Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for The Good Place Season 3 Episode 3.
Janet and Michael are trapped on Earth! What are they going to do? After ending the previous episode with a cliffhanger, The Good Place continues to speed onward, just like a Snowplow.
Janet blends in with Earthen society. (photo credit to NBC/Universal)
The two afterlife escapees camp it out in an unused department at Chidi’s college (it’s the Journalism Department). In order to make his plan work, Michael decides to do a little meddling to keep the group on track. When Eleanor finds herself short of cash, Michael and Janet “help” her win the lottery (using Janet’s super knowledge). Three months later, when Tahani is about to hook-up with Jason, Michael and Janet intervene again. They reunite Tahani with her ex-boyfriend, Larry Hemsworth (the lesser known Hemsworth brother).
Suddenly, Michael and Janet can’t stop themselves from intervening in the humans’ lives. It’s all for a good cause though (or is it?). Six months later, Tahani announces that Larry has proposed to her and they’re moving back to London to plan the wedding. Chidi and Simone have also decided to take a break from the study to analyze the results and test other subjects to corroborate the data.
*INTERNAL SCREAMING* (photo credit to NBC/Universal)
Now, Michael has to deal with the possibility of all the humans returning home. But, Janet believes they’re meddling too much. Michael decides to try once more and talk Eleanor into attempting to keep the group together. He convinces Eleanor to make a toast to Tahani and Larry and ask them to stay in Australia. However, a negative reaction to the speech causes Eleanor to lash out in front of the party and storm out of the building. Later, Simone finds Eleanor behind a tree in the front lawn. After admitting her mistake, Eleanor asks Simone why she lashed out. Simone hypothesizes that Eleanor has never been a part of a group that she’s really cared about.
This piece of insight helps Eleanor realize why she doesn’t want the Brainy Bunch to break up: she’s afraid of being alone again. She realizes that she has to sacrifice a little bit of her happiness so the other members of the group can also be happy. This is a really major point of character development for Eleanor. If you remember, in the first few seasons and even in the first few minutes of the episode, Eleanor rarely admits her mistakes. This is the first time she’s admitted she has an issue and wants to get help for her problems. Not only that, she’s acting on the advice she’s given and making changes. Eleanor’s beginning to become a better person.
For the first time, Eleanor reconciles with Chidi, Tahani, and Jason and admits her mistake. It turns out, the other members of the group feel the same way. However, Michael isn’t pleased and still wants them to stay in Australia (through arson) but, Janet talks him down. “Maybe it’s time to park the Snowplow,” she says, urging him to stop meddling. She reminds Michael that he can’t reset everything when his plan doesn’t work out. Unlike Eleanor, Michael still hasn’t learned from his errors and decides to break into the afterlife to reset the timeline. Just as Michael opens the door to the afterlife, Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason walk into the room.
This show keeps raising the stakes higher and higher with each episode. This cliffhanger is worse than the last one! Each episode seems so action-packed, I wonder if it’ll keep the momentum as the season progresses. It would be a shame if the series loses steam after the next few episodes. I also like how Michael has developed from an evil demon to someone who’s actually trying to help the humans. His motives, this season, are crystal clear and very sincere. I’m also excited to see Janet transform from a know-it-all robot-helper to something that mimics a fully functional human being (even though she’s not human). I loved the bit of Eleanor-character-development and I wonder how the other characters will develop in the coming episodes.
The plot and the dialogue are still punchy and enjoyable. I hope the next few episodes will focus on the other characters since we’ve been seeing a lot of Eleanor, Michael, and Janet recently. I wonder how they are all coping with the changes in their lives. Speaking of unanswered questions: now that the entire gang is back together: what’s going to happen? Will Michael reveal his plans to the humans? How is he going to explain the door? How is he going to explain Janet? Will the humans learn they live in an alternate timeline? Will Michael tell the humans about their time in the afterlife? Hopefully, all of these will be answered by the next episode, “Jeremy Bearimy,” which airs on Thursday, Oct. 18 on NBC 8/7c.
