Ted Lasso promised “Big changes in bunches” for its Season 4 finale, and the final episode delivered on that warning in spectacular fashion.
After a three-year break, Apple TV’s Emmy-winning comedy returned with Ted (Jason Sudeikis) leaving Kansas City, heading back to London, and coaching AFC Richmond’s new women’s team alongside his longtime friend Beard (Brendan Hunt) and the gifted Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds).
Across nine episodes, viewers met a host of new faces and spent more time with the Lady Greyhounds—though still not nearly enough for my liking. Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Keeley (Juno Temple) finally reunited, the series said a painful goodbye to the late Ted Lasso star Anthony Head, who played Rupert Manion, and unexpectedly lost Crown & Anchor owner May Greene (Annette Badland). Meanwhile, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) tried to discover who was secretly plotting to seize control of AFC Richmond.
The mystery surrounding the finale only intensified after Ted Lasso changed its title from “The Departing Lass” to “Being Alive.” Would Ted hand the head-coaching job to Alice and become Assistant Manager? How would the team honor Mae? What would happen to the pub and Mae’s shares? Would anything come of Ted’s crush on the stage manager? (Spoiler: Nothing.) Would Roy and Keeley announce their baby news? Could more original Ted Lasso stars appear? And, most importantly, would Rebecca lose majority control of the club?
Ted Lasso Season 4, Episode 10 answers all of those questions. Here’s our full Decider recap of the Season 4 finale.
Major Ted Lasso Season 4 finale spoilers ahead.
Ted Lasso Season 4 Ending Explained: Ted Lasso Season 4, Episode 10 Recap
The Ted Lasso Season 4 finale begins with “The Tracks of My Tears” playing as rain falls outside the Crown & Anchor. The pub is closed for a private gathering: Mae’s celebration of life. Paul, Baz, and Jeremy pay tribute to the woman they regarded as a mother figure, while the women’s team turns out to honor the beloved pub owner. Everyone raises a Guinness to Mae. Higgins leaves to answer a mysterious call from “HR,” and Keeley and Roy head home as her pregnancy sickness worsens. Roy admits, “I worry Mae’s death is our fault. We’re bringing one soul into the world, so another one has to go,” but Keeley reassures him and reflects on how much their lives have changed. Then Roy’s agent, Derrick, calls with a startling offer: Roy has been asked to become head coach of his former club, Chelsea. Suddenly, Roy is the one throwing up.
At the pub, Jane crashes Mae’s funeral and repeatedly calls her “Meg,” then boasts about her new show with Emma Stone and Richard Schiff opening in the West End. Thankfully, even Beard appears ready to move on from her. The mood improves when Alice frames the team photo with Mae and the twins sing “The Parting Glass” in her memory. During the emotional performance, Ted notices Henry crying and heading upstairs to their apartment. He follows his son and talks with him about how life can deliver “big changes at you in bunches.” Ted explains that losing someone can put everything into perspective, even his intense devotion to football. Henry asks how Ted’s father died and repeats the story his grandmother told him—that he fell down the stairs and hit his head. Ted hesitates before telling the truth that his father died by suicide. Instead, he confirms the family’s version and assures Henry that he is not going anywhere.
After Brandi Carlile performs a special version of the “Ted Lasso Theme,” the women’s team prepares for its sold-out final match at Nelson Road. Lizzie arrives late with her two sons after failing to find childcare, while Keeley creates a rallying video that goes viral. It even catches the attention of Nate the Great (Nick Mohammed), now coaching Poland’s national football team. Nate drops by just in time for a Diamond Dogs reunion, joined by Alice—also known as “The Cat People.” The group helps Roy work through his fears about fatherhood, but Alice’s advice lands hardest: “Don’t disappear when you feel inadequate.” Meow!
Ted honors Mae during his pregame speech, saying, “I can only think of one person who ain’t gonna be here that I know would want to be here. But assuming they got good Wi-Fi at the pubs up there in heaven, she’s gonna be watching y’all.” The finale also brings back several original men’s team players to cheer on the women: Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh), Isaac McAdoo (Kola Bokinni), Colin Hughes (Billy Harris), Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernández), Moe Bumbercatch (Moe Hashim), Zoreaux (Moe Jeudy-Lamous), Maas (David Elsendoorn), Montlaur (Stephen Manas), and Will Kitman (Charlie Hiscock). When Roy asks Sam whether he ever regrets leaving Richmond for Manchester United, Sam answers with another Wizard of Oz reference: “Sure, but as Dorothy learned, sometimes you have to go away to know where home truly is.” Sam says Dorothy is his aunt, who briefly left his uncle for a dance instructor—an apparent family scandal.
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While the crowd enjoys the match, Rebecca worries that she is about to lose AFC Richmond after Higgins discovers the Milk Sisters have sold their shares. At the shareholders’ meeting, Rebecca and Higgins initially find only Paul, Baz, and Jeremy waiting for them. Then Zelda makes a dramatic entrance and reveals that Rupert was not the buyer. She was. That means the women’s team now belongs to Zelda. “I am helping a woman—ME!” she explains. “I wasted a lot of time trying to make the men who make the decisions in football listen to me, and the one way to make sure that they do is by owning a women’s team in the Premier League. So, thank you.” Rebecca is devastated until Zelda’s friend Hugo Riddles (Alex Blake), known as “HR,” appears. He reveals that he purchased the Milk Sisters’ shares and chose Rebecca’s side after becoming fed up with Zelda’s attitude. Then Elaine Pinter of Pinter & Sons joins by Zoom and, following a dramatic Pinter Pause, announces that Mae left the pub to Paul, Baz, and Jeremy—and left her shares to Rebecca. Rebecca once again holds the majority stake.
Rebecca could have lashed out at Zelda, who calls herself a scorpion, but instead she forgives her. “I know you love the story of the scorpion and the frog. A lot of people do, but I care for a different one,” Rebecca says. She tells a story about a woman who repeatedly tries to save a drowning scorpion, only to be stung each time. When a passerby asks why she keeps helping something that hurts her, the woman replies, “It’s in the scorpion’s nature to sting, just as it’s in my nature to save. Why would I change my nature just because of theirs?”
Back at the pub, Ted finds Henry struggling with his math homework without Mae’s help. He apologizes for missing so many of Henry’s football games and promises to rearrange his schedule so it will not happen again next season. Ted also tells Henry the truth about how his father died, although Ted Lasso once again cuts away before viewers hear the full conversation.
Another major change arrives when Roy announces that he is leaving AFC Richmond. He tells Rebecca and Ted, who are understandably upset but ultimately happy for him. Roy reminds Rebecca that taking risks matters, prompting a quiet revelation for her. In the closing minutes of the Ted Lasso Season 4 finale, Mae’s voiceover delivers Mary Oliver’s poem “When Death Comes.” Rebecca realizes Mae died doing what she loved and that the people left behind should embrace life more fully. So when her Dutch partner—absent from the story for several episodes—walks into her office, Rebecca proposes. “Fuck it, marry me!” she tells him, explaining that she is finished rejecting marriage and ready to live differently. He accepts, and so does she.
Before the credits, Alice and Gemma say goodbye in the locker room before the offseason begins. Paul, Baz, and Jeremy take over behind the bar, while Beard shaves his head as a symbol of starting over. Roy discovers a note from Ted that reads, “You’re gonna be a great dad,” alongside an army man. We then learn that Alice has been sitting in—and lowering—Ted’s chair every day. He gives her the present he reclaimed in Episode 2, and she realizes it marks her promotion to Head Coach/Manager. Ted and Beard will now serve as Assistant Managers.
The finale ends with a shot of the new manager nameplates outside the coaches’ office. As the credits roll, The Specials’ “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)” plays.
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Ted Lasso Season 4 is now streaming on Apple TV