The Only Recap You Need Before Ted Lasso Season 4

At many streamers, shows struggle to even get a second season. But at Apple TV, you can do a complete three-season arc ending with what most would read as a beautiful series finale, and you still get picked up for another run — at least, if you're "Ted Lasso."

Three years since AFC Richmond last took to the pitch, the popular football comedy/drama series is returning on August 5, 2026, this time focusing on a new women's team for the fictional club. Season 4 has been pretty highly anticipated due to the series' massive fanbase, but it also has some things to prove after the end of "Ted Lasso" season 3 wrapped things up so cleanly. To help with that effort, the new installment will feature a largely new cast of characters to fill out the Richmond women's squad.

Ted (Jason Sudeikis), Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley (Juno Temple), Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift), and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) are among the names returning for "Ted Lasso" Season 4, but a number of previously prominent characters, including Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) and Nate Shelley (Nick Mohammed) have departed (though cameo appearances could still be in the cards). New additions this season include actors Faye Marsay, Tanya Reynolds, Jude Mack, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey, Abbie Hern, and Grant Feely.

Given the amount of time that's passed since "Ted Lasso" Season 3 wrapped up, many fans may need a refresher on what went down the last time we all visited Nelson Road. Don't worry; we've got you covered with everything you need to remember before "Ted Lasso" Season 4.

As Julie Andrews once sang, the very beginning is a very good place to start. "Ted Lasso" Season 1 kicked off with a strong premise right out of the gate: A Premier League team goes to its former owner's ex-wife as part of their divorce after he's caught publicly cheating on her, and she promptly hires an American football coach from Kansas who knows nothing about soccer to head up the club. The twist? It's intentional sabotage, meant to tank the club her ex-husband loved so dearly. The second twist? Ted Lasso is so damn likable he actually manages to get the whole organization on his side.

Season 1 is largely built on the tension of this conflict — Ted's genuine efforts to build a healthy locker room and team, and Rebecca's secret mission to torpedo Richmond from the inside. The other major storylines involve the rivalry between franchise star Jamie Tartt and veteran leader Roy Kent, both of whom become romantically involved with model and eventual Richmond PR manager Keeley Jones. Keeley is dating Jamie at the start of the season, but his egotistical behavior eventually pushes her away, and she ends up in a relationship with Roy, much to Jamie's chagrin.

Kit man Nate also helps the team out when his knack for strategy on the field is discovered and Ted makes him an assistant coach alongside Beard. While the management staff has promise, the Americans still struggle to acclimate.

Throughout Season 1, Ted struggles with his separation from his wife. He eventually accepts the inevitable and signs his divorce papers. Afterward, he embarks on a brief, healthy fling with Rebecca's longtime friend Sassy (Kiki May). He also begins to gain Rebecca's support after standing up for her against her ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head) in a particularly noteworthy game of darts, in which Ted also confesses how the death of his father affected him when he was a child.

Though Jamie continues to resist Ted's positive, team-first approach, the rest of the roster, including Roy, begin to catch on. Eventually, Rebecca's intentional sabotage comes out, and she shows remorse for trying to torpedo Ted from the start.

At the end of the season, the team's poor performances get Richmond relegated from the Premier League to the EFL Championship, but Ted holds the moral victory of getting the locker room and larger organization on his side. When he offers to quit, Rebecca tells him that he in fact must stay and that she is now entirely behind him. They form a proper partnership and get ready to go to work  for the next season.

AFC Richmond is on the back foot at the start of Season 2, with the goal of fighting their way up the Championship ranks to promotion. A retired Roy struggles with life as a broadcast analyst and eventually rejoins the club on the coaching staff, and Jamie gets a wake-up call when Manchester City, the team that had initially loaned him to Richmond, doesn't take him back following a series of PR issues.

Roy and the rest of the Richmond coaches help Jamie sand down his rough edges, but other players also begin to step up and help the team. Rising star Nigerian player Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) steps into a larger role, and Mexican forward Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernández) struggles with the yips (a severe form of anxiety that can cause sports players to lose their dexterity) before sports psychiatrist Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles) helps him through it.

Dr. Fieldstone also tries to encourage Ted to work with her to deal with his ongoing panic attacks, and while he resists for much of the season after resolving his bias against therapy due to failed couples counseling with his ex-wife, he eventually acquiesces.

At the same time, Ghanaian mogul Edwin Akufo (Sam Richardson) attempts to buy Sam's contract and declares animosity for Richmond when he refuses.

Nate, giving in to the worst instincts brought about by his own lack of self-confidence, begins to lash out at members of the team in Season 2. With Keeley's help, the club takes on new sponsorships, including Dubai Air, which Sam protests for political reasons, as the company is tied to predatory oil drilling in his home country.

Sam starts up a romantic relationship with someone he meets on the anonymous dating app Bantr, which has also started to sponsor the team. That person ends up being Rebecca, to both of their surprise, sparking one of several "Ted Lasso" romantic relationships that might deserve a penalty. After a brief and secret tryst, Rebecca breaks things off following her father's funeral, afraid of being hurt again and wanting to maintain a professional atmosphere on the team. Meanwhile, Richmond beat reporter Trent Crimm (James Lance) publishes a piece about Ted having panic attacks and tells the coach, who has become a friend, that Nate was the one who leaked the story.

Rupert continues to antagonize both Rebecca and the team, and by the end of Season 2, he becomes the new owner of West Ham United. Richmond gets promoted back to the Premier League after a strong season in the Championship, but Nate leaves, his hair having turned a villainous white, and joins West Ham to work for Rupert. Roy and Keeley, having struggled to get back to a balance in their relationship, end Season 2 uncertain as to their future together.

With Richmond back in the Premier League for "Ted Lasso" Season 3, the team searches for any edge they can get — especially with Nate now coaching for the other side. Rebecca gets them a major break by convincing international superstar Zava (Maximilian Osinski) to play for the club, helping them to a series of big wins. Jamie struggles to find his role on the team with a bigger star on the pitch with him, and Roy begins to help him with special one-on-one training.

Off the pitch, Roy and Keeley break up, and Keeley opens her own PR agency, where she struggles to strike a good boss balance with old friend Shandy (Ambreen Razia), whom she eventually fires. In one of the most heartwarming "Ted Lasso" moments, Trent Crimm, now traveling with the team while writing a book about them, encourages Richmond player Colin Hughes (Billy Harris) after discovering that the latter, like Trent, is gay. Sam opens a Nigerian restaurant and finds himself the target of racist vandalism, but the team helps him rebuild.

After a successful stint with the team, Zava departs without notice, leaving Richmond once again struggling. During a trip to Amsterdam, Rebecca has a fling with a local, and Ted has a revelation of a new strategy for the team, which Beard informs him is essentially the Dutch style of total football.

Richmond begins to train with the total football strategy and finds success on the pitch. Keeley begins a romance with a venture capital backer of her firm, but they split after Keeley disagrees with his response to old sexual content of hers leaking online. Rebecca steps in as her new business partner. Ted struggles with the knowledge that his ex-wife is dating their former couples therapist. Sam gets left off the roster for the Nigerian national team due to meddling from Edwin Akufo.

After a season of incel behavior and generally acting like a turd (he repeatedly hits on a hostess at his favorite restaurant in a move that the show ultimately, bizarrely, rewards him for), Nate begins to feel remorse and eventually quits West Ham. Colin comes out as gay, and while his best friend and team captain Isaac (Kola Bokinni) is initially upset at having never been told, the two quickly mend fences, and the team rallies around Colin.

Begrudgingly, the team accepts a bid from Ted to bring Nate back. Nate's redemption in "Ted Lasso" Season 3 has been a matter of some debate among fans, but the end result is a healed locker room and a good amount of success on the pitch. In the final match of the season, Richmond defeats West Ham to finish second in the league, with Rupert leaving the game in embarrassing fashion.

Before the last game of Season 3 is played, Ted informs Rebecca that he intends to go home to America to be close to his son again. Ted and Rebecca part as close friends, spurning all of the fan theories that the show might shove them together at the end. Initially, Beard intends to leave with him, and he gets as far as the plane, only to declare tearfully that he is too in love with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jane (Phoebe Walsh) to leave her.

Beard ultimately stays behind and continues to work as an assistant coach for Richmond. Roy steps up in Ted's place as the new team manager, and Nate continues to work under him. The closing montage in the Season 3 finale shows Beard and Jane getting married (at Stonehenge, no less), with many members of the club in attendance, including Dani Rojas in what appears to be a throuple with two women.

Sam is shown as part of the Nigerian national team Trent Crimm publishes his book, changing the title from "The Lasso Way" to "The Richmond Way" at Ted's suggestion. After returning home, Ted has an amicable reunion with his ex-wife and begins coaching his son's youth soccer team, passing on some of the principles he embraced at Richmond.

While most of the closing montage at the end of "Ted Lasso" Season 3 is spent wrapping up threads, there are a few things that tease what would eventually be confirmed as the plot of Season 4. Keeley, now properly in business with Rebecca at her PR firm, KJPR, presents a proposal for a women's team at Richmond, with Rebecca responding excitedly. Of course, we now know that this is what Season 4 is going to be primarily about.

Rebecca ends Season 3 in a positive mindset, having moved beyond her anger at Rupert. After considering selling the team while its value is sky-high from the incredible season, she ends up selling just 49%, keeping the majority share. However, rather than selling to investors, she sells to the fan base, allowing them to become partial owners. Series stalwarts like Mae (Annette Badland), who owns a local pro-Richmond pub, and diehard fans Baz (Adam Colborne), Jeremy (Bronson Webb), and Paul (Kevin Garry) are all shown to have purchased shares.

On a more personal note, Rebecca happens to run into the man she met in Amsterdam after seeing Ted off at the airport. It turns out that he is a pilot, and the future of their potential relationship is left undetermined. Earlier teasers for Season 4 show that he's coming back. Keeley remains close friends with both Roy and Jamie, but at the end of Season 3, she is with neither, preferring to focus on her career.

In addition to the previously mentioned cast list for "Ted Lasso" Season 4, Apple TV has released a teaser trailer showing Ted returning to England to reunite with Beard in coaching the Richmond women's team, alongside a new coach played by Tanya Reynolds. Matteo van der Grijn is back as well as Matthijs, Rebecca's Dutch love interest. Roy and Keeley's relationship is also back in question, with one particular shot in the trailer teasing the potential tension between them. The diehard Richmond pub fans are also back in the trailer, but a bit more dressed up than normal, perhaps because they are now, technically, partial owners of the team.

Arguably more interesting is that Ted's son Henry (Grant Feely) and ex-wife Michelle (Andrea Anders) can both be seen in England, cheering on the squad in the Richmond colors. Michelle's relationship status with Ted remains unclear at this point, but it seems it will be a focus.

Will "Ted Lasso" Season 4 live up to the high standard of the show's best moments? The premise is certainly promising. "Ted Lasso" made Emmys history when it broke out with a record 20 nominations for its first season, and while the series carried a strong reputation in the years after, it never quite hit that same critical high. Perhaps "Ted Lasso" Season 4 can reclaim the title.