The Good Place season 4 episode 5 review: Mission to the Bad Place
The Good Place takes us into the heart of the Bad Place to rescue Janet while Derek is put in charge of running the Neighborhood. This will be fun!
Does splitting up our core team work out in The Good Place‘s favor? Let’s dive in and see how our Soul Squad fares this week!
Not-so-short summary & analysis
Michael gives Jason all of his post-afterlife memories and all he can focus on is the Molotov Cocktail he threw the last time he was in the Bad Place. Hopefully having all of his memories back will help Michael’s idea prevail. Because it’s a pretty good one.
They show up at Shawn’s Demon-Con pretending to be Vicky-Michael and he brings out “Glenn in a Jason suit” to torture Good Janet.
Of course, Shawn brings Good Janet out on stage to be tortured live in front of a studio audience. Thank goodness Janet goes along with it until Vicky shows up and ruins it because why would there be two Michael suits? Since when does Vicky need an understudy?!
Except it’s great because everyone thinks it’s an act! (You know, aside from Shawn, who’s angry about the whole thing.) And they escape thanks to Bad Janet’s demon-exploding device (sorry not sorry, Vicky).
Back in the Neighborhood, we have Earth Day! Everyone gets to do their favorite things while Derek has to keep the neighborhood running in Janet’s absence. Our four humans are taken far away from the center of town… except Chidi decides to stay at home and read.
You know, while Derek fails at keeping his three-hundred children working properly. So we get Eleanor setting Chidi on a treasure hunt in his library, which is so far fetched that you know it’s going to be excellent.
His findings include a tie, a lamp, and a soccer ball before Eleanor calls it quits and manages to get Chidi to the lake house after all!
And it looks as though things are back on track for our Neighborhood, which means next week’s episode will screw things up all over again.
Favorite moments & lines
Derek pouring Scrabble tiles all over himself in a background shot.
”Insert me, coach man!” Tahani says to Eleanor rather than “Put me in, coach.”
Also all of the kudos to Jason Mantzoukas and his excellent Derek. The short scene of Derek trying to reset himself was just hilarious and perfect. And honestly, kudos to every single actor on this show, because they were all at the top of their game this episode. From Ted Danson playing Vicky playing Michael to Chidi’s sheer excitement at her treasure hunt, everyone was great.
I didn’t focus much on Tahani in my recap, but Eleanor did give her a good pep talk at the end. She screws up a lot this episode trying to be helpful, thinking all she does is throw meaningless parties. But she’s good at it and it’s what’s needed, so why should it count any less?
Plus Eleanor promises she’ll support her when she wants to learn how to weld if they make it through this experiment. That’s got to count for something.
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