Ted Lasso season 2, episode 9, “Beard After Hours” follows Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) on a crazy night in his life, but what is the significance of the giant moon in the background? The previous episode, “Man City,” showed the AFC Richmond football club badly losing a match at Wembley Stadium and the most recent episode picked up where that one left off, with Coach Beard walking off by himself. It followed the lead of several other episodes this season that have honed in on the secondary members of the cast, such as former player turned coach Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and his girlfriend, Keeley (Juno Temple), rather than on the titular character of Ted.
Despite being divisive, the episode reveals that Coach Beard is going through more than viewers may have suspected. Grappling with some inner turmoil over his coaching ability, relationship status, and his self-worth, he heads out for a beer at the local pub and finds himself on a roller-coaster ride of an evening. Along the way, he ends up working through some of his problems, even if taking a few bumps and bruises and needing a new pair of pants.
Beard’s evening begins with a sad and defeated trip home underneath a giant full moon, which reappears throughout the episode. The moon is too prominent in the background to simply be for aesthetic purposes and in both this episode and the previous episode, football fans can be heard singing the song “Blue Moon.” Ted Lasso has several times used songs to examine situations in the show, and the use of this song and the decision to place a blue moon over Beard’s evening are meant to allude to his mental and emotional state as he processes the loss of the big match. The moon is often seen as a symbol of loneliness, and placing that symbol in the background of the early scenes of the episode is a foreshadowing of Beard’s sadness.
It is notable that every time the moon is visible, Coach Beard is either the only character on screen or the only character in focus, further highlighting his sense of isolation. The lyrics of “Blue Moon” are also a subtle allusion to Beard’s emotional state, containing the following lyrics: “Blue moon, you saw me standing alone/ Without a dream in my heart/ Without a love of my own/ Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for/ you heard me saying a pray for/ Someone I really could care for…”
Beyond the fittingly melancholy lyrics reflecting Coach Beard’s mood, the song is also the anthem for the real-life Manchester City FC, the team to which AFC Richmond lost in the previous episode. Ted Lasso’s writers have cleverly incorporated this detail into Coach Beard’s story to underscore how low self-esteem after their loss; he can’t get away from his failure. The episode follows the second verse very literally, as Beard at one point finds himself in a church, saying a prayer about Jane and questioning God about their break-up.
Toward the end of the episode, Coach Lasso uses the saying “once in a blue moon” in reference to Richmond’s terrible loss to Manchester and in doing so adds another layer of meaning to Beard’s story. Besides the loneliness he was experiencing, Coach Beard had an extremely crazy night, sneaking into an exclusive lounge, getting into fights, and closing the night out in an underground club. The use of a rare blue moon in this episode of Ted Lasso certainly matches the wild events of his strange night. Despite the surreal events of his evening, Coach Beard made it through to the next morning–but perhaps future episodes will explore his character further and with new symbolism.
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