It’s the end of Richmond AFC as we know it. This week, Ted Lasso aired what might be its penultimate episode—but the fate of Apple TV+’s treasured series remains uncertain, up in the air since it began airing new episodes earlier this year. Will Ted Lasso continue? Or next week, on May 31, will Ted Lasso bid farewell to the world—the third series to do so in less than a week, with Barry and Succession also airing their final episodes this Memorial Day weekend? We need answers!
After watching this week’s episode, “Mom City,” I can say with some confidence that we’re about to face a big twist in the finale. If you were hoping for some kind of answers, as we all wait nervously for a Season 4 pick-up, a spinoff announcement, or a confirmation of the series’ end, you won’t find it in this overlong episode. (It’s 70 minutes long, over twice as long as the sitcom’s episodes used to be.) Instead, you’ll see the characters as frazzled and confused as the rest of us, spinning themselves in circles to fill the runtime without spoiling as to whether or not this is the last season.
Still, we appear to be heading somewhere. In the wake of Nate’s (Nick Mohammed) departure from West Ham, with little character growth for him (other than a long violin solo) in last week’s episode, a handful of Richmond players show up at his door asking Nate to return as a coach. What did he do to redeem himself from being the show’s villain? Nate is embarrassed over his departure and short tenure with West Ham, so he hums and haws over his decision to return for the entire episode. In the meantime, nearly everyone from the team visits him to convince him to return. Again: Did I miss the redemption arc completely?
Even Ted (Jason Sudeikis) makes a case for Nate. But this feels less like Ted supporting his ex-employee and more like Ted’s way to find a replacement for himself. Ted’s mom (Becky Ann Baker, who always makes for a delightfully huggable mom) visits out of the blue to beckon her son back to the States. Ted’s son Henry (Gus Turner) misses him so much, she says. Life isn’t the same without Ted in good ol’ Kansas City. But Ted is resistant to return, when he has a new family that needs him—and there’s some pent-up trauma Ted is compartmentalizing, with regard to his mother.
In this belated Mother’s Day episode, we also get to peek into Jamie’s (Phil Dunster) personal life, when Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Keeley (Juno Temple) stalk him after practice. (Jamie has complained that he’s lost his magic touch. Naturally, following him around the English countryside will fix things.) They end up at Jamie’s family home after several hours of walking, where they meet the Tartt family.
Jamie has earned the best arc of Season 3 and, at this point, the best of the entire show too. Like Nate, he has bounced from team to team, only to find his way back to Richmond. His unexpected partnership with Roy, who has always been his arch-nemesis, has been a real treat to watch—especially when it reaches its peak in this episode, when we get to see Jamie’s childhood bedroom, adorned with a retro Roy Kent football poster. “Decorations have come and gone,” Jamie’s step-father tells Roy, “but that one has always stayed around.” Oh, how I missed this sweet earnestness of Ted Lasso.
This gives purpose to Roy’s character, too, who has been grappling with the added responsibility of being a coach this season. Working with Jamie has been a big, daunting task for Roy. But his temper is a task Roy has taken on willingly, with fervent enthusiasm at that. If Roy were to put this much effort into each one of his players, might they see the same success that Jamie is rewarded with in this episode? He clinches the win in a tight game for Richmond, finally getting that spark back—no longer with a bitter, egotistical mindset towards his team but, rather, love for everyone involved in the sport.
Roy has taken on a bounty of new responsibilities in these last few episodes, from consoling the team captain Isaac (Kola Bokinni) to leading press conferences about the Jamie situation. After last week’s episode, I wrote about why it's prime time for Roy to take over as head coach for the team. He may be lacking in the “emotional speeches” department, but with Nate and Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) around, they could each fill one aspect of Ted’s character in his departure.
And although we don’t get any solid answers on Ted’s possible exit—since Sudeikis said this would be the last season of the show, at least for him—we end on a cliffhanger that suggests he might be heading out. When Ted confesses that he’s been seeing a therapist—he has?—his mom brushes him off by saying professional help was “never for her.” Later in the episode, Ted finally confronts his issues with her: She’s always pushed the death of Ted’s father under the rug, pretending as though it never happened. She apologizes but also reprimands Ted for similarly pushing away his own son.
Ted’s mom leaves, and Ted is clearly affected by her words. When Rebecca comes to visit his office a few minutes later, acting as though she has something huge to announce, she reveals she actually has “no truth bombs” for Ted. Ted responds, “Well, I do.” What big revelation would Ted be dropping on Rebecca other than his plan to leave England and head back home, to be with his son?
While Ted Lasso fans might send me to The Hague for saying so, my response to this big plot twist is: good riddance! I’ve had a lot of fun seeing Roy step into the spotlight—even if his relationship with Keeley has been shaky and confusing—especially considering Goldstein has been forward about his desire to work more on the show. This entire season has been a dragging will-they-won’t-they mess between Ted and America, and I’m ready for it to end. Send him home. We’ve got Colin, Trent, Isaac, Roy, Jamie, Dani, Rebecca, and more folks to keep us afloat.
I do wish Ted Lasso had this departure planned more solidly in advance, though. Ted’s departure has only become clear in these past three or four episodes, meaning that the entire first half of this season—remember Zava (Maximilian Osinski)?—now feels entirely unnecessary. While the early part of Ted Lasso Season 3 seemed to serve as a swansong for the show (seeing as Sudeikis made his big statement that this would be its last season), the second half has been an awkward combo of bidding farewell to Ted, while also cleaning up plot holes from the first few episodes.
But I believe in Ted Lasso, and I’m hoping Ted’s departure fixes things for this severely misguided show. “Mom City” feels like far from the second-to-last episode of a beloved show, devoid of any grand gestures or character departures. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: This episode proves that Ted Lasso can and should carry on without Ted. It’s just the beginning for Roy, Nate (though the writers have a lot to work on with him), Rebecca, and Jamie in a post-Ted landscape.
