[This story contains spoilers for “Big Week,” episode four of Ted Lasso season three.]
The “Big Week” of the title in this episode of Ted Lasso is AFC Richmond’s first meeting with West Ham, now led by former Greyhounds assistant Nate (Nick Mohammed). It’s a grudge match that gets extra grudge-y, even as Nate is still stewing in some very complicated feelings toward his former boss, Ted (Jason Sudeikis).
Nate’s heel turn at the end of season two shocked a lot of Ted Lasso viewers, to the point that even Mohammed was a bit surprised by the reaction. “People were angry. They took it really personally,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I can only think it’s because season one Nate, that arc was [he was the] underdog hired by Ted, does good and gets promoted. It’s something we can all cling on to because we love those stories. They’re sort of sports movie tropes. Because we were rooting for Nate, it felt like an even bigger gut punch and fall from grace when he does betray Ted.”
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The first third of this season hasn’t done much to reform Nate, from his press-conference insults in the opener to his still-painful attempts to impress the hostess at his favorite neighborhood restaurant. But it’s clear from this episode, and his very conflicted responses to seeing Ted again, that there are things he’d probably like to unload but either is unwilling or doesn’t have the tools to process (probably a bit of both).
One thing that’s not in question, though, is Nate’s tactical mind: After his club goes up 1-0 on Richmond late in the first half, he immediately switches tactics; Ted and Richmond are caught off guard, and West Ham grabs another goal just before halftime.
And then things really get ugly: Earlier in the episode, Isaac (Kola Bokinni) jumps up to touch the “Believe” sign in the Richmond locker room and notices it’s been torn and taped back together. Trent Crimm (James Lance) digs through old security footage and discovers Nate is the culprit (something the audience knew but other characters didn’t until now). Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Beard (Brendan Hunt) want to show the video to the team before the match, but Ted refuses.
With good reason, it turns out: When Ted steps out of the locker room at halftime to speak to Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), the assistant coaches play the video. In a hackier sports story, this would fire up Richmond so much that they played an impeccable second half and pulled out an improbable victory. Instead, the club comes out looking for blood and plays a nasty, red card-filled half that ends with a 4-1 West Ham win, and Zava (Max Osinski) upset with Jamie (Phil Dunster) because the latter dared to take a shot on goal. (Zava, we’re told in the play-by-play voiceover, gets the lone Richmond goal to avoid a shutout.)
Ted, in either a remarkable show of restraint or the seed for his next panic attack, chooses not to bite off the heads of Roy and Beard afterward. Nate is ushered into Rupert’s (Anthony Head) private world and introduced to a model as a post-victory perk (eww), while the owner paws at his assistant (double eww). And yet: Nate still has thought twice or three times about speaking to Ted, only to turn away or be pulled away. His actions suggest there’s hope Nate won’t fall too far under Rupert’s thrall, but Mohammed said his character has a complicated path ahead.
“There’s a lot of talk about whether Nate gets a redemption arc, and it’s not really for me to comment on. Like a lot of things in Ted Lasso, it’s never clear-cut in that way,” Mohammed told THR. “There’s a truth to it where it’s neither one nor the other. It’s not yes, he gets fully redeemed or no, he never does. It’s more complex than that, partly because Nate is a complicated character. Yes, he has unfinished business with Ted, and he does get to a place of catharsis, I think, with that, but whatever that means, whether he’s fully forgiven or whatever, we kind of have to wait and see.”
Odds and ends:
* Rebecca has been extremely tightly wound about Rupert and West Ham all season so far, to the point that she tells Ted at halftime, “I believe in you” and almost makes it sound like a threat. But when she sees Rupert grabbing at his assistant after the match, it’s almost like she does a full reset. She seems to be warming to Rupert’s current wife, Bex (Keeley Hazell), and when she sees her ex repeating the pattern he did with her, Rebecca seems to realize that he’s not worth all the space he takes up in her head. Telling him she saw what he did and that his wife and child deserve better is arguably the biggest win of the episode for anyone.
* Ted also takes a moment to vent, even if he can’t say more to his ex, Michelle (Andrea Anders), than “This whole thing with Dr. Jacob” — their former couples counselor, now her boyfriend — “really ticks me off.” Still, that’s a pretty big leap for him, given that he seemed to have trouble processing the idea that Sassy (Ellie Taylor) told him he’s “a mess” (which he seemed to realize, at least in part, last season, but nonetheless).
* Keeley (Juno Temple) has an awkward first meeting with the venture capitalist who’s funding her company — or rather, an awkward second meeting: Jack, as it turns out, is not a guy as she assumed but a woman (played by Jodi Balfour) from whom she borrowed a tampon in the ladies’ room a few minutes earlier. Not a lot comes from their first encounters, other than Keeley having to apologize for Richmond’s play in the loss and taking Shandy (Ambreen Razia) aside after she makes a big overreach with Bantr, but it’s likely laying groundwork for much more to come.
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