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The latest episode of Ted Lasso is called ‘(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea’ and introduces a new major character for the show, adding to its already huge ensemble. It all starts with a funny line about wondering what Keeley wouldn’t do and then Trent Crimm shadowing the Richmond squad to write a book about them. Of course, nothing is easy, as soon enough Roy demands nobody speak to him after news of his breakup circulates — everyone’s immediate confusion about why he’d end things certainly adds credence to the thought that he made a stupid mistake doing so.
Thankfully it doesn’t seem like Jaime is looking to get back with his ex, which would be a cheesy plotline to explore, and instead is childishly offering ’empathy’. The weirdness with Trent badly affects the team’s performance, until Ted finally has to tell Roy to fix it. After that we get a really great scene where we find out that Trent wrote a very cruel article about Roy’s debut.
As we’d expect from someone of his current maturity, Trent apologizes for the cruelty, explaining he was also trying to prove himself as a newcomer in the world of journalism, wanting to be cool and edgy. It’s the sort of understandable mistake young people often make, and the sort of thing that still would terribly hurt those affected by them.
Roy also delivers the final big monologue of the episode, pondering about how he left a great team and always wondered if he made a mistake. Ted, always the positive thinker, points out that otherwise they may never have met — it does seem like they’ve been positive influences on each other, despite their theoretical clashing personalities.
The major plotline otherwise is the tempting of Zava, a superstar most recently in Italy and who has dominated recent play. Naturally Beard recognizes the name, and of course Ted doesn’t — and Higgins doesn’t really seem up to the task to attract such top shelf talent, especially to such a low ranked team as Richmond.
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But the connection to Rupert is what finally drives Rebecca to make her own reverse sweet talk (or ‘soul yell’ as they say) approach to convince Zava to sign with Richmond. Rupert clearly did the sweet talking approach, as Rebecca mentions how charming and persistent he had been when wooing her initially. Making her feel special was the key, and that’s also the real key to wooing Zava.
Everyone has been praising him, and Rebecca uses this to her advantage, confronting Zava when he’s vulnerable in the bathroom and calling him cowardly for choosing to sign with already successful clubs. The real challenge, naturally, would be to help a team that was just promoted to the premier league, and why, she just happens to own that one?
It’s not a big surprise that this gambit works, although it is quite satisfying, and it’s fun to see Rupert taken down a peg after his smarmy, painful conversation with Rebecca. There’s a mysterious setup here as Rebecca’s mother wants to offer her psychic as a sort of maternal guidance — seemingly completely missing the irony. We don’t see anything resolved from that just yet, but the lines of fate do seem to be all converging on the same place (including Keeley’s old friend Shandy being introduced).
It was a bit of a packed episode, but it’s fun to see movement in the Rupert/Rebecca war that isn’t another painful blow. A few pretty funny lines and some duds, but as per usual, it knows how to leave us with a high note — so perhaps the next time around it won’t be quite so happy. Zava is an somewhat new type of character, a sort of arrogant type like Jaime, but with a new twist on it — it will be interesting to see how the show tries to balance a new player on the team, with a lot of opportunities for drama and comedy alike.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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