Things I’ll never get over: Beard and Keeley’s little smiles when Ted finally got to the church in No Weddings and a Funeral.
It’s kinda like my go-to argument for when people are saying Ted and Rebecca are the “platonic” soulmates of the show. Here she is, surrounded by her dearest friends, her mother, her secret lover, all her players, etcetera… and Ted is the one she draws strength from. We see Ted entering the church and, not only literally everyone turns around like someone just said “I object to this marriage!”in a wedding, but what do we cut to? Beard smiling to himself and Keeley smiling at Sassy. The camera chooses to focus on the “best friends” of these two characters, on their deepest platonic connections.
And we don’t see Sassy’s face during that moment, but Keeley’s smile isn’t an “oh he’s here, you can go get some” kinda smile. It’s a “Rebecca’s emotional support man just got here” smile. We got Rebecca’s closest friend and oldest friend silently communicating this absolute relief that Ted is there.
And Beard, who ended his call with Jane when Rebecca was about to give her eulogy, understands the emotional depth of this moment, the vulnerability it holds. So that isn’t a moment he can’t share with his funeral-loving girlfriend. It’s about Rebecca, and once he sees Ted is there, he knows she’ll be okay.
They know Ted is different. They know Ted is special to Rebecca and Rebecca is special to Ted.
(The third element here would be Rupert, who doesn’t exactly smiles when he sees Ted but that’s for the same reasons the others do. He knows Ted is Rebecca’s front line defenser, and if there’s anything Rupert doesn’t want is someone having Rebecca’s back when he’s around. Notice how he doesn’t even pretend to be “nice” like he does with Sassy. Ted is the only man Rupert doesn’t want to be charming with. He doesn’t even try because he knows he can’t fool Ted. And he must hate him for it).
I absolutely LOVE this. The connection isn’t romantic for them… just 2 best friends. Like a Harry and Hermione.
