I didn’t recognize the signal Ted used for the play at the end of the match (the one that mimed handing an award off to Nate). Was that a call-back to something earlier in the show?
I think the signal was giving an Academy Award so that told Jamie that he was supposed to be an actor. The play was that he ran to a spot and acted like he was demanding that the ball be passed to him. The made all of the defenders concentrate on him and the ball was passed to an undefended player.
It’s the play that Nate suggested early on in the first season, where Jamie is used as a decoy to get Sam open. Jamie ran it exactly how Ted demonstrated back then, down to the same hand gestures and saying “Please” :).
So something that only people that follow the Premier League may be annoyed in… the last game of the season is the end of May. And they are all wearing coats and long sleeves like it’s December
I would chalk that up to English weather.
BTW, what bothered or amused me was that we saw Baz and the other superfans at the pub. They never made it to a Richmond match.
Yeah, with the earlier scene at the pub with Rebecca I had almost hoped that we’d see them in the owners suite as a thank you for being such long time fans.
Almost completely off topic…that final song they played was “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens (does Cat Stevens write the best closing music or what??) and I’m thinking the whole time that the song sounds familiar, and I finally get it, it sounds like “Fight Test” by the Flaming Lips. And then the credits rolled with “Fight Test”. And then I looked up the song on Wikipedia and yes after the Lips were sued, Cat Stevens gets 75% of the song’s royalties.
Anyway, nice episode. I cried.
Maybe I did, too.
So more I think about it, this season disappointed. A lot of time on things that barely mattered (Zava, Jack) and skipping over things that did (what convinced the players to give Nate a second chance, what happened with Nate first walked into the locker room, what exactly is Nate’s position at the end). I think the increase in episode run times messed up with the pacing.
Oh, and I also agree that the final bow tying extravaganza was Ted’s dream (which is why he wasn’t at Beard’s wedding).
Thy nodded to the Cheers finale, maybe they nodded to the St. Elsewhere finale, too.
There was a snow globe, after all.
Nate apologizing to Will.
They were all happy to see him.
He’s back to being assistant coach. Or assistant to the coach.
Jaws, which they mentioned in the episode is a perfect movie, takes place over the 4th of July yet almost everyone is wearing pants and jackets and turtlenecks and sweaters.
So what preceded the opening scene, where they woke up at Rebecca’s? And who was the fan who got the ball to the face?
I hate when finales are essentially tests to see how closely you were watching.
And back when we discussed Dutch boatguy - I don’t think ANY of us guessed pilot! 
He was the guy who Rebecca dated at the start of Season 2.
I had completely forgotten that/him. For those who watched more closely than I, was he significant enough to be featured so prominently in the finale? Was he supposed to be a contrast to the Dutch pilot?
What did I miss that explained why Ted, Beard, and Beard’s GF woke up at Rebecca’s house? I thought the prior show ended with Rebecca saying she did not have a bg surprise, but Ted said HE had one.
There was a gas leak in the neighborhood where Ted and Beard live, so they needed a place to stay overnight.
I think the finale tried to include elements from throughout the show’s run. There was, for example, a brief shot of the team’s current mascot, a greyhound, on the sidelines. If you remember, Dani Rojas accidentally killed a previous mascot during a penalty kick. And we saw Colin’s boyfriend picking up a ticket from the will-call window and then he and Colin openly kissing during the on-field celebration.
Yeah, I remembered the greyhound. I thought the joke was that it seemed to be wearing some kind of hat/helmet. And I assumed (but did not recognize) that was Colin’s BF. In the “dream” sequence, they showed some woman with a baby in a carrier. I assumed I shoulda recognized her - but didn’t.
I did not at all recall there having been a gas leak.
I just thought it odd that they showed the previous BF getting the ticket, then getting hit by the ball (with several replays), then kissing his companion while wearing a mask. Just struck me as quite a few references for a (to me) pretty minor character.
BTW - what did Ted’s son say at the very end after missing the goal? I didn’t catch it (and didn’t care enough to replay with subtitles.)
They sure made Ted’s wife’s BF come across as a dick. Not sure why they gave the doctor so much screen time.
I never really thought the writer was a good fit in his larger role. Just didn’t seem well enough developed or used well. Sorta like Ron Weasley in the HP movies - quick shot of his face to suggest emotion that shoulda been conveyed by the script/action.
She was the woman who saved Beard in S2 when he was wandering around the city. Her husband was the big scary guy who chased him (and then later saved him from Jamie’s drunk father).
“Thanks for letting us stay last night. When Coach Beard called to say there was a deadly gas leak, I just thought he was talking about one of his epic toots.”
“Be a goldfish.”
To allow people to fanwank that she and Ted will get back together (or set up a possible Season 4).