2x10 No Weddings and a Funeral

[7.4/10] This gets a good number of points for one (technically two) scenes alone. The back and forth between Ted talking about his father’s suciide and Rebecca talking about her father’s infidelity is wonderfully written and performed. In an episode about reckoning with parental legacies, the scenes show that despite very different upbringings and experiences, the coach and the owner are each still wrestling with their relationship with their dads from when they were teenagers.

Jason Sudekis gives a masterful performance, as always. The tears in his eyes when he speaks of wishing he could have told his dad how good a parent he was, wondering if it might have changed his dad’s mortal calculus, wound us almost as much as they wound him. The monologue is so revealing, of how his dad’s death helped inspire Ted’s “never quit” attitude, about how his dad was a loving father despite his problems, and about how the experience left Ted always trying to lift people up because you never know what type of pain they’re going through.

I’m resistant to one seminal event in a person’s life explaining their whole personality, but the script threads the needle between such a devastating attitude, Ted’s encouraging disposition, and his lingering angering at his father in a beautiful fashion.

Likewise, Rebecca’s confession to her mom about having walked in on her dad’s infidelities is nearly as good. There’s real power in having that be your example for how a husband treats his wife, reinforced by how Rupert treated her. The strain is magnified by the fact that Rebecca’s mom knew and allowed it, or at least didn’t leave. Rebecca admitting that she hated her dad for a long time for it, and now hates her mom for tolerating it, is raw and piercing, and clearly has ripples that threaten to scuttle her wonderful nascent relationship with Sam. It’s a little over-the-top, but the high-volume emotions work in context and with such a self-assured performer.

Separate and apart from all the self-examinations and psychoanalysis taking place in this episode, it’s just fun to get Rebecca’s crew in one place. The combination of Rebecca, Keeley, Sassy, and Nora (and to a lesser extent her mom) makes for amusing bits and great communal chemistry. I would watch the slice of life of that group bouncing off one another without really needing a storyline to fuel it.

And yet, this episode also makes some really strange choices that drag it down for me apart from that. I get what they’re going for, but trying to drag the pathos out of “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley is a fool’s errand, especially when it doesn’t quite fit the moment. The whole congregation singing it is weird, not moving, and feels awkwardly plastered in where it doesn’t quite belong.

Plus why god why are we doing anything approaching a Jamie/Keeley/Roy love triangle? It’s not like Jamie and Keeley were ever a great relationship. And as much as I’m exhausted by Roy, they’ve at least done multiple episodes where he screws up a bit, but recognizes it, apologizes, and makes up for it, including this one. More romantic melodrama is the last thing I want from any of them at this point.

To the point, outside of those two big scenes with Ted and Rebecca, this one comes off very romcom-y. It’s a hard thing to put your finger on, but some of the broadness, the drama, the shtick, just plays very much in the genre. It’s not necessarily the worst fit for Ted Lasso (see also: the episode full of romcom homages), but it doesn’t necessarily go with some of the more serious or interesting stuff the show attempts here.

I’ll say this much, as comic relief goes, it’s corny, but I love Dani Rojas hating dress shoes, cursing them as the tools of the devil, and finally relaxing when he can wear Rebecca’s bright crocs. It’s dumb humor, but what can I say, it pushed my buttons.

Overall, this one is tonally all over the place. It has that showpiece scene, which boosts the episode considerably. But the rest is spackled with odd choices, both in terms of where the story goes and just the tone of the thing.