‘Ted Lasso’s Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham & Nick Mohammed Break Down Season 3 Premiere, Tease What’s Ahead
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SPOILER ALERT: The story below reveals major plot points from the Season 3 premiere of Apple’s Ted Lasso.
The long-awaited return of Season 3 of Apple’s Ted Lasso has finally arrived, and every character has moved on to new adventures.
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The debut episode, titled “Smells Like Mean Spirit,” opens with Ted (Jason Sudeikis) at the airport with his son Henry (Gus Turner) waiting for the young one’s flight home to the U.S. after an extended stay in the UK. Being away from his son is taking a toll on Ted, admitting as much to his therapist Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles) during a session.
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“I guess I do sometimes wonder what the heck I’m still doing here,” he tells her. “I mean, I know why I came but it’s the sticking around I can’t quite figure out.”
Dr. Fieldstone reminds him, “You don’t quit things, Ted.”
He replies, “Right. Hey, maybe my being here is doing more hurt than helping at this point.”
Sudeikis in an interview teased Dr. Fieldstone is back “as one more layer of support for [Ted]” this season for when he needs it the most. While the good doc won’t be around as much as in Season 2, she helped prepare him to “communicate these feelings inside himself that the absence of led to those panic attacks.”
He said, “It was his mind, body and soul not being in harmony. And so, while she provided a place for him to store some of those feelings, now he has to venture towards how to self-soothe and take some of the things that he learned from her, throughout this season. Like any relationship with a therapist, they can’t be there for you all the time.”
Regarding where viewers find Ted in the Season 3 premiere, Sudeikis said, “Like most of us, Ted contains multitudes. So that might be where he’s at when we first see him, but I feel like we find him in a different headspace by the end of that same episode.”
He continued, “Ted’s in a space of questioning what he’s doing, why he’s there, and what’s going on? Is this the best decision for him and his heart; for his son and his son’s heart? That’s definitely questions that Ted wrestles with, all while still having to coach this team in the Premier League. He’s got a lot on his plate and on each of those plates, so he’s trying to keep it spinning.”
Ted’s struggle to figure out the above and put into action the completion of what he set out to do his overarching journey this season. Sudeikis previously told Deadline that Season 3 is “the end of this story we wanted to tell” leaving fans to believe that, at the minimum, Ted’s story will conclude in some way which leaves the future of the series up in the air.
Ted’s AFC Richmond is currently the laughingstock of the league, so getting them into winning shape will require everyone’s attention this season — or the boss lady will have plenty to say. Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) will not take her team being mocked, especially by her ex-husband Rupert Mannion (Anthony Head), owner of West Ham United, who not only has a team with promise but also newly hired team manager Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed), formerly of AFC Richmond.
In another part of town, Rebecca and her bestie Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) catch up at the latter’s newly opened PR agency office. Outside of her new business venture, Keeley is still dealing with the fallout of her breakup with Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein).
Rebecca’s happiness is short-lived, however, after a photograph of her team entering a sewer went viral at the precise time Nate was holding a press conference. This gave Darth Nate the perfect opportunity to call Richmond sh*tty in a very public way. But no matter how much Rebecca wanted Ted to play fire with fire, his own approach proved much better.
Ted used his trademark self-deprecating humor with the media, instead of throwing daggers at Nate. Nate was fuming, but Rebecca looked a little embarrassed about doubting Ted. AFC Richmond may have trouble scoring on the field, but not in her battle against Rupert and West Ham.
“I love that straight off the bat, Rebecca is like, ‘[Ted], what are you doing, man?’ Waddingham said. “After the funeral episode, she’s like, this is my family and if you mess with my family you mess with me. I love that she’s got a bit of fire. My take on Rebecca this season is that she’s absolutely that figurehead at the front of the ship doing her [Monstrous Boss Lady] pose. She takes that into the scenes with Ted where she’s like, ‘What are you doing going into a sewer?’ I love that they have some friction there.”
Nate finally turns his frown upside down even if only for a brief second when he receives a text from his mum, “Saw you on the telly,” her message reads. “Your dad is upset you swore,” she continued. No matter how much poor Nate tries to make his dad proud, he seems unable to praise his son for his efforts.
Regardless, Rupert is so far pleased with his team’s new manager, gifting him a luxury car to replace Nate’s embarrassing jalopy. Hey, at least Nate can lick his wounds in style.
“I don’t think Nate is happy now. Sadly Nate, bless him, he’s a troubled soul,” said Mohammed recently. “I rarely think he’s ever 100 percent happy and he’s always worried about something. Undoubtedly, he’s made this decision to be at West Ham, this fancy club that comes with perks. In the moment, he’s positive about those things like driving his fancy new car and having a bigger salary but I think he’s realizing they won’t make him truly happy. He still carries the regret, guilt, and shame with the way he left AFC Richmond and the way he talks to Ted. I think that’s going to eat at him until he’s able to find some kind of catharsis or he addresses Ted directly.”
His toxic relationship with his father is one Nate should consider addressing above all else as it’s at the core of all his other issues. “He clearly has dad issues. I think his toxic relationship with his dad possibly explains his behavior, ultimately,” he added. “He’s smart though, isn’t he? He knows his stuff and all about game play; he can absolutely deliver. Whether his demons get the better of him is to be explored in Season 3.”
Careful not to give away any spoilers, Mohammad also addresses whether a redemption arc could be forming for Nate as the season progresses.
“There’s a lot of anticipation as to whether Nate is getting this redemption arc and all I’ll say is that it’s not up to me or even the writers. I think it’s more about the audience and their capacity for forgiveness,” he said. “To some people. Nate’s betrayal at the end of Season 2 was the straw that broke the camel’s back and there’s no going back because he can’t re-write history. He did and said those things. Let’s say for the sake of argument he apologizes, gets on his knees and begs for forgiveness. He still did it. There is an element of whether the onus is on the person to forgive Nate rather than for Nate’s forgiveness to be absolute. Like everything with Ted Lasso, it’s not so clear-cut in that way, it’s more nuanced. It’s not that he is definitely redeemed or not, there’s a blurred line there.”
The episode ends with Ted and his young son catching up via FaceTime following Henry’s return to Kansas City. Before saying their respective goodbyes, Henry reveals a cool new toy he received as a gift — Thanos’ infinity gauntlet. Ted is taken by surprise at the reveal, but even more so by who gave it to him: Henry’s mom’s “friend” Jake.
New episodes of Ted Lasso‘s third season drop Wednesdays via Apple TV+.
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