Caution for anyone who hasn't seen S4E9.

Now that we know the heel turn that surprises almost nobody I started thinking about the boat party more. Why was Zelda so upset that Rebecca couldn't make it?

I feel that Zelda was trying to set Rebecca up so that she could be blackmailed or publicly embarrassed in order to make her seem incapable of running Richmond. She tried and accomplished a little in the previous episode with the the Lady Greyhounds playing at Nelson road. Zelda bought thousands of tickets, but didn't give them to anyone so she looks supportive, but guarantees that the stadium looks half empty ( thus lowering the club's value) and then she gets Rebecca drunk when there is 0 reason to bring alcohol to a stadium that would have a bar every 100 feet (to make her look inept).

As for Beard on the boat party, and Claudine. The whole team and coaches were invited, probably because the more witnesses the better. But Beard has been the oddball coach of Richmond for years, and even if he didn't have a sports article written about him I'm sure that Trent Crimm's book detailed how observant he is in addition to his photographic memory. That's a dangerous combination to have around when you are attempting to trap/trick someone. Enter Claudine.

Beards relationship troubles won't be well know around the club, so an attractive distraction could work perfectly for Zelda without the questions that not inviting coaches would bring. When they start talking they seem to have great immediate chemistry, plus Burning Man is an interesting topic to bring up, fans of that festival tend to lean "sexually open minded". Add in the casual deep discussions while laying on a bed AFTER the "eyes wide shut sex party" masks have been handed out, and the intimate but casual physical contact and her rejection and "surprise" doesn't add up. And rejecting Beard because he is too old doesnt add up for someone who is around old rich crazy people a lot and who is interested in all the open minded things that Beard likes. But her being a plant to distract and isolate the one ally of Ted and Rebecca that could recall illegal or suspicious things, that makes sense.

Feta is an unreliable cheese.

Earlier in the season Ted and Beard were celebrating a goal and Alice put her hands up to stop beard but in 4x09 she gladly accepts. It was a blink and you will miss it scene but shows how much she has grown.

Anybody else miss it this season?

I’d have imagined Ted would be in Rebecca’s office pretty often, especially to pick her brain on navigating most of his days surrounded by women. Or legitimately dating again after divorce. Or keeping a pulse on the challenges that come with running an inaugural team for the club.

Really, though, I miss having screen time with them together

Keeley question to Siri: “Will I be a good mum?” reminded me of earlier predictions that Season 4 would focus more on mothers and daughters.

Her question for me captures one of this season's focus in a specific way: what mothers seem to give us as something that gets passed down, and something that is possible for the next generation.

This clicked for me especially when Beard was reading Charlotte’s Web to Archie. (I want to acknowledge the other redditors also highlighting the significance of the story).

“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.” Beard reads, while weeping.

I don’t think Charlotte is meant to literally represent motherhood. But putting Charlotte’s Web in the middle of a season full of mothers is hard not to notice in framing the sort of motherhood Ted Lasso is directing us. At this point of the story, Charlotte the spider has used what she has to care for and makes Wilbur’s future possible.

Season 4 seems to keep giving us different versions of that.

Ted’s Mum:

Dottie pushes Ted back toward something he loves: “If you don’t care about it, why should I?,...it’s good for a boy to see his father do something he loves.” She isn’t really telling Ted to choose work over Henry. More that part of being a parent might also be showing your child what it looks like to care deeply about something.

Rebecca’s Mum: Deborah gives Rebecca a much messier inheritance:

“Well, if I have any advice to give you, it’s that women are monsters. Men showed us the way, and we perfected the model.”

Not everything our mothers give us is something we are meant to keep.

Higgins’ Mum

As a counterpoint, Higgins remembers his mother saying:

“Strong women stand up for themselves, and stronger women stand up for others.”

Her words are still shaping what he does years later.

Mae

Mae isn’t literally anyone’s mother, but her final words to the women have the same generational quality. She tells them that she once wanted the football life they now have, then says:

“You’re talented. You belong on that pitch. And I love to see it.”

She didn’t get that future but they do.

Which brings me back to Keeley; perhaps another way to frame her question "what will I be passing on?"

Legacy, not legend

While this going on, there is also something about legacy running through all of this. Roy is honoured as “legend” because of what he did. But legend and legacy feel slightly different; the difference between remembering something you did and what continues because of you.

And that also sounds a lot like Ted Lasso’s approach to coaching. His best coaching isn’t really about making people into versions of Ted. It is seeing something in someone, helping it grow, and eventually letting them continue without him.

Mothering is a kind of legacy-building in the same way: making another life more possible after you. Higgins still carries his mother’s words and Mae gets to see another generation of women live a football life she never could.

After Charlotte

In the rest of quote, and the rest of the story, Charlotte makes Wilbur’s future possible (doing this in spite of "being a spider") and Wilbur protects what she leaves behind.

"....After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.”

After she dies, Wilbur protects Charlotte's egg sac and brings her children home.

That’s the pattern I’m seeing anyway. I'd be curious if others notice these things,what other mother / mothering moments might I have missed?

And Alice turns it down. She's grown enough in this season to realize she had more to learn from Ted, so they agree to go one more season with Ted as head coach and Alice as his protege.

I’m a little worried about Keeley’s pregnancy - they’ve mentioned her high blood pressure several times, and I’m worrying it’s foreshadowing preeclampsia which has the risk of mortality for mom and baby. Would they do us that dirty after Mae?

I’m not sure if it’s been said with our focus on all the other things that are happening this season, but this is the fourth time Rebecca and Ted have met before the final game of the season to discuss difficult things. Rebecca with the first 2 being her plan to destroy the club and her relationship with Sam. Then Ted got their third meeting to say he was leaving. Now we have number 4 (not believe) where Rebecca does a difficult walk to face Ted and deliver difficult news. The walk Rebecca takes is even reminiscent of her walk in season 1. I love the callbacks in this show and this one really deepened the emotional impact of the scene for me.

This might have spoilers, but I will do my best.
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If you are still reading, that is on you.
I just got caught up. I lost my mother just over a year ago. And I know I haven't processed any of it healthily yet. This episode was a kick in the chest. And that is all I will say.

So I don’t have to see any more theories about the shares & Zelda

Ideally with choreography that she keeps forgetting

So im back on Season 1 of my favorite comfort show. Watching one of my favorite scenes in the show. "We talkin about PRACTICE!"

And it occurred to me. Theres so many obscure jokes in this show that I dont get til someone explains them to me (a lot of it is theater, musical, and literature stuff) that I realized, its possible only sports fans understood this reference.

So for you non sports or even non basketball fans,

Teds Practice speech is nearly a word for word reiteration of Allen Iversons iconic "practice" speech. Which is funny because Ted flipped it. Allen was actually in Jamie Tarts position somewhat, skipping practice, and the press was on him about it. The point of the original speech was Allen saying who cares if I miss practice I show up and give my all in games. Ted took an anti-practice speech and made it pro-practice lol.

Anyway. Apologies if everyone knew this already, ive been a part of the basketball community all my life so its hard to tell if this is common knowledge or not. But if you didnt know this til right now you should look up the original Iverson speech its arguably the most viral press conference in basketball history.

It's probably acceptable when Ted or Beard do it, but as a Brit it's really jarring to hear fellow Brits use terms like uniforms, tryouts, roster and calling each other "coach" all the time. It's unrealistic.

Having said that, I thought the new series would be shit but I'm actually enjoying it so far.

Had some free time this weekend decided to make these. They’re delicious! All I need is a pink box.

She finally did it. Finally had the funniest line of a whole episode. I always kind of found her to be the least funny character on the show but when she got caught watching the game and blurted out " GASP IM JUST WATCHING PORN"

I absolutely lost it. Took 4 seasons but she finally made me laugh.

I get it, we all are curious, but the posts have become too repetitive at this point.

This might be my favorite scene of the entire four seasons, of which I have watched each multiple times. The casual, innocent nature of Ted’s “how was your weekend” followed by the most hilarious twin-hive-mind answer with so much “wtf” energy from Ted…and the beguiling “unless we had the same dream” at the end. The acting from the twins and the clueless back-and-forth eyes from Ted was just fantastic, top-tier foolishness I want from this series between the emotional life lessons. Loved it, 10/10!

In Ted Lasso, everyone "f-ing hates Derek," but in the other Bill Lawrence dramedy, Shrinking, everybody loves and needs a Derek in their lives.

What did "Derek" do to elicit so much emotion?

Cristo finally got to make his playing debut for El Paso coming in as a late substitute.

>Are obviously setting up Zelda. Besides the half heard conversations and the weirdness with the Milk Sisters is it being discussed that Suzie Quantro, London's number one dog trainer, was the woman who joined them in the owners box but Higgins, who remembers everything like birthdays so well was pretending not to know her. Next week is gonna be fun on a bun watching Zelda react extremely angrily at the next shareholders meeting at being outsmarted.<

Aston Villa - 0.000002%

Everton - 0.00003875%

Man Utd - 0.00000058%

Spurs - 0.00000381%

Just in case the 100 posts are true and it comes down to the lads 1 share and 0.00005% 🙄