‘Ted Lasso’ Recap: ‘Big Week’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 304 of ‘Ted Lasso’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.

When we cut someone out of our lives, for negative or toxic related reasons… we expect to never see them again and rightfully so. After all, they wronged us, they hurt us, and the thought of seeing them ever again is as uncomfortable a thought, as the moment was, we expelled them from our lives, and thankfully… their permanent exit tends to come to fruition. Because normally when we do this, we know they’ll avoid regular haunts, or we can alter our life to avoid them and just like that… we are free of the madness with lessons in hands and ready to move onto better people and bigger things in life. But sometimes… this plan doesn’t quite work out the way we hoped. 
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For now, and again, the person we cut loose, is deeply tied to our world, and we share friends and hangouts and other such places. Which means… there will come a point when we cross paths with them again and that… can be unnerving. Because that means… we will have to look them in the eye and interact with them again, and potentially feel those pained emotions bubble to the surface of our soul and that is just as difficult as the decision we made to release them from our lives. Which begs a supremely important question. In that, how do we deal with that? For that can be a daunting and powerful task to say the least and it just so happens that the next episode of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+, takes the time to explore this.

For ‘Big Week’ featured an important date on the calendar. Specifically, the long-awaited matchup between West Ham and AFC Richmond. Which meant that Nate and Ted were going to be coaching against one another in a match that meant a great deal in the Premier League and of course… that gave rise to pressure. Pressure from Rebecca and the coaching staff at Richmond since they really wanted to stick it to Nate and weren’t sure they could and oddly… pressure in Nate’s world as well. Because having the echo drown out the voice was something that meant a lot to Nate, and he really wanted to make that happen. Which allowed for an interesting story of duality to take place as well, as we were reminded of the fact that Nate isn’t a supervillain of sorts… he is but a man and has feelings and was just as nervous here.  

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Which led to some fascinating scenes that spoke to how there is still some good in his soul when he isn’t being enabled by Rupert, but on game day… that good mostly faded. That brought forth… an ugly first half as the two sides battled it out and tried to outwit one another and sadly… that led to our first lesson regarding how we handle confronting those we cut out of our lives. In that… it’s best we give them nothing from an emotional standpoint when we see them again, since that can ignite a need to right a wrong and that… can lead to disaster and it did. Since Coach Beard and Roy Kent showed the team the footage of Nate ripping the ‘Believe’ sign in half last season while Rebecca also did the wrong thing by demanding in a quirky way that Ted enact revenge upon Rupert. And well… that pushed the team to play angry and play stupid in the second half… and lose this match. 
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But that wasn’t the only lesson that came out of that disappointing result. For Ted also made it clear that class and kindness matter when encountering that blast from the past. Since that takes them off guard since they too are curious about indulging in emotion and well… that mantra did make Nate look bad since he was disrespectful to Ted, despite wanting to be the opposite. Which ate at him for certain and set the stage perhaps for a different kind of rematch since we all know deep down, these teams will face off again because that’s the kind of world Ted and his friends live in. But while we wait for that, we can relish in a powerful episode. One that spoke to the lasting impact of the Wonder Kid’s actions from last season, and one that saw growth for the characters that indulged in the need for revenge over kindness.

Since Beard and Roy learned their lesson hard without Ted saying a word and of course, Nate is indeed floundering with his tough guy act because of the ugly it produces. But what was amazing is that this episode featured more growth-based moments. Since this is a story that forced Keeley to grow as a boss, since Shandy made one hell of a mistake, in front of THE BOSS no less, and this is also an episode that saw Ted do something he rarely does. Which was to stand up for himself and speak out about the hurt he felt, to his wife no less. That’s huge, and that’s something that will undoubtedly be an important plot point in weeks to come. But what mattered more is that this brilliant tale, did a phenomenal job of reminding us… how life tends to come around full circle, especially when unfinished business comes into play, and that the high road is how we make that… a neutral and uneventful experience. Until next time. 

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