Roy and Keeley's Love Story Deserved Better Than 'Ted Lasso' Season 4
Ted Lasso Season 4 has had its share of issues. Ted, as a character, has largely been a nonentity on the show that's named after him. Tracey Ullman’s Zelda isn't compelling as either a billionaire caricature or a season-long villain. Rebecca's romance with Matthijs is fine, but seems to exist almost solely to quiet the segment of the fandom that wants to see her paired with Ted. We still barely know most of the players on the women's team. And, to make matters even worse, the one aspect of this return that should have been a slam dunk out of the gate was left to sputter and meander aimlessly until the season's penultimate installment.
Don't get me wrong, I am over the moon that Roy Kent and Keeley Jones are finally back together. They've always been Ted Lasso's strongest romantic relationship, and the chemistry between stars Juno Temple and Brett Goldstein is unmatched. Their relationship was rom-com perfection, a swoony, heartfelt reminder of how truly loving someone ultimately helps us become the best versions of ourselves. At its best, Roy and Keeley's story was about two people finding ways to grow together rather than attempting to navigate a series of events meant to push them apart, and it's hard to overstate what a breath of fresh air that is in the world of television romance.
Their initial break-up was one of the dumber choices in a season full of them, so it's a relief to see these two finally get back on track. Yet, it's also difficult not to feel frustrated by the meandering path the show has taken to arrive at this point, one paved by the worst sort of narrative decisions that did neither character nor their relationship any favors.
This isn't exactly a new problem. Ted Lasso never made a particularly compelling case for why Roy and Keeley should break up in the first place. (I'm still not sure I can tell you why they did.) Subsequent Season 3 subplots saw Keeley involved in a pointless romance with a billionaire investor in her new PR firm (Jodi Balfour), as well as a meaningless redo of the Season 1 love triangle with Roy and Jamie Tartt, in which the two (grown! adult!) men literally came to blows over her. Keeley chose herself, Kelly Taylor-style, and we pretty much all went home miserable.
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It's not a surprise that the two were still fairly estranged at the start of Season 4, so much so that the exes-turned-co-workers apparently hadn't been alone together in three years. Not only is this patently nonsensical—they both have leadership roles in the AFC Richmond organization!—it leaves both Roy and Keeley in a strange narrative limbo for the bulk of the season, frozen in a bizarre emotional holding pattern that no other figure on the show's canvas is forced to endure.
What's worse, the show forgot much of what made us all fall in love with Roy and Keeley in the first place, doubling down on its worst instincts about their relationship throughout Season 4. Rather than address the elephant in the room that is their unfinished romance, the show replays tired will they/won't they tropes we've seen before and undercuts much of the emotional maturity we've seen this duo display in the past.
Because Roy and Keeley were, if nothing else, a great example of a grown-up love story. They talked about their problems, displayed real vulnerability, and navigated awkward relationship situations together without the constant threat of an imminent break-up hanging over their heads.
This time around, the show consistently make the worst choice possible when it comes to their relationship, throwing up roadblocks that clearly exist for no reason other than to keep them apart. Both parties clearly want to give things between them another shot, but Keeley randomly insists Roy date 10 women first to prove he's considered making real emotional connections with other people. (What?)
Naturally, over the course of this pointlessly manufactured task, he actually meets a nice doctor (Laura Haddock) whose existence pushes back his inevitable reunion with Keeley even further. Still, we know that no matter how nice that Dr. Erin Beaumont may be (and she seems awesome!), he'll never choose her in the end, making this entire experiment feel even more like an insulting waste of time.
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When we finally get to their reunion—after an excruciating hour in which the pair endlessly snipe at one another on various modes of transport before finally admitting that they'd never want to have such an adventure with anyone else—Roy's heartfelt "Legends" speech is almost worth the wildly circuitous route we've taken to get there. (As romantic declarations go, "On the rare occasion that I make you smile, that’s when I feel like a legend" is pretty great.)
But it's also...strangely irritating. Why has so much of Roy and Keeley's relationship been written as though their development across the first three seasons of Ted Lasso never happened? Roy says he needed to realize he was worthy of loving Keeley to be with her, but I'm not sure I can agree that's the story the show actually told onscreen.
In true Ted Lasso fashion, the show jumps past the immediate aftermath of the Roy/Keeley reunion, fast-forwarding six weeks into the future. (Sorry if you wanted to see Ted or Rebecca's reaction to any of this!) But at least the reveal of Keeley's pregnancy means that their relationship is finally breaking new ground, narratively speaking, rather than retreading beats from its own past.
It's not an accident that this subplot gives us the best scene between the two all season, as Roy acts out the Lady Greyhounds game using Keeley's makeup and cosmetic accessories. ("Rouge and contour: Great teamwork despite your differences.") It's silly, charming, and completely romantic, another example of just how caring the often acerbic Roy is and how much he gets Keeley on an emotional level. That it convinces her to tell him she's pregnant is the icing on the cake.
This is the Roy/Keeley relationship we fell in love with, and the one that's been largely missing all season. True, we got there in the end, and for that I'm deeply grateful. But it's difficult not to wonder what might have been if we hadn't wasted quite so much time along the way.
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