Coming off a season premiere focused on the show’s more melancholy aspects, Ted Lasso delivers a lighter if no less insightful second episode of season three. Whereas our first step back pinged around to set the table for each key character, this week’s “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” narrows the viewpoint to focus predominantly on the goings-on around AFC Richmond and their impending opening match against Chelsea. This is not to say that the strands introduced last week are forgotten, but rather that Ted Lasso uses the sophomore episode to settle back into something like business as usual with our knowledge of each character’s struggles lending a loaded mix of text and subtext. Notably, apart from a late-episode slime fest from Rupert (Anthony Head), Nate (Nick Mohammed) and the rest of West Ham United stay out of frame.
We open on Keeley (Juno Temple) as she contends with her numbingly corporate and firm-provided PR employees. Her trademark flair and energy clashes with the team’s buttoned-up vibe. Fighting on two fronts, she also meets Roy (Brett Goldstein) to trade some last belongings in the aftermath of their breakup. Much to Roy’s chagrin, that breakup becomes a focus for those around him. Everyone from Ted (Jason Sudeikis) to Jamie (Phil Dunster) checks in with him when he only wants to prepare for the Chelsea match. Making matters all the more complicated, Ted has accepted Trent Crimm’s (James Lance) request to follow the team all season so Trent can write a book. Excitement bubbles through though when international all-star Zava (Maximilian Osinki) announces an interest to join the EPL—cue a spike in Rebecca’s (Hannah Waddingham) blood pressure.
Watching Keeley work her way from model and footballer arm candy to CEO of her own firm remains a joy. Her destiny is much more. Now it’s a matter of Keeley learning how to lead. Her by-the-book CFO Barbara (Katy Wix) is a major kink in that plan. Barbara projects similar energy to early season one Rebecca—we don’t know her backstory yet, but a collection of snow globes from all the places that “the firm” has sent her suggest a woman with all sorts of festering resentments. When Keeley bumps into and hires an old modeling friend named Shandy (Ambreen Razia), Keeley and Barabara have a mini showdown about Barabara’s rudeness. It’s a small subplot this week, but a final scene where Keeley starts to break through Barabara’s shell suggests a heartwarming turnaround incoming.
On the flip side of the post-breakup couple, Roy emerges as the centerpiece through which much of “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” flows. The first spark comes when Jamie sees Roy and Keeley’s awkward exchange in the AFC Richmond hallway, and then follows Roy into the gear room. Roy assumes Jamie’s swooping in to see if he can go after Keeley, but instead, he offers a surprisingly tender dose of concerned friend energy. The scene is capped with a joke about Jamie going in for a hug and Roy balking, but it adds fertile ground to the growing connection between the two men that previously peaked with a tearjerking hug in season two. It also feeds nicely into a locker room scene where the team echoes Jamie’s sentiments, albeit in a more explicitly comedic way.
As if things couldn’t get more uncomfortable for Roy this week, “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” also marks Trent Crimm’s triumphant return. After losing his job at The Independent for revealing Nate as his source about Ted’s panic attacks, Trent wants to follow the team around and write an in-depth book about AFC Richmond. For reasons initially unknown, Roy is furious about this fact and instructs the team not to talk to or around Trent. After easy laughs tied to the team clamming up around Trent, the subplot ends up taking us to a poignant reveal; Roy resents Trent because the latter wrote a scathing review of Roy’s EPL debut when Roy was just 17. The two have a frank exchange about professional regrets and growth. Both actors are electric, and it especially serves as a reminder that Goldstein has a masterful grip on Roy’s many shades.
All of this leads to, as the title suggests, the match at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. On-pitch action has never been Ted Lasso’s focus, but this episode marks a step up in football choreography to match the EPL setting. Even for Richmond’s miracle flourish to scrape by with a 1-1 draw, the big finish comes courtesy of Rebecca. After she spots Rupert charming Zava in the stands, she decides to speak to the star herself and make a bid for him to join Richmond. Rupert humiliates her in front of Zava, but riding the rage she follows Zava into the bathroom and delivers a gangbusters speech about how Zava would be a coward to go to an all-star team—the brave move would be to come to Richmond and prove he can succeed anywhere. It works, and Zava announces during his press conference that Richmond will be his new club.
We may only be two episodes into this third and likely final season of Ted Lasso, but the stakes are already high, and the stage is set for a juicy run of episodes for everyone in the mix.
We may only be two episodes into this third and likely final season of Ted Lasso, but the stakes are already high, and the stage is set for a juicy run of episodes for everyone in the mix.
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Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.
