The Good Place review: Welcome back to Earth, foolish mortals!

The Good Place returns to fill in the blanks, catching us up on what’s happened in the last year. How do our four humans make it to Australia anyway?

Welcome back to The Good Place! It’s been months since we’ve seen our four mortals. Or any amount of Derek. There’s so much in this episode. So much. I’ll do my best to keep it as condensed as possible.

If you watched the “leaked” scene, that’s how the episode starts — Michael traveling to earth to save Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason. And being impressed by a Taco Bell that’s also a Pizza Hut.

Let’s break up this episode of The Good Place by its characters…

THE GOOD PLACE — “Everything is Bronzer! Pt. 1” Episode 301 — Pictured: William Jackson Harper as Chidi — (Photo by: Justin Lubin/NBC)

Chidi and Eleanor

Their meeting goes exactly how you imagine. Eleanor uses some Kardashian slang and Chidi agrees to help her become a better person.

But we get to see Chidi’s life after his near-death experience. Aside from believing that he should stop using air conditioners (rather than getting better at making decisions), he gets an MRI. He uses the analysis from it to start making decisions and gets happy.

Until his advice to Henry causes Henry to land in the hospital. He reverts back to his ways until Michael intervenes as a mysterious librarian and tells him he should help the next person who asks him for it.

Which is why he offers to help Eleanor. Their dynamic remains the same — very teacher student with a bit of flirting. You can still see how much they genuinely care for each other, whether they realize it or not.

Eleanor hooks up Chidi with Simone and it’s all sorts of adorable. I’m all for Chidi/Eleanor, but to watch her do something for Chidi’s benefit just feels right for her character development.

But it concerns Michael (as it should), so he pulls out the big guns…

THE GOOD PLACE — “Everything is Bronzer! Pt. 2” Episode 302 — Pictured: Jameela Jamil as Tahani — (Photo by: Justin Lubin/NBC)

Tahani

She gives everything away after nearly dying and heads to Tibet to find enlightenment at a monastery. It helps her move on. That is until a camera crew for a show comes knocking at her not-door. She pulls a Tom Haverford, publishes a book, and gets famous again.

Jason

”Well my year… started about a year ago.” Do you expect anything else from Jason Mendoza? Actually… let’s just put quotes in here — “I shouldn’t have used my one phone call to prank call the police department.”

Somehow he makes it to Australia and in the end, the worst thing that can happen happens: Trevor shows up.

That’s right. Shawn hacked The Judge’s system to see what Michael’s doing. And he’s using all of his best demon resources to bring him down.

I think the best quote of the episode belongs to Jason: “Claustrophobic? Who would ever be afraid of Santa Claus? Oh… the Jewish!”

Also… someone please tell me if the MC of the dance competition is the same guy who played Remus Lupin in A Very Potter Sequel?

This first episode for season 3 of The Good Place sets up a lot of what we missed in the finale. It filled in many of the blanks. And now with Trevor in the mix… how will Michael prevent everything from falling apart?