'Ted Lasso' Recap (Seasons 1, 2 And 3): Everything To Remember Before Season 4

The beloved AppleTV sports comedy drama series, Ted Lasso, is finally returning for a 4th time, with new beginnings promised in the trailer that has already been creating a buzz online. The American college football coach who was brought in to manage the English soccer team, AFC Richmond, had brought an overwhelming change to the whole setup through his infectious positivity and sensitive approach to the sport. Although the new season is possibly about to feature a mostly new set of characters, here’s a brief recap of everything that happened in the first 3 seasons and where each of the characters stand.

Spoiler Alert

Did Ted Lasso part ways with AFC Richmond?

Ted Lasso began his football coaching career in England completely clueless, and without even a basic understanding of the sport. But his positive attitude and genuine desire to help people became the highlight of his time at the club. Despite having been hired to intentionally sabotage AFC Richmond’s reputation and status as a Premier League club, Ted’s brand of coaching was so unique that he was requested to stay back for a 2nd season, and then a 3rd one, when the club finally reached new heights of success. But the protagonist’s journey was much more definitive off the pitch than on it, particularly with regards to his own battle with his internal monsters. Ted was sad about the fact that his new job in England would keep him thousands of miles away from his family in Kentucky, and things became all the more difficult when his wife, Michelle, asked him to sign the divorce papers.

It was not even just his struggles with his failing marriage that kept Ted emotionally busy, but his childhood trauma also started to play a part in him suffering from panic attacks on multiple instances. Ted’s father had taken his own life when the protagonist was a young boy, and he had discovered the dead body, which left him traumatized for life. While there came a chance for Ted to talk to a therapist about this, he had chosen not to do so because of another unpleasant experience in the recent past. He even went on to ridicule the therapist, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, who had been successful in helping the Richmond players, mocking her profession in the process. Despite claiming that he believed therapists to be scamsters because he had never been helped by any of the therapists he had consulted before, the real reason was much more personal.

Ted was disturbed by the fact that Michelle was now dating the very therapist the couple had earlier consulted for couples counselling. He felt cheated and let down by not just the doctor in particular, Dr. Jacob, but also developed a feeling of animosity against anyone who practiced the same profession. Therefore, it was a difficult journey for the man himself to come to terms with the situation in his personal life, and to accept that Michelle’s happiness was all that should matter to him, despite the two of them being on completely different pages. Ted signed the divorce papers, and then decided to give therapists another chance as well, by consulting with Dr. Stone and getting immense help from her. Having found emotional stability, he also became a better coach and Richmond came very close to winning the Premier League under his leadership in the 3rd season. Although something of the sort was somewhat expected, it was still a bit shocking to see Ted take the difficult decision of stepping down from the managerial role at the end of season 3, just so he could be closer to his family once again.

But Coach Lasso is now back in the 4th season, as he has supposedly found a new position at AFC Richmond, which is of significant interest to him. As someone who genuinely wants to help people grow and get over their shortcomings, he has finally found a new set of youngsters to lead, and has therefore returned to London to take up coaching once again. As has been made evident through the trailers, Ted Lasso season 4 is going to be about a new women’s team introduced by the club, who are supposedly playing in the 2nd division of women’s football in England. What is easy to notice in the trailers is that both Ted’s son, Henry, as well as his ex-wife, Michelle, are seen cheering him on from the stands during a match. This almost certainly confirms that Ted and Michelle have both come to terms with the situation, and they are friends once more. 

Did Rebecca sell off the club?

When Rebecca Welton first got ownership of AFC Richmond in her divorce settlement with her unfaithful ex-husband, Rupert, her only intention was to run the club to the ground because of how much Rupert loved the team and how much its downfall would hurt him. It was for this reason that Rebecca had hired an inexperienced American football coach, confident that he would completely ruin the stature and reputation of the team. In essence, Rebecca needed to move on from her failed marriage as desperately as Ted, and her experiences throughout the 3 seasons of the show were a therapeutic journey towards healing. She found a new friend in Ted, whom she could not only open up to whenever she felt like, but who also stood up for her in times of need. Ted single-handedly defeated Rupert in a bet in season 1 to help Rebecca keep the team in her control.

It was both because of her friendship with Ted, and also her newfound love for the club, that Rebecca decided to retain the protagonist as the manager of the team and to finally become a dedicated owner to make the business a success. She did not find it easy to completely move on from her messy divorce, especially after Rupert went on to buy the rival London club, West Ham United, and threw all sorts of curveballs at his ex-wife. Later on, when there are talks of a super league, and the owners of all the Premier League clubs sit for a meeting, Rupert makes a preposterous attempt to kiss Rebecca. While he was married once again, and now a father to a child as well, Rupert’s adulterous habits had not died, and he tried to have a quick affair with his ex-wife. Rebecca, on the other hand, had been responsible in love and in making romantic relations, and despite having genuine feelings for one of the players at the club, Sam Obisanya, she chose to not pursue the matter to maintain professional relations.

Ultimately, towards the end of season 3, Rebecca considers selling the club, and then even modifies her plan to sell majority shares so that she can make a handsome offer to Ted and Coach Beard to stay back at Richmond. Eventually, Rebecca decides against it, and sells only 49% of the shares, that too, to the very fans of the club, remaining the majority owner herself. Now, in season 4, Rebecca Welton is about to approve an expansion of the club in the women’s football league in England. This is going to not just be an interesting new project for Rebecca and her friends, but it will also give a much-needed chance to young women who want to pursue a career in professional football. After completely moving on from the trauma that her vile ex-husband had caused her, Rebecca had also finally found love in a stranger she met in Amsterdam, Matthijs, and this relationship is going to continue, as evident from the trailer for the new season.

What has Coach Beard been up to?

Coach Beard had always been the more knowledgeable one when it came to football tactics, which was clearly why Ted always had him around. With his entire focus being on the mental well-being of his players and their chemistry together, Ted relied on Beard for football tactics and strategies. From a purely footballing sense, Coach Beard had been the backbone of AFC Richmond from the very beginning. After he received good support from the other assistant managers, in the form of Nate initially, and then Roy Kent from season 2, the team started to perform brilliantly. But just like the other characters in the show, much of the focus had been on Coach Beard’s personal life and his eccentric personality. He had found an equally colorful and unusual romantic partner in Jane, whom he ultimately chose to marry in the end. Despite being on the flight back to the USA with Ted, Coach Beard feigned sickness and got off the plane just so he could return to his beloved Jane and marry her at Stonehenge. Now, in season 4, Coach Beard is returning to London with Ted, to coach the new women’s team at the club.

Why was Nate forgiven?

After initially being the lovable kitman at AFC Richmond who was turned into an assistant manager by Ted, Nate went on to become a villainous character from the 2nd season onwards. Nate got over his struggles with extremely low self-confidence to finally stand up for himself and demand that he be taken seriously. But with this change came an influx of arrogance and overconfidence, which made him insensitive and outright cruel to those around him. He eventually found a romantic connection with a waitress named Jade, but only after his ‘dark side’ took over him, as represented by him wearing only black suits. It was in order to explore a proper career in management that he accepted Rupert’s offer to coach West Ham, but this was his biggest misstep, and he ended up walking into an extremely toxic work environment, arguably just like he deserved. 

Eventually, Nate was fired by West Ham, and after spending days holed up at his home struggling with depression, things ultimately started to look better. The reason Nate had turned so arrogant and villainous was the severe lack of attention and appreciation that he had experienced from his very childhood. His parents hardly ever showed him any appreciation or support, simply because they were not used to expressing such feelings, and the same had happened at his workplace as well. But once he is out of a job, his parents finally show him the support he had yearned for for so long, and Nate started to realize how he had wronged Ted and the coaching team at Richmond. 

Ted was ready to forgive Nate as well, but his friends were initially totally against such a move, as they felt that he did not deserve any more chances. However, Ted Lasso has always been about second chances and wholesome forgiveness, and so Coach Beard was seen going to Nate to extend a hand of friendship, forgiving him and welcoming him back to Richmond as assistant coach. Ted had always been reminded, either by circumstances or by his son, that Nate had made a grave mistake by joining Rupert’s team, and that he could still be friends with Nate even though they were not working together. Despite having been disrespected and betrayed by Nate earlier, Ted forgave him and welcomed him back under his wing. After a horribly rough and dark patch in life, Nate was finally back at AFC Richmond, and his tactics came in handy in the team’s performance towards the end of the season as well.

Who did Keeley choose to be with?

The other major character in the show, Keeley Jones, started off as a model and the girlfriend of the star footballer in Richmond, and eventually pursued her dream of running her own PR agency. Keeley was able to start her agency, but faced a crisis when one of the most important investors pulled out her money and the company was about to shut down. Around the same time that Ted arrived, Keeley also started to get to know the new owner of the team, Rebecca, and became very good friends with her. It was then Rebecca who invested in Keeley’s PR company to keep it afloat. Finally, it was Keeley who came up with the idea of starting a women’s team at the club to participate in the women’s league, which Rebecca accepts in the 4th season. An equal amount of emphasis had been given on Keeley’s personal life as well, as she kept shuttling between the superstar footballer, Jamie Tartt, and the club captain-turned-assistant coach, Roy Kent. Having initially felt disrespected and underappreciated by Jamie, Keeley turned to Roy, and the two had a strong relationship for some time. But she then started to feel overwhelmed and bogged down by this relationship, which resulted in her eventually breaking up with Roy. At the end of season 3, Keeley ended up choosing to not be with either of the men, and focus on her entrepreneurial career instead. Whether she continues to stick by this decision or gives in to love in season 4 will be interesting to watch.

Will we see the Richmond footballers in season 4?

The footballers playing for AFC Richmond had also quickly become integral parts of the cast that made Ted Lasso so enjoyable, but it looks most likely that the characters will not be returning in season 4, at least in the same capacity as before. By the 3rd season, Sam Obisanya and his brave decision to stand up for what is right made him one of the most loved players in the team. He refused to wear the logo of a sponsor that was carrying out large-scale environmental destruction in his native Nigeria. Then, when a Nigerian billionaire wanted to purchase him for his own super team, Sam refused to be a part of such a capitalist setup. Because of this, he was frozen out of the Nigerian national squad too, but he weathered through all these difficulties and kept his principles above everything else.

On the other side, Jamie Tartt went from being an insensitive and selfish athlete to a total team player, and cemented his position in AFC Richmond legacy. Even more enjoyable to watch was Jamie’s developing friendship with Roy Kent, who once used to be his fiercest rival. Eventually, Roy helped Jamie train and get better in the sport, and the two became close friends, despite their personalities being totally different and almost contrasting. But we won’t be able to follow this bond anymore, as Phil Dunster, who plays Jamie Tartt in the series, has confirmed that he is not a part of the 4th season. With a new set of characters about to be introduced, in the form of the women’s team, nicknamed the Lady Greyhounds, it seems unlikely that we will get to see the beloved footballers from the first three seasons, at least on a permanent basis, as they might still drop in from time to time.

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