‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 Episode 5 Review: To City In Ruins

“Signs,” the fifth episode in Ted Lasso’s third and final season, holds within it the best and worst of Ted Lasso. I noted in my review of last week’s episode that this 12-episode run seems to be adhering closely to ideas of the three-act structure, and so this episode is the step into act two after the blow-up at West Ham. A second act is fundamentally about conflict—this is when characters discover their primary challenges and must start sorting through them. There is no shortage of key figures facing new and renewed struggles in “Signs.” However, its (overly)  jam-packed nature and head-scratchingly rushed storylines fall short of Ted Lasso’s high watermarks. Whereas the season premiere handled the ensemble and table setting with relative grace, “Signs” offers a handful of exceptional scenes that sparkle in an otherwise rickety episode.

The centerpiece is Richmond’s match with Man City, a team no one wants to see in the midst of a slew of losses following the West Ham defeat. Even Ted (Jason Sudeikis) is getting worried about the backslide. Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is unhappy, but lingering wonders about her psychic visit lead her to schedule an appointment at a fertility clinic, taking much of her focus off Man City. As the big match grows closer, Ted must also contend with Michelle’s (Andrea Anders) update that Henry (Gus Turner) has been involved in a bullying incident at school. Then comes the news that Zava (Maximilian Osinki) may be retiring. Over in PR land, Keeley (Juno Temple) enjoys a growing connection with Jack (Jodi Balfour) in tandem with her tanking relationship with Shandy (Ambreen Razia). All the while, Nate (Nick Mohammed) enjoys his mounting successes. 

Everything in “Signs” that centers on Keeley is sublime. Her life as a CEO has been one of the freshest parts of season three, and this episode took us fully back into that arena. When the short-lived honeymoon with Shandy peters out and Keeley is forced to fire her friend for losing them a key client, Razia delivers a tour de force comic riff on Tom Cruise leaving the office in Jerry Maguire (1996). Shandy’s bombastic departure, and her decision to sneak a lamb into the office conference room to shit over everything, offers Keeley and Jack a chance to bond further. After missing the Richmond match to clean up, the two share a bottle of vodka in Keeley’s office. They have an easy chemistry and when Keeley makes a move to kiss Jack it is a proper rom-com fist-pump moment. Color me excited to see where this romance leads.

On the Rebecca front, it is refreshing to have an episode where she is asked to do more than freak out about some Rupert or West Ham-related development. Waddingham so embodies Rebecca as a character and her mix of hope, fear, and vulnerability while sitting in the fertility clinic waiting room is exceptional work. Similarly, when she gets a phone call from her doctor after the game and seemingly receives bad news about her chances of becoming a mother, the range of emotions Waddingham cycles through is breathtaking. However, no amount of Waddingham’s sterling work can distract from the fact that Ted Lasso has reduced Rebecca to a pile of tired clichés this season. After balanced and evocative stretches throughout the first two seasons, season three only seems mostly interested in Rebecca as an angry ex-wife illogically removed from the friendships that have defined her. 

For Ted Lasso himself, “Signs” gives Sudeikis a masterful showcase moment after a dreadful subplot about Henry and bullying. When Michelle lets Ted know there has been a bullying incident, he assumes Henry was the one bullied, but a later call reveals that in fact, Henry enacted the bullying. The subtext here is that Henry is struggling with Ted’s absence and therefore acting out. Yet, “Signs” wraps the issue up when Ted FaceTimes Henry, tidily letting Henry apologize and move on. For a show that places mental health and masculinity at its center, introducing a bullying subplot and then rushing to tie it off without actively reckoning with either Henry’s actions or the larger implications for Ted is a major whiff. Ted’s speech about belief after Zava may be an all-timer for the show, but it is marred by the icky feeling of Ted Lasso sidestepping an issue. 

Even with Nate, an almost perfect sequence is deeply undercut by narrative hastiness uncharacteristic of Ted Lasso. Nate takes Russian model Anastasia (Elee Nova) on a date to his favorite Greek restaurant where she proceeds to insult it again and again. In a scene that once again showcases Nate’s inherent goodness, he tenderly reflects on how important the restaurant is to him and his family. Anastasia then leaves under the pretense of taking a call. Up to that moment, it is a microcosm par excellence of Nate’s arc on Ted Lasso. Then, Jade (Edyta Budnik), the hostess who has been nothing but hostile toward Nate, decides to join him for baklava because he said nice things about the restaurant. It is a ham-fisted reversal of Jade’s multi-season characterization. Her coming around could have been lovely, but rushing it to hit a hollow emotional beat robs it of a greater payoff. 

Fingers crossed that “Signs” is only a phlegmy throat-clearing for Ted Lasso before returning to form next week and for the rest of the season.