Rainbow
While reviewing game tape with the team, Ted gives a speech about "rom-communism": the belief that, although they may struggle, everything will work out in the end, just like how rom-coms always have a Happy Ending despite the difficulties the characters go through. Isaac, who has been tense lately, interprets this as Ted telling the team they "need to stop playing like shit." Sharon approaches Ted afterwards and asks if he'd like her to talk to Isaac, but Ted declines even though (as he reveals to Beard and Nate) he doesn't know what Isaac's problem is.
Rebecca continues her adventures in online dating and tells Keeley that she has been chatting with a charming mystery man on Bantr, which has now supplanted Dubai Air as the team's primary sponsor. Meanwhile, Nate, looking for a way to secure the window table at his parents' favorite restaurant for their anniversary dinner, asks Keeley for help. Keeley and Rebecca team up to teach Nate how to be confident. When Nate takes his parents to the restaurant, however, their advice fails and the hostess seats him and his parents at a table in the back corner of the restaurant. Nate excuses himself to the bathroom and spits on his reflection, then goes back out to the hostess stand and confidently informs her that, because the window table is open, he would like for his family to sit there; the hostess agrees.
Ted goes to Roy and asks him to join the coaching staff. Roy refuses the job, but agrees to help Isaac, who he surmises is overthinking the game and putting too much pressure on himself. That night, Roy has Ted and Isaac come to the park where he first learned how to play football and tells Isaac to join the pickup game being played by the locals. The players prove more talented than expected, and Isaac angrily demands to know why Roy brought him there. Roy says that he wanted to remind him that football is just a game that they played as kids because it was fun, and Isaac should focus on enjoying the game instead of overthinking or worrying about getting his feelings hurt. Isaac returns to the game and begins to play much better as he allows himself to relax and have fun. After the game, Ted once again asks Roy to join the coaching staff, but Roy shoots him down again.
On Saturday, Richmond is playing a match against Sheffield Wednesday while Roy is cohosting Soccer Saturday. Roy expresses frustration with the fact that he and the other pundits don't truly know the players or help shape their careers. The hosts watch a clip of Richmond warming up before their match and comment that it's nice to see Isaac with a smile on his face after having been tense and angry all season. Roy realizes that he misses being part of Richmond and walks off the set mid-show. He races to Nelson Road and joins Ted, Beard, and Nate on the sidelines, finally accepting Ted's offer of a coaching job.
Tropes featured in "Rainbow" include:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Roy roasts George Cartrick live on Soccer Saturday, Nate (who happens to be watching a broadcast of the show at the restaurant) can't help but give a chuckle.
- Brick Joke: Earlier Ted tells Roy he has a ticket waiting for him at Will Call under the name of a different American country singer for every game. Later after Roy is refused entry he goes to Will Call and asks for a ticket reserved for Reba McEntire.
- Celebrity Paradox: Higgins tells Rebecca he received a message from new Wrexham AFC owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds. Jason Sudeikis previous worked with McElhenney on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Roy's battered knee acts out several times on his way to Nelson Road and makes some cracked noises to boot.
- Face–Heel Turn: Nate starts his here. He feels he's not getting enough respect from his family's favorite restaurant, nor from Ted over his attempt to be the Big Dog. He's also stung that he doesn't get a coffee maker as he's not a player on the team. He's already shown signs of Small Name, Big Ego, being rather vicious with people he sees as beneath him, but now we see his relationship with his father... and a rather disturbing scene where he psychs himself up in the restaurant bathroom before getting the table he wants.
- Foreshadowing:
- Roy is reluctant to predict the performance of a 17 year-old prospect's professional debut in the Arsenal-Newcastle United match. We'll learn the reason next season.
- Nate is visibly uncomfortable with Roy's return, glancing to see Ted's reaction as the music turns discordant.
- When talking to Keeley comparing her Bantr match with her current hookup, she tells Keeley, "Shouldn't romance have a little mystery?" at the same time that Sam Obisanya, her mystery Bantr match, is in the background getting his free coffee machine. Had he come a minute sooner, he might have heard Rebecca reading his own text aloud.
- Doc Fieldstone checks in with Ted, recognizing that there's more going on than he's letting on. He needs more help than he's ready to ask for.
- Former Teen Rebel: Higgins reveals that in his youth he pretended to be a brooding punk with hair spiked out.
- He's Back!: Roy returns to Nelson Road, and A.F.C. Richmond as a whole, for the first time since his retirement as he turns up at the start of the game to take up Ted's invitation to join the coaching staff. The fans go clinically bonkers.
- Hidden Depths:
- Roy reveals to Ted and Isaac that whenever he found himself in a slump during his career, he would return to his old South London neighborhood and play pickup football with the locals to remind himself that it's a game and supposed to be fun.
- It's revealed that all of Colin's Instagram posts are about Welsh Independence.
- I'm Thinking It Over!: When Keeley inks a sponsorship deal with Nespresso and tells all the players to post about their free coffee machines, she asks Colin not to tie his sponsored post into the Welsh Independence movement like all his other posts. Colin has to think it over for several seconds before hesitantly agreeing.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After Nate gets the table he wants, he rather rudely whistles across the restaurant for his parents to join him; upon arriving at the table, his father comments on Nate's behaviour by noting "We're not dogs."
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Ted's speech about rom-communism warns that "these next few months might be tricky, but that's just 'cause we're going through our dark forest," which "always shows up smack-dab in the middle of a story," and concludes that they just need to let go of expectations and trust that everything will work out in the end. He's telling the players to trust the universe and not worry too much about their struggle to be promoted back to the Premier League, but it also sounds like he's telling the audience to trust the writers during the unexpectedly dark second half of the season.
- Malicious Misnaming: Invoked by Keeley, who deliberately gets Nate's surname wrong as part of her and Rebecca's efforts to teach him to be more assertive. The first time she does it, Nate meekly apologises and goes along with the incorrect name; the second time, he goes completely in the opposite direction. Subverted and Played for Laughs when he arrives at the actual reservation; he clearly expects Jade to do this and reflexively begins to correct her only to realise that she actually got his surname right.
- Meet Cute: Higgins and his wife subverted this; he was trying to be punk and play the upright air bass when "She's a Rainbow" came on, only to dump a beer on himself. Everyone laughed, except someone who handed him a disgusting, damp bar towel to dry off... and he's been married to her for 29 years.
- Mirror Monologue: Nate gives himself a prep talk before the restaurant's bathroom mirror.
- My God, You Are Serious!: Ted laughs when Nate offers to be the "big dog" who talks to Isaac, only to realize that Nate was being serious. He apologizes, but Nate is still clearly stung.
- "Psycho" Strings: "She's a Rainbow" gives way to these briefly to underscore the fact that Nate is not happy about Roy Kent's return to the club. Interestingly enough, this is an actual part of the song, merely timed perfectly to match Nate's internal discord.
- Race for Your Love: Fitting for an episode themed around the Romantic Comedy, Roy decides that he truly wants to be at Richmond after all, and leaves his pundit gig in the middle of airing to make a mad dash for the stadium. He gets into a lot of mishaps along the way, but makes it just in time.
- Red Herring: As Rebecca texts her Bantr match just before the game, the scene cuts to Ted texting someone and smiling, implying that he's her mystery match. It will later be revealed to actually be Sam.
- Reference Overdosed: The whole episode is wall-to-wall Shout-Outs to various romantic comedies.
- Established early on when Ted brings up the topic of rom-communism, and everyone starts spouting their favorite romcom actors: Hanks, Ryan, Roberts, Grant, Barrymore, McConaughey, Kates Winslet, Beckinsale, and Hudson ("Blanchett." "Different spelling."), Zellweger...
- Rebecca's Bantr conversation is between "Bossgirl" and "LDN152", a nod to "Shopgirl" and "NY152", the handles of the romantic leads of You've Got Mail.
- The episode randomly focuses on an old couple who tells their love story, similar to the old couple in When Harry Met Sally....
- When Ted tries to get Roy to join the team, he uses lines from Jerry Maguire ("You complete our team"), The Princess Bride ("As you wish"), When Harry Met Sally... ("I came here tonight 'cause when you realize you wanna spend the rest of your life..."), and Notting Hill ("I'm also just a coach..."). When he ends up joining the team at the end, he riffs on line from Jerry Maguire: "You had me at coach."
- Earlier at the restaurant, Ted tells the worker he'll have what Roy's having.
- There's a montage of strangers meeting up with their loved ones before the Richmond game, akin to the airport scene in Love Actually.
- Before Roy leaves to make his Race for Your Love, he tells his colleagues "I have to go", which is what Annie says when she leaves her Disposable Fiancé Walter in Sleepless in Seattle.
- Rewatch Bonus: Roy refusing to judge a 17-year-old's Premier League debut on Soccer Saturday gains additional significance after Season 3 reveals that Roy was deeply hurt when his own debut at the same age was criticized in an article by Trent Crimm.
- Romantic Comedy: "She's a Rainbow", established as The Song of Higgins and his wife replays as Roy struggles to rush to Nelson Road; he loves the game and needs to get back to her.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Rebecca offers to buy A Taste of Athens to get Nate a table. Keeley points out that what they need to teach Nathan to stand up for himself, not just buy a restaurant.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Roy just gets up and walks off in the middle of Soccer Saturday as he realises that he misses being part of the game.
- Secret Handshake: Isaac has created one for each of his teammates and the coaching staff.
- Shout-Out: Higgins's ringtone for his wife is "She's a Rainbow", by The Rolling Stones (Band), which Rebecca notes is kind of twee, but perfect for Higgins and his wife.
- Start of Darkness: Now that Nate has some power, he starts getting particularly nasty.
- Underestimating Badassery: At first, Isaac thinks that he shouldn't be playing pick up because he's a professional player. He soon discovers the locals are more talented than he thought.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: As Roy explains to Isaac, his problem is that he is putting too much pressure on himself to be a good captain and lead the team to victory when he just needs to focus on enjoying the game and let everything else flow from there.
- Who's on First?: Richmond is playing against Sheffield Wednesday. Beard has to explain to Ted that "Wednesday" is part of the name of the team, not the day of the week that they're playing.Ted: We play Sheffield Wednesday?
Beard: Saturday.
Ted: Oh, we're playing Sheffield Saturday?
Beard: Sheffield Wednesday, Saturday.
Ted: We gotta play 'em twice in the same week!?
Beard: [deep sigh] The club is called Sheffield Wednesday. We play them on Saturday. They are called Sheffield Wednesday because they used to only play on Wednesdays. But nowadays they play on whatever day of the week they feel like, including, but not limited to, Saturdays, which again, is the day of the week we will be playing them.
Ted: This Saturday? I can't, I got plans.
Beard: I'm leaving.
