#will kitman headers

[pacspunk]

ted lasso headers !! 🎔

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[itsclydebitches]

Not to slam in with thoughts about a two year old episode, but when I’m not cackling over Trent getting compared to a Roomba, I’m really interested in his reaction to Ted visiting the school:

“Oh, what a coincidence. The day of our interview you just happen to be visiting a local school.”

Prior to their shared meal, Trent is at his most emotional here. Specifically, he’s sarcastic. He’s already seen Ted admit to using Nate’s play and giving an embarrassing performance of what he wants Jamie to do — “Ball! Ball! I want the ball!”—yet it’s only now that Trent reacts in a fairly overt, negative manner. Which makes sense to me. So far, Ted has (presumably) been digging a deep hole for himself, prompting Trent to keep quiet, keep a handle on his disbelief, keep smiling politely as Ted heaves another shovel of dirt. Ted has been doing Trent’s work for him all day, giving him a goldmine of moments to eviscerate him with in print. This is the “fucking joke” whose presence here is “irresponsible” and thus far, everything Ted has done has reinforced that perception. Yet now, Ted has announced that they’re doing something that objectively looks good—playing with local kids—and that immediately puts Trent back on familiar footing. Of course there’s a trip planned on the day of the interview. Trent understands his subjects trying to influence him like this and so finally Coach Lasso starts making sense. I think at this point in the episode Trent was fully prepared to write one of the most scathing articles of his career. Ted Lasso has, presumably, revealed himself to be exactly like every other interviewee who thinks they can butter him up with some “coincidental” community work, with the exception that Ted Lasso has also made a complete fool of himself during practice and admits to getting advice from the kitman kicking poo around. It’s a double whammy: Inept American Coach Tries Desperately to Look Good in the Final Hour. Trent’s not fooled.

Except, of course, we know that Ted isn’t supposed to look good. That’s the entire point here. Rebecca has planned all of this in the hope that Trent will write exactly the kind of piece he’s currently outlining in his head, so… why the school trip? As Trent’s sarcasm highlights, this kind of work is designed to make even the most lackluster coach look better than they actually are. Who doesn’t love selfless playtime with kids? By all accounts, Rebecca should be ensuring that this trip is on any day but the one when Trent comes to visit.

The thing is though, she knows the Richmond community.

She doesn’t know about Ted’s influence on Roy.

The way I see it, without the work Ted did earlier in the episode, that outing would have added a mile to Ted’s already deep hole. Most of what we see during the school trip reinforces the idea that Ted is unfit for this position, if only because everyone hates him. The teacher doesn’t bother to get his name right (“Ed Lasso.”) The kids are dead silent when Ted comes out, uncaring except for that, “Wanker!” and his reception is contrasted with the awe and adulation given to Roy. Ted again acts in what others would consider an embarrassing fashion by participating in the headers with the kids. Then he’s given a bloody nose by Phoebe. With the exception of the one curly-haired kid getting Ted’s autograph (which, notably, he bleeds on) and the teacher’s acknowledgment that no one has ever bothered to stay this long, this outing is a bust for Ted. Which, given the assumption that Rebecca knew about the outing and had it “coincidentally” planned, is precisely what she wanted. She knows her community’s feelings about Ted (mostly hatred) and she knows by now that he’s likely to do things that make him look even worse in their eyes (he does). By setting up this trip, Rebecca threw him to the proverbial wolves. It wouldn’t have worked with any other coach, but it works for Ted, because he’s already the ignorant American that no one asked for. At this point in the episode, Trent is still crafting that scathing article. His smirk at the kids’ rejection of Ted says it all.

The linchpin here ends up being Roy who, at the very last moment, right before the day ends, accosts Ted over the work he’s done earlier in the episode. Namely, setting up the expectation that Roy will need to do a better job of leading his team—first and foremost by dealing with Jamie—and following that up by giving him A Wrinkle in Time. It’s only when Roy mentions “mind games” and “gifts” that Trent gets interested again. His understanding of the situation just changed.

Mind games? Gifts? Roy Kent floundering at whatever this new coach has been teaching? That’s not Ted making a fool of himself, nor is it him presumably buttering Trent up. This is something new and very unexpected.

Trent ends up learning a lot of things about Ted in the span of just a few seconds. He has, apparently, read a novel that Trent thinks is “lovely.” He’s gifted that novel to Roy Kent, a legend with one hell of a prickly personality. And he’s given that gift with a very specific intention. When Roy explodes with, “Am I meant to be the little girl?” Trent’s expression is surprised fascination. Yes, Coach Lasso, did you give Roy Kent that novel with the hope that he will learn something from its protagonist in a brilliant, “subtle” form of mentorship?

And Ted says yeah, “I’d like you to be.”

Holy shit. Maybe this guy isn’t clueless after all. In a shocking turn of events, Trent needs to do more investigating.

This moment is Ted’s in. Without that work done earlier with Roy and without Roy bringing Trent’s attention to it, I’m not sure Trent would have agreed to the dinner. Or if he did, he wouldn’t have gone into it with the same open mind. This entire day Trent has been watching Ted make seemingly terrible coaching mistakes, acting in embarrassing ways, and being told by community and players alike that they’re all eagerly waiting for him to leave… yet at the restaurant he says, “Let battle commence.” The battle should have been won already, but Trent is resetting the board, giving Ted another chance to prove him wrong. And that’s precisely what Ted does.

Here, the situation is flipped. Trent gets to see a member of the community who doesn’t hate Ted, Ollie, who is not just polite, but downright excited to see him. Trent is suddenly Ted’s sole focus and is thus at the mercy of those sincere compliments—“Congrats. You both just met a cool person”—as well as his affection for others, even if they haven’t warmed up to him yet. Ollie is his “buddy.” Trent is already a “friend.” Food should be made like they’re “a member of the family.” And, of course, there’s the sacrifice of not just eating the insanely hot food so as to avoid offending the family, not just avoiding taking away joy he’s already produced (“Hey, Dad! He says it’s perfect!”), but also taking Trent’s food to cover for him. Ted gets to show his heart in a far more welcoming environment and he gets to prove that he’s more than just a positive attitude. Originally, Ted’s philosophy on winning and losing was a damning quote Trent was eager to write down. Now, Ted gets the chance to expand that damning line into a philosophy with context: “Now, I’m gonna say this again just so you don’t think it was a mistake the first time I said it.” That’s precisely what Trent thought, or simply that it was the statement of a fool. But here, Ted jokingly rejects the idea that he’d do this job for the money, reassures Trent that he knows this club means a lot to people, and sternly explains that football is more than just getting a W or an L on the record book. It’s about making sure the boys participating in this game know that someone believes in them. The endless kindness and optimism that Trent originally dismissed is at the core of how Ted defines success. It’s not a distraction from his coaching (look at that idiot doing headers instead of leading the activity), it is his coaching. Trent’s, “You really mean that, don’t you?” isn’t just disbelieving confirmation that Ted enjoyed spending time with him, specifically, it’s a broader confirmation that Ted is living the philosophy he preaches. He believes in people. 

But none of that would have occurred if not, as Ted puts it earlier, that one domino falling in Roy’s heart. A great deal of Ted Lasso is about ripple effects and I love this episode as an early example of that. A throwaway line about the expectations of this interaction (coaches set up events to make themselves look good) contrasted with knowledge of Rebecca’s endgame (she doesn’t want Ted to look good), creates a rather interesting peek into how things should have and would have gone down if Ted wasn’t already implementing his coaching style. Taking Ollie’s invitation personally even though he tells everyone to come to the restaurant, encouraging Roy to step up as a leader, giving those books as gifts, even Roy’s love for Phoebe and his willingness to participate in an event at her school… all of it was required to create a scenario in which Trent could eventually write the words “I will not gloat” and mean it. Without the work Ted had already done in the locker room, without that spiraling outward to create additional impacts, I think Rebecca would have succeeded. Trent would not have written a kinder article about the Lasso Way unless the Lasso Way was already out there and influencing the community, him most of all. It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, with Ted’s acts in the beginning of the episode becoming the very things he needed to help convince others of their importance later on.