Ted Lasso Season 4 Unveils Empowering New Star, Surpassing Roy Kent

Warning: Spoilers ahead for “Ted Lasso” Season 4, Episode 2 — “Curiouser and Curiouser”

Let’s dive right in, as Alice Chilton (played by Tanya Reynolds) never hesitates to do. Arguably, she’s the freshest and most compelling character “Ted Lasso” has introduced in recent seasons.

In the second episode of the fourth season, titled “Curiouser and Curiouser,” we meet Coach Chilton who exudes an intimidating vibe long before she even appears on screen. Her impact is indeed significant, although not in the way one might initially anticipate. Unlike Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), who commands attention with his rugged demeanor, Chilton cuts a different figure. She’s a slender, almost unassuming presence whose forthright nature, social quirks, and complete lack of pretense leave Rebecca Welton (played by Hannah Waddingham, also seen in Prime Video’s “Ride or Die”) scrambling to regain her composure.

However, beneath her seemingly brusque exterior, Chilton ranks surprisingly high on the show’s scale of likeable characters. Episode insights reveal her as not only intensely organized but also deeply passionate about soccer. Her commitment to the players’ well-being sets her apart, as demonstrated when she goes above and beyond, accompanying an injured player to the hospital to ensure their recovery is as smooth as possible.

Chilton’s character is also a fascinating counterpoint to Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis). Ted quickly acknowledges her capabilities, even though she struggles to grasp his references and finds his narrative-driven coaching style irritating. Her backstory adds further depth: Once an Arsenal academy prodigy, her promising playing career was curtailed by successive ACL injuries, prompting her to channel her passion for the sport into a coaching career.

If you take Coach Chilton’s character apart, you can readily identify several traits that are familiar from the show’s existing coach characters. Though she shows it in a different way, she has Ted’s deep dedication to players, and the injury incident shows that she seems to have a similar ability to empathize with them at times of need. She has shades of Roy Kent’s bluntness, and understandably enough, Roy is a fan. Her pre-injury status as a football prodigy clearly alludes to the show’s previous “wonder kid,” Nate Shelley (Nick Mohammed), and her offbeat personality and disregard of social norms are from the Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) playbook.

While this all helps her slot into the existing cast of characters, it’s already plain to see that the end result is more than the sum of its parts. While we’re still at the very beginning of Alice Chilton’s “Ted Lasso” journey, there seems to be far more to her than meets the eye, and Tanya Reynolds’ wonderful portrayal infuses her with barely contained intensity, frustration, and clever microexpressions that occasionally crack through her habitually unimpressed poker face.

It was always going to be hard for a new character to join the established behind-the-scenes staff at Richmond, let alone stand out. With Chilton, it seems that the welcome, if uneven “Ted Lasso” Season 4 has done the impossible.

“Ted Lasso” Season 4 is streaming on Apple TV.