Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for NBC/Universal’s “The Good Place.”
After two weeks of waiting, “The Good Place” has finally returned to the air with four more Janets to boot! Well, they aren’t Janet-Janets per se. Remember when all the humans were transported to Janet’s void? To have their “essences” stay alive, they all had to take the form of a “Janet” to stay alive. Fun!
I love, love, loved D’Arcy Corden’s acting in this episode! In addition to playing her traditional role as your friendly neighborhood Janet, she took on the roles of Chidi-Janet, Eleanor-Janet, Jason-Janet, and Tahani-Janet. Corden truly captured the essence of each character, down to their minuscule but unique mannerisms. Overall, it was an enjoyable and hilarious performance and most definitely the highlight of this episode.
The basic plot of this episode was interesting. Michael and Janet set out to the accounting department as a way to sneak the humans to the Good Place. In my opinion, I found this location particularly funny. I have a feeling that it was a call back to Michael Shur’s previous series, “Parks and Recreation,” with the character, Ben Wyatt’s, notorious accountant jokes.
In the biggest reveal of the season, Michael finds out that the last person accounting sent to the Good Place died 521 years ago! The system is more corrupt than it seems!
Cut back to the humans: The four, who are holed up inside Janet’s void, face all kinds of revelations. Eleanor confronts Chidi about their time together in “that” version of the afterlife (the one where they were soulmates). Chidi initially rebukes her, claiming the version he was in the afterlife isn’t the same person he is now (Really, Chidi?). All things short, this causes Eleanor to have an identity crisis.
Chidi then retrieves her in one of the best scenes of the episode. The visual effects were incredible, with flaming cracks in the background a whirl of broken pieces (slightly reminiscent of “Avengers: Infinity War”). These absolutely encapsulated the chaos of the moment.
And then, Chidi kisses Eleanor! This is what we’ve all been waiting for!
On a lesser note, Jason finds out Janet has been crushing on him real-hard. But before they could do anything more, Janet regurgitates them into existence.
In the last harrowing minutes, Michael decides to abandon the bureaucracy: rather than try to explain what’s wrong with the system, he decides that he needs to be the one to change it. He leads the group to a mail chute which separates packages going to the Good Place and Bad Place and sends the gang up the first chute.
That’s where the episode ends: The gang is finally in the Good Place! That is such a big bombshell! I wasn’t expecting this journey until later seasons. It seems the finale of the season will be centered around trying to reform the Good Place. But how will the show end? Where will they go next?
Maybe these questions will get cleared up by next episode, but, in my opinion, the future of this show is entirely unclear!
Keep on guessing in the next episode, which will air on January 10th after a mid-season hiatus.
In other news: Congratulations to “The Good Place” for its well-deserved Golden Globes Nominations! Both Kristen Bell and Ted Danson have given outstanding performances this season.
