Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 6: Recap & Ending Explained
Another week, another recap and ending explained for season 3 of Ted Lasso. Last week we saw AFC Richmond struggling for points, Zava retiring, and Ted’s job hanging in the balance. This week, Ted Lasso episode six, called ”Sunflowers”, leads AFC Richmond on their Amsterdam adventure. A lot happened, with Rebecca meeting a stranger who could possibly be the one, Ted creating a ” Total football’ playbook and many more Amsterdam adventures. So, let’s see what’s been going on.
AFC Richmond’s Amsterdam adventure begins
The episode starts in Amsterdam. AFC Richmond traveled there to play a friendly match against Ajax and got demolished in the process, with the result being 5:0 for Ajax. Besides that, Ted is having minor problems with football terms yet again, and Rebecca is on the stand, witnessing yet another defeat of her team. The fans put little faith in the team and have even posed a sign ”No Zava, why bother.”
After the match, Roy provides a statement to the press. The reporter asked Roy an itchy question about the team’s poor performance and if the reason for that lies in the fact that they are nothing without Zava. Roy being Roy, answered that no one cares about friendly matches as they are only pretended matches and called a reporter a pretended person with a pretended job. Keely declines Rebecca’s invitation to have fun in Amsterdam because she already has plans with Jack. In the meantime, Roy sees a poster of Zava on the wall from times when he played for Ajax, so he punches and kicks it.
The team feels blue after the match, and Ted decides to lift their spirits. So, players got no curfew, meaning they had the whole day and night to enjoy in Amsterdam. Apart from Jamie, he’s got training to do with Roy. However, that did not stop him from having fun as he joyfully ran through Amsterdam, with Roy barely keeping up.
Another Tish’s prophecy comes true. Could this be Rebecca’s true love?
As Rebecca talked on the phone with Sassy, a random guy (we’ll call him N.N. in this article as his name is never revealed) noticed her and started to whistle. And then it happened, Tish’s third prophecy came true, as Rebecca, while talking to N.N., fell over into a river, leaving her drenched. (Tish saw drenched Rebecca in her prophecy).
Ted is feeling stuck and wants to get his inspiration back. He feels like trying something new, and Beard could not wait to hear something like that from the head coach. To lift his spirits, Beard prepared Ted tea with a substance the bus driver hooked him up with, but Ted decided not to drink it. However, when Beard decides to leave later on, Ted is left alone and starts to consider drinking the tea. And after being tired of having nothing to do, he drinks it and leaves the room.
The players gathered in a hotel’s lobby and discussed what to do while in Amsterdam. Some good ideas came up, like taking a train to Paris, going on a boat tour, visiting an International Court of Justice and poking around, or seeing a tulip. Other ideas were seeing a live sex show, visiting museums, having a team’s movie night, or attending a party where Martin Garrix is DJ. Since they could not agree on what to do, they decided to vote.
In the meantime, Rebecca took a shower on N.N.’s boat, where she ended up after she fell into the river. As N.N. wasn’t there when she got out of the shower, she looked around. There she saw some things that helped her get to know N.N. a bit more, and most notably, she found out that N.N. has a daughter. He returned to a boat later, tended to Rebecca’s injured ankle, offered her a brandy, provided her with dry and clean clothes from his ex, and offered to make dinner.
Collin opens up to Trent, while Jamie and Roy spend some quality time searching for windmill
The team’s dispute about what to do continued, and Collin used the opportunity to sneak out, with Trent following him. After Collin goes to a gay bar, Trent finds him there, and Collin storms out, worried. However, Trent explains to him that he already knows for months that Collin is gay and has a good reason for not telling anyone about it. Trent is also gay, and he describes how he came out. Of course, it was easier for him because he was no professional athlete, and wants to know what is Collin’s life like because of it.
Collin explains that he feels like he is living two different lives. No one at the club knows about his orientation, but still, he likes to think that they wouldn’t care even if they knew. Dr. Sharon helped him realize that he wants the most for his two separate lives to become one without hiding who he really is. Collin wishes he could kiss his partner after a match the same way other guys kiss their girls, and he is tired of pretending that not being able to do that does not hurt him.
Jamie and Roy are on their own journey across Amsterdam and are on a quest to find a windmill. Jamie purchases two bikes, but Roy gets annoyed as he admits he does not know how to ride them. Jamie bursts laughing, but then Roy tells him why that is. Roy’s grandfather was supposed to teach him how to ride, but he passed away before he had the chance, and Roy never learned.
Looking back, he thinks he disrespected his grandfather’s memory by never learning to ride a bike and feels emotional about it. So, Jamie decides to teach him how to ride a bicycle. After many trials and errors, Roy was ready, and the two continued their journey toward windmills. They bonded even more and opened up to each other. Jamie’s first time in Amsterdam was when he was 14, and his father made him lose his virginity to a prostitute. Roy tells Jamie that he thinks Keeley has a girlfriend.
Ted has an epiphany, and the Amsterdam adventure comes to a close
Ted visits Van Gogh Museum and receives meaningful words of wisdom in front of the Sunflower painting. He then goes to a Yankee Doodle Burger Barn to get a taste of home. However, Beard’s tea kicks in, and Ted hallucinates (or at least he thought so). He hears a voice of a ”true spirit of adventure”. The TSA, as Ted called it, opened his eyes and gave him an idea of what was about to be the team’s new tactics. The hallucination made Ted realize the power of the triangle.
The triangle formation has been used in basketball and football for years, meaning the person with the ball always has two players to pass to. As they move through the field, the number of triangles and possible solutions increases. Ted wrote the whole notebook with plays for his team, and Beard approved it later. This will be Richmond’s new playbook.
Rebecca wore a lovely dress and continued to get to know N.N. more. He explains how his ex was unfaithful, and that destroyed their family. Rebecca and N.N. get along really nicely and have a lot in common. It was a night filled with laughter and alcohol, and as their night was coming to a close, none of them wanted it to be over. They demonstrated that by pouring brandy all over Rebecca’s dry clothes, meaning she would still have to stay a bit. N.N. massaged Rebecca’s foot, and she fell asleep. She woke up the next morning not knowing did anything happen between them. N.N. assured her that it did not, but is that really true?
The team had a pillow fight in a hotel the whole night, as they couldn’t agree on where to go, and it was a good thing. The whole squad gathered on the bus in the morning and was ready to come home. Ted explains to Beard the tactic he came up with and sounds like the coach who knows what he is doing for the first time. The team ends their Amsterdam journey positively, singing Stevie Wonder’s ”Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing.” Oh, and Will had a threesome.
This episode was one of the best in all three seasons, and its IMD score confirms that. So many things happened and left us with many things to anticipate eagerly. Will Rebecca meet N.N. again? Does Ted’s new playbook mean AFC Richmond losing streak is finally over? Next week’s episode has some answers for us for sure.
