All Beard’s books are always some of the many breadcrumbs that are dropped.
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I don’t understand Nate’s sudden nastiness either. Nothing extremely terrible happened that warrants the nastiness. He got promoted to Asst Coach by Ted and less than one season later he is a jerk.
And I cannot figure out what he expected to gain by throwing Ted under the bus by revealing the panic attack. Did he think Ted would get fired and he would miraculously be promoted to Head Coach?
Interesting! What are some notable books? On a fun note, a colleague gifted me The Essential Wooden years ago so I appreciate the team/talent dynamic teased out all season. One of my son’s coaches was a big Wooden fan sharing quotes with the team.
Can someone shed some light on the weird episode with coach Beard? You know the one I mean. With the pants (trousers…)
As far as Nate goes, I think his transformation is a critique on how power corrupts, particularly those that have a deflated sense of self. He’s like a little kid that has been bullied and deals with his problems by finding and exploiting the weaknesses in others to make himself feel better.
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That episode and the Christmas episode are outside continuity, but not outside canon. They were added when the season was expanded from 10 episodes to 12.
I assume it was Beard-focused to add depth to the character and, IMO, for them to submit for Brendan Hunt’s Emmy nomination next year.
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Agree with you about power corrupts, bullying, and Nate becoming the bully, but I suspect it will tie back to his fathers relationship, maybe Nate will be seeing dr Sharon at some point,
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@skieurope what a great link, thanks so much, so fun to see what the author predicted for season 2 , now knowing what did happen.
The author of article thought something interesting would happen with Sams character, ummmmmm understatement of year, 
This caught my in relation to our Nate discussion.
Does anyone remember if Nate ever found out that Ted and Beard led Roy to become the leader to eventually stick up for Nate ?
* Coach Beard is reading Quiet Genius: Bob Paisley, British Football’s Greatest Managerwhen Roy lets them know about Nate getting bullied. For Beard, of course, this reinforces that he is always seeking to learn and improve. Paisley’s coaching style is often referred to as “understated” or “quiet.” When he became coach, he told the team he was “only looking after the shop until a proper manager arrives,” but he would go on to be extremely successful, racking up a ton of trophies. “Bob Paisley created teams and destroyed teams. He won trophies and he spoke softly.” This is a perfect role model for Beard, but it also is exactly what Ted and Beard are doing in that scene: quietly leading. Ted explains that they need Roy to step up and be a leader, which is why he won’t interfere with Nate getting bullied — they need Roy to do it. And it goes exactly as planned.
Weird coach beard episode ! That is was!
Maybe this article sheds light, or more likely it will make you feel, that everyone is bit confused about what the heck was going on,
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/17/1037430702/ted-lasso-recap-season-2-episode-9-beard-after-hours
But on the other hand, it’s more opaque than most; you can spend a lot of time turning over in your mind all the little things that invite interpretation. For instance, in a story that’s kind of mysterious and magical, why is there this repeated bit about Beard’s keys? Jeremy returns them at the pub, Red Dress returns them in her apartment, and her boyfriend returns them after he rescues Beard from James. Eventually, Beard even breaks his key off in the lock. You could read all this as meaning that he doesn’t really want to go home, or that he can’t really go home, or that home isn’t the right place for him. It may well have a neat answer in the minds of the writers that I’m completely missing; I don’t know, and honestly, that’s not my business. To me, it underscores how lost he feels. He keeps literally losing his way home.
Thanks for the link. I found that episode hard to digest. I wouldn’t call it magical as much as hallucinogenic.
I think there will be more Beard to come. The Jane relationship also doesn’t make any sense to me. It goes completely against the character development of Beard so far. So we shall see, I hope!
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Good point about Beard’s relationship not making sense, and in the article it mentions that on the surface it seemed to be a romantic jaunt ( yes magical and hallucinogenic) eventually beard reunites with Jane at the club,
But, the author emphasizes below the surface, deeper, this is a toxic relationship.
He claims maybe the episode is that “ happiness is complicated “ ?
The NY Times article is quite helpful as are the 274 comments,
One person comments she is sickened by Nate’s anger and doesn’t understand at all,
Someone responds saying, to rewatch season 1 , all the resentment and anger are there with Nate shockingly when rewatched. (I will be doing this at some point )
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The Beard key thing was also a reference to the movie After Hours on which this episode is structured. The protagonist there kept losing his keys.
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@maya54 thanks for mentioning about After Hours, Scorcese film I’ve never seen, but now knowing the Beard episode is based on that movie ( which the writer Joe minion plagiarized the idea from Joe Frank NPR monologue )
Even the end of After Hours, ending after a bizarre night, with the main character arriving at his workplace just like a normal day in his life.
In an attempt to somehow merge the genre of comedy with unmistakable elements of satire and to a degree even horror, Martin Scorsese took the city he loved so much and portrayed it as a Twilight Zone heap of madness, fear and paranoia situated on top of hell itself. We follow an extraordinary day in the life of a common man, word-processing specialist who goes for a coffee with a mysterious, attractive woman and soon finds himself at the center of a nightmarish contemporary Manhattan Odyssey. A simple man, with basically no control over the events that unfold seemingly determined to destroy him, is forced to go through a series of bizarre incidents, sinking deeper into a pool of problems with every passing minute.
Regarding the moment when Beard reunites with Jane at the club, some commenters mention how free Beard danced at first, he just was himself, then he sees Jane,
This is my thought about the strange Hula hoop, which is so constraining, was she “making him go through hoops”, “ was she trying to control the free spirit” ……….
These articles may have some nuggets about Ted Lasso, in particular this one is about “The weird Beard episode”
It also confirms that Coach Beard is the wisest character in Ted Lasso . This idea has been hinted at throughout the series which has seen the reticent coach regularly offering perfect advice on other people’s personal conflicts. He often delivers such guidance bluntly, but not harshly, and his sage opinions usually suffice to fix the problems for Ted Lasso’s other characters. It has been suggested in previous episodes that he struggles to manage his own personal life with the show depicting his on-again-off-again relationship with Jane (Phoebe Walsh), but this has so far only been examined through the lens of the other coaches. “Beard After Hours” portrays it from his perspective, and shows that while the relationship is imperfect, the coach is highly self-aware and cognizant to its shortcomings. Beard doesn’t shy away from examining his feelings, nor does he relent to Jane before she is able to provide the level of emotional commitment that he requires. Also featuring Beard’s musings about mortality and love, the episode solidifies him as the show’s wisest character.
I didn’t like that episode at all, but I figure it was a polarizing episode because it broke continuity and I didn’t find Beard’s misadventures that interesting.
(On the other hand, I loved the Christmas episode even if it was a stand-alone. It would have been perfect as a covid-christmas antidote and might come in handy in later years.)
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Agree The Christmas show kept the momentum of the overall feel good theme of the show.
The most off putting thing for me was the billionaires obnoxious response to Sams decision- I get that it reinforces Sam made the right decision that that guy is a total jerk, but it was not at all funny to me.
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We found the billionaires response roll-on-the-floor hilarious. Probs a commentary on us 
Many people did find it funny probably a commentary on me not finding funny 