Nate Learned the Hard Way That Cultivating a Supportive Friend Group Isn’t as Easy as Ted Lasso Makes It Look

Oh how I love the Diamond Dogs. Not so much the Love Hounds. Ted Lasso’s Diamond Dogs are, essentially, Ted’s support system. But it is a mutual thing. If any of the guys need someone to talk to, they’re all willing to drop whatever they’re doing to talk to each other. The core group consists of Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), Higgins (Jeremy Swift), and now Trent Crimm (James Lance). Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) wants no part of it and seems annoyed by it constantly.

But one member who is no longer there is Nate (Nick Mohammed). And in the season 3 episode “We’ll Never Have Paris,” we got to see just how much Nate clearly misses that. Because he tried to create his own trust circle called the Love Hounds. And, well, sorry Nate, but it really just does not have the same ring to it that the Diamond Dogs has.

While Nate’s absence is a big part of why this episode’s Diamond Dogs meeting hurts, it is important to note how cool it is to see something like this on a sports show. Sure, shows like Coach had the guys all talking to each other about their personal problems but normally with some joke disparaging the very act of talking about their feelings. That’s something that has never been a problem on Ted Lasso. And I just really appreciate the beauty of the Diamond Dogs as a concept for men to have sounding boards for their issues and not just let their emotions cloud their judgments.

Which is something Nate clearly doesn’t have.

I just feel bad for Nate

Nate did this to himself. So on the one hand, this is his doing. But still, I feel bad for him when I see how lonely he is without his friends. He used to have a family at AFC Richmond before he threw it away because he thought that he was better than them. But now, even in his own happiness with Jade, he’s still stuck because he has no one who cares enough to talk to him about it.

We saw Ted relying on the Diamond Dogs at the start of the episode. And it was a refreshingly nice look at male friendships. These men can ask each other anything and be vulnerable in a way that is rarely explored on television. And it’s fun to see Roy so angry their “club” exists and how quickly Trent Crimm joined in.

But what was sad was later in the episode when Nate tried to find his own group. He called them the “Love Hounds” and it was three men who just don’t click and forcing them into a “sharing circle” of sorts just very quickly backfired. He also somehow actually convinced himself that Rupert, the most selfish, elitist man on the planet, would join in. He very clearly doesn’t understand what makes Ted’s ability to cultivate these relationships so special.

And so Nate was left still without friends and incapable of accepting that Ted still cares about him. Ted came to the West Ham game and instead of Nate seizing the opportunity to tell Rupert that he didn’t hate him, he used Rupert’s text to further distance himself from the friends he clearly misses.

I just hope that Nate figures it out soon. Because it’s sad to see so many other men get along while he’s alone.

(Featured image: Apple TV+)