‘Ted Lasso’ Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: Youth in Revolt

Season 2, Episode 3, ‘Do the Right-est Thing’

This week, “Ted Lasso” begins with perhaps the most sinister of American sitcom tropes: the introduction of a precocious, world-wise 13-year-old.

This would be Nora (Kiki May), the daughter of Rebecca’s saucy best friend Sassy (Ellie Taylor). Nora will be staying in London with Rebecca, her long-errant godmother, while Sassy speaks at a conference in Brighton. Alas, this means we don’t see much of Sassy at all, with either Rebecca or Ted. (You will recall Sassy had a brief but happy assignation with the latter during AFC Richmond’s trip to Liverpool in Season 1.) It’s a shame, because Sassy is fabulous.

Sassy and Nora’s visit does come, however, with its own squeamish revelations: Within minutes, Sassy explains to Rebecca that Ted’s incessant patter does not come to a halt when the lights go off and that — hardly a surprise — he is “so eager to please.” This is essentially TMI squared. Rebecca, awkwardly choking down a biscuit, certainly thinks so.

Nora’s sudden appearance at the center of the series, which is presumably temporary, is no real cause for alarm. The young actress May does a nice job with the character and never drives it into those lower reaches of sitcom Hell where cheeky teens often take up residence. But Nora is nonetheless further evidence of the differences between Season 1 and Season 2.

As I noted early on, the first go-round felt a little more improvisational, a little more like a high-risk, seat-of-the pants experiment. This season already feels more sitcom-polished, carefully constructing “themes” and “narratives” — you may remember the emphasis on “dads” last week — rather than simply bouncing a bunch of fascinating characters off one another and seeing what happens.

Tonight’s principal story line is a two-parter involving Nora and Rebecca and, in part, Sam, AFC Richmond’s charming, handsome midfielder. (Sam is getting more screen time this season, which is great news, as Toheeb Jimoh, the actor who plays him, is an amiable, charisma-oozing delight.)

The first Rebecca-Nora bit is a fairly simple story about Rebecca — who ignored Sassy and Nora for six years during her unhappy marriage — awkwardly coming to terms with the fact that Nora is no longer a little girl. Rebecca first takes her to a fancy, princess-y brunch, and then to the British Girls’ Shop. (There is a lovely joke at the latter about how the British, unlike the Americans, prefer their dolls to have back stories in which they are orphans.) But ultimately, Nora wants to spend the day at work with Rebecca, where she of course demonstrates her adolescent mettle by sorting out some of AFC Richmond’s financial complications more quickly than Ted could.

The second half of the Nora-Rebecca action comes when Sam, just after signing onto a new ad campaign with Dubai Air, learns the airline is owned by a fictional oil company that has wreaked environmental havoc in his native Nigeria. Sam wants to quit the ad campaign. In retribution, the head of Dubai Air — AFC Richmond’s principal sponsor — expects Rebecca to fire Sam.

Luckily, Nora, with the moral imperviousness of youth, suggests the team just Stick It to the Man — hence the episode title, “Do the Right-est Thing” (anyone ask Spike Lee how he feels about this?)—with Sam quitting the ad campaign and Rebecca supporting his decision. The whole AFC Richmond squad eventually goes a step further when they decide to put thick, black tape over the Dubai Air logos on their jerseys. I don’t pretend to be an expert on English football or sports marketing more generally, but I’m fairly convinced this move would have substantial financial consequences, about which the show displays no concern whatsoever.

The second principal story line is a continuation of Jamie’s bid to fully rejoin the team. Last week, he had to win over Ted. This week, he has to win over … everyone else. He tries teasing, but he has customary difficulty in properly modulating the tone of his jests. He tries bribing his teammates but, let’s face it, it’s bribery. So finally, Ted takes over, reaching deep into his bag of coaching tricks — too deep, if you ask me.

He warns Coach Beard, to the latter’s horror, that he is about to become “that guy.” The guy in question turns out to be an alternate persona Ted occasionally adopts called, ouch, Led Tasso, who — as you likely guessed less than halfway through this sentence — is the opposite of Ted Lasso.

So Led/Ted gets out on the field and rants rudely and largely incoherently at his squad for a few minutes — I hope the whole bit about the ball-as-girlfriend was ad-libbed, because if not, it was some truly bad writing — before sending them back to the locker room. Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, whom we’ve scarcely seen all episode, witnesses the ruse and intuits its purpose: By uniting the team against him, Ted can distract them all from being aligned against Jamie. It’s a silly idea, halfheartedly executed, and I can only assume the show’s creators thought watching nice-guy Jason Sudeikis ranting like a bully would be a lot funnier than it actually was.

Sharon asks of the stratagem, “Has it ever worked?”—which reminded me of when Lindsay Fünke asked her therapist husband Tobias whether open marriages ever work on “Arrested Development.” (The answer is similar.) In this case, however, the “Led Tasso” gambit is an improbable success. Jamie’s re-acceptance with the team seems mostly complete, although not until after he joins Sam in the anti-Dubai Air protest. (Which, again, seems as though it would have serious ramifications.)

So: Dubious subplots(s) with a precocious teen? Check. Feel-good political subplot with consequences the show seems determined to ignore? Check. And — again, I’m sorry, but ouch — “Led Tasso”? Check.

I still enjoyed the episode, but these developments all made me a little nervous.

Odds and Ends

• The very opening scene with Ted and Nora threw me into a state of moderate confusion when it came to the geometric contours of Nelson Road Stadium and the AFC Richmond offices. From the initial shots of Nora, with her glorious, upper-floor view of the field, I assumed that she was sitting at Rebecca’s desk. But no, when Ted subsequently pops in on Rebecca and Sassy, it becomes apparent that Nora was sitting at a desk in an outer office to Rebecca’s, perhaps a receptionist’s desk. Have we ever seen this space before? It seems like it might be relevant to Ted’s habit of popping into Rebecca’s office uninvited. Moreover, Ted actually asks, “Who’s the new receptionist?” Were we ever introduced to an old one? Am I missing something? Or were we just belatedly introduced to a desk we haven’t seen before that is ordinarily occupied by a receptionist whom, over the course of a dozen previous episodes, we’ve never met? Somebody might want to point out this prime working-space to the perpetually desk-seeking Higgins.

• Thank goodness we always have Roy, even if it wasn’t as much of him this week as in the last two episodes. His latest sportscasting segment on “Gillette Soccer Saturday” goes much like the first one: full of sound, fury and profanity, signifying a lack of attentive censors at Sky Sports. (I misstated the network last week, referring to it as the BBC: Apologies!) Roy also gets to offer a neat bit of parenting advice to Rebecca — though neither one of them, of course, is a parent. And, as on the season premiere with the unlucky Mr. Wingsnight, Rebecca once again takes Roy’s advice. He’s becoming the show’s Angry Yoda.

• This week’s pop-cultural references include Pat Benatar, Larry Bird, Tim Burton and Jekyll and Hyde. Feel free to point out those I missed — I expect there will be several — in comments. Thanks to those last week who flagged Nando’s Peri Peri, Nigella Lawson, Dave Grohl and Ricky Bell. And I promise I noticed the “mime is money” line (a Billy Crystal classic from “Spinal Tap”) and just forgot to write it down. A special thanks, too, to the reader who noticed that the name Dr. Sharon Fieldstone bears a rather notable resemblance to Dr. Marcia Fieldstone, the radio host/therapist who put Tom Hanks on the air to such profound transnational effect in “Sleepless in Seattle.” I can’t imagine this is a coincidence.