one of my biggest pet peeves from the finale is the implication that ted ceased to interact with everyone in richmond once he returned to america. didn’t go to beard’s wedding? didn’t see sam play in the world cup? never brought henry to experience patented roy kent training? it’s just so weird and seems to be the antithesis of the show itself. —fic anon

Hmmm I think this doesn't actually bothers me! In part because I don't necessarily think it was implied that he ceases to interact with them. We didn't see enough of the "future" to know whether or not he's still still talking to these people. He could be taking annual summer vacations to England and texting Beard back and forth all damn day, for all we know! So if you'd like to envision that he was in the stands with Henry watching Sam, or that he drops by Richmond in a year or so to visit and check out how Roy Kent's running the place and catch a game, I think it was left very, very open for us to do so!

Not attending Beard's wedding is the only thing on the list that is definitely confirmed, and I will say it did strike me as very odd on first watch. But I ended up liking Brendan's response to that question in his Reddit AMA; He was basically like "Beard and Ted have the kind of relationship where they can go years without seeing each other, but then when they do it's like no time has passed." I have really wonderful friends like this myself, who matter so deeply to me but I rarely have a chance to physically see or even talk to. So that solidified a lot of things for me and in the end it felt right to me.

Personally, I think Ted absolutely still talks to many of them. I think it's been very established by the show and the writers themselves that Rebecca and Ted are (platonic) soulmates. I also like to think Nate regains the kind of relationship they had in season one, and the two of them are very close. They definitely send old-fashioned postal mail to each other across the pond all the time in the canon that exists in my head, lol. Like "Just thinking of you!" "Happy Corned Beef Day!" random cards and shit. I read a very lovely inlovewithnight fic that was set up as like press releases/articles/gossip columns set post-season, and a little part of it was that Ted comes back for an event at the Dogtrack and does a little meet and greet with fans. I really loved that. At the very least he's definitely watching all of Richmond's game still in America with Henry and supporting the team.

Overall, just because he's in America doesn't mean he's cut off from the world. It is an apple tv show, after all, and that means that all these people have iPhones that are critical devices to their wellbeing and used well and often 🫡