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What happened in the Ted Lasso season 3 finale?


NEWYORK –


This story contains spoilers.

Roy Kent cried. Nate Shelley apologizes. Rebecca Welton let her anger pass. Trent Crimm completes his book. Keeley Jones embraces her power. And the good-natured but misguided Ted Lasso finally — after three seasons, but supposedly after nearly a lifetime — found exactly where he needed to go.

Criticized by some for getting lost in its third season, “Ted Lasso” ended exactly the franchise — by taking a group of strongly-engaged characters who were lost and trapped, and freeing them. from the chains that usually belong to them. do it yourself. “Can one change?” Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) wonders. The answer, after Wednesday, was a resounding “maybe.”

“Perfect is boring,” Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) said at one point during the season’s finale (and possibly the whole series). And if there was a travel guide to the three seasons of Apple TV+, that quote could be across from the title page.

“Ted Lasso” became Whitman’s Model of stalemate in times of pandemic with a message that, whether it’s delivered with a subtle look or a giant narrative, it’s impossible not to cause resonate in the post-pandemic context: Moments get stuck, you don’t have to last forever.

It’s hard to find a show that has more people stuck – trapped in the amber of circumstances or their own choices. Keeley (Juno Temple) was trapped. Roy was trapped. Jamie (Phil Dunster) is trapped. Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is trapped. Trent, Colin and Sam (James Lance, Billy Harris and Toheeb Jimoh) are trapped. Nate (Nick Mohammed) was trapped. Even sports psychologist Sharon (Sarah Niles), to some extent, is stuck.

And of course, Ted himself (Jason Sudeikis), a lost boy with a mustache and a ton of nonsense, who has been trapped in the quicksand of grief for most of his life and, as it turns out, needs a mission to help others in need. he found his own way forward.

‘STUCK’ IS A FAVORITE TV THEME

Characters stuck in the bog are nothing new. It has been a useful storytelling tool and is often used from “It was a wonderful life” (1946) to “Snake Day” (1993) and beyond. But something more intense is happening lately. Take a tour through genres in America’s streaming scene over the past four years, say four, and you’ll see loads of deadlocks in almost any direction you look.

Scarlet Witch in Marvel’s “WandaVision”? Stranded. Nadia in “Russian Doll”? Stuck in markedly different ways in seasons one and two. Alma in “Undone,” Carmy in “The Bear” and “Mare of Easttown”? Stuck, stuck and stuck. Even some of the most recent streaming stars — “Severance,” “Shrinking” and “Star Trek: Picard” just ended — focus on central characters trapped by bad choices. , injury or loss of purpose.

Then there are shows about the embodiment of stalemate: “Ghost” and “Spirit of the School”, both of which tackle the issue from the vantage point of those who have left the mortal coil but – even then – can’t seem to figure out how to get where they’re going.

“Ted Lasso” distills this subject to the Nth degree without resorting to supernatural activity. This group of people, seen from afar, is an entire citadel of stalemate – albeit in different ways.

Keeley is paralyzed by uncertainty, Roy by anger, Jamie by trauma and ego, Trent by expectations. Nate is being derailed by feelings of inadequacy and Colin by fear of judgment. Sam is stuck by family and national expectations. Rebecca sinks in scars from her partner’s psychological abuse. Arguably the only protagonist who doesn’t get stuck is Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift), a virtuoso jazz musician and devoted family man — and the only character who understands all that. that’s right here, right now is where he wants to be.

He had a foot on many of us. The COVID-19 pandemic has for a time embodied stalemate. “Ted Lasso” came out in the middle of it, on August 14, 2020. Now, nearly three years later, aren’t we navigating an entire generation growing up amid a pandemic of isolation and rifts? deeply political? Aren’t there millions of people across the republic who are trapped in small, personal struggles to avoid being trapped or – maybe even more difficult – trying to avoid being in it?

MOTHERS LEARN FROM THE POOL

The other elephant in the “Ted Lasso” room — the elephant directly involved in the stalemate — is also the cause of the Anglo-American divide that is often used to make fun of the show.

A few weeks ago, the “Lasso” cast went to the White House to talk about mental health. At the time, Sudeikis said this: “We shouldn’t be afraid to ask for our own help.”

That shows — no, openly suggests — that going it alone, “American,” doesn’t always make sense and, as the poet John Donne put it centuries ago, “No ai is an island entirely by itself; each is a part of the continent, a part of itself.” Bringing together so many different people from so many places — an international football team — provided the ideal picture for the show’s thesis. It turns out that different perspectives can produce better results. Go picture.

Those who say that “Ted Lasso” was treacherous and a bit bummed in season three are right. Plot lines are dropped or over-compressed. Nuanced villains are not the standout issue of this show, and dark deeds have never defined the era. The only real villain — Rupert Mannion (Anthony Head) — is a moustache with a goatee (the mustache has been taken away, of course) and is mostly a spoiler. , an island full of intrigue alone in a sea of ​​emotions.

It’s OK. Because if the show has one message for those of us stuck inside, it’s this: Maybe, just maybe, hierarchical affection can get you out of a deadlock. And more than that, you might have a hard time giving a part of yourself to someone else. “The best thing we can do,” says Higgins, “is keep asking for help and accepting it when you can.”

In the United States in 2023, that’s still a harder-to-sell message than it should be. But it is more relevant than ever. Emotions keep you stuck, but emotions also set you free. Effort can make you vulnerable, but effort matters.

“I just have to try,” Rebecca told Ted at one point during the finale. That is ultimately the answer to getting out of the deadlock. And it goes right back to the song we’ve been listening to for weeks in the opening credits — finally, the key to unlocking the entire program.

“That might be all you get.

I guess this could also be it.

But heaven knows I tried…”

——


Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation at the Associated Press, has been writing about American culture since 1990.

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