Ted Lasso - Season 4, Episode 1, "Home" - Review & Recap
- Jimmy Palmquist
- 4 minutes ago
- 6 min read
⚠️ Spoiler Alert: This review may contains spoilers. ⚠️
Ted Lasso is back, and apparently some people expected him to walk off the plane, grab a whistle, yell “Believe!” and immediately start coaching again.
Come on, people. We’ve got some work to do first.
Season 4, Episode 1, appropriately titled “Home,” brings us back into the world of Ted Lasso with a slower, funnier, and, most importantly, necessary reintroduction to the characters we’ve missed. Instead of pretending the emotional journey of the first three seasons never happened, the premiere actually respects why Ted went home in the first place.
And personally? I loved it.
The episode kicks off with Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Leslie (Jeremy Swift), and Keeley (Juno Temple) invading America on a mission: get Ted Lasso back to England.
AFC Richmond now has a professional women’s team, and Rebecca knows exactly who she wants coaching it.
Ted.
Of course, convincing him is going to take a little more than showing up and saying, “Hey Ted, want to do that soccer thing again?”
Watching Rebecca, Leslie, and Keeley navigate Ted’s home turf is easily some of the most fun in the episode. There’s something inherently entertaining about taking these characters we’ve spent years watching in England and dropping them into the United States. It was timely to say the least as we just watched the world experience this during the 2026 World Cup hosted here. As a native soccer lover, it was glorious to see so many nationalities embrace our culture and wanted to experience Americana.
And then there's the Kansas City joke.
Throughout their trip, the trio of Brits repeatedly reference being in Kansas City, only to have Americans correct them about whether they're enjoying the Kansas or Missouri side of things. It becomes a great little running gag, particularly because the distinction means absolutely nothing to our visiting Brits while seemingly being VERY important to everyone correcting them.
Welcome to America!
Meanwhile, the American side of the Ted Lasso family is back as well.
Jason Sudeikis obviously returns as Ted, alongside Andrea Anders as his ex-wife Michelle and Becky Ann Baker as Ted’s mother, Dottie. Henry is back too, although this time he's played by Grant Feely.
But Ted himself is in a very different place.
This isn't Coach Lasso anymore.
This is Dad Lasso.
Ted has settled into a life working at a grocery store and being a sports parent. He's there for Henry. He's watching his games. He's supporting his son. He's doing exactly what he convinced himself he needed to come home and do.
There's just one problem.
Ted Lasso isn't coaching.
And it's killing him.
The episode does a fantastic job of showing that without needing Ted to announce it. With the help of Dottie, he also reframes his idea of being there for his family and especially Henry. She utilizes Ted's father and how much joy he'd get from going to work with his dad. It had nothing to do with what his father did for work, but rather everything to do with who his dad was at work and to see him shine in his element. None of that is on display for Henry as he watches Ted not living up to his potential.
One of my favorite moments comes when Ted approaches Henry's soccer coach after a game. For a brief second, that coaching instinct takes over. Ted sees something. He wants to help. He knows he can help. It's not just a situation where he's defending his son's play on the field, but where the coach makes a bonehead neaderthal coaching move by punishing a player with subbing him off the field for a mistake. Bad coaching. Ted sees how it affects his son, but also knows he can help improve the coaches skills as well.
He gets rebuffed.
So Ted backs off.
He respects the process. He respects the position of coach. He respects the boundaries.
But you can see how much effort it takes.
That's what I loved about both the writing and Sudeikis' performance in this episode. Ted is trying desperately to convince himself that being Henry's dad is enough because, for three seasons, being Henry's dad was the entire reason he believed he needed to leave Richmond.
Which brings me to some of the criticism I've already seen about this premiere.
Apparently, there are viewers upset that Season 4 doesn't immediately pick up with the same emotional highs and momentum of the previous seasons.
I seriously don't understand viewers sometimes.
We finished that storyline.
Season 3 had an ending. Ted made his decision. He went home because he believed Henry needed his father. If Season 4 simply opened with Rebecca saying, “Ted, we have a women's team now,” and Ted responded, “Cool, I'll grab my bags,” it would undermine everything the show spent three seasons building.
Ted can't simply go back.
The show has to give him a reason to go back.
That's why I personally loved the slow-roll setup of “Home.”
Rebecca, Leslie, and Keeley aren't just there to recruit Ted. Their journey through America allows us to reconnect with them while the episode simultaneously shows us what Ted's new life looks like.
And initially, Ted's answer seems pretty clear.
He chose Henry.
He's going to remain Henry's dad first, even if that means suppressing the part of himself that desperately wants to coach again.
Until Ted discovers something incredibly important.
Henry needs more from his dad.
Henry doesn't just need Ted to physically be there.
He needs his dad to be thee Ted Lasso.
The coach.
The leader.
The guy who somehow figures out what people need before they realize they need it themselves.
And suddenly the entire premise changes.
What if Ted doesn't have to choose between coaching and being Henry's father?
What if returning to England isn't Ted abandoning his family?
What if they go together?
That's when the door starts to creak open, not just for Ted returning to AFC Richmond, but potentially for Ted and his family to begin an entirely new chapter together in Great Britain.
And that is how you bring Ted Lasso back.
“Home” isn't trying to recreate the Season 3 finale. It's laying the foundation for whatever comes next. It reminds us who Ted is, shows us what he's been trying to become, and begins asking whether those two versions of the man can finally coexist.
Plus, Rebecca, Keeley, and Leslie running around America trying to recruit Ted is just plain fun. They have their own mini-adventures, like Rebecca and Keeley clothes shopping in the midwest. It's really out of necessity as Rebecca can't seem to satisfy her lust for barbecue and her misfortune of constantly dripping the sauce down the front of her blouses.
On their expedition, they are confronted with the extreme politeness of midwest culture, which is definitely not like the big city living of London, England. Then they are face to face with "high fashion" in middle America. It also cracks me up because the actress helping them shop is Susan Cryer, or as I fondly remember her as the "Yada Yada" girlfriend from Seinfeld.
At the same time, Leslie goes on his own adventure seeking out his beloved jazz culture as a local museum. Unfortunately for him, it's closed due to a private function. In typical Leslie fashion, he gets roped into something else, which in this case could not be more perfect. He tours the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. I love this on so many levels, specifically because baseball is not a big sport in England. Leslie tries to understand by equating it to cricket, which is pretty ridiculous and hilarious to an American. Not to mention he's also learning about the segregation and racism in a foreign country. He tries to relate, but comes up short a couple of times which of course only adds to the humor.
Could they have rushed through all of this and gotten Ted back on a Richmond pitch before the credits rolled?
Sure.
I'm glad they didn't.
Because Ted Lasso has never really been about soccer.
It's about people figuring out where they belong.
And after spending three seasons believing that “home” meant choosing between his
family and the thing he was born to do, Season 4 might finally be about Ted discovering that he doesn't have to choose.
Welcome back, Coach.
We missed you.
Check out the trailer for Season 4 of Ted Lasso:
