TED LASSO - S2 - EP4 - Last Christmas, This Christmas… (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!

* * *

For better or worse, Christmas makes you think.

And feel. And maybe a whole bunch of other things, too. But it probably depends on your circumstance. I don’t know what the holidays have meant for you or whether or not our experiences have even been similar. For instance, I know a lot of people back home who have been having the same exact Christmas traditions for generations. Sometimes the families are getting bigger. And sometimes there’s a few bits of hard hitting loss. But that consistency of tradition so defines the holidays for them. For me, it always seemed a bit different. Whether growing up and splitting time between parents. Or when we took it as the rare afforded time off to travel. Or when I moved out here and my Mom sometimes took it as an opportunity to visit someplace warm. Honestly, for the last twenty years I’ve had so many weird, random christmases, with radically different rosters, and often spent them working for one reason or another. But some of my favorite ones were just when I was cooking for a lot of friends.

But with all that constant change I can tell you that it meant I was always taking stock of said change. When you are watching on as other people are steeped in communal tradition, it radically focuses those questions for you: who is in your life? How does it feel? Where were you last time? Where are you now? Where do you want to be next time? The answers to those questions can make you feel greatly thankful… And they can be beyond fucking brutal. Especially when your life has taken unexpected turns.

This reality hangs as a threat over Ted’s first post-divorce Christmas. And I can tell you from the experiences above, the Christmases where you wish you back at a past Christmas? The ones where you end up alone, watching movies with whisky? They are, as they say, not great, bob. And if you’ve ever had to do them, you know they really magnify feelings of isolation and regret. Because no matter what, they often measure your life whether you want them to or not. But the lucky thing about this rather Christmasy episode of Ted Lasso is that it only needs these ideas to hang over it (instead of wallowing in it). Because while the episode may seem light on its feet, it understands there is more in the measuring than perhaps in the moments of conflict themselves. The reason it works (and boy howdy does the episode work), is because it dives into the interiority of its characters as they are taking stock of those very changes.

Let’s go group by group.

TED & REBECCA

As I said, being away from home (or at least a home you want to be at) can be so hard. Ted imagines a whole day on facetime with the kiddo, but the wee lad of course loses his focus to the drone that Ted bought him. As he puts it, “I lost him to a overpriced guilt gift. Hubris, thy name is Ted.” Because of this, it seems we’re on the verge of deepest sadness. The aforementioned kind where you sit around, drink whiskey, and watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” on repeat (I mean, talk about a movie that’s literally about taking stock of your life, oof). The exact scenario provides Ted with an opportunity to wallow and question every choice he’s made in his life. But it also becomes the circumstance to show a reminder of how much some of those choices have meant to others...

Because Rebecca shows up to get him away from a day of loneliness. You get the sense she just knew he’d end up this way, but Rebecca also seems… different on this day. She’s driving herself. Taking them both around to answer kids letters to Santa and dropping off bags full of presents. But there’s a quick allusion which really lets you understand what’s going on here. Ted asks her what doing last Christmas and Rebecca alludes to the fact she was plotting and being angry. And while I can’t be sure of the timeline, the implication is that she was talking about Ted. That would be the hiring of Ted as a measure of revenge. You could imagine the sense of guilt she would have about this. But also how it also crests into a recognition of where they are now. And all the thankfulness that comes from their journey from last Christmas, to this Christmas. So much of it is unsaid. But it hangs over their whole day together.

ROY & KEELEY & PHOEBE

I imagine Keeley had a weird, perhaps juvenile last Christmas when she was with Jamie. And I imagine Roy spent last Christmas with his sister in less than happy circumstances. Hence, Keely’s plan for a very adult “sexy christmas” for the two of them. But it’s one that gets quickly sidelined when they have to look after Phoebe (I rewound a few times but couldn’t catch what the reason her mom was indisposed to?). But counter to her normal, happy self, Phoebe is rather distraught. Why? Turns out a boy at school was mean to her, which means we see Roy immediately switch to straight up murder mode (the calm with which he leans forward asks ““where does Bernard live?” is a top 10 line delivery). But the source of the conflict is one of those juvenile things that can absolutely seem like a giant difference on the schoolyard. Because this boy gave Phoebe a gag gift that was making fun of her bad breath… which unfortunately turns out to be a real problem that she was unaware of. Poor Phoebe! But despite nearly gagging, Keeley automatically responds with empathetic honesty: “that’s actually medically bad, which means it’s not your fault!”

Cue door to door dentist search! This story feels so human because it taps into the reality of how even the most moderate medical issues can make kids feel like some kind of leper (as any measure of vulnerability makes one VULNERABLE to taunts). It feels so much scarier than it is, perhap, but kids can wield them like weapons of cruelty. Any difference is ammo for angst. Which is why the real coup d grace of their journey is the way this actually ends in a meaningful confrontation with Bernard. I’ll say, taking the infamous(ly weird) note card scene from Love, Actually and turning it into both a heartfelt plea for apology on her part AND an ardent implication that Roy is there to beat up an 8 year old? It’s absolutely the pop culture turn that this scene needed. I adored it.

THE HIGGINS PARTY

So every year Higgins hosts for players who don’t have family close by or don’t celebrate and usually one or two show up for what I’m sure is a very, very awkward Christmas. But this year? Well, whole heaps of players show up and it’s just an utter joy from start to finish. The scenes serve as a beautiful reminder that as much as these athletes are grown men and deserve the respect as such, they’re also still so dang young, too. Many are honestly only a few years older than all the Higgins boys. But more importantly, they are still boys at heart.

Admittedly, the Higgins party is the plot that is lightest on any kind of conflict (the biggest issue seems to be “where will everyone sit?), but it’s also most emblematic of what I mean when it comes to taking stock of the year-to-year change. This isn’t a resolution to a plot within the episode, this is a resolution to  something that’s had a much longer timeline. For so long, Higgins has had feelings of being on the outs, always displaced, and always unliked, but it was mostly because of all the devils he’s had to serve first - and not his actual personality deep down. But after a year of radical change at the team, people have gotten to see the kind, familial part of him that matters most (his wife even comments how popular he seems to have gotten). As such, this Christmas can’t help but feel like a victory lap for where they were last Christmas. And one that quickly curtails into a heartfelt speech from Higgins about the family you keep, and the family you make along the way.

Cue Rebecca and Ted showing up with the buskers (that were planted earlier) to sing for everyone. The song? Yup, it’s “Last Christmas” which cues every single thing I’m talking about in this recap: “Last Christmas I gave you my heart / But the very next day you gave it away / This year, to save me from tears / I’ll give it to someone special.” The song is an understanding of two important things. The first is how much these characters have come from old wounds, made mistakes, grown, and grown together. And second…

It understands that you let Hannah Waddingham sing, dammit.

RANDOM NOTES / BEST JOKES

-It was honestly lovely to see Nate smiling again at the top of the episode, but this scene actually has an important plant that gets at the whole “angry thing” he has had going on this season. Nate talks about his dad being hard to shop for and when prompted, reveals it’s because he “hates everything.” And it’s like ohhhhhhhhhh this poor guy has internalized all this hate / hates himself / and the second he is given any kind of power over another (AKA getting to be like his Dad), the only language he knows to use is the kind that express hate in turn… Oof.  Way to go, show. You expressed the psychological architecture of this character in just like three interactions this whole season. Also note we’re getting a loooooooootta dad stuff this season.

-I can’t help but wonder what Jamie’s Christmas was like this year, but he does get two killer lines right at the top: “The email said “Secret Santa,” I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” And

“God bless me, everyone” / Ted: “… Wow”

-Ooooh, the team is winning now!

-“To responsibility!” all while drinks clink.

-Roy: “28th, sexiest of all the days.”

-RIP Cindy Clawford

-Thank you Ted Lasso for directly identifying Christmas with colonialism. But also thank you for understanding that for many around the world who come to live in countries that celebrate Christmas, they don’t really need a lot of excuses to celebrate and be merry. It’s a time that should be slapdash and inclusive above all else. And more importantly, welcome what others bring in turn. The moment where Higgins calls out every country represented at the table is not just something that reflects the best part of professional football, it reflects the best part of what it means to be a host and creating a space where things feel genuinely shared. To that, there’s actually this beautiful little part of the long tracking shot down the table where Sam’s Nigerian teammate clearly brought a dish from home and you see the excitement on his face as he smells it… it made me so happy.

-The little magnetic dartboard is so sweet and yes they never, ever work.

-Roy, to Phoebe: “What do you have to be sad about, did one of the paw patrol dogs die?” / Moments later: “I think you might be dying.”

-Roy living in a posh neighborhood and knowing that within 10 houses he’ll find a dentist is such a perfect little detail. We always think of athletes and celebrities living in these absurd, untouchable worlds, but it’s always just the normal world of well-off white people. It directly reminded me of the old Chris Rock bit about him supposedly being “rich and famous” and yet living next to a regular ass Dentist.

-This episode also highlights that one of the things I like most about Roy is that he talks to kids the way he talks to everyone else. I think that’s something kids really, really respond to.

-Ted: “I loved Once so much I saw it twice.’

-There’s a little shot in the Secret Santa party where it shows they gave the new young kit guy a whole bunch of cash. It’s one of those super important things that sports organizations need to recognize when there is a close environment with those kinds of wealth discrepancies. Also, pay those people more in the first place.

-French guy: “The French believe that having a beautiful woman around is a very good thing.” / Dutch guy: “That was not true of the Helter Skelter murders.” I now want a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern episode about these two.

-Wait in England is it Santa Claus or Father Christmas? I’m suddenly realizing my assumption of the latter might be apocryphal.

-I had no idea antihistamines could cause bad breath! No idea! Granted, I only tried them a few times and they made me so sleepy and brain foggy I could barely function.

-At the heart of taking stock of things, Ashley Nicole Black (the writer of the last episode) went to twitter  and informed us that the charity Rebecca takes part in is very, very real and part of the Poverty Alleviation charities like https://www.unconditionalgiving.org/ I just donated and please do the same in turn if you can.

Happy Lasso-mas y’all.

<3HULK