hey ted, what happened to “yeah, but he’s our dork.” & “it’s good to have people in your life who are excited to be around you” ????

I get that we in the Tedependent ship are in mourning right now, but while we’re here can we pour one out for the TedBecca shippers? Because they got fucking baited this episode, ouch.

So why have them sit in a triangle at the table at Keeley’s, why have Jamie and Keeley have a moment with one another and then have Roy follow Jamie instead of Keeley after, why have them talk to each other at the bar about how they both want Keeley, why have them fight each other instead of talking it out, why-

I don't want them to continue Ted Lasso past the point it was supposed to be. But. I would KILL for a spinoff about the Richmond Women's Team and them fighting to get recognized and supported the way the men's team is.

Imagine a show where it's like. Yes. These women are fighting for respect. And holy shit was that Dani walking by in the background.

It's so frustrating playing for a mainly empty stadium, but what's that? The entire men's Richmond team is in the stand cheering these ladies on!!!

Also. Lesbians. Because what would women's sports be without lesbians.

And just. All these little Easter eggs about how all our favorite Ted Lasso characters are doing without centering them. Instead, this time, we're centering a whole new set of characters who are mainly women.

Extra points if Shannon is involved.

Obviously my perspective on women's sports comes from the US so idk how much of this is relevant in the UK but I'm pretty sure in most places women's sports are underappreciated in comparison to men's.

colin kissing michael after the match… i may have cried

entire ted lasso fandom forgot that children grow up

(and go to college outside their hometown at which point their dads have no reason to live in kansas)

My personal theory for why Ted was not at the Beard/Jane wedding is that Beard did not want to be pulled aside and given criticism on his facial hair before he walked down the proverbial aisle, like he himself had done to Ted.

Ted Lasso fans...

Help out someone with poor facial recognition ... who was the lady with red hair at Beard's wedding? She was with a guy who had a baby in a front carrier? Was it Ms. Kakes with new hair or someone else? The camera lingered for as long as it did for everyone we knew so I'm guessing we were supposed to know them.

No actually Ted you very much SHOULD keep calling him Dr. Jacob. Remind that unethical motherfucker of the exact nature of his previous relationship to you and your ex-wife.

Ted Lasso Season 3 out of context

ted lasso’s groundbreaking ending to their queer storylines with colin & trent … I honestly had to laugh a little.

- Colin and Michael kissing on the pitch and nobody saying anything? when the whole thing this season was him not wanting to come out to the world? are we expected to believe no one saw that & that didn’t have any real world repercussions? (not that I wanted to see any repercussions, but to have that be a public gesture was certainly a choice)

- Colin never getting a toy soldier from Ted.

- Colin never introducing Michael to the team as his boyfriend officially after the whole ‘wingman’ set up.

- Trent getting a throwaway line about ‘learning to accept parts of yourself’ or whatever.

- Trent never interacting with Colin again or meeting Michael? Despite most of his purpose this season being to gay mentor Colin? And the whole convo they had about Colin wanting to ‘kiss his fella’ after he wins a match?

- Trent still having zero backstory we actually saw in canon? Who did he come out twice to? An ex-wife? His mom? What’s his daughters name? What’s that situation? There was a pic of her on his desk but she was never addressed again after that throwaway line in Sunflowers

- Apparently he was wearing a wedding ring in the book signing scene but I’d have to go back and watch to confirm? So possibly maybe an implied husband somewhere in the background?

Not impressed. Not amused. Though I can’t say I’m surprised.

anyone else feeling real split on how the finale’s gonna go

Diamond Dogs video chat because not even the Ted Lasso finale can separate these dorks.

No I won’t finish the backgrounds

I love that, on Ted Lasso, whenever a character starts acting weird or inconsistent with the show’s themes or whatever, it’s not just that the writers were sacrificing development for comedy or drama or whatever; it’s because there’s a thought process behind it. I was getting so uncomfortable whenever Beard was referencing Nate, because he wasn’t just pissed but downright spiteful - and for a show that is so much about nein schadenfreud and taking no shit but doing no harm, Beard trying to sic the team on Nate and throwing axes at pictures of his face just felt loaded with ick. It felt like the kind of revenge fantasy you’d see play out on a 90s sitcom, but not Ted Lasso. It felt cruel.

And then, and then we find out that Beard is Nate. Beard was shown kindness by Ted (like Nate), Beard was brought up from the worse place of his life by Ted (like Nate), and after all that Beard betrayed Ted (like Nate). And suddenly every spiteful comment and bitter look makes that much more sense, because this whole saga has been so much more personal to Beard, he’s seen himself in Nate’s actions, every single moment of seeing Nate’s betrayal play out in real time has been a poisonous reminder of what he did. Of course he was more pissed than Ted was.

And even if Ted has forgiven him, those final couple of scenes clearly show that there’s a little part of Beard that has never forgiven himself. He’s been repaying Ted all this time out of gratitude, but I wonder if it was also out of shame and guilt. (Halfway around the world is a long way to go to start a new job with your buddy, but those trying to absolve themselves from past misdeeds used to make lengthy pilgrimages for a reason.) I think there’s always going to have been that little nugget that always hated himself for what he did, that made it so easy to hate Nate as well. And that makes Beard’s reconciliation with Nate that much more beautiful - he’s forgiven Nate, but maybe he’s also finally forgiving himself.

Ted Lasso finale AU where most things are the same but we encourage cutting out the toxic people in our beloved characters' lives.

Jamie gets a restraining order against his dad and they never speak again. Maybe his dad gets sober and supports him from afar. But it's both a bad writing decision for Jamie's arc and a bad message* for the show for them to reconcile without at the very least having Jamie's dad make some kind of reparations in the show.

Beard gets away from Jane even if he doesn't want to because she's so fucking bad for him and dating her is self destructive. Maybe Jane pulls some bullshit that requires the club to get a restraining order against her and then Beard has to choose between her and the club and Higgins puts his fucking foot down and insists that if Beard chooses Jane over the club he at the very least talks to Doc Sharon about it first because Higgins loves Beard, everyone at Richmond loves Beard, but if he leaves for Jane he can't come to games or be in their lives which would tear away his whole support system in England and make him entirely dependent on Jane. Which would be really bad for him. And it's not an ultimatum. But legally Beard can't be a part of Richmond if he's with her. Higgins would try to be there for Beard but the Diamond Dogs aren't the Diamond Dogs if one of them can't legally come to Richmond. It's very fraught but Beard hugs Higgins and talks to Doc Sharon and tells Jane that he needs the club more than he needs her and Higgins helps him block and delete her numbers and email and shit when she flips out.

Maybe she does something unhinged and breaks the restraining order and gets arrested. Maybe Beard spends a few nights sleeping at the club to keep himself safe from her. Maybe Higgins puts him up in his house to keep him safe because Jane burned down his fucking apartment.

No matter what, it's important to me that Beard gets away from Jane and Higgins helps him. Because that was such a good storyline that was totally abandoned and it would be a much better message* for the show to have than Jane and Beard getting married without Ted there and having a baby because that's fucking stupid.

As an aside I don't love Rebecca with the random Dutch man. Like I want her to be happy and if he makes her happy more power to her, buuuut it seems less like she likes him and more like she likes the idea of him so maybe instead.

And this is absolutely unhinged but it crawled into my brain and I kind of love it?

Beard and Rebecca have an incredibly ill-advised hookup exactly once right as he breaks up with Jane and she's grieving her friendship with Ted and retroactively like. Maybe I did love Ted romantically? But now it's too late? And like. Whether she did love Ted romantically, or is just grieving and in a culture that values romance over friendship and the power of her feelings are overwhelming her sense is up to interpretation. But either way. She's having big feelings and Beard is the closest thing to Ted she's got and he's having a melt down over Jane so. Exactly 1 hookup that defies every possible odd and they're platonically Co-parenting a child.

Ted loves this kid more than anything and visits way more often because of it, though. To be clear. I agree with Ted going back to the states because this story is an Odyssey and just like Dorothy no matter how much he loves Oz and his friends he needs to return to Kansas. And I could make a whole separate post on that. But anyway. BeardBecca baby that baffles and confuses everyone but somehow works. They're good friends who bond over their baby, their unexpected love of football/Richmond, and their love of Ted and have a very bizarre friendship that involves co-parenting a fucking brilliant chaotic child.

Also. I am a Roy/Keeley/Jamie truther so. I love Keeley choosing herself and I definitely want her to figure out who she is outside of a relationship for a while. But she and the boys eventually start all dating.

*To clarify: normally I'm not one to double down on the message that a show sends unless it's literally something that is educational and/or designed to teach children about their feelings, but Ted Lasso very much tries to teach the average American viewer about healthy ways to process emotions and non-toxic masculinity etc. So the messages it sends about relationships and forgiveness are very much part of the show and its purpose so having these shitty messages kind of undermines the purpose.

Is the lightning a good or a bad thing? Depends whether you're ready for it or not.