Former ‘Ted Lasso’ star makes surprise return

News Room By News Room
4 Min Read

Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched “Ted Lasso’s” sixth episode of Season 4. 

He scores!

Phil Dunster, who starred as cocky soccer player Jamie Tartt in the first three seasons of “Ted Lasso,” made a surprise return to Season 4 of the Apple TV comedy. 

In the season’s sixth episode, Keely (Juno Temple) and Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) go to a splashy New Year’s Eve bash, where they run into Roy (Brett Goldstein). 

Keely is surprised to see her ex-boyfriend, since the grumpy Roy isn’t one for parties. But Roy tells her, “I’m here to watch a man make an absolute tit of himself.” 

The event is revealed to be the launch of Jamie’s new vodka line, called “Apple Tartt Vodka.” Jamie then makes his entrance, stepping onstage to a cheering crowd.

He sports bleached hair, and is surrounded by poorly done art of himself in the Garden of Eden, with his eyes notably painted too close together. 

Jamie is dismayed to see the art, and says he looks like a “two-eyed cyclops,” questioning, “What the f–k have they done to my face?” 

The soccer star is now on Barcelona’s team. He hangs out with Roy, Keely and Rebecca for a while, and has a cute moment with Roy, calling him, “the brother I never had.”

As they’re about to part ways, the party’s DJ launches into the 1992 House of Pain hit, “Jump Around.” 

Immediately, Jamie and Roy start jumping around together, until Roy collapses and lands hard on his knee. Jamie carries him away, as Roy scolds him, “Put me down, f–k, this is humiliating!”

Jamie, Keely and Rebecca end their New Year’s Eve at the hospital, standing by Roy’s bedside as the latter goes loopy on pain meds for his injured knee.

In the first three seasons of “Ted Lasso,” Jamie and Roy often butted heads — they were even romantic rivals, as they each dated Keely — but by the end, the two men became close friends. 

The first three seasons of the Emmy-winning show followed former college football coach Ted Lasso (series creator/star Jason Sudeikis) as an he became an unlikely Premier League soccer club manager in the UK.

Returning after a three-year hiatus, Season 4 follows Ted coaching a women’s team. Since the show is no longer focused on the male players, several characters didn’t return for Season 4, including Jamie’s teammate, Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernandez).

Previously, Dunster, 34, hadn’t been announced among the show’s returning cast in Season 4. 

Dunster, who was also in the HBO comedy “Rooster” with Steve Carell, had played coy about whether he’d make an appearance. In a March interview with People, he said, “maybe.”

He added that he thought Season 4 would be “brilliant. I really do. And it’s got plenty of the stuff that people love about the show and will come back wanting.” 

However, Dunster did attend the Season 4 premiere, and his wife, filmmaker Ellie Heydon, directed Season 4’s fourth and fifth episodes. 

During an April appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show,” he said, “I’m riding shotgun on [my wife’s] experience of it because I just want to stay near to it.” 

He added that the show “changed my life,” and now his wife has “her own experience with it.”

“Ted Lasso” Season 4 is now streaming on Apple TV, with new episodes out on Wednesdays.

Read the full article here

TAGGED:
Share This Article
Leave a comment