Ted Lasso's Nick Mohammed Handled Nate's Season 3 Dark Side Turn With Caution
Of all the characters in season 3 of "Ted Lasso," Nate (Nick Mohammed) is probably the most difficult to watch. He's the Darth Vader to Rupert's Emperor Palpatine, just without any of Vader's badassery. In the latest episode, for instance, it would be easier if we could hate Nate as we watch the footage of him tearing up the Believe poster. But as we watch him fall off his swivel chair in his first attempt, it's hard to not feel pity instead. This guy's actions have been fairly reprehensible throughout the past season or so, but the reasons for those actions are still somehow sympathetic. We cringe at his consistently insecure behavior, but the line between cringing at him and cringing with him is always blurred.
For Mohammed, this is an intentional choice for his performance. Rather than make Nate the confident villain that season 2's final moments implied, this Nate still struggles with his role as Richmond's second biggest enemy. "As much as he's done what he's done, there has to be an element of regret," Mohammed explained in a recent interview with Collider. "I approached it with him not being too headstrong about what he'd done and trying to play each scene with something in the back of my mind that was maybe not the right thing. Certainly, the earlier episodes were just him not really knowing whether he'd made the right decision or not, and I tried to play it both ways."
Nate's agonizing self-doubt
The result is a villain who can be frustrating to watch, but not necessarily in a bad way. You can't hate someone who's this pitiable, even if he treats his players terribly and is constantly talking trash about the team that built him up in the first place. One of the big focuses of "Ted Lasso" is the show trying to find the limits of Ted's kindness and positivity; at first it seemed like Nate was the one problem Ted couldn't solve through the power of love, but so far season 3 has implied that hey, maybe he still can. As terrible as Nate can be, there's some goodness still within him. He's clearly not comfortable with his position at West Ham, nor does he seem particularly happy in general.
Following through on the "Star Wars" comparisons, which the show itself certainly isn't shy about, it seems likely that the Nate/Darth Vader parallels are also going to continue along with Darth Vader's redemptive ending. Not to spoil a 40-year-old movie, but "Return of the Jedi" ends with Vader throwing Palpatine down a giant shaft. "Ted Lasso" likely won't pick such a violent resolution, but based on season 3 so far, it wouldn't be too surprising if Nate realized that allying himself with Rupert isn't worth the moral costs and he ends up helping Richmond again in some significant way. Ted's kindness might not have been enough to stop Nate from moving over to the dark side, but it might be enough to bring him back.