Henry Lasso once sent his father a bag of green army men in a care package. They were meant to "keep him safe". Still, he wanted to share them with people around him at AFC Richmond who seemed to need a little extra care. He therefore gave one to Rebecca and one to Sam.
Though he thanked Ted for the gesture, Sam gave it back as he, a Nigerian, didn't have quite the same positive association with members of the US Army. Instead, he saw the figure as a symbol of imperialism, which Lasso immediately understood.
Ted carried at least one army man with him to Liverpool when they played Everton F.C. He meaningfully righted it on the desk in his hotel room right before he signed the papers that finalised his divorce with Michelle.
Perhaps even more poignant in the finale of season 1 is Ted's gift of an army man to Jamie Tartt. Jamie had been playing the selfish egotist all season, hogging the ball and the glory and refusing to be the team player Ted urges him to become. By that final episode, Jamie shows that he has finally grown as a man and when he has a chance to score an important goal, he instead passes the ball to a teammate who scores. But afterwards, Jamie's father severely berates him for passing the ball and foregoing the glory. The scene is all too revealing an indication of the kind of verbal abuse that Jamie has grown up with, explaining his immature egotism as a man. Ted witnesses the scene through a glassed door, and later gives an army man to Jamie to provide a little of the extra care Jamie needs to overcome his past.
External link[]
- Army man at Wikipedia