A night in Amsterdam: why Ted Lasso’s “Sunflowers” is the best episode in show history
Everyone has their unique favorite episode of Ted Lasso — at least, we did until last night. Following ‘Sunflowers’ the SB Nation.com crew jumped in our Slack to ask each other one simple question:
“Was that the best episode ever?”
In what’s become a standard mid-season action break, we took a trip with the team to Amsterdam where everyone blows off some steam following a brutal loss in a friendly to Ajax. It’s a chance to split up the cast in some unique ways, and tell some deeply personal stories along the way.
Evaluating this episode is really about looking at the individual stories which makes it tick. So we did just that.
Ted Lasso has the brilliant way of encapsulating heart and soul inside of these multi-story episodes in ways that hit you with a gut punch of emotion. Such is the story of Trent Grimm following Colin to a gay bar, and their time together.
There’s a pervasive sense of anxiety when this all begins. With Trent being a veteran reporter now writing a book about Richmond there’s a very real audience expectation initially that following Colin has a dark purpose. Is Trent simply just snooping? Is he looking for an angle? When he finds Colin are we going to see the unthinkable as Trent outs him?
“I’ve known for months,” Trent says softly. “I haven’t said anything to anyone. I must have a good reason for that, mustn’t I?” Then it all hits home. Up to this point we know very little about Trent personally, and he’s done that for a reason. Ever a stoic, like the best journalists Trent knows that it’s far more important to listen than talk — and he routinely lets people overshare with him, while offering little back in return.
This flips his relationship with other characters on its head. This is the first time Trent has opened up about his personal life, as he explains to Colin how he is out to his wife and daughter, but understands how difficult coming out can be. I think a fair criticism can be leveled that we didn’t need Trent to be gay himself to still make this story sing, but I think it’s also really beautiful.
Colin feels like he is alone on an island. Trapped between his personal and professional life, terrified he’ll be judged by teammates and fans if he came out to them. Trent is that bridge. A man who understands what it’s like to be gay, while also working in the sports industry. The show stops short of turning Trent into some sort of guru who will guide Colin through the coming out process, but rather simply a shoulder to lean on.
There are also tendencies in a lot of shows to make sexuality the defining trait of a character when they’re not straight. Colin has always been more of a quiet character, and this is his nature. He tells Trent he doesn’t want to be a poster child for coming out. He just wants to be Colin, while having the freedom to kiss his “fella” the same way his straight teammates get to kiss their girls publicly.
If there’s one thing nobody had on their Amsterdam bingo card it’s Rebecca getting knocked into the water by a bike and splashing head-first into fate. Designed to echo her psychic reading of “you’re upside down and your drenched,” Rebecca takes this literally to climb aboard a stranger’s houseboat to get dry.
I’m not going to lie, this whole thing started off very creepy by design. There’s a fine line between being accommodating to a person in need and being a sociopath. Our unnamed Dutch houseboater walks that line. Sure, taking someone’s clothes and drying them in your tiny-ass, slow dryer for four hours could be a misguided move — but jumping almost immediately to “hey, want a foot rub?” is just weird.
Thankfully this didn’t turn into a cautionary tale of letting your guard down with strangers. Sure, there’s this element of Rebecca feeling burned by all the men in her life to where she’s so mistrusting that every overture of kindness is met with cynicism, but let’s be real here: Accepting food and drink from a stranger in an enclosed, private place in a foreign country is basically the premise of 90 percent of horror movies. It’s okay to be wary of stuff like this.
Then the dust settles. The two connect on a deep emotional level, unlike Rebecca has with really anyone else. This man doesn’t know who Rebecca is, or the wealth and power she wields. He’s interested in Rebecca for Rebecca, not as a team owner, not as a trophy, but as a woman. We’re left not knowing if they actually had sex or not, but it doesn’t matter — because their romantic connection was more meaningful than anything that could happen in the bedroom.
Shortly after the final whistle blew, saving AFC Richmond from further embarrassment at the hands of Ajax in their friendly, Rebecca turned to both Higgins and Keeley to try and plan a night out in Amsterdam.
However, both had plans, most notably Higgins, who was rather forward about a big night he had planned with a “special someone” in the Red Light District.
Over the first half of the episode, suspension built regarding Higgins and his plans. It was all rather mysterious. When he met with the team in the lobby — as they were struggling to come up with an agenda of their own — he told them that this would be the night his companion Will “became a man.” There was even a rather ominous shot of Higgins pulling on a pair of black leather gloves.
What was he up to? Was Higgins really headed to the Red Light District for some of what Amsterdam has to offer?
Of course, with it being Higgins, he was doing exactly that, but not in the way that you might think. Higgins was making a “pilgrimage” of sorts to the site where Chet Baker, the American jazz musician, died after falling from a hotel balcony.
The two then found their way to a jazz club where Will, in charge of finding a table for the duo, picks seats right up front. Higgins seems dismayed at the choice — leaving Will to wonder if it would be like sitting up front at a comedy club — but then the jazz band takes the stage. During their act, the musicians noticed Higgins playing a little “air upright bass” and the singer came over to ask Higgins if he played. While he stammered, Will confidently asserted that his boss indeed did play, and before you knew it, Higgins was on stage, living out his jazz musician dream.
As for Will “becoming a man,” well, as Higgins was onstage Richmond’s kit man caught the eye of a young woman who was at the club with her partner. As Will recounted the night’s events to his mother on a phone call the next day, they were a lovely couple who invited him for, well, you can see where I’m going with this...
There has been some pushback on this thread of the episode, arguing that it did not add much to the overall arc. But with some deeper plot lines weaved through “Sunflowers” — plotlines that might ultimately complete the larger story of Ted Lasso — the Higgins/Will storyline was amusing, and offered us a chance both to see a more complete side of Higgins, and develop Will a little bit more as a character.
After the brutal loss to Ajax, Roy is forced to endure an interview alongside Jan with a Dutch reporter. The Richmond coach is rather blunt in his assessment, calling the friendly a fake match, and the interview itself a fake conversation.
Keeley thanked him for agreeing to do the interview, making it clear that Roy was just doing it for her, but then Keeley rushed to see the Northern Lights. She was headed to, as Rebecca put it to Roy, “somewhere that believes they deserves her.”
That’s when a painful realization pours over Roy’s face.
Angry at the world — and probably mostly at himself — Roy charges onto the bus just as Ted is telling the team they have no curfew for the night. As the squad starts to dream big about the night ahead, Roy pulls Jamie off the team bus, eager to take his frustrations out on the Richmond star through a night of training.
The problem?
Jamie apparently loves Amsterdam.
Like, really, REALLY loves Amsterdam.
The young Richmond player raced through the city like a tour guide filled with C4 energy drinks, pointing out site after site to an increasingly weary Roy. When the coach eventually lashes out at windmills of all things — decrying them as being fake — Jamie proposes a bike ride to go find a real windmill.
The second problem?
Roy cannot ride a bike.
The coach opens up about how when he left as a youngster to play for Sunderland, his grandfather promised him that he would teach Roy to ride a bike when he returned. But Roy’s grandfather passed away before they had the chance.
That’s when we see Roy at his most vulnerable, ever.
“And now saying that out loud I realize it’s a great disrespect to his memory and I don’t want to talk about it and can we go back to me just taking out my negative emotions on you whether you deserve it or not?”
However, Jamie has a solution, and we are treated to — in my opinion — the best scene in the show’s run to date, as Jamie teaches Roy to ride a bike. And with the entire scene set to “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”? Incredible.
Once the coach has that skill down, the two take off on a hunt for a windmill. As they ride together, Jamie opens up about his previous trips to the city. His first? When his father took him to the city when he was just 14. The trip, which gives us yet more evidence that Jamie’s dad is the worst character on the show, was so Jamie could lose his virginity.
The second Amsterdam trip for Jamie? That was with his mother, years later. During that excursion the two did all the touristy things you could imagine, cultivating his love for the city.
Their night ended with Roy’s admission that Keeley might have a girlfriend, a successful mission to find a windmill, and Roy riding off the bike path one last time as he tries to master his new skill.
Yes, this is all building towards Jamie’s full redemption arc — we think, but this show has thrown some curveballs before — but it was just an incredible episode for the two.
After another disappointing loss in a friendly to Ajax, both Ted and the team are reeling, but especially Lasso. He can’t seem to shake the feeling that something is missing, both on the field and in his own personal life. So Lasso tells the team that they have no curfew tonight and to just be back on the bus by ten a.m. the next morning. After he makes the announcement, Beard tells him that he needs to time out in Amsterdam just as much as the team, which is where our adventure begins to take off.
The next time we see Lasso, he’s sending multiple texts to boss Rebecca (we’ll get to her later) both in GIF and regular format, which could mean something more in terms of love interest, but really it’s just Ted needing someone to talk to. Every time Ted has been stuck in a rut emotionally or mentally, someone has been there to talk him through it, but this time nobody was around except for Coach Beard, who was getting ready for their dinner and night out on the town. The first idea? Yankee Doodle Burger Barn, an “American” restaurant that only has a star rating of 2.7 (good enough for Ted).
Lasso tells Beard that he feels like he needs to get out his head, and do something crazy, and I promise you Coach Beard has never looked more excited. Beard knew just the thing to get Lasso out of his head and onto new pathways he’s never explored, and that’s a drug that doesn’t really get specified by the show. All we know is that Beard got it from the team bus driver and it’s supposed to be like “new tracks on a snowy patch”.
So yeah, fun times for Beard and Ted!
However, the drug is mixed into tea, Ted’s mortal enemy. While he refuses to drink it at first, Beard goes full send and inhales the drink. After a few more unanswered GIFs sent to Rebecca and staring at Coach Beard petting the couch like a pet, Ted sends Beard on his way, and once again, he’s alone.
I think this is where we really begin to see the development of Lasso in this new season. He very clearly misses home, misses his son Henry, and now with the knowledge that his ex-wife has gotten together with their therapist, the need for going home is now amplified. Lasso begins his Amsterdam journey at the Van Gogh museum, where he stops and admires the painting, “Sunflowers”, which once again reminds him of home, because the sunflower is Kansas’ state flower. He begins to have a discussion with the guide in the art gallery, and it’s one of the many reasons I love Ted Lasso. Finding inspiration and the ability to keep going forward through unlikely characters is something that resembles life. The answers we need are often found in the most obscure places.
Then, Ted goes to Yankee Doodle Burger Barn by himself, which is where we get the biggest breakthrough. The restaurant itself is very campy; you can tell that a foreigner made this based on how they think Americans act. Ted finds himself in the “Windy City” section of the restaurant, where everything he gets once again reminds him of home. The barbecue sauce he gets for his french fries (we don’t know what sauce he gets for his tower of freedom pyramid of onion rings)? The famous barbecue sauce from Arthur Bryant’s, a favorite of Ted’s in Kansas City. What’s on TV? Michael Jordan and the Bulls, running the triangle offense
Hold on, let’s rewind.
That pyramid of onion rings is going to be the cause of a major breakthrough, and the triangle offense is gonna be huge coming up. After Ted hallucinates and sees Nate as one of the servers, the shot goes to pitch black, with only a light on Lasso. Lasso then hears a voice, who says it’s the True Spirit of Adventure. Mr. TSA, as Ted calls him, takes him on a whimsical adventure through the history of triangles, but stopping with Bulls assistant coach Tex Winter, the inventor of the triangle offense.
Ted has finally found his breakthrough, and it meant going back home.
Lasso spends the rest of the night drawing up how the triangle offense works in soccer, believing that he’s finally cracked the code for his struggling side. The next morning, when he tells Beard about it, two important things happen: the first is that Beard, dressed as Piggy Stardust, tells Lasso that the drugs were a dud, nothing actually happened. The next is that Beard tells Lasso that the triangle offense he thought he invented was actually Total Football, the Dutch system that Ajax ran to massive success.
This is a critical breakthrough in the development of Lasso, specifically as a head coach. The entire series we’re shown that Lasso is a motivator and a people person, but never really an X’s and O’s coach. The adage that Lasso is just a dumb American who knows nothing about soccer was great through the first two seasons, but now at the team’s most important crossroads, their coach has to actually try and learn about soccer. Lasso did just that, but only how Lasso can: in going back home and back to his roots.
Ted also needed to be by himself for this to happen. For so long and so often in the show, Ted is a very reactive character. He’s reacting to the emotions of Rebecca, Roy, the players, never truly taking the time for himself until he started talking to the team therapist, and even then he’s a reactive person. In “Sunflowers”, Ted had to take the initiative and go out to do these things, and have the breakthrough on his own. He’s a very relatable character, and one of the best ones in television today.
This is an underrated storyline from the episode. After the loss, the team is very discombobulated. The unity they showed after Zava joined withered away rather quickly, and now they were just some dudes who played together, instead of a team. With Lasso telling them that they had the whole night to do whatever they wanted, the team (minus Jamie and Colin) now had a full night of planning to do.
However, as team captain Isaac said, they have to make a unanimous decision, and go as a team. People underrate Isaac’s character, but since taking the captain role from Roy, he’s been a central force in the development of the team and their dynamics.
We have two warring Amsterdam factions here: native Dutchman Jan Maas wants to go to an all-night private party where his cousin is DJ-ing, at which they also serve a hearty breakfast. On the other side is Zorreaux, or Van Damme, who wants to go to a sex show. Somewhere in the middle is Dani Rojas, who just wants to see a tulip. Not a field of tulips, because that would be “too overwhelming”. Our beautiful summer child, Dani Rojas, never change.
The group spends hours making arguments for and against the two sides, with Sam even switching over to the party from his rigid stance of team movie night (everyone hated that idea). Jan gets the hotel waitresses (who are now watching this with massive interest), to persuade Van Damme to switch from sex show to party. Now the team has fully agreed on one thing to do tonight...except they have to choose where to eat.
Back to square one we go.
The next time we see the team, they’re yelling at each other about where to get food. Even Dani is raising his voice. Isaac stands on the table and delivers a really powerful albeit brief speech, one that I think helps him stand out more as a leader on the team, and further develops his character. Sam writes an idea on a napkin, and the team passes it to Isaac, who slowly nods.
The idea? A pillow fight, of course. The team is broken up into two sides, and they fight in the hotel lobby. This is such a heartwarming and fun part of this episode, with the team almost fraying without Zava, but then by having this pillow fight, it de-stresses them and bonds them together more as a team. AFC Richmond were never just Zava and everyone else. They were always going to be a tight-knit unit who does everything together.
As the team bus drove off, with every passenger singing “Three Little Birds”, the trip to Amsterdam ended, and with it went one of the best episodes of Ted Lasso yet. The character development, the wit and humor that the show normally brings is also paired with character development for almost everyone, and the final product is an episode we’ll be talking about for ages.
