The Good Place season 4 episode 2 recap: Piecing the puzzle together
The Good Place takes on its new residents and what can motivate them to be better people, while Eleanor struggles with her Architect responsibilities.
The Good Place left us hanging last week with a “to be continued” sign at the end. So what road does that take us down this week?
Not-so-short summary & analysis
Brent is the team’s next target. They want to try to make him listen to anyone else and realize he’s not as great as he should be. It does not work. He’s still just as into himself as before and leaves for a tea time… in a Cadillac Escalade.
The song ”29 or 6 to 4” by Chicago starts blasting. Golf balls, a rain cloud of Perrier, and Princeton flags reign supreme in the chaos so familiar to us all. It works in freaking out Brent. Except it doesn’t. He claims not to belong in the Good Place — because he belongs in a better place. The Best Place!
Unfortunately, there’s a bit of an intervention behind Eleanor’s back with the rest of the team. They feel like Eleanor keeps screwing things up. Eleanor doesn’t take it well. She quits.
Can you blame her? She’s not meant for this role. She’s not the savior of the universe. She’s just a girl from Arizona. “I did a bad job at being in charge of my own life,” she cries at Michael. “Now I’m supposed to be in charge of everyone else’s life?”
But Michael’s pep talk is great. “Human beings are weird,” he tells her. They beat his original plan in three months. And beat him 800 more times. And the only one who can save humanity is a girl from Arizona.
Eleanor’s new idea: Tell Brent he’s right. There’s a Best Place. There’s an ethics competition to get in, so he starts holding doors open for people. While it won’t count toward the results, it may push him toward looking for more help — just like Eleanor.
Meanwhile, she asks Chidi to help acclimate Simone because he and Simone are soulmates. You can see the pain she’s internalizing, but she knows that it’s what has to be done.
And Chidi’s “confrontation” with Simone is exactly what you’d expect from Chidi. She’s on her way to possibly believing that maybe this isn’t all in her head.
Favorite moments and lines
- “Do you know why I had you act as a monk in the original neighborhood?” Michael asks Jason.
”Does it have anything to do with the TV show Monk?” Jason replies. - All you need is a bouncy house, ninja stars, and a bunch of ambulances. It’s a Jacksonville Carnival!
- I really enjoyed Michael’s pep talk to Eleanor. It felt like a role reversal from season two, when Michael has his existential crisis.
- And, oh my god, Janet tells Jason that the Jaguars cut Blake Bortles! How horrible!
The Good Place: Is everything really fine?. dark. Next