Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 12 Review: So Long, Farewell
Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 12, “So Long, Farewell,” attempts to serve two masters, bringing the story of its titular coach to a natural conclusion — and most likely ending this iteration of the series as we know it — while still not-so-subtly waving a sign that says in bright, honking letters that spinoffs are coming.
Perhaps if the show has been more honest about the fact that Apple TV+ clearly wasn’t about to let its only real popular hit swan off into the sunset we might have all been able to have a more clear-eyed conversation about the elements of this season that clearly happened primarily because the folks in charge needed to keep some options open for the future of this franchise.
The things this finale does well are almost all restricted to the parts that feel like a proper ending: The sudden returns of random secondary and tertiary characters, cheesy musical interludes where the team performs a Sound of Music number to honor Ted’s last practice, the teary video retrospective, Ted’s heartfelt halftime speech, and the fact that he finally learns what offsides mean, these are all the moments I needed from what certainly feels like it should be the end of the show.
It was the reconstruction of the infamous “Believe” sign from the tattered pieces the Richmond players apparently all kept that really got me, if you’re curious, largely because they were such a visible representation of not only the team philosophy that Ted created, but the impact that philosophy had on the men these guys have become.
In your wildest dreams, could you ever have expected that Jamie Tartt, of all people, would hang on to a torn piece of construction paper? For months??
Ted’s decision to go home to Kansas feels like it’s been building since the first episode of this season and, honestly, it feels like a natural end to his story. Yes, he’d made a life for himself in Richmond, but Henry is his whole world, and so much of his emotional arc has revolved around his own unresolved issues about his father’s suicide that there’s never been anyway he’d be an absentee father forever.
I’m not sure I fully approve of the Mary Poppins vibes he’s giving off throughout this episode, if only because the show’s so focused on how everyone else feels about his leaving — and the prospect of having to continue on without him — that we don’t actually get a lot of Ted’s perspective on his choice. While, yes, Henry is his priority, he’s still made a life and a family for himself in Richmond, too, and on some level, it almost feels as though he’s fading away well before the end of the finale.
Rebecca’s repeated pleas for him to stay in England — and her plans about how he can do so while still being with this family at the same time, don’t get much of a reaction from Ted. (In fact, I’m not actually sure he says anything during that entire scene between them in the Nelson Road stands.)
Hannah Waddingham is tremendous as she wrestles with Ted’s departure and what her own future without him will and should look like. The idea that she’d co-own the team with the fans is…oddly perfect after her speech at the Super League meeting turned food fight, and I loved the image of Mae and the guys at the Crown and Anchor actually having a real ownership stake in the franchise they’ve loved for so long.
Even the Nate stuff mostly works. I guess. To be fair, I’ll never be satisfied with the way this season has chosen to portray Nate’s arc, telling and not showing me the majority of his allegedly redemptive journey from Season 2 villain to Season 3 prodigal son.
But y’all have heard it before. And we all knew that Nate would eventually come to his senses and probably end up back at Richmond, to boot. At least he actually apologized to Ted before everyone basically started pretending nothing ever happened.
Do I think that a big piece of Nate’s story is as much about maneuvering him into place for a potential continuation of the show as it is his actual emotional arc? Probably. Like I said, I think we all knew he’d go home to the Greyhounds eventually, but the consistently weird choices when it comes to this character this season speak of a certain level of backstage interference and/or at the very least repeated rewrites.
I’ve also complained plenty about whatever the heck has been going on with Keeley this season, who seemed to have started a business simply to date her billionaire boss after her relationship with Roy ended for reasons we’re still not entirely clear on.
“So Long, Farewell” continues this trend of terribleness, randomly resurrecting the idea of Roy/Keeley/Jamie love triangle and ultimately allowing Keeley to choose herself after Roy and Jamie literally come to blows over who gets the chance to be with her. This entire subplot is horribly juvenile and regressive for every one of these characters and, once again, lets the show sweep Keeley and Roy’s post-apology hookup under the rug without ever addressing what, if anything, it meant to either of them.
Admittedly, I’m a Roy/Keeley shipper for life, but it still makes no sense not to give the series marquee romance a happy ending unless you’re angling to continue their story — and possibly keep that love triangle going — in another series. Both the creators of Ted Lasso and characters within the world of the series have repeatedly extolled the power of rom-coms, yet there’s noting especially romantic about that ending, unless you count Jamie and Roy’s friendship apparently surviving their attraction to the same woman.
It feels wong to end any discussion of the end of Ted Lasso on a negative note. Yes, Season 3 struggle in many ways: Apple TV+’s refusal to pick a lane about what kind of story this run of episodes was really telling, the bloated run times, the introduction of what can only be called D-list characters and storylines rather than the core characters whose journies we cared most about, and painfully uneven pacing.
Yet, it’s hard to be too mad at a show whose central messages are so wholesome and heartfelt. Try to be a better person today than you were yesterday. Believe in the power of each other, in love and forgiveness and teamwork. Talk about your feelings. Tell people you care about them. Don’t hold on to things that hurt you. Reach out with an open hand rather than a closed fist. Be a goldfish.
Yes, Season 3, taken as a whole, was a disappointment. But in a world full of grimdark dramas and bleak procedurals, its hard not to be a little thankful we got a show like Ted Lasso at all, which encouraged us to care so much.
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- What is the most likely avenue for the world of Ted Lasso to continue without actually including Ted Lasso? The finale tees up several interesting possibilities — Roy takes over at Richmond, flanked by Beard and Nate, which means they could essentially greenlight a version of the same series, just sans Ted. There’s Keeley’s new PR firm with Barbara, as well as the proposal that she and Rebecca start a Richmond women’s team. Beard’s uprooted his whole life to move to England and marry Jane in front of all their weirdo friends (also…is she pregnant at their wedding?). What I’m saying is that Ted Lasso filled its final moments with ideas for ways the show, in some form, could go on — now it’s just up to Apple TV to pick something, if they truly want to.
- I’ve never been a TedBecca person — I don’t think I’d necessarily mind them as a romance, but I think their platonic bond is equally if not more important to the world of the show — but that opening sequence clearly aimed at making folks think they slept together was….a choice.
- Everything about the Roy/Keeley storyline is a straight-up disaster but I love Roy finally admitting he wants to join the Diamond Dogs.
- I know that Rupert Mannion is a monster but his outerwear is immaculate.
- Trent Hair’s is absolutely perfect, that is the only correct take.
What did you think of the season (or possible series?) finale of Ted Lasso? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Ted Lasso is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.