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chainofclovers · 3 years

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Nate the Great

Hello, I am here because I cannot stop thinking about Nathan Shelley and the many things that are Happening with him. Spoiler-cut for spoilers through Ted Lasso 2x8 and speculation based on conversations w/@bristler, other people in the fandom, a really great interview with Nick Mohammed, and the endless barrage of thoughts in my head!

In 1x7, when Nate gets his chance to roast the players before their match in Liverpool, I both delighted and cringed at the moment. Nate's big moment gets the intended results--he riles up the players by hitting them where it hurts, and that energy nets Ted and the team a much-needed win. But I've always felt that part of why Nate is allowed to deliver his speech in such an uncensored way has a lot to do with Ted's shame that he got drunk and snapped at Nate the night before. It took vulnerability for Nate to decide to slip his thoughts about the team underneath Ted's door, and Ted wasn't in a position to recognize that act for what it was; Ted makes Nate feel weak, and that's got to be crushing coming from someone who's become a mentor and friend. At the same time, Ted is starting to evolve into a person who understands winning is important, so he makes the call that's going to help the team win...and ends up unwittingly rewarding the crueler parts of Nate in the process.

Fast forward to season 2, and Nate still hasn't learned the difference between vulnerability and weakness. The people in his life who understand the difference haven't fully comprehended how much Nate needs to learn it, and they haven't taught him, and Nate's own feelings of self-worth are so bound up in external factors that he's not able to pick it up by osmosis, either.

So now I can't stop thinking about the moment in 2x8 when Higgins and the coaches huddle before the big match and Ted tells everyone he's been having panic attacks. Everyone goes around and spontaneously shares something they've been keeping to themselves, and each person's admission feels like an act of solidarity. Vulnerability. But Nate sees weakness, and his own admission is actually about his ability to be calculating--his ability to make an idea feel spontaneous.

I keep imagining a moment when fame- and power-hungry Nate gets an opportunity to be in the spotlight, and I imagine another moment like the locker room scene in 1x7. A moment with spontaneous-feeling energy that's actually totally calculated. And this time, instead of a cringe-y moment easily forgotten because it brought victory, this moment could be devastating and profoundly regrettable.

Because what if Nate tells the press his own version of the vulnerable stories his friends and colleagues shared in confidence. The weak versions of their vulnerability.

In my imagined version of Nate's words to the press, Ted isn't a man seeking treatment for his panic disorder; he's unfit to coach due to untreated mental illness. Roy isn't an impatient person who doesn't bother to read the coaching reports Ted, Beard, and Nate put together; he's a star whose ego allows him to coast on fame without having to bother with the details of the team. Higgins isn't a harried, office-less professional who messed up a timezone; he's inept and in over his head and sabotaged the roster of the team. Beard isn't a normally-perceptive coach who made a mistake with the mushroom tea because he's being abused by his girlfriend and lacks his usual support system; he's a drug user who lets his personal relationships get in the way of his professional responsibilities.

There's a grain of truth to everything Nate says, but he's lacking the spirit of why he has this information, the context of vulnerability, the preciousness of this one oasis of connection between coaches who are currently disjointed.

I know there's a lot of talk about the relationship between Sam and Rebecca and the Dubai Air and Bantr sponsorships and how those could be a big issue in the press. I definitely think that's a big possibility, but everyone involved in that subplot has a support system. They have a place to land no matter how bad things get, and the show already does a great job depicting how incredibly cruel and unfair the British press can be about personal matters.

This stuff with Nate, though...while the coaches do have a support system and people they can trust, all those connections seem so much more tenuous. And Nate isn't able to trust anyone right now, least of all himself. So the more abusive he gets, he could really fuck a lot of people over, and he might be the one who gets the most hurt in the end.

There's a lot to appreciate about the interview with Nick Mohammed linked above, but I want to particularly call out the fact that he points out that in s1, when he's angry with Rebecca, he calls her a "shrew." I knew that wasn't just a throwaway line, a moment of casual misogyny overlooked, somehow, by the multi-gender writers' room. It was absolutely intentional, absolutely a sign of how far he can go even on a dime when he's upset. He also points out the importance of Rebecca telling him early in s2 that he deserves what he wants. Imagine the irony of that coming back to haunt her if Nate betrays the team (and Rebecca by extension), or if he hurts Rebecca again more personally. I also appreciate that Mohammed lets us know that he's not going to die in season 2 and that he has a storyline in season 3.

I just think there's going to be a lot of pain on the way there.

(This show is so good. Even if it goes nothing like what I'm predicting here, I have every confidence that the betrayal arc is going to be intense and earned.)

#ted lasso #ted lasso s2 spoilers #ted lasso speculation #nick mohammed #nathan shelley #meta by me #ted lasso 2x8

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chainofclovers · 3 years

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Ted Lasso 2x8 thoughts

I am so lucky that the creators of Ted Lasso decided to make this entire show specifically for me. #blessed

If last week felt like a bit of breathing room (albeit tense, poignant, character-progressing breathing room) with distinct narrative lines, this week’s episode was a chaotic yet tightly-written swirl of pain and hope and sadness! No neat subject headers for this one, y’all. Just my brain and heart in the inadequate form of a bulleted list. It is the medium available to me at this time.

I am going to remember the moment when Ted calls Sharon and tells her his father killed himself for the rest of my life.

(I could say a bunch of stuff about his face and what he says and how he tries to hide his tears from Beard right after and how insanely much I adore this character and ahhhhhhhh but I’m just going to leave that scene there in our collective memories.)

Jamie. JAMIE. Higgins has given some great advice about love on this show, but his musings about his up-and-down relationship with his own father were not helpful in the context of Jamie’s dad, who is an abusive piece of shit. I really adore that all of the main AFC Richmond staff members are realistically a bit hit-or-miss with their advice and life philosophies (some are mostly miss this season, of course).

And I am completely in awe of the moment when Jamie punches his father. The way he just stands there after Beard kicks his dad out of the locker room. The way you can hear a pin drop. And Roy—Roy who is learning in so many areas of his life about his influence on people, learning that the things he needs aren’t necessarily the same as the things other people need—is the one to cross the room and hug him. Hold him, really, with the tenderness Ted used when he hugged Rebecca outside the gala in 1x4. God.

I’ve thought a lot about how s1 was about giving people a soft place to land. There’s always an angel there when you need one. There’s always an opportunity to be kind. If you look for someone, you find them. If you look for the good in someone, you find the good. And as everyone works through their individual journeys in s2, that can’t always be the case anymore. But there are still so many moments of angels on this show, and it’s not about chance and serendipity and fate [not that it was about that in s1] but about the effort it takes to become someone who can be there for someone else. Or who can be there for yourself. I’m so proud of Jamie for physically fighting back against his father. I’m so proud of Roy for being the one who recognized what Jamie needed.

I have every feeling in the world about how Ted is almost totally frozen both times (s1 and s2) he witnesses Jamie’s father abusing him. In s1, he was still there for Jamie after, and I have every reason to believe he’ll be there for Jamie after this incident as well, but that frozen stance HURTS. He’s in so deep with his pain about his own father that it’s like he physically cannot snap out of it to act in the moment. It seems entirely outside of his control, and it breaks my heart, because Ted wants so badly to be a good father, a good coach, a good friend, a good partner, a good patient. He’s there for people in all kinds of ways, even in his current less-than-capable state. He takes care of Sharon post-concussion and even gets her a new bike! During the disastrous match at Wembley his coaching is ineffectual and everything is chaos but he’s the last one standing on the pitch! But this really awful thing keeps happening to Jamie and Ted is just…frozen in the face of it. Like one of those nightmares where you’re running in place.

The frozen-in-place nightmare also kind of applies to the way the total separation between Ted and Rebecca feels, too. I have never for a moment doubted the writers’ intentions in setting these characters up as soulmates on parallel journeys, and I’m actually really digging (on a story level) how disconnected they are right now. It is IMPRESSIVE that their absence in each other’s lives feels like such a glaring loss, one we cannot forget even as there are so many other things happening onscreen. It is 100% not just shipper goggles making me process information about Ted while thinking about Rebecca and information about Rebecca while thinking about Ted. I know there are a lot of really angry and frustrated people in the fandom right now (both T/R shippers and T/R antis and non-shipping fans who don’t get why s2 is different from s1) and while I understand being frustrated by choices characters make, and frustrated by the feelings the show makes us feel that we just want to feel more of or less of, I continue to agree with pretty much every narrative choice happening right now.

Agreeing with the narrative like this?! This is such a unique experience for me as a viewer—to feel like I’m on a ride that is at once absolutely wild and incredibly sensible and well-crafted, and to feel simultaneously completely invested and anticipatory and speculative but also totally willing to trust where it goes. I long for Ted and Beard to really talk. I long for Ted and Rebecca to stop missing each other. I long for Roy to have a serious conversation with Ted about what’s happening with him. I long for Keeley to find a vocation, something that drives her beyond her projects. I long for so many things! But I wouldn’t long for them if this show was less good. If the show was less good, I wouldn’t have a wish list a mile long because I wouldn’t be so attuned to the details and potential lurking in every scene. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SHOW, I CANNOT HANDLE IT, I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

(To that end, a great deal of the Ted Lasso tag and so many Twitter reactions reactions to the show feel super stressful right now and I am kind of just trying not to look?! I love this fandom so much because of the amazing conversations that happen and because of brilliant fic and because there are some awesome people I never would have encountered were it not for this show. That little bubble is wonderful and I’d stay in this fandom no matter what in order to keep experiencing those things. But fans’ catastrophic reactions to every little thing that happens, every little choice a character makes that isn’t the “perfect” choice? The takeaway that the writers—on this show of all shows—wake up in the morning ready for another day of torturing shippers rather than another day of writing a beautiful story they genuinely want to write? I do not enjoy those parts at all. I would like to opt out of those parts. I’m having such a magical experience watching this show and talking about this show and listening about this show and writing about this show with a variety of people who feel all kinds of ways. I truly wish I could somehow transfer the energy of this experience onto all the people who are hating it right now. I don’t mind at all that people are having vastly different reactions to this show and are sharing their honest feelings, including the really angry ones (I can appreciate something and disagree with it!), and I get that sometimes the language of fannish reactions is intentionally, ironically hyperbolic. But there feels like this very serious trend of people legitimately thinking writers on this show are targeting shippers and have lost respect for their characters, and I just feel like an alien from another planet when I see that stuff. I guess I just feel like people make art because they want their art to be visible to other people and to themselves, but that doesn’t typically involve specifically catering to or torturing a subset of that audience?)

I am more fascinated by Sharon Fieldstone than ever before. I have been running through every single action with her and Ted so many times. The confirmation that she’s living in club-provided housing (that could not look more different from Ted’s club-provided flat). Ted clearly noticing the many bottles. Sharon’s face while she tries to casually recycle them. (Sharon could legitimately have a more problematic relationship with alcohol than Ted does, and I find that extremely interesting and am very curious to find out what happens there.) Sharon leaving him voice notes while she’s concussed, probably because she’d been thinking about him shortly before the accident. The way Ted calls her and does all the funny voices and it’s not frustrating like all the times he uses his silliness and allusions to deflect during their prior conversations because this time, those behaviors are just a part of him showing care for another person. The way they stretch each other, and Ted is still wrong about the things he’s been wrong about, but they both grow all the same.

While it is pretty much impossible for me to imagine that this show would include an actual romantic relationship between Ted and Sharon (it would be beyond unethical even if they could write it well, and Sharon in particular is so professional and committed to her work, and it would erase so much of the powerful message about the importance of seeking therapy from a professional who is not your friend or partner, and I would totally hate it), watching this episode was the first moment I had this queasy little feeling that it’s possible that Ted could end up developing really complicated feelings about Sharon since, at this point, he’s been honest with her about things he’s hardly spoken about before and you can really form an attachment to people you feel safe with in a new way. (I mean, I’m sure Michelle knows what happened with Ted’s father, but I’m not even certain if Beard does.) He’s so broken right now, and Sharon is such a great person and so different from anyone else in his life (even though Rebecca is also different, and Beard is also different, and Roy is also different, and so on), that I could see things getting really fuzzy for him. I continue to have faith in the way the storylines on this show are handled. I’m just. Putting this here.

(In saying that, though, I also wanna make it really clear that I don’t just automatically assume anytime a new female character is introduced that they’re going to end up becoming a romantic complication. Like, Phoebe is allowed to have a teacher who is an attractive woman and AFC Richmond is allowed to have a sports psychologist who is an attractive woman and Keeley is allowed to talk to Jamie Tartt without it threatening what she has with Roy and all these people can exist as human beings without the introduction of romantic drama.)

Isaac gives every player one haircut per season, OH MY GOD. The JOY during the haircut scene. YES.

KEELEY AND REBECCA. Their text thread. The affirming video call right before Rebecca goes into the restaurant. The way Keeley sits all snuggled up against Rebecca in her office.

I was pretty thoroughly spoiled for the Sam and Rebecca plot through 2x8, and I was bracing for something far more problematic and tortured than what happens in this episode. The words I would use to describe their scenes: awkward, cute, cringy, and understandable. There are a million reasons why this relationship isn’t sustainable, but I felt completely understanding of both their choices here. This show has a lot of thesis statements, but I keep going back to the idea from 2x1 that there are people who enter your life to help you get to the next point, and I think it’s entirely possible that Sam and Rebecca will mutually be that for each other.

I find comparisons between Rupert and Rebecca super upsetting. There are absolutely meaningful things to say about the irony of ending up in a situation with an uncomfortable resemblance to certain taboo elements of an ex’s situation. But that ex is abusive and manipulative and cruel and Rebecca has exhibited NONE of those behaviors, and it makes me really sad to think that people feel that the writers on this show have betrayed Rebecca in giving her this storyline.

As always, I reserve the right to keep blathering about this show. I’ve had a headache for a couple of days, but my head is also so full of 2x8 thoughts that I couldn’t keep them in even if the circumstances for writing this were not ideal. I kind of hate that I’ve included frustrated fandom thoughts within the analysis of what I felt was an absolutely gorgeous, complicated, heartbreaking, near-perfect episode of television, but if ya can’t be a little dramatic on your own tumblr while you’re feeling raw and under the weather, where can ya?

#ted lasso #ted lasso s2 spoilers #meta by me #ted lasso 2x8 #a lesbian watches ted lasso #cw: suicide mention #cw: alcohol abuse mention

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