Editor’s note: Below are spoilers for Episode 9, Season 3 of Ted Lasso.Choose your favorite part about Ted Lasso. Maybe it’s the super-positive namesake coach played by Jason Sudeikiswho you love the most. Maybe it’s Roy Kent’s heightBrett Goldstein) and his nascent romance with his once enemy Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster). Or maybe these are the best goals of a friend in a Keely Jones relationship (Juno Temple) and AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham). If none of these are your favorite part of the Apple TV+ series, it’s because you most likely prefer another combination of these names: Roy and Keely’s romance.
Seeing Roy and Keely get together and how they affect each other was so touching to watch. For Keely, after her toxic relationship with Jamie, she found a man in Roy who made her feel safe and special. Keely’s carefree nature helped Roy, so angry and flustered, loosen up. They were perfect for each other - and then broke up. Keely soon found herself with someone else, falling head over heels in love with her boss Jack (Jody Balfour). Their romance quickly fell apart, however, in a way that begs the question, was it just a quick detour to get Keely and Roy back together and nothing more?
Fans of Ted Lasso were upset by Roy and Keely’s decision to break up
Breakups happen on sitcoms. It’s almost damn necessary. When you take a pair of “they-won’t-they” and tease by putting them together and then quickly put them together like Ted Lasso did, you can’t just instantly keep them together to live happily ever after. From Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) on FriendsJim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) on Office, you need a conflict, even if we are sure that the plot of the sitcom will force them to reconcile with each other forever. They have to break up so that there is drama and another nice moment when they get back together.
So, given what is known, the storyline where Roy and Keely break up isn’t quite as shocking. The frustrating part for the fans Ted Lasso how it was done. In the second season, a conflict was brewing between Keely and Roy. Their lives were changing, with Keely now CEO of her own PR firm and Roy transitioning from being a player to being a coach, but they sat down and had a heart to heart talk. They acknowledged how busy they were and how hard it would be to find time for each other, but both decided to work on it because they really wanted a relationship.
This plot makes sense. We could watch as Roy and Keely start drifting apart over their careers, see them on edge but find each other again. Instead, poof, just like that in the first episode of season 3, they talk about it to Roy’s niece, Phoebe (Elodie Blomfield) that they broke up. For most of the following season, they kept apart. There were a few brief moments of painful glances at the other, but for the most part it seemed like the relationship meant nothing at all. To make matters worse, the writers came up with a new plot that disappointed many: Keely left and found someone else.
Keely walks away from Roy quickly in Season 3 of “Ted Lasso”
Usually it would be great to see how a character, especially a woman, can stay strong in the face of the loss of a relationship. Society has too often given the impression that women care much more about relationships than men do, and that without a man in her life, she will crumble and fade into oblivion, sitting in sweatpants and crying into a pint of ice cream. Kili is one of Ted Lassobetter characters because of how strong she is. She went from model to CEO. She speaks for herself. And even after Roy breaks her heart, she forces herself to get up and move. The problem, however, is that she fell right into someone’s arms.
The inclusion of Jack as Keely’s new boss was a smart move on paper. Ted Lasso new characters need to be added so as not to become obsolete. Perhaps Jack would have disagreed with the way Keely ran the company, leading to some conflict. No, Jack was as cool as can be. There was an interesting moment when Keely and Jack quickly became such close friends that Keely was not there for Rebecca when she needed her after she received the heartbreaking news that she could not have children. However, this has been little explored, as the relationship between her and Keely remained strong.
Instead, Keely and Jack fell in love with each other. This move was not entirely from left field. Although it has not yet been explored in Ted Lasso, Keely has mentioned his bisexuality. And while we love seeing Keely embrace her sexuality in all its forms, the fact that she moved on so quickly makes it seem like her relationship with Roy didn’t mean much to her. On the other hand, Roy never dated anyone else. In fact, he plunged into work to distract himself, but he also grew up, became more caring and tolerant of others. Keely just fell in love with someone else a few weeks later, like Roy wasn’t a big deal. This was not the case when Keely and Jack’s relationship rekindled. They looked happy and healthy.
A quick romance between Keely and Jack didn’t make sense
Flaws immediately appeared in Keely and Jack’s relationship, with Jack showing too much of himself by filling Keely’s office with flowers and secretly paying for a dinner between her and Rebecca. However, this did not happen between them. Keely talked about this with Rebecca, who told her that she was being “bombed with love” and then Keely spoke frankly to Jack, who quickly understood and agreed to reform. It was very cool. Jack has such a calm, confident character with no shame that she told the office about her relationship with Keely as soon as it started. She didn’t need things to get weird, she didn’t need to hide who she was.
Out of the blue, everything changed quickly. In recent episodes, Keely has dealt with a hacked release of a nude video she filmed for someone. This left her humiliated. As awake as Jack seemed, you’d think she would be on his side, pissed off at being released and supporting Kili. Instead, she is out of nowhere, against her character, embarrassed only by herself. She writes a statement for Keely to send out, in which Keely apologizes for the video being posted and where she will go so far as to say that she shouldn’t have done it at all. Keely, not ashamed of who she is, refuses to do so. She tells Jack that she won’t apologize, that she doesn’t mind making a private video. Jack is stunned. How will it make her look? It’s strange to see how Jack now suddenly cares what other people think, when she didn’t care that anyone knew that she was in a relationship not only with another woman, but with a woman who is one of her employees. But private nude video suddenly too much? Jack leaves and now she doesn’t reply to Keely’s messages.
It makes little sense until you look at the big picture. Jack is nothing more than a story arc, a short detour back to the original path. Roy had already gone over to Kili to make sure she was all right. He completely destroys his anxiety by asking who she made the video for, but her pained reaction to the question and his shame that he asked it shows how much they still care about each other. They will surely be together soon, which is great, but Ted Lasso went in the wrong direction to get there. Keely’s quick bond with Jack makes Keely not seem like the strong female character that she is. She looks like a person who needs a relationship. Jamie didn’t work, so she quickly moved in with Roy. Roy wasn’t working, so she rushed to Jack. Jack fell apart, so everything goes back to Roy. It’s not Keely. And that’s not who Keely and Roy are.
Ted Lasso will release the third season finale on May 17 on Apple TV.
Source: Collider
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