Ted Lasso - Season 4, Episode 2, "Curiouser and Curiouser!" - Review & Recap
- Jimmy Palmquist
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
⚠️ Spoiler Alert: This review may contains spoilers. ⚠️
Ted Lasso Season 4, Episode 2 Recap & Review: Now THIS Feels Like Ted Lasso. We’re back in London!
After last week’s premiere took its time getting Ted, and us, back into the world of AFC Richmond, Episode 2 finally feels like we’re home.
And speaking of home, Ted Lasso is now living above Mae’s bar.
You can’t beat that.
Annette Badland returns as the wonderfully blunt and endlessly entertaining Mae, and I
couldn’t be happier to see her again. I recently watched Badland in Netflix’s Heartstopper, so seeing her immediately slip back into Mae’s particular brand of humor and wisdom was an added treat.
The episode opens with a fantastic exchange between Mae and Ted about having a Guinness for breakfast.
Ted understandably questions the idea of drinking a beer first thing in the morning. Mae, completely serious, explains that Guinness is basically a full meal.
Ted passes.
Mae considers this and admits that maybe it is a little early to have two.
But what the hell?
Yep. I’ve missed Mae.
While Ted is settling back into London, Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) has been given what might be the most terrifying assignment of his career.
A giant orange binder.
Rebecca has tasked Leslie with reading and understanding a massive report examining the viability of the new AFC Richmond Lady Greyhounds Football team. There’s a serious reason for it. The unfortunate reality is that several women’s teams have folded, and Richmond needs to determine whether this new venture can actually succeed.
But this is Ted Lasso, so naturally the depressing reality of the situation is accompanied by Leslie trying desperately to make it through what appears to be the most tedious document ever created.
The enormous orange binder itself becomes part of the joke. Every time we see it, it somehow looks even more obnoxious.
Good luck, Leslie.
We also finally catch up with Roy Kent and Coach Beard.
Roy has adjusted surprisingly well to being the man at AFC Richmond. He’s in charge, he’s comfortable, and he apparently loves using all the underhanded tricks he learned throughout his years of playing to intimidate opposing teams.
We get to see some of those techniques when it comes to how Richmond treats the visiting team and, more specifically, their locker room accommodations.
It actually made me think back to my own playing career and wonder how many shady visiting locker rooms I experienced that were very much intentional.
Maybe that freezing shower wasn't an accident after all.
Roy Kent would approve.
Coach Beard, on the other hand?
Not doing so great.
He and Jane are no longer together, and Beard looks like a man who has been through it.
The comically oversized facial hair and generally disheveled appearance make his misery even funnier, but there’s something deeper going on.
Beard is loyal to Roy.
Roy is his head coach, and Beard is committed to being his assistant.
But Ted is back.
That’s his guy.
And you can tell that knowing Ted is coaching again without him is eating Beard alive.
Thankfully, Roy Kent understands exactly what’s happening.
Rather than forcing Beard to make the decision himself, Roy releases him from his obligations by citing an incredibly random violation buried somewhere within AFC Richmond’s player conduct rules.
It’s ridiculous.
It’s hilarious.
And it’s Roy showing that underneath all the growling, swearing and anger, he understands exactly what his friend needs.
I can’t wait to see Beard get back to his old self alongside Ted.
Perhaps my favorite addition to the episode is Alice Chilton, played by Tanya Reynolds.
Chilton has been tasked with serving as Ted’s new assistant coach, and she wastes absolutely no time establishing herself as a complete pain in the ass.
I mean that as a compliment.
Because underneath that attitude, you quickly realize something important about Alice:
She loves soccer. And she loves the athletes who play for her.
She’s difficult because she asks difficult questions.
She doesn’t back down.
She doesn't accept easy answers just because they're convenient.
And that becomes very apparent during her early conversation with Rebecca.
Alice asks Rebecca whether she ever considered making her the head coach.
Rebecca's immediate answer is no.
Then comes the much tougher question.
Did Rebecca ever consider hiring a woman to coach AFC Richmond’s new women’s team?
That one hits.
Rebecca hesitates.
Eventually, she has to admit the truth.
No.
As the audience, we understand why. For Rebecca, it was always Ted. She wasn't necessarily thinking about hiring a man to coach the women's team. She was thinking about hiring Ted Lasso.
But Alice's point still makes complete sense.
Here is Rebecca Welton, a woman trying to build and promote a successful women's football team in an overwhelmingly male-dominated sport, and when it came time to find its leader, her first instinct wasn't to find a great female coach.
It was to bring back Ted.
That realization clearly bothers Rebecca.
And it gives Alice plenty of reason to announce that her last day will be Friday.
Sure it will.
Has this woman met Ted Lasso?
We also finally get properly introduced to the AFC Richmond Lady Greyhounds.
Not everyone gets a chance to stand out yet, and that's perfectly fine. We have an entire season to get to know these players.
But a few definitely make an impression.
First are twins Niamh (Aisling Sharkey) and Siobhan Harrigan (Rex Hayes).
They’re teammates.
They’re sisters.
And they seemingly can't stand each other.
They fight on the field. They fight off the field. Basically, if there's an opportunity for sibling rivalry, they're going to take it.
Then there's Boots (Jude Mack), the team's goalkeeper.
I loved that the show wastes absolutely no time establishing something everyone who has played soccer already knows:
Goalkeepers are insane.
Why would any reasonable person voluntarily stand in front of a net while other people kick a ball at them as hard as humanly possible?
Exactly.
Boots is apparently a fantastic goalkeeper. The scouting reports suggest she has the talent to play almost anywhere.
There's just one little problem.
She refuses to wear gloves.
That decision has kept other serious teams from giving her a shot.
Ted naturally wants to understand why, so Boots tries to explain the situation to him. Eventually she realizes there's only one comparison that will make sense. She asks Ted whether he prefers sex with or without a condom. Ted pauses.
You can practically see the wheels turning inside his head.
Then he simply walks away without answering.
Perfect.
Welcome to the team, Boots.
As funny as Episode 2 is, this season is already making it clear that bringing women's soccer into the Ted Lasso universe isn't simply an excuse to tell the same story with different players.
The show is going to address some uncomfortable realities. The disparity between men's and women's sports is immediately obvious. The men's AFC Richmond team has great facilities and a proper locker room. The women don't. It's not until Keeley and Ted start pushing the issue that things begin moving closer toward equality. It's a small example of a much bigger problem, and I appreciate that the show isn't pretending these inequalities don't exist.
Then the episode gives us its biggest gut punch.
Richmond's striker, Josie Gordon (Stevie Abrahms) goes down with a torn ACL.
For me, this part hit particularly hard.
I've had five knee surgeries myself and fought my way back from two ACL tears to finish out my college career. So I understand firsthand the incredible range of emotions this sport, and that particular injury, can put someone through.
One second you're playing the game you love.
The next you're wondering when, or even if, you'll play it again. FYI, the second one is far worse than the first. By the time you tear your second ACL, you are well aware of what it takes to make a comeback. And it ain't easy. First time around you just do what you have to do to get back. The second time you literally make a decision on whether or not you want to go through it all again, never knowing if you'll suffer another similar injury.
Alice immediately goes with her player to the ER.
But what really matters comes afterward, when she updates Ted on her condition.
That's when we finally begin seeing behind Alice's tough exterior.
We see how much she cares about these women.
We see how much she cares about this sport.
And we begin to understand how much she's lost—and how hard she's had to fight—to
remain part of it.
And Ted sees it too.
This is where the episode really starts feeling like classic Ted Lasso.
Ted doesn't win Alice over by proving he knows more about soccer than she does.
He doesn't pull rank.
He doesn't demand respect because he's the head coach.
He listens.
He cares.
Most importantly, he recognizes that Alice cares just as much as he does.
Of course it's not as simple as announcing she's staying. Ted goes through his typical games and makes Alice think he is going to interview the coaches she recommended for her replacement. He simply thanks them and dismisses them, letting Alice know he's already found his assistant coach. And it's her.
No one turns down Ted.
Last week, we watched Ted struggling because he wasn't coaching. He was trying to convince himself that simply being Henry's dad was enough, even though every part of him wanted to help the people around him become better versions of themselves.
Now he's back where he belongs.
And Alice gets to see why everyone around AFC Richmond believes in this strange American guy with the mustache.
Of course she's going to stay.
Because Ted Lasso has a funny way of winning people over.
I understood some of the disappointment surrounding Episode 1, even if I didn't agree with it.
People waited years for Ted Lasso to return, and then we spent most of the premiere in America trying to convince Ted to go back to England.
But I still believe that episode was necessary.
Ted spent three seasons realizing he needed to be home with Henry. You couldn't erase all of that character development with a five-minute conversation and a plane ticket.
The show needed to earn Ted's return.
Episode 1 did that.
Episode 2 gets to enjoy the payoff.
We're back in London.
We're back at Mae's bar.
We're back at AFC Richmond.
Roy Kent is running the men's team. Beard is on his way back to Ted. Rebecca and Keeley are trying to give the Lady Greyhounds the resources they deserve. We've got a whole new group of players to fall in love with.
And Ted Lasso is coaching again.
More importantly, the show already has something meaningful to say.
We're getting the optimism, absurdity, heart and humor that made Ted Lasso special, but we're also exploring some of the ugliness that still exists in sports, particularly the enormous disparities between men's and women's athletics.
That's a story worth telling.
Episode 1 reminded us why Ted needed to come back.
Episode 2 reminds us why we wanted him back.
Ted Lasso finally feels like Ted Lasso again.
And I'm damn happy to be back at Richmond.
Check out the trailer for Season 4 of Ted Lasso:
