Ted Lasso Finale Pros and Cons
Nate telling everyone about Jade :))
Their performances in the final match, including Isaac kicking the ball THROUGH the net
Barbara’s scenes, and her continuing to work with Keeley!
Rebecca selling her shares and getting a happy ending with Boat Guy- just because it isn’t the ending I wanted doesn’t mean I’m gonna let it ruin the whole thing for me.
The shares going to the fans!
Even though I disliked the Jane thing, it made sense that Beard wanted to stay in England, he was always better acclimated than Ted. He seemed natural, and he had a home and community there.
Sam going to the Nigerian team!
Fun moment with Zava and his avocados
The ussie guy, and a bunch of other fun nods to the first episode
The fine thing at the beginning of the episode
Dr. Sharon finally appearing!
Women’s football happening?
Of course, the believe scene was really sweet
Colin being one of the few characters to get a satisfying arc!
The entire Roy/Jamie/Keeley situation? It was really unnecessary to bring Jamie back into the mix this late in the game. Plus that weird bar scene? Not to mention how they had really teased Roy and Keeley getting together for awhile (their whole arc this season was all over the place). Roy was being pretty immature, which kinda undid some character development. And I felt pretty unsatisfied by the lack of resolve there.
The fact that they’re still implying big moments that happened and not actually showing them!! There were a lot of big moments that we never saw- super unsatisfying (ex: Sam deciding to go to the Nigerian team).
Deliberately teasing Tedbecca like that:( The opening scene, her pouring her heart out and him saying NOTHING, her literally buying a first class ticket just to say goodbye to him. I’m not saying Tedbecca HAD to happen for it to be a good finale, just that all that was kinda cruel and irritating for the writers to mislead people like that.
Ted being uncharacteristically unresponsive to a lot of stuff, not talking a lot and joking like most other episodes.
Nate not really having any super impactful moments this episode after a long arc this season (and no Jade scenes). He’s one of the few characters this season who’s really gotten a fulfilling emotional arc, so for him to not really have any big moments this episode felt a bit like whiplash. Not to mention that we didn’t really get any indication of where he’s going from there career-wise? He’s still the wonderkind, so to have him back as a kit man was fun for the episode, but I expected a bit more for his future (at least a tease or something).
Beard marrying Jane (and Ted not being there??)
Ted’s whole ending, the way we have no reason to believe he’ll be at all happy there. I’m glad he’s back with his kid and everything, but what the hell. Like it’s one thing if we had been able to see his friends visiting and staying with him or something but nope! He’s just alone, in a place and with people who have caused him significant unhappiness throughout the show. I feel like they could’ve set it up better, maybe having him discuss things with Dr. Sharon or SOMEONE (just to see his perspective and understand what he’s thinking a bit more) but instead it’s just yet another example of not showing the important moments here.
Not getting any resolve about Jamie’s path in life, future plans, etc and instead only using this episode to make things weird with him and Keeley. They were fine as friends.
I’m not a Ted/Trent shipper (I feel for you guys), but Trent deserved at least one nice scene, a goodbye with Ted, something!
So in conclusion, despite how fun certain parts of this episode were, I was pretty unsatisfied with the lack of resolve among a lot of these storylines and characters, not to mention some poorly justified plot choices. As I mentioned below in my initial reaction, this whole season was so poorly planned out. I assumed that they would’ve at least planned for the finale, but it’s clear now that the whole thing was all over the place. They should’ve decided what they wanted in the finale and then spent the season setting it up. For example, when they decided it was going to end with Ted going home, they could’ve chosen to spend the season slowly working through this decision leading to an ending that would’ve felt justified (and they could’ve spent time setting up a way for him to be happy there). But instead, they introduced it in one of the last episodes. And I could use any number of examples here- Sam going to the Nigerian team, Beard staying, anything with Jamie, etc. This just felt rushed and random.