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Ted Lasso_season 3_premiere.jpg

‘Ted Lasso’ Season Premiere Recap: Let Ted Be Ted

By Kaleena Rivera | TV | March 15, 2023 |

By Kaleena Rivera | TV | March 15, 2023 |


Ted Lasso_season 3_premiere.jpg

(spoilers for episode 1, season 3)

Welcome back to AFC Richmond for a third (and final) season with our favorite football club. Although the premiere is full of nods to previous seasons—like the sighting of Mr. Mann, the old fellow who greets Ted with the finger, renaming the Nelson Road facility (formerly called the Rupert Mannion Training Facility) after the dearly departed Earl Greyhound, the callback to Ted spitting all over Rebecca’s face in the first season finale—what will be even more fun is speculating over which images will prove portentous over the next twelve weeks (the little Premier League trophy, Lego Nathan’s placement). At the moment, however, one of the season’s overarching themes can be mined from the question Ted asks throughout the episode: Why are we here?

For Ted, the search for that answer falls somewhere within the complicated haze of career ambition, how badly he misses his son, and his affection for the team—a unit that has developed an emotional weight just shy of the familial. While Ted’s doing the work of trying to understand what he’s grappling with, others have yet to pose the question to themselves despite a desperate need to do so.

We know all too well that time doesn’t necessarily heal all wounds, but this has proven especially true of Rebecca. Though her desire to fulfill her not-so secret dream of vengeance against Rupert is wholly understandable, her lack of awareness over just how deep the urge runs means that her need for revenge will likely threaten to consume her. In a mirroring of her season one arc, Rebecca’s crusade utilizes the team not as a target of destruction, but as a cudgel to be wielded against her ex-husband. It’s a move that promises to be a source of contention between her and Ted, whose desire to win rarely ever exceeds beyond merely wanting his team to be successful. That said, I, too, would be irritated to find my manager has spent the afternoon taking my team spelunking in the sewer system rather than running drills on the pitch.

Then there’s Nathan. As a journalist points out in the presser, Nathan’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric; going from a kitman to the manager of one of England’s leading teams in the span of a few short years is a Cinderella story if there ever was one. But we know that it’s a dark fairy tale fueled, not by blessings bestowed by a benevolent force, but a deal with the devil made possible by his deep-seated insecurity. Managing West Ham has provided Nate the authority that he’s longed for, even if he has no idea how to brandish it (even inept managers can see how commanding a player, whose name you can’t be bothered to learn, to stand behind the “dumb-dumb line” would prove fruitless). With that said, abusive tendencies have hardly ever stopped a man from achieving his dreams, especially if the team continues to dominate, and even the irascible Roy Kent freely admits that Nate has a singular talent for strategy.

Although the power and fame keeps Nate hungry—the obsessive name searching on Twitter continues, a habit that can only lead to madness—what fundamentally drives him is his yearning for a father figure. As loathsome as Nate has allowed himself to become (seeing his actions in a season two rewatch was somehow worse than the first time around), I can also feel pity for the man; Rupert clapping him on the shoulder with a weighty, “I know you’ll make me proud,” gives Nate the sort of nervous thrill he hasn’t experienced since Ted first sought his counsel on game play. Despite Rupert’s pleasure over watching him act as his vicious mouthpiece (“They [Richmond] probably have to train in a sewer because their coach is so sh*tty”) or that gaudy car, happiness will only continue to elude Nate. Because at the end of the day, when all you have is viciousness and a repulsive spitting habit (a vile modification of Rebecca’s “get big”) as a meager coverup for your innate timidity and self-doubt, contentment is impossible.

There are some parallels between Nate and Keeley’s storylines: On the surface it would seem that Keeley has also gotten everything she wanted, namely a flourishing career with her own eponymous public relations agency (dodgy real estate history aside). But success comes with its own challenges, and Keeley now finds herself unable to find the time to enjoy life or the people she loves (“I’m so busy, I literally have to make time in my schedule to sit at my desk and cry”). The biggest shakeup, even if it was advertised in the season two finale, is the fact that Keeley and Roy are no longer together. Whether or not reconciliation is a possibility or even desirable rests on whether or not their split is the result of a work/life imbalance or something more (though I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’m fiercely rooting for those two).

This season is squaring up to be a fight on all fronts. But as we cheer the underdog Richmond team onward, Ted Lasso will, as always, advise us that it’s how we fight that determines a win and whether it feels good doing so. Much like how Ted meets Nate’s snide comments not with defensiveness or even a classy rejoinder, but with a self-effacing humor that’s as baffling to witness as it is disarming, it shows us there’s more than one way to come out on top. Despite the Nates of the world, winning isn’t everything, but we also need to occasionally evaluate what winning is. As we’re beginning to see here, getting what you want doesn’t always mean you come out victorious.

Best Quotes:

Keeley: “F*ck you, Joe Rogan”

Rebecca: “You know, like Left Eye from TLC, when she burned all her boyfriend’s trainers in the bath and ended up burning down the entire house.”
Keeley: “Ultimate gangster move.”
Rebecca: “F*cking legend.”

Higgins: “Why are you dressed like an umlaut?”

Ted: “Regarding my panic attacks, I’ve had more psychotic episodes than Twin Peaks.”

Special recognition goes to newcomer Rosie Lou as the icy Ms. Kakes for her spectacularly droll delivery of, “It’s a car.”

Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor of Pajiba. When she isn’t thinking about how much Nate would need a Zuko-level redemption arc to be okay with him coming back to the fray, she can be found on Twitter here.