Nate alternated between his different selves this week as his and Ted’s teams finally faced off.
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By Christopher Orr
Season 3, Episode 4: ‘Big Week’
So who are you going to be Nate? Just as in the season premiere, you alternate between selves this week: the kind, if highly insecure, former “kit boy” who recognizes the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Ted Lasso gave you to become an assistant coach; and the bullying tyrant whom Rupert, Rebecca’s abominable ex-husband, encouraged you to be as manager of the powerhouse team West Ham United?
Following an amusing scene in which we witness the begin of the training regimen that Roy intends to put Jamie through — “But it’s 4 a.m.,” wails Jamie, speaking for me more eloquently than he has at any other time on the show — we go to Nate, playing with a fancy-looking set of soccer figurines on a pitch. (Another gift, I would wager, from Rupert, who bought him a sports car the last time around.) Nate pings the toy ball, marble-like, knocking the figure representing Ted off the pitch and onto the floor. “Whoops,” he says, with a smile.
But that smile has scarcely formed before it dies on his face. He picks “Ted” up off the floor and replaces him where he belongs on the pitch. Nate’s “There you go” is scarcely audible. It’s a look that speaks a thousand words — although, in keeping with habit, I’m sure I will write many more in this recap.
(Nick Mohammed, who plays Nate, is doing his best work of the show so far this season, no longer the goofy kit boy nor the Kylo Ren of the Premier League, but someone trapped in a liminal zone somewhere in between.)
We cut immediately to Ted in bed. But before we see his face we see on his bureau the photo taken when he first offered Nate the assistant coach job, with Nate’s “Ted, I thank you for everything you’ve done for me” scrawled upon it. Viewers may recall that last season a furious, seemingly underappreciated Nate berated Ted for not having the photo in his office. Little did he know that it occupied a still loftier spot, on the dresser where Ted dresses to “Easy Lover” every morning.
‘Ted Lasso’ Is Back
This twinning of the two Nates occurs again later, when the suddenly famous Nate goes to pick up food from his dad’s favorite third-tier restaurant and again encounters the hostess, Jade (Edyta Budnik), who has no idea who he is and treats him precisely as perfunctorily as she did last season — even after her manager comes out and treats him like a superstar. This is the old Nate: overlooked, heartbroken, desperate for the attention he has never gotten from his father.
And then, near the end of the opposite, the polar opposite: Nate walks into Rupert’s party at the Bones and Honey Club, where he is feted like a prince and Rupert — more on him shortly — essentially offers him a beautiful woman named “Anastasia” (Elee Nova, an actress and model).
Nate tries more than once to be civil to Ted, but he’s always distracted. He forgets even to shake Ted’s hand after West Ham blows out Richmond. Rupert watches Nate’s mixed feelings, and is clearly nonplused at the chinks in the armor he has been trying to build around Nate. When Nate calls him “Rupert” — as Rupert had expressly requested he do a couple of episodes ago — the latter corrects him: “Mr. Mannion.”
And all of this is to say nothing, of course, of Nate’s cruel (if clumsy) tearing of the “Believe” sign in the Richmond locker room, which unexpectedly leads to Richmond’s collapse (the less said about which, the better). Which is it going to be Nate? The light side or the dark side? Ted or Rupert?
Keeley, Shandy, Barbara and Jack
Well, finally some signs of life from this story line. Shandy’s outside-the-box suggestions (“free subscriptions!”) turn out to be not so clever after all. And Jack (Jodi Balfour), who is essentially Keeley’s boss, has clearly noticed. Who could have imagined that it would be a bad idea to hire a former friend and flat mate to a job for which she has literally no experience whatsoever?
And it’s interesting to see this new side of Barbara, Keeley’s CEO, normally so rude and borderline insubordinate, now that she is dealing with someone she sees as a true superior. I’m still not a huge fan of the story line. But at least there are intimations of some potentially interesting conflicts yet to come.
Rebecca and Rupert
Rupert may have won the battle (West Ham won the big match 4-1), but he has possibly already lost the war. Despite the blowout, Rebecca has something new: ammunition. Shortly after the match is over, she spots Rupert canoodling with his assistant Ms. Kakes (Rosie Lou), which is a very bad look — but one senses that in Rupert’s case, it’s a typical one — for a married man with a young child. This could be worth a lot more to Rebecca than any single win in the Premier League.
Among other things, it explains the remarkably supercilious attitude Kakes has displayed toward even senior West Ham officials — including, especially, Nate. I had assumed it was merely the secondary authority of someone who represents the Big Boss. But it is evidently considerably more than that.
Did anyone else notice that at the Bones and Honey party Bex was not visibly present — no doubt home with the infant — but Ms. Kakes was, and Rupert seemed overtly … friendly? This is certainly not the last we have seen of this story line.
Ted
As noted earlier, the fact that this season opened with Ted’s face suggests that it will be largely Ted’s story. (The two previous seasons opened with Rebecca and Nate, respectively.) But what will that story be? After his conversation with Sassy, it seems unlikely that his life path lies in that direction.
The closing scene, however, offered at least one alternative. Ted had said, way back in Season 1, that his wife Michelle had left him at least in part because his positive thinking and constant optimism were “too much” for her. So when he calls her at the end of the episode, and she asks if everything is OK, he replies with an uncharacteristic, “yeah, yeah yeah — well, no.” He then goes on to tell her that her relationship with “Dr. Jacob” — their former marital therapist — “really ticks him off.”
This is no customary Ted Lasso comment. He goes on to confess that maybe this wasn’t the right thing to say. But what if it was?
What if his arc this season is to come to terms with the fact that he doesn’t always have to be chipper with everyone, all the time? What if he comes to realize that his father didn’t kill himself because young Ted did not tell him “I appreciate you” often enough? What if he finds a middle path in which he can still be a good guy while still expressing his hurt and frustration without resorting to ridiculous gimmicks like “Led Tasso,” as he did in Episode 3 of last season? What if he and Michelle can reconcile and he can move back with her and Henry?
I should state that I write this with no foreknowledge. I am no farther along in the season than any of you. But the two last shots of the episode — one of Ted looking at least modestly relieved at his confession and then one of Michelle looking wistful, sad, maybe even a little happy? — make me wonder.
Odds and ends
First off, thanks to the many readers who pointed out that I should have made more of the revelation that Colin is gay. It didn’t seem to me that it was a very big deal — I at first thought that what Trent saw at the end was Colin cheating. But then, of course, being gay is obviously a much bigger deal if you are a Premier League footballer. (There has never been an active, openly gay player in the Premier League.) I also apparently missed a reference to “Victor/Victoria.”
It was fun watching the Richmond coaching staff trying to figure out how to outthink how Nate would inevitably outthink them. In my recap of the season opener, I called Nate a “work in progress.” Now, Ted of course one-ups me by calling himself a work in “prog-mess.”
Two excellent Zava moments. First the revelation that he let his eldest name himself “Smingus-dingus.” And later his disquisition of the three forms of passion: love, crime, and sometimes a fruit.
And as for who will play Trent Crimm in a future film — Robert Redford? Dustin Hoffman? C’mon. No one can play Trent Crimm except James Lance.
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