Ted Lasso Episode 1: Pilot

Rebecca Welton has just taken control of AFC Richmond after her divorce, and she immediately fires the existing coach and hires Ted Lasso, an American football coach with no soccer experience, as part of a plan to sabotage the club and hurt her ex-husband.

Ted arrives in London with his assistant coach, Beard, and is introduced to the club’s staff, including the nervous equipment manager Nate, director of communications Higgins, and the new owner, Rebecca. Rebecca catches Ted off guard by scheduling a press conference for him right away, where he faces a room full of skeptical journalists and makes a bad first impression because he clearly does not know the game. Rebecca steps in to defend him publicly, but privately she tells Higgins that she expects Ted to fail and wants the team ruined as revenge on her ex-husband.

Ted then watches training and is introduced to several players, including captain Roy Kent, arrogant striker Jamie Tartt, and young midfielder Sam Obisanya. In the locker room afterward, Ted introduces himself to the squad, but the players are unimpressed and dismissive of him. He later meets Keeley, Jamie’s girlfriend, and the two get along well; she helps him put up a “Believe” sign in the locker room.

Higgins becomes uneasy about Rebecca’s plan to use Ted as a pawn, but Rebecca pressures him into going along by offering him a promotion and a raise, while also reminding him that he helped Rupert hide his affairs from her. After Ted settles into his flat, he calls his wife Michelle and their son Henry back in Kansas, and the conversation makes it clear that his marriage is strained. The episode ends with Ted alone in his new apartment, unable to sleep.