Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 9: Well, There’s the Heart I Was Looking For

Warning: Spoilers for Ted Lasso Season 4, Episode 9.

Well, damn.

A couple episodes ago I wrote that I was still waiting for Season 4 to completely feel like Ted Lasso. I wanted less time spent on side stories that didn’t seem to be going anywhere and more time with Ted, Richmond and the people we’ve spent years falling in love with.

More than anything, I wanted some damn heart.

Be careful what you ask for, I guess.

Because Episode 9 gave us PLENTY of heart. Some of it made me ridiculously happy. Some of it ripped that heart right out of my chest. There are really three major things that happen in this episode, and somehow the thing that probably SHOULD have been the biggest moment ends up feeling almost small compared to the other two.

Richmond Is Moving Up!
Let’s start with the good news.

After the previous defeat, Richmond has their huge match against Bristol City with promotion on the line. Gemma is back from injury. Shannon absolutely steals the show with two great goals. And Richmond wins!

THEY’RE PROMOTED!

This is what the entire soccer story of Season 4 has been building toward. Ted came back to England to coach a women’s team that didn’t really know what to make of him. He had to figure them out. They had to figure HIM out. We’ve watched them slowly become a team, and now they’re finally moving up.

This should have been the gigantic emotional centerpiece of the episode. And it isn’t even close. Because then Keeley drops a bomb.

KEELEY IS PREGNANT!
I KNEW IT!

Okay, I didn’t know she was going to get pregnant. But I’ve been saying all season that Roy and Keeley were going to end up back together. And FINALLY, here we are. Keeley spends part of the episode worried about her health and thinking something might actually be wrong with her. Then she finds out what’s really happening.

She’s pregnant.

And almost immediately, the excitement gets mixed with fear. Because now she has to tell Roy. What is he going to think? How is he going to react? We’ve spent four seasons watching these two love each other, screw things up, separate, find their way back toward each other, pull away again and basically do everything possible EXCEPT just admit that they belong together. Then Keeley tells him.

Roy’s response?

It’s “the best fucking thing I’ve ever heard.”

COME ON!

That’s the Roy and Keeley I’ve been waiting for. And I actually love that this doesn’t mean everything is suddenly going to be easy. Having a baby isn’t the finish line. If anything, this is where their next story starts. They’re going to struggle. They’re going to be terrified. They’re probably going to drive each other insane.

But they’re going to do it together.

After spending so much of this season complaining that the show needed to stop dancing around Roy and Keeley and just PUT THEM TOGETHER, I can’t exactly complain when they finally give me what I wanted. I’m happy. Which apparently means Ted Lasso decided it was time to destroy me.

Mae
Man.

Mae.

She’s never been one of the biggest characters on Ted Lasso. She’s not Ted. She’s not Rebecca. She’s not Roy, Keeley, Jamie or Beard. But she’s ALWAYS been there. She’s the gruff, funny, occasionally terrifying bartender at the Crown & Anchor. She’s the person who keeps Jeremy, Baz and Paul in line. She’s been this constant familiar face in the background of Richmond since almost the beginning.

And somewhere along the way, we all fell in love with her. This season gave Mae something else too. The women’s team. She has been SO damn happy about them. Maybe that should have been our warning. We’ve gotten to see a little more depth from Mae this season and, strangely enough, a little more heart than I think most of us realized was sitting behind that bar.

And then the heart attack happens.

The tonal shift is brutal. We just watched Richmond earn promotion. We just found out Keeley is pregnant. Roy just gave us one of the happiest reactions he could possibly give.

We’re UP.

And then Ted Lasso sends us crashing straight back down. Obviously, we don’t completely know the extent of what’s happened with Mae yet. Episode 9 leaves us there, and we’re going to have to wait for the finale to see exactly what comes next. But damn, that ending hit me harder than I expected. Maybe that’s because Mae has always felt permanent.

She’s just THERE.

The Crown & Anchor exists, Mae is behind the bar, and those three idiots are sitting there talking about Richmond. That’s the natural order of the Ted Lasso universe. Until suddenly it isn’t.

And Now I’m Worried About Ted. This was a REALLY good episode. More importantly, this is the kind of Ted Lasso I’ve been asking for. Funny. Emotional. Soccer matters, but the people matter more. One minute you’re celebrating and the next minute the show reminds you why you’ve become so attached to all of these characters.

That’s Ted Lasso.

But Mae’s situation also has me thinking about Ted going into the finale. Ted is probably 99% happy. That’s who he is. Even when he’s hurting, he’s looking for the good in somebody or trying to make somebody else feel better. But we also know that’s not the entire Ted Lasso story. We’ve seen what happens when all of that optimism can’t completely cover what’s happening underneath. So what does losing someone like Mae do to him? What does it do to Richmond? And what does it do to everyone at the Crown & Anchor?

I don’t know.

But if there’s one thing this show has always been unbelievably good at, it’s taking something incredibly sad and somehow finding warmth, humor and hope inside of it. I’m sure they’ll find some way to make us feel better in the finale. At least I REALLY hope they do. Because after Episode 9, I finally got exactly what I’ve been asking Season 4 to give me.

Some damn heart.

I just didn’t expect them to break it too.