How Did ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 End? (& Where Does Season 4 Pick Up?)
I’ve seen every episode of Ted Lasso (2020) multiple times. I remember most of it very, very well. So well I can practically recite it. Even so, there’s a lot that happens in the last 10 minutes of Ted Lasso Season 3, Episode 12, “So Long, Farewell.” Some of which, like Ted (Jason Sudeikis) and Rebecca’s (Hannah Waddingham) heartfelt goodbye at the airport, have stuck with me in the three years since the show ended its original, three-season arc. Others, like Coach Beard’s (Brendan Hunt) Stonehenge wedding, I try to think about a lot less.
I wasn’t alone in that, either. I remember a time when the internet convinced itself that the wedding took place during a dream sequence. The rumor was that it was a figment of Ted’s imagination since it happened during his nap on his plane ride back to Kansas. However, director Declan Lowney said the opposite, telling Awards Radar, “I think the details are too specific for it to be a dream of tense.” Lowney added that the sequence is actually Ted Lasso “flashing forward to seeing what happens to everybody in the future." So, one of my big questions is if and how that future will play into Ted Lasso Season 4.
Where Does ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 Leave Everyone?
Most of the Ted Lasso Season 3 finale hinges on Ted’s steadfast choice to leave the AFC Richmond family in London to return to his son, Henry (Gus Turner), in Kansas. The lead-up to that is pretty final in his eyes. He never wavers in his choice, even when Rebecca offers him another option. The one who wavers is Coach Beard, who has built a life and a (controversial, in my opinion) relationship with Jane Payne (Phoebe Walsh) in England. In a bittersweet and hilarious farewell, Beard fakes appendicitis to get off the plane. Beard stays, and Ted goes.
The final shot of Ted Lasso finds Ted coaching Henry’s soccer team in Kansas, with Ted’s ex-wife Michelle (Andrea Anders) watching on. It’s left to be determined if that means Ted and Michelle rekindled their relationship, or if they’re both there to support Henry. I lean toward the latter—and not only because I think Ted and Rebecca are meant for each other.
The final montage first reunites Rebecca with the Dutchman after she meets his daughter. That choice seemingly fulfills the psychic’s premonition about Rebecca’s future from earlier in the season. Weirdly, there are no updates on Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Keeley’s (Juno Temple) relationship. However, Roy starts therapy with Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles). I love that she becomes the club’s new Head of Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being, while Roy becomes the rightful manager of AFC Richmond. His coaching staff consists of Nate (Nick Mohammed), who is still dating Jade (Edyta Budnik), and Beard, who marries Jane in that aforementioned wedding.
There don’t seem to be any changes to AFC Richmond’s squad. There aren’t really updates about the team’s progress without Ted beyond the coaching staff changes, announced by Rebecca. Outside of AFC Richmond, Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) finally makes the Nigerian national team, and Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) visits his dad in rehab. Plus, with her newly rebranded PR company, Keeley presents Rebecca the idea for AFC Richmond Women’s Team.
When Does ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 Pick Up?
One of the things that I often think about—and sometimes give myself a headache over—is the timeline. Ted Lasso never reveals when that montage takes place. Does it all follow Rebecca’s scene outside the airport? Because that scene takes place immediately after Ted gets on the plane. Do all the other scenes unfold in the same order that they do in the montage? Does that montage take place across six weeks, six months, or multiple years? The answer is a mystery.
Therefore, it’s hard to know when Ted Lasso Season 4 picks up—other than after the events of Season 3. Whether those events include every scene in the extensive montage remains to be seen. One scene that I’d bet has happened before Season 4 is that exchange between Rebecca and Keeley about a women’s team. After all, one of the only things that the new season’s synopsis reveals is that “Ted returns to Richmond, taking on his biggest challenge yet: coaching a second division women’s football team. Throughout the course of the season, Ted and the team learn to leap before they look, taking chances they never thought they would.”
Ultimately, the Ted Lasso Season 4 description is sparse, and the first (and only so far) trailer is just a teaser of what’s to come. There’s more unknown than known at this point. I want to think that the montage is what happens between seasons because there are three years for Ted Lasso to fill in. Then again, even believing that is me assuming that the show’s on-screen timeline parallels its off-screen one. There may be more or less time between the seasons for the characters, compared to that of the audience. The good news is that we will hopefully find out answers to these questions when Ted Lasso returns on Wednesday, August 4, 2026 on Apple TV.
