Ted Lasso Season 3's Most Heartwarming Moments
For three seasons, "Ted Lasso" has captivated fans worldwide with its perfect blend of life lessons, goofy characters, and heartwarming moments. The third — and final — season was perhaps the most anticipated of them all, particularly because COVID-19 halted production and left nearly a two-year gap between Season 2 and Season 3.
However, there are mixed feelings about the third season, with some fans saying that the writing isn't as strong as in previous seasons, and some of the plot developments don't do justice to the characters. Regardless of what side you sit on for this debate, there is still plenty to appreciate and a wealth of affecting moments between the characters that we have grown to love across the show's run.
Ted (Jason Sudeikis), Beard (Brendan Hunt), Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), and the rest of the quirky "Ted Lasso" characters all had a lot going on this season. Between political battles, relationship dramas, and leaked sex tapes, Season 3 at times felt more intense than the other seasons. The consistency, though, came from the developed friendships, hilarious dancing, and heart-to-hearts that remind fans why "Ted Lasso" is one of the best shows to grace our screens in a long time. Here are some of Season 3's most heartwarming moments.
Jamie teaches Roy to ride a bike
Jamie (Phil Dunster) and Roy (Brett Goldstein) developed a beautiful and unlikely friendship in Season 3 of "Ted Lasso." Having butted heads in previous seasons — both professionally and personally as they were each vying for Keeley's (Juno Temple) affections — Roy offering to train Jamie to be the biggest star in football was a great surprise. In Episode 6, while all the other boys are deciding what fun to have, the determined Jamie and Roy are out training instead.
While training, though, Jamie decides to grab some bicycles for the two to ride. Roy is reluctant to do this, eventually revealing that he doesn't know how to ride a bike. Jamie is intent on teaching Roy — especially after all the help that Roy has given him with training. It takes a while to break through Roy's grumpy façade, but when he does succeed there is a wonderful release as he and Jamie celebrate by riding around Amsterdam together. This moment is not just one of the best of this season but is up there with the best moments across the whole series for these two characters and their unique friendship.
Colin and Trent's heart to heart
One of the best storylines explored in Season 3 was Colin (Billy Harris) coming out to his teammates. Colin has always been a steadfast friend and teammate throughout the show, but we never really got to see the personal side of him. However, in Season 3, we find out that Colin actually has a boyfriend, and he has been hiding this — and his sexuality — from his friends. Eventually, Colin comes out to the team and coaches and brings his boyfriend onto the field for a celebration, but the truly touching moment comes when he has a heart-to-heart with Trent (James Lance) in Episode 6.
Trent sees Colin with a man and ends up following him to a gay bar. When Colin sees Trent has followed him, he becomes upset and tries to deny his identity at first. However, Trent opens up about his own identity as a gay man, and the pair share a beautiful moment of bonding over their similar circumstances. Trent gives Colin the courage to handle the situation how he feels best, but mostly just gives Colin the gift of validating his identity and being able to talk candidly with another queer person.
The pillow fight
Episode 6 had some of the most heartwarming moments of the season, but undoubtedly the funniest came from the team players orchestrating a pillow fight. In this episode, the team is in Amsterdam for a match, but when work is done, Ted decides to give the players a night off to do whatever they like. The players — having rarely received this opportunity — strategize with each other about how to proceed. Should they go to a party, watch a sex show, or find some tulips for Dani (Cristo Fernández)?
The boys spend so long arguing over what they want to do that the entire night gets away from them. After a long time deliberating and no actual fun being had, they decide to have a fun pillow fight together. It turns into an all-out war — albeit a friendly, good-intentioned one. They take it to the extreme, busting pillows open left and right, and filling the whole room with loose feathers. It is such a sweet scene, especially when juxtaposed with Rebecca's date and Leslie's (Jeremy Swift) jazz performance. The team needed some lighthearted bonding and got it with this adorably wholesome scene that left us loving them more than we already did.
Cleaning Sam's restaurant
Sam (Toheeb Jimoh) has had some great storylines throughout the show, from owning his own restaurant to his relationship with Rebecca, and so much more. However, this season, one of his biggest plotlines comes from his battle with Home Secretary Brinda Barot (Lucy Bayler) in Episode 7. This parallels the real-life incident where Fox News host Laura Ingraham told LeBron James to "shut up and dribble" after talking about politics in an interview. When Sam takes it upon himself to make a stand on social media in response to Barot's bigotry toward immigrants, she retorts with the same remark Ingraham gave James.
Sam is disgusted by this, but his negative feelings are worsened by one of Barot's supporters trashing his restaurant and writing her nasty words on the wall for him to see. With the impending arrival of his father from Nigeria, the restaurant being trashed sends Sam over the edge. However, after a heart-to-heart with his father, Sam decides to show him the restaurant anyway. When they arrive, the entire AFC Richmond team is already there, midway through cleaning up the place for Sam. This moment cements that there is still some good in humanity — even after everything Sam has been through — and is one of the best bonding moments for the team.
Hey Jude
Ted's final decision to go back to the U.S. at the end of the season is because of his son, Henry (Gus Turner). He misses his son, but more importantly, his son misses him. We see Ted's indecision about being away from Henry at its peak in Episode 8 when Henry comes for a visit. After spending time at the pub with the usual suspects, watching Nate's (Nick Mohammed) soccer match at West Ham, and just generally having a great time with Ted, Henry is left feeling sad about what happens when the trip is over. Ted is also spiraling — with his ex-wife on a romantic getaway with her new boyfriend — and as he leaves Beard and Henry to take a phone call, Beard takes the opportunity to speak some truth with Henry.
The two talk about how Henry is feeling about his parents being apart and living so far away, and Beard reminds him how much love he has in his life. While a street performer underscores the scene with The Beatles' "Hey Jude," Beard paraphrases the famous lyrics and encourages Henry to take his own sad song and make it better. The whole crowd begins to sing along, including Beard and Henry, and Ted hangs up the phone to come back and sing with them. It is a beautiful moment of realization for both Henry and Ted in separate ways that ultimately bring them back together for a lovely father-son moment.
Jamie's apology to Keeley
Episode 8 has one of the most intense "Ted Lasso" scenarios in the whole show. Now that Keeley has her own PR company and is an industry professional, more eyes are on her than ever before. In this episode, there is an online leak of one of Keeley's nude videos she had sent to Jamie while they were dating — even though Jamie did not release it, someone hacked into his email to steal it. Keeley is rattled and tries to figure out what she should do throughout the episode, not helped by the negative pressure of her partner, Jack (Jodi Balfour) who is pushing her to release a statement condemning her own actions.
Keeley, along with others, believes that she did nothing wrong in sending an intimate video to her partner while they were together. She is absolutely right — the blame should not be on her, but rather on the disgusting person who stole it. Jamie, however, puts the blame on himself, leading to one of the most touching moments in the season. Jamie goes to Keeley's house and apologizes to her, saying he deleted all of her photos and videos, but forgot to delete the emails. The two hug and the moment solidifies Keeley's feelings that she shouldn't blame herself, but also shows Jamie's character development into a great man.
Rebecca's inner child
Rebecca gets a lot of great moments later in the season — all of which are welcome after the disappointing storylines for the women in the first half of the season. However, in Episode 10, Rebecca really gets to shine as she faces off against some of the bigger soccer club owners in making the decision whether or not to join billionaire Edwin Akufo's (Sam Richardson) new league he is making. At first, the other owners seem interested. However, Rebecca gives an impassioned speech about the sacred nature of the game, and the owners side with Rebecca against Akufo.
Though Rebecca standing up to Akufo and the other owners is a very powerful moment for her, there is an even more heartwarming moment that occurs as she is preparing for the meeting. She is feeling nervous, and doubting her ability to stand her ground against these powerful men who do not take her seriously. When she looks in the mirror, panic filling her body, she sees herself as a little girl. Rebecca breathes deeply and does a big stretch, posing with her arms high in the air and her mouth wide open, as if to show she is big and powerful and to get herself in the right mindset. Seeing Rebecca connect with her inner child and fight to protect what she believes in was so perfect for her development and a genuine, empowering moment for young girls everywhere.
Nate's talk with his dad
Throughout Season 3, there is doubt about what will happen with Nate. After his big falling out with Ted and being let go from West Ham, Nate finds himself in freefall. He heads home to see his parents and reignites his passion for playing violin in a beautiful moment. However, the real heartwarming moment comes from the catharsis of Nate's conversation with his father (Peter Landi) — not only for him but for the audience, too. Nate's father hears him playing the violin and the two talk about how Nate thought his father hated when he played because of how hard he was on him as a kid. Nate's father explains that because Nate was given opportunities that he did not have as a child, he was extra hard on him.
However, Nate's father also takes the opportunity to apologize for the way he parented him in his early years. He says, "I didn't know how to parent a genius," explaining that he believes Nate is truly brilliant and so he pushed him to be the best at everything. Ultimately, though, he tells Nate that he does not mind if he is successful or not, just that he is happy. The scene gives Nate a completely new perspective on his father and it is very heartwarming to see them finally have this breakthrough. Tough relationships with your parents are very relatable and this scene is healing for both the characters and audience members who can relate to this experience.
So Long, Farewell
The finale of "Ted Lasso" had a lot of work to do, wrapping things up but leaving the fans wanting more, missing the characters, and dying to start their rewatches already. Whatever your opinions of the finale may be, Episode 12 of Season 3 has some of the most heartwarming scenes from this season, and from the show as a whole. First from this episode is the players' performance of "So Long, Farewell" from the classic film and musical, "The Sound of Music." In a similar way to Season 2's dance performance of NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye," the boys also perfected a dance to the whimsical song as a way to say goodbye to Ted and Beard.
The callback to the first dance routine the boys did to impress Ted and work together is priceless in and of itself. However, the addition of the boys singing the song to Ted and separating themselves into different roles with Dani Rojas as the ultimate soloist makes this one of the most memorable scenes in the entire series. The team really scored a goal with this one and even made Beard cry. It is the most perfect way to say "farewell."
Roy becoming a Diamond Dog
The crew of coaches is iconic alone, but throw Leslie in there and the coaches become the Diamond Dogs: a group of men getting together to talk about their grievances or successes in a space that is helpful and supportive. When Nate left, a part of the Diamond Dogs felt missing. Especially because — even with the addition of Trent — Roy still refused to join. However, in the last episode, after Nate returns to AFC Richmond and the Diamond Dogs, Roy finds himself having a change of heart as he wonders what to do about Keeley.
This is the perfect moment for Roy to exhibit how much he has grown and changed over the past few seasons, and he approaches the men in their Diamond Dogs meeting and asks if he can become one. Everyone is utterly shocked, but they enthusiastically agree and let him in the coveted club. Roy talks to them about what he should do with Keeley, how he has changed, and whether or not he really can change. They give him great advice, and then Roy even joins in on the barking when Nate talks about his new relationship. He truly becomes one of the Diamond Dogs, and we have waited for so long to see him give in and be a part of the nerdy group. It is overwhelmingly adorable.
Fixing the Believe sign
Part of why the team was so hurt following Nate's departure was because he took the famous "Believe" sign down and tore it. The team's entire philosophy hinged on "believing in believe," so this was particularly cruel. Though they put the sign back up and taped it together, it was never quite the same to them. When their superstitions started to get the better of them, Ted took the sign down himself and ripped it up so the team would stop thinking that it was the reason they succeeded: The "Believe" philosophy is within them, not just written on the wall.
When the chips are down on AFC Richmond in the team's final match, the players prove that they still believe in the symbolism of the slogan because they each kept a tiny piece of the sign in their lockers for the whole season. As each teammate sets their piece down, they work together to restore the sign. It is a brilliant way to connect everyone before the conclusion of the final game, and a lovely full-circle moment for Nate when he tapes the sign back on the wall. It symbolizes that the past drama is now behind them and Nate is welcomed back into the group with open arms.
Rebecca and Ted's Farewell
The ending of the final episode of "Ted Lasso" is enough to reduce even the toughest to tears. We get a montage showing what happens next, including the start of a women's team, Beard's marriage, and Ted happily coaching Henry's soccer team. It is particularly touching seeing all the individuals we have grown to love living that bit happier because of the impact of Ted. And the truth is, none of it would have happened without him.
Perhaps no one knows this more than Rebecca — even reuniting with the love of her life would not have happened if she hadn't been rushing to the airport to say goodbye to Ted. This is where the heartwarming moment comes in — not from Rebecca's rekindled romance, but from her beautiful, platonic relationship with Ted wrapping up. Though the two will keep in touch, it will never be the same as it was when Ted was at AFC Richmond. They both know this, too, which makes the parting even harder. Rebecca and Ted both thank each other for everything, and the love and respect between them is palpable. They embrace with tears in their eyes before Ted leaves. It truly is the best way for the two to say goodbye, and nothing feels unresolved or left unsaid between them.