It seems as though "Ted Lasso" has ridden off into
the sunset. If the third-season finale really is the end, did this show touted as a champion of
kindness give its characters a fitting sendoff? "Ted Lasso" begins with the title character
moving to England to take a job managing an underdog English football team, AFC Richmond.
He doesn't know a thing about soccer, but taking the job serves as an escape. He and his wife need
some space as they try to repair their marriage. "What, no, what did I say? That's what I'm
doing, though. I'm giving you that space." Lasso sees the team through brutal losses
and terrific wins, relegation and promotion, personal issues and self-discovery. Season
3 sees Ted coming to terms with the end of his marriage and making a big decision to
maintain a relationship with his son Henry. The start of the third season also sees "wonder
kid" Nathan Shelley coaching West Ham United. The former Richmond kit man grapples with his
newfound responsibility before quitting and trying to rediscover who he is. Roy Kent also
goes on a journey of self-discovery after a breakup with Keeley, and even Coach Beard finally
spreads his wings and learns to fly on his own. Several players on the team also
go through personal plights as the season progresses. Colin shares
his sexual orientation with the team, Jamie learns how to be a team player, and Sam
opens the Nigerian restaurant of his dreams. The apparent series finale sees everyone
coming to terms with Ted's ultimate decision to leave the team to be with his family. The
players and a select group of fans perform a coordinated musical number at Ted and Coach
Beard's last practice while Rebecca refuses to acknowledge Ted's decision until push comes
to shove. She threatens to sell the team. "If you go, I go." AFC Richmond wins a nail-biting final match
against West Ham, but not the Premier League, leaving them without the final feather in
their cap. After a disappointing first half, the team reveals they've kept the
pieces of the iconic "Believe" sign, which Nate destroyed back at the end
of Season 2, piecing it back together. Everyone else seems to get a happy ending.
Roy Kent becomes the new Richmond manager and goes to therapy. Coach Beard stays
behind and marries Jane. Sam gets to play for the Nigerian national team. Rebecca
ends up selling 49% of the team to the fans, keeping majority ownership, while also having
a chance encounter with the man she met in Amsterdam earlier in the season. Nate finds
happiness with his girlfriend, Jade, and his family. Keeley's PR firm is going strong. Jamie
reconnects with his father. Journalist Trent Crimm publishes his book. And Keeley and Rebecca seem
prepared to start an AFC Richmond women's team. Throughout the series, Ted does what he can to
make the lives of those around him better. So when his marriage fails, it's almost impossible
for him to mentally grasp, because he couldn't make Michelle's life better or "keep her happy,"
no matter how hard he tried. Season 3 sees Ted learn how to accept what he can't control and
to let it go, especially with help from Rebecca, who went through something similar in
the aftermath of her divorce from Rupert. Rather than continue to run away from what he
can't control, Ted decides to go back home to Kansas, even if it means he is returning to an
environment that reminds him of his failure. Acceptance is a significant theme across the
series, particularly in the final season, and not just for Ted. Rebecca accepts that there
is nothing she did to cause her ex-husband Rupert to cheat on her with younger women; it's something
he will always do, no matter how young or perfect his wife is. She also has to accept that her
marriage prevented her from doing some things in her life. She goes to a fertility specialist
early in the season and discovers she can no longer have biological children, forcing her to
come to terms with the loss of that possibility. Season 3 also puts a spotlight on Colin, who's
closeted and worried about coming out to the other players on the team. When Trent unknowingly comes
across Colin kissing his partner, he provides a helpful ear as Colin struggles with revealing
his sexuality. Colin's best friend, Isaac, later looks at Colin's texts and finds messages
to his boyfriend. After some initial anger, Isaac tries to understand and accept why his
friend didn't come out to him. He eventually confronts Colin at his home, asking if he had
done something to make his friend think he wouldn't accept him. When Colin's ready,
Isaac and the team readily support him. "Who's the fittest guy on the team?"
"I won't tell you, and you could never guess." "Bumbercatch."
"Yes." While AFC Richmond has always seemed
like a tight-knit group of friends, there were conflicts. For example, Jamie was a
ball hog on the pitch, often refusing to pass. With his sunny disposition
and unconventional methods, Ted changes that. Over his three years with the
team, he encourages them to be honest and open, to support one another on and off the field, and
to reflect on how they can improve themselves. He even gives them each a book that he
thinks will help them on their journeys to self-discovery. By the end of the series, Ted
has cultivated teammates that are fiercely loyal to one another. A prime example from Season 3
is when Sam's restaurant is vandalized after a public argument with a politician. The
team bands together to repair the damage. Ted takes a team and turns them into a family. This is undoubtedly a major
theme of the entire series. Men's mental health is often a stigmatized topic, but "Ted Lasso" doesn't flinch away
from the issue. Characters take the time to reflect on themselves and what they
need to maintain their mental well-being. A prime example is how Roy initially reacts
to Trent's presence during the season. The journalist wrote a fairly scathing review
of Roy after his first professional game, which has haunted Roy for decades. Not only does
Roy come to accept that it wasn't a personal dig, but he also starts to understand how it
impacted his mindset in his career and personal life. In breaking up with Keeley,
Roy realizes he needs to work on himself, though he waits until the end of the
season to really take those steps. The season also has what is a sometimes
difficult-to-watch breakdown on Jamie's part. He clearly has a significant amount of
weight on his shoulders as the season progresses, especially as the team begins to soar. This
results in a sobbing fit in the locker room before a key game. Rather than allow himself to
bottle it up, he lets it out in front of Roy, who in the past probably would have
ridiculed him for it, and makes a point to go and visit the person in his life
who always makes him feel better: his mom. The third season of "Ted Lasso" is filled
with turbulence, but everyone lands safely in the end. Many of the characters get
what they've wanted throughout the season, whether it be more time with their family or
the chance to play for their dream team. Some, like Roy and Jamie, have what they need rather
than what they want, which is to be with Keeley. Some critics and viewers may think it's
unrealistic for everyone to be in such good places in the end, but it reinforces what audiences
have come to know and love about the series: we get what we give back to the world. The
only person in a negative place is Rupert, who, after being the leading antagonist for
the entirety of the series, has fallen from grace after his new ex-wife and
assistant speak out against him. The people who put in the work are in a better
place now, which is all Ted wanted for them when he met them three years ago. He made a lasting
impact that has helped the people in his life discover new things about themselves,
including what brings them fulfillment. "Thank you."
"Oh, I'm sorry." "No, I'm sorry."
"Please, go first." The ending of "Ted Lasso" seems to wrap most
things up with a bow. Almost too neatly, according to some fans and critics. The
montage of everyone's happy ending plays out on screen only for the next cut
to be Ted waking up on the airplane, landing back in the United States for the
first time since leaving for England. This has caused fans to question whether the happy
endings we see are actually Ted's dreams. There is an argument to be made that
what we are seeing is what Ted wants for them and not what actually happens. Ted
isn't present during the wedding sequence, which seems odd considering how close
he and Coach Beard are. Wouldn't he fly back to see his best friend get
married in front of Stonehenge? In a Reddit AMA, Brendan Hunt, who
plays Beard and co-created the series, had an answer. When asked if the wedding is real
or in Ted's mind, Hunt simply replied, "Real." But then fans wanted to know why Ted wasn't at
Coach Beard's wedding. Hunt explained that the characters' friendship has had periods of
not seeing each other, and he expects that the future we're seeing falls into that. He
also argued the reasoning is "narrative" and, "It would be anticlimactic and
deflating if we suddenly see him back there before we even see his plane [land]." The creators and cast of "Ted Lasso" have
been upfront about the future of the series, or lack thereof. In an interview
with Deadline, Jason Sudeikis, who co-created the show and plays
Ted, made it pretty clear, saying , "This is the end of this
story that we wanted to tell, that we were hoping to tell,
that we loved to tell." "There's a lot of things we
don't get in life that we want, but it's the journey to get there. So I have
to get, kind of, done with this chapter." Fans have known that the series was designed
for three seasons for quite some time, particularly after Brett Goldstein, who
plays Roy Kent and is a writer on the show, confirmed the designated end
in 2022 to Variety, stating, "It was planned as three." In his Reddit AMA, Brendan Hunt expressed
that nothing is set in stone at the moment, but the creative team needs to
rest before they talk about the future of the series and characters. He explained, "We don't know. We need a break and will take
one presently. Nothing has been ruled out, everything is possible; but that
includes the possibility that we're done. We won't know until we've sat
with it for a while, decompressed, etc." Even though the series is likely over, the team
isn't writing off the possibility of developing a spin-off series or two. Sudeikis told Deadline
that spin-offs were still on the table, saying, "I think that we've set the table
for all sorts of folks ... to get to watch the further telling of these stories." Hunt reaffirmed the chance of
a spin-off in his Reddit AMA, confirming that discussions still need
to happen after a well-deserved break. When asked about the chance of a spin-off
about the AFC Richmond women's team Keeley and Rebecca plan in the finale, Juno Temple,
who plays Keeley, didn't rule it out in an interview with Deadline. She noted that the
series showcases female friendships, adding, "It would be amazing to see how they would
continue to do wonderful things together." Hannah Waddingham, who plays Rebecca, echoed Temple's thoughts in her own
interview with Deadline, commenting, "I love the arc of Keeley's character to present something to Rebecca that
she hasn't thought about." Also in an interview with Deadline, Phil Dunster, who plays Jamie, offered the view that
it's alright if this is the end, saying, "I would love for there to be more but
also, if that's all she wrote, let it be." As far as we know right now, the third
season of "Ted Lasso" is indeed the end. As the end of a series, it provides closure
for most of the storylines fans dug into over the span of 34 episodes. From Ted learning to
accept what he can't change to Roy realizing he needs to grow for himself and himself
alone, the team comes out on the other side of their time with Ted with a new perspective
on life and memories that will last forever. The end of "Ted Lasso" also means the end to some
important on-screen representation of men's mental health, from Ted's panic attacks to Nate's implied
depression after quitting his dream job. In turn, the series also shows its characters doing the
work to better themselves by going to therapy, something that is still stigmatized in many
places today. Hopefully, "Ted Lasso" will always be available to watch on Apple TV+, helping break
the stigma for new audiences for years to come.
