TED LASSO - S2 - EP3 - The Same Kit (Patreon)

Reminder! Like I said last time, I know people involved with the very heart of making this show so I’m crazy biased / disregard my take / yada yada yada. I just mostly want us to have a space to talk about this show each week and hear what y’all think. Cool? Cool!

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Remember what I said about good conflict making catharsis all the more impactful? Well, boy howdy does the episode make good on both parts of that equation. But we’ll get to that. First let’s go through subject by subject first because this one is firing on all cylinders. Starting with…

Sassy Returns! - And it was absolutely lovely to have her back. It actually reminds me about what I historically love about Bill Lawrence’s shows, in that they tend to both be wholesome and yet don’t shy away from talking about sexuality whatsoever (to compare, I love Michael Schur, but there’s a dramatic difference in that regard). And nothing makes that more clear than Sassy bringing out all of Ted’s excited embarrassment. The scene is positively full of spit-take moments, but it’s especially the sequence of Ted freaking out over the possibility of a 12 year old girl SOMEHOW being his  (I like that his fear centers override all math abilities). But really it’s Sassy’s commentary on why that’s not possible given where he “finished” and Ted immediately freaking out about this detail being said in front of his boss (to be fair, that’s probably a good boundary). But surely not a boundary that is not going to exist between those two best friends. Granted, the episode isn’t really about Sassy and the two of them restoring any more bonds. No, this episode is about Rebecca restoring her bonds with…

Her Goddaughter Nora - I love when things feel set up. Sure, we never met Nora, but based on that spectacular episode that came last season, I already feel a deep sense of what this relationship is and why it matters to both parties. Also, it’s great because it’s putting Rebecca in a role she’s currently uncomfortable with / nervous about, but you still know she wants to please. Regrettably, Rebecca attempts to do this by going back to all the greatest hits of things they loved doing together when she was younger - without realizing six years is an eternity in childhood and now Nora has much different interests. I also like that this is a very common behavior. There’s always a relative who knew about you when you were 8 and asks if you’re still into dinosaurs or something (Granted, for me everyone knew I liked movies so I guess that didn’t change much). But it’s something Rebecca’s clearly struggling with her and then a lesson on parenting comes from a surprising place…

That would be The Great Roy Kent. Of course, it comes out in his now familiar complaining frustration about how kids always have to be entertained and shit, but the wisdom lies in the how. Specifically the knowledge that it’s not about trying to coddle or placate them, but simply understanding as kids they’re just genuinely interested in your life. Because what this is really about is the removal of barriers, and understanding that at that age they still look up to you and don’t just want your love, but to understand you and your personhood in turn. The key detail of this Rebecca learning that Nora is interested in the inner workings of running a football club - and got interested precisely when it became something that Rebecca did. It’s touching, really (and perhaps bittersweet because we also implicitly understand that in a few short years Nora will be in that teenage zone where she wants to strike out in her own direction). But Nora is also there at the perfect time for Rebecca, because with everything happening at the club, it’s precisely the time for Rebecca to be the kind of person a 12 year old needs here to be…

But this also comes with the acknowledgement that sometimes the people we’re trying to be are much less helpful. Which brings us to…

Led Tasso - Some things are just joyful. And turns out watching Ted Lasso *try* to be a mean old jerk is absolutely one of them. I mean, of course Led Tasso is a full-on persona with his little grumpy face and his hands on his hips; the kind of cartoonish curmudgeon who participates in devastating name-calling like “turd birds.” Also, the idea that Ted basically has to go into a fugue state to accomplish this makes it all the more funny (“how long was I out?”). But what is perhaps lovely about this is how quickly it gets dismantled as being inane. Sure, Sharon fully gets that his attempt to be the bad guy is about taking focus away from Jamie, but pointedly asks of this very-short-term plan: “How often did it work?” Their tangential answer tells the whole story. Because in the end, it only amounts to a temporary realignment that shakes things up for a second to draw focus, but it’s not going to solve the bigger problem. And this club has a bigger problem for certain with…

Jamie’s Return - So Jamie’s coming to the team having been humbled, but being humbled doesn’t mean automatic growth. At least he knows to stay mum when the team immediately starts calling his past behavior, whether basic jerktitue, hitting on moms, or fart cupping. But the issue that hits the team hardest is: “you got us relegated, man!” And this is essentially the rub. When your damage goes beyond mere moments and interactions, when it goes into the kind of betrayal where you go against your old team and end up affecting their livelihoods? Well, then it takes a lot more than the apology tour (even if you mean it). It takes genuine realignment. And that means a whole different mindset and acts of healing. Unfortunately, the scene with Keeley reveals that Jame still has the same core ego-centric thinking under all that humbleness. But what I love is that Keeley nonchalantly drags him to the therapist’s office because this is so not her problem anymore (and I love that Jamie’s so not scared because he gets to talk about himself for an hour). But in the end, the grand start of the realignment doesn’t come from therapy, nor how he plays on the field, but instead the pressing opportunity to stand with a teammate. Which brings us to…

Sam - Oh, good granola. Sam’s face when he disappointed his dad is one of the saddest things imaginable. It’s also one of those moments that makes me realize why we’ve talked about this relationship so much in the show. As I said, with good writing you don’t realize you’re in the set-up. And all those mentions of his father made us think it was about the comparison of him to his relationship with Ted, but here we go even deeper. And to think of how this photoshoot was a big step for him, putting himself out there, being happy that he took pictures for the sponsor and looking like a handsome, charming leader of the team. But being looking like a leader and being a leader can be two dramatically different things. Which he quickly realizes that when his father informs him of the harm that Dubai Air’s parent company has done to their home in Nigeria. It’s devastating. And it’s a storyline that actually unlocks four larger discussions. First of which...

The Nigerian Delta - Awareness matters. We live in a world that’s awash with problems. Everywhere. Every country. Every city. Every home. Every place there are tragedies and traumas that strike so deep that to think about all of them can be paralyzing. But the things we talk about? They at least get the hope of being addressed. And learning about things we never realized can have a great impact. To that, I’ll be honest, I had no idea about the crisis in the Nigerian Delta. It’s somewhat alluded to in the show, but it’s the most oil rich region of Africa. And the oil companies, already infamously blasé about their environmental concerns, have wreaked such utter havoc on the world - but perhaps no place more than the Nigerian Delta (in particular from Royal Dutch Shell). Because there were almost 5,000 oil spills in the last six years. Yes, you read that correctly. They don’t even pretend to put up safety concerns… and no one cares. In other areas of the world there have been at least attempts to mitigate spill damage. But here, like so much ingrained racism that the world has in regards to its treatment of Africa, there have not even been the littlest attempts to clean up the damage. It’s downright staggering. And for people a half a world away, it’s easy to feel helpless, easy for us to think about something else more local. But all politics are local. And here, they are local to a character we love. And as he extends that care to the other characters along with him, it in turn extends to us… That is so much bigger than a “small” effect. That is what it means to be an agent of change. I even saw the subject and articles going around on twitter after the show. There is so much good that can come from shining a light. And as much as there is to say about these kinds of issues, there is so much to also say about their intersection with…

Corporate Influence In Sports - So it’s pretty Capital H Horrible out there. And it’s not just sports. Most things about modern life intersect with corporate influence, especially when you start hitting the interests of the parent companies above you. Even in showbiz you can be working on something small and quickly realize that if you go high enough, that pea-headed turtle pecker Rupert Murdoch is proverbially signing everyone’s checks. It’s sickening. But the thing about sports is they intersect with these corporate and political areas in very public ways. The athletes are your “employees,” but they are also the most forward facing ones within the company. Heck, entire cities and organizations can be made with a single player’s ability. With that comes power and fame, but also pressure and the responsibility to use it wisely. But that can mean different things to different people.

To the people who own and run sports that means staying out of trouble and creating a genial atmosphere for people to escape into. But for an athlete? Well, those pesky local politics can end up being the real responsibility in question. And when athletes speak up it always matters. Because they’re speaking from a part of a machine that wants them to say nothing. I remember how much people dismissed what Colin Kaepernick was doing, even regarding him as a flamed out talent just trying to get attention. He was the only one. But it grew - and he got the attention that mattered precisely because he risked so much. And since then, in the years of outstanding police violence that continued, we got to see if these professional organizations that claimed to embrace Black America were willing to put money where their mouth was. With the murder of George Floyd, the NBA led the charge in general, meaningful support, which is perhaps fitting for a predominantly Black league where even the owners and support staff feel it is critical to do. But you’ll note how little athletes in baseball did by comparison (6% of the league is African American). And in football both where Colin K started his protests and the demographics of players are more evenly split, we saw division / ups and downs / leadership saying one thing then backing out, all of which often played as a quiet war that went on behind the scenes. So for many leaders in those organizations, it showed who they really are. And here with the show, it shows more of that too...

Leadership / Being A Teammate - The notion of leadership exists on many levels. For Sam it was saying “this matters to me,” and taking a personal stand with his countrymen. Where others may have stepped back, the organizational leaders did as SHOULD be done in support. But in a way, it’s easy for Rebecca to say fuck off to one of Richard’s old cronies. But what happens to Sam if that was a working relationship she actually cared about? What happens when they cannot find another sponsor? We already know the team is in trouble financially, but what do these noble choices mean when things get hard? Because sometimes it’s more than being “an ally” and saying the right thing when it’s easy. Sometimes it’s being “a traitor” to the people in one’s big high finance world and facing real problems because of it. Sometimes it’s having something to lose - and losing it… But that’s often when it’s most important to be a teammate, with all the notions that go along with that… which means we have finally come to the episode’s big moment of catharsis…

On Writing “The Moment” - When Jamie said “we gotta wear the same kit” I suddenly burst out crying. And please understand, it’s the kind of moment that’s so good that I want to say nothing. To let it speak for itself. But the reason I cried is not some ethereal magic. It’s because it was a moment that was built to and executed perfectly. So I want to talk about why.

It starts with what I’ve been saying: you can’t have meaningful catharsis without good conflict leading up to it. And so much of the last few episodes have put them at meaningful odds. But today’s episode especially had all these little human touches to the distance between them. The coldness, the distrust, the boiling anger. But rather than milk this conflict for episodes on end (a mistake so many other shows would make), it sets up a scenario for Jamie’s gesture to matter both to Sam and to us. And after all that set-up, there’s so much to the moment itself. It’s the way Jamie looks just prior so you get the sense of it building. You KNOW he might volunteer to do the same. Which is good because there’s no point in surprise. The anticipation is actually critical to it. Because you need to sense a soul in the act of growing. And Jamie sees a chance to be there. To really be there for his teammate. And he acts on it. But as he does it, we feel the emotion and tension of Sam’s distrust of his motive. And put on the spot, he can only say one thing to justify what he’s doing...

Now, so often you see these sorts of moments in television. One where you’re playing a big moment of catharsis and some writers have the instinct to write the line as big as the emotion itself. To verbalize what’s happening too acutely, even having them shout things like “I love you so much and I want to be a great friend to you!” This is almost always a mistake. It doesn’t just wreak of being cloying or on the nose, it plays untrue. Which is why underplaying the moment works so much better. Especially in underwriting the line itself. And double especially when you have that line evoke a matter of factness that somehow speaks to the deeper sentiment in a better way anyway. And here the simple way Jamie offers his solidarity through the reciting of simple rules of football: “We’re teammates. We got to wear the same kit.” This is the kind of thing that strikes us so hard because the emotion is already playing it at 10, and by playing the line at a 4 or a 5? You make it hit so much harder (BTW the all time example of this is “that’ll do pig.”) And no, it doesn’t solve Jamie and Sam’s greater conflict and difference of personality. But it’s Jamie’s moment to show he will back up his words and intentions. To say, “I will play alongside you, whatever that looks like.”

And with that, this episode gave us the first Lasso-esque mega-catharsis of the season.

Brav-fucking-o.

BEST JOKES / RANDOM NOTES

-Rebecca: “Did he talk like that during… ?” / Sassy: “Oh, the whole time. And so eager to please. It was fantastic.” Bahahahahhaha confirmation that Ted is also enthusiastically LIKE THAT during sex. This is now CANON.

-I love how pumped that one reporter was when he got Ted’s reference.

-I actually loved that beat where Jamie first tried to trash talk in the locker room because it highlights how trash talking is something you actually have to earn. Because everyone knows the trash talker who can’t back it up. Just as they know the trash talker who isn’t doing it out of mutual respect and just being mean. This detail could seem innocuous, but it is something that really helps set up that ending catharsis, too.

-I love the subtle “Bantr” plotline about how the service quickly went from “meaningful” to full horny and how Rebecca playfully-yet-honestly admitted they were all humoring her about the experience, but still giving it a genuine try. Just another one of those note perfect things in their friendship that I love.

-Sooooooooo many amazing jokes this week. I don’t know if you caught this one, but when everyone was yelling at Jamie the new Dutch Guy yelled: “I don’t know you! But I don’t like you!” Gosh, I love him so.

-It seems small but I love the way they manifested Sam’s anger earlier on in the episode because it felt in character. He didn’t get really angry at Ted, or even Jamie, it was more that deeply unamused look of “see, told you so” look that was so much more devastating.

-Ted missing the boat on the uniform thing feels like more of “Ted missing a lot of big things” and being bad at communication this season. I wonder if this is a set-up for something? Also, speaking of communication skills…

-Ted: “Think he heard me?”

Beard: “I do.”

Ted: “Think he’s going to listen to me?”

Beard: “I do not.”

-There’s this great moment between Rebecca and her goddaughter that really characterizes something to me, which is the way humor can often be wielded like a weapon. The point of jokes is they tend to alleviate tension, right? But when you play with tension, sometimes you just tap into that tension without really alleviating anything. Nora says: “just making sure you’re not going to disappear for another six years!” Then follows it up with: “I’m joking” But it’s like, no you’re not. You’re just telling the truth. And doing so in this way because it’s the only way you know how to say what you’re feeling. Because, honestly, it’s a way of holding power and putting control into a room. Now, with Nora’s case it’s much more justified, but it’s the sort of moment that reminds me of so many other moments in my life. Especially in how makes me remember how many bad situations I’ve been in where terrible, terrible men say terrible, terrible things and always are like “I’m just joking!” When really they’re not at all. Perhaps they don’t even realizing they’re aiming for control. Sometimes that kind of menacing control that makes people feel bad or “less than,” without trying to take responsibility for engaging in that behavior. For there is no relief of tension here. There is only the exacerbation of it. The grabbing of it. And the wielding of it like a weapon. Basically, you see young men do this all the time because they’re taught it through and through. Anyway, I just can’t stop thinking about how this moment also taps into that same psychology, albeit in a much less toxic way.

-“Can we have ice cream for dinner?” / “No, that’s dumb.” God I love Roy Fucking Kent.

-Keeley: “When you’re not here I sometimes use your office, I like the light and absence of smells.”

-Wait, I’m pretty sure some version of Bantr actually exists? And had the same problem? Am I missing a reference?

-Ted: “Some folks might consider that buying affection.”

Jamie: “Yeah, I know. What better way to spend money than on love?”

Ted: “He sure do thread that needled sometimes, don’t he?” (That’s just a perfect line)

-Keeley: “She got it quicker than Ted did.” I love that Ted is exceedingly good at abstract emotional concepts, but pretty darn stupid about abstract technical concepts… and even some basic math and logic.

-Rebecca: “You got in trouble for chewing gum?” / Nora: “No, I was smoking. I just don’t want a lecture.”

-Our new friend Led Tasso had several gems this week including: ““you all wanna be married to a ball?!” and the way-dark-for-Ted allusion to his past: “I haven’t seen a pass that soft since my high school drama teacher asked me to mow his lawn!” But really it was this one that slayed me: “You all gonna so dehydrated you gonna look like a tree from a Tim Burton movie! I’m talking any Tim Burton movie! Even freaking Dumbo!”

-But perhaps the best line of the episode of course belongs to: “Jamie Tartt is a muppet and I hope he dies of the incurable condition of being a little bitch.” Roy Kent is undefeated.

-I will also never get tired of the fact that in England they call tough guys, “Hard Men.”

-I adore the idea that they celebrated breaking the tie streak even though it was a loss.

-Going back to the issue of awareness, there were actually some political issues like this with LA sports last decade. Specifically with the wonderful Armenian community in LA and the huge problems that came when players advertised for Turkish Airlines and were completely unaware of how devastating that can be. This may have been an influence here given the airline thing, but again, all politics is local. Especially when it’s yours.

-With all these wonderful things being said, I have nothing but endless props to Ashley Nicole Black of A Black Lady Sketch Show for writing this episode. People spend a lot of time talking about diversity itself as the end all be all of things, like it’s the appearance of inclusion that makes things seem better. No, you bring in different voices because it really, truly makes the end result better. Simple as that.

<3HULK