Season 3, Episode 10: ‘International Break’
Remember when you were young and – at least if you were like me – you often misjudged how much space you had on a line to write what you intended, resulting in smaller and smaller, tightly compressed letters as you touched the edge of the line approached page? I feel like that’s where we are right now in “Ted Lasso,” with only two episodes left in what is theoretically still the show’s final season.
This week’s episode answered two of the show’s most important remaining questions – about Nate’s fate with West Ham and Roy and Keeley’s future – but so abruptly that you could almost imagine you’d missed a scene or two along the way. This level of brevity may have been necessary in part because the episode spent much of its hour-plus running time on two new and completely unnecessary storylines, two redemption arcs for tertiary characters, a fair amount of grumbling, and a truly bizarre idea of how wealthy entrepreneurs make decisions. Even as we approach the edge of the page, to put it another way, we’re still adding more words. The rest will almost certainly have to be scribbled very small.
First, the storylines that didn’t move forward meaningfully: After focusing on Ted’s relationship with his son, Henry, and ex-wife, Michelle, two episodes ago, we have a second consecutive episode that takes no interest in that subplot. Likewise, no news of Rebecca’s presumably imminent family developments — that is, unless some plastic army guy says more than I hope he says. But more on that later. Let’s start with the least important developments and work our way up.
International break and Edwin Akufo’s proposal
Both of this week’s new subplots felt less like continuations of the season arc than nuggets we had to work through before getting to the real story.
International breaks, as the name suggests, are weekends when national football leagues skip their matches so their top players can take part in FIFA sponsored, nation against nation competition. There have supposedly been several in the three seasons of AFC Richmond we’ve seen, though I don’t recall them being mentioned before this episode.
But now, at least for an episode, it’s a Big Deal. Who will be selected to represent their country of birth? Jamie for England, Van Damme (formerly Zoreaux) for Canada, Dani for Mexico, Bumbercatch for Switzerland and Colin for Wales. But no Sam for Nigeria? Not even after an episode opening commentary singled him out as crucial to the team’s current 10-game winning streak?
This subplot seems to serve two purposes. The first is to set up the idea that the fun-loving, loving Dani Rojas becomes a vicious competitor the moment he’s on another team. This brings in some of the broad humor that has never been the show’s forte. (Remember Led Tasso? This is actually the same joke, with Dani standing in for Ted.) And it’s another idea that pops up out of the blue: I don’t remember Dani rejoicing in his attempts to get the keepers injure for, say, West Ham, Manchester United, or any of his other opponents in the Premier League.
The second purpose of the international break subplot is to help set up the Edwin Akufo subplot: the reason Sam was not chosen to play is because Akufo, the obnoxious billionaire introduced in Episode 11 of Season 2 , the Nigerian government has bribed $ 20 million not to select him. But that is not everything! He is also planning to open another restaurant serving Nigerian cuisine 20 meters away from Sam’s! And to deny Sam customers by calling in person and making reservations, he has no intention of continuing to use all sorts of crazy accents! I’m very confident that this is not how billionaires – not even the thin-skinned ones – spend their time.
I would like to stop there, but unfortunately there is more. Akufo also plans to create a “super league” of exceptional teams that only compete against each other and thus can charge more for tickets than typical matches. The details are unimportant, aside from the fact that this would theoretically make the team owners a lot more money, while the average fans wouldn’t be there. Color me cynical, but I’m convinced that if it was that easy for wealthy team owners to make themselves richer, it would have already happened.
It’s a complicated setup to allow Rebecca to stand up for everyday fans at a team owners meeting. That’s a setup for her to remind Rupert why he loved her and make sure he tried to kiss her. That’s a setup for her to get over her longtime obsession with beating Rupert on the field. Have I wasted your time with this lengthy explanation? Sorry, but that’s pretty much how I felt by the time this subplot was over.
Nate
Depending on who you ask, Nate has either been sacked as manager of Rupert’s West Ham team or has stepped down. Either way, you’ll notice the past tense. We don’t actually to see Nate either quits or gets fired, which, I suspect, would have been a really interesting scene if they’d bothered to film it. Instead, we go from the beginning (Nate realized late last week that Rupert is a bad guy at the club) to the end (Nate was mopilly unemployed) without the actual drama of a showdown. It won’t be the only time in this episode that “Ted Lasso” skips from start to finish without bothering with the messy “how did this happen?” part.
Instead we have Nate mope in his own bed, and then mope in his cot at his parent’s house and then play the violin (has this been mentioned before?) so his dad can hear him and have a scene where he shows that he isn’t such a lousy father as he seemed to be. We don’t even have any fun scenes with Jade this week, as she goes to Poland to help her family screw in light bulbs, a joke that unfortunately could be the climax of this bleak storyline. I’d love to say more, but I’m not sure what else there is to say.
KJPR
My prediction in the last episode that Keeley’s split with her friend/financier Jack would be forgotten without consequences turned out to be wrong. In fact, Jack abruptly pulled out all funding for Keeley’s firm, KJPR, and Keeley has to be out of the office in 48 hours.
For those keeping track, this is the third clear instance in this episode in which a fabulously wealthy individual has made a business decision based entirely on personal excitement: Akufo spends a fortune to keep Sam off the Nigerian team (and opens a competing restaurant!); Rupert fires (or at least quickly accepts his resignation from) Nate, his by all accounts exceptionally talented and successful manager; and now Jack is pulling the plug on KJPR. It’s a peculiar representation of the way wealthy people typically make business decisions.
But at least the show makes an effort to show those rich people Also making questionable business decisions based on sheer generosity. After the owners’ meeting where Rebecca decides not to make a profit based on fan appreciation – and persuades the other owners to do the same! – she decides to save Keeley’s company by financing it herself.
A few quick thoughts: First, if Keeley is, in fact, the PR prodigy we keep hearing her be — without ever seeing any evidence of this — couldn’t she find funding from someone who wasn’t a friend who took pity on her? Or has the fact that she takes a lot of vacations, hires totally unqualified friends, and never seems to get any work done, finally caught up with her? And second, Keeley has learned something about mixing business and intimacy from her experience with Jack? If there’s a season 4 of the show, I half expect Rebecca to pick up her funding the next time Keeley doesn’t return her texts.
But at least we see Barbara redeemed after Keeley buys her a snow globe.
Kelly and Roy
Well, that was easy. Roy runs into Phoebe’s teacher – yes, Phoebe, for real and always – and she says he seemed “stuck” the last time they spoke, which apparently serves to untie him instantly. Real? This fragment of a scene instead of, say, the powerful and spot-on lecture Rebecca gave last week?
But apparently that five-letter word is enough to make Roy want to get back with Keeley, and his next letter is all it takes to make Keeley want to get back with Roy. There is no conversation or negotiation, no solution to what went wrong last time.
Actually, I’m dishonest. There may have been such interactions. “Ted Lasso” just made the unscrupulous decision not to show them. We go from the two awkwardly standing in the doorway to a half-dressed Roy nestled comfortably back at Keeley’s.
It’s exactly the same jump from beginning to end that we saw with Nate and Rupert, without that awkward middle section where people actually talk to each other. As a matter of fact, it’s the same casualness that took us from early signs of trouble between Roy and Keeley at the end of last season to the two having already broken up this season. If the show didn’t bother to show us the actual breakup, why should it show us the actual reconciliation? As someone who rooted for Keeley and Roy as hard as anyone else, I was amazed at how little emotional weight their reunion held.
I know I’m pretty disappointed with this episode, and I know many readers will like it more than I did – as was the case the last time I was significantly disappointed. That’s fine! The world does not move to the beat of just one drum. But to be clear, especially for new readers, my disappointment is not because I don’t like the show or any such nonsense. It’s because I like it enough to keep it at a high level.
I hope better things come in the last two episodes, no matter how small the handwriting has to be.
Strange and ends
I’ve always been in the camp that assumes that Rebecca and her Dutch dude will get together by the end of the season. (Why else would you show us the little girl’s room on the houseboat?) I now fear that given the whole rush-to-the-end quality of this episode, their next meeting will also be abrupt – he’s coming showing up in London or her show at the houseboat with ‘happy ending’ practically written on the screen. For example, I hoped that they would spend some time together again. But we will always have Amsterdam.
Unless, of course, those predicting a Rebecca-Ted romance are right, which I really hope they aren’t. But Rebecca playing with the green matchbook and the green army man together rightfully worries me.
Wait, Rupert already broke up with Mrs. Kakes before Rebecca had a chance to expose his affair? Boo! And did I hear correctly that her replacement is a Mrs. Bread? I think this makes Rupert an inverted Marie Antoinette.
It’s a bizarre idea that Akufo, however wealthy, could throw food at a variety of other very wealthy people without facing their anger, lawsuits, and potential assault charges.
Jamie’s evolution into the best man ever continues. He is the first to pity Sam if the latter is not chosen for Nigeria and then wears Sam’s number on the field. And his Uncle’s Day gift to newly minted best friend Roy – thanks, Phoebe! – is perfect.
