We'll Always Have Amsterdam
In season 3 episode 2, “(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea,” we find that Keeley’s CFO, Barbara, has quite a sizeable snow globe collection. She purchases one every time she’s assigned to a new location for work; her Amsterdam globe is the largest, the most prominent one on the shelf. In “Sunflowers,” the characters are whisked away from London and placed in a protective bubble where, for one night, they can trial a different kind of living.
The stakes of thex friendly match against AFC Ajax sets the stage. If they win this, they aren’t granted a title, or money; Roy therefore deems it pretend. To officiate the experience, Ted grants the team permission to eschew responsibility by getting rid of a set bedtime; they’re off the hook from the rules of their everyday lives. Amsterdam is a sandbox, a safe space for our friends from Richmond to play.
Rebecca goes out into the city on her own, quite literally taking a plunge. After having the misfortune of falling into the canal and losing her phone, her means of contacting the outside world is taken away, and a houseboat becomes her temporary reality. She plays house. After aching to be a mother for years, she peeks into a child’s room with delight. There’s someone there to cook her a meal, leave her a silly note, give her a massage. The time ticks down on the dryer, and she makes the choice to extend the experience because she really likes this domestic enclave. This is a means of showing her what it could feel like to be safe and taken care of in a relationship, something she’s expressed throughout the course of the show that she desires.
In “real life” Rebecca puts herself together with a specificity, with fitted clothes, perfectly coiffed hair, and jewelry sometimes sharp enough to double as a shiv. When she feels it’s called for, she’s a powerhouse, a force of nature who will yell at a star player for acting like he’s too good for her team. Here on this boat she dresses up in another woman’s clothes, her hair simple, her dress springlike and flowing, and she dances and sings unabashedly. The experience reads like a romantic movie; she doesn’t even exchange names with the man who’s grantd her this time in his home, but it feels like it’s meant something. They know in the moment that they’ll look on fondly on the time they spent together in the future.
Alone, Ted settles himself for a meal at Yankee Doodle Burger Barn, an American-style restaurant. The establishment has put together a mishmash of U.S. iconography, with cowboy hats and a wall decal of Chance the Rapper, but it’s not exactly authentic. His southern-sounding waiter is actually an Australian who doesn’t know that the “Windy City” is also known as Chicago. Still, the simulation that Ted is thrust within brings back real memories; there’s a dartboard like the one he and his father used, a game playing on the TV that he knows well, and gloriously, Arthur Bryant's Barbeque Sauce. Just one taste transports him into a high that enlightens him on how he can help his team, using basketball strategy direct from the Chicago Bulls.
There’s been no indication Ted’s been Stateside since he first stepped foot on English soil. “Home,” he still calls it, even though it’s so far away. The Burger Barn wasn’t able to answer his questions on what he’s still doing out here in Europe, nor how long he’ll stay. However, he was able to use where he’s from to further himself within his coaching journey. He’s hopped onto the next stepping stone towards figuring out his geographical dilemna.
Sitting by the canal, Colin tells Trent that he wants the bits of himself combined into one whole that he can present to the world. The reality within the sport is bleak; players in top flight men’s football don’t come out.
The rules of this episode dictate that Colin is in a safe place; he’s not ready for the team or the public to know, and Amsterdam will protect him. Away from the rest of team Richmond stationed back at the hotel, it’s their bubble within a bubble. He and Trent are able to have a fun night out surrounded by fellow queer people, not having to hide.
"Tonight, you’re whoever you want to be,” a bartender tells him. He gets to be himself.
There’s plenty of bikes in the UK, but you wouldn’t have found Roy Kent riding any of them. It takes being in a secondary location, the world’s cycling capital, for him to try to hop on the seat. This season, Roy’s already had to deal with folks snapping photos of him entering a sewer; there’s no way he wants photo evidence of him falling face-first onto the sidewalk back home. In the Netherlands, during the night, it’s become an option. After a hilarious bout of trial and error, Roy gets the hang of things, which allows him to both honor his grandfather and bond with Jamie.
Having been to Amsterdam twice before, Jamie gets to play tour guide. With nowhere they must be until 10AM, the pair have the space to go on a windmill-seeking adventure and share details with each other that they never have gotten around to delving otherwise.
Even the team at large has a unique experience in Amsterdam that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. The fatigue of choice gets at them, causing them to stay indoors, within the confines of the hotel.
During away matches, Ted gives them a choice between watching a movie and having a pillow fight. This pillow fight was long overdue. It’s too bad Ted was out losing his mind over the triangles to bear witness to this moment.