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‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 Episode 6 recap: Jamie Tartt returns as Roy faces a crisis

A New Year’s Eve celebration brings old friends together before the night takes an unexpected turn.

‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4, episode 6, ‘Don’t Jump Around Much Anymore,’ uses New Year’s Eve to bring several characters back together. Rebecca and Keeley attend a vodka launch, while Roy arrives with a different reason for being there. Jamie Tartt’s return gives the night its central turn, but his scenes with Roy do more than reintroduce the former AFC Richmond forward. By midnight, the party has become a hospital visit, and two relationships have reached turning points.

Rebecca and Keeley discover Roy at the launch, where he explains, “I’m not here for the vodka. I’m here to watch a man make an absolute tit of himself.” A promotional video then reveals that the product is Apple Tartt Vodka, and its face is a platinum-blond Jamie, who arrives onstage in beige briefs with a leaf covering him.

Jamie tells his friends that he now plays for Barcelona, where there are plenty of “tapas and napas,” though he misses the Richmond team. The appearance confirms Phil Dunster’s return after months of uncertainty over whether he would be part of Season 4.

Jamie, Roy, Rebecca and Keeley catch up over Tartinis before Jamie and Roy move to the dance floor as House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ plays. Roy jumps until he injures his knee, bringing the reunion to an abrupt end. Jamie leaves his own launch to carry Roy out while shouting, “I’m saving Private Roy!” and accompanies him to the hospital, where Roy is treated by his knee doctor and girlfriend, Erin.

The sequence shows that their old rivalry has become a relationship closer to that of brothers, even after Jamie’s move away from Richmond. As Roy receives treatment, Jamie waits with Rebecca and learns that she ended her relationship with Matthijs after pushing him away. Jamie first offers a story about himself, then invokes Voltaire as he tries to help her understand why she self-sabotaged.

The pair appear ready to kiss as midnight approaches, but Matthijs arrives before they do. Rebecca and Matthijs reconcile with a New Year’s kiss as Jamie embraces them both, closing the night without turning his return into a new romance.

Elsewhere, the women’s team attends Zelda Southport’s party on a yacht after Alice Chilton’s partner encourages her to go. Gemma welcomes Alice, but Zelda ignores her, and the event soon takes on an ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ theme that prompts the players to leave. They head to Mae’s pub and later gather in the park at midnight, giving Alice a chance to spend the celebration with the team. Gemma also supports Alice after Zelda’s treatment, although Alice tells her not to help her again.

Ted spends most of New Year’s Eve at home with Michelle and Henry rather than joining the team’s plans. He admits that he feels lonely and unsettled in his new job, and Michelle encourages him to go out and welcome the new year with his players.

He then briefly meets Alice, suggesting that their coaching partnership will continue without resolving the tension between them. When Ted returns home, he finds that Michelle has made him a new ‘BELIEVE’ sign, reversing the gesture he once used to support the people around him.