THE GOOD PLACE Roundtable: Pandemonium

This week on The Good Place season 3 finale, Eleanor has to take over as the Architect when Michael can’t get himself together and they realize Shawn’s plan is to pick people they have previous relationships with to torment them. The second person selected turns out to be Simone, Chidi’s ex from Australia. Freaking out over the prospect, Chidi makes an irreversible choice that will forever change Team Cockroach.

Stupid:

Roz: Why is Michael still unable to be “The Architect”? Is his anxiety really that bad? Eleanor makes a good substitute but I can see that plan going wrong so quickly in the next season.

Cara: Yeah, I agree. I’m sure there will be some long term purpose to the role reversal, but right now it’s just odd.

Leah: So, Michael, a demon with a conscience is now so racked with anxiety that he can’t get his stuff together? He isn’t human, he is definitely becoming a better…thing…but he isn’t human. He should be able to pull himself together. I do love that Eleanor is basically running an experiment that will decide her eternal fate, but that also seems like a slight conflict.

Cay: Yep! I’m with all of you! Michael’s sudden meltdown over the fact that if he loses Team Cockroach will be tortured by someone who looks like him is so dumb – after all, seems like the best way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to do his best at the actual challenge!

Melissa: I feel like Michael has an ulterior motive for essentially forcing Eleanor to take over as The Architect. That motive has to be one of the big twists in season 4, yes? My “stupid” nomination for this episode is Chidi’s reboot. I’m trusting that it will pay off next season, but right now it just feels like another way to keep Eleanor miserable.

Awesome:

Roz: Rebooting Chidi to avoid all of the problems with Simone in this experiment is a clever way to reboot once again. It’s one more way to sort of disrupt the main ‘ship of the show without it being another love triangle (and even with Simone it wasn’t awkward like it could have been).

Cay: Bringing in four people that the team has previous relationships to is such a clever way to make Michael’s experiment interesting. I can’t wait to see who they bring in for Jason!

Cara: Chidi and Eleanor are the best, so this was a very good way to reboot, even if it was pretty painful.

Leah: In this case, for me, heartbreaking and awesome are hand in hand. Chidi stepping up to be rebooted as to not mess up the neighborhood experiment has got to be worth some Good Place points.

Melissa: I agree with Leah that Chidi making that decision was impressive. It showed some real character growth. But as I said above, I don’t like it as a device to make Eleanor miserable. What I did think was awesome was the character growth we saw from Eleanor, Chidi, and Tahani. All three of them really stepped up this season, making good choices that their season 1 selves never would have considered.

So-So:

Roz: Shawn! Why are you a jerk? Picking people that will torment Team Cockroach is really low and I should have seen it coming when he was given the ability to pick new people.

Cara: I was pretty so-so about Tahani’s new tormentor, but once I saw that it would allow her to rise above the petty, I felt better.

Cay: Rebooting Chidi because he can’t deal with Simone is frustrating! I thought that he’d had some growth! Plus, it means one less person (and one of the most moral of them!) to help them improve the new people. On the plus side, I think Simone should be relatively easy to “reform”, so with Chidi starting over, she’s probably an asset to them, rather than a hindrance.

Leah: If I’m being honest, this whole season has been so-so for me. There have been some great episodes *cough* Janet *cough* but there has been a definite disconnect for me. I’m hoping his next season brings it all back together now that we are back in “The Good Place”. 

Melissa: This whole episode was so-so for me. They’ve trained us to expect Massive Plot Twists to finish off the season and, well, Shawn choosing people they know to be part of The Good Place 2.0 didn’t really do it for me.

Your Thoughts/Favorite Quote:

Roz: Jason’s questions about Chidi remembering pizza after he won’t remember the night he and Jason ate some in Australia.

Cara: The pizza exchange was pretty great, but I’m going with the sentiment because I cried when Chidi and Eleanor watched their memories and said goodbye.

Cay: Chidi and Eleanor were sweet, but I watch this show for humor, so it’s Jason all the way. I also liked Eleanor taking charge when Michael lost it.

Leah: “We’ve found each other before hundreds of times. We can do it again.” Eleanor

Melissa: Eleanor and Chidi’s Greatest Hits(tm) was sweet. 

Eleanor: “For a robot, you make a really good girl friend.”
Janet: “I’m one out of three of those things.”

The Good Place will return next Fall on NBC.

What did we think of other episodes? Check those out here.