Ted Lasso Season 4 Halftime Report: Brendan Hunt Sizes Up Keeley And Roy, Beard And Jane, And Alice Vs. Nate

"Ted Lasso" has officially reached the halfway point of Season 4, as Beard confronted Jane, Roy revealed to Keeley that he's been seeing someone else, and Ted made a difficult coaching decision informed by one of his biggest past mistakes.

In Episode 5, Beard and Ted attend Jane's one-woman show, "What Ever Happened to the Baby, Jane?," where it is confirmed that Jane was never pregnant after all. Beard confronts his ex backstage afterward, and as traumatized as he may be by their relationship, he still can't resist her. He does, however, manage to escape her dressing room without having sex — though not before deliberately smashing his forehead into a mirror to stop himself from giving in. (Ted, meanwhile, seems to hit it off with Jane's stage manager... but more on that following Episode 6.)

Elsewhere, Roy admits to Keeley that he has, in fact, been seeing someone: his orthopedist, Dr. Erin Beaumont (Laura Haddock), who has accounted for the last several of the 10 dates Keeley encouraged him to go on before the former couple considers giving their relationship another shot. (Rebecca's relationship with Matthijs also implodes after he reveals that he, his daughter Jelka, and Jelka's mother are moving to London, where he and his ex have both found new jobs... but more on that following Episode 6, too.)

And at Richmond, Ted makes the difficult decision to suspend Alice for a game after she lashes out at the Lady Greyhounds, who ultimately lose to Chelsea despite a strong second-half showing. And because there's just one more game before the Christmas break, the suspension takes her out for the remainder of the calendar year.

Without mentioning Nate by name, Ted alludes to his regret over missing the warning signs and troubling behavior exhibited by his former assistant coach before things spiraled out of control — but the acknowledgment calls into question why the series hasn't provided any sort of update on Nate in Season 4. When last we saw him, at the end of Season 3, he and Beard were serving as Roy's assistant coaches on the men's team.

In the Q&A below, "Ted Lasso" star and executive producer Brendan Hunt clarifies what Jane actually knew about her supposed pregnancy, weighs in on the latest obstacle keeping Roy and Keeley apart, explains how Ted's experience with Nate informs his handling of Alice, and teases whether viewers will finally learn what became of Richmond's former wunderkind before Season 4 comes to an end.

TVLINE | So, for the record: Did Jane actually believe she was pregnant at first, or was she faking it from the beginning?
I think that she really thought she was pregnant at first. I don't think she was faking it the whole time. I think she eventually realized that she had been incorrect about the pregnancy, and then — and here's where it's worse for Beard — decided to perpetuate the pregnancy for the good of the Edinburgh Fringe show that she would be able to do someday about it. She can make art from this sort of stunt, basically, and the art would be more important to her than its effect on him. So, yeah, we just came to the notion of, like, yeah, it'd be bad if she faked it. Even worse if she made it a tale of her own bravery for everyone to enjoy.

TVLINE | Beard is horrified watching Jane tell her version of events, and yet when he gets backstage, it becomes pretty clear, pretty fast, that he still can't quit her. What does that tell us about where Beard is emotionally and his inability to actually put this relationship behind him?
I've had a couple relationships in my life where, when we were together, it felt amazing, but then when we're not together, a more sober inventory of our relationship would indicate several minuses. And looking back, like, why do you keep going back to these people, even though clearly they weren't behaving in a manner that one would call actual love? And it's just pheromones. Sometimes it just boils down to pheromones.

[Beard and Jane] have something primal, and primal cares not for the trappings of the real world. But he has to start using his brain a little more around her, and he's been trying to do it. But then he gets in that room, and her pheromones are all over the place. He walks into — not exactly a trap, but he walks into something he can't resist. But he gets out of there without taking his pants off, and I think that's pretty impressive.

TVLINE | True... but not without a little blood.
Yes, appropriately.

TVLINE | There are obviously still some pretty intense feelings between Roy and Keeley, but now Keeley has pushed Roy to date other people before they date each other again — and he's met someone. Beyond extending that will-they/won't-they dynamic, what was the thinking behind creating this new obstacle to happily ever after?
They can't just jump straight in. He hurt her before, and while they may also have a pheromonal element to their relationship, they also have a deeper emotional understanding of each other, and Roy threw that away anyway. So I think she is well within her rights to be on guard about it.

We didn't talk about this in the room, really, but the notion of you should have dated someone else before that person to really be ready for that person is something I feel like we all do. But we do it in retrospect. We rarely [think that way] ahead of time. And so I think that notion of hers is a good notion. But then, in the heat of conversation, he twists it into something that she's not really saying, and she's like, "Fine, go do it." And the fact that he actually is trying to do it is a hurdle that she didn't intend to create.

TVLINE | Ted suspends Alice for a game because he recognizes some of the same warning signs he missed with Nate until it was too late. This feels like a significant moment not just for Alice, but for Ted, too. How has his experience with Nate changed him as a coach and his ability to recognize when someone he cares about needs something other than his usual patience and understanding?
One of the aspects of his brand of leadership is letting people figure it out. And I think he looks back at the Nate thing — I think he feels more responsibility than he applies responsibility to Nate for the whole Nate thing, because it was he who missed signs — and I think that he would put that on himself more than on Nate. The rest of us might think [that's] overly charitable toward Nate.

But I think that then leads him to say, like, sometimes leadership means doing the figuring out for them. A line does have to be drawn. You can't just turn a blind eye and trust that maturity will kick in at some point. There needs to be, when appropriate, a demonstration of the limits of what will be tolerated. And, yeah, you're right. It's a very big deal for him.

TVLINE | Speaking of Nate, we still haven't heard his name once this season. Will we find out what happened to him before season's end?
I think it's possible that you'll find out what happened to Nate before season's end.