Twichie Talks Ted: The episode that proves Nothing is Trivial

This week’s episode of Ted Lasso gave me a new filter and framework to look at the storyline and now I can’t unsee it. It was like all the puzzle pieces fell together and now I can see the picture clearly. It’s also directly tied to one of my all time favorite movies ever. But before I get too deep into that, let’s talk about what happened this week.

From the official listing on IMDb:

That is a fabulously concise way to say “This week even more things go to hell in unexpected ways.”

Seriously, the episode opens with a player finding out she’s pregnant and that’s a low, almost forgotten point by the end of the episode. That just underscores the level of chaos that Ted and the team are managing for this season. Like, we all knew starting up a women’s team was going to be rough, but did we really think it would be this hard?? I mean does it have to be every single thing as a battle? And as I thought this, I couldn’t help but wonder how many other people out there could relate to this statement. I have experienced it in my life in so many ways across both my personal life and my career and I suspect there are a lot of us out there who feel that way. I think this is part of the magic of Ted Lasso. We all can see ourselves in the story and Ted often gives us a road map on how to navigate those challenges. But the team from Lasso serves up these valuable life lessons with the perfect recipe of grace, fun, and just outright laughter.

Once again, this episode was masterful in the way that each character’s story unfolded. No matter how many times I watch this show, I never stop being amazed with how brilliantly crafted the writing is. There is nothing wasted in Ted Lasso. Even the most minor reference from one of the first three seasons can come up at any time and they are always handled with deliberate intention. This episode, for example, we got to ‘meet’ the Milk sisters for the first time. Not even a 1 second reference but if you’re a fan, you caught it.

Let’s talk a little bit about some of the characters. This week I want to highlight a couple of the women.

This episode really showed us how Rebecca has grown into that incredibly powerful woman we saw at the end of Season 3. She knows how to work the room, play the game, and make things happen. And like anyone in business, she’s learned how to pivot and make things happen. But does she realize HOW she is making that happen? I think we’re all starting to see that the lessons Rebecca learned in order to earn her seat at the “Big Boys Table” maybe weren’t always the best ones. We all can clearly see that she’s going to have a reckoning with that at some point. The only question for us to ask at this point is what will cause that lesson and when it will happen.

I love Keeley. Watching her grow from where she started in season one to now has been an utter joy and delight. A lot of folks have assumed that I love Keeley just because she does the same job I do, which is true. I adore watching someone succeed by being creative and smart in this field. But it’s not just that alone. When we first met Keeley, everything about her story and personality revolved around the men she was involved with. We met her as Jamie Tartt’s girl. Then saw her with Roy. Then later with Jack. And we saw how each of these relationships changed her. But now we’re seeing a new Keeley and I love it. She’s scared. In over her head. She knows it but she’s gonna meet that challenge head on. And they have truly flipped the script on that one as Roy’s storylines revolve around his relationship to Keeley. Last week’s episode had the locker room scene where we learned about Roy’s sabotage but we also saw how much he’ll do for Keeley. This week, once again, Roy helped save the day and was just everywhere he needed to be, even if he didn’t understand it. For Roy, he doesn’t need a book anymore. He’s got Phoebe and his sister to point out what he needs to understand about himself and he’s using those lessons to become a better person outside of Keeley…but of course it’s directly affecting that ‘relationship’ as well.

It’s not often that you can call a character everyone’s favorite grandma and bartender, but here we are. Mae has always been a beautifully anchoring character throughout the series. She drops bits of wisdom mixed in with her quirky personality and she gets away with so much because of her age. She reminds me a lot of my own grandmother who passed away this year. Everyone in the home loved my Grandma Bell. She was feisty and didn’t let you get away with anything, but she did it with this sweet edge that almost made you question if it was a slam or not. I am pretty sure a lot of us know a grandma or an elderly friend who is the same.

But in this episode? Mae was the heart of all of it. Every single scene that showed a new challenge for our crew was counter balanced by Mae’s support for the women and her excitement about it. From standing up at the press conference, to telling Ted she already bought season tickets, Mae consistently reminds the audience and our beloved Richmond crew what this means. And the scene when we got to see everyone’s reaction to the goal? Not gonna lie, Mae owned that one. All by herself, no friends or family standing with her, she looked around, took it all in, and you knew at that moment how heavy and uplifting it was all at the same time.

I’m gonna need more Mae STAT. Please give us some backstory on why this means so much!

Now, remember at the beginning of this article I mentioned one of my favorite movies? Well, when Keeley had her epic meltdown giggling fit, this was the only thing I could think of:

Now I included the scene leading up to the bathtub falling through the floor because that is where I got the name for this podcast. My family grew up using that phrase ALL THE TIME. So when it came time to figure out what name I could use that would cover all the things, I had to go with Nothing Trivial.

If you are too young to know the reference to the film, that’s okay. You can still fix that. The title is The Money Pit and here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLLQquBdU8M

When I went to find the trailer to share for this article, I realized that The Money Pit defines so much of this season of Ted Lasso. It’s a beautiful house when they see it. They know they are going to have to work to get what they want from it. Even the two main characters played by Tom Hanks and Shelley Long are exceptional in their fields but know nothing about what they are doing with this. And of course, all the money going out…can there ever possibly be a good ROI on this project? All of it just perfectly mirrors what’s happening in this season of Ted Lasso. Once they get under the surface, they realize more and more what they’ve gotten into but still, they don’t give up. And the whole time, you are laughing and crying along with them.

So the rest of this season my personal challenge is to find at least one Money Pit scene that matches perfectly with something happening on the show. I guess we’ll see at the end how that challenge works out!

So that’s my take on this week’s episode of Ted Lasso. Don’t forget if you want to see or hear more, every week I am joining Culture Alchemy for a Ted Lasso Superfan Roundtable where we discuss each episode. You can find them here on the site or anywhere that you listen to podcasts.

As always, like and subscribe where you can and know that your support is truly appreciated!