Ted Lasso is a show about kindness, decency, and choosing to do the right thing. But that doesn’t mean its characters don’t act up! As we’ve seen from Rupert’s general awfulness and Nate’s descent into villainy, Ted Lasso‘s characters are perfectly capable of making terrible choices.
In this week’s episode, “4-5-1,” we see a few people in particular behaving badly: Ted’s ex-wife, Michelle; their former marriage counselor; and (possibly) Trent Crimm.
Turns out Ted’s marriage counselor is a horrible person
Ted’s son’s soccer game is about to start back home in the States, and Ted realizes that he’s forgotten his cell phone. He uses the office phone to call home to wish his son good luck, but he’s greeted by a voice he doesn’t recognize at first. He soon realizes that it’s Dr. Jacob, their former marriage counselor—and Jake is now dating Michelle.
When Ted tells Sassy about the situation, she calls it borderline unethical. I would say, however, that dating your former marriage counseling client isn’t borderline. Dr. Jacob has sailed way past that border and is now an unrecognizable blip on the horizon. Both Michelle and Jake should know better than to get into a relationship like that, but Jake, as the supposed professional in the situation, takes the lion’s share of the blame. Bad form, Jake. Bad form.
The good people of Twitter agree that the situation is messed up. A few eagle-eyed viewers realized that the revelation about Michelle and Jake casts a new light on this scene from season 2, in which Ted says Jake made him feel like he was being given a list of everything he was doing wrong in the marriage.
Jake and Michelle apparently didn’t start dating until a year and a half after the divorce, but was Jake making plans while he was making Ted feel like crap in session? Boo. Jake sucks.
Don’t do it, Trent!
Later in the episode, Colin and his boyfriend slip around to the side of Sam’s new restaurant for a quick make-out session. Who should see them but Trent Crimm, who’s shadowing the team so that he can write a book about their exploits. Everything in this scene sets up Trent to betray Colin by outing him against his will.
Is that what’s actually happening, though?
Notice that although the scene portrays Trent as a bad guy, with forbidding music playing as he seems to take note of what he’s just seen, Trent doesn’t actually do anything. He simply keeps walking. His facial expression barely changes. It’s totally possible that Trent will include salacious details in his book, or write a news story about Colin, but it’s equally possible that he’ll choose to follow his moral compass and show discretion. The series is keeping us on our toes when it comes to Trent’s agenda, but things could go either way at this point.
One thing’s for sure: fans are imploring Trent to do the right thing.
(featured image: Apple TV+)
