent Crimm last season when he published the article on his panic attacks and he forgave Nate, who was the one who revealed to Trent about Ted’s mental health. This season, Ted forgives his mother for being ignorant of his emotions when he lost his dad and pretending to be fine when she wasn’t. We also see other characters taking inspiration from Ted’s forgiving nature. Beard forgives Nate and gives him a job once again at AFC Richmond whereas Jamie decides to forgive his nasty father and mends relations with him at the end of the season.
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7. Moving On From Relationships
Whether it was Ted finding it hard to accept his wife moving on with another man or Roy finding it tough to accept Keeley’s new relationship, the series showed that it can be difficult to move on from separations and break ups. On the other hand, moving on can also mean finding someone better. Case in point: Rebecca meeting the man with no name in Amsterdam and forming an instant connection with him, even if it was just for one day. It was also nice to see the same man entering Rebecca’s life at the end of the final episode and starting a new relationship together.
