Loveday Writing

When Eleanor asks questions about the Problem, Chidi points out that there are circumstances that can change the ethics of the Problem, such as whether you know the one person or if you’re a bystander instead of the driver. Chidi also provides another version of the Problem, a doctor having to kill a healthy person so five people can be saved by the healthy person’s organs being donated to them. When Chidi asks Michael for his thoughts, he instead comes up with an idea to kill all six people.

Later when Chidi discusses the Trolley Problem further with Michael, Michael points out to Chidi that the Problem is theoretical, so he subjects Chidi and Eleanor to realistic simulations of the Problem and the related ethical questions. In the first simulation, Chidi is unable to make a decision and ends up killing all five people. In another simulation, Chidi decides to kill the one person on the other set of tracks, but that one person is his friend, Henry. Michael tells Chidi that there have to be some stakes in the simulations, otherwise it’s just another thought experiment. Later, Michael creates a simulation of the doctor version of the experiment. It’s after this simulation that Chidi asks Michael if he’s using the simulations to torture him, and Michael admits that he is, which leads to Chidi kicking him out of the class.

Michael tries to make it up to Chidi (and everyone else) by giving them gifts, but Chidi refuses to let Michael bribe his way out of trouble. Michael then ends up apologising using exact and sincere words that Chidi pre-approved.

Meanwhile Tahani confides in Janet that she has been sleeping with Jason and that she wants to keep their relationship a secret but Jason wants to go public. Tahani asks Janet to be her therapist, however when Jason walks in on them during the session, Janet asks to hear Jason’s side of the story. Later, Jason agrees to keep their relationship a secret if Tahani agrees to grab his butt in public once a week. During their session, Janet’s thumb comes off her hand and floats away, and she spits a frog out of her mouth. One month later, Tahani and Jason report that their relationship has improved, however when Janet says she is happy for them, an earthquake occurs.

The episode ends with Janet coming to see Michael in his office and tells him that she has been glitching and the neighbourhood is in danger of total collapse.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid episode. Michael’s difficulty in engaging with the Trolley Problem due to its theoretical nature was a natural progression from the previous episode when Michael had trouble engaging with Chidi’s material due to his immortality. I also enjoyed the Trolley Problem simulations, despite Michael’s evil intentions, his points about the Problem’s limits due to its theoretical nature are valid.

I also appreciate that while the Michael-Chidi-Eleanor and Tahani-Jason subplots were different they touched on the same issue – change doesn’t happen overnight. Eleanor points this out to Chidi in regards to Michael, and Tahani says to Jason as she’s apologising for being mean to him.

The final moments of the episode also throws another spanner in the works for the gang and provides another compelling story arc for the show to explore. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Stray Observations:

-The name of the trolley used in the demonstration of the Trolley Problem – both Chidi’s visual aid and the actual trolley Michael creates for his simulations – is called ‘The Ethics Express’.

-Michael has to write lines on Chidi’s chalkboard when he provides a wrong or evil answer to Chidi’s questions, “people = good”. At the start of the episode, he has already written several lines.

-Michael’s last homework assignment involved examining the ethics of Les Misérables, in which a man steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. Michael’s response was, “Everyone in this story sucks and belongs in the Bad Place. The thief is bad, the officer chasing him is bad, all the whiny prostitutes are bad, plus they’re all French, so they’re going to the Bad Place automatically…” and “I personally know that Victor Hugo is in the Bad Place being tortured. He’s a real wuss too. If a lava monster even gets near the guy, he’s like ‘sacre bleu, I peed in m’pants.”

-According to Michael if you steal a loaf of bread it’s -17 points, -20 points if it’s a baguette because that makes you more French.

-Tahani had a fling with a non-famous Hemsworth brother, Larry Hemsworth.

-The personalised gifts/bribes Michael gives the gang are as follows:

• Tahani: a large diamond
• Eleanor: a never-ending shrimp dispensary
• Jason: a Pikachu balloon (which he immediately bursts)
• Chidi: a replica of a lost notebook from the desk of Emmanuel Kant

-Michael manages to incorporate the trolley version of the Trolley Problem into the doctor version of the Problem.

-Reading a table of contents calms Chidi down.

-Version seven of the Trolley Problem simulation had Chidi chose to kill five William Shakespeares over one Santa Claus.

-Eleanor acknowledges that her and Michael are very similar, and questions what that says about her as a person.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Well, obviously the dilemma is clear, how do you kill all six people? I would dangle a sharp blade out the window to slice the neck of the guy on the other track as we smoosh our five main guys.” (Michael on the Trolley Problem)
• “What has one thumb and wants to keep going? This not-lady.” (Janet to Tahani and Chidi after her thumb comes off her hand and floats away)