Welcome to Wrexham Season 5, Episode 5, “Holiday Spirit,” navigates setbacks and various responses to them with nuance and positivity. It is a bit jarring to celebrate the holidays in June, but the episode does what it can to try to capture the vibes. It helps that “Holiday Spirit” comes with a packed football schedule – and a comeback story or two. The episode sets that up for goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo from the start. Welcome to Wrexham creates this delayed satisfaction in waiting to see the resolution there. In turn, the episode is another example of how good this docuseries has become at serialized storytelling.
Admittedly, “Holiday Spirit” treads some familiar ground – in the footage and interview – when discussing forward Ollie Rathbone’s pre-season injury. Even so, it’s such a limited rehash that it doesn’t drag the episode down. The progress that “Holiday Spirit” makes is far more memorable. After all, Welcome to Wrexham is always at its best when it’s unabashedly cheeky and sentimental.
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Second Chances in Wrexham
Reconnecting with Maxine Hughes, a Welsh journalist and translator, is equally nostalgic and piercing. Welcome to Wrexham always has such a great sense of awareness and perspective. Therefore, the docuseries has really effective reflections. Of course, it’s most productive with the football team and the humans – players, staff, and so on – in and around the club. However, catching up with Hughes now represents the docuseries’ skills with longevity.
Hughes has been a part of Welcome to Wrexham from the start. “Holiday Spirit” can then reveal how her life and relationships have evolved since the show started in 2022. Even with a packed episode, Welcome to Wrexham still explores everything Hughes has gone through, from the triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis and the double mastectomy to the Eisteddfod induction and everything in between. It’s quite moving to see Maxine Hughes come together with Jill McElhenney, Rob Mac’s stepmother. It’s also such a beautiful way to showcase the support system that can unexpectedly arise from a football club.
That angle lends itself nicely to another incredible story – Gemma Oakley’s with the Wrexham Sewing Studio. Welcome to Wrexham is no stranger to spotlighting businesses and such around Wrexham. It never feels like hard work for the docuseries to tie them back to the football club or for the show itself to structure them into the episodes. It’s all really symbiotic and natural, speaking to the mission of the club and the community being interconnected. Again, it’s moving to hear Oakley, who reached a rock bottom and found a renewed perspective about life on the other side, say, “I just want people to know there’s space for them.” Wrexham AFC is that space for people, too.
Now that Oakley’s upcycled Wrexham bears are in the Wrexham store, I hope that there is payoff with co-chairman Ryan Reynolds getting one before the end of the season. However, knowing the show’s skills with long-form storytelling, there is a chance that payoff could come over the next three seasons.
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How to Respond to Mistakes
To start “Holiday Spirit” with Arthur Okonkwo after the Swansea loss is like picking up with a character-driven cliffhanger. Then, Welcome to Wrexham surprises me by pulling all of the tension out of the moment. Okonkwo is gaming and watching Twilight, which I appreciate. The episode doesn’t dwell on the past. Okonkwo says, “In that moment, I just wanted the world to swallow me whole,” and then Welcome to Wrexham moves on. Plus, Okonkwo has the backing of his manager. Phil Parkinson knows that players will make mistakes, and it matters more to see if and how they respond to those challenges.
So, “Holiday Spirit” makes an interesting choice to pull away from Okonkwo to catch up with Ollie Rathbone upon his return to the first team. Instead of finishing that arc with Okonkwo, Welcome to Wrexham eventually combines it with Rathbone’s. That narrative pattern has really worked for the docuseries this season. The show is also great at exploring the psychology of footballers. The episode does an excellent job of explaining how a player’s sense of self can be rocked by an injury. “Holiday Spirit” addresses Rathbone’s expectations through Mick Rathbone, a former footballer who is nothing but proud of his son, and a new roster of players who can replace Rathbone.
He knows it’s about how he shows up after recovering, so Welcome to Wrexham explores the nuances of that. That internal pressure folds nicely into the externalized pressure of the holiday fixtures. “Holiday Spirit” harnesses a real kinetic injury there and in the penalty shootout against Nottingham Forrest in the third round of the FA Cup. Both scenes let Okonkwo and Rathbone shine, proving that no one should doubt Wrexham AFC and their ability to make a comeback.
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