Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 3 Episode 9 of Ted Lasso.Colin Hughes' (Billy Harris) coming-out arc has been one of themost exciting and heartwarming plotsof this season ofTed Lasso. Unfortunately, it seems to have reached a stalemate in this week’s episode, “La Locker Room Aux Folles,” due to an unnecessary spat between Colin and AFC Richmond captain, Isaac McAdoo (Kola Bokinni). It all started with last week’s episode, “We’ll Never Have Paris,” whenKeeley’s (Juno Temple) intimate video leakprompts the players to go through their phones to erase any personal photos or videos that might belong to someone else. In the midst of all this, Isaac eventually grabs Colin’s phone, learns that he’s gay, and seems to get angry about it.
But, as we later learn, Isaac isn’t angry about the fact that Colin is gay, but rather about Colin not telling him. This week’s episode does a lot of bending over backward to try and create some tension around this, trying to leave the audience guessing many possibilities for Isaac’s fury, especially trying to make us think Isaac might be homophobic, or even feel uncomfortable about having a gay man in the locker room. But we know Isaac and we know Colin, as well as the dynamics of the Richmond locker room under Ted’s (Jason Sudeikis) management, so we know none of these possibilities are real, resulting in an artificial plot that drags on purely for the sake of drama.
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How the Latest ‘Ted Lasso’ Episode Tries To Build Tension…
One of the main problems with Season 3 ofTed Lassoso far is how it suddenly started developing characters andcoming up with new storylines for them so late in the game. With such an overcrowded season, we are only now getting to know the locker room dynamics of AFC Richmond, as earlier we focused on just a few of the players, likeSam Obisanya(Toheeb Jimoh) andJamie Tartt(Phil Dunster). It’s always nice to see new dynamics explored in such a great show, but why wait until now to do it?
One such storyline is Colin’s. We’ve known him from the start when he was one of Jamie’s cronies who used to bully Nate (Nick Mohammed) before Ted’s arrival as manager. He’s sure grown a lot since then, but that’s due to the whole team adapting to Ted’s approach as a coach, which made them grow both as players and as individuals. But Season 3 presented us with a little more insight into Colin’s life, like the fact that he’s been a closeted gay man this whole time. What we’ve seen of him was what he chose to present himself as, as a way of protecting his true self and not risking any sort of discomfort with the other players. Back in the sixth episode of the season, “Sunflowers,” he had a heart-to-heart conversation with Trent Crimm (James Lance) in Amsterdam and started becoming more comfortable with the idea of allowing himself to be his true self. We’ve seen him get more comfortable, but still struggle with coming out, which is only natural.
And then camethe huge leak of private videos from female stars, like Keeley. She’s not only one of AFC Richmond’s communication officials but also a huge friend of the whole team, so, as captain, Isaac ordered the whole team to delete any picture they may have of other people on their phones. Extreme, but not without reason, as footballers are easily targeted for these kinds of things. Colin resisted, afraid of revealing a secret he was still not ready to share. Isaac took his phone, saw things he shouldn’t have, and started shunning Colin.
The whole problem with their situation is Isaac’s behavior towards Colin. Isaac refuses his invitation to have a beer and talk it over, removes his hand from the team gathering before the match against Brighton, pushes Colin around on the pitch during the match, and even starts a fight with a fan in the very stands of Nelson Road. That’s the definition of toxic behavior, extremely problematic for a player who dons the captain armband of any club. In the end, after a talk with Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), he calms down and understands his feelings about the whole situation. As it turns out, Isaac wasn’t being homophobic, he was just sad Colin hadn’t told him earlier. Um…what?
… And Why It Fails at Creating Such Tension
What makes the whole Colin-Isaac debacle so hard to watch is not just the fact that we know and like both of them, but that we’ve seen Isaac grow into his captaincy during Season 2. We’ve seen him struggle with the responsibility of it and overcome his insecurities, becoming a great captain of AFC Richmond. Even before that, we already knew him as a team player due to his tradition of giving his colleagues his fabled haircuts.
So we know Isaac would never, ever even consider any kind of toxic behavior towards anyone, especially a player who’s always been his friend and who falls under his responsibility as captain. Everything Isaac did during the episode tries to paint him as a potential homophobe, but it’s almost impossible to buy this from him. His frustration at Colin is unreasonable for someone who’s always taken extreme measures to protect others as he does with Keeley after the leak. Yes, fighting a fan in the stands during a match is also extreme, but we know the effect it’s supposed to have on us: now we know he was defending his friend’s honor, but at that moment, we were supposed to see that as potentially homophobic. Only it doesn’t work for even a second, because it’s always been established that Isaac is open to his friends.
The way the situation is resolved is extremely simplistic given the lengths Isaac has gone to make clear his frustration: he just shows up at Colin’s house, they play video games together, joke about it, and that’s it. The whole thing dragged on for almost two episodes, to be easily dealt with just like that. Of course, Roy’s conversation with Isaac is also supposed to be a wholesome moment and an example of how men shouldn’t have problems talking about their feelings. But still, we’ve known Isaac for so long — no one really bought the trap the series laid out.
This plot seems to be yet another example of how Season 3 continues to struggle,now seeming like a premature endingto a show that only discovered more potential at its end. This was the main plot of the episode, attempting to create more drama than would’ve been necessary had the showstuck to its original 30-minute episodes. Isaac surely would’ve thought of a better way to address his disappointment in Colin, and we would’ve been spared the whole second-hand embarrassment of seeing our captain trying to be painted as homophobic.
Ted Lassowill release its Season 3 finale on May 17 on Apple TV.
