The penultimate episode of Ted Lasso‘s comeback season, which nearly didn’t happen until its star’s about-face, is a lesson in how to move a plot along, and quickly. All of the action takes place after a six-week time jump. That was a wise choice, as was foregrounding Alice and keeping Tracey Ullman’s Zelda to a scenery-chewing minimum, and it deftly sets up a suitable finale for this wobbly but course-corrected season.
The key romantic thread between Keeley and Roy, an arc since the show’s 2020 debut, sees them quickly domesticated. Roy plays the doting man of the house who looks after his love after she passes out in the stands at a Richmond Lady Greyhounds match, overstimulated. Or did she pass out because she’s up the duff? Serious life moments aside, the show can’t resist treating these two as a classic sitcom couple and play up the requisite tropes. But instead of an am-she-or-isn’t-she comedic thread, the writers have her hold off until the episode’s final moments to decide if and how to tell him. And with that, we have doting dad Roy Kent and all the slapstick that will ensue, to look forward to next.
The Roy-Keeley B-plot takes place mostly in the vacuum of their home, as the real drama of episode nine is on the field. Six weeks have seen the Lady Greyhounds slip down the leaderboard, and now they are on the cusp of missing out on a slot in something called “the Super League.” Winning that coveted MacGuffin hinges, of course, on the team’s star shooter, Gemma, and whether her knee injury has healed enough for her to net a goal or two.
While it’s scripted and executed as if in the express lane, the storyline of the team’s make-or-break match hits every note of the comeback sports-movie genre. The montage moves fast, jarring as it may be, but it cuts to the chase with enough suspense to set up a strong end to the season. And all the better that, at this point, the show has developed some of these players over the season’s second half.
That character development for the newer teammates seems to have replaced anything meaningful happening to our Ted Lasso, who, it must be mentioned, is treated as an afterthought in this episode and most of the season. Jason Sudeikis does sneak in the final emotional moment, when Ted learns that Mae Green, the beloved owner of the local Crown & Anchor pub, apparently died while cheering on the team from the stands. To be sure, her death is implied, not confirmed, but Sudeikis’ reaction to Rebecca’s steely and sad-faced news seems to tell us what we’d rather not hear.
Oh, also, the future of the team hangs in the balance because a member of Rebecca’s inner circle has been working to betray her from inside the stadium. That story should wrap up as quickly as it was introduced, and be backgrounded in next week’s big finale.
