Ted Lasso’s Season 4 finale focused heavily on life, death and making the most of every minute—taking risks and living life to the fullest, largely inspired by the passing of Mae.
Some of the most emotional scenes, however, focused on Ted and his son, Henry, who took Mae’s death hard, as he’d developed a close bond with her during his time in England.
And Mae left her mark, even after death, as she gave pub regulars—Basil “Baz,” Jeremy and Paul–the Crown and Anchor following her death, while also relinquishing her 2% shares of AFC Richmond to Rebecca Welton so that whoever wanted to get control from her would, as she eloquently put it, “eat her arse.”
Her passing, however, also made Henry think about the death of his grandfather, Ted’s father, Jim Lasso, who died when he was around Ted’s age.
“Nana told me he fell down some steps and hit his head. Is that true?” he asked his father, who replied, “Um… well, yeah.”
Ted assured Henry that he was “good on the stairs,” hoping to ease his concerns, but the moment stuck with him, particularly since he lied to Henry about Jim’s death.
He asked Beard whether or not he made the right call, with Beard telling him that if it came from the right place, he probably did. But it wasn’t enough for Ted, as he knew Henry deserved the truth.
And he eventually mustered up the courage to share it with him.
Since audiences didn’t get to hear the father-son chat, the question of what happened to Ted’s dad became a hot search topic.
And it turns out, the series actually told us before, so it’s not a mystery, though it explains why Ted kept it close to his chest before finally working up the courage to share such a heavy reality with his teen son.
What Happened to Ted Lasso’s Dad?
Fans learned the truth about how Ted’s dad died back in Season 2, specifically, Episode 8. Ted confided the truth to the team’s therapist, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, after seeing Jamie’s emotionally abusive father disrespect him in a locker room after a big match.
During that session, and after suffering a series of panic attacks leading up to it, Ted confides in her that his father died by suicide when he was around Henry’s age.
“My father killed himself when I was 16. That happened to me and, uh, to my mom,” he says in an emotional moment.
An episode later in the season, Episode 10, “No Weddings and a Funeral,” which features Rebecca Welton’s father’s funeral, marks a pivotal moment for Ted, as he reveals the resentment he feels toward his late father for what he did, admitting to Sharon that he didn’t attend his father’s funeral.
As for the reason, Ted felt that his father “quit.”
“You know, he quit on his family. He quit on himself. And I hated him for that. I think I still hate him for it.”
Ted told Sharon in more detail what happened to his father, stating, “Me and a bunch of high school buddies were gonna do a marathon of all them Jason movies that night. So I, you know, came home from school as usual and I went up to my room and — bang! I opened up the door and, there he was. [And I just] screamed. Choked. Cried. Ran upstairs, called 911. Went to the fridge, grabbed one of his Coors Lights. Drank that. Then I called my mom at work and let her know that she needed to come home.”
As Sharon apologized to Ted for what happened, he admitted that he still has love for him, adding that he was a “good man” and a “good dad.”
“I don’t think he knew that,” Ted acknowledged.
“Real chatterbox, believe it or not,” he expressed—a quality he seemingly inherited from him.
“I think if he would’ve known how good he was at stuff he didn’t really care about being good at, I don’t think he would’ve done what he did. And I wish I would have told him. I wish I would have told him more. I was just so angry at him cause he was always gone at work and out with friends or something, and then he was gone,” he confesses in the vulnerable moment.
The confession gives insight as to why Ted wrestled so fiercely with telling Henry the tough truth, knowing that simply being honest could have possible changed what happened. And he always wanted to talk with his father more, so he owed it to Henry to be the kind of dad he always wanted.
Viewers didn’t need to see the conversation between Ted and Henry to know he handled it with care.
For four seasons, we’ve seen him grapple and come to terms with his grief, which is part of the reason why he approaches people with genuine concern, love and understanding—no matter what they are going through—always meeting them right where they are when they’re ready.