Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 7 Review: The Strings That Bind Us

Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 7, “The Strings That Bind Us,” is this outing’s most cohesive episode to date, which is probably why it’s the installment that feels the most like earlier seasons of the show. 

There are absolutely problems here (which we will get to in a minute), but “The Strings That Bind Us” is Season 3’s first real proper ensemble hour, one that reemphasizes the themes of teamwork and community that have been such a key piece of this show.

Seeing the team together again and actually part of the same story for so much of the episode was just such a joy.

In the wake of Ted’s Amsterdam vision quest last week, AFC Richmond is working on embracing the Total Football strategy that carried a 1970s Dutch team to the World Cup final.

It’s a lot of work and requires that the team completely rethink both their roles on the field and their relationships with each other. (It’s basically like the soccer version of a trust fall.)

The team’s practice sessions—now watched by several of the Greyhound faithful from Mae’s bar — go through several iterations of various forms of torture, where they’re yelled at, forced to run until they drop, and literally tied together by their private parts and forced to play as duos. It’s utterly ridiculous, of course, but it’s fun in the dumb way this show is best at.

(And Roy’s terrifying attempt to upgrade the whole tying penises together plan was probably the episode’s mostly hilarious moment.)

It’s also strangely nice to finally have an episode this season that’s so unabashedly focused on soccer, from showing Ted actually coaching to the team actually playing.

And Jamie Tartt’s extremely satisfying evolution into a true leader continues, as he finally understands that the key to the team’s success lies not in his ability to be a superstar, but in his ability to elevate the play of his teammates. (“Stop going to me and start going through me” is basically a Lasso-level revelation.)

Juno Temple and Hannah Waddingham in Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 7 (Photo: Apple TV+)

Unfortunately, despite the rise in team togetherness, Ted Lasso’s women are still largely stuck in their own world and their only stories at the moment seem to revolve around their love lives.  To be fair, Juno Temple and Hannah Waddingham remain incredible together, and their girls’ lunch is charming and fun. 

But they also don’t talk about anything other than the people they’re dating, and that’s a shame. It’s not like either of these characters is a successful businesswoman with professional concerns! 

It would be one thing if the two were shown really discussing Rebecca’s feelings about not being able to have children or where her renewed obsession with Rupert has come from.

If we have to talk about Keeley’s relationship with Jack couldn’t it be in terms of how she feels about essentially dating her boss, especially since Rebecca herself essentially dated an employee last season? How’s Keeley handling the fallout from Shandy’s departure?  Is Rebecca still considering firing Ted given how poorly the team is doing? Who knows!

Instead, we see Keeley, essentially forced to exist on what often feels like an entirely different show, getting showered with expensive gifts and grand gestures from her new mega-rich girlfriend (“get away with murder rich” as Jack herself puts it). And in theory, there’s nothing wrong with that—until Rebecca reminds her that Rupert used to do similar “love bombing” in the early days of their courtship. 

Truly this is so deflating, since anyone being compared to Rupert for any reason is essentially the kiss of death, and even as someone who’s basically assumed Jack is little more than a roadblock on the way to an inevitable Roy/Keeley reunion, I thought there was really going to be more to their connection than Keeley insisting Jack stop buying her things while wearing a series of increasingly atrocious outfits. 

Season 3’s Nate Shelley rehabilitation tour continues apace, as he gets what ought to be a charming and adorable story about trying to ask out the frequently mean hostess from the restaurant he’s obsessed with (and who he’s been attempting to impress for weeks).

And, to be fair, there are moments that are incredibly sweet — the story of how Nate’s parents met is charming and so perfectly Ted Lasso sweet. But my problem is the same as it ever was: In no way has Nate earned this second chance yet. 

It’s clear that the show wants us to think that this is Nate maturing, or growing, or taking more control over his own life or something, but every moment that doesn’t include him in some way acknowledging the wrong he did to the people who cared about him, who fought to give him a chance to succeed makes every other instance of him not completely sucking feel incredibly hollow.

Particularly since he’s basically faced zero challenges or consequences since becoming the West Ham coach. In many ways, the way his character is being presented feels like he “won” and that’s….apparently never going to stop being upsetting to me.

Furthermore, Jade, a character we still barely know, deserves a better fate and simply serving as the convenient mechanism by which Nate finds redemption and learns to be a better person. Keep it. 

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• The image of the whole team pitching in to clean up Sam’s vandalized restaurant just got me right in the heart. That is the Ted Lasso I love.
• I love Sam’s dad!! 
• Roy randomly yelling out “Whistle!” will never stop being funny. 
• Keely Jones is an Emma girl and no one is going to tell me any differently. 
• Every time anyone at Ola’s yelled “Yes, chef” all I could see was The Bear. 
• Trent Crimm’s book is 1000% going to be called “The Lasso Way”. 

What did you think of this episode of Ted Lasso? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of Ted Lasso stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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