Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 3
Three episodes into Season 4, and Ted Lasso has thrown his brand new team into the kind of sports movie-style panic situation that includes no striker, a game coming up soon, and a group of coaches who have nothing in common except the fact that freaking out will not do. “Richmond’s Got Talent” is the episode in which the Lady Greyhounds are finally established as an actual team.
Spoilers follow for all episodes up to Episode 3. Catch up first, Ted would definitely want you to do a jump before you think, but maybe not in this case.
A Quick Refresher Before Episode 3
If you’ve been playing catch-up with just the most recent season: In episode 1 of the season, “Home,” Ted is seen back in Kansas City with a relatively boring job at a grocery store since he left Richmond at the end of season 3. Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins make their way to convince Ted to coach the newly formed second division women’s team of Richmond called the “Lady Greyhounds,” and Ted finally agrees after some soul searching along with some help from his mother and his family. In Episode 2, “Curiouser and Curiouser!,” Ted found himself settled in his new room above The Crown & Anchor and met his new squad of players, which included goalkeeper Katy “Boots” Quinn and her identical twin sisters, Niamh and Siobhan. The true source of tension in this episode, however, was the assistant coach Alice Chilton, who harbored ill feelings toward Ted because he had stolen her position as head coach. That tension seemed to dissipate when Ted took action to improve the conditions of the women’s team as compared to those of the men’s team. Another person joining Ted’s staff was Beard, whose contract as coach of the men’s team had been terminated by Roy. The final moments of the episode left hints that Beard and Jane have separated.
Episode 1 Recap: https://theblinkreview.com/ted-lasso-season-4-episode-1-recap-home/
Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 3 Recap
“Richmond’s Got Talent” begins with a scream, a word screamed by one of the Lady Greyhound’s strikers, the kind of word that will have Ted’s mother grabbing her pearls. Soon enough, the audience learns why; she is pregnant, which is wonderful for her but terrible for the team, because she is the only striker left at Richmond. As it happens, there is just days before the team plays their first game, and as if the coaches do not have enough to worry about with the team’s finances being in a tough spot already, they suddenly have no strikers at all. The Higgins Report has some doubts about the future of the women’s team, and sponsor Pinter & Sons decides not to give their support anymore.
Of course, Ted turns to Alice to see if there’s anybody that she knows who could take care of that problem. Her response is a typical Alice “yes but” reply, during which she mentions Gemma, a person who used to be her teammate, until she gave up football altogether and enrolled in law school. But things get tricky fast because Gemma and Alice definitely know each other well.
While it began as a joke on the part of Alice when she suggests holding an open tryout “why not just hold an open tryout?”, it soon becomes serious once Ted gets behind the idea, as he is so good at turning a casual shrug into a plan of action. The tryout that ensues is a bit of a mix between optimism and chaos. There’s Maria Rojas, the sister of Danny Rojas, who comes in with enthusiasm but not a lot of knowledge of the sport. There is also Shannon (Shannon Hayes), who was seen before during the season and earns a spot on the team despite Alice and Beard being rather sure that she isn’t quite ready yet; it remains to be seen whether it will be one of Ted’s good decisions or a bad one. The most interesting one here is Lizzie Davis (Faye Marsay), a center back who comes with her child because she couldn’t arrange for childcare in time.
There is also the issue of the striker. All Alice’s plans amount to only one – Gemma (Abbie Hern) – and winning Gemma over will entail finding out precisely why she has turned her back on football and on Alice herself. Gemma recalls Alice as being an unfeeling and unfriendly person when they were both playing the game, almost not recognizing her at all, and it is evident that this past plays into her reasons for leaving the game behind. Alice is not particularly charming when making contact again. It is Ted, as ever, who does the work of persuasion.
All of that going on out there on the field while Rebecca has her own battle brewing as the team continues even as Pinter & Sons withdraws sponsorship, at a price. She has a boyfriend named Matthijs visiting her and they have not managed to spend even five minutes alone when Ted barges into Rebecca’s office at the exact worst possible time and Keeley arrives almost immediately after him. All very funny in the immediate circumstances, but the truth is that the episode is actually setting a serious tone in regards to the toll Rebecca’s commitment to Richmond takes on her personal life. As for Keeley, she begins to take Richmond’s struggles very personally, and sees everything that goes wrong as something she needs to fix all on her own.
Roy is also given one of the more poignant moments in the episode. After his niece Phoebe brings up her desire to “come see ‘the Richmond match,'” the first thing that Roy assumes is that she means the “men’s Richmond team,” a little detail that the episode refuses to overlook. Phoebe herself points it out directly, informing everyone listening that “both the teams are Richmond.” As subtle as this episode gets, it manages to make its point.
However, by the end of the show, the new rag-tagged bunch consisting of Lizzie, Gemma, Shannon, and company takes on Hayes & Yeading, and they manage to score a victory, with Gemma scoring the winning goal in her first appearance after being out for some time. The game is not perfect, nor does it need to be; but for a team that did not even have all the members a week prior, it is still a victory, and it is used by Rebecca to make her point clear: encouraging this team will not only provide female role models for the girls, but it will teach the boys that it is simply expected to have women athletes around.
Was Episode 3 Any Good?
“Richmond’s Got Talent” is by far the best episode of the season so far due to the fact that for once the new characters are given an opportunity to become true characters rather than just a name on the team list. In particular, one can say that Lizzie is quite a remarkable character to develop further in the upcoming episodes, who is interesting and funny without being trying too hard to be so, and who definitely has a lot to tell. The message of this week’s episode regarding women’s football is quite clear and not very subtle, and Alice’s attitude towards Gemma this week is somewhat unclear, as compared to what she did in the previous episode. However, the episode’s essence is good and after two introductory episodes, it is great to see the team play and win.
Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 4 Predictions
Although there is no official name for Episode 4 by Apple at this moment, there is a suggestion that the title might be “Clique Fix.” It should be viewed as speculation until Apple updates its listings. However, the available summary does show that it is likely that the coaches will be busy working on splitting the cliques formed in the team while Ted tries to adjust to his new life away from the team locker room. It provides us with a great basis to make our predictions, and here they are.
1. The formation of the team cliques is one of the main topics in this episode. There is no guessing involved here because the Episode 4 summary states that the coaches are supposed to split the cliques formed in the team. Since Lizzie, Gemma, Shannon, and the others were put together under severe time constraints, it means that the episode will reveal exactly who formed close relationships and who didn’t.
2. The history of Alice and Gemma is far from over. Getting Gemma to join the team again won’t mean that the history between her and Alice gets wiped clean. Be prepared for Alice and Gemma’s relationship to remain strained, potentially blowing up again before any resolution can be found.
3. Keeley’s overcommitment to the team is likely to be developed into a storyline. When Keeley takes her personal investment in the team’s problems in Episode 3 to heart, it seems like the groundwork has been laid. It is therefore no surprise if Episode 4 demands Keeley to take a hard look at why she is so invested in a team she does not belong to.
4. Roy could see a reckoning of his blind spot. Although it could simply be considered a funny joke, Phoebe’s comment about both teams being Richmond is very specific. Even though nothing has been confirmed by the show so far, expect the possibility of a scene in which Roy is made aware of his attitude toward the women’s team.
5. This is finally Matthijs’ and Rebecca’s time to shine, or not. While Episode 3 played around with the idea of refusing to give this duo some quality time together, Episode 4 will either allow them to have their actual love story, or play more along the lines of Richmond’s inability to give Rebecca some alone time.
6. The inclusion of Shannon gets put to the test. While both of Ted’s assistants suggested going with the team without Shannon, Ted made the decision to include him anyway. Such decisions are perfect for Ted Lasso to either prove correct or mess up in a way that makes Ted second-guess himself.
Final Whistle
After three episodes into Season 4, Ted Lasso has definitely settled into what seems to be its groove: an underdog group of players who win despite their underqualification; a coach and his team who are still trying to find their rhythm, and the ensemble whose role is slowly transitioning from being a mere spin-off to something much more legitimate. “Richmond’s Got Talent” is a very accurate name for the episode: a real talent show in every sense of the word, and one where the Lady Greyhounds end up showing everyone why they are on the field.
Next up: learning how to play together. Childcare is in order for Lizzie.
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