Rebecca's New Love Interest

Rebecca Welton’s new love interest in Ted Lasso is a mysterious handsome nameless Dutchman and I’m all in for the ride.

Rebecca is one of my favorite characters on the show. She is, in fact, the core of the show as it is based on the premise that Rebecca, who got the London’s Richmond football club in a divorce settlement from her “asshole” of a rich cheating husband named Rupert Mannion, hired Ted Lasso of Kansas, who knew nothing about soccer, as the head coach deliberately, to ruin the club – Rupert’s favorite toy – and blame the failure on the clueless American.

Over time, however, Ted’s kindness, sincerity, and authenticity wins Rebecca over and they become close friends. So close, in fact, that many fans were rooting for them to become a couple. I never shared in that hope and personally would be disappointed if that happened; it would be too formulaic and banal.

Keenly interested in the portrayal of a recently divorced female boss of a male sports team, I loved watching Rebecca try to get over Rupert’s betrayal and start new relationships. At first, they seemed like short flings, deviations from the main plot, little niceties that gave insight into Rebecca’s character. For example, in Season 1, she briefly dated another rich man named John Wingsnight, and promptly dumped him after realizing he was not her soulmate. But as the show progressed, it seems to get into her relationships deeper. When in Season 2 she got involved with Sam Obisanya, a talented Nigerian player from her club, many fans of the show were fascinated and intrigued. The couple broke major stereotypes: She is twice his age (modern society has nothing against older men dating and marrying women the age of their daughters, but stiffens its lips when women do it); it’s an interracial relationship; and she is Sam’s boss.

I was disappointed this relationship did not last and pictured myself in Sam’s shoes when Rebecca broke up with him. Even though she did it gently and lovingly, I was still hoping they would ultimately reconcile and continue breaking societal stereotypes.

The show runners did not think so, however. Episode 3 of Season 3 has Rebecca visit a psychic who made three seemingly crazy predictions making absolutely no sense: 1) the psychic saw a special object in Rebecca’s hands – a green matchbox, 2) she also heard someone shouting out “shite in nining armor,” and 3) saw Rebecca upside down and drenched, but safe. The psychic ended up predicting Rebecca will have a family: “you’ll be a mother.” Angry Rebecca, who had been unable to become pregnant, storms out accusing the psychic of being “fucking cruel.” Little did she know that those predictions will come true.

The first prediction comes true when Sam gives Rebecca a green matchbox as a souvenir for his Nigerian cuisine restaurant opening. Once Rebecca realized it was the first sign, she tried but failed to get rid of the matchbox. It has indeed become “a special object in her hands.”

The second prediction comes true when John Wingsnight runs into Rebecca at the same café where she dumped him. He is accompanied by his new love, Jessica Darling, who calls John her “shite in nining armor” and thanks Rebecca for dumping him.

The third prediction happens when after a friendly match in Amsterdam Rebecca takes a walk on a bike lane, gets knocked off and falls upside down into a canal, becomes drenched but ends up safe in the boat house of the mysterious Dutchman. He gives her space and time to take a shower while he goes to buy groceries for dinner. And then he lets her choose dry clothes from his former partner’s stack. She looks girly and free in a romantic floral dress with her hair down.

It is at this moment of the episode that my mind clicked with a theory that the psychic’s predictions were about Rebecca’s moving on from past relationships: the green matchbox – from Sam, and the “shite in nining armor” – from John. Both those relationships were fleeting and transitional, helping Rebecca heal from her bad marriage and divorce. And now she was ready, after being drenched and cleansed from her past, for a new relationship.

The chemistry between the nameless Dutchman and Rebecca is undeniable. They exchange long soul-gazing looks, they understand each other with no words or with incomplete phrases. Rebecca’s facial expressions say a lot without words, communicating interest, appreciation, comfort, and trust in this mysterious man. What’s there not to trust? He oozes swag, reliability, maturity, and sincerity. He discloses willingly as well, telling her about his former partner cheating on him and the heartache he survived.

The writing and acting in this episode is superb, showing them connecting on so many different levels. Everything they do together – singing, eating the dinner he cooked, dancing – is romantic and magical, but not far-fetched and real at the same time. At the end of the evening, he offers her a foot massage: “My technique is sound,” that was so orgasmic she falls asleep on the couch.

In the morning, the impeccably looking boss Rebecca shyly asks the Dutchman cooking eggs for breakfast,

“So uhm, last night… did we?”

“Did we? Did we?... [he gives it a long pause] No!”

You can see both relief and regret in Rebecca’s eyes as she nods, seemingly with satisfaction. They exchange a passionate kiss, still not knowing each other’s names. Then Rebecca politely rejects breakfast and says, leaving the boat,

“I won’t forget you!”

“Yeah, yeah, you might,” he responds, waving her off with his hand. “People get Alzheimer’s.”

That is such a big expectancy violation (big term from the field of interpersonal communication, meaning that one of the partners in conversation uses a joke in such an unexpected way that only those who are on the same wavelength of humor can understand it) that they both break into laughter. Brilliant dialogue here by the Ted Lasso’s writers, as the video below shows.

As Rebecca left the boat, the Dutchman repeats pensively, “Did we? Hmm. Oh yes, we did.”

He gives out a deep reflective sigh and a longing but hopeful gaze. I love how it leaves so many options for different possibilities: Did they really hook up and Rebecca becomes pregnant and gets her chance at a family, as the psychic predicted? Did they connect on such a deep soul level that they will leave it for the Universe to bring them back together, even though they didn’t know each other’s names? Did they just had a completely one-off one-night stand with a deep connection that simply reinforced their faith in their own self-worth, preparing them to move on to more meaningful relationships?

I guess we will get more clarity tomorrow when the new episode is released. But I do hope that Ted Lasso’s contract with the Dutch actor Matteo van der Grijn is at least through the end of Season 3 (the show runners will not definitively say if this is actually the final season).

P.S. Also, check out the result of my experiment of writing up this review with the help of ChatGPT that I published here yesterday.

Post-Season-3-Finale Update: Even though Rebecca's one-night romance was hardly mentioned in subsequent episodes, I absolutely loved the way it popped up in Season 3 finale. That little girl running toward Rebecca as she was leaving the airport was both the embodiment of little Rebecca running toward the new phase of her life and her longing for a family. You really have to watch the season finale to appreciate how perfect it is, having tied all the loose ends so that no question is left unanswered. Only new possibilities...

June 27, 2023 update: There's some buzz on the Internet that Tim Cook of Apple would like to see continuation of Ted Lasso. Even if Ted stays in America, the new spin-off could focus on the female soccer team prospect and Rebecca's love and family life. I'd be totally in for that.