Listen, you would be hard pressed to find a bigger Ted Lasso fan than young Miss Hannah over here. I’ve been watching the show faithfully in real time ever since it first came out during the pandemic, a much needed ray of hope in a time that has only spiralled downhill since. So believe me when I say that it gives me no pleasure to pronounce that the first episode of Ted Lasso season 4 has not convinced me vis-a-vis, y’know, its need to exist. But who knows, there are still several episodes left. Maybe I’ll change my mind.
The Ted Lasso Story So Far
coach beard, ted lasso and roy kent in season 3
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So the last three seasons have brought us through a lot. As with most incredible shows, the show quality began to decline right after the first season. We could blame filming and writing during the pandemic for the uneven plotlines of its second run, which was still overall quite decent and kept the show’s wholesomeness intact. Season 3, however, brought with it more characters, more plots, bloated runtimes and somehow less Lasso.
At the end of the last season, Ted left Richmond for his hometown of Kansas, to spend more time with his son Henry and coach the latter’s soccer team. Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) solemnized his extremely unhealthy relationship with a wedding so bizarre that large swathes of the audience believed it was a dream, not least because his best friend and chief Diamond Dog Ted Lasso, instead of being best man as any logical person would’ve expected, was not even present.
rebecca almost sold the club entirely at the prospect of running it without him
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Nate (Nick Mohammed) was back on the Richmond team as assistant kit man, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) had taken up with a random Dutch pilot we know nothing about, and Rebecca’s evil ex-husband Rupert (the sadly departed Anthony Head) found himself plus another ex-wife and minus his club West Ham, both entirely of his own smarmy doing.
Jamie (Phil Dunster) and Roy (Brett Goldstein) fought over Keeley (and therefore undid years of maturity-building each) and Keeley (Juno Temple) rejected both of them, focusing on her budding PR business instead. Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) got picked for the Nigerian national team, and Roy got promoted to the new manager of Richmond FC.
In its final moments, Keeley suggests a Richmond women’s team to Rebecca, which is what forms the premise of the resurrected season 4.
Now that we’re all caught up, here is a real-time recap, a running commentary, if you will, of the latest episode of Ted Lasso, as I watched it.
Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 1 Recap
9:04 PM — I am so excited to see Ted Lasso again I never thought I’d live to see this day
9:04 PM — Maybe because last time they heavily implied multiple times that it was over and no one would live to see this day
9:04 PM — Right away let me tell you if this season doesn’t bring Roy and Keeley back together it will have accomplished NOTHING
9:05 PM — I mean I am looking forward to the girls team dynamics but other than that
9:05 PM — NOTHING
9:07 PM — Okay we have a short pre-episode clip here. Awww look the Apple TV universe is welcoming him back!
9:08 PM — Severance and Slow Horses and Pluribus and everybody!
9:08 PM — Reminds me of the ABC family convergences where Viola Davis was teaching a class with casts from all their different shows
9:10 PM — Ted is now working retail! Him as the cheerful assistant manager at a department store kinda makes sense actually
9:11 PM — Making sure everyone’s living well, inspiring them to do the right thing. For example he’s just seen a young employee pocket a couple of cigarettes, to which Ted steals a lot more stuff and pretends to get in trouble just to encourage him to put everything back. Ah, Ted.
9:12 PM — It’s been THREE YEARS!?!? Three years since the last season. They’ve gone with the real passage of time, I see.
9:12 PM — Awww a former (American) football player’s recognized him! His wife is NAWT impressed with Ted’s current situation. I feel you girl. No shade to assistant managers but telling old ladies to quit smoking just doesn’t seem like Ted’s calling long term, you know?
9:15 PM — The sheer amount of southern accents so far is like whiplash, it was fine when it was only Ted but it gets to a point
ted and michelle still have the chemistry of a teaspoon
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9:15 PM — Ok so Ted and Michelle are still not together, and still awkward in their encounters at Henry’s school. And Ted still hates tea (he’d rather drink “sweat from a butt,” he says).
9:16 PM — Apparently Henry is writing disturbing poetry? HAHAHA it’s just the lyrics to Black Steel by Public Enemy, the kid’s fine.
9:17 PM — NO I DONT LIKE ANY ROMANTIC TENSION BETWEEN THESE TWO DONT GET ANY CLOSER TED AND MICHELLE
Ted’s looking over her shoulder at the kids playing on the field. He clearly misses coaching. As you should Ted, you were great at it! Wait does he not coach Henry’s team anymore? So zero coaching for Ted Lasso?? Criminal.
9:17 PM — He’s pulling into his driveway, but someone’s watching him from another car, which would be creepy except I recognize those glasses! And those mile-high heels stepping out of the car! AAHHHHH an iconique entrance. Hannah Waddingham is so aspirational.
9:18 PM — As is Keeley’s take on Dorothy in Kansas — of course she has glittery red Bratz heels
9:19 PM — HAHAHAHAH Ted saw them in the driveway and went straight inside, the little scallywag. Look at him bounding outside to come greet them.
ted lasso is back. but why?
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9:20 PM — The Brits look so uncomfortable at midwestern hospitality. Rebecca’s designer clothes are fighting a losing battle with barbecue sauce.
9:20 PM — Love some BBQ and ten-second exposition on a Wednesday
Here’s what we learn: Keeley and Roy are not together. Keeley thinks they’re very good friends but Roy clearly is not on the same page.
I don’t know if it’s a cultural translation problem Keels, but that is what we over here call A Situationship.
9:21 PM — Rebecca and the Dutch guy nobody cares about are still together, they’re doing long distance and my opinion is whatever. I am genuinely more interested in Higgins’ heated flooring
9:22 PM — Okay, it took 13 minutes to get to the point but we’re here! They want Ted to coach the women’s team! As if there was any other option.
9:23 PM — Ted is suspicious. “You want to sabotage the women’s team as well?” OOOOH SHADE at season 1 Rebecca!
Anyway, he needs time to think it over. Rebecca seems surprised Ted doesn’t immediately jump at the offer. Something to mull over with Matthijs on Zoom perhaps.
9:25 PM — Sorry Matthijs I still don’t care about you but your daughter is very cute and hopefully never accidentally walks into your bedroom conversations with Rebecca ever again.
9:26 PM — Higgins is on TikTok and has a very difficult algorithm from Rebecca, because of course he does. But he’s here with bad news.
9:27 PM — Hmmm so the problem is that women’s teams are seen as liabilities that drain resources otherwise going to more deserving men’s teams. Hm.
Twickenham Women’s FC just folded and someone called Alice Chilton who’s growlier than a rottweiler wants to coach the Richmond women. Is that Tanya Reynolds? Why isn’t she here yet? Why are we halfway through the episode and there’s no football?
9:29 PM — Ted tells Henry his game’s gonna have a few Brit visitors, honestly telling him they offered him a job. Looks like Henry is conflicted about the idea of his dad leaving, which makes sense for a child and I will not be villainizing this child. Although his dad should 100% be leaving.
9:30 PM — Ted’s mom is here to watch Henry’s game! Was she in a previous season? I feel like yes? And he blew up at her or something? Am I hallucinating?
Apparently Ted doesn’t coach Henry’s team anymore because “Being a dad and a coach are conflicting jobs.”
9:32 PM — Ok Henry got benched and Ted gets rebuffed when attempting to speak to the coach. Coach Lasso thinks about Jamie Tartt all the time doesn’t he, who else would he be referring to about playing in cursive?
9:33 PM — Now Keeley and Rebecca are wandering around in head to toe Kansas City merch because barbecue sauce just loves Rebecca.
Keeley loves Kansas but Rebecca couldn’t last here because everyone’s too nice, which tracks. They’re spending entirely too long oohing and aahing over a dress store, in a sequence which could easily have been cut.
we love you keelbecca, but you need to get on it with it
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9:34 PM — GET TO THE FOOTBALL
9:35 PM — Why am I watching Higgins fail to get into a jazz museum currently being used for a bat mitzvah
9:35 PM — GET ON WITH IT, SHOW
9:35 PM — I don’t want to know what any of these people are doing in Kansas City Missouri
9:35 PM — LASSO GO BACK
9:36 PM — Noooo Ted’s mom is selling her Richmond merch that he gifted him
9:37 PM — Everybody here is really just Ted aren’t they. That dress store manager is literally Ted in a green power suit
9:38 PM — Ok so Rebecca can’t bring herself to tell Keeley she might not have the massive budget she’s dreaming of for her women’s team. Or y’know, a women’s team at all.
This idea could’ve been an email.
9:38 PM — Back to Higgins, who is now at an inspiring exhibit of black baseball players. We hear about the Negro leagues, where the players went to the field not for fame or fortune, but because to not play “would have been unacceptable.”
The attempt seems to be to compare the black players not being taken seriously to the UK football women not being taken seriously because none of them are common. Not sure that comparison is entirely even, show. Higgins lampshades this immediately, but still.
9:42 PM — Ted gazes on his dad’s best employee plaque and suddenly wonders why his mom never asks about his job. She looks at him and says, “If you don’t care about it, why should I?”
OOF Ted’s mom
She says the reason Ted loved accompanying his dad to work was seeing how the job made him feel, and his son needs to see that.
9:43 PM — You being kinda flip floppy right now, Mom Lasso. Last season you wanted Ted to come be with his son, now you want him to take the job?
9:44 PM — The gang is at a KCFC women’s game, all with new thoughts running some laps in the old noggins. Rebecca has a glittery, rather out-of-character suit from the store we saw earlier. Keeley wants a whole stadium for her team but Rebecca hasn’t told her about the budget. Higgins has a new excitement for the women’s team.
And Ted is still thinking about the job.
9:45 PM — Finally, two whole seconds of zoomed out football. Keeley is loving the energy in the stadium, but Ted still doesn’t seem too enthused.
9:46 PM — As they prepare to leave, Ted tells Rebecca he’s turning down the offer because he needs to stay home. “Sometimes home is just a state of mind,” says Rebecca. Dug through 2010s Tumblr for that one.
9:46 PM — AWW SHE BROUGHT HIM A PINK BOX! That’s so sweet
9:47 PM — Ted tries quoting Casablanca but Rebecca doesn’t get it but it’s cool anyway because she gets to drop an absolute power line about how she physically cannot miss a plane because it belongs to her.
rebecca has a pink box for ted
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9:47 PM — Oh hahah the pink box has tea in it
9:47 PM — Ted’s wall is full of Richmond memorabilia. A picture of Roy holding the champion’s cup is just making me mad at how he wasn’t even in this episode.
There’s a picture of Beard’s Stonehenge wedding, so I guess that wasn’t a mass psychosis then
9:49 PM — Awww and a Trent Crimm article! Saying JAMIE LEFT RICHMOND!?!?!?
9:49 PM — A TRAVESTY
9:49 PM — NO JAMIE IN THIS SHOW??? WHY AM I WATCHING THEN
9:50 PM — Ted has finally figured out a solution — he and Henry and Michelle are all going to move to London. Nice one Ted, except is that not literally what Rebecca proposed LAST SEASON and you said NO?