Ted Lasso: Rebecca, Alice, and Being a B*tch
I keep thinking about Alice and Rebecca.
I've seen people draw parallels between Alice and Roy and how unfair it is that Roy is beloved but the Richmond staff while Alice is disliked.
I've even seen parallels to Beard.
But, most intriguing of all is this: What about Rebecca?
You know who else called herself a bitch because she knew if she didn't, someone else would say it for her? Rebecca.
You know who else Keeley and Higgins found scary at first? Rebecca.
You know who else has had to struggle to prove their competence as the only woman in a space full of men? Rebecca.
You know who else seems not to care at first glance but fights so damn hard for those she cares about? Rebecca.
Which has made people wonder how Rebecca, of all people, could mistreat her so.
But in truth, I think that's precisely the problem:
On some level, unconsciously, I think Alice reminds Rebecca too much of herself, in ways Rebecca is still coming to terms with. So like her, and yet so unlike her.
Alice is a bit like a funhouse mirror of Rebecca. To make a comparison to Brave, she is the Merida to Rebecca's Elinor. They're both feminist, but different flavors of feminist. They have all these similarities, yet Alice is so much more sure of and honest with herself from the off than Rebecca was when we first met her, and that sets Rebecca on edge.
Rebecca was in an unequal relationship for years and took a long time to see the truth. Alice already sees that the situation at Richmond, indeed in her whole sport, is unequal and unfair and says so.
It took Rebecca a lot of build up and work with Ted for her to give a damn about Richmond, but Alice already cares so much for her girls, even if she's hard on them and tries not to show it.
Both are good at hiding their true emotions, but Rebecca lied to everyone but Higgins the whole first season, hiding barbs behind her polite smiles. Alice may be cold too, but she is honest to a fault - she never smiles unless she means it.
Rebecca is more traditionally feminine, in spite of her unique position among football club owners. She knows how to wield soft power. She knows how to dress, when to be nice, and when to show her hand. She knows how to operate around the rich and powerful because she grew up among them. She's only in her position because of the divorce from Rupert, though she's done a lot of good with it since.
But Alice grew up working class. She's masculine, a lesbian, an athlete, not adept in social situations. She's always had to be tough and up front to be seen and heard at all. As much as she was right to question Rebecca's choice, the way she quit could have easily sabotaged her chances at another coaching gig. But the odds were always stacked against her anyway, so why try to be nice?
They're similar, but also just different enough to be constantly speaking different languages. It will take them a while to understand each other, again like Merida and Elinor in Brave, but I think they need each other.
Rebecca needs Alice to call her out. Keeley has also called her out in the past, but Alice is a different sort of woman from both of them. If Rebecca is going to try to make a go of women's athletics, she needs to understand the players, and Alice is the gateway to all that. Plus, women like Alice could be role models for the young girls in Rebecca's life, she needs to understand what the next generation of girls needs.
Rebecca was raised to see other women as competition. And it wasn't just Rebecca - Remember how she became friends with Sassy as a kid? Sassy called her "Stinky" the moment she moved to town, because she was jealous of Rebecca for being taller and richer. Rebecca witnessed her father cheat on her mother at a young age, then still knowingly became the mistress of a married man (a horribly manipulative one, but still) only to be surprised when he treated her the exact same way he treated his first wife. She set up Keeley to look like a cheater with that tabloid photographer for the sake of her vendetta against Rupert. Their entire friendship is based on a lie. That Keeley forgave her and stayed friends anyway is a testament to Keeley's kindness and understanding, because a lot of other women would have cut Rebecca out over that. Her own mother has let her down over and over again, choosing her cheating father over Rebecca for years. Those are the sort of female relationships Rebecca is used to. Ones where some degree of backstabbing is almost expected.
She's improved so much since Season 1 in owning her power and helping other women see their power, but I think it makes sense that she isn't all the way there yet. I think part of why Alice chose to work for Richmond and was so hard on Rebecca after it didn't pan out the way she planned, is precisely because she had hoped Rebecca would be different from all the male football club owners. And so far, the results have been less than stellar.
I think Alice needs Rebecca too, in ways she doesn't know yet. If she wants to be a successful premiere league coach and break through the glass ceiling, she has to know how to work with club managers, who operate in a very different world from the coaches and players. Not to mention the press! Even Roy struggled with this when he first became coach, which is why he avoided press conferences. She needs to know when to be hard and when to be soft, when to smile and when to be the boss ass bitch she already is.
My hope is that Ted Lasso Season 4 leans into the specifics of why Rebecca specifically struggles to embrace Alice Chilton, which are already present in Rebecca's backstory, and not just use Rebecca as a mouthpiece for a trite soapbox sadie storyline. I hope all parties are allowed to be a little bit right and a little bit wrong, and learn to be a little more curious and a little less judgmental. But Rebecca has quite a bit of power over Alice professionally, so will need to tread just a bit more carefully.
