No Weddings and a Funeral
Rebecca and Sam have successfully kept their relationship secret for several weeks when Rebecca's mother catches them during a morning after. Deborah informs Rebecca that her father, Paul Welton, has died. The entire Richmond team comes to the funeral, but Ted has a panic attack and calls Sharon to his flat for a therapy session. The thought of death makes Keeley anxious while Roy is flippant about it, causing the two of them to have a fight. Rupert and Bex come to the funeral uninvited and bring their newborn daughter, infuriating Rebecca. Keeley and Sassy deduce that Rebecca is secretly in a relationship, and Keeley correctly guesses it is with Sam.
Rebecca tells Deborah that she does not want to give a eulogy for her father, admitting that she caught him cheating on Deborah as a teenager. However, Deborah reveals that she knew about Paul's cheating and loved him anyway, accepting that he wasn't perfect. Rebecca tells her mother that she hates her for allowing him to mistreat her; Deborah accepts this, saying that she would rather have Rebecca's hate than her indifference. She also reveals that she is nice to Rupert even though she hates him, as she does not want him to know that he can irritate her. At the same time, Ted describes his father's death to Sharon for the first time, before arriving late for the funeral. Instead of giving a traditional eulogy, Rebecca leads the mourners in singing "Never Gonna Give You Up," a song that her parents continued to like and find meaningful even after most people grew sick of it.
Using her mother's advice, Rebecca acts nicely toward Rupert after the funeral, disarming him. Rupert tells Rebecca that he and Bex are giving her the shares of AFC Richmond that they bought from the Milk sisters, seemingly with no strings attached; however, Rupert whispers something in Nate's ear before he leaves. At the reception, Jamie tells Keeley that she helped him to become the best version of himself and he is still in love with her. Immediately after, Roy apologizes to Keeley for his callous attitude and also tells her that he loves her. Rebecca pauses her relationship with Sam, fearing emotional pain if it doesn't work out. However, she and her mother grow closer together, looking at pictures and videos from her childhood.
Tropes featured in "No Weddings and a Funeral" include:
- Armor-Piercing Question: After Ted explains how he hates his father for "quitting" on him and his mother, Dr. Sharon asks whether there's anything he loved about him. Ted is completely silent for a few moments while he thinks it through, and his eventual response brings him to the tearful realisation that he never told his father how much he appreciated him.
- Black Comedy: Roy keeps having fun at the funeral because he can't take it seriously because his grandfather died when he was a child. Meanwhile, we also get Dani suffering in shoes too small.
- Black Is Bigger in Bed: Played with. Sassy can't help teasing Rebecca about whether Sam is too "big" for her to handle, but she jokes that the issue is actually with Rebecca's "tiny vagina".
- Call-Back:
- When Isaac is instructing the team on how to properly dress for the funeral, he singles Jamie out when telling them to wear shirts, recalling his attire at the gala. At the service, Nate is wearing the suit Ted had bought him in the same episode.
- Ted suits up to Phil Collins' "Easy Lover", which he previously mentioned to have the ideal length for a man to get dressed to.
- After recovering from his panic attack and going to the funeral, Ted leaves with Sassy, much like the first time they hooked up.
- Higgins mentions his 20 year old cat who died the previous season, Cindy Clawford; he hopes the afterlife is humans being pets and he hopes he can rest by the fire at Cindy Clawford's feet.
- Commonality Connection: Sharon and Ted finally find some common ground when she comes to his apartment to do a therapy session and he discovers that she, like him, hates tea.
- Enter Stage Window: Sassy climbs through Rebecca's bedroom window just to see if she's still able to do so. Subverted with Nora, who tries to climb up after her but falls down.
- Everyone Can See It: Rebecca's closest friends are all keyed in on the fact that she's secretly shagging someone, not least because she looks like she "just got properly plowed". Keeley even manages to hone in on the fact that it's Sam inside five seconds.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Jamie is appalled when Jan Maas says it's "infantilizing" that Ted bought Nate a suit.
- Fashion Hurts: Dani is not used to dress shoes at all and spends the whole funeral silently throwing Spanish curses at them. When he finally gets to switch them for a pair of Rebecca's fluffy pink slippers, he is overjoyed.
- Forbidden Love: Sam and Rebecca wonder if they should make their relationship public but decide not to for obvious reasons.
- Forced into Their Sunday Best: The team (who are all grown men) is wrangled into formal clothing by Isaac for Rebecca's father's funeral. A particularly common complaint is the dress shoes. At the funeral, Jamie comforts a miserable and uncomfortable Dani by saying dress shoes weren't made for people like them.Isaac: That means ties, shirts, and no trainers.
[the team breaks out into protest]
Zoreaux: Okay. But what if they're like, really nice Yeezys?
Isaac: What color?
Zoreaux: Bright red. [Isaac glares at him] ...Okay, I'll wear some dress shoes. - Foreshadowing: After the funeral, Rupert gives Rebecca Bex's shares of AFC Richmond at no cost with no strings attached. Rebecca finds this suspicious, especially after she sees Rupert whispering to Nate. Fans correctly predicted Rupert was using this as a ploy to buy another team.
- Friendship Moment: Everyone takes a moment to tell Rebecca how much they love her.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": At the late Mr. Welton's funeral:
- Rebecca's friends find out about her new fling and get so excited and loud, the priest gets offended.
- Coach Beard Facetimes Jane because she loves funerals and wants to see the open casket.
- Dani relives the Passion of Christ while agonizing in his new dress shoes.
- Colin is distracted by a breastfeeding Bex in the middle of the sermon.
- Rebecca's eulogy turns into a Rickroll.
- Funny Background Event: Beard makes it a point to keep Jane Payne present through the funeral on his phone.
- Hidden Depths: Roy eventually admits to Keeley that he's uncomfortable with the subject of death because he never got over his grandfather dying while he was away at Sunderland and never having the chance to see him one last time.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Keeley tells Rebecca she'll be right at her side the entire time, then immediately runs off to say hi to Sassy.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Ted tells Dr. Fieldstone that one of the things that he, as a teenager, did after seeing that his father committed suicide was to run to his father's fridge, grab a Coors Light, and down it.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: When Isaac briefs his team on a proper funeral dress code, they're content with wearing ties and shirts, but the order to ditch their beloved trainers for a pair of dress shoes (which some of the team don't even own) makes them collectively gasp.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Rupert claims to be a changed man and even gives Rebecca Bex's shares in the club at no cost. However, the shot of him taking Nate aside and whispering to him suggests he's up to something sinister.
- Kick the Dog: Not only does Rupert show up to the funeral uninvited, it's glaringly obvious he only brought Bex and his baby along to rub his new wholesome family life in Rebecca's face.
- Mood Whiplash: As is often the case with real-life funerals, the episode swings wildly between different emotions, repeatedly switching from lighthearted shenanigans to dark drama and back with little warning.
- After Ted tearfully spills the story of his father's suicide to Sharon, they embrace, and then he asks:Ted: Are you gonna charge me for this?
Sharon: Of course I am.
- After Ted tearfully spills the story of his father's suicide to Sharon, they embrace, and then he asks:
- Not Helping Your Case: When Jan Maas unintentionally mocks Nate for wearing a suit Ted got for him, Nate counters that it's usually his mom who picks out his wardrobe.
- Not So Above It All: Rebecca's mother appears to break up Rebecca, Sassy, and Keeley's gossip session. When she learns they're discussing who Rebecca is sleeping with, she responds with a sly "I know...and it's good."
- Oh, Crap!: Doc picks up the phone when she sees it's Ted calling. Her face changes from cheerful to worried when she hears the panic in Ted's voice, and immediately gathers her things to go meet him.Shannon: Ted, you're... Ted, you're okay. Focus on your 4, 7, 8 breathing.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Rebecca recounts the time she and Sassy discovered her father having sex with another woman, she mentions that it was the first time Sassy (who's normally very outgoing and talkative) didn't have anything to say.
- Plot Parallel: Rebecca's father's funeral triggers Ted, who skipped his dad's funeral after the latter killed himself. Both of them separately come to terms with their fathers' deaths in this episode. Exemplified with a Two Scenes, One Dialogue scene where Rebecca admitting to her mother that she had caught her dad cheating is intercut with Ted telling Sharon about his father.
- Primal Scene: Rebecca and Sassy walked in on Rebecca's father having sex with another woman when they were schoolgirls. It's the reason Rebecca resented him so much.
- The Reveal:
- Much of Rebecca's disdain for her father comes from the fact that she and Sassy caught him cheating on Rebecca's mother when they were kids. That her mother stayed with him is also why Rebecca doesn't care for her.
- Ted was home when his father killed himself, and skipped out on his funeral out of anger with him for having "quit". This also, presumably, fueled Ted's modern-day desire not to quit on anything.
- Jamie still has feelings for Keeley, and she was just as much a part of his motivation for returning to Richmond as getting back at his dad was.
- Running Gag: People keep entering the private room where Rebecca and Keeley are to tell them to lower their voices, only to participate in the excited screaming. Eventually Running Gagged when the furious priest enters and orders everyone except Rebecca and Deborah to leave.
- Shown Their Work: Thierry requests to wear a pair of "really nice" bright red Yeezys to Mr. Welton's funeral. Jason Sudeikis's sneaker expertise shows, because the only bright red Yeezy ever produced was the Nike Air Yeezy 2 "Red October", which can achieve resale prices in the five figures.
- Silent Whisper: After the funeral, Rupert whispers something into Nate's ear, which does not go unnoticed by Rebecca (or the viewers).
- Some of My Best Friends Are X: Rupert insists he has moved away from his philandering chauvinist ways now that he has a daughter. Sassy calls him out on this immediately.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: Who knew "Never Gonna Give You Up" was good eulogy material? Rebecca gets more teary eyed with each line, and the church even sings along.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Rebecca catching her father cheating on Deborah (which irreparably damaged her relationship with both her parents) happened on Friday the 13th. It's heavily implied that Ted's father also killed himself on that very same Friday the 13th.
- Too Much Information: Bex shares that she ate baby Diane's placenta raw after giving birth. Rebecca looks understandably grossed out.
- Traitor Shot: Nate, who has been going through unfortunate Character Development all season, shares a brief moment with Rupert and the camera makes sure to linger on them for an extra second.
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Rebecca telling Deborah about how she caught her father cheating is intercut with Ted telling Dr. Sharon about the day his father committed suicide.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Where did the baby go? Neither Rupert nor his new wife is carrying her when they leave the church.
