Spoilers for Season 4, Episode 6 of Ted Lasso are ahead. You can stream the series with an Apple TV subscription. After Phil Dunster denied his participation in Ted Lasso Season 4 like he was Andrew Garfield dodging Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers, he finally came back as Jamie Tartt. Now, I always believed (pun intended) that he would return. So, I was thrilled to see him pop up in the sixth episode of Season 4, which is currently airing on the 2026 TV schedule, by way of a vodka launch party. However, his appearance did make me wonder why they chose this moment to bring the footballer back to Richmond. While Ted Lasso has worked fine without Jamie or the rest of AFC Richmond’s men's team, there’s no denying it was nice to see him back on screen dancing with Roy in Episode 6. To that point, TV Line asked co-creator and Coach Beard actor Brendan Hunt if it was intentional to hold off Jamie’s return as long as they did and if it was important for his story to serve the “ongoing storyline rather than build an entire episode around him.” Here’s how Hunt responded to the question about Jamie’s part in the greater story: To the latter question, yes, 100%. It would be rather inorganic just to bring someone in and say, ‘Here's a bottle episode about Jamie.’ Especially in a 10-episode season, that wouldn't have been the right emphasis.I’m so happy they did that, too. While I adore Jamie Tartt, this season is about the women of AFC Richmond, and I wouldn't want their spotlight to be taken away. Now that we’ve had six episodes with them, I feel connected and invested, and seeing a star of the first three seasons show up didn’t feel distracting. It just felt like part of the story. Plus, seeing him literally jump around with Roy while Rebecca and Keeley watched was delightful. That’s why they waited so long to bring Jamie in too, as Hunt explained: It was very intentional. To a degree, people are going to be jonesing for what we were doing before, which is totally understandable, and you've got to go cold turkey a little bit. If we give people a little bit of this character or that character, then they might too easily start looking at that. Let's say we brought Phil back in Episode 3. Then they're looking at Phil and not looking at all this new stuff that we're trying to convey. So it would have been a disservice to our new story and our new cast to bring back the old team too soon.With the exception of Jamie and Roy, the men’s AFC Richmond team has not been part of Ted Lasso. That has allowed the focus to shift fully over to the women’s team. However, the show has still been paying homage to the first three seasons with name drops and cameos from characters like Trent Crimm, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone and Jamie Tartt. Overall, I think they’ve found a good balance too between telling this fresh new story while not forgetting the one that came before it. And it’s overall made Season 4 very fun to watch. Now, I’m excited to see what surprises they have up their sleeves next (and I kind of hope they include Jamie Tartt), and you better believe I’ll be tuning in on Wednesdays to see how this all unfolds.