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Ted Lasso<\/a><\/p>\n Curiouser and Curiouser!<\/p>\n \n Season 4<\/p>\n Episode 2\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 4 stars<\/p>\n ****\n <\/p>\n \n While most of Richmond warmly welcomes him back, Ted still faces an uphill journey to ensure everyone on his new team is happy. Because the show is titled simply after its protagonist\u2019s name, Ted Lasso didn\u2019t necessarily have to remain a series about an American coach leading a British soccer team. It\u2019s possible, if unlikely, that this fourth season might have followed Ted around as he worked in the grocery, attended his son\u2019s soccer games, helped his mom move, etc. But a series\u2019 identity goes beyond its name, and with \u201cCuriouser and Curiouser!\u201d the season returns to familiar Ted Lasso territory after the previous episode\u2019s prologue\/catch-up session\/Kansas City travel guide. But not everything looks the way it used to. There are a lot of new faces; some old, familiar faces are nowhere to be found; and some of those that did return have new jobs.<\/p>\n Some even have new apartments. As the episode begins, Ted wakes up in a sunny, nicely furnished flat that we soon discover is located above the Crown & Anchor pub, a hive of AFC Richmond fandom where Ted and the others often find themselves. Now Ted\u2019s been promoted from regular to tenant and Mae (Annette Badland) is thrilled to have him because he\u2019s a nice break from renters with \u201clittle yapping dogs or cocaine habits.\u201d On his way to work, he even gets hassled by a fan. It\u2019s like he never left.<\/p>\n While Ted makes his way in, Higgins arrives in Rebecca\u2019s office with a massive report he commissioned about the viability of a women\u2019s soccer team, a sign that Richmond\u2019s women\u2019s team will not be able to survive solely on good vibes. Not that good vibes don\u2019t matter. Worried about what the report might contain, Rebecca opts to keep the report from Keeley, at least for the moment.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a problem for later. For now, Rebecca has to deal with Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds, a face familiar to fans of Sex Education<\/a> and The Other Bennet Sister<\/a>), the coach who\u2019s been helping build the women\u2019s team from, as she puts it, \u201cthe ground up.\u201d Yet, to Alice\u2019s great frustration, she has not been hired as the team\u2019s head coach, watching instead as the job went to Ted. After originally planning to stay on anyway, Alice has decided to seek other opportunities and would like a letter of recommendation after sticking around for Ted\u2019s transition period. It\u2019s not hard to see her point of view, particularly after Rebecca tells her, when asked, that she was never in the running for the job nor, she admits when Alice presses her, was any woman.<\/p>\n Alice\u2019s discontent is so easy to understand that it serves as a kind of hole out of which this episode has to climb to convince viewers that it\u2019s okay to want someone so qualified to play second fiddle to Ted. That sense only grows stronger after we see her in action. Ted arrives already impressed thanks to a dossier so detailed \u201cit would make da Vinci blush,\u201d so he takes it as bad news when he\u2019s told that Alice will be leaving, even after Keeley, Higgins, and Rebecca try to suggest \u2014 subtly and then unsubtly \u2014 that she has a difficult personality and it might be easier if she wasn\u2019t around. Little about their first meeting suggests otherwise. After spying Ted checking out her desk \u2014 which includes inspirational sayings on Post-it notes, an early sign that these two could end up getting along \u2014 she comes in aggressively, saying he\u2019s probably heard she\u2019s a real bitch. Ted doesn\u2019t try to deny this, then presses on anyway with a smile. But it sure seems possible he\u2019s met someone immune to his charm offensive.<\/p>\n Even if Alice does plan to exit, that still leaves Ted with a lot of new people to get to know, starting with Caroline Seaward (Lauren Hendricks), the team\u2019s head physio, who quickly makes clear that she\u2019ll help him out with any problems he might have as a middle-age man, even \u201cbum stuff.\u201d In the cramped makeshift locker room, Ted meets the team, who make a joke of their inadequate facilities in ways that suggest they don\u2019t expect anything to change. (This might be a job for Keeley.) They all seem excited by his arrival but, of course, this is day one.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s going on with the men\u2019s team? That\u2019s obviously not going to be the focus of this season, but it\u2019s not entirely outside the show\u2019s purview. Roy (Brett Goldstein) has taken Ted\u2019s old job and seems to be settling in pretty well. He\u2019s thrilled to see Ted again \u2014 well, as thrilled as Roy gets \u2014 but Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) has a more complicated reaction. \u201cBetween you coming back and the whole thing with Jane,\u201d Roy says, \u201cI think he\u2019s all fucked in the head.\u201d (And, when Beard makes his first appearance behind some blinds, that seems like an apt description.)<\/p>\n Before Ted gets a chance to have any one-on-one time with his new players, he\u2019s whisked away to a press conference, where he\u2019s peppered with questions about the men\u2019s team and unable to steer reporters in the direction of the women\u2019s team despite his best efforts. If Ted hadn\u2019t already realized he\u2019d be traveling uphill with his new job, this would seem to make that clear. Regardless of how the press behaves, the real work will be done on the field, where he joins Alice to watch practice and learn a bit more about who will be playing for him.<\/p>\n There are a few standouts (and some clues about what story lines the season might pursue): Mady (Annelise Heywood) and Margy (Mercedes Assad) have been dating since training camp. Niamh (Aisling Sharkey) and Siobhan (Rex Hayes) are hot-tempered twins whose aggressive tendencies sometimes get directed toward each other. Katie a.k.a. \u201cBoots\u201d (Jude Mack) is the team\u2019s star goalie whose game might be limited by her refusal to wear gloves. (Why? \u201cShe\u2019s a goalie, isn\u2019t she?\u201d Alice explains. \u201cThey\u2019re all batshit.\u201d) It\u2019s this issue that Ted decides to focus on the next day, though he doesn\u2019t make much headway into changing Boots\u2019s mind. Sure, playing without gloves stings, she says, \u201cBut what\u2019s the point in life if you\u2019re not feeling it all?\u201d This new job might be an uphill journey in more ways than one.<\/p>\n Rebecca\u2019s admission that she never considered a woman for the job kicks off a crisis of conscience. Is it possible that she\u2019s not as committed a feminist as she considers herself? She still seems a bit rattled when she opens Ted\u2019s press conference with an intro that attempts to establish, restate, and underscore her feminist bona fides and her commitment to stand up for all women under any circumstances, a pledge that opens her up to admitting there are some exceptions: Ghislaine Maxwell, Eva Braun, Cruella de Vil, etc. Perhaps sensing she\u2019s being performative, Rebecca decides to do some reading, but seems at first only to seek out affirmation that she\u2019s already a feminist, not that she still has work to do. Nonetheless, her conversation with Higgins the next day, in which she quotes Eleanor Roosevelt, suggests she\u2019s not done with her extracurricular studies, and it\u2019s still on her mind when she lunches with her mother, who\u2019s decidedly not comfortable calling herself a feminist yet makes an observation that reminds Rebecca of bell hooks.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Keeley hits on a solution to the locker-room problem: Claim the visitors\u2019 locker room for the women\u2019s team. (Won\u2019t this create a problem for the visitors, who presumably still need a locker room? Seemingly not, or at least the episode isn\u2019t interested in exploring this.) Keely gets help from Roy, who sets about undoing all the tiny booby traps built into the locker room, from uneven benches to a trained rat named \u201cJonathan.\u201d While the two officially remain just friends, the look on Keeley\u2019s face during this renovation process suggests she might be open to changing her mind.<\/p>\n So how fucked in the head is Beard, really? He\u2019s messed up enough to feel like he has to don a disguise so no one will see him talking with Ted in public lest rumors fly. He\u2019s also messed up enough to frame his talk with Ted as a discussion between lovers with new partners. \u201cHe\u2019s very good to me,\u201d Beard says of Roy. \u201cI\u2019m happy to hear that,\u201d Ted replies. But can they still be friends? Both agree they can (though Beard flees the moment Ted raises the Jane issue). Still, as weird as Beard is acting, Roy seems to see it the same way when he talks about the issue with Keeley, who tells him, \u201cI think keeping two people apart who belong together is bad, not just for them but for everybody.\u201d Later, under the pretense of Beard having violated a team code, he lets him go, freeing him to rejoin his pal.<\/p>\n So is Alice really leaving? She might be acting like someone halfway out the door who\u2019s trying not to care, but that facade drops the moment Josie (Stevie Abrahms), a talented striker, goes down with an injury. Rebecca, for one, wouldn\u2019t hate to see her go. But Ted\u2019s a different story. When Alice returns from the hospital, she finds Ted\u2019s stuck around to get an update. When Ted notes that she accidentally uses the word \u201cour\u201d to refer to the team, her stony expression melts a bit. And when she sees the renovated locker room \u2014 and its ecstatic reception \u2014 it falls apart completely. Overcome with emotion, she flees. She\u2019s a bit more put-together when Ted finds her in the office as she packs up her stuff, but Ted knows she\u2019s now looking for an excuse to stay. So he launches into a speech that touches on her career highlights before pressing the issue, even prompting a smile in the process. They\u2019re soon joined by Beard, and her expression shifts yet again as Ted and Beard celebrate their reunion. Maybe this wasn\u2019t such a good idea after all?<\/p>\n In a different corner of the Richmond complex, Higgins shares the report\u2019s conclusions. There\u2019s a \u201clow probability\u201d that the team will be financially successful. What\u2019s more, the women\u2019s team could drag down the men\u2019s team if they fail to thrive. They have a hard choice, but it\u2019s not that hard a choice. Neither Higgins nor Rebecca could live with themselves if they didn\u2019t at least try to make the women\u2019s team work, report be damned.<\/p>\n As the episode draws to a close, Rebecca decides to talk to Alice about the journey of self-discovery on which Alice\u2019s previous comments have sent her, re: her commitment to feminism. It\u2019s a long, not entirely kind speech that couches an unspoken \u201cFuck you\u201d in the middle of an elaborate \u201cThank you.\u201d So it\u2019s a bit awkward when Alice tells Rebecca she\u2019s staying, and even more awkward when Rebecca\u2019s subsequent attempt at humor lands with a thud. It seems like these two are going to have to do a little work when it comes to getting along, much less understanding one another.<\/p>\n This is the second episode but, in some respects, the real kickoff to this new season. It\u2019s a promising one, too. Reynolds is a real standout as Alice. The character begins the episode as a near-caricature of no-nonsense toughness and barely contained rage but picks up depth with each scene in which she appears. Her anger also gets at the elephant in the room: Was Ted really the most qualified person for this job? Why didn\u2019t Rebecca consider Alice given her obvious talent and passion? Whether or not any tensions will linger, and whether Rebecca will keep trying to prove her feminist credentials to her all season, remains to be seen, but so far, Alice is a terrific new addition that shakes up the dynamic between familiar characters.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t really spend enough time with the other players for any of them to make as deep an impression, but \u201cCuriouser and Curiouser\u201d \u2014 the episode title is likely a reference to Alice\u2019s name \u2014 does establish that Ted has a lot of work to do, even if his new players seem to like him. And while Coach Beard\u2019s subplot is a little broad, it\u2019s also quite funny.<\/p>\n \u2022 This episode was written by Leann Bowen, who\u2019s been with the show since the first season. Bowen\u2019s other writing credits include the season-three premiere.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cThat thing with Jane\u201d remains a mystery at this point. Will we ever learn what it is? Could it ever live up to our imaginations? Does it have something to do with why Beard is reading (or sort of reading) Audrey Niffenegger\u2019s The Time Traveler\u2019s Wife?<\/p>\n \u2022 The reporter with the Paddington-like hat seems also to be eating a marmalade sandwich.<\/p>\n \u2022 Goldstein has some of the episode\u2019s comic highlights, including the straight-faced delivery of his \u201cbiscuit,\u201d which he describes as, \u201cBetter for your macros. No sugar. High protein. And instead of using butter, I used beef tallow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cOh, you like Batman, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, he\u2019s a fascist; it\u2019s just that every middle-aged man is obsessed with Batman.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, that\u2019s true. Probably because of all the wearable tech.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Vulture Newsletter<\/p>\n Entertainment news, for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
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