SPOILER ALERT: This post spoils Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 4, titled “Greyhounds’ Day Off.”
What starts out as a day off for the Lady Greyhounds in the fourth episode of Ted Lasso Season 4 quickly turns into an important team-bonding exercise, purposeful or not, when they attend Mae’s (Annette Badland) reinstated pub quiz night at the Crown & Anchor on Coach Ted Lasso’s (Jason Sudeikis) orders.
In an attempt to dispel the cliques — divided into attackers, midfielders and defenders — that have formed between the female athletes, Ted demands the team attend this nighttime activity, and they then split up into three teams themselves, with Ted, Beard and Alice making up a fourth, and a group of guys comprising a fifth.
“It’s a very clever old scene, that whole storyline. It also foreshadows all of our parts of the team and the parts that we play within the team,” Abbie Hern, who portrays striker Gemma Jay, told Deadline “When we’re faced with that immediate adversity, Gemma will be like ‘Absolutely not. You’re saying we can’t do something, you watch us do it.’”
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When the group of guys starts making fun of the Lady Greyhounds, telling them they recognize them as women footballers whose “style, stamina” and more differentiate them from the men, it no longer matters which clique the players are part of within’ their team, because women from each subsection rise up to retaliate as a united front.
“I’m like a mama bear. I shall jump in and make sure — scream in the face of anyone,” Faye Marsay, who stars as defender Lizzie, added. “It’s that coming together of the group, which is just gorgeous.
The argument turns into a full-on fight, culminating in goalkeeper Katie “Boots” Quinn grabbing a beer bottle — despite mentioning that she doesn’t drink — to take a swig, empty it out and then bash into one of the lads’ heads.
“[Boots is] an agent of chaos. I think it’s that turning point for the team of becoming a team. In a classic Ted Lasso style, that being done in such a silly, fun way of it being a bottling in a pub is perfect,” Mack said of her character’s movements in response to the heckling. “I think, for the character, it’s the moment where she uses that aggression for loyalty and to stand up for for the gals, which is very fun.”
These antics do briefly land all parties involved in jail, but Zelda Southport (Tracey Ullman) comes to the rescue and bails everyone out just before Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and Keeley (Juno Temple) arrive, fresh from their makeup session, and Higgins (Jeremy Swift) pulls up with results of the FA Cup draw for who the women will play next: Chelsea. The match will be at home.
Turns out this little side quest did the trick Ted was hoping it would and cemented the team outside of their smaller groups they had turned to in stress, as Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles) told Trent Crimm (James Lance) in their special guest star appearance on Trent’s podcast that he now hosts.