I forking love The Good Place! Every episode I watch my heart breaks because we're one step closer to the end, but gosh darn this is just such great television. This episode is no exception, as the Soul Squad's experiment is put to the test when the worst person EVER Brent Norwalk publishes a book that basically just roasts everyone else while praising himself. THIS IS YOUR SPOILER ALERT WARNING. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN "A CHIP DRIVER MYSTERY" YOU SHOULD STOP READING THIS MAGNIFICENT BLOG! THANK YOU! Simone is finally starting to believe in The Good Place and John is slowly becoming less gossipy and gross (more on that later)! Yay! But oh no, Brent is regressing. How? You may ask. By publishing a novel entitled "Six Feet Under Par: A Chip Driver Mystery". Chip is obviously just Brent reimagined, while his lead female character Scarlett Pakistan is an ode (or a dig?) at Tahani. Chidi is declared rigid and unfun in the novel, and Simone finds insane amounts of sexist, racist, and ridicuous content in the book that she can't seem to put down. John's betterment is put to the test when he walks in on Jason (who he believes to be Jianyu the silent monk) having a dance party with Chidi (who is all bummed out because he's referred to as lame in Brent's book). Chidi tells John that he HAS to keep Jason's secret just that, a secret. John struggles, but ultimately comes through. We love personal growth! As far as personal growth goes for Brent, we've got none. Instead of walking around on tip-toes around him, Eleanor, Tahani, and Simone decide it would be best to confront him and make him realize how he's hurting people. He calls them the PC police. He calls Simone a condescending bench. His apology is nothing more than a very passive aggressive "I'm sorry if YOU were offended". It is infuriating to watch because we all know that person that Brent is being. We've all interacted with him or her (but probably him). So then Chidi punches him in the face for all of us. Who's the rigid killjoy now? This whole time Michael has been retelling these events to Bad Janet, who is being held hostage in Good Janet's void. She is uninterested and just wants her phone back, but Michael insists that she hear him out. He says that the moral of this story is not whether or not humans are good or bad (Bad Janet claims that all humans are trash) but whether or not they are trying their best to be better than they were yesterday. With that, he lets her go with a manifesto that he and Good Janet created documenting the journey Team Cockroach has been on so far. I'm curious as to whether any of this will get back to Shawn, and what he'll think of it. I'm sure only time will tell. So what did y'all think? Could you watch an entire episode of just Michael and Bad Janet interacting? How bad did you want to punch Brent in the face? How happy were you when Chidi did? Tell me in the comments! XO, Em
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Hey, y'all! Sorry some of these recaps have been so behind. I'm drowning in midterms and getting ready to go on a trip all while juggling all of these shows that I watch! So, please forgive me for the delay. This week Michael and Jason are on a mission to rescue Good Janet, Derek is left in charge of his 300 Derek-Janet babies, and Tahani has an identity crisis. Let's talk about it, shall we? THIS IS YOUR SPOILER ALERT WARNING EVEN THOUGH I CANNOT FIND ANY REASON WHY YOU WOULDN'T HAVE ALREADY WATCHED THE GOOD PLACE SEASON FOUR, EPISODE FIVE "EMPLOYEE OF THE BEARIMY". IT WAS A GOOD EPISODE SO IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCH IT, I RECOMMEND DOING SO. Last week after Glenn got turned to literal goo, we watched as Michael and Jason headed to The Bad Place to get her back, goo in hand. On the way there, Michael restores 300 years worth of memories for Jason to decrease the chance of him doing something stupid (because he's probably already done it before). Meanwhile in The 'Good' Place, Derek is holding a champagne glass full of scrabble tiles while getting directions from Eleanor on how to care for his Janet babies while there's no Janet on duty. In an effort to keep the test subjects away from possible Derek induced mayhem, Eleanor and Tahani plan for the four experiments to spend a day at a lake house getting to know each other. This plan would work great if only Chidi weren't so terrified of everything. When Tahani reaches the lake house and learns that Chidi won't be coming, she runs back to tell Eleanor. Tahani is also having her own personal battle, feeling diminished and sad because the only thing she's in charge of is party planning and picking appropriate size sandwiches ("What am I, Welsh?" "I don't know, are you?"). Eleanor, knowing Chidi better at this point than he knows himself, arranges for a day full of puzzles to distract him from Derek (who is being a total classic Derek by the way). Guys, the way Chidi's face lights up when Eleanor describes the clues. I need them to be back in love. I have this theory that maybe Chidi's memory never really got erased and he's just pretending that it did. I hope I'm right. Eventually, Eleanor manages to get Chidi to the lake house AND console Tahani about how she is perfect for planning parties because it's what she knows. Eleanor emphasizes that they had different lives on Earth; Tahani's was one of privilege and parties and Eleanor's was full of Arizona dirtbags, empty promises, and thinking on her feet. They each have their own strengths to bring to the experiment, they just need to properly utilize them. In The Bad Place, DemonCon is happening (hosted by Shawn) and it looks like absolute torture. When Shawn sees Michael thinking that he is Vicky in the Michael suit, improvisation occurs. Jason and Michael pretend to be different, demonic versions of themselves in effort to save Good Janet, who is still being held captive. Of course Vicky ruins all the fun by making her appearance as Vicky in the Michael suit, therefore making everyone question who the real Vicky in the Michael suit is. Jason does his best to let Good Janet know that it's really them, impersonating himself and declaring that he, "Loves you girl,". To which Janet responds... "Not a girl!" with the biggest forking smile on her face! Guys! How is this show making me feel so many things while simultaneously being absolutely ridiculous??? Real Michael claims he has a demon exploder and Shawn is like "yeah right" so it's in that moment that he turns Vicky into goo. Honestly, God bless. Jason and Michael run away with Good Janet in tow. Jason tells her all about the lies Bad Janet told him, namely the one about Blake Bortles being cut from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Good Janet has to inform him that Blake Bortles was indeed cut, but Nick Foles replaced him. Jason is ecstatic, the boys are going to the Super Bowl! Only minutes later Janet is informed that Foles is out for the season due to an injury. Even in the afterlife, Jason can't catch a break. What did y'all think of this week's episode? Are you happy to have Good Janet back? Are you mad that Michael didn't just zap Shawn with the demon exploder? What's next? Can you believe we're already almost halfway through the final season? Tell me in the comments! Additionally, I wanted to toot my own horn (negative 60,000 points) by letting y'all know that my The Good Place themed article on Buzzfeed Community that I had to write for my PR class kind of went viral and made the homepage of Buzzfeed and was tweeted out by Buzzfeed themselves. I'd also like to set the record straight and let it be known that I do in fact know that Eleanor cried into a plunger at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, not a supermarket and that it was a momentary lapse that accounted for my small error. Here's the link to the article: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emerlyproctor/19-times-eleanor-shellstrop-from-the-good-place-a2z7apyqli XO, Em Who's real? Who's fake? Who's a demon and at risk for turning into blue goo? Are we still in The Bad Place? These are the questions I'm asking myself after Thursday's episode of The Good Place. Almost a week later and I still don't have any of the answers. SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU, FOR WHATEVER REASON, HAVEN'T WATCHED THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE GOOD PLACE ENTITLED "TINKER, TAILOR, DEMON, SPY" THEN I HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO TURN YOU INTO DEMON GOO. I DON'T MAKE THE RULES. THAT'S JUST HOW IT IS. The episode opens with Team Cockroach playing a very lively game of Pictionary with their four test subjects in an attempt to get them to learn more about one another. Team one is Tahani, Jianyu/Jason, and John. Team two is comprised of Chidi, Simone, and (ugh) Brent. John accurately guesses Tahani's drawing of Mariah Carey's butterfly tattoo, and it comes to life in a very cartoon fashion and flies away. Chidi has less luck, trying his best to sketch Simone's childhood stuffed horse but when it comes to life, it's quite terrifying. Game is over. Eleanor, Jason, and Tahani want to keep brainstorming new ideas for how to get their experiments to bond with one another and grow, but Michael thinks they should take a break. Eleanor is thrown off, and even more thrown off when Glenn the demon shows up ("If you're a devil, how come you're not wearing Prada?") to insist that Michael is not Michael at all; it's Vicky in a Michael suit. And honestly, this could make sense. Michael has been acting strange. Remember a couple week's ago when I pointed out that him admitting to Eleanor that he faked his panic attack seemed in-genuine? There was also that part at the end of last season when Shawn literally told Michael that he was going to switch him out with Vicky in a Michael suit and would erase everyone's memory if he told them. Eleanor is reasonably conflicted. Should she believe Glenn the demon, or Michael...who is also a demon? She asks Tahani and Jason for advice and it goes terribly, on multiple occasions. Derek appears ('cause we're in the Medium Place at Mindy's) and shows off his weird sex toys. Michael has no way to prove he's not lying, and is caught in a bunch of other lies as well. He tells Eleanor that they were merely inspirational lies, like Instagram. It isn't until Janet creates a demon lie detector and shoots it at Glenn (who, for his own credit, is telling the Soul Squad this because he thinks Shawn is too mean to him) that we get some answers. The lie detector doesn't work necessarily, it just blows Glenn up into blue goo that covers all of our favorite friends and Mindy's carpet. Worried that poor Glenn is dead? Don't be. Demons don't die, says Michael. They just ressurect into the normal demon cycle. Ya know, creepy little girl, teenage boy, etc. Eleanor wants Michael to take his Michael suit off to prove it's not Vicky underneath, but he refuses. He doesn't want them to see him for what he really is, a 6,000 foot tall fire squid. Literally everyone wants to see exactly what that looks like. We were robbed! Eleanor takes a break and eats nachos with Chidi, spending one on one time with her soulmate. She's worried that if she goes to the judge that the experiment will have to start over, and with new subjects. It would subside all of the work they have done thus far. Jason talks to Janet (while she is cleaning up Glenn goo) and lets her know that even though they are broken up, he's always there if she needs to talk. What he says, more specifically is, "I'm here for you, girl." But here's the kick...she doesn't say, "Not a girl." Which is what Janet ALWAYS says. She's not a girl, she's not a robot. Just before Michael makes the decision to blow himself up and into goo with Janet's lie detector, Jason makes the connection. That's not Janet. That's bad Janet in a good Janet suit! *GASP* Now, none of my family members believed that I figured this out for myself but I just want to say here loud and proud that I DID. I am as smart as Jason Mendoza...wait. Turns out, bad Janet made the switcheroo back when Linda turned out to be that ripped punching demon. That means that Janet never broke up with Jason, it was bad Janet that told him Blake Bortles is no longer on the Jacksonville Jaguars, and it was also bad Janet who shit talked Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again! It all makes sense! Eleanor takes Michael willing to turn into goo as proof that he's being truthful, and Michael and Jason aboard the train to go rescue poor good Janet from The Bad Place. Everyone is pretty unsure of what's gonna happen next. Personally, I hope we get a second Jason and Janet wedding following their reunion. What are your thoughts? Is this really Michael? Did you know it was bad Janet? Any grand theories for the remainder of the final season? Tell me in the comments! XO, Em It's all about torturing your ex and dealing with bad breakups on this week's The Good Place! I truly look forward to watching this delightful show every week, but I'm so, so sad that it's coming to an end really really soon. Okay, now that I'm done being a pathetic, weak bench it's time to recap Season 4 Episode...3? (The premiere was two parts! Is that one episode or are they separate? I don't know! Somebody help!) ATTENTION HUMANS AND DEMONS ALIKE, THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING. IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE GOOD PLACE'S 42ND CHAPTER "CHILLAXING" THAN GO BACK TO THE BAD PLACE WHERE YOU BELONG. Precious Chidi is having a grand ole' time in paradise. He's stress free, he's teaching his "soulmate" Simone philosophy, he doesn't have to teach Brent anymore (he took a class at Princeton so obviously he knows everything there is to know). He doesn't have a trouble in the world. No problems making decisions and certainly no stomachaches. He's, as Michael so eloquently puts it, "chillaxing" (That's Chidi + relaxing for all you dumb dumb demons out there). Enter Michael and Eleanor, who must add some chaos to his life in order for things to go according to his plan. Remember, Chidi has to become a better person too. They need somebody who is going to totally throw off his game and give him stomaches beyond anything he's ever dealt with before! They need...Jason forkin' Mendoza. So Michael and Eleanor tell Jason to bring back some Season 1 antics. He's Jianyu as far as Chidi knows, only he's going to let Chidi in on a disturbing little secret; he's actually Jason Mendoza and his dumb ash does not belong in perfect Heaven. Eleanor is excited to torture her ex is ways she never has before ("Judge all you want, but I get results,"), Michael likes the plan, and Jason is down for literally almost anything. Go team! Meanwhile, Tahani is posed with a task of her own; making John a better person. On Earth he was a gossipy bench who never minded his own business, and in The Good Place he's acting no different. Tahani befriends him and encourages him to join her at the spa so that she can eventually convince him to go with her to Chidi's philosophy lessons. But the problem is that while John loves the spa, he doesn't really want to waste his time in literal Heaven studying ethics (Do I blame him? Not really). Tahani tries to give him a big lecture on how he should be working toward being a better person than he was on Earth, where he really hurt people like her by writing mean stories about them. But then he comes back at her, insisting that she claims to be all high and mighty but just constantly wants to prove she's better than everybody else (honestly John, a fair criticism). They then realize that though they came from opposite ends of the social spectrum, both know what it feels like to be isolated and lonely. Awww, character development, y'all! It's only take Tahani like four seasons to realize the reason she doesn't have any friends is because she's always trying to one up people. In other news, Janet is recovering from her breakup with Jason by "doing dumb things to her hair" which is number 8 on a list of things humans do when going through a breakup. She is...not at all wrong. After my last breakup I got a tattoo, that's gotta be up there too. Also on the list is watching Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again. Of the film she says, "It was okay. Just a lot of the same songs as the first one." Again, she's...not wrong. Not wrong in the slightest. Side note: Now I wanna add pink to my hair and watch BOTH Mamma Mia movies. Jason's addition to Chidi's life proves to be stressful as all get out. Chidi hates keeping the secret and has to cover it up in from of Eleanor and Michael. Jason worries that they're taking the whole thing way too far. At the Luau, everyone gets a stone to throw into the fire and their biggest wish will come true. Jason's biggest wish? A motorcycle with parts of Pamela Anderson that are not her face on it that once blew up. Chidi urges him to not throw his rock in the fire because it will blow his cover (because he is pretending to be a monk still as far as everyone else is concerned). But Jason, going along with this really mean and evil plan, throws it in anyway and ends up with his sexualized old bike. Chidi takes the fall and says that it's his. Eleanor and Michael are astonished to see Chidi go to such lengths and lie for Jason. After all that happens, Eleanor wants to continue to torture Chidi, but breaks down when she realizes how wrong it is and that she just can't do it anymore. She's having way too good of a time making the man she loves most miserable and she begins to stop. Chidi freaks out because he, "made God cry" and while he initially went to Michael and Eleanor to confess Jason's secrets he instead says the thing he is most upset about is his Pamela Anderson motorcycle. So once again, the vehicle explodes right before Jason's eyes. What did y'all think of this episode of The Good Place? Are you happy to see Chidi a nervous wreck again? How bad do you want him and Eleanor back together? What did we think of Tahani name-dropping Victoria Beckham and Posh's Spa? Do you think John will become a better person? And will Jason ever get a motorcycle that won't explode? Tell me! XO, Em Okay, so my apologies for being ridiculously late on this post. My excuses will probably only get me into The Bad Place, but y'all, I've been swamped with school and work and theatre and everything in between (sleep, sleep is in between all of those things). But I'm here now and ready to recap LAST week's episode of The Good Place. This week's episode recap will be up in a few days too, so do not fret. SPOILER ALERT: THIS IS THE PART OF THE BLOG WHERE I WARN YOU NOT TO READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE YOU ALL HAVE HAD A CHANCE TO WATCH "A GIRL FROM ARIZONA: PART 2" BY NOW. SO, CARRY ON. Eleanor is feeling down and out because these new residents are proving to be pieces of WORK. Brent is a grade-A ashhole, Tahani's nimesis is annoying, and Simone and Chidi need to bond in order for this whole experiment to go smoothly. She breaks down to Michael, says that she's just (you guessed it) a girl from Arizona. She can't save the world. She can't make awful humans better people. It's a heartbreaking and convincing monologue from KBell that would even make Shawn feel things. Michael listens intently (he's getting better at understanding humans!), but then tells Eleanor to get her shirt together. She has good ideas. She just needs to think outside the box and not be so afraid of failure. Tahani and Jason, who were previously championing for a new leader, also offer up words of encouragement. Eleanor's first plan of action is to get Brent to realize, just as she did, that he doesn't belong in The Good Place (because, ya know, he's a horrible, horrible man). She hosts a panel asking people to share all of their great Earth stories (one woman, Judy, saved literally all of the ducks) and even interviews Chidi about his time as a moral philosophy professor. Brent doesn't get it, so Eleanor brings out the big guns. The big guns being the exact same situation she was in three seasons ago. Havoc ensues across the neighborhood as everyone is dressed in Princeton's colors and Perrier is raining down on the streets. Brent realizes something is up. Yes, a breakthrough! Only it's not the good kind of breakthrough. Instead he insists that he isn't meant for The Good Place. He's meant for The Best Place. I mean, where are all of his best friends? No wonder he isn't happy here! Eleanor and Michael first panic, but then realize the best way to get Brent to improve is to make him believe that he's right. He begins to slowly but surely make better, nicer decisions in hopes of going to the fictional Best Place. It's not the best motivation, but it'll do for now. Girl from Arizona: 1 Ashhole who loves Perrier: 0 So while the Brent issue may be solved for now, Eleanor has bigger problems ahead of her. Bigger problems named her ex-soulmate, Chidi. She has to make possibly the hardest decision ever and tell him that he needs to help guide Simone because they are...soulmates. Chidi is awestruck, and insanely excited to share moral philosophy with his forever person. Eleanor watches them bond over frozen yogurt as Simone finally begins to make a breakthrough (realizing this isn't all happening in her brain). I miss Cheleanor!!! Jason finally has a chat with Janet, his favorite not a girl, not a robot. She tells him that until this experiment is over, they shouldn't be together. Jason is heartbroken, but he's even more heartbroken when Janet informs him that Blake Bortles has been cut from the Jacksonville Jaguars on Earth. Oh God, y'all. I want to hug this sad, sad man. In a random observation that I have: Eleanor asks Michael if he faked his meltdown on purpose so that she would become the architect, and Michael says yes, but not in a convincing way. It's more like a "Hahaha, you caught me!" way that makes me think there's more to the story. We'll seeeeeee. Alright Soul Squad. What did y'all think? How much do you wanna punch Brent in the face? How's our girl from Arizona doing? Is that the most disappointed you've ever seen Jason Mendoza? Talk to me! XOXO, Em You guys, it's the farewell season of The Good Place and I'm crying already. Now, I'm not sure if I'm crying from laughter or because I'm sad yet, but only time will tell. Just like how only time will tell whether or not our favorite dead humans and former-demon are going to be successful in their mission to turn four "random" (i.e., not random at all) strangers into good people like they did for themselves. Eeek! I'm just so excited, I can hardly stand it. SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED SEASON FOUR, EPISODE ONE "A GIRL FROM ARIZONA: PART 1" YET, STOP READING THIS BRILLIANT ARTICLE. I REPEAT, STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED, OR YOU'RE GOING TO GET MADE AT ME FOR SPOILING YOU! HOW DARE YOU! Last season's finale was an emotional rollercoaster, as we watched the most precious chili baby Chidi (William Jackson Harper) make the selfless decision to have his memory erased so that he wouldn't hijack the experiment given to Team Cockroach to reform "bad" humans picked by The Bad Place. One of those humans happened to be Chidi's Austrialian ex, Simone (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Chidi felt he had no choice other than to start from scratch, erasing all of his knowledge of everything that has happened over the last three seasons, and most importantly, his love story with margarita mix lover Eleanor (Kristen Bell). Eleanor has taken over for Michael (Ted Danson) as the neighborhood's architect and has been forced to put her own feelings aside in order to save the rest of her friends and give them a chance of proving that the system for determining which humans go to the Good and Bad places is faulty (nobody has actually entered The Good Place in years! What a sham!) In the last episode of the third season, Eleanor welcomes a gossip columnist named John to "The Good Place", who appears to have been selected by Shawn (Marc Evan Jackson) to annoy Tahani (Jameela Jamil). Simone was sent to cause complications with Chidi, and Eleanor and Jason (Manny Jacinto) await to find out who will be driving them equally insane. It would seem that an elderly woman named Linda is sent to cause disruption among Jason's peace. She is boring and has no reaction to anything, even being in literal Heaven. Eleanor tries desperately to get her to utilize Janet's (D'Arcy Carden) resources, but all she wants is a goddang peppermint. Eleanor's "rival" lies in Brent, a misogynistic ashhole who acts as if Janet is his secretary. While trying to divuldge a plan to get to know their subjects better, Eleanor very quickly realizes she is in over her head when Simone, who was supposed to be the easiest human to deal with having had known her on Earth, goes off the rails and is convinced that she is in a coma and that none of what she is experiencing is real. Yaaaaaay, thanks Simone. Jason's advice is to send in Chidi, everyone's favorite philosophy professor (sorry @ my own philosophy professor) to help prove to her that everything happening is very real, and to teach Simone all about ethics and shirt. Eleanor is immediately opposed to this idea because it would risk reuniting Simone and Chidi romantically and this bench (and literal snack) is very jealous. She wants to do what's best for everyone, but also wants that chili baby to herself, and really, who can blame her? In The Medium Place, Jason is feuding with Derek (Jason Mantzoukas), Janet's ex-not-boyfriend. He had a hand in creating all the other people in the neighborhood, and is rubbing it in Jason's, Janet's actual boyfriend's, face. Having had enough of Derek's taunting and martini glasses filled to the brim with random finger foods, Mindy St. Claire (Maribeth Monroe) takes Jason to the reset button to murder Derek. He does so and Derek announced to the world that he has been Dereked. Jason isolates himself from the rest of the group and Janet, who is frustrated by Eleanor and Michael's constant favors and Brent's orders. Eleanor caves and decides that maybe it is a good idea to reunite her soulmate with his ex for the sake of moral philosophy and giving the middle finger to Shawn and his demons, so she introduces Chidi and Simone. Simone seems to be a lost cause, however, as she doesn't believe anything anyone has to say, and continues to make reckless decisions and wave her foam fingers in people's faces. While trying to give Linda flying lessons, Eleanor and Michael are shocked when her boring persona turns into a full on ninja as she proceeds to punch and kick them in the face, along with everything around her. It's with this act of craziness that Eleanor and Michael discover that Linda is not Linda at all, she's actually a (RIPPED) demon sent by Shawn to foil Team Cockroach's plans so that they would never win. Judge Gen (Maya Rudolph) rules that Shawn is behaving like a dingus and that the fourth person in the experiment will be Chidi, given that Chidi has no memories of his time spent with the gang. Eleanor is clearly uncomfortable with the whole idea, and it seems that maybe Brent (who is in reality pissing off Janet) was a catalyst for who was really sent to fork up the experiment for our fav Arizona dirtbag. Simone and Chidi are the real subjects creeping into Eleanor's mind, just as Derek is the one driving Jason mad. It's these factors that prove to me that maybe Shawn didn't even need four subjects or to cheat his way through the plan, these humans were going to mess it up for themselves. I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen next on this amazing show, but I cannot wait to find out. Will Eleanor and Chidi find their way back to one another (obviously yes they are soulmates and no one can convince me otherwise)? Will Janet and Jason have a second wedding? Will Derek officiate it? And who else will Tahani name drop? For now, we'll just have to wait in The Medium Place. XOXO, Em |