The Good Place Season 2 Episode 3 Review Tv Fanatic

In September 2016, NBC went to hell. Of course, nosotros wouldn't know until the post-obit year that nosotros were in hell—hidden truths are one of The Good Identify's deepest and well-nigh reliable wells of joy. But fifty-fifty before Michael Schur's comedy pulled off ane of the best TV twists of the 21st century, The Good Place announced itself as a series with vision, heart, and sense of humor. Underneath the jokes near the NFL's all-time quarterback, Blake Bortles, Eleanor's (Kristen Bell) obsession with Stone Common cold Steve Austin, and a neighborhood's worth of puns—in that location'south a restaurant in the Good Identify named Knish From a Rose—was a evidence that was genuinely curious virtually the afterlife, humanity, and a person's ability to amend. At a time when the world seemed to be crumbling, The Adept Place was there to remind usa what we owe to each other.

On Th, the final episode of The Good Place will air, bringing the journeying of Team Cockroach—Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, Jason, Michael, and Janet—to an end. In laurels of that civil finale, The Ringer will celebrate the evidence throughout the week, beginning with today's ranking of every episode of The Skillful Place. Now, I can't be certain whether there are many Expert Place points to be earned in passing judgment and ranking someone's creative work, but certainly at that place is in creating content that allows people to procrastinate at work, so I think we're expert hither. And before anyone goes total Shawn on us, let me just say that while a ranking means at that place is a last place, that inappreciably means we regard the episodes that country toward the lesser equally bad. The Skillful Place is a rare series in which even its least compelling episodes are relatively impressive and undeniably delightful.

OK, that's enough—time to toss this Molotov cocktail. —Andrew Gruttadaro

51. "The Worst Possible Use of Free Will"

Flavour three, Episode 8

The 3rd flavor of The Good Place accounts for its rockiest transitions: from the comfortable confinement of Michael'due south neighborhood to only plain Earth, and from everyday existence to a fight for the moral fate of humanity. "The Worst Possible Use of Free Will" represents the prove at its almost ungainly, a inclement sequence of out-of-context memories delivered to Eleanor by Michael in an Arizona public library. The consequence is the Good Place equivalent of a clip prove, a sitcom trope that has little place in this highly unconventional sitcom. The episode is besides tasked with selling Eleanor and Chidi every bit star-crossed soulmates, past far the heaviest elevator The Good Place asks of its viewers and the to the lowest degree successful of its big swings. Even The Good Identify at its least-best, notwithstanding, is still a half hour of Kristen Bell and Ted Danson arguing amicably most the beingness of free will. You don't get that anywhere else on broadcast. —Alison Herman

50. "You've Changed, Man"

Flavour iv, Episode x

Different Michael Schur'south other one-half-60 minutes comedies—The Office, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 9-Nine—The Proficient Place is far more serialized; sometimes an episode'south chief demand is merely to propel the plot forward. Such is the example with "You've Changed, Human," which pushes the story toward the endgame as the humans concoct a new afterlife architecture. Humor nevertheless abounds in truthful Good Place style, though, with Maya Rudolph's Judge disco dancing and fawning over invitee star Timothy Olyphant. —Zach Kram

49. "Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crunch"

Season 1, Episode 5

This is the weakest episode of The Skillful Identify's otherwise incredibly stiff first season. The sinkhole that threatens the town is just weird—information technology feels similar an alibi to bring the plot to a temporary standstill and so the testify tin flesh out Tahani's grapheme and deliver some good Eleanor-Chidi moments, but it doesn't stand out on its own. Information technology's cartoonish—and, on re-lookout, a sign of how the show tin can curve the universe's rules a bit to make the story move the mode the writers desire information technology to. Of grade that'south how all shows work, just it's best to not be and so obvious. —Riley McAtee

48. "Mondays, Am I Right?"

Season 4, Episode xi

Ah, the home stretch. With the battle to institute a new afterlife won, Michael goes near training the Bad Place demons on their new means of torture while Eleanor, Chidi, and Jason select a handful of Good Place gimmes to brand certain their new measurement system works (candidates include Abraham Lincoln, Louis Pasteur, and … Prince). Unfortunately, this episode turns into being much less almost the secret sauce that goes on top of the juicy steak and much more than about Eleanor and Chidi'southward relationship, something with varying returns that'due south plagued Season 4 of The Good Place—nosotros want more jokes and philosophy, less will-they-or-won't-they?! At the finish of this episode, though, the gang does finally make it into the Good Place, setting up the testify'due south wistful decision. —Gruttadaro

47. "The Snowplow"

Flavour three, Episode four

Information technology wouldn't be an episode of The Good Place without a thorny ethical dilemma to confront. In this instance, we're forced to wrestle with 1 person's "snowplow"—Michael and Janet, at present on Earth and without their powers, intervening in the lives of Team Cockroach/The Brainy Bunch to continue their study group together so they can rack upwardly more than Expert Place points (immigration the path so they tin "more than hands drive along the road of improvement," equally Michael says). By episode's stop, the snowplow has veered off the route: The about-to-splinter grouping discovers Michael and Janet preparing to walk through an interdimensional door to the afterlife, setting the stage for the stakes-raising scene-shift to come.

Only while this episode's more tabular array-setting than transcendent, it still highlights what makes The Good Place then special: Even more workmanlike installments however give us gold similar the roiling internal struggle of poor Larry Hemsworth, a lowly pediatric surgeon who tin't compete with his famous brothers because he "barely has an eight-pack;" poignant moments similar Eleanor's defense mechanisms kicking in; and, of form, Blake Beartles. —Dan Devine

46. "A Daughter From Arizona (Office 2)"

Flavor 4, Episode 2

This episode is all near showing the full range of Eleanor's growth. Not only is our titular girl from Arizona tasked with playing architect, trying to root out the Bad Place's evil doings, and figuring out the hidden desires of the four humans in the neighborhood, she's also thrown a few curveballs for proficient mensurate. Brent quickly becomes her archnemesis, proving to be the prototypical white male who's unable—and unwilling—to realize just how awful he actually is. (At ane indicate, while the globe is crumbling effectually him and essentially screaming at him that he is to arraign, he tells Eleanor and Michael that he really belongs in The All-time Identify.) Then comes the real heartbreaking task: To help Simone accept reality (or what is reality in this scenario), Eleanor tells Chidi that Simone is his soulmate, effectively making them fall in love while she—Chidi's existent soulmate—is forced to picket in real time. Eleanor justifies this by proverb that Chidi gave up his memories for them, so she has to do what she tin can, likewise—but hers is arguably an even greater sacrifice. —Megan Schuster

45. "Flying"

Season i, Episode 2

Pilots are notoriously a tough act to follow, though The Good Place makes a valiant effort by starting its second episode with Ted Danson attempting to lick his own armpit. "Flying" has to convince the audience that upstanding philosopher Chidi would take a chance on Eleanor, valuing the potential salvation of a noted Real Housewives fan over the safety of an entire neighborhood. Fortunately, Kristen Bell and William Jackson Harper'southward platonic chemistry is such that Chidi'due south cautious faith in Eleanor, and Eleanor's earnest attempts at self-improvement, read as genuine. (We'll leave the romantic chemical science for another part of this ranking.) By the cease of "Flying," The Good Place has all the same to introduce one of its core protagonists—Jason is yet passing himself off as a silent monk named Jianyu—or even revealed its true premise. Still, the Eleanor-Chidi bail gives it a solid plenty foundation to move forward. —Herman

44. "A Fractured Inheritance"

Flavor three, Episode 7

The heart of Flavour three of The Good Place saw cadre cast ping-pong their mode across the globe—Australia to Jacksonville to Canada—on a mission to rehab the souls of their closest friends and family. "A Fractured Inheritance" saw Eleanor head to Nevada to come across her mother, who definitely didn't die while adjusting her toe ring at a Rascal Flatts concert; Tahani, meanwhile, confronts her sister/rival at an fine art museum in Europe. The episode'south main thrusts are touching, albeit a tad rote—though Eleanor and Tahani satisfyingly reconcile the damage caused by their familial relationships, information technology'southward not like we weren't already acquainted with such dysfunction.

The main highlight of the episode, to me, is Andy Daly's guest appearance as the bones-donkey boyfriend of Eleanor's mom, yet some other example of The Good Place expertly deploying comedic geniuses in cameo capacities. Wait at this "bad boy:"

"Who am I—Avril Lavigne?" he asks. What a king. —Gruttadaro

43. "The Erudite Bunch"

Flavor 3, Episode three

This episode is a lot, just mostly because Trevor (the demon played by Adam Scott) has shown upward to torture the humans on Earth—and the show's viewers in the process. He arrives in Commonwealth of australia to try to suspension upwardly Chidi and Simone'due south report group, and he goes well-nigh it in the nigh obnoxious of ways: mass-texting the group "dank memes" (his words, I'm sorry); getting sweatshirts printed up with their faces under the header, "The Erudite Agglomeration;" taking them out to swallow at the worst imitation of an American restaurant I've ever seen; and trying to go them all wasted on cheap beer and vodka. Scott's performance is honestly art, and he should take won an award for being able to reach that level of awfulness, but Trevor's presence makes for a tough rewatch. —Schuster

42. "Chillaxing"

Season 4, Episode 3

In this Season 4 episode—a bit of a filler, if I'm being honest—anybody in Eleanor'due south Adept Place experiment is given the chance to throw a "lava rock" into a pit in order to receive "whatever your soul near desires." Jason—who is playing equally Jianyu in an ongoing effort to torture the memory-less Chidi—throws his rock virtually immediately, and in that location it is: Jason'south erstwhile motorcycle, the 1 with Pamela Anderson airbrushed on the side. It exploded a week subsequently he got it, you encounter, "considering someone wanted to run into what would happen if they poured lighter fluid in the engine." (That someone was Jason.) Sometimes, when shows age, they begin to feel stale, not about equally thrilling as they once were. But the best shows use the familiarity with characters that we've gained over the years as a source of new humor. Of course Jason briefly owned a motorbike with Pamela Anderson airbrushed on the side. At this bespeak in The Good Place'southward run, it'due south nice to be in on the joke. —Gruttadaro

41. "Best Cocky"

Flavor 2, Episode 10

The gang spends much of this episode attempting to board a hot air airship that Michael claims will take them to the Proficient Place. Somewhen, though, Michael admits that the technologically complex hot air balloon won't even go them to the Adept Place; he doesn't know how to go there at all, and and so the grouping is doomed.

Though adorned with various Expert Place hallmarks—a texting, gum-smacking Bad Janet; a Michael monologue on the adorable idiocies of human being being, from perpetually lost car keys to corporate-branded stress balls one can never bring oneself to throw away; Jason's exclamation that for him, hell would be a Skrillex concert where the bass drop never comes—this episode belongs to a much bigger genre. It'southward a "friends' final hurrah earlier the bad thing happens" episode of Tv set, similar a shorter, brighter version of Game of Thrones' "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms." Given this context, it's extremely disappointing that there is absolutely no kissing. Alas, we must content ourselves with a heart schoolhouse trip the light fantastic toe–style swaying waltz from the perpetually chemistry-less Chidi and Eleanor. It's not how I'd spend my last night before going to hell, but OK. —Charlotte Goddu

40. "A Chip Driver Mystery"

Season iv, Episode half dozen

There'south something admirable most The Practiced Place introducing a character like Brent Norwalk in its final flavour. An entitled middle-anile white dude who's probably watched every Clint Eastwood movie 20 times, is glued to the Golf Channel, and, let'due south be honest, voted for Donald Trump, it's hard to remember of someone who'd fit in less on the series than Brent. (The fact that his name is Brent, though, is perfect.)

"A Chip Commuter Mystery" skips ahead to vi months into the experiment, and for all the strides John and Simone have made, Brent's progress has amounted to … not always cheating at golf? Things get even worse when Brent shares a novel he wrote, Six Feet Under Par: A Chip Driver Mystery, which is [deep jiff] a submarine-based, golf-centric political-thriller-whodunit in which the quarterback of the Chicago Bears, who is also the "world's strongest president," solves a murder by the 10th page. This James Patterson drome novel on steroids is rightfully panned, which simply results in Brent being vitriolic to such an extent that Chidi—Chidi!—punches him in the face. Brent tin can be a tough character to spend time with, but his irredeemability adds an essential dimension to the series late in the game. If Eleanor and Co. are actually going to devise a organization that proves anyone can become a better person over time, someone like Brent is the ultimate litmus examination. I'chiliad not sure what it says about my ethical standing, however, that I really want to read 6 Feet Nether Par. —Miles Surrey

39. "Employee of the Bearimy"

Flavor 4, Episode 5

Here's an episode well-nigh growth. Michael was one time one of the Bad Place'southward greatest demons; Jason one time solved all his problems by throwing Molotov cocktails at them; Eleanor was once a trash bag who could barely manage her ain life. By the eye of Flavor iv, though, Michael has go a benevolent being (or "like a nice, happy, weird, sometime dude," co-ordinate to Jason); Jason has get a person with restraint and actual wisdom; Eleanor has become fully capable, caring, and self-sufficient. And growth is what The Good Identify is all virtually. ("Employee of the Bearimy" is also notable for being the episode that breaks the news of Nick Foles—and his broken clavicle—to Jason, which is of import.). —Gruttadaro

38. "A Girl From Arizona (Part 1)"

Flavor 4, Episode one

The most heady moment of this episode may exist when Eleanor takes a surprise dial to the face up. That doesn't hateful information technology's a bad episode, but similar most of the evidence's season openers, its purpose is to practise a lot of table-setting. Nosotros open up Flavour iv with Eleanor in charge, Chidi with his memory erased, Michael recovering from a (fake) panic attack, and the group trying to figure out the four new humans they've been tasked with saving. Eventually it turns out that the dud of the group, a "Norwegian" "adult female" named "Linda," is actually a demon in disguise. One time that is discovered and Shawn is disciplined past the Estimate, Chidi is inserted into the experiment and the real games begin. —Schuster

37. "What'southward My Motivation"

Season 1, Episode xi

Still under the impression that she'southward the sole sinner in the Good Place, Eleanor (or Simulated Eleanor, as Michael is notwithstanding calling her) embarks on some misguided attempts to up her signal count and justify her presence in paradise. When door-holding and a cocktail party win her neither amore nor tangible goodness points, she realizes why: Doing good deeds to do good oneself isn't really skillful, and the only fashion to exist a skillful person is to human action simultaneously moral and united nations-cocky-interested. Eleanor's praxis is to apologize to the neighborhood'southward residents and banish herself to the Bad Place, barring herself from the benefits of accruing goodness points fifty-fifty as she racks up more than a million of them. This philosophy—effective altruism, more or less—becomes the animating principle of Flavor 2 of The Practiced Place.

Of form, the episode isn't all moral philosophy: We also get a lot of quality time with Jason. He'south recently married Janet—"She makes the bass drib in my heart," he explains—but in addition to newlywed bliss we get a glimpse into his expiry, a burrito-joint robbery gone and then awry that he ends up suffocating inside an unventilated safe after doing a bunch of whippets. Every bit ever, the high-brow/low-forehead mix of Peter Singer and nitrous oxide proves the recipe for a solid Good Place episode. —Goddu

36. "Help Is Other People"

Flavour four, Episode seven

An average plot-moving episode that revolves effectually the gang making i concluding push button to prove that the neighborhood's new group can better, "Assist Is Other People" is uplifted by its all-time scene, in which Jason Mendoza gives an inspiring bulletin through a rare, concise description of "the prevent defense." Jason flexes his knowledge by saying, "Prevent defense only prevents you lot from winning." Information technology'south a delightful moment, seeing these characters grow and evolve while besides staying inside the confines of their archetypes. The rest of the episode slightly mirrors the Flavour i finale, as the new group realizes they're in an experiment and Chidi delivers Eleanor's "We're in the Bad Place" line. But by and large, I'm simply hither for "prevent defense." (Though, a special shout-out to Michael, who is attempting to perform man magic throughout the run of the episode. Permit'due south be honest: The Magnificent Dr. Presto should get his own Vegas residency.) —Sean Yoo

35. "The Volume of Dougs"

Season 3, Episode 11

Later on three seasons of trying, the gang finally makes it to the Good Place. Well, sort of. Following a swoop through a pneumatic tube, they've arrived at the Good Place's correspondence centre—an afterlife mail service function of sorts. Amongst the chaos, Chidi attempts to bring Eleanor on a proper outset appointment and they eventually have sex. Meanwhile, Michael realizes the Bad Place isn't messing with the points organisation at all, but that the complexities of modern life take made it impossible to exist skillful, no thing how difficult one might try. One thing universally acknowledged every bit good: Chidi dressed equally a mailman. —Shaker Samman

34. "... Someone Like Me As a Member"

Season ane, Episode 9

This episode is a masterful misdirection. The "existent" Eleanor Shellstrop was introduced in the previous episode, and now the characters must deal with the fallout. The Bad Place wants "fake" Eleanor to come with them, merely Michael wants to effigy out a way to keep both Eleanors in the Adept Place—because after all, ane of them really does vest here and the other i has made real strides to become a good person. Such a puzzler!

Finally, Bad Place representative Trevor says that they'll take to turn the instance over to Shawn, the eternal judge of both the Practiced and Bad places. Only earlier that can happen, Tahani walks in on Jason in his arbitration room/bud hole, and realizes that he shouldn't be in the Proficient Place either. Information technology seems similar this episode, Flavor ane's midseason finale, is setting upwardly plenty of plot threads to bear tension through the adjacent half of the flavor. Only later on the Season 1 finale practice we figure out that virtually everything hither is a ruse: Michael, "existent" Eleanor, Trevor, and Shawn are all in on it together, and their psychological torture of the human characters is fifty-fifty more satisfying on a 2nd go-round. —McAtee

33. "Everything Is Bonzer! (Office i)"

Flavour iii, Episode ane

Season 3 starts off on a great note thanks in part to this above-average premiere, which revolves around Michael coming to Globe to prevent the deaths of our cadre four in the hope that they turn their lives around following this life-saving moment. Michael and Janet eventually realize that the central to making this work is bringing them all to Commonwealth of australia to acquire from Chidi. Janet also gives calling Michael "dad" a shot; it's weird, forget information technology even happened. —Yoo

32. "The Ballad of Donkey Doug"

Flavor iii, Episode half-dozen

With how often Jacksonville, Florida, has become a Adept Identify punch line, we would've needed to dock a ton of Good Place points if the bear witness never let united states of america see the swampy hellscape for ourselves. Blessedly, "The Carol of Donkey Doug" delivers a bonkers paean to Jacksonville.

Featuring Randy "Macho Man" Savage Non-International Airport, monster truck taxis, and dudes passed out in swimming pools, The Adept Place's Jacksonville is an appropriate backdrop for a nigh incommunicable job. Jason wants to make sure his homies Pillboi and Donkey Doug (who also happens to be his male parent), aren't doomed for an eternity of torture in the Bad Place—which but sounds slightly worse than living in Florida. Alas, only Pillboi is salvageable, as Donkey Doug gets arrested for trying to steal from a Red Bull manufactory to support Double Trouble, his new business organization venture—an energy drink that is also a body spray. "The Ballad of Donkey Doug" is endearingly absurd, and exactly what I expected from the series' interpretation of Florida. All that was missing was a cameo from the God of Jacksonville himself, Blake Bortles. —Surrey

31. "Squad Cockroach"

Season two, Episode 4

Afterwards the first few deliriously fun episodes of Season 2, The Good Identify moved into the dynamic that would last for the rest of its run. In a bottle episode that takes place almost entirely in Eleanor's creepy clown house, the gang agrees to team upwards with Michael to try to defy the balance of the Bad Place minions and, somewhen, sneak into the Good Place. "Squad Cockroach" transitions the plot to a new phase, as well as delights with its usual restaurant puns (A Picayune Bit Chowder Now, Pump Up the Clam) and character backstories (the method of Tahani'southward decease) and perfect one-liners ("Oh no, I died ... in Cleveland?!"). —Kram

30. "Don't Allow the Practiced Life Pass You Past"

Season 3, Episode ix

Run into the real-life Doug Forcett, who guessed how the afterlife worked during a 1972 mushroom trip and has spent his entire deplorable being since then groveling for Skillful Place points: eating only radishes and lentils, adopting wolves, submitting to roughshod treatment from a teenage sociopath, burial snails he accidentally squashes, and, oh yes, recycling his own urine as his drinking water. As played by Michael McKean, he'due south a delight, and besides a legitimately disturbing manifestation of a human paralyzed by the desire to get into heaven. "Doug is a complete disaster," is how Michael sums all this up. "And I drank his piss!"

Likewise, this is the episode where Janet gets into a lengthy and extremely rad demon barfight while Eleanor confesses to Chidi that they used to be in beloved, and as well, "There's a real possibility that I'chiliad in love with you once more. Here. On this plane of beingness. Today. Now. In Canada. During this brawl. With demons." There is, in curt, a whole hell of a lot going on here, philosophically and otherwise, and niggling of it makes sense, and all of it rules. —Rob Harvilla

29. "The Funeral to Terminate All Funerals"

Season four, Episode viii

In ane of the more delightfully mannerly episodes of the series, three of our core four (Chidi is comatose until the results come in) concord pretend funerals for each other. Each memorial service is perfectly apt for our characters: Tahani chooses the motel of a individual jet, Jason is in the deep end of a pool while covered head to toe in Jaguars merch, and Eleanor picks a bar in a firm she wasn't invited to. The eulogies are hilarious and emotionally touching, and highlight what makes this show so special. While a host of plot-propelling events occur in the 2nd half of the episode, it's these quieter moments that stand up out. Statham forever. Amen. —Yoo

28. "Everything Is Bonzer! (Role 2)"

Flavour 3, Episode 2

The 2nd part of the Season 3 premiere has plenty of highlights: Michael'southward alter egos of Gordon Indigo, Zach Pizazz, and Charles Brainman; a nearly-perfect Vice spoof in the form of a bro-y guy making a documentary chosen "Earth's F'ed;" a ton of Jason Mendoza–related comedy ("Claustrophobic? Who would exist scared of Santa Clau—Ohhh, the Jewish"). But 1 of the best parts of The Good Place is its "screenshot humor," a detail-oriented form of one-act championed for years past Schur, in which taking a screenshot of certain scenes reveals minute jokes that have been tucked into the show, unseeable but for close exam. Screenshot humor is a testament to a evidence's devotion to packing as many jokes equally possible into every frame—and every bit evinced in "Everything Is Bonzer (Function 2)," The Good Place is extremely devoted. There's this:

And also this, a quick glance at Tahani's contacts:

Incredible stuff. —Gruttadaro

27. "Derek"

Flavour 2, Episode viii

The Skillful Place brain trust has washed an splendid job of casting its supporting roles, and in "Derek," the titular character—who'southward created by Janet in her void equally a "rebound" considering she's still hung up on Jason hooking up with Tahani—is elevated by the chaotic energy of Jason Mantzoukas. Playing Derek, the comedian is essentially Rafi from The League undergoing an existential crisis. He's been created to be a homo-like companion for someone who, every bit Janet has oft reminded us, isn't human. Equally a effect, Derek is a consummate mess: glitchy, incoherent, and apparently with wind chimes where his penis should exist (it's non what you want). The Derek dilemma becomes another important examination for our non-human leads, Janet and Michael, who must reckon with the very human feeling of heartbreak and the ethics of pulling the plug on someone. "Derek" is a tragicomic reminder that self-comeback isn't exclusive to our four humans—the show's lessons can be imparted to whatsoever type of being. Except, possibly, malfunctioning boyfriends with current of air chime penises. —Surrey

26. "Chidi Sees the Fourth dimension-Pocketknife"

Flavour 3, Episode 12

The fugitives arrange a rendezvous with the Estimate in the IHOP (the Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes; "If yous eat anything in this IHOP y'all volition literally explode," Michael says. "Yeah, I know, it'south IHOP," Jason responds) to lay out their arguments about why the current points system is broken. She's not buying it: "Your big revelation is that life is complicated? That'south not a revelation. That'due south a divorced woman's throw pillow." Stumped, Michael starts to floss. Then Jason tells a story that convinces the Judge to visit Earth, where she realizes they're correct almost life's complications. She summons Shawn, who is bellyaching to have been taken away from "torturing William Shakespeare by describing the plot of the Entourage moving picture," and the sides discuss a program: Echo Michael'due south original experiment to prove whether or not humans can get better in the afterlife. Simply as the experiment is set to begin, still, Eleanor is thrown another curveball when Danson's increasingly-more-human being demon has a nervous breakdown. —Jack McCluskey

25. "What We Owe to Each Other"

Season 1, Episode half dozen

"I've come to really like frozen yogurt," Michael tells Eleanor every bit they take a froyo-karaoke-bowling-etc. break from trying to figure out what'south causing all the havoc in the neighborhood, the cause being, of course, Eleanor. "There's something so human near taking something great and ruining information technology a piffling so you can have more of information technology." That Acme-Five All-Series line punctuates early-days hallmarks both ho-hum (an Eleanor-on-Earth flashback to the time she abandoned a friend'southward dog to go see Rihanna in Vegas) and surprisingly delightful. The "Jason pretends to exist Jianyu, who is Tahani's soulmate" subplot should've gone on for years.

Tahani: "Jianyu, darling, let's discuss the arts. I adore the Impressionists. Who's your favorite artist?"

Jason: "I mean, Pitbull changed the game."

So again, perchance any more of information technology would've ruined it. —Harvilla

24. "The Burrito"

Season two, Episode 12

Allow's beginning hither: The nearly powerful beingness in the universe is non a burrito. Only for a divide second, our heroes remember it might be. In reality, the consumer of the foodstuff, Gauge Gen, is. Played perfectly by Maya Rudolph—ofttimes mistaken for the moving-picture show of God—the Estimate agrees to hear the iv humans' cases. At their ain request, they'll be judged equally a unit of measurement, not individuals, and each of them is given tests to determine their growth equally people. Eleanor passes her test, but she's the only one, as Jason is consumed past Madden, Chidi is unable to overcome his indecisiveness, and Tahani sidetracks to confront her kin. Just equally the group is nigh to encounter their fate, though, Michael and Janet appear. —Samman

23. "Virtually Improved Player"

Flavour 1, Episode eight

With Eleanor's admission to the Skillful Place seemingly unmasked equally a fault, Michael examines her beliefs on Earth and finds information technology wanting (ii words: Clothes Bitch). Although Eleanor admits that she "kind of sucked," she argues that she was simply bad in "similar, a fun, arctic way." That defense doesn't work, and Eleanor is sentenced to eternal torture, setting up a surprisingly fond good day with her friends. (Even Tahani acknowledges that she feels a "casual kinship" with Eleanor, "much equally i might be fond of a street true cat.") Only subsequently Chidi intercedes on Eleanor'southward behalf, Michael frees her from the railroad train to the Bad Place, extending her stay. "Most Improved Thespian" marks the arrival of Vicky, as well as the first appearance of Adam Scott'south Pace Brothers–esque torturer, Trevor, who greets his target with the withering line, "Hullo, you look similar a slice of crap. Are you lot Eleanor?" This episode also stands out for mistakenly treating a fondness for The Available as a bad thing, perhaps the first sign that the afterlife'southward points system is seriously screwed upwards. —Ben Lindbergh

22. "Bound to Faith"

Season 2, Episode 9

Michael's fake roast of the four humans is a footling clunky, just this midseason premiere sets the prove up for a stiff Season 2 stretch run. Eleanor realizes that Michael's quoting of Kierkegaard is a hint to have a "leap into faith," and, crucially—she believes in him. It's a touching moment when she defends him to the grouping. She too picks up on the prepare of clues Michael left in his roast besides. The humans are able to escape Shawn'south clutches by hiding under a train and tricking him into thinking they headed to the Medium Place. And when they reunite with Michael after, the race is on to figure out how the entire coiffure tin escape the Bad Place and arrive to the bodily Good Place. In some ways, this episode is already setting upward Season three. —McAtee

21. "Everything Is Fine"

Season i, Episode one

Eleanor wakes upward to learn that she has died—in hilarious style, getting hit past a column of shopping carts and pushed into traffic, where she'south struck by a mobile billboard truck begetting an erectile-dysfunction ad—and been wrongly admitted to the Good Identify. Indulging her worst impulses at Tahani's welcome party past talking trash near anybody, drinking heavily, and stuffing her bra with shrimp, Eleanor unleashes chaos on the supposed utopia the next day as giant shrimp fly through the sky and giraffes run amok. Determined non to be found out, she enlists her new friend and supposed soulmate Chidi, a professor of ethics and moral philosophy, to help her go worthy of the fault that landed her here—or at least avoid detection and subsequent ejection to the Bad Place. —McCluskey

20. "Everything Is Great! (Part 1)"

Flavor 2, Episode 1

So it's the dawn of Season two, and that shocking They're Really In The Bad Place plot twist is still reverberating, and Michael is, for a cursory moment, a straightforwardly evil demon who says things similar "Burn up the onetime penis-flattener" with unironic gusto. Eleanor and Chidi are rebooted every bit their selfish and paralyzingly indecisive selves, respectively, and at present we know that everything and everyone around them is designed to torture them.

The Practiced Place, as it would prove from this moment forwards, loves a expert meta reboot, and while this stretch isn't the show's funniest by a long shot, this episode does immediately establish that encephalon wipes and convoluted plot machinations be damned, our four heroes will e'er observe each other—and the show's steady heartbeat—over again. Just trust me that Chidi's delivery of the line "You look … fine" is this disorienting episode's highlight, and trust the bear witness that it'due south all gonna work out OK. —Harvilla

nineteen. "Jeremy Bearimy"

Season 3, Episode 5

This episode takes its championship from Michael's caption for how fourth dimension works in the afterlife—a nonlinear, looping, swooping sequence of events in which things sometimes happen before things that happened before them, a nonsensical and impossible-to-explicate applesauce called out in the writers' room and then steered straight into, to great comedic consequence. That effect: Breaking Chidi'due south brain, and sending him on an elliptical path to making the eternally cursed Peeps Chili.

It also offers something beyond the enduring epitome of William Jackson Harper, draped in a pink T-shirt aimed at impulse-buying moms, entreating his philosophy students to "dip [their] paws in my chili [and] scoop [their] niggling mittens right in the stew." (Which is non to say that it needs to provide something beyond that image.) By episode's end, our vi principal characters have all made peace with the inescapable reality of beingness damned for all eternity, and decided to forge on with doing expert deeds anyway.

"I mean, why not endeavor?" Eleanor asks. "It's amend than not trying, right?" Every bit mission statements go, information technology's not quite "Who, What, When, Where … Wine!" only information technology ain't half bad. —Devine

18. "Patty"

Flavour 4, Episode 12

The Skilful Identify, in a nutshell, slaps. The problem is it slaps it a piffling too hard, and for a piddling also long. The Practiced Place has always been a evidence with big ideas, and "Patty" is proof that it could still take big ideas tardily in the game. The concept that heaven—along with its never-ending supply of "energy you had when yous were 12" and "total understanding of the meaning of Twin Peaks"—would eventually plow a person into a happy-drunkard zombie is profound, though information technology says fifty-fifty more about our existence on Globe than the afterlife. Joy is just possible because of misery, happiness is merely possible considering of sadness, and all true emotion can merely ever exist within a finite existence. Nosotros should therefore cherish our time on this bluish marble, for everything it provides. For a man who once wished that the pic Limitless was just two hours of Bradley Cooper doing limitless stuff, this was a very eye-opening episode. —Gruttadaro

17. "Jason Mendoza"

Season i, Episode 4

Do yous guys wanna see my bud hole? Aside from "Bortles!" no sentence quite captures the essence of this episode'south titular character. Jacksonville'south own is actually an aspiring DJ, not a Buddhist monk sworn to silence. And similar Eleanor, he's freaking out. Every group needs a dummy, and there is no one dafter than Jason. Either thanks to his guilt at living a prevarication, or his inability to process that the truth could be his downfall, he nigh blows his embrace a handful of times, most notably when requesting some jalapeño poppers. "Jason Mendoza" doesn't reveal much about the world our chief characters are inhabiting, but it does innovate the true nature of a fan favorite. Duval County forever. —Samman

16. "Existential Crunch"

Season 2, Episode five

The existential crisis is Michael'south, who has been encouraged, by Chidi, to contemplate his own expiry, which quickly leads to a less dignified midlife crisis that involves a sports car, a white suit, a lobotomized Janet, lots of Drakkar Noir, a new tattoo ("It's Chinese for Nippon"), and a slap-up many "nascency is a curse, and existence is a prison" screenshots. Eleanor, recalling the time she cried into a toilet plunger at Bed Bath & Beyond after encountering a family unit-sized toothbrush holder, eventually talks him downward. (Information technology'south the show's all-time Eleanor flashback.) Meanwhile, Jason thank you up Tahani (she threw a political party and nobody came) by approvingly ranking her according to the five-category system used by his sixty-person Jacksonville dance coiffure: "dancing ability, coolness, dopeness, freshness, and smart-brained." Then they have sex, and at present the existential crisis is the net's. —Harvilla

xv. "Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent"

Flavour two, Episode 11

Though this episode doesn't do much in the way of plot advancement, it's centered on 1 of the things The Good Place does best: making fun of humans. On their way to run into the Estimate, the gang stops over in the Bad Identify where they're forced to behave similar demons—and spend an evening in the Museum of Human Misery. That museum highlights such human being trailblazers every bit the start person to floss in an open-plan function, the start white person to wear dreadlocks, and the first man to transport an unsolicited picture of his genitals. Truthful winners all effectually. The 4 humans face various challenges throughout the evening—Chidi wonders whether information technology's morally OK for him to lie and pretend he's a demon; Jason tries to concord back his impulse to toss Molotov cocktails everywhere—only the episode really seems to exist only to get some jokes off. Which, in a show as dense and philosophically challenging equally The Good Place, is more than OK. —Schuster

14. "Chidi's Choice"

Season 1, Episode 10

Early on in The Good Identify's run, it felt as if each character was given an episode of backstory. Jason, Tahani, and Eleanor all had their histories explained through flashback, and this chapter was Chidi's turn. The skillful-natured, kind, brilliant philosophy scholar seemed an odd fit for the Bad Place, and it's only in this episode that we learn why he'southward been eternally damned. Chidi'due south indecisiveness in life drove his friends and family unit to the brink, and caused his own death when he was crushed past an air conditioner afterward being unable to motion for 30 minutes, paralyzed by the inability to pick a bar to patronize. That same indecisiveness haunts him in the afterlife, likewise, when he must choose between Eleanor and Tahani. —Samman

13. "Janet and Michael"

Season ii, Episode seven

With the neighborhood in danger of total collapse caused by Janet's glitching, Michael consults his omnipotent assistant'due south user manual to search for a solution to the earthquakes. Extensive troubleshooting reveals the reason for her abnormal behavior: It's non because she tried to eat frozen yogurt, or even because Michael has repeatedly lied to her—information technology's because she has the hots for Jason, and she'south lying to herself virtually it. Janet determines that Michael must marbleize her and start fresh with a non-repeatedly-rebooted Janet who hasn't learned to honey, but Michael can't do it. He has an epiphany of his ain: Janet is his oldest, truest, and most loyal friend, which stops him from pressing the paper clip into the hole behind her ear. It'southward a prime case of a Adept Place staple: formerly flawed characters forming attachments to others and discovering hidden depths in themselves. —Lindbergh

12. "Somewhere Else"

Season two, Episode 13

Whew. Here's a heavy 1. The Season ii finale contemplates everything from the afterlife to moral desserts to utilitarianism to mod Globe potentially being an environment within which ethical behavior is literally impossible. How'southward that for a network sitcom?!

What's amazing is to see all of this in action—to not only see a show tackle such topics, but to see it reconfigure itself in the process. The finish of Season 2 doesn't match the game-irresolute twist of the Season 1 finale, simply by putting Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason back on World (in club to see whether they improve in their natural environment), it wipes the slate clean all the same. It's incredibly smart writing, and as Michael satisfyingly says "Here nosotros get" while the earthbound Eleanor takes the initiative to fly to Commonwealth of australia to see Chidi, the audition is hanging on to the side of a cliff, desperate to see what happens next. Also in this episode, Chidi finally kisses Eleanor. And and then she says "hot diggity domestic dog." —Gruttadaro

xi. "Dance Trip the light fantastic toe Resolution"

Season 2, Episode 3

The jig is up, though the experiment is far from over. Every time Michael reboots the four humans, Eleanor finds a fashion to discover the truth about where they are and why. While it'south Michael who ready out to exercise the torturing, the resilience and adaptability of his human subjects proves to be torturous to him every bit he becomes increasingly worried that Shawn will find out the truth. At one point, Ted Danson'due south normally immaculately groomed character grows a beard and sports a paunch, explaining between sips of bourbon that he'due south "stress eating and gaining weight in my thighs." When everyone's favorite Blake Bortles fan ends 1 experiment, Michael can't assist but feel sorry for himself: "Jason figured it out? Jason. This is a low point. Aye, this 1 hurts." And subsequently Vicky attempts to bribery him and take control, Michael decides to switch sides. If humans can better themselves, might an immortal demon exist able to as well? —McCluskey

ten. "The Eternal Shriek"

Season i, Episode 7

"My soul will be disintegrated, and each molecule will be placed on the surface of a dissimilar burning sun. And so my essence will be scooped out of my body with a flaming ladle and poured over hot diamonds."

That'south what's (supposedly) at stake for Michael as he admits failure in his neighborhood to the core four: infinite torture. Hearing this, Tahani does what she's wont to practice, and attempts to show him how much he'southward valued. Eleanor, meanwhile, tries to convince Chidi they need to impale Janet in hopes of saving both Michael and herself. In the end, Eleanor finally confesses that she doesn't belong, setting in motion what the rest of the flavor, and in plow the show, would become. —Samman

9. "Everything Is Keen! (Part 2)"

Season 2, Episode 2

I'm a sucker for time jumps, varied perspectives, and situations where the audience knows more than the characters. The second half of the Flavour 2 premiere double-header has all of that then much more. There is no wasted space in this episode. Eleanor reconnects with Chidi, sharing the notation she'd written to herself. Tahani gives the drunken speech Eleanor was supposed to give. Jason ditches his "Jianyu" cover in dramatic fashion. And by the finish of it, Eleanor has figured out that the coiffure is actually in the Bad Place, again.

This is when The Good Identify is truly ripping through plot at an astronomical rate. After wiping the memories of Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason, the show could have slowly brought them together again during the run of an entire flavour. Instead, they did it in less than an hour, and past the end, the show shattered audience expectations and established an air of doubt that makes Season ii the evidence'south strongest. —McAtee

eight. "Tinker, Tailor, Demon, Spy"

Season 4, Episode 4

Midway through the "fix new humans" adventures of Season 4 arrives a good sometime-fashioned mystery, straight out of The Twilight Zone: Someone in this room is lying, and the heroes have to effigy out who. Information technology's a charming romp, with twist after turn after twist after plow, and surprisingly emotional stakes as Eleanor and Michael face their trust for one some other. In the ultimate twist, Jason plays Sherlock Holmes, drawing on his relationship with Janet to uncover the experiment's hole-and-corner saboteur. We also learn the stages of demon growth: "larva, slug monster, chilling footling girl, teenage boy, behemothic ball of tongues, social media CEO, and so finally demon." —Kram

vii. "Tahani Al-Jamil"

Season 1, Episode three

Of course there would be even more profound reveals in the first season of The Good Identify, merely the reveal that Jianyu is actually Jason at the terminate of "Tahani Al-Jamil" is a truly beautiful moment of storytelling. With that tiny drop of information, the entire world of The Skillful Place bursts open.

But across that, this installment is also but one of the directly-upwards funniest episodes the evidence has to offering. That'due south in big part due to an ace operation by D'Arcy Carden every bit Janet cycles through personalities, from joke teller (she simply says "hump day" a lot) to trivia resource ("Fun fact: Christopher Columbus is in the Bad Place considering of all the raping, slave trade, and genocide!") to overt sexual being (this one, and Chidi's reaction to information technology, is my favorite) to nihilistic teen to wellness freak ("Turns out that the all-time Janet was the Janet living within Janet all along"). It's a tour de force. —Gruttadaro

half-dozen. "Pandemonium"

Season 3, Episode thirteen

Flavor iii's finale remixes the show'due south formula. There's still an experiment going on, still a neighborhood masquerading every bit heaven, yet a mastermind pulling all the strings. Merely past putting Eleanor in accuse for a panic-attack-stricken Michael, changing the point of the experiment from "finding a better way to torture humans" to "finding a way to make tortured humans amend," and changing the stakes from "the fate of the souls of four humans" to "the fate of the souls of all humans," Schur and Co. manage to make what'south one-time new and exciting once more—a bit of architecture equally advanced as anything Michael's been able to put together. (The writers deserve the praise Jason offers Eleanor early in the episode: "You're like the Blake Bortles of whatsoever's going on right at present.")

It can exist hard to become through some days nether even optimal circumstances, let lonely when y'all're tasked with pretending to be a godlike beingness and deleting your boyfriend'southward memories for the sake of the continuation of the unabridged human race. Faced with the need to place a reason to keep going forrad, Eleanor seizes on something Janet tells her, thinks dorsum to the time erstwhile boyfriend Chidi tricked her into reading Paradise Lost, and chooses her course: "I judge all I tin do is cover the pandemonium. Find happiness in the unique insanity of being hither, at present." —Devine

5. "The Trolley Trouble"

Season 2, Episode 6

It was only a matter of fourth dimension earlier television'south preeminent (uh, just?) philosophy show tackled the trolley problem. If you didn't take to deal with the trolley problem in a classroom—congrats to you—the ethical dilemma is choosing whether to allow a runaway trolley to hit five people, or divert the track so it hits only 1 person. (Choosing to divert the track is a textbook example of utilitarianism.) Only rather than provide a solution to an intentionally catchy conundrum, "The Trolley Problem" makes the stakes literal. Michael has poor, perpetually indecisive Chidi act out the trolley trouble in real fourth dimension through a horrifyingly realistic simulation, complete with claret and guts spewing all over the dude'southward face. Michael resets the trolley problem plenty times that i iteration has Chidi choose between v William Shakespeares and one Santa Claus. (He saved Santa, BTW.) It'southward hilariously macabre, but the real heart of the episode is Chidi realizing that Michael is messing with him to mask his ain insecurities at failing to sympathise how to be a better perso—er, immortal demon-being. A theoretical scenario like the trolley trouble is perhaps about useful when information technology'due south in service of someone actually improving themselves, and in a roundabout way, "The Trolley Problem" reaches that destination—without having to run over whatsoever more people. —Surrey

4. "Mindy St. Claire"

Flavour i, Episode 12

The penultimate episode of Season 1—the 1 immediately before the big twist—is rich in Skilful Identify lore. Information technology's the one where we lookout Eleanor'south undistinguished death by shopping cart. It'due south the ane where we're introduced to Doug and Donna Shellstrop, the apathetic parents who helped mold Eleanor into the blazon of person who would one day die that way. Information technology'due south the i where we meet Mindy St. Claire, sole inhabitant of the Medium Place, the land of unsalted pretzels. (Side note: Judging past subsequent revelations, Mindy must have been the merely human in hundreds of years to avoid the Bad Identify.) Information technology's the 1 where Eleanor forsakes the relative comfort of eternal mediocrity to rescue her friends, a decision that, we subsequently acquire, the main characters would make many more times. Information technology's also the one where we hear how Tahani pictures life in the Bad Place: "Existence forced to habiliment a knockoff handbag and drink tap water." —Lindbergh

3. "Janet(s)"

Flavor 3, Episode 10

D'Arcy Carden's Janet takes center phase every bit our (not-a)girl protects the humans from the Approximate and the Bad Place's minions by bringing them into her void … where they all take on her class. While the human Janets—identifiable simply by their outfits and Carden's eerily accurate impressions—cool their heels outside of space and time and debate the philosophy of Eleanor and Chidi'southward 300-plus-year-old relationship, Michael and Janet effort to crack the code that'due south damning all of humanity to the Bad Place past visiting the accounting department, where all the actions of every existence on Earth are tracked and tabulated to determine eternal damnation or salvation. But let'southward exist honest, the draw here is Carden, who deserved an Emmy for this episode. —McCluskey

two. "The Answer"

Flavour 4, Episode 9

If there's a potentially fatal flaw to The Good Place—the bear witness, not the actual Good Place, which has several—it's how the Eleanor-Chidi relationship doesn't always feel accurate so much as it'south go necessary for the plot. Through the characters' myriad retentiveness wipes and reboots, the series has more often than not told, rather than shown, u.s.a. how these ii go along finding and falling for ane another.

Simply "The Respond" is a masterful corrective—non only for Eleanor and Chidi, but for what The Practiced Identify has itself been edifice toward. When Chidi gets all his memories restored in a desperate attempt to end the Judge from wiping out human existence, we encounter through flashbacks how ethical decision-making—and the indecisiveness that comes from trying to find the perfect solution to every problem—has been baked into his Dna ever since he made a presentation for his parents about why they shouldn't go divorced. What Chidi failed to realize was the human action itself spurred his parents to stay together, non the moral philosophy word salad the dorky child scribbled on a board. Honey, for all its ambivalence, is the fundamental to humanity; like a fingerprint, it's unique to every person. Afterwards hundreds of reboots always led them back to each other, Chidi finally makes upward his mind: Love is Eleanor, and Eleanor is the answer. Fork, does anyone have a box of tissues? —Surrey

i. "Michael's Gambit"

Flavor 1, Episode thirteen

"THIS is the Bad Place!"

A bright twist from Mike Schur; a wide-eyed, expressive delivery from Kristen Bong; an evil chuckle in response from Ted Danson, America'due south goofy uncle turned unexpected, shocking heel. Such are the core components of The Practiced Place'south truthful starting time, an episode that does in the flavor finale what about series go out of the fashion in their pilot: explaining what this show is actually about, and showing what it can accomplish.

That an idiosyncratic version of heaven is actually a deceptively Technicolor version of hell does more than ward off the more saccharine instincts of a show nearly decency. Information technology also expands the possibility of the network sitcom, typically more of a modular delivery system for jokes than a serialized exploration of larger themes. It too aired in January 2017, mere months subsequently millions of Americans experienced their own revelation that they, too, might be living in a darker earth than they thought. "Michael's Gambit" brings The Skilful Identify out of the ethereal and into the zeitgeist. Three full seasons later, it remains the series' tiptop. —Herman

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Source: https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/1/27/21080695/the-good-place-episodes-ranked