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A review of this week's Ted Lasso, "Yes & Baby," coming up just as soon as I'm stuck in a 28-year gym membership...
Alan Sepinwall
My goodness, what's this? An episode that starts with the team, that gives the players more than a few lines apiece, and that has the returning characters behaving more like the versions of themselves from earlier seasons? It's exasperating that it took us more than two thirds of the way into a 10-episode season to get such a thing. But more episodes like this, please and thank you.
"Yes & Baby" in fact makes it all the way to the opening credits without a single returning character. We bounce from scene to scene of all the notable newcomers dealing with various personal struggles. Lizzie's ex is useless and doesn't show up as promised to watch her younger son Archie. Gemma has an interview for a prestigious legal internship, but it conflicts with practice. (Her professor somewhat dismissively refers to "your football thing," but joining the team doesn't seem to have impacted her standing in the class.) Twins Siobhan and Niamh discover that their landlord is raising their rent, Boots' car won't run (and it's unclear if she lives in it, or just uses it to get around). Mady and Margy (attempting once again to take a break from their relationship) are dismayed when Bantr inevitably matches them to each other. Shannon has to deliver food to a Richmond fan, sheepishly explaining that second division women's football doesn't pay the bills on its own. And Alice is watching a motivational video, determined to be less abrasive with the players and the other coaches by attempting to say "yes" to everything. Each vignette is punctuated by one or more of the women realizing the gravity of their problem and muttering, "Shit." In Alice's case, it's literal, as bird poop hits her windshield while shes bracing herself to try this new approach.
It's a fun sequence, but most importantly it centers the team in a way the show was so far reluctant to do. It's been a maddening choice until now, both because the whole point of the season was to see Ted build up this new team, and because most of the plots about the returning characters have ranged somewhere from "thin" to "my god, what were you thinking?" And while Rebecca, Roy, and everyone else get their stories once the theme song ends, the team — and specifically Alice's attempt to channel her inner Ted Lasso with them — remains the episode's clear priority.