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The latest episode of Ted Lasso is called ‘No Weddings and a Funeral’ an obvious reference to Four Weddings and a Funeral, and boy, is it some funeral. At the start of the episode, Rebecca’s mum catches her post-sexy time with Sam and drops the news that her father has died using precisely the timing and cadence of a joke — cue credits. But before that, Sam and Rebecca disagree about going public; Rebecca likes the scandalous secret while honest Sam finds it stressful.
We later see the dudes discussing life after death in ways (as always) entirely illuminating. Ted acknowledges that people can be good and bad and nobody’s perfect, Higgins fancies himself like a cat’s pet, Nate wants to be reincarnated as a tiger to ravage his enemies (bad sign) and of course, Beard references the highly disputed ’21 grams experiment’ about the weight of a soul from 1907 as though it’s real. Keeley wants to be the dirt that grows a fruit tree with Roy joking with her to avenge his death instead. Typical for them all.
There is then the setup of all setups as Rebecca is awoken in bed by her mother playing the 80’s classic ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley, which is a classic despite what anyone might tell you. At the funeral itself, we see the team showing up sans trainers, because they care that much — a running joke is the easygoing Dani struggling in his suit and shoes. Another red flag about Nate is Jan deriding Nate getting a suit as a gift from Ted as infantilizing — as the Dude would say, that’s just your opinion man.
But it’s exactly the sort of toxicity that Nate would easily absorb. Also at the funeral are Keeley and Nora, which is great, but the more complicated note is Ted — as we see him getting ready to the delightful strains of ‘Easy Lover’ as he’s referenced before, the shots of his son trigger a panic attack — we see clearly an image of darts here too.
After Rupert tries to chat up Sassy, she hilariously insults him and soon after is teased again by Keeley about wondering where Ted is. Said coach has finally gotten through to Doctor Sharon — and we are soon about to really get into it. When Sharon says she hates tea, it’s not a funny line, it’s transcendent, because how could she ever know? — Ted and I feel the same way about it, like things are finally falling into place.
The episode utilizes a quick back and forth sequence between Rebecca and Ted giving their traumatic backstories in a way that’s shockingly well done and deeply emotional. Both of their stories are ultimately about hating their fathers, but for different reasons: Rebecca because of what he did to her mother and Ted for ‘giving up’ and well, also what he did to Ted’s mother and him too.
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Sharon then beautifully turns it around and asks Ted to describe what he loved about his father. Cue the waterworks, of course, but Ted mentions his father’s kindness and sacrifice when helping with a school assignment. Ted considers that if his father truly understood what he was loved for and what he was good for instead of worrying about the rest, maybe he never would’ve taken his own life. It is perhaps one of the most intense moments of the entire show, cathartic in a way that nothing else has been — Ted realizing deeper truths through his trauma. At the same time, Rebecca’s mom says that her husband was a good man because he always came back.
As for why both events happened on Friday the 13th in 1991 — I mean I don’t know. It’s more for the theme than anything else, I suppose. A more calm Ted shows up and supports Rebecca when she begins singing Rick Astley, he’s the first to catch on and chime in — like the opposite of her supporting him through his panic attack.
The ending of the episode is more stress and concerns, of course. Rebecca breaks it off with Sam due to her lingering concerns about her capability to love, Jamie admits he loves Keeley, Roy apologizes for his black humor defense mechanism, and Ted leaves with Sassy. But in the most sinister moments, Rupert offers his wife’s shares back to Rebecca and then we see him whispering to Nate about something.
Obviously whatever it is isn’t great, but hey, I don’t expect everything to work out this season. Still, wow, what a great episode — intense, emotional, funny, and showing us the work one needs to make to heal. It’s the sort of thing that maybe healed me a little too.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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