The EQ Warriors (Ted Lasso S1E8)

Brett   
Welcome back to the dog track greyhounds This is Richmond Til 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 then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. For this episode, our conversation is all about episode eight titled The Diamond Dogs.

Marisa  
Hey, everyone, I'm Marissa. And I like podcasts. I especially like that you've been giving us five stars. except for that one person who gave us four.

Christian  
I'm Christian and every time I call my shop From now on, I'm going to confidently say, brisket.

Brett   
I'm Brett and I personally would love a silk jacket with Ted Lasso's personal dilemma squad embroidered on the back. And speaking of amazing silk jackets, Christian you're not wearing one but you are wearing an amazing jersey. Tell us about it.

Christian  
This is a jaunty number perfect for your summer picnics. It is the white timbers third jersey from the 2012 season. It's cool because it's a throwback to the 70s. And their sponsor is Alaska Airlines and Alaska Airlines was nice enough to change their logo from the 2012 logo to some black letters better representing the 1970s so it completes the look.

Brett   
It looks really sharp.

Christian  
I like the white it's bright. I like the color. It's well established that I'm a sucker for colors on soccer shirts. And I like that it is the green apple shade of green with the nice yellow trim vary Oregon duck ish.

Brett   
It is and when your kids have collars on them, you can wear them to work like guilt free or church or church or weddings.

Christian  
Anyway, let's tell people about what happened this episode. Alright, sounds good. We open with Sam finding Nate sleeping underneath the team bus. Meanwhile, Rebecca and Ted are both dealing with their own morning after situations in very different ways. On the way back to Richmond Ted is conflicted about the events of the previous night. Nate Higgins and beard help him talk through his feelings, which leads to the creation of the Diamond Dogs, a group of people who care

Marisa  
qilian Roy experienced some miscommunication, which leads to Keeley sleeping with Jamie. This in turn leads to the newly established Diamond Dogs giving advice to Roy about how to handle his romantic issues.

Brett   
Later, Ted thanks Rebecca for taking care of him in Liverpool, and then she asks him to accompany her to a meeting with partial club owners the milk sisters. To her surprise, the meeting ends up being a trap set by her diabolical ex husband Rupert.

Christian  
Roy approaches Keeley after one of our branding meetings and asked her to go to dinner with them. While enjoying a romantic walk. They discover it was Rebecca who commissioned the compromising Papa Razzi images of Ted and Keeley.

Marisa  
After telling a gallon of milk jokes, Ted hustles Rupert at darts and forces Rebecca into the role of people's champion by encouraging her to buy the pub drinks. But her happiness is short lived when both Higgins and Keeley confront her about her bad behavior. That is all we're going to recap for you, y'all. Y'all Jamie's back. Even though he doesn't send any emojis. He's back.

Christian  
I'm not sure what emoji he would send probably the one with like the big buggy eyes sort of pensive face because things aren't going super well for him and Manchester City no longer Is he the big fish in the small pond. Yeah, I mean, he did score a goal. But it's clear from his summary of his time playing that he was not he didn't start the match 10 touches to completed dribbles. That's not a person who has the ball, which is understandable. Manchester City is essentially owned by an entire Middle Eastern country. And so they just have all the money in the world, they can buy any player that they want. And while Jamie is very good for somebody in England, he is not elite. And so this guy who thought he was at the top of the world is realizing he's gonna have to fight and work quite a bit.

Brett   
Yeah, I liked it that causes him to realize the important influence that Keeley has been in his life. And I like that when he shows up to talk to her, even though they end up having romantic styles later, like he comes genuinely just wanting to thank her for you know, the the ways that she treated him and the way that she saw him as a person. And there's a little bit of maturity happening here that we're seeing.

Marisa  
That's a lot of maturity. And I think especially as we you know, we haven't seen him for a while and we all were just not quite sure how we wanted to feel about him before. He He went away. This is a big step. This is a big change. And it almost makes you like, you know, under Well, I think you understand why like Keeley invites him upstairs like, she's kind of embarrassed and hurting from her own experience that day. And Jamie's actually being not.

Brett   
Yeah, well, she's just texted Roy about like when you're done with your thing come over. And when she hears the knock, I think she's expecting ROI. So she's already very emotionally vulnerable,

Christian  
because of that sequence has started. And yes, and then Exactly. And then you know, when Jamie shows up, and it's just so nice and kind that I push the right buttons, new Keeley is working to find herself a bit coming back from Liverpool, that seems to be sort of a baptism moment for her. Now she's back and she's meeting with Isaac and Collin and Sam and also with Danny and she's really trying to feel her way through the difficult task of helping professional footballers market themselves well,

Marisa  
and she doesn't was such a sweet. I don't know. Like,

Brett   
she's very gracious. She's

Marisa  
so gracious toward them. And she you know, even when, when, when Isaac starts talking about how rolos she's like, okay, suis just rolos you know, none of that Sour Patch. I don't know. She's just kind of she's just very sweet about Okay, yeah, sure, huh. And Danny wants to give away joy for free. And she's like, Alright, Danny, like, thank you so much for your time. Like, you're amazing. And I'm amazing, too. And we're all just having this lovely conversation here.

Christian  
Sometimes you got to meet people where they are. And that is what she does. Well, in this instance,

Brett   
she's very honest with Danny saying that she doesn't know she can get paid for that. So at least they you know, they're all communicating well,

Marisa  
yes. And I do love her box. And that, you know, this is temporary for her. And so I'm really looking forward to seeing, like, do we get to see Keeley like, working in an office next season? Like I'm really excited to see if that's a thing.

Brett   
That'd be fantastic.

Marisa  
I don't know can be fun. Maybe she'll have more than like a unicorn notebook. But who knows? You know, who's

Christian  
the boss of her office? Our good friend may? Yeah, Tinder.

Brett   
Yeah, she is. We haven't talked too much about it. But there have been so many scenes up to this episode where she has just shown herself to be. So in charge of that space that is so male dominated. She is charming, she's witty, she's funny. And there's never a moment where she's not in control of exactly like what's happening.

Christian  
Sometimes it does make me feel conflicted, though. She's a little too nice to Rupert for my liking. But she knows how to massage situation and keep the customers happy and keep the vibe of the place of beat.

Marisa  
I was thinking that too. And I was I was discussing with Brett and I was like, I love me. I don't love the way that she treats Rupert. But then I was thinking if you're in the hospitality, you know, you got to play the game. You got to sell you just sell. And she literally has to you know, she's selling beer at the at the bar. And Rupert's gonna buy a whole round for everyone. I mean, you gotta you have to be somewhat, at least act like you're charmed by him, right? Oh, ladies gotta eat. Yeah, and I think we do see a genuine, like, happiness from her when when Ted gets the best of him, though, you know, and I'm thinking, at least maybe she's, you know, she really sees through him because you really want me to, you know, she's not stupid. She knows who Rupert is like,

Brett   
Oh, yeah, I think probably the one reason she can justify sort of being friendly with him. And, you know, making their inappropriate joke is because, you know, I think part of her probably identifies with the part of Rupert that represents not getting relegated, you know, which is what they're, they're facing right now. You know, so, just to draw a purely a sporting perspective, she's like, oh, if Rupert were to like, take over, maybe we wouldn't be sucking so hard right now.

Marisa  
Did you all know, you know, May is played by a net badland. Did you know that we have the same birthday.

Brett   
You and her? Yeah. Wow. August 26. A great day,

Marisa  
not the same year, but you know, same day.

Christian  
Can't wait to party.

Marisa  
I know. Let's have a birthday party in it. I'll come I'll come to you. You know, we talked early on about Keeley's language through her laughs You know, which is just, you know, prolific in this show. But we get a lot of, again, nonverbal communication from another character, especially during this episode, which is really really funny. And that's like Roy's grunts language.

Brett   
Cue he has a language with her. laughs Roy has the language with his grunts.

Christian  
I think there are times where Chewbacca speaks better English than Roy does in this episode.

Brett   
Yeah, Han Solo would agree.

Marisa  
I get that, you know from my husband sometimes when like he doesn't want to enter into like maybe a conversation that would that might not be like our most friendly conversation like like maybe like today when I decided, let's paint our living room before we have a whole bunch of people over on Saturday. And instead instead of Like, yeah, versa, that's a great idea or like, worse I hate that idea. You know how much I hate like home improvement crap going on in my house. And instead he just, you know, I got I got a tiny little ROI ROI can't. And I was like I understand you, but I love you and I'm doing this anyway must be your bread thing must be your bread thing.

Christian  
We've made a habit on this show of gushing about our good friend, Keeley Jones. But we get a little change in pace this episode where we get the flippable KeeleyJones she has a hard time kind of wrapping her arms around the situation and getting her footing.

Brett   
Yeah, we get those two really great scenes where she and Roy are talking Well, actually, I guess there's three. So yeah, the first time she talks to Roy In this episode, she she walks in on him getting his massage, you know, his whatever restorative muscle massage that professional athletes get, and she's having this conversation where she's clearly being a little bit flirty, she's, you know, dangling like, hey, do you want to go get a whole bunch of coffee from that hangover that we all had? And, you know, Roy seems to be in good spirits. But he's just like, No, I'm busy, and doesn't really offer a lot more. And so to her. I don't think she's used to being turned down in such a way maybe it is a little bit awkward. And so it's she, she doesn't really know what to do with that. And so she kind of awkwardly just backs out of the room when Roy tells her he's about to start making noises

Marisa  
in his defense, like he does not seem interested. You know, he's he's very, totally kind of into his own thing at the moment. I understand. Like, once we find out what's going on inside of his, like, grunty brain, like what he's thinking, but I mean, she gives him ample opportunities, ample to like play the game and to flirt back and at least give her something like, like, hey, that kiss, you know, like thumbs up or 100 emoji or like fire or whatever. But he does none of that.

Christian  
Kaylee and Roy are both flummoxed by the same question. And that question is, can Roy can be loved? And for Roy, that answer for a lot of this episode is no. Like, he does not feel as though the true real version of himself is lovable or that if he shows that to people that they will then respond in love to him. And Keeley is kind of patiently probing like playfully trying to get to the core of him. But because he's wrestling with so much, he's just not letting her in. And for her like that is very confusing.

Brett   
Yeah, he's allowed some insecurities about himself, that he holds to cause friction by not sharing those by not being vulnerable. And the longer he withholds that vulnerability, like the more friction that's being caused there, and not the good kind. And so, so that frustrates Keeley. And, you know, she, I don't think she definitely 100% acts out just to be mean to Roy, but I think that's certainly part of her motivation for when she just decides to be like, Jamie's here, like, whatever.

Marisa  
I think it's, it's, it's like, it's not just like an option, like, well, he's here, so I'm just gonna do this to make him mad. It's like, I think she literally feels bad and She's embarrassed and she doesn't feel wanted. And so, you know, Jamie's gonna make her feel wanted. But also, like, for Roy, he thinks he's being honest by telling her Yeah, I'm busy. I was busy, I told you the truth. And for Keeley, she's the kind of person that you don't just like, omission is not like enough for her. Like you need to share what's going on in your life. She's the kind of person who gets in and burrows in, like, we talked about their bucket, like getting in on the couch and taking your shoes off and like so if Roy wants to really make it work with her. He's going to have to go beyond what he thinks is honesty and really be vulnerable with her. And it's interesting that she hesitates

Brett   
to burrow a little bit, I think, because she she doesn't press him a lot. She She keeps reaching out to him. But she keeps saying like when you're done with your thing, like, you know, you can text me, you know, she doesn't say like, well, what are you doing? What exactly are you doing? And so her little hesitancy also, you know, maybe makes him think that like, okay, she understands like I told her I'm busy. She knows I'm busy. We'll talk when I'm not busy. And you know, which is silly, but it just adds to the miscommunication that's happening between them. There is some weirdness that comes about because Roy and Jamie are so different. with Jamie, you always know what he's thinking even if he's thinking the dumbest thing in the world. emoji

Christian  
it still comes out and so perhaps she's just not used to this kind of communication and the other place where things just aren't meeting up is the difference between Roy and Keeley. As you mentioned, Keeley puts her feet up on the couch. She is some combination of ambivalent to an unaware of how people perceive her. And so it's just very, take it or leave it. Or as Roy, you know, this fundamental question of, can I be accepted? Will people accept me for who I am, I need to, like, hide this stuff is the antithesis of her. So I just think they, they literally cannot see each other or the world from the other person's perspective.

Marisa  
And he sees himself only as a footballer, and we kind of learn more about that as the season kind of closes. But, you know, to in this relationship, it's like he says, like, I don't want to be just kind of like a footballer in this relationship. I don't want to do one night stands. And so I think it's your right Christians, like he needs to decide, like, is he ready to be like Roy Kent in this relationship, or like the footballer Roy Kent, and I think he's ready to move on. And to make that happen, especially after the Great and awkward advice that comes from the newly established I went dogs, which I just absolutely love.

Brett   
I really like their counsel to Roy. I like that Roy, even though he appears to brush it off and angrily or frustratedly storm out, he goes and he makes, he makes a really mature choice. And he goes, he goes to Keeley and shares with her and then she's really open and honest with him and like, I need to tell you something, this happened and I need you to be okay with it. And so, of course grunting grunting and once he comes around, I really love the way that the show deals with that in a very mature way. And it's a great example of, you know, what it looks like when you're able to, would forgive and they it really takes Keeley and Roy both being vulnerable with each other for them to sort of get out of this weird dance of shame slash miscommunications slash whatever, you know, because also,

Marisa  
I also think it's, it's kind of a nice, healthy way to show people that like relationships can happen on TV because I was just thinking about, like, shows that we grew up watching like friends and stuff, you know, they would never have like, communicated clearly, obviously, they had a 10 year run. But you know, like it we're we're so used to like that era of TV of like, will they won't they and like are they just gonna like, you know, keep wondering and like, keep miscommunicating and never like get to the heart of what's going on. And it was it was really refreshing to sort of see that all happen in one episode. And see them just kind of like accept their mistakes about what happened and like move on as grownups it's like wow, like look at this like grown up relationship on TV. That's so fun. We can get behind that qilian ROI cookies and cream. Also I really love like how this episode feels very like very much like an homage to like early 2000s late 90s like ROM coms you know, like we have a little bit of the obviously the awkwardness of the one nightstands that happened early on. But then like the the qilian Roy and like going and like talking about it with friends and like coming back. But then when Roy finally asks out, Keeley properly in the press room was just a really fun and clever and sweet scene. And I think it was really well written and very well acted by the two of them.

Brett   
It makes sense that Ted would invoke nor Efron's masterpiece. You've got mayo and this particular episode.

Marisa  
Yes, truly.

Brett   
Okay, can we take it back and talk about the inception of the Diamond Dogs and when they give their initial round of advice to Ted last, Oh, that sounds smart. First things first is that we hear beard, pull Ted aside after they get off the bus after this five hour bus ride and says you didn't talk a lick on a five hour bus ride. And that's a record by about five hours. I love that Ted says he's gonna tell him and then they never want to talk about it again. And then they immediately go and talk about it. And here come Nate and Higgins. Here are the Diamond Dogs. And the first thing that's so funny is just the names they go through here. It's like, this is a really funny scene.

Christian  
It's one of the places where the sketch comedy flexing kind of comes up like you can see in the writers room, how they had a lot of fun brainstorming these things, and then found a way to put all of their funny brainstorms into one scene in rapid succession. And so like EQ warriors, that is, like funny because of its awkwardness. And because of its counterculture list, like you gotta love that Diamond Dogs doesn't seem that funny. Like they make it sound funny, but it ends up being fun because we came across an interview with Jeremy Swift, where he listed as one of his six favorite albums of all time. And so like there's this piece of him that's now as an actor that's been inserted into the show, which is awesome. And then we get the like, out of the blue from the top rope. Proud boys with Nate gagging barfing into a trash can, is one of the more amazing pieces of comedic social commentary I've ever come across. Yeah,

Marisa  
I mean, who we should all barfing when we hear that right?

Brett   
I'm glad they settle on Diamond Dogs. I do think it's an interesting name for Nate to bring up because we'll talk about some more later. But in the song Diamond Dogs like they did not sound like very nice young men in the in the song in this post apocalyptic kind of futuristic setting of the album. So I don't know that it lines up with the, the vibe of the actual title. So Diamond Dogs, but it's it has a nice ring to it.

Marisa  
Yeah, I also find it funny that like, beard is the one who says nights of support, because I just seems like something more like Nate or Higgins would bring up and beard would be like, that's like, sounds like a jock strap brand or whatever. Like I don't know, I guess it's weird that he says that. That doesn't mean the state. But I always thought like, that doesn't sound like his line. Like it sounds like someone else.

Christian  
As Ted struggles, we see a different version of beard. It's a very confident version of beard. It's a very honest version of beard, the man gets some swagger inflated into him. And it's fun to watch that, but then also to see how Ted receives that not as you know, hey, I'm your boss here. But to really like be changed and molded by that aspect of beard.

Marisa  
Well, I also think it just goes to show more about like Ted as a leader to like, even in his personal life, like he, he desires like people's input, right. And he, he doesn't want to just sort of struggle with something he wants. He wants people to like, be in it with him and like figure things out with him. And so I think that's just you know, another more another. It's another side of Ted that we get to see even as he's letting other people solve his problems. I also think I thought not knowing you know, not knowing until on the first watch that Diamond Dogs was a song in an album. But like, I thought I just had to do with like, the greyhounds like that the team are dogs and so like Diamond Dogs,

Christian  
totally double entendre.

Brett   
Okay. So I mean, that's where I was going. Someone on the internet, sorry, I can't credit you properly, because you never know where things come from when it's just like a random thread. But the four star review. Yeah. But someone made the point somewhere that Diamond Dogs is an interesting turn of phrase because there's the diamonds are a girl's best friend phrase. And then dog is man's best friend. And so you put those two words together. And it's a little bit of a subversion of kind of the, the the opposites of like masculinity and femininity. And it's, you know, putting these two things right together and kind of subverting that idea of, you know, these four men who were talking about relationship problems, and they have, you know, the diamonds dogs right there in their name. So,

Christian  
they do show some range, the fact that they could give effective wise counsel to both Teddy lasso and to Roy Kent, is very impressive and shows incredible range. And it's a good thing that they rehabilitated Ted so quickly, because Ted needed to come save the day, when he heads down to the bar to meet who he thought was going to be the milk sisters. And man, does he have so many milk pens that he is just waiting to unleash that some writers are on steroids. They're right again, just brainstorming session, empty out the notebook. Keep, keep pouring it out, folks, keep pouring it out. We love it

Brett   
so fast.

Christian  
What we end up getting, however, is perhaps the most iconic scene in the show. It's certainly the one that I see inspiring the most people. And I think there's on the one hand the victory that Ted achieves, but then also the very accepting wisdom and getting down to the core of kind of who Ted is and what allows him to interact with people the way he does, in being curious and questioning without judgment.

Brett   
Yeah, and this monologue that he offers is couched in a lot of really fun, literary references, pop culture references. It's just it's a great if not only is it a great sports moment. It's just it's a great scene. It's a great monologue. And like the way that music is underplaying is it's really they pull it off really well. And, you know, from the very beginning, you see, we see what Rupert is trying to do. He asked him about darts, but he's not really being curious. He's more like sharking, he's he he's trying to like trap Ted into this situation where he knows he can hustle him.

Marisa  
It's a bait and switch but clearly like Ted's like, 10 steps ahead of him and already ready to do that. So yeah, even though he says, you know, people don't ask a lot, which Rupert does ask again, not really wanting to know anything about Ted seriously. But I also love that As they get into their little dual was that Rupert pulls out his own set of darts, right? Of course,

Brett   
he reveals that he's hustled Ted.

Marisa  
Yes. But then Ted reveals in the best way with one of my favorite movies growing up, you know, this reference to Princess Bride where he's like, Oh, I forgot. I'm left handed. So it's like, you know, this, this bigger reveal, and this moment where we're like, all right, Ted's gonna, like do something here. And we're all here for it. You also see, like, I don't know, like Rebecca in the back, really having some interesting facial expressions to kind of everything going on, like, one being really excited that like, you know, someone might put Rupert in his place. Also, like, she's a little bit nervous about that, because, you know, she's still under estimates Ted, like so much. So she's, she's not quite sure like that, that's actually going to go over well, like, what are you doing? Like, it's Rupert, he's gonna, he's a jerk, like he wins everything, because he's a jerk, like,

Christian  
leave it alone. Panda waddingham has talked about how engrossed she was in the filming of this scene and with Jason's performance. And you can see that as he watched the scene play out. And also, when you look at some stills of the scene, and the look on her face, and the look on Annette badland space, there's clearly what whatever was happening at that filming. And in that room, there was a level of investment in transcendence that then really shows through in the final product, which is cool and really rare. And you're just like, really happy that as actors and as a cast, and as a crew, they got to experience that and execute it as well as they did.

Brett   
Yeah. And I like, to your point earlier, like we learn a lot about Ted, in this scene, like about his philosophy, and how he's able to kind of see the world and move through it.

Christian  
We also learn a lot about Rupert in this scene about like, just how really, I don't know kind of evil he is or how messed up he is, and the way that he has orchestrated this moment to like, catch Rebecca, the most off guard, and the way that he's, at first, like, very belittling to her and then eventually just becomes downright rude to her when he says, I didn't think that she would fight over an entire team. Like he's really just showing some awful colors here. diabolical is a word that comes to mind when I think of Rupert, also narcissistic. And we see this manifestation, again, of that textbook, abuser behavior. And of him understanding exactly what buttons to push to get over on most people, like he's, you know, buying drinks for the bar, he's coming. He's cool, he's calm, he's collected, he holds all of the power, because he is dealing in a world that he has set up so he doesn't have to deal with surprises, and he knows what to expect, and keeps everybody else off guard. And it's just worth noting, again, that this is what happens in abusive relationships. And so if you start to see signs of those relationships, or if you hear people that are telling you about being isolated, cut off from other people, that they're being abused, either physically or non physically, you need to believe them. And you almost need to question your perceptions of the accused abuser because abusers are very, very, very, very, very good at hoodwinking everybody,

Marisa  
right. Which, you know, we as the audience get to see that so clearly. But then you're sitting there and you're thinking, this, this poor young girl Becks, who's being equally manipulated. I mean, you know, you can just see the beginnings of it. And it's, you know, it's almost laughable because she's the new Rebecca, right? But you just sit there kind of watching this scene and going like, how is she so dumb? Why are you in the situation? Why are you engaged to him? Can't you see how he's treating this other woman that he was married to? Like? Do you not understand that that's gonna be you very shortly. He's even talking about like, when we get divorced, you know? Haha, I'm not gonna let you take anything of mine. I don't I don't know. You just, especially as a woman like we like I feel like we women, we always kind of look at that. We're just like, don't be the stupid girl in that relationship. And I just, I almost feel bad for her and you just want to like scream at her like, you know, like horror movie styles. Like, get out of there.

Brett   
He's gross. But one thing that's not gross is if you Ted obviously calls his last shot with the iconic barbecue sauce line, but I think you could say that he calls his shot even before that when he when he's joking around with Rupert right before they start their dark game and he says whatever you say, Rupa dupes, just tell me if I'm winning or losing and yeah, that sounds a lot like ropa dope. Which I think essentially what he did is the darts version of ropa dope. He really pretended like, Oh, I don't really know what I'm doing. And then of course he didn't. So I just think that was a really funny turn of phrase he came up with on the spot there. Hmm. Interesting. I don't know anything about that. But it does just like Ted gives me like major, like Elle Woods vibes in this episode totally, where

Marisa  
he's just like, super likable, but then like, puts everyone in their place. And then like,

Brett   
like, darts, like it's hard, like,

Marisa  
it's hard. Yeah, like I got into Harvard like it's hard. Anyway,

Christian  
one of the craziest things to me during this rewatch is that the performance in the scene is so engrossing that it caused me to gloss over and forget, just kind of a huge detail of Ted's life that we learn, which is that his father passed away when he was 16. We've kind of talked about Ted's complicated relationship with his wife and his son and his like really striving as hard as he can to be a good dad, and how this dad void is starting to be a theme in the show with some of those main male characters. And now we're really reminding given some clarity about why there's sort of that hurt, and that striving there in Ted's life.

Brett   
And it's really heartbreaking to see Rebecca's face that the camera cuts to her. And it's clear that she had no idea that was like part of Ted's story. And I think there's a little bit of shame that she feels or embarrassment for just, you know, not knowing about someone that she works so closely with.

Marisa  
Well, yeah, last episode in this episode, too, you know, we get to know a little bit more about the real Rebecca. And again, she starts to, to really sort of open up to these other characters. And you see that expression on her face when she you know, she's hurting for Ted in that like moment where he shares that about his dad. But then also, you also get to hear her like real laugh in the bar. Did you guys catch that? Like, it's such a fun and like, silly little cackle that she gives when she's so excited about what Ted has done for her?

Brett   
Yeah, she has a really great laugh there. And then she has another great laugh after the the team the boys have spelled out Hi, boss, Sesame Street Style for her. And she says, Hi, yeah, and then she has this wonderful like, very honest laugh. And, you know, she's, she's clearly coming off of a huge high like Ted has put Rupert in this place. The team is being cute when she makes her way into her office. And Higgins is there with some not so great news about the ticket sales for the next match.

Christian  
It's a continuing pattern of her feeling some measure of wholeness of her letting her guard down and being more vulnerable, and feeling more confident. And then something happening sometimes not of her own doing. This is clearly a self inflicted wound, however, that then breaks her again and kind of causes those walls to be erected. So Higgins comes in with this bad news about ticket sales. And by her being dismissive, what it does is it sets the table for Higgins to have this emancipation moment.

Marisa  
Well, he stops wondering, and so do we, what would happen if he actually told Rebecca to fight off which is, you know, a throwback to when Keeley says, jokingly, and Higgins's they're going, wonder what would happen if I said that? Haha, well, now we all know, but he's really in control of the situation. And we see that I think a lot because of what Ted's done in his life, he has so much more competence. He's really he's really standing by his morals and his ethics and just who yet who he is as a person, his integrity, and that's why he makes this decision. And I think it's hard to to like hear that conversation between Rebecca and Higgins. Because we don't get to see them as friends. We don't get to see the side of them where they were having lunch. While you know, Rupert was off with his girl four times. Yes. We don't know what they were like before, but it seems like they had like a friendly relationship. And so it's always been sort of fraught with this hurt, obviously, that's come from Rupert. But I just kind of wonder what it was like before. And she sort of says like, where was that honesty before? Well, now he's in a place where someone has actually invested in him and given him space and time to like, really be proud of who he is and say what he wants to say.

Christian  
Your comment that Higgins is in control of this situation is interesting, because what shows that he is in control of the situation is that when Rebecca rightfully criticizes him for his past behavior and cuts him down, his control of the situation comes in that he offers a proper apology. He has a complete self awareness, an appropriate contrition for what he does, and he offers that to her while at the same time I'm refusing to continue to be dehumanized from her. And that really is. That really is the purest and loveliest I think form of control.

Marisa  
Yeah. And I think to going back to what you're saying about, you know, textbook abusers like, I'm sure Higgins, you know, experienced abuse from Rupert, you know, in a very different way than Rebecca, but definitely did. But it's kind of interesting, because he's just continued with a new, a new person, a new boss, sort of, you know, controlling him and abusing him in a way that Rebecca does, again, sort of out of shame and guilt and just kind of a control over him. And so, yeah, I really like that Higgins gets to express who he really is, and then sort of grow from from that experience.

Brett   
Yeah, I think everything you've said is wonderful. And I think his moment of clarity in this conversation, maybe is driven by the fact that, you know, Rebecca has just told him how excited she is about something Ted has done for her. And then I think it really maybe ensigns might be too strong of a word, but I think it really gets under his skin that she would turn right around. And like her Ted's chances of doing something good with the team. And so I'm sure these feelings have been bubbling underneath the surface for a long time for him. And he's had to do this really weird dance of like, he is carrying around that shame. And he admits to it that like, yeah, like that wasn't very great of me to do to you. But he's aspiring to this level of morality and care that Ted is showing. And it's it's winning out now over his loyalty to just kind of tread around Rebecca's feelings about him and about Rupert. And he's ready to sort of address all that head on. And if that means that he needs to quit his job, or resign his position, like he's clearly willing to do that. And I think that takes a lot of integrity and a lot of bravery. And I think it's a huge wake up call. In the midst of a few Wake Up Calls for Rebecca.

Christian  
Brett, I don't know if you noticed, but you had to wait all the way till the end of the episode to come across the one song on the soundtrack. What was it, Brett? And why is it important?

Brett   
It was the Diamond Dogs. Hey, oh, by David Bowie, who is a favorite artist of Jeremy swift as we've already talked about. I don't know there's there's a lot to really break down. Clearly, it's just tying into the theme of this episode and the name of this episode. But there is one interesting thing about the way David Bowie wrote the song he stole well didn't steal. He used a technique from a writer named William S. Burroughs. And this technique was called the cut up technique. And it was a way of just like taking phrases and kind of randomly placing them to create written words or to create song lyrics or ideas even. And one thing that Burroughs said about this method that I really liked was when you cut into the present, the future leaks out. And this is a very Burroughs was a be era writer. And I think this just speaks to I think Jason Sudeikis has a love for the beatniks I think that's really what this comes down to.

Christian  
It has come up as a theme a number of times in this podcast, what were some of the other beatnik references that we get throughout the episodes.

Brett   
So a way early on we have the Hockney painting, we have the Dharma brothers book. We didn't talk about it in our in in our last episode, but in the movie The Iron Giant there is a pretty significant character who is a beatnik I don't remember his name, sorry, Iron Giant super fans. And then here we have, you know, a technique used by William S. Burroughs that was popularized and then co opted by David Bowie for this album. So

Marisa  
we really need to get our like turtlenecks braise for the next episode, I think

Brett   
I think so. I am excited to dress up that way. There were also a few other fun pop culture references in this episode.

Marisa  
Yeah, there was well, the one that I said was maybe from Princess Bride, which I think definitely I hope it was

Christian  
the one people get excited about on the internet the most is the one from Fletch.

Marisa  
Oh, yes. My dad used to watch that movie all the time with Chevy Chase.

Brett   
It's a little bit of a deep cut even for that movie, I think because he does order it to the Mr. Underhill, the grumpy Mr. Underhills tab. But I think unless you've watched Fletch recently, you probably wouldn't remember that. Well, there are a lot of people on Twitter that watch Fletch because they freak out and tweet about it. When they hear the under hills reference. Yes, they lose their way. We

Marisa  
didn't say what it was but it's when so the under hills line comes when sassy is is greeting Ted in the morning and says I'm gonna stay here for a while and order a huge breakfast on your tab. He's like great, great, solid move. And he says yeah, I'll be you're under hills. I need So he's alright with footing the bill.

Brett   
I will admit that I definitely had to rush to Google and figure out what that was. I had no idea.

Christian  
I had to wait until I heard it from 80 people on the internet and then

Brett   
I figured it out. That's good. We've already talked about the hit show friends in this episode, but there was actually a direct reference to friends Yes,

Marisa  
Chandler bringing yes I love that.

Brett   
I lol Jason Sudeikis does a good Chandler being impression he

Christian  
does and I love the the use of it as a verb. Chandler bringing and I hope to incorporate that into my vocabulary from here on out.

Marisa  
Definitely.

Christian  
I hope that you will. There was one barbecue reference and I'm going to tell on Brett here because when he sent over the first episode of our outline for this, under the barbecue sightings section, he just had like question marks like he couldn't think of one barbecue reference.

Marisa  
It's like so iconic. I know.

Brett   
It's because it wasn't a sighting. It was like a hearing

Christian  
barbecue hearings. So so he missed it. Because I guess he had the subtitles. Sometimes, yes, but title so does say barbecue sauce, right before he throws the Dart and hits the bullseye. And I would like to debunk a myth that I have read on the internet. Right here. This is this is a false said that people sometimes posit people say that, you know, he said he said barbecue sauce right when he throws the Dart hits bull's eye because there's a type of barbecue sauce called Bullseye in a vacuum, I can maybe see how people would make that connection. However, Jason Sudeikis is a barbecue sauce kind of sewer. There is a reason that he loves are there Bryant's barbecue sauce, because it is one of the best barbecue sauces. Historically, Jason Sudeikis does not enjoy barbecue sauce that comes out of plastic bottles, that is mass produced like Bullseye or craft. So you could just kick that out of your mind and enjoy the line for what it is

Marisa  
athletes are superstitious. So you know, it makes sense that he would he would want to have his mantra be his very favorite thing in the world. barbecue sauce,

Christian  
perfection. And it's a good one. It's multi sensory, it rolls off the tongue, it hits the ears, it makes your mouth water. And you can smell and taste certain things when you say it. So perfect way to call your shot.

Marisa  
Christian, what were some of the soccer things that people might not have caught during this episode

Christian  
educate us, it seems a little improbable to people that Jamie just randomly pops up. But it is quite probable. There are so many soccer teams in London that it makes sense that he would be there multiple times throughout the year and throughout the season. So for him to be gone for like two or three weeks. And then for Manchester City to have a game in London makes total sense. The other soccer thing is, you know, small clubs and their ticket sales. So with those 10,000 seats being available, I think there is a conversation that would happen within a soccer club of some people like Higgins, wanting to get those seats sold to home fans, so there'd be more of a home field advantage and more support, there would be other people in the club, who would be super happy to just get the tickets sold. Even if you sold them to the opposing team. The only way to get tickets as an opposing fan is to essentially like get them through your Club's supporters. And so a lot of times those ticket prices can kind of get elevated. And there's a big discussion in English soccer support a culture of elevated prices for away fans and whatnot. But it makes sense that that discussion would happen and that people would be on either side of the debate. And the least convincing soccer thing. I just have a hard time believing that if the owner of a club, the former owner of the club, and the manager of a club, were all at the supporters pub, that it wouldn't just be a madhouse after about 34 seconds. And so it does make a nice scene with the three supporters that we know in May and the familiar crew. But yeah, that place would be overrun. And in real life, we wouldn't have gotten the intimacy of that scene.

Hey, Marissa, what was your favorite quote from this episode?

Marisa  
I'm going to actually not go with a girl Keeley for like, once and I know. But I gotta go with Roy. And it's just a line that I just think is really funny, even after like my seventh watch of this episode, when he's getting some advice from Ted. And he says does my face look like it's in the mood for shape based jokes, and it's come back to Ted's Like, you know, love triangle dodecahedron seeing your mother in law in a bathing suit thing. So anyways love that moment hot going on there. But I bet I totally know what's gonna come from you go ahead

Brett   
you and 100% do because I have a great affinity for George Gershwin and the songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin, the Gershwin brothers, and I think it is so hilarious and it fed my soul. When Nate makes a reference to the song he says, it must be so wonderful to have someone like Keeley, you know, care for you. And Ted says shout out to the Gershwin brothers and then beer just flips in this like Gabba Gershwin's. And I'm like that's something I've probably said before in real life

Marisa  
like anytime there's like you know Rhapsody and blue play there's

Christian  
100% musical illiterate one in the group which musical is this from?

Brett   
So wonderful is from funny face. I'm pretty sure it's funny face.

Marisa  
So one time someone was seeing this wonderful on the Today Show. And remember that creep Matt Lauer who used to work there talking about abusers and like manipulators is the theme of the day. Yeah, but he actually announced the song not not being a Gershwin fan. Clearly he clearly he doesn't belong with people like Ted lasso. He he introduced it and said, so and so singing s wonderful. One dude.

Brett   
Matt Lauer when people don't know about musical theater, that's just when you know,

Marisa  
you know, something was going on and someone should have been checking his office long ago. I'm curious Christians. Did you catch that? not judgmental, I would like to know what your favorite quote is.

Christian  
I'm glad you're not judgmental today because this is probably the longest quote I'm going to have for the entire season. It is titled ISO with the Diamond Dogs informing ROI can't. It's just a group of people who care ROI not unlike people at a hip hop concert whose hands are not in the air. But I love it.

Brett   
Okay, that is our show. We'll be back on the dog track in two weeks. With our conversation about episode nine titled all apologies, you can check out the show notes for links to learn more about the cool and interesting stuff that we mentioned in this episode.

Christian  
And you can keep the conversation going on Twitter and Instagram. Our handle on both is at @TedLassoPod. It's a great way for us to connect with each other. And for y'all to share your insights on the show. And, as an added bonus, you can now check out our 10 lassos musical theater playlist available on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

Marisa  
This episode of Richmond till we die is brought to you by gin and kerosine Productions. It was produced by me, Marissa,

Brett   
me, Brett and me Christian.

Marisa  
Brett also edited, mixed and composed. The music for this episode is me. So if you enjoy this conversation, please take a moment to subscribe to Richmond till we die on whatever app you're using to listen to this episode.

Brett   
And as always, wherever you're listening to Richmond till we die, we appreciate you. But if you have access to an Apple device, we'd love it if you head over to the Apple podcasts app and give us a quick five star review. It'll help more people find and hear the show. All right, I'm Brett signing off for Kristian and Marissa. Thanks for listening. Until next time, cheers y'all.

Marisa  
nikecourt are you laughing me

Brett   
always murder show?

Marisa  
Yes. I like a lot of murder. Okay.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai