Loveday Writing

Eleanor has the rest of the gang go to her bedroom to have a meeting and discuss Michael’s proposal. Eleanor tells them that she doesn’t trust Michael and Chidi tells her that they need more information from Michael about his motives and the situation they’ve been put in, before they can make a decision. They leave the bedroom, with Eleanor immediately asking Michael how can they trust him. To his credit, Michael is honest and admits that they shouldn’t but they have no choice nor other options. Janet also asks Michael if she has been rebooted 802 times, as each time a Janet is rebooted, she increases her social awareness and abilities (akin to a phone updating) and is therefore the most advanced Janet in the universe. Chidi also asks why Michael doesn’t just lie to them, with Michael informing him that lies are more convincing if they’re close to the truth. Michael then informs them that he can get them to the real Good Place (although he is yet to figure out how).

Despite Jason, Chidi and eventually Tahani agreeing to Michael’s plan, Eleanor’s cynicism towards Michael comes to a head when she makes the decision to flee to Mindy’s house and tries to sneak out, only for Chidi to catch her in the act. Eleanor argues to Chidi that she doesn’t owe him or the others anything as they’ve only known each other for a week, however Chidi counters that they’ve known each other longer than that due to the reboots, and not knowing them well doesn’t excuse doing the wrong thing. Instead of fleeing, Eleanor asks Michael whether Chidi has ever refused to help her over the course of the reboots, he tells her that Chidi always helped her in each reboot.

Eleanor and the gang agree to join forces with Michael, but Eleanor adds the condition that they’ll only help him if he also takes Chidi’s philosophy classes, which he agrees to. The episode ends with the reboot taking place, Vicky placing herself as the top point earner and honorary mayor, and Michael informing the gang on Vicky’s next moves and how to respond to them.

On another note, throughout the episode, Tahani insists to Michael that she belongs in the Good Place, however Michael informs her that she doesn’t as she didn’t care about the people she was helping. He drives the point home by showing Tahani (and the audience) how she died – she postponed her philanthropical trip to Haiti to confront Kamila at a party celebrating her ridiculously early induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During the confrontation Kamila reveals to Tahani how little she cares about her, this leads to Tahani pulling down a statue of Kamila, which crushes her to death. Tahani postponing her philanthropical trip to confront Kamila about not inviting her to the party, and then causing a scene by trying and succeeding (even though it led to her death) in toppling a statue of Kamila, perfectly illustrates her self-obsession.

Overall, I felt that this was a good episode due to its perfection in having the dynamic between Michael and the gang change from adversaries to allies. While neither side has a choice but to team up, it is pulled off with honesty, without aggression, and provided necessary character development.

I’m looking forward to seeing where Team Cockroach goes from here.

Stray Observations:

-The episode title comes from Michael’s view of the gang (and humans in general) as cockroaches.

-Michael reveals to Eleanor that the hidden stairs to her bedroom was a torture method.

-According to Michael, there is a Bad Place Bureau of Human Affairs.

-The current attempt (802) has been taking place for over a week.

-The shortest attempt/reboot was 8 seconds and according to Michael, was a “butt reboot” à la a pocket dial.

-There has to be a Janet in every neighbourhood, good and bad.