Apple TV+‘sTed Lassohad its fans guessing about the future of theEmmy Award-winning comedy-dramaeven before its Season 3 premiere.There is confirmed to besignificant excitement amongJason Sudeikisand his team regarding another season. Season 3 ofTed Lassoended with quite a few drastic creative decisions that would end up affecting the future of the Apple TV+ sports comedy series. WithTed (Jason Sudeikis) returning to the United Statesand Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) taking up the mantle as AFC Richmond’s new coach, a lot remains uncertain about the future of the central characters ofTed Lasso.While original cast members such asHannah Waddingham,Jeremy Swift, and Goldstein are expected to returnplaying their familiar characters, theone character that needs to return in Season 4 has to beNick Mohammed’s football coaching prodigy Nathan “Nate” Shelley, whodeserves a second and better chancewhen the series returns once again.
‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 Short-Changed Nate’s Character Arc
In Season 3,Ted Lassocontinues the story arc for Nate that the series painstakingly put up through the Season 2 finale. At the end of Season 2,Nate exited AFC Richmondand joined the rival club, West Ham. Season 3 continues to hype up Nate’s role as the season’s “big bad.” With Nate openly mocking Ted during a press conference in the season’s opening episode andAFC Richmond playersfinding out in Episode 4 that Nate tore down the “Believe” sign in half,Nate is definitively placed as thebiggest antagonist of the seasonconsidering how Rebecca’s (Hannah Waddingham) developing character arc left little forAnthony Head’s Rupert Mannion, Rebecca’s ex-husband, to wrestle for. Considering that Nate shared a very close and special relationship with Ted (something that Rupert did not), it seemed rather obvious that the tension between Nate and Ted would become the talking point of the season.
Moreover, Nate’s character is also given an emotionally turbulent journey as he continues to questionhis choice of leaving AFC Richmondwith such hostility running through him. However, asTed LassoSeason 3 continued its forward march toward consolidating the endless story points it had created earlier,it ended up sacrificing Nate’s complex journey in favor of an easy resolutionin the form of Nate quitting West Ham and quite casually being welcomed back into AFC Richmond. All things considered, Nate’s terribly fateful ending in Season 3 only demands that the writers bring back the show’s possibly smartest and beautifully vulnerable character to give him the ending he deserves.
Nate Never Received the Closure He Deserved in Season 3
Nate’s character arcwas one of the many storylines thatTed Lassowriters rushed toward a dead end. In Season 3, not only does Nate and Ted’s relationship undergo significant stress, but Nate alsoends up cutting off tieswith AFC Richmond, setting up a crucial storyline that was more interesting than anything else put forth in the concoction that was Season 3. However,the climax of Nate’s character arc did not receive a glorious endas much as the setup did. He had an unceremonious exit from West Ham and had to less-than-warmly be accepted back to AFC Richmond, thanks to Ted and other teammates.
Nate did achieve some progress in terms of reconciliation with his father, with whom he shared a strained relationship, but ultimately, the complexity of the situation and Nate’s emotional status, which led to his exit from Richmond, was left unaddressed. At Ted’s insistence,Coach Beard(Brendan Hunt) agrees to forgive Nate and offers him the job back, but this ending denies Nate the right toexplain his part of the story, with as much conviction that forced Nate to quit AFC Richmond in the first place. In the end,Nate’s reconciliation with Ted feels like a half-hearted attemptat providing Nate’s story with some closure.
‘Ted Lasso’s Potential Season 4 Just Got a Very Promising Update From Warner Bros.
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Nate Deserves To Return in ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4
For a character as complex and good asNick Mohammed’s Nate, his eventual ending in Season 3 felt likea rather unsatisfying one. Considering all factors, while the show allowed Nate to rise up momentarily, it almost feels unfair to the character that Nate was portrayed to be a weak and prideful man, who ended up making his friends his enemies, for no good reason. By placing the character in an inferior position, Season 3 ofTed Lassounwinds all the effort it put into giving Nate a journey completely detached from AFC Richmond. However, at West Ham, instead of rising as a character worthy of standing strong on his own feet,Nate appears to be a man driven by his ego and insecurities only.For a show with a story revolving around sports,Ted Lassotreats the one character with possibly the best sporting mind among the show’s roster of characters, quite transactionally.
WithTed possibly still in the United States in Season 4, Nate could be the one finding the limelight at AFC Richmond, given he has the brains to push Richmond to great heights (as he has shown with West Ham), withRoy Kentleading the charge. Also, a returnwill allow the character to flourishand explore his own journey, without being rushed by the complications ofa season imploding on the backof its many experiments. Just like many other characters inTed Lasso,Nate’s journey can reach its logical, satisfying conclusion if the character can be allowed time to flourishindependently, at his own pace. Not to mention that in a “sports” show where everything almost works magically through the power of belief, Nate is very much needed to prove that sports also demand strategic thinking and game awareness — all factors thatTed Lassorarely dwells on in the pursuit of delivering its broader message.
American college football coach Ted Lasso heads to London to manage AFC Richmond, a struggling English Premier League soccer team.
All seasons ofTed Lassoare available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
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