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AFC Richmond’s fledgling women’s team needed a striker… and Dani Rojas’ sister wasn’t going to do.
In “Ted Lasso” Season 4, Episode 3, coaches Ted, Beard, and Alice all assumed Maria Rojas (Paloma Cinco) was about to follow in her brother’s footsteps and show what is possible when you eat, breathe, and sleep football. But after showcasing that her big brother taught her everything *but* the game he lives for, Maria exclaimed that life is about more than just football. That left an opening for Alice’s former teammate Gemma (Abbie Hern) to take her place among the Lady Greyhounds.
Tryouts also resulted in the addition of Shannon (returning guest star Shannon Hayes, who made a handful of appearances throughout the Apple TV comedy’s first three seasons), whom neither Beard nor Alice thought was ready, but Ted decided to take a chance on. Also making the cut was single mother Lizzie (Faye Marsay), who showed up to tryouts on a whim with her adorable son in tow.
All three join intense goalie Boots (Jude Mack), who was introduced in Episode 2 and made quite an impression on Coach Lasso as she detailed her decision to play without gloves.
In the video interview above, “Ted Lasso” newcomers Hern, Marsay, and Mack sit down with TVLine to unpack their respective characters’ introductions and preview what lies ahead for Gemma, Lizzie, and Boots as Richmond’s newly assembled women’s team begins to take shape.
Gemma’s Complicated History With Alice… and the Choice That Lies Ahead
There may be some lingering tension between Gemma and Alice, but Hern believes their shared passion for football — and their begrudging belief in each other — gives them a foundation to build on as Season 4 moves forward.
“Otherwise, Gemma wouldn’t have joined the team,” Hern tells TVLine. Ted’s observation that Gemma was Alice’s “only option” also “really, really, really sticks with Gemma,” because it confirms that, deep down, “Alice does believe in her.”
But Gemma isn’t ready to fully commit to football just yet. She intends to remain in law school while playing for Richmond, a balancing act Hern says “sheds a light on the reality of women’s football.”
“Of course, she wants to be a professional women’s football player, and she wants that to be her career and her life. But actually, that comes with a lot of compromise,” Hern explains. Juggling the two worlds will prove “physically taxing and emotionally taxing and academically taxing,” ultimately leaving Gemma to choose “between her head and her heart.”
Lizzie Is More Than Just Team Mom
For Lizzie, earning a spot on Richmond isn’t simply an opportunity to play football. Marsay sees it as the beginning of “a new chapter” for a woman who initially arrives at tryouts feeling “quite lonely and quite terrified.”
That’s why Beard’s effort to put Lizzie at ease after she shows up with her son means so much. “She doesn’t really think that there’s a place for her there,” Marsay says. “So when it’s offered to her, it’s kind of like, ‘OK, this is a new chapter now. Here we go.'”
Lizzie’s maternal instincts will continue to surface around her younger teammates, but Marsay is eager for viewers to see beyond them. As Season 4 progresses, Lizzie is “trying to shed that” identity and find “her independence away from” motherhood.
“I think it’s useful in how she can manage some of the younger dynamics,” Marsay says, “but I don’t want her to be remembered for that. I think she’s so much more than that, and that’s what we’re trying to show as we go.”
Is Boots ‘Frightened to Be Brilliant’?
According to Mack, Boots’ refusal to wear gloves isn’t just an eccentricity. It may be the very thing preventing her from realizing just how good she can be.
“I think she’s a mega, mega goalie,” Mack tells TVLine, arguing that Boots is subconsciously “holding back her own greatness.” Marsay offers another way of putting it: She’s “frightened to be brilliant.”
“She’s so arrogant and thinks she’s amazing, but there is that kind of subconscious hurdle going on where she’s like, ‘I couldn’t be too good, though,'” Mack explains. “I think she’d be playing for Chelsea if she put the gloves on, and so we’ll see what happens if she does.”
That outward confidence also masks something Boots desperately wants: a sense of belonging. Though her position naturally separates her from her teammates, Mack says “she really wants community. I think she’s never had it.” Richmond gives Boots “the opportunity to be part of something bigger, and that is a deep, deep desire for her.”
For more from Hern, Marsay, and Mack, press PLAY on the video interview above, then leave a comment and let us know what you thought of “Ted Lasso” Season 4, Episode 3.
