Attention TedBecca shippers: This is not a drill! Ted Lasso Season 3, Episode 3, “4-5-1” may have just hinted that Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) and Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) are endgame.
If you have yet to catch up on “4-5-1” and want to avoid spoilers, this is your chance to stop reading. But for those of you who can’t stop thinking about Rebecca’s chat with her mom’s psychic, Tish, or that green matchbook from Sam (Toheeb Jimoh): welcome. You’ve come to the right place.
Since the scenes aren’t super straightforward, let’s break down all the clues and parse the hell out of Tish’s cryptic visions for hidden subtext, shall we?
It all starts when Rebecca, an admitted skeptic, hesitantly sits down for a psychic reading and Tish hits her with the following prediction:
“I can see something. It’s in your hand. An object. It’s very special. It’s a green matchbook. A green matchbook, how lovely. Now I can hear something. SHITE. Shite in — no, just one at a time please. Shite in knining armor. Shut up. I can hear something. It’s thunder! And lightning! And you! And you’re upside down and you’re drenched — but you’re safe. You will have a family. You’re going to be a mother.”
Now that we’ve refreshed ourselves on the exact wording, here are all the ways Tish’s prediction could hint at a Ted and Rebecca endgame.
1
“You will have a family. You’re going to be a mother.”
As Rebecca’s walking out the door, the comment about her eventually having a family and being a mother elicits a strong emotional response. “Fuck you!” she snaps at Tish. “I’ve always thought you were completely harmless because my mum could afford you, but you’re actually dangerous. And you’re fucking cruel!”
If you recall, Rebecca and Rupert didn’t have kids during their marriage, because Rupert didn’t want any children. Rebecca essentially gave up hope that she’d be a mother after they split, but the subject is especially raw because when Rupert cruelly told Rebecca that his new gal Bex (Keeley Hazell) was pregnant, he said it’s not that he didn’t want to have kids when they were married, he just didn’t want to have them with her. Rebecca assumes kids aren’t in the cards for her at this stage in her life, so she thinks Tish must be full of SHITE, but giving birth isn’t the only way to become a mother. Rebecca could say, get with Ted — who already has a son — and become Henry’s stepmother. 👀
2
“A green matchbook”
Now that the family portion of the prediction is accounted for, let’s start from the top. We see Sam handing Rebecca a green matchbook, which makes her wonder if Tish may have been on to something after all, and perhaps she’s meant to be with Sam. That’s the obvious answer, but we know the show is capable of quality misdirects, so who’s to say this isn’t another? Perhaps this is the green matchbook from the vision, but some fans have wondered if the green matchbook is actually a green book that Ted writes plays in, or a mispronunciation of “green matchbox,” which would reference the little green army man Ted gave Rebecca earlier in the series since a company called Matchbox may have created them. That one might seem like a stretch, but Tish goes on to mispronounce “knight in shining armor,” so we know she’s not the best with words!
3
“Shite in knining armor”
Speaking of, we can only assume that “shite in knining armor” means “knight in shining armor,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “a man who behaves in a very brave way” and “a man who is the perfect romantic partner for a woman.” We’ve already seen Ted’s presence impact Rebecca for the better in the first two seasons, and vice versa. TedBecca shippers are already convinced they’re the perfect romantic partners, but perhaps Ted will solidify his “shite in knining armor” status in Season 3 by winning “the whole fucking thing” and beating Rupert’s West Ham United, too. (Also, remember the time Ted told Rebecca “I believe some folks call it white knighting” before he whopped Rupert’s ass at darts? Come on!)
4
“Shut up. I can hear something. It’s thunder! And lightning!”
Do we even have to explain this one? Please let it be a callback to the iconic Season 2 scene where Roy (Brett Goldstein) tells Rebecca, “You deserve someone who makes you feel like you’ve been struck by fucking lightning! Don’t you dare settle for fine!” Rebecca didn’t settle, so she better get that lightning kind of love soon.
5
“You’re upside down and you’re drenched — but you’re safe.”
This part of the prediction is the most confusing, because aside from the classic Spiderman kiss in the rain scene how many scenarios find people upside down, drenched, AND safe? But rest assured, fans found a way to link the line back to Ted and Rebecca. We know part of Season 3 was filmed in Amsterdam — the place where Ted Lasso was essentially conceived — and based on Amsterdam Easter eggs in Season 3’s first two episodes, fans can’t help but feel like something big is coming for Ted and Rebecca once we switch locations. Footage of the Amsterdam episode filming has been circulating on Twitter, and it looks as though Waddingham may accidentally fall into a canal, which is a thing that could presumably leave Rebecca upside down and drenched. As for the safe part, photos show Sudeikis was close by that day, so some fans are wondering if Ted will come to her rescue.
6
“Embrace the flaws and the imperfections, and in doing so create something much stronger and more beautiful.”
Before Tish launched into her reading, she said to Rebecca, “Are you familiar with kintsugi? It’s the Japanese art of mending broken things with gold. The idea is that we embrace the flaws and the imperfections, and in doing so create something much stronger and more beautiful.”
Respectfully, both Ted and Rebecca are hot messes, but they’ve always embraced each other’s flaws and imperfections and they’ve been diligently working on embracing their own as well. They’re each grieving the loss of their fathers and their recent divorces, but how precious would it be if — after three seasons of working to better themselves as individuals — they came together to create something stronger and more beautiful than what they left behind?
When Decider asked Waddingham about Rebecca’s relationship with Ted, here’s what she had to say: “I mean, the thing is, there are those relationships in life where there is a meeting of minds and souls, but not necessarily sexual. And part of me thinks, isn’t it interesting that everyone wants [Ted and Rebecca] to be together? Is that because we are conditioned to think that if, you know, two people get on, that means they therefore must be that? Sometimes there’s more longevity in not going in that direction.”
So will the fictional stars align for Ted and Rebecca fans? Or is Ted Lasso giving us false hope? Considering Ted once said it’s the lack of hope that kills you, I feel like we have no choice but to keep shipping???
New episodes of Ted Lasso premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
