"Two Aces" is the sixth episode of season one of the Apple TV+ series, Ted Lasso. It premiered on September 4, 2020.
Synopsis[]
When Jamie refuses to practice, Ted calls in Dani Rojas, the new guy, who’s every bit as talented as Jamie. But then, the team is struck by an age-old curse.
Plot[]
New team member Dani Rojas joins AFC Richmond. Dani turns out to be an incredible soccer player, which is great news for Ted since he’s still struggling to get Jamie to cooperate with the team. He refuses to attend practice, triggering Ted to blow up.
Jamie’s lack of enthusiasm for practice gives Ted the idea to put Dani in his place on the field. Seeing someone else take his spot on the team gives him pause, causes him to rethink his priorities. His efforts to create a rivalry work, and Ted is happy that now he has “two aces” on the field.
During a meet-up, Jamie tries to commiserate over Ted annoying him to Keeley, but she tells him he should stop trying to battle the people who are trying to help him.
Dani trips over something invisible on the field and attributes it to his recent visit to the fabled treatment room. All the team members believe that the treatment room is cursed. The curse stems from something that happened during the War of 1914. Young men would be coaxed into trying out for the soccer team but were actually tricked into enlisting for war, and then would die overseas. Ted comes up with an idea to get rid of the ghosts through a ceremony.
Ted invites all the team members to meet at the locker room that evening with a significant item they can burn as part of a big offering to appease the ghosts and get rid of them. Surprisingly, Jamie makes an appearance and donates something that reminds him of his mother.
Jamie tells his teammates that his mom always wanted him to be happy and encouraged him to do his best on the team. She didn’t care if he was good or not, but she just loved seeing him happy. His father, on the other hand, was less kind. Once he became a notable player, his dad started attending games, and if he lost or missed a goal, he would call him soft and weak. Jamie hated that and vowed to be so tough he could never be called soft again. But it made him forget how much he cared about making his mother proud of him.
The team and Ted take the bin out onto the field to start the fire. They gather together, sing, and drink some of Dani’s mezcal.
Rebecca finds out from Keeley that Rupert’s new girlfriend, also named Rebecca, Bex for short, is referred to as Rebecca by the press while she has been dubbed “Old Rebecca.” Later, she gets a surprising visit from Sam, who invites her to attend their little sacrificial ceremony that evening. He says the team is hers, she’s a valued part of it, and she should attend. Ultimately, Rebecca does attend and throws out the newspaper from that morning with her new name in it.
Ted returns to work the next morning in a good mood, until he learns from Beard that Rebecca let Manchester City call Jamie back, effectively making the previous night's bonding exercise pointless. Ted nearly explodes at Rebecca upon finding out but manages to hold his temper, though he tells Rebecca he’s “seeing red.” Rebecca advises him to leave her office before Ted says something he’ll regret. Ted does so, but not before reluctantly leaving Rebecca the biscuits, and casually revealing to her shock that he'd been the one making them all this time. He stews in anger in his office afterwards with Beard, but is cheered up by Dani Rojas reminding him that "football is life."
Cast and characters[]
Starring[]
- Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso
- Hannah Waddingham as Rebecca Welton
- Jeremy Swift as Leslie Higgins
- Phil Dunster as Jamie Tartt
- Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent
- Brendan Hunt as Coach Beard
- Nick Mohammed as Nathan Shelley
- with
Guest starring[]
Co-starring[]
- Billy Harris as Colin
- Kola Bokinni as Isaac
- Stephen Manas as Richard
- Adam Colborne as Baz
- Bronson Webb as Jeremy
- Kevin 'KG' Garry as Paul
- Cristo Fernandez as Dani Rojas
- Moe Jeudy-Lamour as Thierry Zoreaux
- Anna Martine Freeman as Sarah
Interesting facts[]
- This episode introduced viewers to another of Ted's verbal quirks. While previous episodes displayed his adeptness at wordplay, this one showed him to occasionally exhibit almost the opposite trait: semantic satiation.
- When Ted berates Jamie for missing practice, his monologue is an almost word-for-word reenactment of a famous 2002 rant by NBA great Allen Iverson in which he said the word “practice” 22 times. Unlike Ted Lasso, however, Iverson wasn’t talking about the importance of practice; he was complaining about being criticized for missing it.