There’s a moment in this week’s episode of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, “La Locker Room Aux Folles,” when player Jan Maas points out that if 10 percent of the population is gay, statistically there would be members of the Greyhounds club who identify as such. After everyone lets that sink in, gazes turn to Jamie Tartt, who then notices, touches his heart, and tenderly says “I’m flattered.”
To the casual Ted Lasso fan, that kind reaction might seem like a mild gag about Jamie’s love of hair products, but for the show’s fervent and wide-ranging queer community, it feels like acknowledgement of what many have believed for years: that Jamie is one of the most deeply queer-coded characters on the show, even given Trent and Colin’s quiet coming out parties this season.
Some have pushed Jamie’s sexuality even further, placing him at the center of one of the fandom’s most beloved ships: a Roy-Keeley-Jamie throuple. Sparking countless GIFs; specialized Discord channels; and hundreds of loving, emotional, and deeply saucy pieces of fanfiction on Tumblr and Archive of Our Own, the idea of the throuple was born of the show’s investment in the emotional development and vulnerability of all three characters, who started off the show as sort of spiritual and romantic rivals but have grown to deeply care for and respect each other.
Christa, who goes by Mixtapestar on A03 and who, like nearly all the sources for this story, requested anonymity because they don’t want their workplaces and families knowing about their participation in the sometimes NSFW fanfiction world, says that the way she sees it, the seeds for the throuple were laid during the first season’s gala episode, where Jamie, Roy, and Keeley were all seated at the same table. As the show has gone on and the characters have grown and matured, she says, the argument for the throuple has become more about chemistry. “It’s about a feeling that [the characters] all genuinely support each other in their own ways and that could lead to a relationship,” Christa explains.
“So many people identify with Roy, Jamie, and Keeley because they really exemplify the show’s thesis of being a work-in-progress,” says Elizabeth, a Lasso fan who also requested anonymity. “The writers have already done the work to show that they all love and trust each other, and assuming Roy and Keeley make up, the three of them would just have to have, like, one conversation. And maybe kiss a little.”