Awards Daily talks to Declan Lowney about directing Ted Lasso’s Season 3 finale “So Long, Farewell” and why Beard’s wedding looks like a dream sequence.
Declan Lowney wasn’t slated to direct the final two episodes of Ted Lasso (in fact, he was slated to direct the first two), but as luck and some scheduling free-ups would have it, the privilege landed in his lap.
“In some ways, that was a really lucky break,” says Lowney. “I felt very chuffed as we would say to be blessed with that job. It was fantastic.”
The finale episode title of course takes its name from The Sound of Music song the team performs for Ted during the last day of practice, a sequence that wasn’t as easy as it looks.
“That was a tough one because the team had rehearsed the choreography quite a few times, and we had a wonderful choreographer who worked with them in the evenings back at the studio before we came onto the field to shoot it. So, it was pretty slick, and there was some concern that maybe it was too slick. But it’s really hard to tell an actor, ‘Can you not be quite as good as that?’ They’re not gonna listen to that. They tried so hard! But it mirrored the scene in Season 2, when they do a number just as Edwin Akufo arrives, where they weren’t so good. But because it was Ted’s goodbye, it felt okay that they got this one right.”
While the finale ties up many loose ends, one that remains is the love triangle between Keeley, Roy, and Jamie. Lowney tried to remain diplomatic in his directorial choices when depicting these three on screen.
“Even the way we shot that scene [when Roy and Jamie confront Keeley], where she’s in the middle and they’re on either side, we never gave anybody more weight than anybody else. They’re always on either side of her with the camera behind her, and when the camera’s looking at Keeley, you’ve got the two of them in the middle. We had to remain impartial.”
However, Lowney has an opinion on whom Keeley should end up with—and it may surprise diehard shippers on both sides.
“I’m not sure she should end up with either of them, particularly because they’ve decided that she can pick between them. In other words, they weren’t giving her the choice to pick someone else. I hope they all stay pretty good friends, but maybe Keeley will meet somebody else. One of them is going to be disappointed if she ends up with the other.”
However, both men have evolved over the course of three seasons, especially with Roy shown in therapy with Dr. Sharon in the finale montage.
“It’s amazing to think that those characters were so unreconstructed as men, and after three years they can be that enlightened to seek therapy and to listen and speak. Roy and Jamie, that scene they have in the bar before they go to Keeley’s, that starts straight away that they’re not able to have that conversation, but we see in the montage at the very end, Roy is sitting down and seeking therapy to be a better person. I love the scene where he asks to be a Diamond Dog. Higgins sums it up beautifully, all you can do is try and ask for help.”
But was everything that happened in the montage in Ted’s imagination, since it’s the future he’s envisioning on the flight home?
“We understood they were images of things to come, flashing forward to the real future, but that’s a really good interpretation, because when the plane lands and he jolts open, you could go, ‘Did he just dream all of that?’ There is a dream-like quality to [Beard’s] wedding scene at Stonehenge. Nate really does put the poster back up, Roy does really coach the team, Beard really does stay in England, Keeley does pitch women’s football. I think they were sowing the seeds for lots of potential.”
Regarding Beard’s wedding, it’s curious that Ted wasn’t there.
“I don’t know why Ted wasn’t there. That’s a good question. I guess it would have been too soon. We know Jane is about six months pregnant at the wedding, so this all happens soon after Ted leaves. Part of the reason why it has a dream-like quality is because there was no way Stonehenge was going to let us in there to shoot a wedding scene. We were shooting this in the first week of December when it was miserable outside, so we ended up shooting that scene in Pinewood Studios. The reason why it does have a dream-like quality is because all the background was put in in post-production. It was meant to be sunset, so it has a magical end-of-day spring British vibe to it. The dream-like quality also comes from the fancy costumes.”
Maybe Ted wasn’t at Beard’s wedding because he was working on his own happy ending at home. Lowney likes to think that maybe there’s a chance for Ted to get back together with his ex-wife Michelle.
“Yeah, I think we see the body language when she’s watching that last game at home with Henry and the therapist was there, and they’re sitting in separate chairs. By the end of the game, [the therapist is] sitting in the background, and he’s on his phone. I think that was the way that relationship was going. And the fact that Ted walks in the door with his suitcase means maybe he’s going to stay there for a few days at least.”
Ted Lasso is streaming on Apple TV+.
