A Brunette Oscar the Grouch (Ted Lasso S1E9)

Christian  

Welcome back to the dog track greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die an episode by episode conversation about the Apple TV plus show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. For this episode, our conversation is all about episode nine, titled all apologies.

Marisa  

Hey, everyone, I'm Marissa and I am so excited and thrilled by the person who left us another great five star review and who wants to be my friend in real life? Here I am. We can be friends.

Christian  

I'm Christian. I'm the soccer barbecue guy. And some people say I remind them of a balding brunette Big Bird.

Brett   

I'm Brett and I just gotta say that Ted Lasso's rewind button bit just might give the helpless slash satisfied rewind sequence a run for its money.

Marisa  

My gosh, Brett that's saying so much coming from you and your obsession with Hamilton.

Brett   

I know Well, two great things coming together to make something even greater. Christian, you're looking a little bit like a bomb pop today. Tell us about what you're wearing. today.

Christian  

I have on my 2014 US World Cup Michael Bradley jersey. It is affectionately known by most people as the bomb pop jersey because it goes blue stripe, white stripe, red stripe and it looks like the refreshing popsicle we used to get from the ice cream man.

Brett   

Alright, Christian, are you ready to tell the people what happened on this episode?

Christian  

Let's do it. We opened on Roy submerged in an ice bath as he tries to numb the hurt of both his and the team's collective painful performances. No amount of light encouragement from Ted or singing from Dani Rojas can cheer him up.

Marisa  

Rebecca is working it during this magazine photoshoot of women and football. But as quickly snap back to reality when Keeley confronts her in the team kit room.

Brett   

The confrontations then come fast and furious as Nate and Beard confront Ted about Roy's poor performances. It's clear that Roy needs to be benched, but just can't bring himself to do it.

Christian  

Rebecca makes a go at confessing to Ted but she just can't bring herself to do that. She puts them off and is stunned and shocked when Rupert shows up to inform her he has gotten Beck's

Marisa  

pregnant. Rupert's manipulative revelation does provide Rebecca with a moment of clarity which moves her to apologize to Ted. And of course he forgives her. She continues her reconciliation tour by visiting the home of bass playing goatee wearing Higgins as he comes back to the

Brett   

club. At training, Ted realizes that Roy is going to have to be benched. He tries to chat with them. It does not go over well, Keely has a conversation with him and it goes better. Then Roy approaches Ted and asks for more time to think about whether he'll show up for the match. And that is all the recap we are going to give you.

Marisa  

Christian. Did you know that I ain’t no hollaback girl?

Christian  

I yes. was aware of that from our long standing 20 year relationship.

Marisa  

You know, I may not be a hollaback girl, but I am a call back girl. What about you?

Christian  

Yep, I am a callback boy. 100% Let me explain a good callback for people who have no idea what we're talking about. callbacks are a comedic technique, especially used in stand up but then sometimes other things like sitcoms and TV shows. And they're a little bit different from like recurring themes. In Alaska, we have a lot of things that kind of show up over and over again. So in this episode, we have a reference to Sesame Street and Sesame Street Muppets show up a lot. We have the Lego bus showing up again that we saw Ted putting together with his son, we have the funny recurring bit of like kid named calling jokes where we had peepee fingers in a previous episode. And then this one, we get big doodie poopoo face, which is a personal favorite of mine. And those things are meant to make people laugh. There's this next level of callbacks. This kind of meant to make people think and to show off the chops of the writing crew where they essentially get to play comedy. chess.

Brett   

Yeah. Well, you mentioned that comedians use this technique a lot. Which do you have any favorite comedians who do this? Well,

Christian  

Dave Chappelle was a master at it when he came back with a couple of Netflix specials a couple years ago, and he did it in two different ways. On one, he kind of wove a bunch of different stories together about OJ Simpson, which made it kind of funny. And in another one, like he started the whole entire stand up thing with a story that he brought back All the way at the end after he had gone through any number of topics. And it's interesting because, Jason Sudeikis is not a stand up comedian. So as an improv comedian, you don't necessarily think of callbacks being something they do because they're thinking on their feet a lot. But clearly, Jason and Brendan and all of the writers like they worked really hard to set things up, not even in just one episode, but across episodes and across the entire season.

Marisa  

Yeah, most of these callbacks I feel like come from like, almost episode one are pretty far back too. So we have things like we have back in Episode One Keely, where she says, I never know how to react to a grown man who beat boxes in front of me. And then in this episode, we have Roy who doesn't know how to react when a grown man is doing the Carlton right in front of them, which again, is another reference to fresh prints, which we love. I feel like happens a few times. You know, that 90s theme.

Brett   

I wonder how often Roy has had grown men doing the Carlton in front of him aggressively.

Marisa  

I would just say that Jason Sudeikis actually does a really great Carlton. And it's a very difficult dance move to do and something that you wouldn't think much of, but it's the musclet isolation. And you know, if you watch Dancing with the Stars, which Alfonso Ribeiro was on, and I believe that he won in his season that he was on with Whitney Carson. They were a great couple, by the way. But everyone who was on there was just so amazed the professional dancers were amazed by the actual Carlon move because it's difficult to do. It's difficult to do well. So way to go Jason can't wait to see you on Dancing with the Stars.

Brett   

I feel like there were a lot. There were a lot more even than the ones y'all haven't mentioned already. There's like Rebecca, and like kind of it's not necessarily the funniest thing but how she says and early on that she's not much of a hugger. At this point. She's hugs people three or four times, including the hugs in this episode. There's also even in this episode, there's sort of a setup and payoff with the little girls are mysterious. And then teenage girls are like dark and mysterious or whatever.

Marisa  

There's a body is a miracle or the team's talking about all the horrible things that happens with your body. And then we have key leak again coming back at the end of the episode with the bodies of miracle because you know, baby teeth are pushed out by adult teeth.

Brett   

And taking it back to the first episode again, we have Ted referencing, like what I'm going to call Dreamworld where after Nate has apologized to him, and talked about how he was a crow picking Ted's eyes out in a dream, Ted asked them to apologize to him in dreamland so that they're good on that side of things, which is a reference to him telling Beard that they should mess around a little bit. If they see each other in their dreams pretend like they don't know each other. 

Christian  

They clearly emptied out the notebook. Yeah, in this particular episode, I have one more because it's really hilarious, which is Ted referring to Tea in pejorative terms, which I really like. But the great irony in all of this is, we do have a callback that they set up and forgot to pay off. So you may notice in this episode, they have the question that's asked, What does a British owl say? Which is clearly a joke, it is a joke that has an answer. And we're not going to tell the audience what it is. Because I'm like, 99% sure, they're going to put it in season two, one of the things that we learned when we were listening to some podcasts with the editors was that there were two different editors for the show, and they would alternate episodes. So one person would edit. Like the odd number episodes, the other person would edit the even number episodes, and they would pass notes back and forth. And so for the most part, they tied up everything that they were like cutting, adding in cutting adding in, but they accidentally cut the payoff for that British Allah joke that was supposed to come in Episode 10. And it didn't make it and it really bothers them. So it might even be the first thing we see in S2E1.

Marisa  

there's no more callback, I think it was important is that we see Ted in the very first episode, really struggling to talk to the press right? And then this episode, we see him just, like totally at ease, making jokes, drinking his water safely, you know, just just being able to charm the room. And even though the team is not playing at its best, the the press really loves him. And you can you can tell that one other thing is not jokey. And it was you know, not necessarily like a callback. But Rebecca does like to ask you stalling in her apology to Ted she thinks that you know, her actual procrastination is thinking about the word procrastinate. And so, you know, we didn't get the payoff of what the etymology of that word was. So I thought that I would share with you she's as pro that's good, pro meaning like forward and then crust, a noose, which is Latin for belonging to tomorrow. So we have forward Looking to tomorrow, so this deferred till tomorrow or deferring till the next day or belonging to tomorrow. So there you go. That's the etymology lesson for the day for procrastinate.

Brett   

Thank you, Rebecca and Marissa,

Christian  

You're so welcome. Hashtag blessed.

Brett   

And while Rebecca is procrastinating, Kaylee comes in, calls her out. And she asks her why she hasn't told Ted yet about what she's done. And in order to do that, she calls her Becca into a secret meeting and like the kit, room slash boot slash cleanroom. And then we get this really great moment that I just wanted to point out, because I think it's funny when Nate walks in, and he's clearly not expecting anyone to be in the room. And the first joke he makes is a fairly sexist one. And then he immediately says, I'm sorry, that was really sexist. Stay in here as long as you want. I'm just gonna go. And it's just a very cute Nate moment that I loved in this episode.

Marisa  

And, you know, just again, teaching men how to be good men. And if you make a sexist joke, you know, call yourself out and then exit the room. Alright, y'all, you know how much Ted loves Sesame Street and a Sesame Street reference. So the beginning of this episode is just so beautiful and iconic, that we get to see Roy emerging from this water bath and a trash can. And we get this reference to Oscar the Grouch, which, you know, I just think is lovely. But Roy is clearly like having a time right. We're supposed to be listening to the TV. That's that's basically just like bashing him and telling him that his career is over. And I don't know about you all, but I don't do well with like watching people, like say really bad things about me. I don't know. I don't know does but like, maybe not maybe not something that I would like to do. But if I did, I would probably be in a room by myself with the lights off, like, yeah, in the dark, definitely doing that. So I guess maybe if I had to watch people talk terribly about me, that's the way I would do it.

Christian  

I love this scene, because of the continued imagery we get in this show of baptism, which was probably not intentional, and as me reading something into it, but you have Roy going underneath the water and submerging himself and coming back up in an episode where there's a lot of transformation for him, we see it in a more Presbyterian way with the title. So in other episodes, whenever he's having a hard time he's in the shower, and the water is like sprinkling and rushing over him. And so there's this use of water in the show, that can be seen as spiritual, but just also kind of a visual reminder of some kind of change is happening as people are like dealing with their pain.

Brett   

Yeah, and I think it's really hard for Roy to embrace this change. And we find out a lot more as to why in this episode, in particular, I think, you know, the writing has been on the wall for a few episodes now. But literally, the sports commentators and analysts, one of them literally says, stop holding on Roy, let it go. And, you know, he's, he's hearing that as he's, you know, submerging himself into the water, and feeling very sorry for himself and being very hard on himself, which we learn is, you know, a very Roy thing to do. And it's one of the things that is ramped up his anger in this unhealthy way. 

Christian  

It is an existential crisis that is familiar to a lot of athletes. He gives some voice to it when kewley pokes him a bit. And he says, you know, it's not a game to me, it's all I know, it's who I am. It's all I am. We talked in a previous episode about him being dropped off at Sunderland by his grandpa, like his parents didn't even do it. And that football stood in as a proxy, really, for parental involvement. Football is what raised him. So to go from, you know that agents spend just all of that time with coaches and with your peers and with the media. It's impossible for him to imagine his life being anything else. And it's something that a lot of athletes struggle with. Even sometimes people who don't compete after high school. It's like why they push their kids so hard when they get older, because all they know is that dream of athletic success.

Brett   

I love that you brought up his conversation with Keeley because I just really appreciate how, whenever, you know, there, he's sort of like stalling. He's, you know, they're having this sort of small talk moment. And then all of a sudden out of the blue, he's starts talking about real things. And Keely, you know, she perks up and she says, Oh, you want to talk about real things and she makes him pause. And she like gets the space ready. Like she she prepares the physical space where they're going to talk and I just I think there's something in there about just this physical representation of how Keely is able to sort of help folks open up or to be that person that People are comfortable talking to, we've seen it with Rebecca. We've seen it in others in other times on the show, and I just I really loved that moment. It's a small moment, but it's one that I have taken note of the last few times I've watched this episode.

Marisa  

And we're able to see literally that softer side as Keely puts them on the couch with all of the fuzzy pink pillows. But then she she does something that I think is just brilliant in helping Roy to realize who he is without football is bringing Phoebe over who she has no idea what they're talking about. She's been listening to Led Zeppelin. Because that's what Keely thinks you do to babysit a six year old. Great. Love it. And she comes over and she just says what do you think about your uncle Roy, and she she doesn't say anything about football. But she says all these things that are, you know, personality traits or things about him that are important to her. And she just says like, I

Brett   

love him. It's all about their relationship.

Marisa  

Yeah. And so he's able to see that maybe there is, you know, he that Keely sees him more than a football player that his adorable niece sees him more than a football player that perhaps maybe he could see himself that way as well. And I think that's what leads him to have that really open and honest conversation with Ted after he saves him from stepping out into the street.

Brett   

Yeah, I think Ted's doing some interesting work here. Because I think he obviously ultimately would like to help Roy with this transition, because he knows that's the healthiest thing. But I think at the beginning of this episode, and kind of up until that point where they have the conversation and Ted's flat. Ted is very aware that Roy thinks about himself in this way that football is all that he is. And it defines his entire life, which is why he tells a Beard, you know if i benched him, like it could actually affect his livelihood. And I don't think he's just talking about money in that moment. I think he's talking about his emotional state and his psychological well being in that moment. But Ted has been seeing this from sort of a bird's eye view, I think, Oh, yeah,

Christian  

he has a look on his face this entire episode. That says he is playing the long game, he is quite breezy, except when he goes into the pub, and like, he gets a little smashed. But he comes across as a guy who believes that he is holding all of the puppet strings, and that he knows how this is going to turn out.

Marisa  

Even though it creates some real conflict between he and Beardconflict that we haven't seen in their relationship before we've seen it may be kind of bubbling or coming to the surface at different points. But here we see Beard really kind of getting upset with Ted for not not being sort of in the moment or like thinking realistically, but I think Ted really does believe that Roy will, will kind of make that decision on his own. But

Christian  

Beard is the master in this episode of at the very least trying to have difficult conversations with your friends. There's a lot that he has led right up to this point. And he's been the really supportive friend for Ted. And I guess going along with Ted's vision and view of what life should look like, and going along with what Ted's goals are, but that little push and pull that we've seen now comes out in a bit of interruption is like he just can't take it anymore. Yeah,

Brett   

I think at this moment as they're going into the final match of the season, Roy's play has clearly been suffering, like just on an objective level if he's been not doing great. And Ted is not dumb, so he understands this, but he still feels conflicted about it. But for for Beard, you know, he's his endgame is looking past, like what Roy's ultimate situation is and kind of thinking about the success for the club as a whole. He says at one point, I understood this when we were, you know, working with college students, like when we are working with young men, but these are professionals and they care about winning, and we should too, and that's okay. And I think it's a bit of a wake up call for a TED is like, Beard totally believes in his vision. But at the same time, he doesn't want to lose sight of the fact that you actually have to continue to win and make money to keep to stay in this league. And to keep doing this

Christian  

test goal is a little bit deeper than maybe what we gave him credit for earlier. Because it's not as though he's just trying to not hurt Roy's feelings. The whole point of the wrinkle and time tie in that we see is that Ted wants Roy to realize his leadership potential. And it does look pretty touching go because what Roy has to do is sacrifice himself if he's going to be a good leader for the team. And in this case, like that means sacrificing his his his space his his physical space. He's willing to have to give up a leadership role, so that he can be an effective leader for the team, which is very counter intuitive. And so what Ted's doing here is trying to get right to that place. But there's a bunch of tension as to whether or not that's going to happen.

Marisa  

As Ted comes to the pub to meet with Beard, he says, you know, you're a natural born caregiver, and we get this kind of interesting or, to me, it seems odd reference to Cuckoo's Nest, which if you're not familiar with the movie, or the play, like, it's just, I mean, it's a hard one to like,

Brett   

it does not give you the good Ted last Oh,

Marisa  

no, not at all. Not at all. I mean, it's it's a very interesting story, and one that I think like is thought provoking. But he refers to Beard as Chief, who is this, like, someone who doesn't talk like hardly at all in in faint fakes, like he's deaf and dumb, and doesn't speak at all. But he just kind of quietly, like, moves around the space in kind of caring for people, but in a very scared and vulnerable way,

Christian  

which is wrong for Beard.

Marisa  

Yeah, but I mean, it's like, that's a very extreme version, I think of that. But then he says, I'm more of a Tabor guy, who's this character who has gone through electroshock therapy, and is now like, you know, because he's so docile, like, that was an effective use of of therapy for them. So anyway, as I find that funny other than the fact that it's a callback to Christopher Lloyd, yay. I thought that was an interesting reference. Me, too.

Brett   

I yeah, it doesn't seem to line up with a lot of Ted's other pop culture references, in my opinion. But I think it does give us a little bit to think about, as we're thinking about what Beards background might be, and what he may have come from and out of to be where he is with Ted, it sort of makes me wonder, like, does he identify with Tabor? Because, you know, he was broken in a certain way, through some circumstance or, you know, by someone else or something before, so I'm not sure what to make of that reference. But

Marisa  

does that make Rebecca nurse ratchet?

Brett   

I hope not.

Christian  

We see the sparring between Roy and Ted, we see the sparring between Beard and Ted. There's one person who's sparring with themselves largely in this episode. And that's Rebecca, she's having a really hard time coming clean to Ted, which is a little bit funny because she holds all of the power in the relationship.

Brett   

Maybe she's afraid of using like continuing to use that power in such a way because of how she started to work through, you know, kind of the aftermath of her and Rupert's relationship. But then what ultimately kind of makes her snap into reality and make the decision to give Ted this really difficult apology is that Rupert comes back.

Christian  

Let's rewind Just a second, because I do think there's a two step happening here. The first one is in the boot room, where she and Keely are having the discussion. And Keely makes the point that she would think differently of Rebecca, Rebecca doesn't talk to 10. Yeah, and that is a you can see in Rebecca's face how there is a realization for her that, oh, like I did this horrible thing, but there is still an opportunity for relationship after this qilian I don't necessarily have to go opposite directions, and she can still forgive and respects me. And then you're right. The second one does happen with Rupert. And that is an incredibly Stark moment where you just see a switch flip.

Marisa  

I mean, we've talked about wonderfully funny moments and bits that people have given us on the show acting wise, some really poignant moments, but oh, gosh, that scene is just like, gut punch, heart wrenching. And Hannah Waddingham just does such an incredible job of just standing there and her eyes well up. And like I don't know if you're like a heartless, unfeeling human, but if you watch that bit of acting, and you're not just like, oh, like, Oh my gosh, she's she's just incredible. But literally, like hell walks into her place. I mean, Rupert is just such an I'm sorry. He's just such a winker, and he tells her this, obviously trying to manipulate her more and more and more, and I think she finally just realizes there's nothing she can do. to hurt him more than he hurt her. And I think that's the moment where she realizes like, I need to let this go. Because ultimately, it's just hurting me and hurting other people who don't deserve it. And so watching her give that apology to Ted and just kind of walk in and do it. I mean, she's, she's incredible. And I also think that's like, a moment where I can respect Rebecca, you know, the character, because I think we're seeing who she really is. Now, with that bit of integrity. Because if you've ever, like, offered someone a really hard apology, is something that's just so difficult to do. And to give it to someone like Ted, who clearly doesn't deserve anything that's happened to him. But she gives it to Ted in a way that's just super honest, and allows him, you know, time to react, and to give her an honest response back.

Brett   

There are some people on the internet who have said, this is a story beat that is hard for them to believe, which I don't really understand. Because to me, it is incredibly effective and moving. And like, it's one of the parts of the show specifically, that makes me like I think about whenever I'm trying to be more patient, or more, have more grace with someone, or myself even. And so I think the reason that it works is because her apology is sincere. And she's she's already worked through a lot of the reasons that she did things like on her own, and she's able to articulate those very clearly to Ted, like when she says, like, I hired you for this reason. It wasn't like it was, I lied to you. I did all these things, and she kind of lays everything out really directly to him. And in a way that's not like absolving herself of what she did or trying to downplay it, but she just like, lays out all of her cards. And I think Ted is such a, you know, a great guy and understands what she's going through. So maybe he would forgive her anyway. But I think that certainly helps the believability of that moment on screen.

Christian  

What makes it work is they meet each other in their brokenness. Yeah, she is broken. And we see that in her acquiescence to the fact that Rupert is diabolical. And the path that they're on is mutually assured destruction. And so she needs to do something else. But Ted's response to her is that divorce is hard. And so he is speaking from a place of his own painting, his own reflection and really empathy. He's able to put himself in her shoes, and say, Okay, I understand. Now let's move on.

Marisa  

And when really, I mean, I think if you can't believe Ted would forgive someone, like, I think you're watching the wrong show. But the fact that he says, like, without anything else, like, like, why, like, How could you do this? You know, he says, I forgive you. Like, I think that's how we should I mean, if that's not a perfect picture of like, Grace, or like, how to be a good friend, like, surely there are things they're gonna have to work out and talk through. And even Ted's next line is like, like, but you and me like, we're okay. He's, uh, say, We're good. We're besties. Like, we don't you know, we don't ever need to talk about this again. He says we're okay. And even Ted is not the one who extends the, like the big emotional move toward a hug, like he sticks his hand out, right as a handshake of like, we're good. Like, we're okay, let's, let's, let's move on. And Rebecca is the one who's just like, well, one is so appreciative that she's forgiven. But like, she wants to show him that like, Ted level of enthusiasm, and I mean, goes full in with the hug, right? Yeah,

Brett   

I don't think that you like you can't step away from that moment unchanged. Like that's, it's just such a beautiful demonstration of the idea of grace. And I don't know, it's, it's one of the most powerful moments of the first season definitely. And I think it's wonderful how Ted uses that moment, to kind of leverage Rebecca's feelings to say, hey, like, he doesn't say it outright, but he hints Hey, you know, you should go make up with Higgins to you know,

Marisa  

I think this is like another time that we see Ted kind of point Rebecca to like, healthy relationships or like, healthy socialization, like in the pub, he tells her like, now the next right thing to do is buy everyone, you know, around at the bar, and he's telling you're here, like, the next right thing to do is go talk to Higgins. And I think to the fact that he like says that he knew something was going on with Rebecca, right. He knew something was unhealthy. Like clearly like Higgins leaving was something you know, had to do with that. So So even though Chad is probably shocked by some of it, I wonder how much you know, Ted is not dumb. How much did he know? How

Brett   

much he certainly thought that was on the table. Yeah. And so I think, you know, him pointing to the next right thing again is him saying like, we're good, we're okay. But I want you to keep being better. I like to that. Rupert says something about how anytime he let Higgins borrow a pin, he would nibble it like an anxious puppy. And later after she's talked to Ted, she comes back to her desk. And she there's a moment on camera where we see her like, look at the pin that has the the top like nibbled on. And maybe in that moment, she sort of understands that like, oh, that anxiety was probably because he felt very conflicted about what he was doing. Again, not that that makes it right or okay. And Higgins has apologize for that. But maybe, you know, that sort of empathetic side of her clicked when she realized like, Oh, you know, Higgins wasn't doing this cold and like trying to hurt me, even if she knew that deep down, like, it's hard to see that when you're blinded by rage and fury,

Christian  

he was being manipulated to. There are so many deep feelings in that whole sequence, it can be easy to forget that. They're also one of the like, funniest moments in the whole show, too. And the moment where there's the reveal, like Rupert says, you know, Bex and I are having a baby. And Hannah waddingham first says, You're having a baby, and I'm not gonna do a horrible impersonation of her accent. But she delivers that word with such passion and fury, but also hilarity and then follows it up with like, what are you a character from the fucking Bible? punches that line through the back wall is incredible. It was like rewind, watch it again. And

Marisa  

she comes up with like the one two punch and then she's just like, keeps, like hammering them.

Christian  

Yes, bludgeoning him. But it's a testament to her acting ability. It's a testament to the writing, that in the midst of this scene that we've talked about, raises up all these feelings in us and really cuts in pierces, to the core of what it means to be in relationship with people and have reconciliation. They can also be like pretty dang funny to

Brett, what's that song that's playing when Rebecca goes down to the locker room to talk to Ted?

Brett   

Yeah, this was a new song and a new artist. For me. I will be honest, but the song is called piano joint parentheses, this kind of love by Michael Kiwanuka. And it's the song that's playing right after she has that amazing acting moment that Marissa mentioned where she's Her eyes are welling up and the single tear falls and like, Oh, I'm getting chills right now just talking about it. The somber song starts playing and she in slow motion is walking down to the locker room. And you know, I think the vibe of the song works for the moment. So even if you weren't listening to the lyrics at all, like it feels right, like it's kind of melancholy, but you know that she's like, kind of going on this redemption arc. So it feels a little bit hopeful and not too sad. But as I was looking more closely at the lyrics, I just thought, I don't know if this was on purpose I want I'm going to choose to believe that it was because the music team is just that good on this show. But the lyrics especially for the chorus, I thought in the midst of this moment that was happening is so poignant. So I'm just going to read it and y'all tell me what you think. All I know is my oh my this kind of love has taken me from my enemies. Don't let the pressure get to me. My oh my It's bad enough. Could you stay with me? Don't let me go sadness and fury is all I know.

Christian  

There's certainly a lot of saving going on in this episode, Keely, kind of saves Rebecca, Rebecca kind of saves herself and really starts to be a teammate to Ted Beard, kind of saves 10 but then Roy literally like physically saves Ted, which is another good callback, which is another good callback. And so yeah, like you can see the mutuality, like how all of these people need each other, if they're gonna survive all of this really hard stuff.

Brett   

Yeah, I just think the idea of a love that takes you from takes you away from your enemies like pulls you out of that that place of anger and fury is so strong and I think you're right Christian. We see that demonstrated by several characters in different ways. But obviously the big moment in this episode is the Rebecca apology to Ted and Ted's forgiveness, that kind of those twin themes and I just thought this song underscored that moment really beautifully, even more beautifully than it seems on the surface.

Christian  

This show does apologies better than most shows I've seen and really better than anybody in real life there. There is an accountability there. And I guess that's why this episode is called all Apollo. Jeez,

Brett   

right which for me, immediately, I thought of the Nirvana song, all apologies, which is the final song on the final album that they recorded. And it's a little bit of a departure from, you know, kind of the more well known or more often played songs in their catalogue, not to say it wasn't a big song because it absolutely was. But the song is also called all apologies. And one thing that I found interesting was that if you if you know the song, if you're familiar with it, there's a line at the end of the recorded version of the song that repeats over and over. And it's, it's kind of just this mantra that Kurt Cobain is singing. And it says, All in all, is all we are. And some folks on the internet have shared that this is similar to a Buddhist mantra, or the idea of Buddhism is like we all are, everything is connected. And I just thought that was kind of an interesting reference, taking it again, sort of, to this idea of Buddhism, because, and I'm sorry, I keep bringing up this one book that we saw on the first episode, but you know, Ted was reading the novel, the Dharma bums. And in that book, The protagonist, is searching for meaning and for to do that he's kind of searching for a Buddha to place his life into a Buddhist context. And so I don't think it's accidental that we have this song reference here with that well known line of the song.

Christian  

In Episode One, I lamented that we got a bunch of hip hop in that first episode, and then nothing the rest of the season. And while nary a note of hip hop was played in this episode, we did get a lot of hip hop references, including some great ones from the 90s.

Marisa  

You know, I love a good like 90s catchphrase, or just like something super 90. So I used to always say, I'm Audi 5000. And I still do and like, it kind of drives Brett crazy sometimes, you know, but I still love that.

Christian  

There are like three or four of those kind of 90s slang references, which are hilarious. And then we have the Fresh Prince of Bel Air references as well, which that was one of my super favorite shows. That was a Monday night special on NBC. Growing up, and Ted makes a particularly pertinent comment about the replacement of an Viv. And what he's talking about there is the an Viv for the first three seasons of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was named Janet Hubert. And then after that, she was replaced by an actress Stephanie Maxwell read. And what a lot of people noticed was that Jana Hubert was much more darkly complected, than her replacement. And it's been a whole discussion since then on black Twitter, and in blog post, and it's a cultural touch point, this kind of arratia of dark skinned black women. And recently, when HBO max did The Fresh Prince of Bel Air reunion, Jenna Hubert gave some voice to this directly to Will Smith. And it was cool to see that they were able to have a reconciliation. And by them doing that on that platform, and it raising awareness of what had happened kind of just outside of the black pop culture community. She's been getting a lot of opportunities in the last year since then. And so that's been a long road in a long journey. But it is nice to see that some opportunities have opened up and there's some redemption in that story.

Brett   

It's good for the 1.0 to get her flowers.

Christian  

Yes.

Marisa  

You know, I love fresh prints. And my brother and I always like watch every week. You know, I say every week because that was before you could watch it every day. Like you can now

Christian  

watch the last every day.

Marisa  

But we do get a call a call out to or we do get a reference to Posh Spice. And the Spice Girls, you know, because I love the Spice Girls. And yeah, to me that feels super 90s

Christian  

the other pop culture reference that really stood out to me that I guess was a joke but doesn't hit like a joke is when TED talks about Kanye West's 808 and heartbreaks being underrated and we talked about this with capital into a little bit in our interview with her a couple episodes back, but everything that Kanye is, as we wave our Muppet arms to kind of try to describe that stand so far in front of his artwork these days, that it's tough for people to then really think about what has his art meant and that album, it is a great iconic hip hop album, because he introduces a ton of production tools that have been used Ever since then, and I was listening to a great podcast called no skips. With Shea and Jinx that's only available on Spotify. It's with one of our favorite authors and tweeters, Shea Serato. And they go through different iconic hip hop albums, and they talk about all the tracks. The episodes are super long. They're like an hour and a half to two hours long, because they dig so deep into albums,

Brett   

you really have to get stuck in,

Christian  

you have to get stuck in. And one episode that they did recently was over a Kanye West graduation album, which is the album that comes right before 808 and heartbreaks. And one of the points that they made was that Kanye West's first two albums were full of soul samples. He was the sole sample guy. And then when he was touring off of those albums, he started touring with really big acts. He went on a tour with I believe Maroon five. I know that he went on a tour with YouTube because I saw him open for you to in Omaha, Nebraska, where Warren Buffett was also in attendance just me him and bado enjoying the sweet musings of Kanye West sounded dope. Yeah, it was great. And what kind of got into Connie's head was this idea of how do I make music that can fill arenas? And how do I make music that can fill stadiums. And so he goes, moves away from that kind of soul sample groove that he was in and starts to experiment in that graduation album. And then just totally like, changes the game in 808, and heartbreaks. And so I love that Ted just kind of puts that out there as a statement of fact, and it's kind of a joke, and it's hard for us to laugh at it because it's always surprising to hear Konya and he makes us feel any number of kind of ways. But Ted is right about that album.

Brett   

And to me, as I've watched it more and more that moment has played as Yes, it's to the whole team. But I think he's hoping that it gets through to Roy specifically, like being able to stop and change directions quickly. You know, that doesn't get nearly enough credit. It's more important. Like I love that.

Christian  

Sometimes you have to reinvent yourself. Yeah. Boom,

Marisa  

Christian, I'm dying to know what's the most and least convincing sucker things that happened in this episode,

Christian  

The most soccer thing comes at the end, when Roy grabs that colored Penny, the way it works in soccer is you start 11 players. And then you can have seven players on the bench and they call that group, they teen you have the starting 11. And then you have the 18, which is the whole team that gets to suit up for the game. And so those 11 players who are starters, they obviously go out onto the pitch in their uniforms. But the guys who are in the second team and our subs, they were pennies on the bench. And there would be other people around, not everybody gets to be a part of the active squad for the game. And then during the game of those subs, you get to make between three and five subs these days depending on the competition, and the rules. When Roy walks into the locker room and grabs that Penny and puts it on. That's something that a lot of soccer fans might miss. But that is his grand statement of I am going to join the second team, it would have been surprising and shocking to people but then that's why he makes the joke to defuse the situation and help everybody feel comfortable to know that he's okay with this demotion and that he's in on it, and that he is embracing it. So just a cool little thing that they don't explain super well, but is a really powerful moment.

Brett   

I love that.

Christian  

I couldn't find a lease soccer thing. Everything felt pretty authentic to me. The one thing that did stand out to me was Roy and Ted having that conversation in the stands, which was funny, and it's not the first conversation that Ted has had in the stands. But I really felt like if they were going to have an awkward conversation and be too close to each other. It will probably happen in the locker room urinals and not in the stands. I'll just imagine that that's how it went in my head.

Brett   

Marissa, are you ready to tell people what your favorite quote was from this episode?

Marisa  

Yes, I think so. It was kind of hard because there are a lot of really good ones. But I like the moment in Ted's flat where Roy has come over and he says show me some I'll be playing she has to go get ice cream and says well hey, at least you had someone you can talk to right. How was the ice cream? Good. It's like an ice cream. Yeah, right. Ice cream is the best. I know it may not be like super funny but I just thought like speaks to my spirit and my soul so much because yes, ice cream is the best I'm gonna

Brett   

say I'm pretty sure Marissa has like yes, looking ice cream. It's the best

Marisa  

Yes. Pretty much to everything. Like cake man cupcakes, right? Like cookies, only their chocolate chip but ice cream

Brett   

does right and never disappoints.

Marisa  

Yes. What's your favorite bread?

Brett   

Yeah, there were a lot of really funny lines. I feel like we didn't get to talk about all of the hilarious one liners that were in this episode. So I'm gonna pick one that was funny, but also relevant to my life and a little bit poignant. It's when Ted and Rebecca are in the locker room after she's completed her photo shoot. And she asked him if he thinks that little girls read the football, financial quarterly or whatever. And he says, oh, who knows little girls are mysterious, and silly and powerful. I gave up trying to figure them out years ago. And you know, as a parent with young girls, that I think that line resonates with me. And I think Ted is absolutely right. Little girls are mysterious and silly and powerful. And that is quite the trifecta.

Marisa  

Yeah, I'm just not looking forward to the quote that comes later from Keely about the

Brett   

age girl. Later, there'll be teenage girls who are dark and mysterious and dangerous.

Marisa  

Yeah. I don't want those ones.

Brett   

I just really hope no one does any shifts in anyone's locker.

Marisa  

Luckily, we can look to Cristian because he's already parenting a teenage girl so he can help us out with that one.

Christian  

I'm not going to speak to what it's like to parent a teenage girl because I want you to guys to be surprised by the joy. For my quote, I'm going to change it up a little bit. It's not something that anybody said. But it is on the stat box on the TV when they're lambasting Roy, and he's sitting in the training room. And the stat box is titled there once was an old man named Roy Kent. And the stat that it has tallied is game losing season crushing own goals. It's just so over the top that it cracks me up.

Marisa  

You can easily miss that. But you know, it's so good.

Brett   

I'm not sure if Sky Sports would like actually do that in your life, but I kind of hope so.

Christian  

Sky would the BBC wouldn't.

Okay, that's our show. We'll be back on the dog track in just one week with our conversation about Episode 10 titled, the hope that kills you. You can check out the show notes for links to learn more about the cool and interesting stuff we mentioned in this episode.

Marisa  

And you can keep the conversation going on Twitter and Instagram. Our handle is @TedLassoPod. It's a great way for us to connect with each other and for y'all to share your insights on the show.

Brett   

Richmond till we die is brought to you by Gin and Kerosine Productions. It was produced by me, Brett,

Marisa  

me, Marissa and me, Christian.

Brett   

I also had the pleasure of editing, mixing and composing the music for this episode. If you enjoyed our conversation, please take a moment to subscribe to Richmond till we die on whatever app you are using to listen to this episode.

Marisa  

One more quick reminder that if you have access to an Apple device, we'd love it. If you could head over to the Apple podcasts app and give us a quick five star review. It'll help more people find in here the show. I'm Marissa signing off for Christian and Bretty booboo. Thanks for listening. Until next time, cheers y'all

Transcribed by https://otter.ai