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The most recent episode of Ted Lasso is called ‘Signs’ and it’s certainly filled with all manner of them. The episode starts with a montage of Richmond and their losing streak since West Ham, a culmination of inner conflict and darkness where the team lost their heads and also it would seem — their hearts. Even the superstar Zava can’t pick up the slack, which ultimately means he sees a sign of himself (as one so self-involved only can) when he quits the game altogether.
Zava’s retirement is on the heels of describing his wife Christina in absurdly loving terms — calling her beautiful with her ponytail, glasses, and love of painting. Just like the previously referenced 1999 rom-com classic She’s All That, which the team (as they often do) astutely point out is an adaptation of My Fair Lady, which is itself an adaptation of the play Pygmalion. The joke of these athletes being multifaceted continues on — by now it’s really a consistent part of their characterizations.
So all that leading to Zava quitting to be with his family and avocado farm makes sense — he’s assuredly quite wealthy by that point and maybe he’s decided being on a losing streak is a sign that he’s no longer meant to play the game. His empty Hallmark nonsense will no longer affect the team in a positive or negative way — and despite Dani Rojas’s grieving, perhaps that’s for the best.
Darkness shrouds the episode, with Higgins mentioning getting a mean text from his father, and Rebecca actually yelling at Ted about continuing to lose games. She runs into that guy she briefly dated at the start of Season 2, still as insufferable as ever — bragging about physically assaulting Sir Anthony Hopkins. Suddenly his fiance drops the ‘nine-ing armor’ malapropism mentioned by the psychic, right after Rebecca drops the green matchbook on the table. But what does that really mean? What’s the sign anyway?
Higgins brings up that maybe even the fake psychics can help us see something we can’t see in ourselves — and Rebecca takes that as a sign to see if she’s capable of having children. Yet in those final moments of the episode, it seems pretty clear that her test results are not happy ones — and Keeley is too busy with her new boss/friend Jack to be there for her old friend.
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Keeley’s brush with darkness is a more comedic one, as she is faced with the necessity to fire Shandy, whom she initially saw potential in and hoped to ‘save’ in the way she was once saved by Rebecca. Sadly their temperaments and judgment are too dissimilar — Keeley may once have been flighty, but she was never mean nor not thoughtful. Shandy’s new app idea may sound cool to one out of the loop, but there’s a reason that celebrities don’t use the same dating apps as the ‘normies’.
Ted goes through a pretty substantial up and down arc this episode — he hears news of a bullying incident with Henry, with wording that makes it quite obvious he was the bully and not the victim. But it’s understandable why Ted wouldn’t jump to that conclusion as he’s not a TV writer. His final moments of clarity in the episode are in a way, an encapsulation of what the show is really trying to tell us overall.
That there is something of belief that is fundamental in being alive — it doesn’t have to be belief in a higher power or even other people, but simply a belief that things can get better, and believing in ourselves. Believing that we matter and deserve to be loved — it’s the sort of thing that’s all too easy to forget, especially in the face of loss and pain (and we shouldn’t forget about how the real world sneaks into this show too).
Thus in the end we see Jack and Keeley hook up in the shadows in a way that I totally saw coming (those glimpses were furtive after all). And shockingly, we see Nate and Jade seemingly on a date, mainly because Nate was vulnerable and passionate in a way we haven’t really seen from him perhaps ever. His connection to the restaurant suddenly becomes more clear — and why he is desperate for Jade to like him and for his supermodel date to love the place so dear to his family.
Also I absolutely loved the note of Anastasia abandoning Nate to her car of supermodel friends while ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ plays, the same song that played in Zoolander when Derek and his supermodel friends play in gasoline before setting themselves on fire. Could mean dark news for Nate’s date and her friends if it goes the same way.
Perhaps the show is setting up a ‘compliment sandwich’ of its own — starting with a positive version of Ted and company, then showing us the darkness — is the light on its way? It does seem that things are mostly moving that way — Roy is shown being thoughtful about loving someone else during Ted’s speech, but the final note of the episode is Jamie and Roy agreeing to train again the next day.
It’s belief in improvement, in self-improvement, in believing things can be better. Hard to miss that sign.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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