SPOILER ALERT: This post spoils Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 4, titled “Greyhounds’ Day Off.”
Getting a women’s soccer team off the ground takes its challenges, which Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) and Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) have begun to realize four episodes into the fourth season of Ted Lasso.
From the “Higgins Report” disclosing some devastating numbers and probabilities about whether the team could profit to their different mindsets of going about business, the pair have clashed over decisions. Rebecca has had to say no to many a Keeley pitch, and Keeley has, in turn, had to get creative.
In Episode 4, Keeley’s eagnerness is on full display when she and Rebecca witness Zelda Southport (Tracy Ullman) speak at a conference. Rebecca’s desire to remain demure and not show their cards wins out, and she ends up googling Zelda and finding some red flag results. Rebecca accidentally calls Keeley “naïve” after the publicist and burgeoning businesswoman wants to enlist Zelda in their mission of getting the women’s team more funding and attention, but the pair make up in the Nelson Road stadium seats one night.
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“We were chomping at the bit to go into that scene, weren’t we?” Waddingham said of the reconciliation between the female friends.
“Totally. It’s so interesting when I think about that now. We didn’t even have to talk about what it was. We just had to run our lines together” Temple added. “Which is such an interesting and a beautiful thing to be able to say.”
Complete with pink fuzzy blankets and thermos mugs, Rebecca apologizes and voices how she feels bad that she has to shut down many of Keeley’s ideas, but Keeley takes it in stride and says it’s okay, embracing the way it makes her think of another way to “get things done.”
“We played it, and then we had to go back over it because it was Diwali when we were shooting it, and so we were really shut down by the fireworks,” Waddingham continued, with Temple chiming in that they “weren’t supposed to actually pay attention to” the pyrotechnics.
The distracting Diwali fireworks distracted led to reshoots of the pivotal moment.
“You were guilty of this too. I won’t let that slide,” Temple said in response to her costar. “I kept being distracted because I’m like Keeley. I like anything that glitters, that’s sparkly, and I kept looking at them, then being like, “Oh my god, they’re not supposed to be there.’”
In the show, Keeley has also tasked Kenneth the Bus Driver (Mark Kempner), who sources drugs and now, fireworks, apparently, to test out different hues of the colorful smoke that is popularly used opening women’s soccer games. The explosions provide different interruptions, punctuating the moment as one of Keeley’s ideas plays out in real time.
“We had to reshoot it, but what I’m saying about that is, it gave us space to perhaps tweak things a little,” Waddingham said. “It was gorgeous. So we got to shoot the whole thing again, and it was really great to do. It was great fun. Cold, but it was really fun.”
Waddingham also shouted out the props team for the blankets, cups and other details.
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As for romantic relationships, Temple described her relationship with Roy as “one for the ages,” teasing that “matters of our hearts” for both Rebecca and Keeley will play a big part this season.
“I hope it goes well. It’s gonna be a really great journey for them this year,” she said. “And it’s gonna need some support from her bestie.”
After some flirting in the guest locker room, which became the women’s team’s locker room after Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) undid all his rigging to intimidate opponents in Episode 2, the now AFC Richmond men’s coach gruffly broached the topic of hinting if he and Keeley could try again to be a couple.
Higgins, unfortunately, has been pulled into the tally and scorekeeping group chat between the pair after Keeley tells him Roy needs to go on a series of dates before they can attempt to date again. Higgins was also there in person to witness the bargain go down and the specific number — 10 — of dates reached.
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“I loved doing that scene. It reminded me of sort of being a — ‘What do you call it… a raspberry?” Swift said, and Temple corrected him, supplying the term ‘gooseberry,’ which can be compared to the term ‘third wheel.’
“You can be our raspberry,” Temple said.
“At school, I was often the mate whose good-looking friend got a girlfriend, I’d be [playing the gooseberry],” Swift added. “It reminded me of that, and it was a lot of fun. And also, I got to add something in that, but yes, maximum awkwardness for Higgins.”
Temple called Swift’s improvisation “iconic.”
“But if anyone can handle it and do it with grace and just leave you watching the moment and wanting to rewind it, it will be Jeremy as Higgins,” she said. “I have to say that.”
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