Ted Lasso Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Trent Crimm from The Independent

Ted Lasso Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Trent Crimm does a profile on Ted.

The third episode of Ted Lasso Season 1 sees the somewhat curmudgeonly reporter from The Independent, Trent Crimm (James Lance), return in full-force for a personal profile of the coach himself. Much to Rebecca’s chagrin, the profile doesn’t wind up being as negative as she’d have hoped.

For starters, Ted invites Trent to accompany him, Coach Beard, and Roy Kent to a meeting for schoolchildren to inspire them on their futures. For the most part, the event goes well, especially with Roy’s involvement. We get to see a different side of him in the third episode as he genuinely appears to enjoy running drills with the kids and his niece, Phoebe, but more on that later.

More from Apple TV Plus

• Show Snob’s Premiere Review: Watch, Pass, Wait and See (December 4, 2023)
• Show Snob’s Premiere Review: Watch, Pass, Wait and See (November 20, 2023)
• Show Snob’s Premiere Review: Watch, Pass, Wait and See (November 13, 2023)
• 5 best new shows premiering in November 2023 on Showtime, Netflix and more
• Apple TV+’s Invasion season 2, episode 8 recap: “Cosmic Ocean”

Not only does Trent get to see how endearingly optimistic Ted is, but he does also ask him some questions about his coaching desires and why he would take on coaching AFC Richmond despite knowing nothing about the sport or the U.K. in general.

The two get into some of the details while enjoying an extra spicy dinner at an Indian restaurant, something else Ted has no experience with.

During dinner, Ted tells Trent that he just wants to make the players better people, both on and off the field. He’s not as concerned with winning and losing. The entire conversation takes place as Ted consumes extremely spicy food, hot enough that Trent taps out and Ted volunteers to eat it so as not to offend his friend Ollie, the waiter and son of the owner/chef.

All of this is documented in Trent’s profile. He ultimately admits that while he does think Ted will fail as the coach of the team, he can’t help but root for him from the sidelines, and if he does fail, he won’t be gloating about it as he might once have thought.

When Higgins reads the article to Rebecca, she can’t do much but let out a scream of frustration.

Ted Lasso Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Rebecca’s plan with The Sun falls through.

Ironically, Rebecca’s whole reason for orchestrating the profile with The Independent is because Keeley and Ted find out about the photos that are planned to leak in The Sun showing them together. Even though nothing happened, the images will still cause a scandal thanks to how they appear — which was Rebecca’s original intention.

However, when the duo confronts her, she assures them she can contact The Sun‘s owner and have the piece pulled. In its place, she thinks Trent’s profile will do far more damage to Ted’s reputation. But her change in plan winds up screwing up her overall scheme to tank the team and break her husband’s heart.

Rebecca might be the “villain” of the show, but it’s hard to dislike her when Ted Lasso does a great job of humanizing her and making her feel like a real person. She and Keeley share a great scene in Episode 3 where she shows an old make photo of her sunbathing on a yacht to the model and Keeley is genuinely in awe of Rebecca’s physique. It’s nice to see her acting like someone normal and I hope by the end of the season, she comes around to genuinely liking and embracing Ted.

Ted Lasso Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Roy Kent learns to become a leader.

The first two episodes depict Roy as a grump who doesn’t care about much of anything. Episode 3 shows us that he does have a much softer side and mostly a jerk with a heart of gold character.

He starts to get irritated when he notices how much Nate gets picked on by Jamie and his buddies on the team. It gets worse when Ted and Beard actually use one of Nate’s plays on the field, one that results in Sam scoring goals and Jamie playing a decoy — and an egomaniac like Jamie is not thrilled with the plan, despite the fact it works beautifully.

Jamie starts taking out his irritation on Nate, to the point Roy confronts Ted and asks why he’s just letting it happen. Ted pretends like he doesn’t care, but it’s part of a plan for him to push Roy into being a better leader and taking control of the situation. It works. Roy tries to get Jamie to back off.

First, Jamie says he will but then just tells his friends to go even harder on Nate. Later, after reading some of A Wrinkle in Time to Phoebe (another gift from Ted, who gives each member of the team a particular book), he takes the story’s central meaning to heart and takes a legitimate stand against Jamie. Confronting him at a night club, he demands Jamie back off from Nate before storming out.  It looks like Roy has finally begun to accept his role on the team because it’s gotta be him, no one else can do it — so says Mrs. Which.

What did you think of the first three episodes of Ted Lasso Season 1? Are you looking forward to what comes next? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

New episodes of Ted Lasso Season 1 air Fridays on Apple TV Plus.