‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 – Yes, That Ending Made Sense for Ted’s Story

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the finale of Ted Lasso Season 3.

The Big Picture

• Ted’s decision to return home to Kansas and prioritize his family over his coaching career aligns with his personal journey and growth throughout the series.
• Ted’s influence can be seen in the transformation of characters like Rebecca and Nate, who have grown and evolved thanks to their connections with him.
• Ted Lasso‘s final montage suggests that the other characters will continue to have lives and storylines outside of Ted, ensuring that the story of the Richmond family doesn’t end with Ted’s departure.

Ted Lasso has been a welcome presence on our screens for the past three years. Greeted with praise and back-to-back Emmy wins for Outstanding Comedy Series, the sitcom has made a place in pop culture, focusing on optimism, kindness, and taking care of yourself and others. As Ted Lasso signed off for its third and possibly final season, the Season 3 ender set the stage for what a post-Ted Lasso life these characters would involve themselves in after the credits roll.

The episode, titled “So Long, Farewell,” saw what becomes of the Richmond AFC family we have all fallen in love with since 2020. Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) sells 49% of the football club to the fans, Roy (Brett Goldstein) becomes the manager at Richmond, Nate (Nick Mohammed) and Beard (Brendan Hunt) support him, Keeley (Juno Temple) is still going strong with her PR firm, Sam (Toheeb Jimoh) finally gets the chance to play for the Nigerian national team, Jamie (Phil Dunster) reconnects with his father, etc. But most importantly, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) leaves his post as the coach/manager and returns home to Kansas to be with his son, Henry.

Ted’s Journey Takes Him Back Home To Kansas

After spending much of the third season missing Henry, Ted decides that his family is more important and that he needs to be with his child. Despite Rebecca’s plea for him to stay, it’s a done deal. Ted’s going home. After three years, it was time for him to go back to Kansas. So was Ted going home after beating West Ham and finishing second in the league the right decision? In terms of winning football championships, it’s definitely a head-scratcher. In terms of where the characters were from episode one and the last episode, yes. It makes absolute sense.

From the very beginning, it’s quite odd that Ted, this American football coach from the Midwest, was brought to the other side of the ocean to coach a sport he knows nothing about. One of the reasons was that Ted decided to take a job to give his wife Michelle (Andrea Anders) some space as they were having marital troubles at the time. In the first episode, we see a phone call between him and Michelle that reveals that it was a more personal decision for him to coach Richmond as well as a career decision. Despite their divorce in the first season, Ted’s familial struggles are present throughout the show. We learn about his father’s suicide and that his strained relationship with his mother is a result of never talking about that event. As much as Ted tells Dr. Sharon (Sarah Niles) in their initial sessions that he doesn’t quit things, going to the U.K. to coach Richmond was him running away from his problems. By giving space in the literal sense, keeping his problems to himself, and keeping a happy face, so he never deals with his problems is the same avoidance strategy as running away from them.

By forming this Richmond family and finally going to therapy, Ted learned that he didn’t need to keep everything hidden inside. A recurring bit in the third season is Ted and Rebecca saying Oklahoma to each other when they need to be honest with each other, (which was something he picked up during his marriage with Michelle). The idea of total honesty with another person you love and trust, whether you are married to them or not, is a step forward for Ted as someone who wants to protect people’s feelings. The embrace of total honesty culminates in a scene with his mother where he praises her for raising him, but at the same time chastises her for never being emotionally open about his father’s death.

Season 1 Ted wouldn’t have dreamed of giving this speech to anyone close to him, but the Ted of season three is a different man. Together, his mother and he gain closure, which makes it clear that Ted is ready to go home and be with his son. It’s the hero’s journey, where our hero goes on his journey and is forever changed by his experience and returns home to a new person. Ted went on this journey as the coach for Richmond AFC, ready to do his best to coach the team, and then later went through his own emotional journey that led him to be the best version of himself.

Ted Lasso Deeply Affects His AFC Richmond Colleagues

As Pep Guardiola said in the previous episode: “Don’t worry about wins or losses. Just help these guys be the best versions of themselves on and off the pitch.” This, in the end, is the most important thing. Through Ted’s relationship with those around them and the love and kindness he shows them, they become better versions of themselves and change for the better. Ted Lasso has always been a show about relationships, more than a show about football. It’s about how relationships build us up. The focus has always been on the football players and the people involved instead of the sport. The transformation of Jamie from an egotistical diva player to a man willing to share the ball and heap praise on his teammates. Roy goes from being the lone wolf to being the best of buds with Jamie. From Trent Crimm (James Lance) being a skeptical journalist of Lasso’s way of coaching to writing a book about Richmond with his planned title being “The Lasso Way.” However, there’s no bigger evidence of Ted’s influence than on both Rebecca and Nate.

Rebecca at the start of the series is leagues away from the Rebecca we get from Season 3. She only brought Ted over to destroy Richmond from within as an eff you to her ex-husband. However, through getting to know Ted and forming friendships with him and Keeley, she stops using Ted as a weapon of revenge, and they form an unshakable bond with each other. Ted helps her out with her benefit and wins a bet against Rupert to keep him out of the Richmond owner’s box in a dart match and, of course, forgives her immediately for her original plans for him. Rebecca would later go from destroying the Richmond brand to exhorting Edwin Akufo (Sam Richardson) and other rich owners for making a super league of football teams to charge fans higher ticket prices. We wouldn’t get this version of Rebecca without Ted being in her vicinity.

Of course, no one has a more influential relationship with Ted than Nate the Great himself. From the lowly kit man Ted lets give ideas to the West Ham rival who eventually comes back home to Richmond. Nate’s villain arc was centered in Season 3 until the first Richmond v. West Ham game. Later on, Nate has a crisis of character after seeing Rupert for what he truly is and quits. He comes back to Richmond and shares a moment with Ted in the locker room where he’s absolutely remorseful for what he’s done, and Ted had already forgiven him. To Ted, as in the case of Beard, no one is the worst of what they’ve done and everyone deserves a second chance. Ted’s loving, big, and forgiving heart benefits those around him by having them believe that they can try to redeem themselves and be on the path to being part of something bigger than themselves. As a result, of those around him receiving the message, his work is done.

The Lasso Way The Richmond Way Lives On Without Ted

With Ted no longer the manager/coach of Richmond, the final montage gave us a glimpse of what these characters will be doing after Ted’s back home in Kansas. Like with Roy taking over and Keeley’s thriving PR firm, the characters will continue and have a life outside the titular character. Perhaps, maybe it won’t be the last time we will ever see the rest of the Richmond Gang. This is the end of Ted Lasso’s story, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the story of the Richmond family.

Ted Lasso is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

Watch on Apple TV+

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