SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details from the Apple TV Season 4 finale. Ted Lassoentitled “Being alive”.
If you thought the penultimate episode of Ted Lasso was filled with Mae’s shocking death, Keeley’s (Juno Temple) surprise pregnancy, and Zelda’s (Tracey Ullman) unexpected (to some) deception, you better buckle up for the finale.
The 56-minute episode featured a touching memorial for Mae, including a moving song from Niamh (Aisling Sharkey) and Siobhan (Rex Hayes); not one but two coaching shakeups at AFC Richmond with Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) leaving the men’s team to take charge of his former team Chelsea, signaling a possible exit for the fan-favorite character; and Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds) promoted to head coach of the women’s team on the recommendation of Ted (Jason Sudeikis), with him and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) as assistants.
And that wasn’t all. The shareholder showdown also offered a twist, with Zelda’s henchman Hugo switching sides and getting the Milk sisters’ shares for Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), which, along with the 2% Mae left her in her will, gave the accidental owner of the football club an unassailable 51% majority.
Additionally, Ted told his son Henry about his father’s suicide. Oh, and the finale also managed to squeeze in a marriage proposal as Rebecca spontaneously popped the question to her long-term boyfriend Matthijs in his office.
Hunt, who co-created the series and co-wrote the finale with Sudeikis, spoke with Deadline about the episode’s twists and turns and how they set up a potential fifth season, addressing speculation that a renewal is imminent. He discussed whether the finale marked Goldstein’s exit as a series regular (and Temple by association since Roy and Keeley are a couple again). Goldstein is the creator, executive producer and star of a new comedy series on Amazon, Escort, in addition to its functions on Apple TV Contraction and his film career.
Bad news for fans Ted LassoThe original Richmond men’s team who held out hope for a greater player presence in the new incarnation of the series. Most of them’s appearances in the Season 4 finale may have been the last we saw of the team in a planned moment of “passing the torch” from men to women, Hunt said, explaining why Phil Dunster’s Jamie Tartt didn’t make the scene.
Hunt explained how Ted’s conversation with Rebecca led to Alice’s promotion and how the new dynamic could impact Ted. He also cleared up confusion over the finale’s title, originally listed as “The Departing Lass” but changed to “Being Alive” when the episode aired.
Additionally, Hunt addressed the controversial Zelda character and asked if Ullman would return next season and shared the surprising inspiration for Beard’s new look in Season 4.
In separate parts of the interview released earlier, Hunt revealed that there was an idea for the late actor Anthony Head to be in the Season 4 finale and explained why the finale used a cover of the theme song performed by Brandi Carlile.
DEADLINE: I heard that season 5 renewal is imminent. What do you say?
BRENDAN HUNT: Where did you hear that?
DEADLINE: I have my sources.
HUNTING: Well, that’s news to me. I certainly hope it happens, and I’m optimistic, but yeah, I haven’t heard anything official yet. It would be nice though.
DEADLINE: And you don’t have a writers room for Season 5, do you? My understanding is that the writers room will begin after the green light.
HUNTING: Yeah. As happened with Season 2, they can greenlight a play before greenlighting a season if they want, but neither has happened.
DEADLINE: There were two big manager changes at AFC Richmond in the final, the biggest for long-time fans being the departure of Roy Kent. We know how busy Brett is East off-screen – he has a new show on Amazon, obviously Contraction on Apple TV, movies. So, should we assume he’s leaving as a series regular?
HUNTING: No, not necessarily. It’s recognizing that he’s a busy man and giving us some leeway, I would say. But no, we don’t expect to lose Roy and Keeley. But they are two very busy people, so some wiggle room is a wise thing.
DEADLINE: So it’s possible that Brett and Juno won’t be series regulars in season 5 and Roy and Keeley’s storyline won’t be as important?
HUNTING: We have no idea. We don’t know if we’ll come back, and when we come back, we don’t know what’s going to happen in their lives. But yes, they are both very busy. So yes, room to maneuver.
DEADLINE: Ted’s line to Rebecca about wanting to “talk to her about the newly opened manager position” came right after Roy resigned, so I assumed it was for the vacant position on the men’s team, and Ted was either introducing himself or Nate who had just resurfaced. Instead, we promoted Coach Chilton. Are the two things linked?
HUNTING: He is not talking about the position of managing men.
DEADLINE: But why did he say “newly opened”?
HUNTING: Because he comes to let her know that he is no longer the manager of the women’s team.
DEADLINE: ALL RIGHT. Let’s talk about the decision to change this dynamic. It makes sense, Alice has proven herself, and it’s a female team, but with Ted being a backup singer for the first time, how will that go? And will the show be called Alice Chilton next season?
HUNTING: Yeah, I think Apple is really excited about this (laughter). We just have to wait and see what the full impact of this dynamic will be. I’m certainly interested to know if it’s a bit of a pipe dream for Ted to think that he can just pull into the back seat and have someone tell him what to do and where to be and make demands of him? We’ll see how he adjusted that. Maybe it’s not as easy as he thinks.
DEADLINE: What made him do this? We didn’t get to hear his arguments with Rebecca.
HUNTING: Well, he clearly doesn’t spend enough time with his son, and he tells Henry in that earlier scene, “I’m going to make some changes to make sure I don’t miss as many of your games.” »
DEADLINE: And is the men’s team now completely in the rearview mirror? Roy Kent was the only character who kept him in the picture even though we didn’t see any of their matches or any of the players until the final. Do we care who the manager is? Is there any chance Nick Mohammed’s Nate will return?
HUNTING: I’m not sure we care. But we love Nick. The men appearing in this final episode was really meant to be a passing of the torch moment, and I think it worked well. We’ve been very judicious about how we view players this first season, and whether we return or not, we’ve taken a long-term view from the start.
In Season 1, we actually met the players very little, and a little bit more in Season 2 and Season 3. So if we can come back, then yeah, we can definitely start giving these players more time now that we’ve done a little bit.
DEADLINE: Speaking of the players, the Irish twin sisters stood out at the end of the season with their hilarious telepathy pig in episode 9 and their touching performance at Mae’s memorial in the finale. Will we see more of this next season and more of Alice’s personal life? There was only one scene with his partner this season.
HUNTING: There’s going to be a lot to see, but we all love these characters, and we’re going to try to touch on them a little more now that we’ve set the table with them. But when it came to the twins, Rex and Ash were just fantastic together. There were some good nominees for the twins during casting, but in the end it’s them, and the degree of difference and similarity between them is fantastic. They’re so up for anything, and then finally unlocking that dual telepathy thing towards the end was really really cool.
DEADLINE: Did they sing this song themselves and how did that happen?
HUNTING: It is a traditional Celtic song that is often sung at funerals. In fact, the project was first started by Declan Lowney, one of our directors, who is himself Irish. And yes, they crushed it.
DEADLINE: Phil Dunster was not in the final with the rest of the team. Was it just for logistical reasons because he has the HBO series? Rooster?
HUNTING: It was a logical thing. Jamie lives in Spain (he plays for Barcelona). We already saw him at that point (in episode 6), so we didn’t need to bring him back just to stand up and clap with the others.
DEADLINE: Speaking of Jamie, your character, Coach Beard, has undergone a considerable transformation this season, and there has been some chatter online that Beard might have tried to copy Jamie Tartt’s look.
HUNTING: I didn’t see that.
DEADLINE: Talk about Beard’s physical transformation. Is this just a mid-life crisis, or is there something else?
HUNTING: Yes, he’s going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. First the Jane stuff, then trying to get back from the Jane stuff, and then suffering the blow of miscommunication on New Year’s Day. We weren’t specifically going for Jamie Tartt but what a compliment. I take it.
DEADLINE: But was there any inspiration for the look?
HUNTING: It’s not specific to Jamie, no, the hair was more like Hugh Grant’s in his Four weddings and a funeral days, and then I went to the costume department and our designer Jackie Levy, and it was great. Like what do we have stuff that’s trying too hard to look like a young person? Now maybe she was thinking about Jamie. I can’t speak for her, but it was never discussed specifically.
DEADLINE: And the new look introduces…
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