Ted Lasso Finale Recap: The Long Goodbye

Briefly it seemed to be Ted Lasso planned to blow its season — and, by all appearances, series — finale before the initial credits even rolled. There would be no more straightforward method for ending things severely than the shock matching of Ted and Rebecca, two characters whose relationship has been characterized by regard and affection without even a sprinkle of physical allure. (There’s another Apple TV+ series called Platonic, however Ted and Rebecca arrived first.) It’s a fakeout, however this isn’t uncovered until the scene raises the likelihood that Ted, Rebecca, Facial hair, and Jane participated in some sort of… indeed, who can say for sure what, given the members?

But instead of a last-minute swerve into polyamory, Ted Lasso makes a far less unexpected trip into sentiment. “So Long, Farewell” sends the series off with a string of highly emotional scenes as the Greyhounds prepare for a match that could win them the Premier League title (if they can beat Rupert’s dreaded West Ham) and to say goodbye to Ted who, as the previous episode hinted, is on his way back to U.S. (Beard, too, at least in theory, though Ted gets most of the attention.)

Rebecca can’t discuss Ted’s takeoff yet, and apparently probably won’t have the option to discuss it by any means. As a matter of fact, Ted’s flight and Higgins’ suggestion that selling a minority stake in the group could bring in her a ton of cash has made her contemplate pressing everything in. Without Ted, does she try and need to stay close by? It’s a decision she’ll weigh all through the episode, however for the vast majority of it she appears to be almost certain now is the ideal time to go. In one of the finale’s best minutes, Rebecca finds Ted alone in the arena (a picture that repeats the initial credits) and they have a calm talk where she lays everything out, saying “In the event that you go, I go” before straightforwardly requesting that Ted stay. She essentially ends the conversation on a positive note, envisioning leaving on a globetrotting life that is less Eat, Ask, Love than, as would be natural for Rebecca, Drink, Rest, Fuck. It sounds decent, regardless of whether being her fate is not going.

Theirs is the most remarkable of a modest bunch of one-on-one Ted talks in “So Long, Goodbye.” Nate, presently completely back in the overlay (after apparently having his personality reset to its season one manufacturing plant specs) offers Ted an expression of remorse that Ted insists is pointless. Afterward, Facial hair will apologize, as well, realizing that his adoration for Jane will hold him back from following Ted back to the States. In any case, here and there it’s the one-way trade Ted leaves on Trent’s composition recommending The Lasso Way is the wrong title that gets at the core of the show: “There’s no need to focus on me. It won’t ever be.”

There are certainly plenty of other characters with notable plots swirling around, aren’t there? While most of the team gets only a few fleeting moments in the spotlight — most notably Dani and Van Damme, er, Zorro’s reconciliation and Colin’s public embrace of his boyfriend on the pitch after the game — the finale gives a lot of time to the Roy/Keeley/Jamie situation. It’s not always time well spent. Though the preceding episodes telegraphed it, it feels odd having spent so much time dealing with Roy and Jamie’s deepening friendship and maturing outlooks on life to rush them into a pretty standard love-triangle confrontation. It at least doesn’t last long, short-circuited by Keeley’s offended response when they give her the privilege of choosing one of them to be her boyfriend. That reaction makes sense for Keeley, but getting to it means making both Roy and Jamie seem stupider than they’ve seemed in a long time.

Roy, shockingly, appears to remember it. He searches out the direction of the Diamond Canines and, eventually, chooses to go along with them. It seems like a summarizing second for a series that is put a solid emphasis on men communicating their sentiments and attempting to enhance the past. Perfection is exhausting, to some extent in individuals. (Films and Billy Joel collections and Trent’s hair are another matter.) However the key, as Higgins puts it, is to “forever be advancing toward better.”

And with that out of the way, it’s time for the unsurprisingly dramatic match. The team enters with tears in their eyes from Beard’s reflective video and struggles through the first half until Ted’s locker room speech at halftime. It feels at first like an obligation — of course the show needed one more halftime moment — but the reassembly of the “BELIEVE” sign is a nice capper. The Greyhounds love grand gestures, though this one probably took less coordination than the staging of the Sound of Music song that gives the episode its title at the team’s last practice.

Because of Jamie Tartt yet additionally everyone else in the group, they pull off a marvelous triumph, though one generally remarkable for some off-the-field show. Currently humiliated by the shameful revelation of his improper relationship with previous assistant Ms. Kakes, Rupert’s feeling irritable. So snappy, as a matter of fact, that he takes to the field to advise his mentor to take out Tartt, pushing him when he rejects then passing on the pitch to a group taunting him as a “wanker.” The only obvious Ted Lasso bad guy (aside from Edwin Akufo), he meets a proper destiny.

So, it turns out, does everyone else. Ted returns home and the final shot of the episode suggests he’s at peace. Beard stays behind with Jane and the team. Rebecca has given up on Psychic Tish’s nonsense but still scores an accidental reunion with the Handsome Dutch Stranger, who finally learns the name of his enchanting one-time houseboat guest. (Rebecca also meets HDS’s daughter, suggesting maybe Tish did know what she was talking about, should things work out.) Beard and Jane wed. Roy, now head coach, finally goes to therapy. (Hey, it’s Doc!) Keeley chooses neither. (Or maybe both, who knows?) The Richmond fans get a chance to purchase a stake in the team, making them the Premier League’s equivalent of the Green Bay Packers.

It’s a cheerful ending to a series that, at its ideal, viewed in a serious way what it intended to seek after happiness while offering grace to others. Ted Lasso had its promising and less promising times, especially in this third season, which essentially spread out Ted’s destiny in its initial minutes then drew out the way toward that destiny north of twelve episodes and took a few characters along a few really impossible to miss diverts some unusually long runtimes. Yet, Ted Lasso will in all likelihood be associated with its most desirable characteristics, characteristics strange gift for endearing minutes that felt procured rather than constrained, and a focal person characterized as much by his eagerness to concede his defects as his irresistible energy. Great exertion. Pleasant hustle.

Biscuits

• But, seriously, the way Nate’s story was handled this season was kind of bizarre, right? To spend all of the second season depicting a slow descent into bitterness verging on madness and then have him emerge from it with little effort is peculiar. When Keeley welcomes him back to the team, does she remember that kiss?

• To end covering this show on a negative note feels wrong, though. So hats off, once again, to that top-to-bottom excellent cast, from the leads to the deep bench, which made it feel like it was a series with no minor characters.

• Willis.