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First of all, I have seen the whole show a couple of times, and it would be impossible not to reference future happenings. My brain does not always like to focus or stay in chronological order, so I may be all over the place with these thoughts.
I love how the opening of this episode starts with the team out on the pitch and then pans to Rebecca as the music changes. It’s almost as if it is saying “this isn’t a show about football, it’s about her.” I think it is pretty clear after watching the whole show that each season has an overarching story about a particular character, and that character opens the first episode and closes the last episode of the season. Rebecca is that character for the first season. And can we just get a round of applause for Hannah fucking Waddingham!
[Side note: I hadn’t realized how disheveled Higgins looked in this first scene. I hadn’t really thought about how all of this was affecting him, but it clearly is.]
We learn pretty quickly that Rebecca and Rupert are not on good terms. She is willing to give away a painting worth a million pounds and is completely redoing the office. One of the things I adore about this show is how many callbacks there are to previous episodes. So, I love that we get to see Rebecca hang the painting back up (3x10). It is such a great portrayal of character growth and healing. We get more insight into the relationship with the headline story “He gets the bimbos - She gets the bozos. Rebecca Welton new owner of AFC Richmond after breakup. Marriage described as ‘total disaster.’” This instantly put me on her side and you feel bad for what she must be going through. To have your face plastered all over the papers, and probably the TV as well, while still processing the whole thing yourself had to be miserable.
R: Rupert and I bought this on our fifth anniversary.
H: Well, you have exquisite taste.
R: Do you want it?
H: But it's a Hockney. It must be worth a million pounds.
R: Good point. You should've said yes. Auction pile, please.
Firing club manager George is a boss ass move. The guy really is a piece of work. So, between the Hockney, the rest of the office, and George, it seems that Rebecca is cleaning house. She is the new owner and isn’t going to take any shit - she is going to call it out. Being in what is certainly a man’s world, having been publicly humiliated in the press, and having to deal with people like George, she has to be sure of herself. And she does come across as a strong, confident, and self-assured woman with a bit of a humorous side who is ready to make a clean break from her ex-husband.
George’s comment, “What do you think’s worse? Your husband cheating on you or being the last to know?” gives us a little more of the story and absolutely breaks my heart. The finalization of the divorce is recent, and though we aren’t directly told, I am sure that it was long and messy. There is no way that Rupert would have let go of Richmond without a fight.
In 2x10, Rebecca tells her mother “You don't think I was scared leaving Rupert? I was terrified.” She had to have been so brave and strong to get through that, and has probably come out this side of it a little hardened. She has had to build some walls and a thick skin over the last year. I think Hannah Waddingham has spoken about how “put together” Rebecca is and how particular she [Hannah] was about the clothes. That got me thinking that her wardrobe is kind of like her armor. This was kind of confirmed when we see her in 2x04 and her outfit is so completely different from what we have seen so far. When she is at work, she needs that extra wall up.
From the surprised look on Higgins’s face, we know that the decision to fire George had not been a group discussion. We don’t know the relationship between these two (at this point), but he calls her “Mrs. Mannion...Excuse me. Ms. Welton.” And it is hard to tell what his role is. It certainly seems that Rebecca has no intention of bringing Higgins into the circle and she is making these decisions and already has someone in mind to replace George.
Some time has passed when we see Ted and Coach Beard arriving and being escorted to Rebecca’s office. Her charm is very disarming, and she strikes quite the picture (as this is the first time we have really seen her in full view.) She certainly intimidates Nate, which honestly isn’t saying much. It is definitely a different day than the first time we saw Rebecca and Higgins, and Higgins is definitely looking disheveled.
I am not really sure what to think about this interchange:
R: “Please, call me Rebecca. Ms. Welton's my father.”
T: “If that's a joke, I love it. If not, I cannot wait to unpack that with you.”
Even after learning more about her and her father, I still don’t get it. Is she just being funny? Is it a British thing? I do love Ted’s response and Rebecca’s reaction to it. She is definitely a little thrown by his response–she hasn’t met anyone like him, and he is certainly very different from the likes of George. She spends most of the scene in her office sizing him up.She is hospitable and charming while at the same time not–she asks if he wants anything to drink, and though he says coffee, she doesn’t really give him an option and serves him tea even though he says he doesn’t like tea. In contrast, Ted seems to just take everything in stride–dare I say, at face value? He isn’t trying to figure her out, he is just taking it all in.
As Rebecca gives Ted the tour, I think it is important to note that she obviously knows a lot about the team as a whole, and later in the press conference, she says that she has seen more games than anyone there. She doesn’t, however, seem to know the team as individuals, and from comments she makes later in the show, it doesn’t seem like she has cared about football (1x10) or been invested in how the team plays. She was probably expected to go to every game. Which makes me think of the comment Bex makes to Rupert (1x08) about how she wasn’t going to go to the games every week.
Anyway, Rebecca is super charming as she talks to Ted about the history. She sucked me in, and I loved her. But it’s funny because she really doesn’t know what to make of Ted.
R: “Do you believe in ghosts, Ted?”
T: “I do. But more importantly, I think they need to believe in themselves. You know?”
R: “Okay.”
The “Okay” at the end of that is hilarious! But you can’t blame her! It is definitely not something you expect someone to say. Rebecca has gotten used to being treated a certain way, and her defenses were built to withstand those particular types of attacks. She was not prepared for Ted.
As they move over to the wall of previous owners, you can tell that her charming facade slips a little. The smile is there but she keeps losing it and has to force it back on. She is probably used to people saying Rupert is a “good time” or that he is charming, and I think it is nice that Ted walks back his comment when he realizes who it is. And OH MY GOD! I love that the camera zooms in when Ted asks “How you holding up?” and it stays zoomed in as it switches to Rebecca and she says, “Yeah, hasn’t been the easiest year.” Just for that one little moment someone is focusing on her–genuinely asking her how she is doing. Has she had anyone ask her that–anyone who wasn’t after a scoop–someone who genuinely wanted to know? It’s these little heartbreaking moments that make me fall in love with characters. You see the pain and it just makes me want to know more about them.
T: “Okay. And now look at this fella up here. How 'bout the girls and the champagne and everything? He looks like a good time.”
R: “That's my ex-husband.”
T: “Well, good times aren't always a good time, I've found. You know, I heard about all that. How you holding up?”
R: “Yeah, hasn't been the easiest year.”
T: “Yeah.”
I like that Rebecca either recognizes Ted’s genuineness or is so caught off guard that she doesn’t completely brush off the question. I wouldn’t expect her to tell a total stranger everything, but I think she gives more than she maybe meant to because he caught her off guard. The way he says “Yeah” means so much more when you know his story! By the end of the episode, we know his marriage is weighing on him, and it would have to be pretty bad for him to go all the way to London!
Did Rebecca schedule the press conference to happen right away as part of her plan? I’m pretty sure she did. If the plan was to catch Ted off guard and make him look incompetent from the start, then throwing him to the lions mere minutes after arrival would certainly accomplish that. He is pretty wide-eyed at the start (and who wouldn’t be) and though he starts to settle into it, it doesn’t take long for it to spin out of control as the press badger him with questions. The sound of buzzing begins to drown out the voices, and he is well on his way to losing it when the explosion from the fizzy water kind of knocks him out of it. Rebecca fortunately steps in.
Rebecca: “Good Lord. You must forgive my fellow countrymen. Somewhere over the last few years, we seem to have abandoned all sense of manners and hospitality. My, my, aren't you a salty bunch? But I can't remember the last time the press room was this full. Yet here you all are. Maybe you're not such a mad notion after all. And despite the number of you here, there is not a single person in this room who has seen Richmond play more than I have. And in all those years under the stewardship of the previous owner, I've witnessed nothing but profound mediocrity. Am I wrong?”
Reporter: “Well, it's a bit harsh.”
Rebecca: “Am I wrong?”
Reporter: “No.”
Rebecca: “Now, Coach Lasso may not have the CV that you all find acceptable, but he does have one thing this club doesn't: a trophy from this millennium. So, like it or not, Richmond are changing the way we do things. And from now on, that way is the "Lasso way." We look forward to seeing you all at our next match with Crystal Palace. Thank you so much.”
Let’s just step aside for a minute to discuss Rebecca’s plan. It seems like Rebecca didn’t really think through this plan very well, which honestly isn’t surprising considering the headspace she must have been in following the divorce. Though Ted was able to bring the American football team from a “garbage program all the way to the promised land in his very first season as head coach” and that does bring some credibility to her decision to hire him, I feel that she is just going to make herself look worse in the press. She is focused on destroying the club to hurt Rupert, and she admits she didn’t care who else she hurt in the process, but the saddest part is that she is also hurting herself (is that irony?). By letting the press destroy Ted and see his incompetence, she is just adding fuel to the fire for what they will say about her. Right? Now she won’t only be the woman who didn't know her husband was cheating on her, but now she will be the woman who couldn’t run a football club. But, as I said before, she is obviously not in the right headspace. Maybe she just doesn’t care anymore. They are already going to be talking shit about her, so why not get back at Rupert in the process.
She could have let the press completely rip Ted apart and not have jumped in to defend him, but she didn’t. Now, whether that was to actually help him out because it had gone further than she had anticipated, or because she needed to make it seem like she was on his side and legitimately thought he was what the club needed, I am not sure of her motivations there. I would like to think that because she is a good person, she could see that Ted was overwhelmed and she couldn’t not step in. I think from this scene, we get some foreshadowing of Ted’s anxiety and Rebecca’s concern for him.
Okay, back on track. When Rebecca interrupts the press, she is amazing! She commands attention and speaks some truths! She handles herself very well with the press considering how they have treated her. Though I guess it may not be all of them, just the likes of Ernie Lounds. But I like how confident she is in her statements and how she calls them on their behavior (which is also ironic since if her plan is successful, she will have done worse to Ted). She knows what she is talking about, and even though she doesn’t believe in Ted or what he will do for the club, she certainly fooled me.
Then, she is all nice and reassuring one moment…
T: “Oh, boy. I'm sorry about that. I don't know what happened.”
R: “Ted, don't you think about them for another second. You have a job to do. And proving them wrong, just been added to the list.”
T: “I appreciate that.”
…and stabbing him in the back the next!
R: “He's an absolute wanker….I hope he fails miserably. See, my ex-husband truly loved only one thing his entire life: this club. And Ted Lasso is gonna help me burn it to the ground.”
DAMN! She had Higgins fooled, and she had me fooled. Even though it hurt, I thought it was a great twist! You really see her hatred for Rupert, and maybe you don’t blame her for wanting to get revenge. However, it doesn’t take long to like Ted and want to see him win everyone over.
In Rebecca’s last scene of the episode, she really shows that she is serious about this plan, and we get to learn a little bit more about Higgins. Despite the fact that Higgins is clearly uncomfortable with the plan, Rebecca basically bribes him with a new position so that he will go along with it.
H: “He seems like such a nice man. I'm not sure I can do this.”
R: “Obviously, for this to work, I'm going to need the full support of my new director of football operations. I'm assuming that's a promotion and substantial pay rise that would be of interest to you and your family.”
I love how this show subverts your expectations. After years of watching movies and TV shows, I have gotten pretty good at determining where a storyline is going to go and how the writers are going to try and drag us along. This show had me guessing where it was going. They also didn’t let things hang
So I really liked the Rebecca twist, and then the Higgins twist just made it even better.
R: “I know that there'll be elements to this little adventure that will weigh on you a bit. But I'm sure it won't be harder than it was to sneak all Rupert's women in and out behind my back all those years.”
It makes sense why she has been treating him so poorly–not that I think she should treat him. If she was upset with him, she should have just let him go instead of making him miserable. I guess she really didn’t care who she used or who she hurt (1x09). It makes me so sad to think she was at the point where she was willing to be such a bitch and make his life hell. Of course, just like Sassy told Rebecca (1x07) that she “climbed every single step of that tower on your own.” Higgins did have the option, with Rupert and now with Rebecca, to leave. That is on him, but it doesn’t diminish what Rebecca is doing.
I feel that Rebecca isn’t going to be taken seriously in her new role as club owner. Whether that is because she is a woman and/or because of how the press has portrayed her. I guess it doesn’t really matter though since she just wants to bring down the club anyway. But it really is sad that Rebecca is so focused on making Rupert suffer that she is willing to not only hurt others but also herself. I know the saying is “hurt people hurt people” but that is because those people have trauma they need to deal with. I am so glad that Ted got the therapy he needed and began to deal with his trauma. It is obvious that Rebecca needs therapy as well. Even by Season 3, it is obvious she still has a lot of things she needs to work through.
I thought this first episode was great! They had a lot of characters to introduce, and I think they did an amazing job considering how short the episode was.