The penultimate episode of Ted Lasso Season 4 drops audiences off in their feelings this week as we start to see our investments in the season’s plots pay off. It reminds us all that life waits for no one. With Anthony Heard (Rebecca’s ex-husband Rupert) having passed last year, it is an appropriate episode to dedicate in his memory.
The episode moves quickly with a no-nonsense pregnancy bombshell after CMO Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) faints while cheering for her gals and Mae Greene (Annette Badland) being cajoled into joining the team on the road for their next big-ticket matchup. Richmond’s #1 fan joins the team bus for a road trip, but Keeley reluctantly stays home in an attempt to maintain a healthy blood pressure for the baby.
Well into the season and faced with the unexpected prospect of promotion, Richmond Lady Greyhounds lock in as a team. As an audience, we spend the moments between plays exploring heavy themes of life, death, and corporate sabotage. This is the sort of earnest episode Ted Lasso does best. Filled to the brim with wit, references, and the sort of easter eggs that a Swiftie could only dream of, it is easy to forget that Ted Lasso is at heart a show that celebrates the nuance of the human condition– a condition that is up, down, and all around. This episode is an unforgiving, yet tidy, reminder that all those directions typically exist simultaneously and do not wait for you to buckle your seatbelt.
Jokes aside, this article will contain major spoilers for Episode 9 “Mae Rides the Bus.” Proceed at your own risk.
Every Dog Has Its Day: Lady Greyhounds Lock In and Show Off Their Growth
In this episode, we not only see Gemma Jay return to play after rehabbing an ACL injury and absolutely terrorizing her coaches to put her back in the lineup, but we are also shown a version of Gemma that is much more team-minded and receptive to feedback. The star player’s personality is larger than ever, and her energy carries the team, the fans, and the staff forward through the important match. Taking her own penalty kick after a tangled-up tumble, she nails a goal against the leading Bristol, narrowing the gap to 2-1 just before half-time. In the locker room though, she admits that she felt a twinge in her knee. Coach Chilton exercises her new trust muscles and tells her that she shouldn’t play the second half, but ultimately leaves the decision up to Gemma– a big ask of them both.
Katie Quinn, the Richmond Goalkeeper aka “Boots,” played by nonbinary icon Jude Mack (hi, big fan), has her own moment of evolution and self-acceptance during the half-time break in play. Famously bare-handed and sober, Boots has made no bones that she doesn’t like “not feeling” things. While she is icing her hands, which she has declared to have at least one broken finger, you can’t help but wonder what her stoicism could be capable of if she had better tools at hand.
Turning Marcus Auraleis on his head like only a man with curtain bangs can, Coach Beard offers a new perspective to the tough footballer: “What brings no benefit to the bee, brings even less to the hive.” Faced with the supposition that maybe all that self-imposed suffering is doing her, and her team, a disservice, both Boots and the audience are faced with big thoughts around themes of the unattainable standard women hold themselves to. When Coach Beard hands over a pair of gloves, there is undeniably some big “creative soul hesitantly starts SSRIs” energy going on.
Gemma does not, in fact, return in the second half of the match, and we finally see backup striker Shannon Stone’s (Shannon Hayes) game-time debut. Predictably (but with no less excitement), all her late nights and solo drills pay off as she finally gets out of her own way and lets her strength and improved technicality explode. After the Harrigan twins (Aisling Sharkey and Rex Hayes) set up their Captain (Lizzie, played by Faye Marsay) for an equalizer, Boots decides that they can find more than a draw. Getting in formation, Shannon nails a late-game lob from her Keeper to clinch not only the win, but the league promotion. It is the swelling peak of the episode’s hand-over-hand climb.
It is during the following scene’s chaotic celebrations that the rug is pulled from beneath the audience’s feet.
Blink and You’ll Miss It: Ted Lasso Showrunners Nail the Condition of Living
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you it is much more serious than that.” Bill Shankly, Liverpool FC
While the team, grandstands, and box seats celebrate the electrifying win and league promotion, the breadcrumbs of Mae Green’s mortality (mentions of age, feeling overspent, forgoing rest) are found leading to her unfortunate and rather sudden death. Presumably claimed by a heart attack from prolonged overexertion during the match and its explosive end, the audience does not witness Mae’s collapse but is shown the space of her absence as she lies just below frame while her seatmate calls for emergency medical attention. The next scenes are of celebration and joy across the cast, a jarring contrast to the story we are watching unfold as omnipresent spectators.
Having cheekily decided to switch her box seat ticket with a fan in the supporters’ section at the start of the game, no one associated with Richmond is aware of Mae’s passing until the end of the episode.
Just Like Last Week’s “There IS Crying In Football,” Ted Lasso Writers Let the Audience Feel Their Feelings in Season 4
While Higgins and Rebecca celebrate the win and wish that Keeley had been present to see it (little do they know that Zaddy-turned-Daddy Roy Kent has been acting out a very zen performance of the game’s high points for her), we finally see Keeley tell him the big news that she is pregnant with their child.
Both the moment when Keeley breaks her baby news to Roy and when Rebecca notifies Ted of Mae’s sudden passing, the conversation is withheld from the viewer while the world on screen moves around their respective pockets of stillness. We see Rebecca and Ted crestfallen in total silence and Roy’s quiet joy in stark juxtaposition… and similarity. What’s remarkable about how the Lasso writer’s room approached these scenes is not only that they are tied together, but also how lens of the show focuses less on the characters at the center of their scenes, and more on how the news impacts those around them– something that Ted Lasso writers do incredibly well, and is directly informed by the overarching theme of the season: what it means to belong.
Mae’s death is about something larger and more nebulous than her own character’s passing; it’s about the condition of life and how it doesn’t even stop for death. The trust in the show displays in the audience in this moment to explore the spaces and feelings they have been led to, and are likely familiar with personally, is something that Ted Lasso showrunners seem to have honed in the off years. There is always a more internal story happening just beyond the humorous bit work, and this new landscape of play is no different. Alongside this heavy work, it can be argued that the big Zelda Southport-courts-shareholders reveal almost fades into the background. Though, there may be more to be said about Higgins’ doggedness than meets the eye. He has a certain je-ne-sais-Scooby Doo about himself this season.
It will be interesting to see how the final episode of the season plays out with such profound changes afoot.
The final episode of Ted Lasso drops on October 7 on AppleTV.
