This was a fantastic episode! Such a contrast to last week’s episode, where nothing really happened, and we were deprived of the sweetness of Sam, the fierceness of Rebecca, the awesomeness of Keeley, and the puppyishness of Danny Rojas. All of which come in to play in this episode.

Right off, we learn that Rebecca and Sam not only slept together but have been sleeping together, keeping their relationship a secret. One cuddly morning, they’re interrupted by her mother, Deborah, who arrives to announce that her father’s died, and they have a funeral for him. This of course means that my beloved Sassy makes an appearance! And the slightly less beloved Nora, but she’s pretty tolerable this time. There are, of course, some fabulous hats. The whole team even attends, all dressed up and everything. (There is an absolutely adorable side plot in which Danny Rojas learns that he hates dress shoes.) 

Another person who shows up to “pay his respects” (not) is Rupert, really there to show off his super-young wife Bex and their new baby, Diane. It’s hilariously obnoxious, and Rebecca hates it. Later, Deborah advises her not to let him get to her. Rebecca apparently has never realized this trick before, and it actually helps her! As soon as she starts being polite to him, he slinks off–after promising her Bex’s shares so she can be majority owner again. But the real winner of Rupert’s scenes is Sassy: “Rupert, I think about your death every single day. Ooh, I can’t wait. I’m going to wear red to your funeral. I will be a beacon of joy to the other three people there.” Hee! I turned to Keets and said that I wanted to say that if I ever ran into Janes’ evil ex-boyfriend. I’m just mad Sassy thought of it first.

Speaking of Sassy, when Keeley tells her that Rebecca is secretly sleeping with someone, the three of them start drinking wine in some side room (a chapel? A sacristy? I don’t know, guys, it’s been awhile since I was in a church) and they, plus Nora, all start shrieking at the top of their lungs when Rebecca finally reveals that it’s Sam. The priest is super mad and it’s hilarious.

After that, things get more serious when Rebecca reveals to Deborah that she’s still angry at her father for cheating on Deborah all these years. It turns out Deborah knew all along, which makes Rebecca even madder that she put up with it. Deborah says she loved him anyway, and they compare the situation to Rupert, whom Rebecca left despite how difficult and painful it was to be “alone.” After that, Rebecca agrees to give an impromptu eulogy, which mostly consists of her singing “Never Gonna Give You Up,” the Rickrolling song. Of course everyone else ends up singing along. Basically, she Rickrolls her own dad’s funeral, except that everyone takes it very seriously and is very sweet about it. After the reception, she has drinks with her mom and they giggle over childhood photos, somehow getting closer after all the revelations and fighting.

Now, to round up the other guests:

Keeley is weirdly affected by the death, and innocently weirded out by the concept of funerals. She’s clearly a little upset that Roy isn’t in the same spiral she is. (Of the afterlife, he says, “You live, you die, you’re done.”) She decides she wants to be turned into a tree when she dies so everyone can eat the fruit that’s nourished by her rotting corpse, and Roy understandably finds this weird. I became concerned about the disconnect between them when Jamie and Keeley exchanged weird looks during the service. Then I became very alarmed when Jamie found Keeley and confessed that his entire turnaround was due to her: he’s in love with her. Whaaaat?! Maybe I’m just obtuse, but I feel like that came out of nowhere! And I’m also concerned about the romantic piano musical cue that accompanied it. You all know I am a Roy/Keeley fangirl! But immediately afterwards, Roy apologizes for being “a prick” and joking too much about death, and also makes a sweet confession of love. So maybe everything’s OK!

Remember Beard and how he sucked all the energy out of the Ted Lasso universe for forty-nine unnecessary minutes last week? Well, last week I wrote that I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to think about Jane, if she was abusive and scary, or just kind of needy, or if I was supposed to actually like her, or what. Well, I have my answer, because Beard spends Rebecca’s dad’s entire funeral with Jane on facetime because she “loves funerals.” Now I know exactly what kind of person Jane is! She and Beard are the kind of people that just make each other suck. Not evil, not abusive, just… each of them sucks as a person when they’re together. WHO FACETIMES AT A FUNERAL? Ugh.

The one person who doesn’t show up to the funeral (at least, right away), is Ted, who’s blasting his music for a one-man getting-dressed party when he has another panic attack. Well, that’s not entirely surprising, right? Since now we know his panic attacks are about his father’s death. He calls Sharon, who comes right over, and asks him to tell the story of his father’s death (Ted was the one who discovered him). Ted declares he hates his dad for “quitting,” but then finally confesses that he doesn’t think his dad knew he was a good dad, and that maybe if he had, he wouldn’t have killed himself. After that, “I was never gonna let anybody get by me without understanding they might be hurting inside,” he says, crying. So now we know: he reaches out to everyone because he feels responsible for his father’s suicide, and as his panic attacks have increased, that’s why he’s become more intense and aggressive in his famed “niceness.” Somehow, he manages to reach this epiphany, get a big hug from Sharon, finish getting dressed, and arrive in the middle of the funeral, just in time to join in Rebecca’s song. He’s even well enough to go home with Sassy after the reception. But I’m sure that he’ll still be dealing with all the feelings coming up about his dad for a long time.

And finally, Sam. At the reception afterwards, Rebecca realizes she has to break up with him. She tells him he’s “wonderful” and “could really hurt me,” and that scares her, so she needs to work on herself. I confess I don’t know how to read this scene either. Is she saying she was falling in love with him? I don’t really buy that. But am I just missing the chemistry between them because I think he’s so inappropriately young?! Anyway, she seems sad, though not as sad as Sam.

Other thoughts:

• Sam argues that if he and Rebecca were publicly dating, he could kiss her neck in public. That’s… how you know you’re dating a twenty-one-year-old.
• Sam sinking down below the counter when Rebecca’s mom points out that his underwear “leaves little to the imagination” — he’s still crouched there when they learn that Rebecca’s dad died — made me laugh. Perfect little touch of physical comedy.
• Keeley wears a tiger-print psychedelic silk corset top to a work meeting. It’s a choice.
• Nate: “I’d like to be reincarnated as a tiger, then ravage anyone who looked at me wrong.” Oh, Nate. You have not learned much since the last time we saw you.
• Isaac tells the team that they can’t wear trainers to the funeral, and one guy asks, “But what if they’re like, really nice Yeezys?” Isaac, gravely: “What color?” Team member, hopefully: “Bright red.” Hee. I also like that Isaac’s leadership style seems to be at least 50% fashion-related.
• It gives me so much pleasure that Keeley is wearing an incredibly low-cut minidress with puffed sleeves and a giant black satin bow to this funeral. Of course that’s what she wears! Of course. (Also, I definitely thought they were in some kind of store dressing room buying funeral clothes, only to realize later that this is in fact how Keeley decorates her dressing room, which, again, of course it is.)

• Roy’s philosophy on finding hair in food is, “It’s fine if you know who the hair is from.” You know, I am usually very easily grossed out by food things, but… I kind of agree with this. I mean, I’m always finding my own hair in my food, so if I didn’t have this philosophy I wouldn’t be able to eat anything.
• Nate messes up his condolences because he thinks he’s too good for saying “Sorry for your loss” after everyone else already said that, so he tries to say something wise about fathers and it goes horribly wrong. Oh, Nate.
• Keeley’s way of supporting Rebecca is to stare at Rupert’s baby and go, “That baby sucks. I hate it.” Hee! What a good friend.
• I also love how Keeley and Sassy leap into each other’s arms shrieking and complimenting each other’s funeral outfits in the middle of a church. So inappropriate and definitely in character.
• Jamie, in support of the suffering Danny, says that dress shoes are “made for sheep, they’re made for muggles, they’re made for twats.” What a sweet reason to be weirdly rude about shoes!
• Sharon finally fully wins Ted over by declaring that she hates tea.
• Ted’s suicide story is intercut with the story of Rebecca finding out her father had cheated on her mother. I think it’s a little weird that such an intense story as the dad’s suicide would be intercut with something so much less momentous. I mean, it sucks that Rebecca’s dad cheated and she saw it, but not as much as if he’d killed himself, right? But it draws a very direct parallel between Ted and Rebecca. Which makes sense–they’ve both been on healing journeys post-divorce, so they were already in parallel, and now we know a little more about why each one ended up in dysfunctional relationships. Ted: so nice that he ended up with someone who he couldn’t connect with at all. Rebecca: so attracted to bad men that she ended up living through the same blatant infidelity her mother did.
• I love that Ted Lasso had to read that god-awful book Johnny Tremain in sixth grade too. I still remember being drilled about some metaphor having to do with a crucible. And I definitely still remember how boring the book was. Don’t blame Ted one bit for not reading it. (The context is that Ted didn’t read the book so his dad read it for him and gave him a verbal Cliffs notes to help him out. Weird parenting strategy, but given it was Johnny Tremain, I guess I support it.)
• Bex breastfeeds during the funeral. I have to say, I support everyone’s right to breastfeed in public. If Keeley did it during the funeral I would be like, “Omg, Keeley is amazing.” But Bex doing it? It seemed so in-character, like she was trying to rub in her Rupert-baby in Rebecca’s face.
• Rupert whispers something in Nate’s ear just as he leaves the funeral. (BTW, the baby is nowhere in sight when he and Bex take their leave. What happened to it?! So weird.) I’m so curious what it was! I bet it was cutting and mean. Hopefully we’ll find out next episode.