‘Ted Lasso’ Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: ‘Man City’

Ted lasso

City of man

Season 2

Episode 8

Editor’s Note

4 stars

****

Photo: Colin Hutton / Apple TV +

Ted lasso began its second season killing a dog, and it looks like “Man City,” this season’s eighth episode, could deliver a similar shock. He opens, exceptionally, in Doc Sharon’s apartment, a place we’ve never seen before and which doesn’t seem particularly imbued with his personality. This is suitable for an apartment provided by AFC Richmond, as we will see later. This is not the house. This is just a temporary arrangement for Sharon, a concert that will lead to the next concert. But he’s the one who, as evidenced by Sharon’s conversation with her own therapist, challenges her in ways she hadn’t expected. And, at least for a while between the final seconds before the opening credits and the episode’s opening scenes, it looks like this could be his final assignment.

“Ted Lasso is driving me crazy,” Sharon tells her therapist. She continues, “He refuses to open up, and when he’s about to be vulnerable, he triggers an obscure reference to something very specific to a 40-year-old white man from Central America.” Sharon has Ted’s number (and, to some extent, Ted lassowriters’ numbers too), but Sharon’s therapist sees a connection. Ted diverts intimacy and vulnerability with humor and kindness; Sharon does the same with her formidable intelligence. But Sharon has joy in her life. She loves to ride a bike, listen to Roots Manuva and give something to those in her path to do. But when she meets a car head-on, her mobile reverie comes to an end.

Fortunately, this is not the end of Sharon. That would be a cheap shock from the show, and honestly, keeping the suspense going over whether Sharon was killed or seriously injured already seems cheap enough. She’s fine, except for a little concussion. But the injury also reveals how frustrated she is with Ted’s resistance to therapy and Ted in general. His voicemail messages caused by a head injury can’t hide his feelings about him (or his beautiful singing voice), and she seems more annoyed than grateful when he’s the one showing up to the hospital, where he is. confused with her husband and deals with the misunderstanding for all the comedy he can.

Yet he is there for her, calling frequently to watch her and being annoying in the process. (Or is it entertaining?) He’s also low-key by not commenting on all the empty bottles he sees around his apartment. (And Ted is known to push off a little too much on his own.) In a strange way, they understand each other, which opens the door for him to say something to her that he has never told her before when the he episode draws to a close. .

But that’s later. First, there is the matter of preparations for the big game against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, the place where Queen and others played Live Aid. (Or at least that’s Ted’s frame of reference, not realizing that this Wembley replaced this Wembley.) But there is some drama surrounding the preparation for the match. First, Roy has to deal with Phoebe’s habit of swearing. (And where could she have picked that up?) It’s a fun affair, though, and it’s always fun to see these two together, but the cutesy scenes don’t really contribute to a 45-minute episode.

They are also slow to tackle more pressing issues, like the climax of Sam and Rebecca’s Bantr flirtation, which Sam approaches with a lot of optimism before realizing his match’s identity. And why not him? His protests helped drive the polluting oil company out of Nigeria, and he has – thanks to Isaac, who brings a lot of ceremony to the occasion – a pointy new haircut that attracts compliments everywhere he goes. That it is Rebecca who shows up when he asks to meet “Bossgirl” in person doesn’t make that optimism go away.

Rebecca, on the other hand, takes a bit of persuasion. She’s his boss, after all, and he’s only 21. But Sam is 21 and he believes in the bond they formed online, or at least doesn’t want to give it up without a proper date: a good meal, a nice conversation – she doesn’t have to go. further than that.

And yet he Is go further. Rebecca remains cautious – at the very least, there’s an ethical issue here – but she sticks around and they have a great time together. When Sam asks for a second date at the end of the night, she rejects him, but only sort of. There is a kiss and a hesitation, and they agree it can’t happen again. But, again, only sort of. There’s just too much chemistry in there – and Hannah Waddingham and Toheeb Jimoh play it so well together – to let go completely.

Before all of this, Sam shares a great time with his father, who couldn’t be more proud of his son for his activism and accomplishments. This is all in stark contrast to Jamie’s dad, James (Kieran O’Brien), a demanding and abusive man who has been offscreen all season so far but whose presence has, as always, weighed on Jamie. While asking Higgins for tickets to his father, whose last “office” has to be the worst yet, Jamie receives advice on accepting his father for who he is and forgiving him for not being the father Jamie wants him to be. ‘it be.

But that’s easier said than done when your dad is as dumb as Jamie’s, who shows up to the game dressed in a Man City uniform and, with a group of friends that includes someone named. “Bug” behaves abominably throughout. After the Greyhounds lost the game, James doubled up, showing up in the locker room and chewing his son in front of the whole team. It’s awful, so awful that Roy is moved to embrace his old enemy as everyone looks at him in shock and pity.

This loss will have consequences. It’s going to take a long time for Jamie to recover from a double dose of humiliation (and it’s unclear How? ‘Or’ What he will respond), and Beard – who is so frustrated that at one point he takes off his hat for the first time in the whole series – goes to do God knows what on the London night. The team spirit appears to be broken, and although Ted spends the night without giving in to a panic attack, it breaks him enough that he knows he has to confront Sharon about a source of his problems. : the death of his father by suicide. Ted has alluded to his father before, speaking of him in tones suggesting he wasn’t saying something about his loss. Just walking through Sharon’s door was a big step. Talking about it, even briefly, seems even more important.

The night Is ends well for Rebecca and Sam, however. Rather than give up, he gently persists, showing up at her door but letting her take the first step outside to meet him. Where is it going? Neither of them know it, and there are obvious obstacles to the relationship. But, at the end of the episode, none of that seems to matter.

• The most immediate stumbling block: the two played the beginnings of this relationship for an audience. Rebecca has her crew, and Sam has the whole crew going for him. They will expect a report.

• Nice little game of Sudeikis: the moment when he forces himself to stop crying and put on the Ted Lasso effect while talking to Beard.

• Ted Lasso has offered indirect book recommendations in several episodes this season. We saw Beard read Simon Kuper Football against the enemy, a study of the intersection between football and politics. This week Ted takes a long look at The middle passage: misery in the sense of quarantine, Jungian psychologist James Hollis’ 1993 guide to managing midlife seizures.

• Keeley is having some great times with Rebecca this week, but she still feels a little bit removed from the action this season, doesn’t she?

• After his dark turn last week, we only get a few glimpses of Nate this week, and he mostly seems faster and more eager to be a part of team life. However, we probably haven’t finished his heel turn yet.

• The big question: everyone loves Ted, but can the team justify keeping him if they keep losing?