Ted Lasso – Season 3 Episode 8 “We’ll Never Have Paris” Recap & Review

Changing Tides

Episode 8 of Ted Lasso opens with the football commentators describing Richmond’s several wins against teams like Aston Villa and Southampton. Just as they muse about how Ted must be over the moon, we see that he is, in fact, quite sombre. Make sense as he’s sitting across Michelle and Jake, the lovebirds who are leaving Henry with Ted as they travel.

When Jake steps away for a minute, Michelle informs Ted that he’s taking her on a surprise trip to Paris. This obviously sets off some ideas in Ted’s mind.

As Keeley and Jack mess around in bed, Jack gets an invitation for the both of them to her uncle Bernie’s polo event. Seeing as this ‘uncle’ is really a family friend who runs brands like Louis Vuitton, Keeley is ecstatic about going. Jack is more than ready to introduce everyone to her girlfriend. Just then, Keeley’s phone pings continuously and she is faced with some bad news.

Nate is in bed, next to Jade who is just waking up. In the midst of asking her about breakfast, Nate makes some suggestive comments about labels for their relationships. Of course, he himself is cool and casual.

Turns out, a private video of Keeley (the sexual kind) was leaked and is now all over the internet. Jack calms her down and tells her she’ll take care of it.

While Will makes Henry do chores in the name of games, Ted tells his confidants that Michelle and Jake are getting engaged. The Diamond Dogs convene (Roy leaves to the next room while Leslie runs out of breath while rushing to Ted’s office) and even Trent joins in. They’re all underwhelmed when they realise the couple are merely travelling to Paris and Ted doesn’t actually know they are engaged. They encourage him to not worry about what hasn’t happened yet.

At the West Ham office, Nate tries to develop his own version of the Diamond Dogs — the Love Hounds. He includes Roger and Disco, two staff members, and finds that Rupert, who was invited, has blown him off. After getting disastrous advice like insulting girls that you like and never expressing emotions, Nate puts the Love Hound in the ground, for good.

Ted goes up to Rebecca’s office and, quite earnestly, asks her to hire a private investigator to find out what’s happening with Michelle and Jake. She tries dissuading him but ultimately agrees.

At her office, Keeley goes through the harrowing comments of people on her video. Barbara steps in and apologises to Keeley for the whole thing. She then hands a statement to Keeley for her to put on her social media, given by Jack. The statement reads as an apology from Keeley for even making the video at all while not making any comment on those who actually leaked it.

In the Richmond locker room, the boys find out that a bunch of famous women had their nude photos leaked. The opinions are divided with Isaac, Sam and Jamie being staunch supporters who delete all compromising media of other people from their phones. Meanwhile, Colin and some others insist that the photos sent to them are theirs now.

When they realise Keeley was one of the women, Isaac puts a stop to the debate and has everybody delete all such photos from their phones immediately. When Colin goes to another room, Isaac follows and orders him to do as he says. Colin says he will but curses at Isaac, prompting the latter to grab his phone. What Isaac sees on the phone, makes him stop in shock and then walk away from Colin.

Keeley vents to Rebecca about the whole thing and, as is expected, gets unwavering support. When she shows Rebecca the statement Jack sent her, Rebecca says it was probably the lawyers who wrote that and not Jack. She nudges Keeley to try talking to Jack.

Roy meets Keeley and asks if she’s okay but he messes it up when he asks her who the video was for.

Later on at home, Jack tells Keeley the lawyers wrote the letter and understands when Keeley says she can’t post it.

After reading out a bedtime story for Henry, Ted asks him about school, homework, friends and, of course, Jake. Henry says Jake does hang out with him while watching TV but falls asleep before he can answer any more questions.

When Nate gets a good morning message from Jade, he wavers between calling her babe or not.

Keeley brings Jack breakfast and is all dolled up, ready to go to the fancy polo event. But her hopes are dashed when Jack says she cancelled that because she assumed Keeley wouldn’t want to be around cameras. They decide to spend the day on their own.

Ted and Coach Beard take the day off from work to spend some quality time with Henry, only for him to want to watch a football match. There’s only one game on, a West Ham game, and the trio turn up to watch it. An excited Henry wears the West Ham jersey and waves out to Nate from the stands but Nate doesn’t respond.

While Keeley and Jack enjoy their off day playing golf, they meet one of Jack’s friends from university. She’s there celebrating her sister’s hen do but the kicker comes when Jack introduces Keeley as her friend instead of as her girlfriend.

After winning the match, Nate gets a text from Rupert apologising for Ted’s presence in the stands and informing him that Ted won’t be allowed again. Nate is about to text back saying that it was fine, he found it funny, but changes his mind and agrees with Rupert.

Ted, Beard and Henry sit down for some drinks at the pub. Henry nearly isn’t served his milk when Mae sees his West Ham jersey. Someone on the street begins to play the guitar, singing Hey Jude. It prompts some excitement from Henry, but Ted is more occupied with a message from Rebecca regarding Michelle and Jake.

As Ted speaks to her on the phone, Beard tells Henry the story of Hey Jude and how McCartney wrote it for Lennon’s son Julian when his parents had separated. Beard pushes Henry to ‘take a sad song and make it better’, assuring him that his parents love him and things will be alright.

Rebecca offers her own piece of advice and berates Ted for being obsessed with the past and not enjoying his present. She tells him to go and enjoy singing Hey Jude with his son.

Jack tells Keeley she has a toned-down version of the statement but Keeley doesn’t want to do it. In the ensuing argument, Jack reveals that she’s more concerned about how her partner looks and the PR company’s reputation. She even tells Keeley that she shouldn’t have made such a video in the first place. Keeley stands her ground and when Jack figures there may be more such videos, she leaves the house.

At Nate’s home, Jade and he have wine as Jade advises him to celebrate his victories. He looks at a picture of Ted, Beard, and Henry at the West Ham match and seems to match their grins with a smile of his own. When Jade calls him her boyfriend, he says he’s more than happy to have labels.

Jamie turns up at Keeley’s doorstep and asks if she’s doing okay. He then apologises for her video being leaked, assuring her that he deleted everything from his phone but forgot to delete it from his email. She says it’s not his fault and hugs him.

Ted sends Henry off with Michelle and notices that she isn’t wearing a ring on her finger. He watches as Jake greets Henry enthusiastically but the boy ignores Jake’s fist bump. Michelle waves out to him and the cab leaves. Ted moves away from the window, deep in thought.

The Episode Review

We see quite a few developments happen in this episode. Ted seems more inclined than ever to just sit in the cab with Henry and head back home together. His expressions of wistfulness are becoming something of a constant. But it is nice to see him finally take a step towards moving on from his tunnel-vision feelings for Michelle. The moment with Beard and Henry was definitely a highlight of this episode!

The entire debacle with Keeley’s video gave rise to a lot of debate and discussion, which was well-written and handled tactfully. Jamie displays one of the best sides of himself as someone who deletes all such media and apologises when things do go wrong. The conversation between him and Keeley was heartwarming and could lead to a wholesome friendship. Roy’s insecurities get the better of him but I guess he’s human and flawed and the show is leaning into that.

But let’s look at what this really was about — a means to get Keeley and Jack to break up. And it wasn’t a particularly nice way to do so. It seems so out of character for someone like Jack to shame Keeley for making such videos. It felt sudden and odd and frankly, if anyone understands about privacy violations and sexual liberation, it’s a queer woman.

Nate and Jade, on the other hand, are quite lovely to watch even though it seems like Jade will be the one to pull Nat back towards the ‘good side’. It’s a bit of a standard tale but that doesn’t mean it won’t be enjoyable to watch. They share a good dynamic and after all, Rupert makes a good villain.