Loveday Writing

Later, Michael is struggling to engage with the ethical concepts that Chidi is teaching due to his immortality. Chidi proposes to Eleanor that they find a way to get Michael to relate to the human fear of mortality, he does so successfully, which results in Michael having an existential crisis.

Michael remains in a borderline-catatonic state during his crisis, which threatens to blow his and the gang’s cover. Later at Vicky’s party, Michael replaces his existential crisis with a stereotypical midlife crisis, complete with a sports car and having Janet dress and act like a bimbo. When Chidi determines that Michael’s midlife crisis is sending him even more downhill, Eleanor snaps Michael out of it by explaining to him that sadness over the inevitability of death is crucial to the human experience. Whilst Eleanor and Chidi are trying to snap Michael out of his crisis, we see various flashbacks into Eleanor’s life when she had to deal with the concept of death and death itself when her mother tries to explain her dog’s death to her when she was a child, having to deal with her drunk mother at her father’s funeral, and having a breakdown in a Bed Bath & Beyond store over her lack of family life.

Meanwhile, despite her best efforts and Jason’s assistance, Tahani concedes that Vicky’s party was superior. She laments to Jason about the torture succeeding and how shallow she is, but Jason praises her for her efforts and tells her to be nicer to herself. The episode ends with the reveal that Tahani and Jason have slept together, Tahani wants to talk to Jason about what this means for them but he doesn’t take the hint.

Overall, Michael’s existential crisis provided some great humour as well as necessary character development, now that Michael understands the human condition when it comes to the inevitably of death, he can absorb what Chidi is trying to teach and he can relate to the gang more, which will in turn solidify their plans. I also appreciated the insight that the flashbacks provided into Eleanor’s life and how she has handled death over the years. I also enjoyed Tahani and Jason being paired off and the twist of them sleeping together, it will be interesting to see where they go from here.

Stray Observations:

-According to Michael, a millennial in the Bad Place is a being who has only been torturing humans for 1,000 years.

-Apparently the word ‘demon’ is racist in the Bad Place.

-Doug’s mug shot was used as the photo for his funeral.

-Michael’s ‘retirement’ consists of his essence being scooped out of his body with a flaming ladle and every molecule of his body being placed on the surface of a different sun.

-During his midlife crisis, Michael got a tattoo of the word, Japan, in Pinyin.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Searching for meaning is philosophical suicide.” (Michael to the gang during his existential crisis)
• “Let’s call him for what he was – a fart in the shape of a man.” (Donna to Eleanor about Doug, at his funeral)