Critics and fans alike seemed to agree when it came to the third (and seemingly last) season of the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso.” That third season? Not so great.
After two feel-good, sometimes surprising seasons, this one was comparatively a stinker. Episodes were overlong and bloated, and in trying to give each character a tidy wrap-up some the season often felt clunky and heavy-handed. But one character’s (likely) ending was, while flawed, so satisfying that any flubs could be easily forgiven.
For two seasons, we had seen Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) deal with the cruel machinations of her ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head). While Rebecca hires American Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) as part of her own nefarious plot to ruin AFC Richmond, the football team she’d won in her divorce, it’s a plot she abandons and even reveals to Lasso, unable to act on her need for vengeance. But Rupert’s malicious hits on Rebecca just keep coming, as he isn’t as open to self-improvement.
First there’s the revelation that Rupert is dating a “new” Rebecca, whom he ultimately marries. To drive the stake much, much deeper, Bex gets pregnant — and Rupert unkindly tells the “old” Rebecca he refused to start a family with her despite her requests not because he didn’t want children, but because he didn’t want a child with her. It’s a sucker punch of a moment both for the audience and Rebecca, and on the series it may stand out as the ugliest exchange in a relationship rife with low blows. When your ex-husband crashing your father’s funeral with his new wife and baby isn’t even your character’s roughest moment, that’s saying something.
While Rebecca’s storyline isn’t just suffering — she had an unexpected but still charming relationship with football player Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh), and let’s not forget all those cookies from Ted Lasso’s kitchen — there is a sense that, even as she’s shed the jilted woman resentment of the early episodes, she still hadn’t found what she was looking for. That is, until she tagged along with the team on a trip to Amsterdam. While she never caught the name of the handsome houseboat dweller who pulled her out of a canal (played by Matteo van der Grijn), “Sunflowers” is a sweet, rom-com worthy episode that seems bittersweet, in that “what might have been” sort of way.
It isn’t until the finale, with some arduous and boring callbacks to Rebecca’s visit to a medium (this would be the overlong and bloated part of the third season) that we get to another chance encounter at the airport — Rebecca runs into the nameless man (who is revealed to be Matthjis in the finale credits) and it’s clear the spark is still alive. The fact Matthjis also has a daughter is just icing on Rebecca’s cake. As the medium predicted, a child is in her future.
Yes, it’s rom-com worthy. Yes, it’s a little sappy. But given Waddingham’s spot-on portrayal of a middle-aged woman who has given her youth (and yes, fertility) to someone so thoroughly undeserving of it (Head’s villainous turn deserves kudos, too) makes this less soap and more richly satisfying. Season three was decidedly subpar, sure, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some bright spots that fans sorely needed before the series (probably) ended.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.
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Featured Image Credit: Apple TV+.
