Closing in on the finale of this critically acclaimed series! If you’ve read my breakdowns before, I’ll save you the time and get right to it. As always, spoilers below the plug for my last review:
This episode had to be the most relationship heavy episode of the entire series. Ted’s relationship with his ex-wife and her new bf Jake/former marriage counselor, Keeley’s relationship with Jack, Nate’s relationship with Jade, even Jake’s relationship with Ted’s son Henry. No soccer was shown again, only voice work by the announcers that AFC Richmond is now on a surprising 4 game win streak. So at least the new tactic is working. But again, the big focus is the relationships of the main characters and those closest with them.
The biggest focus of the episode centered around Keeley. After her and several celebs were hacked, and an “risque” video of her that was sent to Jamie back in the day went viral she suddenly becomes the focus of social media and concerned about how it will reflect on her PR firm. Jack, taking the corporate approach ends up having lawyers draft a massively corporate response which is outside of how Keeley would approach this kind of situation. This, and Jack referring to Keeley as her “friend” (and nothing more) when they ran into what can only be assumed was an ex of Jack, further annoys Keeley and between the two, causes a rift between them with Jack leaving. I personally debated whether this relationship would stick, which gets more complicated as Jamie admitted to both trying to do the right thing and deleting their pics after they split up but also that he was responsible for the hack, having forgotten about Email (as he put it, although his password was “password” he tried to be clever and spell it with two S’s). Heck, even Roy is showing his softer side and using phrases like “sorry for you” towards her. All of this is setting up for a massive Love-Cube (that’s the term for 4 BTW) although I’m still rooting for Roy.
BTW, as a fallout from this issue and the need to protect themselves from having images posted online, the club made the decision to mass delete images that could hurt their image which not only showed Ricard is a Man-Slut, but more importantly very likely led to Isaac learning Colin is gay. You know someone from the team would find out eventually, it was just a matter of how.
Nate and Jade have progressed to the point where she’s spending the night and they’re calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend which is a win for Nate. I’ve never been fond of Jade and feel like she’ll dump him if he loses the job and falls back down a peg, but we’ll see. As for Nate, I’d like to see him develop more confidence though which, while he got the girl, doesn’t seem to have. Nate is one of those people I relate to so much from my earlier years that seeing that insecurity is an uncomfortable reminder of myself 20-25 years ago. Now I’m 80% Ted, 20% Beard but in my 20s? 100% Nate. Him trying to set up his own version of the Diamond Dogs went hilariously nowhere as Disco who was divorced three times and Roger (Man City’s Bizarro version of Higgins) suggested being mean to Jade to get her to like him. I had an “Oh God he’s not dumb enough, right? moment” but thankfully Nate realized this was a terrible idea and immediately disbanded the group. Speaking of Diamond Dogs, weirdly one of the nicest moments for me was seeing Trent Crimm added to the Diamond Dogs. Uncertain exactly what it is, he strikes me as the perfect person to talk about feels and the understanding of humanity.
Lastly, there’s Ted. This episode kicked off with his ex-wife, his son Henry and her new bf/former marriage counselor in London which made for an uncomfortable exchange. I keep waiting for Ted to straight up go off on the two of them for dating, especially Dr. Jacob, but it may not happen, as it seems that Ted might be finally getting some closure and move on from Michelle after learning that Michelle and Dr. Jacob were going to Paris. Ted gets some great bonding time with Henry where they, of all things, see a Man City game to the quiet delight of Nate. I liked Nate’s reaction and realizing Ted in some ways is still there for him but being under Rupert’s thumb made him will slow down them making amends. For now. I think he’s going to tell Rupert to go to hell at the end of the season. I look forward to possibly being right. One final point on this, you see at the end of the episode that Henry completely blows of Jacob but to Jake’s credit, he does try to connect with Henry.
With 4 episodes left, there’s a ton of storylines to resolve. If I had to guess I’d say the last episode will be a two hour finale with the one before possibly being 90 minutes, similar in some ways to how Stranger Things wrapped up last season, with episodes feeling like movies in a way. Both my wife and the spouse of one of our sports guys both feel this season has a different feel than the previous ones, and a bit more depressing. My wife stopped watching episode to episode and will likely plow through the season all the way through once the final episode airs. I get it, the previous two seasons always left you with a feeling of joy and connection, even if an episode or season had it’s down notes. This season feels different, there isn’t that feel good magic that the first two years had. I still think it’ll end positively and give us one hell of a great finale, but the road to that feel good feeling is just taking a little longer this season.
RATING: 7
About the author – Scott Churchson has been an actor in every way for the past 13 years, from BG to stand in to stunts and principal, a sports writer for the past 4 and is one of the people that created Stream Punk Entertainment. He’s married to a veterinarian, has a cat with three working legs, a mother-in-law who just moved in and is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.
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