Spoiler alert! The following contains details from the Season 3 finale of “Ted Lasso,” “So Long, Farewell.”
If that wasn’t a series finale, I don’t know what is.
Apple TV+’s hit comedy “Ted Lasso” might be ending after its third season. Or it might not. What we know is that co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis has hinted that this is the end, but neither he nor the streaming service will give a definitive answer. And now we also know that the last episode of Season 3 looks, smells and tastes like a series finale.
Ted (Sudeikis) goes home to the U.S. and his son. Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) finds her dream man and sells half the club to its fans. Keeley (Juno Temple) suggests starting a women’s team. Roy (Brett Goldstein) takes over managing the Richmond team. Beard (Brendan Hunt) gets married. Sam (Toheeb Jimoh) makes the Nigerian national team. Rupert (Anthony Head) gets his comeuppance. There’s a big old barbecue at the Higgins’ house. Everyone gets a happily ever after.
So where could the story possibly go from here? For goodness sake, we even learn Beard’s real name (Willis). There are no mysteries left in the “Lasso” world, no character depths left to plumb, no more classic musical numbers for professional soccer players to sing. The book is closed on “Ted Lasso.” It’s as closed as a little girl’s journal with a lock. And Ted took the key back to Kansas City and threw it away.
Sure, there might be spinoffs (that Richmond Women’s AFC certainly has the potential for a whole new cast of lovable characters), and Apple could shell out so much dough that Sudeikis could be lured into unraveling the fitting end he wrote for Ted. (Much like the complicated U.K. soccer leagues that Ted and friends discuss in the finale, it’s indeed all about money). But I hope that this is truly the end for the “Lasso” verse. Because this ending feels as heartwarming, fitting and final as a good Lasso pep talk.
Season 3 of the once-great show fell into disarray amid a series of mind-boggling character choices, self-aggrandizing flights of fancy and obnoxiously long and meandering episodes. People fell in love with “Lasso” because of the characters, but it was hard to love them when there was no logic behind their moves and motivations.
The finale, thankfully, course-corrected in many ways. Rebecca was no longer entertaining psychics and regressing to the role of a vicious ex-wife. Keeley was confident again. Ted actually acted like a coach instead of a team mascot. Unfortunately, the Richmond players still felt like cartoon characters in a Disney musical, and Nate’s (Nick Mohammed) redemption arc felt forced. But it’s hard to fix a season so full of bad choices in one episode, even if it is 75 minutes long.
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The finale was full of genuinely surprising, funny and moving moments (and one overly twee musical number), from Keeley’s rejection of both Roy and Jamie (Phil Dunster) to the flight attendant who mistakenly thinks Ted is a jerk. And after struggling to make soccer an interesting part of the storytelling, Richmond’s final game of the season was shot with the heart-pumping tension and action you can expect from the best sports movies. Ted’s ex-wife’s new boyfriend might think soccer is boring, but “Lasso” finally realized just how exciting the most popular sport in the world really is.
There are few shows that can capture hearts and minds the way “Lasso” did. It premiered in a world thrown into chaos by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and felt like a lifeboat, reminding all of us that life can be as full of moments to cherish as it is moments to fear. And in spite of the Season 3 stumble, “Lasso” is one of the best shows of our current era.
So that’s why this fitting end should really stay the end. Great shows lose their glory when they go on too long. Ted knew when it was time to go home. “Lasso” should figure that out, too.
More:‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 took forever, but Jason Sudeikis promises fans ‘it’s all on the screen’
