#nate ted lasso

[berryunhinged98]

Jade from Ted Lasso is such a funny character.

She straight up said “I am not going to fix that man but he’ll fix himself if he knows what’s good for him.”

[eucalyptus-sage]

nate being a fucking incel loser is so disappointing and disgusting i know he'll probably get a redemption arc but tbh kick the man off the team how dare him

[the-maddened-hatter]

Ok dammit I hate to admit it in that it's kinda silly and weird, but I've been thinking about what I said in this post and I have been having more thoughts microwaving around in my brain.

I love (and hate) that Ted Lasso really makes you consider the question of "Do you always want what you think you want?".

For me I guess it's maybe yes but differently.

Initial set-up ideas:

Ted would only come back to Richmond at the very end of the season for the next one, but would make appearances over FaceTime from back in America, and sometimes be shown having his own B-Plot style adventures

Beard and Roy are the Coaches and Will and Nate are the kit men, as established by the end of the last season (though often Nate is still consulted for strategy given his skills)

Jane has divorced/is divorcing Beard in as much as a non-legally binding spiritual ceremony at Stonehenge can be a divorceble event.

Kenneth the bus driver has retired and is replaced by his nephew, Janus. Janus is Jane's twin brother, but there are multiple references to their animosity towards each other throughout the season (so Beard and Janus are chill).

Janus makes occasional reference to the degree of animosity between him and Jane such as her "convincing several people [he] was a mass delusion", including two teachers and their father.

Janus is also Will's uncle, and he's extremely protective of him so understandably he fucking despises Nate.

Will has basically completely forgiven Nate, as the series canon indicates, merely citing when asked (and he is very much asked) that he apologized, has been far nicer as of his rehiring, and that it's honestly pretty weird to have become his boss now.

There would be some episodes before the food poisoning karma one to establish some prickle between Janus and Nate, with Janus always keeping just on the side of being mild enough to avoid being actually called out, but still strong enough jabs to genuinely quietly upset Nate, which he doesn't speak out against in that he feels he deserves it.

----

It's the team's first away game of the season, with the staff, particularly Will and Nate, getting everything ready in a hustle for the next day's early departure. Janus clearly doesn't trust Nate not to revert to his old ways under pressure (though they actually have a productive and, with Will's enthusiasm, even a slightly fun time despite working late).

The next day everyone is there bright and early, with Nate lagging a bit more than normal, and further into the journey squeaking out a timid protest about the rough road, which is dismissed by the others, citing the scenic views it offers along the way.

Ted has sent a package to the team for the occasion, once again opting for personalized book selections for everyone. This starts some of them talking about their favorites, maybe with Roy very begrudgingly admitting how much Pheobe liked A Wrinkle in Time. Janus declines to comment when Will asks, even after a few of people join in on trying to egg him on (They eventually lose interest and begin to try and guess Beard's favorite instead through yes or no questions that he answers with anything but simple yes or no answers).

Roy has them stop at a somewhat dodgy seeming curry shop that he insists is both perfectly fine and a long-term favorite of his within the area. While they're stopped, Ted does one of his per-episode FaceTime calls to wish the team good luck and talk to everyone.

[Silly team banter & shenanigans occur at the restaurant ]

Nate takes a long time in the restroom and Janus (half) jokingly threatens to leave him behind through the door, saying that he can wait for the Westham bus. Roy tells him to fuck off, but adds that they do actually need to go. There's a shot with the setup similar to Nate's previous mirror-spitting scenes but we don't see him do it before exiting

Again the road is rough, though this time it is the result of roadwork. Nate does not try to protest this time, but we do see him wince and try unsuccessfully to reach to adjust the vents above him

They arrive, get set up, and the match begins. It's a frigid overcast day, but Nate is sweating buckets and having to pause periodically as if winded between tasks, clearly in some kind of pain.

Things don't start very well for Richmond, with the pressure rapidly building as the other team scores 2 goals. Something happens that causes the other team to earn a penalty kick and Beard and Roy call Nate over to strategize.

Nate completely loses focus after stumbling through a few suggestions, then suddenly rushes away in a moment that parallels the scene where Ted had his infamous panic attack.

As with Ted the match's camera follows Nate as he exits, though this time with the commentators speculating if his exit may have to do with a possible mental health episode or perhaps even a drug related thing, given as its a popular speculation among some that this may be the reason he "quit" from Westham.

The scene cuts to Janus throwing something away inside, looking vaguely annoyed, disgusted, and tired; He texts Will something we don't get to see on his old cracked phone, then going into a restroom to wash his hands. Just as he turns off the faucet, Nate rushes in and is violently sick into one of the toilets.

Janus is of course surprised, but quickly descends to schadenfreude, laughing at his state, calling him pathetic and telling him it's only right that this is what he gets for the ways he's acted. Nate's quavering "I know" knocks is bluster down a bit, but it's Will's text that stops him as he goes to leave.

We're only able to see a little of their text chain, but what we do consists of :

W: Yay!

J:You don't need the fucker.

J:But yes I'll watch for him.

J:Dw bastard won't steal the bus.

W: thanks XD

W: Will you bring the sandwiches out?

J: NO

J:TRASH

W: :(

J: The smell was awful

W: I was using up some leftovers is all. Meal prepping gets hard to balance!

J: You'll get your feet with it

J: But no, they're in the rubbish

J: I'll get you something after the match

W: <3 <3 <3

We see him read this last text and smile, then it drops and he stares at the screen for a long moment before cursing quietly, pocketing his phone, and slowly turning to look at Nate, who has just finished another bout and is slumped against the toilet.

Cautiously he asks if he and Will both had the same thing at the curry place, already knowing the answer. Nate lies a bit too readily and says that they did. Janus, nods solemnly and tells Nate he'll keep an eye on Will, but notes the lad has an "unnaturally strong stomach", so he likely won't be taking ill.

The damp, folded paper towels make for a rather rough cold compress, and Nate is startled by the impulsive gesture, but regardless it's appreciated greatly, being much more soothing than the surface of the commode seat.

Janus' voice is just a little softer as he chides him for leaning on the filthy thing, then after he shakily sits up, he rather awkwardly apologizes for threatening to leave him behind earlier, admitting he doesn't really care much about "all that Westham bullshit" so much as the way he'd treated Will.

He gets angrier for a moment, pacing the room a bit and telling Nate how having Will is the only good thing his family has ever done; but the tears force their way through the rage and, choked with emotion he continues on to say just how godawful it is to think about someone almost "putting out [their] one point of light in the world like it's nothing".

Nate admits that he's glad Will's a better man than him, able to resist becoming some petty vicious coward, just stuck forever trying to shift those feelings. He starts to hyperventilate, then suddenly vomits again.

Janus slumps to sit on the floor, catty-corner in the doorway of the stall and laughs bitterly, rubbing Nate's back a bit as he heaves.

"Oh, god no lad is that what you think? You can't teach him anything he hasn't seen Janie do, you're not the fucking Marquis de Sade." He goes quiet for a bit in contemplation.

"I worried you'd make him end up like me, a bitter old bastard worn dull."

Janus claps a hand on Nate's shoulder as he shakes and tries to catch his breath while the heaving has subsided for the moment. Nate looks over at him cautiously.

Janus, suddenly looks so very very tired and the focus of the camera allows us to, for the first time, fully realize that he really looks much too old for his actual age given Jane's apparent youth.

"Will's a good lad you know. He's forgave you fullstop and, foolish as that is to me..." [he pauses to stand, then sighs in deeply annoyed resignation as he withdraws his hand and steps back from the doorway of the stall ] "It means you didn't break him. And no matter how I may feel I suppose that's what the hell actually matters."

Nate starts to say something, probably something very heartfelt, but gags and is sick again. Janus regains a bit of his spitfire, adding "But God have mercy on your head if I catch word of that shit to him again you hear?" Nate nods weakly. "Good. Now let's find a bucket and get back on the fucking bus."

[Break for a period of Ted's B-plot America stuff that is probably either hilarious and/or heartwrenching, subtly pushing him towards the move back to England for next season]

When we return to them, Janus is ushering Nate out of the restroom, looking annoyed as usual and more or less keeping him upright with a hand on his shoulder. Nate's shuffling forward, soaked and shaky, almost hugging a bucket and looking shellshocked. Janus is carrying Nate's sopping wadded up Richmond jacket under one arm

Their dialogue is as follows:

"Get up slow, I said."

"They'll say it's drugs, I know they will, they'd only just stopped."

"I think I'm doing a little better, you said."

"Do you think they're going to charge me, or Ms. Welton, or do they just kind of assume these things, I don't know, happen when there's a match on?"

"Your arse barely reaches the bowl, how the hell did you manage to break it?"

"I don't know I just got dizzy and, well, it... Yeah..." Then with a sudden note of panic "Oh god do you think they'll call my dad somehow? Can they do that?"

"Christ alive your brains are boiling. Just hold on."

Janus peers around a doorway to check for onlookers. The coast is clear and he hustles them down the corridor and into a side room

The scene holds for a minute on the empty hall, then we see a janitor walk through into it from a different direction and out of frame into the area the two had just come from. We do not see what the custodian finds upon entering, but we do hear a resounding

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

from offscreen.

Unfortunately they take a few wrong turns and the corridor spits them out in a hall near the press room and, given their earlier rush, Nate has to stop and rest, feeling dizzy as he's hit by a wave of dodgy curry boosted stomach cramps.

Janus curses and tells him to stay put while he gets Will something from the vending machine, and he miserably sinks to the ground and puts his head between his knees.

The machine is persnickety about the smoothness of the bills and slow to churn out its goods. Janus turns to look at the pressroom door, holding it in contemplation for a long moment. He could fling it open, call over the press, drag Nate to face them, anything really.

Inside, through the glass, players clamber to pantomime the events of the game for the reporters, the mood having definitely shifted from before. There's a small pushing match between Jaan Maas, Bumbercatch, and Montlaur for the microphone that only breaks up when Roy forcibly scoots their rolly chairs apart (with either hand and one leg).

His eyes harden and he takes a few steps towards the door. Reaches for the pull handle. Wraps his hand around it. Something clunks down into the retrieval drawer, making him look up. Then he sees Will.

Standing off in the wings, minding the equipment with some help from Beard, beaming at their victory, lit so perfectly from behind by one of the stage lamps. Janus can't help but think of everyone talking about their books on the ride over.

He stuffs the final plastic-wrapped snack into his trouser pocket, and turns to face the small lump on the hallway floor, muttering to himself.

"Amen, I am a rat."

Nate looks up, exhausted and confused. "What?"

"It's, er. It's from my favorite book. Tale of Despereaux, I... I read it to Will when he was small. I never used to read much before that; when we were kids Jane had a way of making the books all feel like hers, but when I got that one to read for him... Well I doubt he remembers, I didn't want to embarrass him so I didn't say before. On the bus."

"Oh, that's. That's lovely, honestly... I-I think he'd actually quite like it if you told him."

Janus is taken aback, and trips on his words, blustering "Well, she's a good aunt just... She's... You prick can you get up yet or not? And no fainting I am not carrying you."

Nate is shaking badly now from the chills of fever, but manages to (slowly) stand with help. Janus takes off his coat and wordlessly drapes it over his shoulders. It's shabby, but the wool is warm, and on him is large enough to be more like a blanket. Nate starts to protest in surprise, but Janus cuts him off, telling him to get a move on.

They head outside and he pulls the coat tighter around him against the cold. In spite of himself begins to cry a bit, the exhaustion, emotions, and pain finally catching up to him. He apologizes reflexively, but Janus' tone is gentle, almost parental, promising a bottle of water once they're back on the bus.

---

The team arrives back at the bus, whooping in celebration; Dani sports a broken nose but looks no less thrilled about every aspect of his life than any other game. We the audience only ever get snippets of information as to the absolutely breathtaking events that lead to a 2-5 turnaround for Richmond from their starting point, but we're teased with things like "overhead flip", "brand new chant" "potential concussion" and "rocketed into the stands".

Roy and Beard strongly imply in conversation (and later we find, in their interview) that the plays they ran were, in fact, spurred by what little help Nate was able to give them prior to running off.

Nate is curled up on one of the seats, clearly having a very bad time. Janus is standing nearby, silently awaiting the coaches reactions.

Roy lets out a snort of laughter upon the assertion of food poisoning, coming to the defense of the (genuinely) innocent curry shop. Beard just nods knowingly and alludes to some gastric adventure from his own past.

Will kindly (though obliviously) tells Nate he hopes he feels better soon, then ravenously tears into the packets of snacks, admitting that he's kind of glad the sandwiches got binned, as he's never become incredibly tired of coronation chicken after eating it all week.

"Come over tomorrow, we'll go to the butcher's and make a pot roast you can freeze for next week, alright?"

Will snaps his fingers. "Freezing! Right, yes!"

Janus shoots a worried look at Nate, trying to gauge his reaction and perhaps to ensure he is, in fact, still alive.

"Oh, Christ! Erm. Well, uh, that's alright lad."

Nate groans and starts to wretch again. Janus holds up the bucket for him.

"We learn from our mistakes, yeah?" His steadying hand is a comfort, a threat, and a plea. Nate uncoils himself (with great effort) to look at Will, and Janus all but holds his breath.

He's clearly in pain, trembling and fighting back nausea, but after a tense moment where he gathers himself he ultimately offers Will a weak smile and tells him "You'll do better next time, you're a quick study."

Janus tries to hide the relief that floods his features, returning to his stoic demeanor.

"When you've finished, see if you can find us a smoother road back, that can't have been good for the tires." Beard interjects before Will can reply, stating "Already checked; Only way out is through."

Janus looks a bit guilty, but accepts that he's metaphorically "smoking the pack" for before as Beard subtly showcases to the audience that there is still a little bit of imperfection to work out in his own case of forgiveness of the Wonder Kid.

Janus tells Nate he'll try and trim down the scenic route this time and takes a moment to adjust the vents above him before getting behind the wheel. He has Will come sit on one of the seats closest to him up front to tell him about the match, referring to it as an "exclusive interview", which Will eagerly launches into as the episode fades out (again we only get a few wild sounding snippets).

[jadeblueafterglow]

i just started watching ted lasso recently and i cannot wait for nate to get punched or some sort of comeuppance. the gall of this guy. the way he treats will, the way he treated collin, kissing keely, how he treats ted in the second seasons last episodes, the comments he makes sometimes... spitting on mirrors...

idk man i really don't like entitled behavior but i especially don't like it from someone who has faced the brunt of that kind of behavior and then turns it on other people... i don't understand making people feel the same type of awful you felt, or taking out your negativity on other people, and deciding that now that you have a higher position than before that you're going to be an asshat to people.

[trustlife2day]

Wook at wittle Nate 🥰

[stardust-on-my-neck]

I made a few versions of these cuz I love both

[littledoggy-girlcollar]

a counterargument: colin bullied nate pretty relentlessly, including physically. nate was openly scared of colin in the for the children ep. not that that makes what said okay, but he also apologized to colin afterwards.

you know i did think about this when writing the post so here's my thoughts on that:

you're right, colin did bully nate in season one, but unless i totally misread shit (which, possible, i did watch a lot of it fairly late at night and watched the other part of it while writing an essay), the bullying was explicitly ring-led by jamie, and was stopped pretty much entirely by roy yelling at them in the club. as far as i remember, there was nothing specific that colin did that jamie and isaac didn't, and while i also don't remember a full apology to nate, it also seemed like they all got along fairly well afterward, especially after nate's promotion to assistant coach.

and then the Headspace episode happened. i had thoughts abt what i was going to say and then i went "hey lemme pull up the episode to make sure i have that right" and i forgot those thoughts and now i have new ones and they're way more thesis-y than i thought they'd be so here we go!

nate is a bit of a dick to colin during practice, following some ribbing of nate's new nickname of the "wonder kid," coming from him mispronouncing "wunderkind/wonderkind" (as far as i can tell these are the same word? just different spelling?). dani, jamie, and colin all make essentially the same joke, but colin is the only one that nate gets mad at. could this possibly just be because of the lingering resentment from the bullying last season? sure. but colin actually goes to nate's office to figure out what he did wrong and if there's something else he should be doing, and nate literally tells him he did it because dani and jamie have more talent and recognition than he does (incredibly paraphrased). my rant about how colin could end up being THE most inspiring member of the team if the show/the character decides to go that way will be saved for another post, but in essence, nate explicitly tells both colin and us as the viewer that he picked on colin because he doesn't think he has that much power to retaliate, and nate's position as assistant coach gives him a level of authority over colin as well.

crazy. almost like a role reversal over here or something.

anyways, beard calls nate on his shit, nate apologizes to colin in front of the team, the apology is accepted. in all, it was kind of a one-off thing that was resolved fairly easily, and i am realizing that my view of that specific instance may have been clouded by the rest of the episode, but there is one more point i want to hit on before we get to that part, which is that: colin is a gay man in a sport with (from what i've heard) no visibly out queer men, and nate had no way of knowing this, but that probably made his comment cut deeper than he even intended. i know in season three colin says he doesn't want to be some big statement or representation or whatever, and i think that's totally fair and if the show wants to stick with that i think that's chill, but i do still think telling a closeted gay man that "you aren't special, you don't inspire anyone, shut up and do the work" would have a biiiiit of a mental impact beyond just the visible hurt we see from colin as he leaves. again, this bit isn't necessarily on nate since he didn't know and may not have factored it in even if he did, but to me it's just kind of another drop in the bucket of "wow this man is just saying anything now cause he's got an outsourced sense of superiority."

and that's actually where my main problem comes from. because after the apology the team gifts nate a jersey with "wonder kid" on it. and they are happy about it, and they think it's cool, and they give the credit to will (the kitman, you know, nate's old job) for coming up with it, and will says "it's a pretty awesome nickname." and then nate sees one fucking negative meme on twitter, in a flood of literally hundreds of positive ones, plus headlines and fucking podcasts praising him to high heaven, and nate goes "clearly will was trying to embarrass me, guess i better go physically threaten him so he never does that again."

because he's an insecure prick that doesn't actually believe in himself or have self-confidence. he's done a bit of growing, sure, and he can stand up for himself and voice his opinions a bit better now, but despite his stupid fucking posturing and spitting in the mirror (cause its tough? a metaphor for him hating himself? whatever it's fucking stupid) he gets all of his confidence from other people. he hasn't internalized it yet. he feels good when ted praises his ideas, he gets overly insecure when roy does literally anything, including give the proper credit to nate, feels lighter than air and higher than heaven (i don't usually invoke holy shit this much the show must be rubbing off on me in terms of metaphors) when everyone is praising his name, and it can all be ruined by one comment from his father and the same picture of his face on the internet only this time it's saying shit instead of giving him glory. so he's hearing all of this praise from pretty much all corners, and he feels good about it, but he can't hold onto it. he can't internalize it. so when he sees a sliver of criticism, it all goes out the window, and he doesn't want that! that makes him feel bad! so he has to get rid of that, too, and the easiest way to get rid of it is to turn it around on someone else. someone with less power who won't fuck you up and who doesn't visibly have enough support to come back at you (because while i love colin, we really don't see him shine on his own that much. and neither does nate). and sure whatever nate's dad is a jerk to him and childhood issues shut the fuck up that's a grown man with an actively growing support system. which he throws under the bus like five seconds later by the way.

anyways. my point here is really that the episode is kind of a perfect summary of nate's character at this point in the narrative. he's abusing his power out of some weird sense of superiority one good win got him, he's got enough humanity to realize (re: be forced to realize by a large man with a beard and ability to disappear from offices) when he's fucked up no actually hold on. he literally only apologizes cause coach beard confronts him on it and is expecting it. he wouldn't have done this otherwise and we know it because look at how he's treated will literally since he got there. ok sorry for the detour that hit me literally as i was writing and i don't have the energy to go back up and revise to fit that in. so: abusing power, will apologize when made to by those he still views as having more power than him, externalizes all of his self-concept, positive and negative, and continues to take out all negativity on anyone he views as having less power. WHICH AGAIN FUCKING SUCKS SINCE THAT LITERALLY USED TO BE HIM IT'S LITERALLY "WELL I WENT THROUGH X SO YOU SHOULDN'T GET Y" BEHAVIOR FUCK OFF. GOD. okay i need to end this before i get real fucked up about it ok closing statement.

yes, colin bullied nate in season one. yes, nate ostensibly apologized to colin and colin accepted. no, the reason this grinds my gears isn't necessarily the colin thing specifically, but the situation is kind of a microcosm of everything that's going on in the world of nate, and is therefore condensed, and therefore saturated, so it sucks more ass. yes, i understand that pretty much everything i've laid out is why nate is such a well written character, but that doesn't make him a less shitty person. i'm sure i had more things to say and forgot them so if you wanna ask questions shoot.

[everyonesonthespectrum]

Today’s Autistic character of the day is:

Nathan "Nate" Shelley from Ted Lasso