‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 Episode 7 Review: Fighting Forward

After getting its mojo back last week, Ted Lasso, if not the AFC Richmond squad within it, continues a winning streak with “The Strings That Bind Us.” Back from the Dutch excursion and triangular revelation, Ted (Jason Sudeikis), Beard (Brendan Hunt), and Roy (Brett Goldstein) buckle down to teach the team “Total Football,” replete with fascinating tactics, before their next match. Sam (Toheeb Jimoh) fusses over his restaurant in preparation for his father’s visit, and turtles on Twitter with the racist Home Secretary. Following up on their romantic northern lights trip off-screen, Keeley (Juno Temple) and Jack (Jodi Balfour) go full-steam ahead on their relationship with a small wrinkle of concern from Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) that Jack is “love bombing” Keeley. Elsewhere in London, Nate (Nick Mohammed) turns to his family for some dating advice as he circles the idea of asking Jade (Edyta Budnik) out.

This is a mostly squad-focused affair, but I want to nod to Nate and Keeley. On the Keeley side, Temple and Balfour have oodles of chemistry, but it’s fitting of Keeley’s character to push for them to slow down and avoid constant romantic grandiosity. The episode also broaches the topic of Jack’s power position, and though I imagine we’ll be rightfully dealing with that more later, it’s nice to see the show address it after bungling the Sam-Rebecca dynamic last season. As for Nate, Mohammed is wonderfully awkward as he prepares to ask Jade out. It also provides the unexpected joy of seeing Nate open up to his mother and sister. Nate may be making a number of regrettable choices, but scenes like this underscore how, at heart, he is a man just looking for warm and caring connections. Here’s hoping he ditches Rupert and makes amends!

For all its football-focused settings, Ted Lasso puts the beautiful game below character study. No complaints with that ranking—it means that when the show clears out space to focus on the athletics side of Richmond everything feels fresh. Early on in the episode, Beard delivers a charmingly high-school-looking presentation on “Total Football,” a scene that sneakily sprinkles real-life football history into the show. Of course, the turn to the hilarity is lovely as the team hits the pitch and “Drill Instructor Roy” makes them run all practice. That is, until introducing a fascinating training technique; the fellas tie connected red strings around their nether regions to force an awareness of where their partner is on the pitch. Is it absurd? Absolutely. Is it an amusing variation on Ted Lasso’s many non-traditional football beats? Positively. It also lets Phil Dunster ham it up when Jamie nearly loses his prized appendage. 

The light-hearted nature of the “Total Football” storyline pairs well with the meatier Sam storyline. After growing into a key role during season two, a Sam-focused episode in season three has seemed overdue, and “The Strings That Bind Us” wholly delivers. So much of what makes Sam an electric character is Jimoh’s combination of breezy warmth and effortless earnestness. Ted Lasso’s run has seen Sam grow in leaps and bounds as he identifies the areas he cares most deeply about, and Jimoh has turned in consistently exemplary work at every stage. Seeing him speak up about Dubai Air’s shady business practices last season and then go on to open his own restaurant has been a knockout adult coming-of-age arc of its own. And so, the events of “The Strings That Bind Us” come together as a major culmination. 

Ted Lasso often focuses on fathers and sons for meaty plotlines, so Sam’s father coming to visit is a tip-off that something big is coming. When Sam responds to the Home Secretary’s racist and xenophobic tweet about denying refugees asylum in England, it unspools a disconcertingly familiar chain of events. While Sam keeps his public comments forceful yet respectful, the Home Secretary is dismissive, and cruel, and tells him to “shut up and dribble.” That phrase comes courtesy of Laura Ingraham calling for Lebron James to focus on basketball instead of speaking out about President Trump’s actions. Both the real-life and fictional moments are examples of white people in power trying to dismiss and silence Black athletes who use their platform to make vital comments about injustice. For Sam, it results in criminals breaking into his restaurant and trashing it, spray-painting “shut up and dribble” on the wall. 

That heartbreaking turn of events leads to a scene in the locker room where Sam explodes, affording Jimoh the rare moment of laying bare all of the pent-up fury and pain coming from a Black player in a country and a league that often falls back on racist ideologies. Sam is pushed over the edge because he was so excited to show his father Ola (Nona Anozie) the restaurant he named after him. When Ola enters the locker room at the tail-end of Sam’s meltdown, he just holds his sobbing son, which leads into a moving scene where Ola counsels Sam to carry on. That would be powerful enough, but after the “Total Football” approach clicks because of Jamie’s stepping into his role as a leader (more shouts to Dunster’s fantastic work), the team surprises Sam by cleaning the restaurant. Score another point for Ted Lasso squeezing my tear ducts. 

Near the end of “The Strings That Bind Us,” Trent (James Lance) excitedly tells Ted that the team found their groove at the end of the Arsenal match not because of “Total Football,” but because of the culmination of Ted’s years-long work on building a “community of trust.” Ted, Beard, and Roy may call Trent “our dork” for that, but the stupidly fashionable former reporter has a point; the Richmond squad of season one would never have played that well nor taken the time to rally around Sam. If this is to be Ted Lasso’s final season, it will be one that clarifies how, for all the hiccups and issues along the way, Ted and those around him have made a meaningful change at Richmond for all those who walk the Dogtrack’s halls.