This article contains spoilers for Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 episode 5
Summary
There is not a whole lot of soccer inWelcome to Wrexhamthis week. Instead, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney do their best to display some of the most endearing stories the club has to offer. In that sense, “Temporary” does some catching up with recent developments, but also with events that fans never even got to see last season.
This episode sets the tone from the start with an opening shot of 99-year-old Wrexham superfan Arthur Massey, a World War II veteran who has lived nearly his entire life in the small Welsh city, seeing it transform from the industrial town it was into the locale for the Hollywood duo’s sporting operation. Right from the start, Arthur’s tales signal what type of episode this is.
FX viewers get to see every aspect of Arthur’s life, his big family, his daily habits that have carried him to this old age (brandy included), and how his own legacy has crossed paths with the club. The excitement in Arthur when he remembers watching his own grandson, Lee Jones, not only put on the Wrexham shirt, but having the game of a lifetime scoring five goals versus Cambridge really adds to the wholesome vibes.
Of course, Arthur knows very well that being a Wrexham fan is not easy with so many ups and downs between divisions, and that reminder is also the cutoff point to go back to current Wrexham affairs, namely thegruesome injury suffered by Arthur Okonkwothat kept him out for four weeks. This incident also makes club heads like Shaun Harvey, Humphrey Ker, and McElhenney himself explain football’s loan policy.
While anyone that hasplayedEA Sports FCorFootball Managerknows how loans work in soccer, the entire system is surely foreign forMaddenorNBA 2Kfans. Okonkwo was loaned by Arsenal to Wrexham, meaning he could technically be recalled in the middle of the season to add further uncertainty to the team’s goalkeeping position.
Certainly, McElhenney’s Michael Jordan example drives home the point better, but there are also some real anecdotes like David Beckham’s own loan spell, or young Newcastle midfielder Joe White who briefly played in the same league as Wrexham. What all this means is that it’s time forsubstitute keeper Mark Howard to step backonto the field, and the veteran podcaster does deliver in Wrexham’s 2-1 win over Colchester.
Besides Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s constant clashes with British bureaucracy, as they try to build a temporary kop stand before the club’s renovation plans for the Racecourse can be completed, the pairset up a greatDeadpool & Wolverinead. In spite of Marvel’s notoriously strict anti-spoiler policies, it is now known thatMcElhenney will have an officialDeadpoolcameo.
Even before all that, Wrexham brought a big tearjerker to the table with midfielder James Jones sharing how he almost lost his wife and son in 2022. Back then, in the middle of a home clash against Aldershot Town where he got on the scoresheet, Jones was subbed off due to an emergency as his wife Chloe had an emergency C-section when their son Jude was born prematurely.
Viewers join Jones sharing his toughest of times, as both Chloe and newborn Jude were sent to intensive care units for weeks. The entire segment really pushesWelcome to Wrexhamstorytelling power to a new frontier, as it is impossible not to feel gutted at the mere thought of his family not making it, though luckily both are alive and well today.
All this makes it more satisfying to see Jones come back to the pitch and score the go-ahead goal against Newport in Wrexham’s 2-0, where the team also happened to inaugurate their new makeshift kop stand.
Undoubtedly, the introduction of a small Notts County subplot makes this particular episode feel a bit all over the place, asWelcome to Wrexhamnow also finds time to put their rivals’ misfortunes on screen. However, Notts’ injury crisis and, most notably, the departure of their coach Luke Williams, do show how lucky the Red Dragons have been, especially with Phil Parkinson appearing very unlikely to leave anytime soon.
The emotional rollercoaster that is thisWelcome to Wrexhamepisode is put to an end with Arthur Massey’slevel 100birthday party. As the club makes plans to honor its oldest fan at a home game, McElhenney visits the Massey house, which reminds him of his own childhood home from season 1.
Wrexham fans give Arthur Massey a 100-second standing ovation that is edited along with footage from the old man’s birthday party, photos throughout his life, and the sight of this man brimming with joy as he stands in the middle of the Racecourse Ground with Humphrey and his daughters. It’s impossible not to be moved by this scene, as Jones and Chloe also watch with a baby Jude from the stands.
There are a bunch of different soccer teams Ryan Reynolds andRob McElhenney could have bought, yet despite the jokes of them choosing Wrexhambecause they wear Deadpool’s red, times like these show they made the right decision by going all in on a club founded in 1864. The actors tell us the Arthur Masseys of this world is why they chose Wrexham, and after these past two years and this episode, it’s impossible not to believe it was meant to be.
