The following contains spoilers for Ted Lasso season 3, episode 1
Ted Lasso season 3 stars discuss the premiere episode’s big breakup and what it means for the characters. After a seemingly endless delay, Ted Lasso is finally back with new episodes on AppleTV+, and the premiere wasted no time in hitting viewers with a big, emotional scene. Fans may indeed have seen it coming after how Ted Lasso season 2 ended, but it was still a shock when Brett Goldstein’s Roy Kent and Juno Temple’s Keeley Jones officially ended their relationship, breaking the news to a surprisingly level-headed Phoebe (Elodie Blomfield).
Now that Roy and Keeley have finally called it quits, Ted Lasso season 3 stars Goldstein and Temple can talk about what the development meant to them. For her part, Temple believes the breakup fits with the character of Keeley and her career ambitions. Goldstein meanwhile found it “sad and difficult” from an acting standpoint for Roy to break it off with Keeley, but also looked at things as one of the show’s writers. Check out what the two had to say in the space below (via Town & Country)
TEMPLE: "That felt honest, but at the same time, it feels like it's going along with the storyline of her getting this extraordinary career opportunity, so she has to focus on that, too. Because she's not entirely processing that that's happened. So she's focusing on this, and then that's gonna hopefully have more light shed on it."
GOLDSTEIN: "You have this character of Roy who had suppressed all of his emotions his entire life, except rage—the only one he let out was rage. And then he fell in love with Keeley, and he was opened up by Ted, and all these feelings fell out of him. I don't think he knows how to cope with him. He has no skills for managing these emotions and these feelings."
"His tragic flaw is he doesn't feel worthy of love. He doesn't think he deserves to be happy or deserves to be loved. He's self destructive and he's shuts it all down and he's like, 'I'll just work, I'll just do football and nothing else and then I'll just die and it'll be fine.' As a writer, I can certainly understand that. I can empathize with that, I get it. I relate to some of it."
Will Phoebe Bring Roy And Keeley Back Together
While it seems that for now Roy and Keeley are going in very different directions in their lives, they still have an important connection through Roy’s niece Phoebe, whom Keeley became very close with over the course of their relationship. Indeed, having Roy and Keeley come to a final decision on their future literally with Phoebe present added a devastating note to what was already a tough scene. Phoebe and Roy then shared a telling moment in the car, when she asked him if he was doing the right thing, and he confessed to being uncertain.
Phoebe indeed seems to have a clearer head about things than Roy, who appears very conflicted about his and Keeley’s decision. It would seem that things are therefore set up for Phoebe to be the one who causes Roy and Keeley to question their breakup, paving the way for them to eventually get back together. But Goldstein and Ted Lasso’s other writers could of course subvert the expectation of Roy and Keeley patching up their relationship, and have them both move on as friends.
For it now it seems that Roy and Keeley are trying hard to convince themselves that their relationship really is over, even though it doesn’t actually need to be. It will be interesting to see how the situation eventually resolves itself, and what role Phoebe might play in bringing the couple back together, as Ted Lasso season 3 plays out.
Source: Town & Country