‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4, Episode 6 Recap: Boat Party

Season 4, Episode 6: ‘Don’t Jump Around Much Anymore’

First things first.

I would like to take a victory lap. Two laps, in fact. A couple of episodes ago, I predicted that Roy would wind up dating the doctor (Laura Haddock) he saw for his knee. And lo, to the profound distress of both Keeley and myself, it has come to pass.

Last episode, I predicted that Ted would wind up dating the stage manager he met at Jane’s play. And while there hasn’t been any concrete action on that front yet, Ted confessed to Michelle this week that there was interest. (Fun bit of trivia: The actress who plays the stage manager, Charlotte Riley, is married to the actor Tom Hardy.)

Moving on from my dazzling feats of romantic prognostication, this week’s offering was not exactly a bottle episode, but it had the feel of one — and mostly not, for my taste, in a good way. It’s New Year’s Eve everyone! So we have a lot of one-off gags and story lines this episode. Here goes.

Jamie

You might have to go back to Daenerys and Jon Snow getting frisky with each other to find a purer case of fan service than Jamie bouncing back into “Ted Lasso” for a single episode (presumably) as a pitchman for his Old-Testament-themed vodka brand, Apple Tartt.

But thank goodness he’s here! And precisely as remembered. Otherwise, the show might have to come up with a story line or two for its many new and still largely unknown characters.

And what was up with the “Jump Around” scene with Jamie and Roy? It’s basically an offshoot of a cameo by an old character, and it gives the episode its name?

But credit where due: I don’t know when in the process Jamie’s “two-eyed Cyclops” line was written, but it lands awfully nicely in our post-“The Odyssey” calendar.

The Party

The addition of Zelda Southport to the “Ted Lasso” universe has brought with it a genuinely dumb and tedious satire of the ultrarich. They take ketamine and dress like Austin Powers! They shoot guns to ring in the new year and (maybe) to murder “peasants”!

That last boast was courtesy of Zelda’s declared best friend, Hugo Riddles (Alex Blake), whose purpose in the show is evidently to bring an unctuous mood to any proceeding. This episode, he is utterly gross in his sleazy fawning over Higgins’s wife, Julie (Mary Roscoe).

Why, “Ted Lasso”? In past seasons, the ultrarich villain, Rupert Mannion (Anthony Stewart Head, may he rest in peace), was charming and seductive. In his place we have the caricatures Zelda (eccentric! unpredictable!) and Hugo (sleazy! unkempt!). In my book, it is a considerable downgrade.

The party also offered an opportunity for the Richmond players to get some valuable screen time. But apart from Gemma’s conversation with Alice, they didn’t get to do much with it. The only “story line” they tossed out was the tired one about Lizzie stuffing her purse with food because she’s working class.

Work-Life-School Conflicts

I mentioned a few episodes ago that the back stories of some of the players — Gemma being a full-time law student, Lizzie being a single mom — offered the show opportunities for subplots unlike any it had with the men’s players in Seasons 1-3.

Needless to say, it’s an opportunity that has yet to be seized. I’m actually a bit astonished at the degree to which the show has emphasized its returning stars and quasi-stars — Ted, Rebecca, Keeley, Roy, Higgins, Beard — and neglected the actual players on the team.

Alice is the only new character on the show who has been developed at all — Zelda is more plot device than genuine character — and this episode suggests that Alice’s development will remain arrested at “angry all the time.” C’mon, “Ted Lasso,” let us get to know these characters! The season is supposed to be about them.

Beard

What this season is not supposed to be about is Coach Beard. As I’ve said a million times, he can be great in small doses, as an ironic straight man for Ted or whoever else comes by.

But now Beard is a celebrity of some kind? On a boat full of billionaires? Because … Burning Man? (Didn’t we get this nonsense out of our system in the “Beard After Hours” episode?)

I found this subplot especially pointless. Beard seems romantically irresistible — but then he’s not, actually, because he’s old. As you have probably guessed, I would have been delighted if the time devoted to this arc — and Jamie’s too, while we’re at it — had instead focused on Lizzie or one of the other players.

(And while we’re still at the boat party: None of senior management — Rebecca, Ted, Keeley — felt an obligation to show up? Let’s remember this the next time Ted complains that he doesn’t have enough face time to get to know his players.)

Ted and Michelle

Your mileage may vary, but I was underwhelmed by this scene as well. The new “Ted needs permission to date someone” hurdle feels like it was invented on the spot so that it could immediately be overcome.

It was funny that they brought up, and semi-reversed, the Dr. Jacob scenario, with which I confess to having been modestly obsessed.

But let me say — in utter ignorance of the relevant professional codes — that I don’t think it makes any difference who initiated the relationship. (Especially when Michelle initiated it in a grocery store in her pajamas!) I would still like to report Dr. Jacob to the proper authorities.

Rebecca and Matthijs

This feels as though it demands a category, but I’m not sure there’s much to say. Rebecca and Matthijs were kinda sorta on a time out after a relatively minor argument last episode. And now, without either one of them changing anything or the two even speaking to one another, they’re happily back together. It feels like we missed a step or two somewhere.

Odds and Ends

“It’s like ‘Great Gatsby’ and the host is Maleficent,” says Margy, describing Zelda’s boat party. In my notes, I’d already written that Zelda looked like “a Disney villain.” Great minds! Although given the shoulders on Zelda’s outfit, perhaps the joke was inevitable.
That said, score one for Boots in the prediction sweepstakes. She knows the party is headed not toward Disney but in a more Kubrickian direction.
I was pretty rough on Zelda’s buddy Hugo earlier, so it’s only fair that I give him credit for a genuine deep cut, when he tells the awkwardly bespectacled Higgins, “David Hockney, you bastard, where are my roller blades?” The reference is to a poster Hockney made for a 1980 benefit in New York.
Zelda ostentatiously failing to credit Coach Alice, when she was standing right there, certainly seems like the setup for some future development, right?
The episode opened with Nancy Wilson’s rendition of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” and closed with Ingrid Michaelson’s version of “Auld Lang Syne.” Michelle and Ted had a delightful back and forth over the gender of Wilson, the volleyball in “Castaway.” Jamie’s confusion of Voltaire and Voltron was hilarious. And despite Hugo’s best efforts, the Higginses had the episode’s best New Year’s kiss. Precisely as it should be.