Loveday Writing

Michael then goes to see Tahani for help with negotiating Eleanor’s fate with the Bad Place Crew. He also informs her that the Crew are terrible bullies and have their own Janet aka Bad Janet. Tahani offers up her house for the Bad Place Crew to stay. Meanwhile Eleanor takes Real Eleanor to her house, with the Real Eleanor revealing how she was tortured in the Bad Place. When the Real Eleanor asks for food and water, Chidi suggests going out to dinner, and Trevor agrees making it a double date.

Meanwhile, the Bad Place Crew criticise Tahani’s hospitality, with one Bad Place demon summoning Good Janet to conjure him jalapeno poppers, however she can’t as she is still operating at limited capacity. The Crew are also bullying Michael and he is letting them walk all over him.

While Trevor, Chidi and both Eleanors are at dinner, Chidi starts to bond with Real Eleanor and Trevor constantly reminds Eleanor of how bad a person she is in comparison to the Real Eleanor.

Later, Jason and Janet run into each other and Jason comments that she looks sad. Janet tells him that she is sad as she is constantly asked questions she doesn’t know the answer to. Jason remarks that is basically what his life on Earth was like. He tells her that it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t know things, all that matters is what’s in her heart. Janet thanks him and asks him what jalapeno poppers are. He tells her, recounting a story of when he ate an excessive amount of them in a short period of time. She thanks him again and he hugs her, she asks him why he did that and he replies that Janet is the only person who’s nice to him.

Meanwhile at dinner, Chidi offers to show the Real Eleanor around the Good Place, she accepts and invites Eleanor, however she declines. This leads to another flashback of Eleanor refusing to let a former roommate pay for her ticket to a movie to avoid having to pay her back, which results in her getting a seat in the back of the theatre.

The Bad Place Crew continue to party at Tahani’s house, while Eleanor gets drunk with Trevor claiming that she is medium-good and asks him why a Medium Place hasn’t been invented. Trevor tells her that she doesn’t belong in the Good Place, and that she’ll be happier in the Bad Place as she doesn’t have to keep trying to fit in where she doesn’t belong. When the Bad Place Crew eventually pass out, Tahani tells Michael that she is upset that he let the Bad Place Crew walk all over him and that he needs to stand up for himself.

The next morning, Eleanor wakes up in her bathtub with Chidi comforting her and informing her that all of them are meeting at Tahani’s house in an hour for a negotiating session. Eleanor tells Chidi to hang out with the Real Eleanor, but he says that he’s in this with her as they are a team. This leads to another flashback of Eleanor rejecting an offer of a permanent job as she refuses to socialise with her colleagues, which results in her getting fired, she then goes on to work at a company selling fake pharmaceuticals.

At the negotiating session, Trevor declares that the Bad Place Crew won’t negotiate and says that Eleanor knows she doesn’t belong in the Good Place and she’s giving up. When Michael asks her if this is true, Eleanor declares that she’s not leaving as she is a different person now thanks to Chidi. Trevor says if Eleanor doesn’t go with him and the Crew, then they’ll have to refer the matter to Shawn, a wise eternal Judge who has the final say on disputes between the two Places. Trevor tries to push Michael into giving him what they want, however Michael stands up to him, refuses and tells him and the Crew to get out of the neighbourhood.

The episode ends with Jason going to his “meditation room” to find Tahani waiting for him. She tells him that he got sloppy in keeping his secret and she knows he’s not a Buddhist monk, and asks him who he really is.

Overall I felt that this was a solid episode, again not action-packed, but I did enjoy the introduction of the Bad Place Crew and Bad Janet. I also enjoyed seeing Jason and Good Janet bond, as well as the reveal that Tahani has figured out that Jason is not Jianyu. I also felt that the contrast of the flashbacks of Eleanor refusing to socialise with others with her character development in the Good Place, broke up the episode perfectly.

I’m looking forward to seeing where we go from here since Eleanor is staying in the Good Place and Tahani has figured out Jason is pretending to be Jianyu.

Stray Observations:

-First appearance of Bad Janet. Bad Janet wears a black leather suit, has blonde hair, is always on her phone, and insults everyone.

-Tahani questions the purpose of Bad Janet.

-According to Real Eleanor, she was tortured with what she assumed was Eleanor’s worst nightmare: everyday was basically one endless baby shower for a woman she didn’t know but also somehow had to organise it. If she didn’t remember everyone’s name, she got a very strong electric shock. At night it was pretty classic torture – flying piranhas, lava monsters, college improv and jazz music constantly playing.

-Real Eleanor getting electric shocks if she didn’t remember everyone’s names at the baby shower she was tortured into organising and attending, was Trevor’s idea.

-Eleanor’s parents split up when she was eight years old.

-Jason once ate 50 jalapeno poppers in two minutes. According to him, everyone at the hospital he ended up at were impressed.

-The Nixon Tapes and Mel Gibson’s rant are on the Bad Place karaoke machine.

-The Bad Place Crew requested that the hangover filter be turned off in the Good Place as they apparently like hangovers.

-Tahani knew Mark Zuckerberg and encouraged him to let go of Eduardo Saverin and drop the “the” from the Facebook name.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Perfect double date – two losers, a trash bag and a demon.” (Trevor to both Eleanors and Chidi)
• “How do you guys eat without listening to hardcore porn?” (Bad Place Demon to Michael)