I can’t decide if the news of a great Lasso finale is good or bad. It’s like, yeah, the episode was awesome, we got drama, the lead into next season was perfect, and I felt an absolute mix of happiness and sadness (mostly happy I can be done writing these recaps). But now what do we look forward to on Fridays (besides the weekend)?
I wanted to do a quick binge of the season before putting out this finale recap so that I could make a point of answering all of the questions I’ve been posing all season, but with a two day turn-around time because of my demanding boss Jack Martin, I simply do not have time for that, so take what you can get, people.
After a nail-biting match in which Sam scores another goal and Dani Rojas kicks his case of the yips by scoring the game-tying penalty kick, Richmond has advanced back into the Premier League. Shocking! Now that the season is done, I can officially say that I am disappointed that there wasn’t more soccer involved. Season one delivered on that front and got my expectations way too high. Oh - and Rupert, Becca’s demon spawn ex-husband, bought a competing club in the league.
Anyway, Ted is fighting demons because the whole town is bullying him for being soft. Trent Crimm’s article in The Independent dropped, and nobody thinks that Ted can be a proper coach if he’s having panic attacks. As we would expect, the whole team at Richmond is behind him, with one exception - Nate. But we’ll circle back.
Keeley gets an offer to open her own PR firm, so she is leaving Richmond. Becca cries, Keeley cries, and Roy gets… emotional. He approaches the Diamond Dogs for moral support, which they are happy to give him. Moments earlier, Jaime approaches Roy to apologize for confessing his love to Keeley. The apology is sweet and sincere, just like New Jaime (who I love just as much as, if not more than, Old Jaime). Roy, to everyone’s surprise including his own, forgives Jaime. A bromance is developing! The Diamond Dogs are shocked to hear this, and Nate brings up his misstep - kissing Keeley - to which Roy reacts with a chuckle and a pat on the back. He tells Nate not to worry. He is very clearly not threatened. Big oof for Nate.
Let’s take a quick aside. Has anyone else sort of noticed that Nate’s hair has been getting increasingly grey as this season progressed? I wouldn’t have even said anything, because who am I to judge an actor for showing signs of aging, but as it turns out, this was intentional! Nick Mohammed revealed in a post that the writers chose to grey his hair progressively throughout the season to give visible indications of his rapidly deteriorating mental state. By the last episode, they were using a grey wig, which I thought was a clever artistic choice.
Sam is still deciding between Richmond and Nigeria. We see subtle indications throughout the episode of him leaning towards Richmond, but overall the writers do a good job of keeping us guessing. After Richmond’s tie (which was enough to promote them), Sam ends up turning down Edwin Akufo’s offer to stay in London, and we get a delightful mental breakdown scene from Sam Richardson. He is, to say the least, not happy with Sam Obisanya. Fortunately, Sam seems not to care. You know who else is happy? Becca! To me, though, it sounded like Sam was going to make her earn him back. It might be nice to watch next season, because our other OTP (Roy and Keeley) may be in trouble.
We’re in the epilogue of the episode now and Keeley is just about finished clearing out her office at Richmond to get ready for her move. Roy approaches her with a gift - a six-week tropical vacation! There is a bit of back-and-forth before Keeley ultimately declines the offer because she has already started her new job and can’t take six weeks off. Roy is disappointed, but to add insult to injury, she tells him to go on the trip without her. Roy asks if they are breaking up, and I’m like, oh shit, ARE they? Keeley answers us both - no, she says! It’s just six weeks! And so Roy, I assume, heads off. I’m willing to watch them overcome some obstacles together, but if next season starts with a complete break-up, I’m gonna lose it.
Alright. Time to address the grey elephant in the room. Nate the Great is on track to become the most disliked Apple TV+ comedy TV series villain of the early 2020s. Early in the episode, Beard tells Ted to ask for an apology from Nate, but Ted says he is going to wait for it to come naturally. He announces to the team that they are going to follow Nate’s play call, and it goes poorly in the first half, leading Nate’s first screw to finally fall out at halftime. After the team takes the field back, Ted approaches Nate to ask him what’s wrong. Nate takes the opportunity to essentially berate Ted: he accuses him of putting Nate on a pedestal and then throwing him to the side - something Ted would very clearly never do intentionally.
Nate is furious that people love Ted. He never admits to leaking the panic attack, but he is furious that it is not going to sideline Ted as he intended. Ted sits and takes it all like the emotional sponge he is, but Nate is not satisfied. He tells Ted he knows that Richmond is about to lose, he calls Ted a phony or a loser or something, and the two part ways for the second half on bad terms. But Richmond doesn’t lose, and while the team celebrates their promotion at the end of the game, Nate storms off of the field. When Ted returns to his office after the game, there is no sign of Nate - except for the remains of Ted’s iconic BELIEVE poster, ripped in two and strewn across his desk. Oof again.
It would take a while to go back through the full first two seasons and identify and analyze all of the micro and not-so-micro aggressions directed towards Nate. He was the punching bag as the ball boy in season one, but one would think that after Ted took a chance on him and promoted him to assistant coach that Nate would have enough patience to wait longer than a single season before feeling entitled to a promotion. Weird development from him. Anyways, remember at the end of the funeral episode when Rupert whispered something to Nate on his way out? Well, we finally got to figure that one out, and a lot of the fan rumors were right - he’s the head coach of Rupert’s new club. Oof for a third time.
We’ve got a lot to cover next season. I will be back soon. For now, though, it’s time for my slow-burn rewatch.
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