Confrontations Come to a Header on 'Ted Lasso' Finale

by Julian Spivey

Photo: Apple

The second season finale of AppleTV+’s Emmy-winning comedy “Ted Lasso” hit the streaming service on Friday, Oct. 8 and wrapped up a terrific sophomore season with a few confrontations – some we knew were coming and at least one we maybe didn’t see coming.
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Before I get into the finale let me talk about how important I think season two has been for the show and its characters. I know some viewers have been disappointed in the second season – and I get into a bit of that on the latest episode of The Word Podcast that I recorded with my wife and The Word contributor Aprille Hanson-Spivey directly after we watched the finale – but I think the character building, especially when it comes to Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) and finding out why he is who and how he is, has been a must for this show.

At the end of last week’s penultimate episode, we find out that an article is coming out about Ted’s panic attack during an important soccer match earlier in the season and that the source for the story was Nate (Nick Mohammed), his assistant coach who’s had a villain turn this season that we’ve seen coming for quite some time.

We know there’s going to be a tense moment with Ted and Nate coming into the episode and, boy, was it ever! Ted is blindsided by Nate’s feelings toward him, and Mohammed absolutely kicks this scene right into the back of the net in maybe his best acting performance of the show’s run. It’s hard to watch as the friends and mentor/mentee relationship is just destroyed on the spot, but I think it’ll be important going forward in season three, especially given the very last image we see in the season two finale. The next time these two see each other is bound to be epic.

One storyline that surprised me was Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) turning down the massive offer to go back to his home continent of Africa and become a superstar on his home soil. It’s mostly surprising to me because I don’t know how realistic it is for an athlete to turn down such a major offer. But “Ted Lasso” is a television series and it’s one that will be all the better for the character of Sam sticking around for more. The potential relationship between Sam and AFC Richmond’s owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is somewhat left up in the air, but also might be kaput as Sam said he was staying for himself.

A couple of the finale’s confrontations revolved around Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), who really had one of the best storylines of the second season and is truly a fan-favorite on the show. In the penultimate episode of the season Keeley (Juno Temple) tells Roy that her ex-boyfriend and Roy’s ex-nemesis/current player as an assistant for Richmond Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) recently told her that he still loved her. Upon confronting him Jamie immediately apologizes to Roy and Roy surprisingly forgives him. There’s a great moment between the two after the important soccer match in the episode later.

The other confrontation featuring Roy comes toward the end of the episode and is between him and Keeley and it’s one that I absolutely didn’t want to see – though doesn’t come as a complete surprise as there are moments during the season that made one think they may not last. But it’s a relationship that I wanted so badly to see last – and honestly, it might, it was left wide open in the end, but doesn’t really seem to be going the way I’d like. I’m kind of confused by this moment and it only really makes sense if Temple is leaving the show, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

I can’t wait for the third season of this show, which might possibly be its last, as the show’s creators have previously said they originally planned on a three-season storyline.