How Ted Lasso Season 4 Fails Ted and Rebecca

Whether you have been rooting for Ted Lasso and Rebecca Welton to end up together romantically or simply love the bond they share, you can’t deny their chemistry has always been remarkably incredible.

That is why Ted Lasso Season 4 feels like it fails them and their relationship. What seems promising when Rebecca shows up with Keeley and Higgins to get Ted back to Richmond on Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 1, “Home,” soon changes.

The Ted and Rebecca we fell in love with during the first three seasons were nowhere to be found in the newest season.

Ted Lasso Season 3 ended with Rebecca in tears at the airport, saying goodbye to the man who had helped her find her way back to herself. It was a scene that made us believe that even though Ted was leaving, their connection couldn’t be broken.

However, the moment these two characters are reunited three years later, we learn Ted has been avoiding Rebecca’s calls. This is the first sign we get that something has gone terribly wrong with their bond.

While it’s understandable that Ted might have needed time to readjust to his old home, it makes no sense that he ignored Rebecca for so long.

This is the man who used to break into her office with biscuits and random facts or anecdotes about his life. How could he have possibly closed the door on such a strong connection?

During its first three seasons, Ted Lasso did an incredible job of building up the relationship between its two main characters. From hiring one to destroy a football team to fully trusting each other with every bit of their lives.

Ted hugged Rebbeca when she felt she would be left alone after seeing Rupert at the gala. Rebecca helps Ted breathe through a panic attack. They uplifted each other in ways no other characters could.

In an era when viewers are so divided over what they want to see on screen, Rebecca and Ted set the mood for people to understand that you can find your soulmate later in life. That your soulmate could be the man you hired to ruin everything.

But, of course, this notion opened the floodgates for the discourse to grow. Those who believed they were platonic soulmates fought harshly against those who believed that Ted and Rebecca were always meant to end up together.

No matter what your dream headcanon was for these two characters, we could all agree they shared a connection never shown on screen before.

These two characters, going through a difficult divorce, finding their voices again, and sharing such a deep, connected past, were the heart and soul of the show.

It didn’t matter why you decided to watch a show like Ted Lasso, you couldn’t deny that Rebecca and Ted were what kept it going. But the truth is that without each other, they wouldn’t have been as successful.

That’s not to say that without Ted, Rebecca would be no one or that Ted wouldn’t be as important without Rebecca. But it’s to say that their stories take on a different meaning when they coexist.

If they hadn’t met, their lives would have taken a completely different turn. As their stories develop, they need each other to grow.

Ted reminds Rebecca of who she used to be and how joyful she could be. And Rebecca gives Ted a breath of fresh air, the opportunity to start living for himself again.

When Ted announced toward the end of Ted Lasso Season 3 that he was returning to America, it was hard for Rebecca to process because she was aware of how he had changed her life.

Losing Ted, his physical presence, could mean losing a part of herself that she was just beginning to love again.

And even though the show tries throughout Ted Lasso Season 4 to tell us she’s gained that with Matthijs, every episode confirms her fears. Maybe not because she doesn’t love herself anymore, but because she restrains herself from being Silly Rebecca.

For Ted, it’s the same way. Even though he is back in a place that used to make him happy, there are restrictions on how far his happiness can go.

He can’t walk into the places he used to go the same way he once did. Rebecca’s office is one of the main places that now has a door he has to knock on before he can enter. A door that used to always be opened for him.

Every scene Ted and Rebecca shared during the first three seasons had rhythm and rhyme. There was always something that came out of their conversations, shared glances, and moments together.

Contrary to that, Ted Lasso Season 4 completely eradicates their connection. We rarely see them share the screen, and when they do, it’s always surrounded by others. They never have the room to just be alone.

It’s not about them getting together romantically, but about them sharing the space that once made them feel at home. Yes, some of us do believe there is incredible potential for them to be the best TV couple we’ve seen in a while, but it goes beyond that.

It’s about the fact that the season doesn’t even allow them to be friends. It’s as if the show feared what people might read into it if these two characters were ever seen alone again.

The only time they are fully alone in Rebecca’s office during Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 10, “Being Alive,” Rebecca ignores Ted’s presence and goes on a ramble about why she should marry her boyfriend.

Ted Lasso had spent so much time and writing building the connection between these two characters. Parallels every season of the two of them finding each other at the right time.

The show focused on creating the kind of bond viewers wanted to see on screen (romantically or platonically), only to tear it down in ten episodes. Everything that had been built from the moment they met all those years ago is destroyed as soon as Ted returns to Richmond.

Maybe it’s Rebecca not forgiving him for ignoring her for three years. Maybe it’s Ted being afraid to open up again and have that taken away. Or maybe that’s just us wishfully thinking about what the show could do to fix this mistake.

Ted Lasso Season 4 completely breaks Ted and Rebecca’s relationship to pieces, pushing us to watch these two characters drift further apart. Nothing that happens between them seems to align with who they used to be.

And, at this point, it’s not certain that a new season would fix them. It might be best to keep our headcanons alive, letting Ted and Rebecca exist in the happiness we know they bring to each other’s lives (romantically or not).

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Ted Lasso is available to stream on Apple TV.

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