The season finale of Ted Lasso has gotten overshadowed in the pop culture buzz-isphere by the series finale of Succession, and rightfully so. Succession, a multi-Emmy winning drama loaded with laughs, maintained its quality to the end, whereas Ted Lasso, a multi-Emmy winning comedy stuffed with emotion, started missing the net with regularity in its third season.
You don’t have to take US Bets’ word for it. Just peep Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ score went from a 92% in the first season and a 98% in the second to a mere 81% in this latest season, and the audience score has skidded from 95% to 84% to 74%.
Once a tight half-hour each week, the Apple TV+ show has leaned into bloated episodes that sometimes stretched beyond an hour, dithered with multi-episode plotlines that went nowhere (see: the Keeley-Jack romance and all things Zava), and handed viewers a Nate redemption arc that neglected to show him doing anything particularly redeeming. When it came to the Season 3 Nate plot development, the Ted Lasso writers room apparently began its strike a few months early.
None of which is to say that Ted Lasso is now a bad show. It’s still frequently heartwarming and funny, and we still care about most of the characters. It just isn’t what it once was.
But perhaps the Season 3 finale, which drops Tuesday night, will reverse the momentum. The episode is titled “So Long, Farewell,” which has obvious multiple meanings, with Ted seemingly likely to leave AFC Richmond, creator/star Jason Sudeikis likely to exit, and Ted Lasso possibly concluding with this episode.
So let’s dig into the odds attached to those three interpretations first as we present another collection of betting odds available only at US Bets, and only for funny money.
The last of Lasso
Ted goes home to Kansas, -1000: It’s been pointing this way the entire season, peaking with Ted’s mom insisting to him in the penultimate episode that Ted’s son, Henry, misses him. The Episode 11 cliffhanger ending had Ted needing to tell his boss Rebecca something. Unless the writers are throwing us a major curveball (or, in a more soccer-appropriate cliché, bending it like Beckham), he’s telling her it’s time for him to go back to the U.S. of A. after one more game and one more episode of TV.
This is Sudeikis’ final episode, not counting future cameos, -1500: Slightly different odds here, accounting for the possibility that Sudeikis writes himself off in some less obvious way than the Kansas option. But one way or another, it’s clear he’s ready to move on from Ted Lasso.
Ted Lasso ends, +600: Whereas this seemed a realistic proposition heading into the season, we now think it’s a longshot. The show has been laying the groundwork for a new coach to take over AFC Richmond (more odds on that shortly) while testing out the waters with episodes that push Ted into the background, and surely the suits at Apple don’t want to lose their most popular show.
Whistle! Whistle!
Assuming the parlay of Ted leaving the show but Ted Lasso continuing hits, who will be the head coach of AFC Richmond?
- Roy, +125: This is the chalk pick, and we wish we could parlay it with “Coach Roy Kent grows out his hair to look like the poster on Jamie Tartt’s childhood bedroom wall.”
- Nate, +200: Clearly, Nate has coaching acumen, and clearly, the writers are pointing toward bringing him back into the fold with Richmond, although perhaps just as an assistant to Roy.
- Roy and Nate together, +400: Co-coaches? In a universe in which an American football coach who barely understands the rules of a soccer can be handed a professional soccer coaching gig, a double-head-coach plan doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
- Beard, +750: Maybe he’ll follow Ted anywhere (last week’s exposition dump about their past suggests as much). But maybe the beard is ready to grow free on its own, independent of the mustache.
- Tom Wambsgans, +10000: Seems unlikely, but you can’t entirely rule out an unassisted triple play taking out Roy, Nate, and Beard.
From relegation to jubilation?
Richmond wins the Premier League, -110: We had this at -110 before the season, and that’s where it remains with one game to go. The Greyhounds need to win their final game and have Man City not win its final game, and it remains a coin flip whether we’re getting the Rocky ending or the Rocky II ending.
If it’s Rocky II, who scores the winning goal?
- Jaime Tartt, -250: The best character arc of the season, the highest FIFA rating on the team — yeah, Jamie is the chalk pick.
- Sam Obisanya, +450: Just to stuff it in Edwin Akufo’s face.
- Isaac McAdoo, +800: The captain is due an on-field hero moment.
- Colin Hughes, +1000: Bit of a longshot, as the writers already have given him a few clutch goals of late.
- Dani Rojas, +1200: Belated closing of the “he accidentally killed a dog with a penalty kick” arc.
- Moe Bumbercatch, +4000: Apparently he’s the most “fit” fella on the team.
- The field, +5000: This covers everyone from bit players Jan Maas and Richard Montlaur to some sort of ridiculous Zava return or Roy Kent suiting up.
Betting odds and ends
Roy and Keeley are officially a couple again, -200: This shoots to -1000 if this is the series finale.
A Rebecca-Ted romance begins, +1000: The show likes to tease the Rebecca-Ted ‘shippers, but this is probably just a beautiful friendship, nothing more.
The Rebecca-Sam romance reignites, +200: Still problematic to have a player dating the owner, but we can’t ignore the googly eyes they were making while watching You’ve Got Mail.
Rupert’s wife divorces him and gets the West Ham team, +100: This is probably what the gathering of scorned/cheated-on Rupert wives and girlfriends in Episode 11 is pointing toward.
Bex gets West Ham and rehires Nate as coach, +400: Live odds on Nate as Richmond coach could move dramatically.
This tweet comes true, +300:
My crackpot theory is that the former assistant (brunette) is pregnant and wants to give up the baby. Rebecca adopts the baby. Psychic lady was right, Rebecca becomes a mum
— coeur-de-coeurs (@WildwoodWilla) May 24, 2023
Colin comes out publicly, -150: It’ll happen when he’s ready, and a season finale that may be a series finale seems a fine time to be ready.
We find out Nate’s girlfriend Jade has a twin sister, +2500: This one is a heavy underdog, but it would be the best way to explain how absurdly and inconsistently written this character is.
Someone writes the Trent Crimm book and it’s available for purchase IRL, +400: Not a bad additional way for the show’s creators to cash in. Come on, like you wouldn’t read a fictional soccer version of The Breaks of the Game?
The show wins its third straight Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy, +2000: This was +115 heading into the season. Awards shows get stuff wrong all the time and the Emmys voters do tend to keep rewarding the same shows repeatedly out of habit/laziness, but it’s hard to see this stumble-filled season getting any more than a reflexive nomination.
It’s revealed that the whole show has been taking place inside one of Barbara’s snow globes, +10000: Apologies if you were almost finished with your St. Elsewhere binge and we just spoiled it for you.
Photo: Jason Kopaloff/Getty Images
