Warning: Reviews of Ted Lasso season 4 episode 4 will contain spoilers.

When Ted Lasso begins episode 4 of season 4 with a podcast discussion between Trent Crimm (James Lance) and Dr. Sharon (Sarah Niles), I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling nervous. Those nerves, unfortunately, didn’t dissipate once the episode’s convoluted premise reveals itself. Why does the show need to bring Trent and Sharon back, you may ask? Beyond pure fan service, the two interrupt the narrative to provide a kind of Greek chorus as they conveniently comment on the psychology of a locker room, and the harmful elements which can disrupt its harmony. Much as I love their presence on the show, they could be removed entirely from the episode without losing anything.

The goal of episode 4 is to further establish the women’s team as characters, and in order to do so, the writers have shoehorned them into neat, little boxes according to their positions on the field. On its face, it’s an admirable, if predictable, approach; you simplify their characteristics, only to show that they’re more complex than what they’re initially pegged as. Ted Lasso has always been a show that leans into its schmaltz, which is admirable to some extent, but it doesn’t make these bits fully exempt from criticism. There are indeed plenty of sweet moments that save the episode, but it’s a low point of season 4 so far, and hopefully doesn’t spell an incoming disaster for the rest of the season.

The conflict is sewn once, after an offscreen victory, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) notices a lack of enthusiasm from the players after he gives praise for certain groups. Next we know, the locker room has devolved into full-on fighting, and coaches Chilton (Tanya Reynolds) and Beard (Brendan Hunt) have observed that the team has divided into cliques, and something must be done to bring them all together (with voiceover commentary from Trent and Dr. Sharon popping in occasionally). Ted’s first instinct is to force everyone to take part in Mae’s (Annette Badland) bar trivia night. It should surprise no one that, by the end of the trivia night, the team grows closer together, but not because of some deeper understanding of one another. Rather, they unite against a common enemy: a team of chauvinistic men.

Here was a golden opportunity for individual characters to reveal something about themselves that we didn’t already know. Lizzie (Faye Marsay) could have reveled in a rare night out without her son, or confessed her fears about being a single mother. Gemma (Abbie Hern) could have confessed what drove her away from the pitch and into law school. Rather, we get a B-plot which starts out equally promising but is derailed because of left-field comic hijinks.

Still unsure of where their relationship stands, Keeley (Juno Temple) tells Roy (Brett Goldstein) that he can’t know for sure how he feels about her because he hasn’t dated elsewhere enough. So Roy goes on a series of perfunctory speed dates, straight out of a classic sitcom, including a moment when two women show up to the same place at the same time. Believe it or not, I was mostly charmed by this, as it shows Roy’s dedication to Keeley, and the execution is pure Roy. But the bartender moves Roy to a realization which admittedly flew over my head, they make out in the kitchen, and he re-injures his knee. If the goal of Ted Lasso season 4 is to bring Roy and Keeley together romantically, episode 4 drives a rather large wedge into that momentum. If the goal is to have them realize they don’t belong together, that realization is absent from Roy by the end of the episode. I can’t even say for certain why, at the onset of the episode, Roy feels so compelled to be with Keeley, beyond the show’s writers telling him he should.

Only time will tell if the events of episode 4 will play a bigger part on Ted Lasso season 4 overall – will Trent and Dr. Sharon be back at all? – but it remains curious to me how little Ted himself has to do with the proceedings again. Sure, he orchestrates the trivia night as a team bonding exercise, but send him elsewhere for the evening, and nothing changes. Ted’s impetus for leaving at the end of season 3 was, in part, because he had already passed on all his wisdom to the Richmond family. Once the episode ended, I was left wondering what, if any, wisdom he’s imparted on the women’s team so far, and that’s a worrying thought.