Ted Lasso season 2 ending recap: were AFC Richmond promoted – did Roy and Keeley break up?

It’s been a little over a year since Ted Lasso was last on our screens – which is, really, more than enough time to forget just about everything that happened in that not-so-recent most recent episode.

Where do AFC Richmond stand in the football leagues? Who is in a relationship with who? Was that foreshadowed, or is it completely new this year?

It can be more than a little difficult to keep track, especially with so much other television having aired in the interim - as popular as the Apple TV+ comedy is, you could be forgiven for misremembering a handful of details here and there. So, you’re saying Nate was their friend, but now he’s the grand villain…? When did that happen?

With that in mind, here’s your recap of everything that happened in Ted Lasso Season 2 ahead of the beginning of Season 3.

What happened to… AFC Richmond?

After a series of close calls, near misses, and harsh losses, AFC Richmond entered the final game of the Championship League season with an unexpected hope for promotion back to the Premiership. Entering their final match against Hounslow based team and local rival Brentford FC, all they had to do was… tie.

In the end, it came down to a single penalty kick – which star striker Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) opted not to take, instead encouraging Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernández) to take the shot instead. It was Dani’s first penalty kick since the beginning of the season, when he accidentally killed Richmond’s greyhound mascot Earl with a stray football. He was clearly nervous stepping up to the penalty line, but scored anyway – equalising against Brentford, enough to bring Richmond back into contention for the Premier League.

What happened to… Nate and Ted?

Over the course of Season 2, Nate’s (Nick Mohammad) ego and insecurity started to bubble up to the surface – given the slightest authority, he begins to bully both the players and his replacement as kitman, and starts to resent Ted (Jason Sudeikis) for what he perceives as a lack of affection and respect. Lashing out, Nate leaks details about Ted’s recent panic attacks to the press, and Ted confronts him during the Richmond/Brentford game; Nate rants at Ted, telling Ted he wished he went back where he came from. Nate leaves not long after that, and Ted finds his “BELIEVE” sign ripped in two on his desk.

In the closing moments of the episode, we see Nate – his hair now entirely silver – coaching rival team West Ham United. He’s working for former Richmond owner Rupert Manion (Anthony Head), in effect positioning Nate as the new villain of the series going into Season 3.

What happened to… Roy and Keeley?

As happy as they seemed at the start of the series, cracks started to form in Keeley (Juno Temple) and Roy’s (Brett Goldstein) relationship across season 2 – there are little moments where they seem frustrated with each other or not on the same page, scenes where they each seem to consider the possibility of relationships with someone else, so on.

At the end of the series, as Keeley is about to embark on setting up her own PR firm, Roy tries to surprise her with a six-week holiday. Obviously, she can’t go – because she’s just about to start her own firm, international wi-fi or not it’s clearly a bad time to just take off like that – and Roy seems a little shaken by her telling him to go on his own.

“Are we breaking up?” he says, and she’s confused by the jump. Earlier in the episode, though, Roy confessed his fears to Ted and Beard (Brendan Hunt) that Keeley – who’d been pictured in a magazine article without him – might be better off outside their relationship. Out of those insecurities, it makes sense that the possibility of a break-up might start to weigh on his mind…

What happened to… Sam and Rebecca?

Early in Series 2, Keeley encouraged the team to sign up for anonymous dating app Bantr – and it wasn’t long before club owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) and star player Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) had unknowingly started a relationship. After a few dates in real life, Rebecca called things off, reasoning that she wasn’t quite ready to commit to being vulnerable with someone so much younger than her.

Not long after, Ghanaian billionaire Edwin Akufoh (Sam Richardson) tried to woo Sam into leaving Richmond and playing for a new team he was buying in Africa. Rebecca doesn’t want him to go, but felt she couldn’t ask him to stay; when Sam eventually turns Edwin down, he tells Rebecca it wasn’t because of the possibility of resuming their relationship, but instead because he just wasn’t ready to leave Richmond yet.

In one of the epilogue scenes at the end of the series, it’s revealed that Sam has bought a disused shop, with plans to turn it into a new Nigerian restaurant. Whether he and Rebecca will get back together – or if, perhaps, they’ll each meet someone new – is one of the big questions hanging over Series 3…

Ted Lasso begins today on Apple TV+, with new episodes airing weekly. You can read more of our coverage of the series here.