At least as far as Season 3, Ted Lasso is a lovely feel good show with a real passion for association football, just as long as you kinda ignore that bit where the main character tells one of his players to forgive the shithead dad who was an accomplice to and facilitated the statutory rape of that player as a minor as if they'd just had a little falling out, and then the show goes on to try and give that very shithead dad a minor redemption arc without ever engaging seriously with the severity of abuse the player was subjected to. But yeah, if you ignore that, great show
I'm taking nothing away from OPs post here... BUT...
I think a lot of people confuse forgiveness with trust.
Forgiveness is internal.
Forgiveness is NOT the harmed person saying: "What you did to me was okay. Now let's move on".
Forgiveness IS the harmed person saying: "I refuse to keep being harmed by what you did to me."
Ted didn't tell Jamie to let his father off the hook for the years and years of cruelty, abuse and assault. Ted told Jamie to break free of the control his father held over him which - in Jamie's own words to his mother - was the driving force of everything Jamie did in his life.
Jamie was spiralling in Mom City because he'd never gone so long without his father hassling him, hurting him or demanding money. And the longer James kept his distance, the more Jamie fell to pieces as he waited for him to re-emerge. It was messing with his head. It was messing with his life. It was messing with his game. When Ted told Jamie to forgive his father, he was simply saying "life doesn't have to be like this for you and you can let him go".
Do I agree with Jamie actually reconciling with his dad at the end? Not particularly. But I do agree with his choice to forgive him. We don't get to control who hurts us in life. But we can control whether we let their actions keep harming us for the rest of our life.
