‘Ted Lasso’ Stars Break Down How Alice’s Role Is Switching Up Season 4’s Coaching Dynamic

Ted (Jason Sudeikis) may be back at Richmond, but it’s a whole new environment for the coach as Ted Lasso Season 4’s latest installment, “Curiouser and Curiouser,” introduced him to the women’s team and their interim coach, Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds). Warning: Spoilers for Ted Lasso Season 4, Episode 2!

Overlooked by Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and management for the head coaching position in favor of Ted, Alice isn’t pleased to feel underappreciated and ultimately decides to resign from her post… until she doesn’t. One contributing factor to her reconsideration is surely Ted’s ability to see where there are issues and make a positive change.

When he’s clued into the fact that the women have less-than-ideal locker room accommodations, he uses his sway to help move the needle in terms of improving the existing players’ outlook. The gesture and Ted’s kindness to Coach Alice throughout his first days back seem to change her plan of leaving.

“She can tell that Ted sees something in her that maybe she doesn’t even quite see in herself… I think she’s quite stuck and locked as a person when we meet her, and she’s aware of it as well,” Reynolds says. “She’s her own worst enemy, and so she can’t break out, and I think that there is something about Ted that presents itself as a kind of life raft.”

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“Deciding to stay and see what this joker’s got to offer [is] an enormous leap of faith,” Reynolds continues.

By staying, it grants Coach Alice a slight advantage over Ted and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), who has recently rebounded after a seemingly major depressive episode, as she can walk freely into the locker room and oversee the players in a way the men cannot.

But there’s more to it than that, as Hunt notes, “I think one aspect is she’s the only one of the three of us who was a professional footballer, so she has a connection to the players and the players’ experience that is impossible for us to have had.  And that’s, I think, a vital part of a coaching team that you know previously filled.”

Meanwhile, Sudeikis shares, “From Ted’s perspective, his relationship with women, while lovely in many ways, there’s like a little bit of static there. And so then to now be charged with the role of leading 23 women, [for] a character that lives in the questions, I think he’s gonna have a whole bunch more questions and the answers are gonna come from interesting places.”

As for the Lady Greyhounds’ biggest cheerleader, Keeley (Juno Temple), she gushes, “It is an absolute honor to get to inhabit Keeley this season with her belief, hopes, ambition, and joy for the women’s team, and it has come at such a great moment in time.” Ultimately, Keeley was responsible for helping put the new locker room space together for the team, with some assistance from Roy (Brett Goldstein).

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'Ted Lasso' Star Jason Sudeikis Breaks Down Ted's Return to Coaching

“I think that Keeley has always been a celebrator of women. There’s just been a quiet through line since Season 1,” Temple continues. “She’s a girl’s girl through and through. So I think getting to bring the women’s team to life with her best girlfriend, who is also her mentor and her inspiration, is a dream come true.”

But it isn’t always going to be as simple as fixing a locker room, as Temple says regarding Keeley’s positive outlook, “She is going to be naive about how easy it may be, and about what she thinks she can make happen overnight and about expenses and what will be allotted to a women’s team, so I think she’s gonna learn a lot from that, but I think the joy with Keely is she does want to learn.”

See what else the stars are sharing in the full interview above, and let us know what you think of the changes at A.F.C. Richmond in the comments section below

Ted Lasso, Season 4, New Episodes, Wednesdays, Apple TV