Loveday Writing

Eleanor is sceptical of Donna’s changes and thinks she’s running a scam, despite meeting Donna’s husband, Dave, and Dave’s daughter, Patricia. Donna tells Dave that Eleanor is her sorority sister.

Later, Michael and Eleanor go with Donna, Dave and Patricia to Patricia’s school as Donna is running for PTA secretary. It’s here that Eleanor starts acting out of jealousy when she sees Donna’s sincere enthusiasm for wanting to help make the school a better place for Patricia. Eleanor tells Dave about Donna’s past and that he’s being scammed, but Dave tells her he knows about Donna’s past as she told him the truth early in their relationship. When Michael points out how she’s behaving, Eleanor reveals that she’s resents the fact that Donna is a capable mother to Patricia but was never the same with her.

Later, Eleanor apologises to Donna for acting out and congratulates her on becoming the PTA secretary. Eleanor goes to help Donna with the laundry by grabbing a box of laundry powder, which Donna immediately takes off her. When Eleanor takes it back and looks in it, she finds Donna’s hidden stash money. Donna admits she has the stash so she can run away in case everything blows up. This is when Eleanor realises that Donna is truly happy in her new life, and points this out to her, but she needs to commit to it by getting rid of the stash money, and suggests she spends it on Patricia.

When they leave, Michael points out that Donna actually managed to find the right path on her own, however Eleanor points out that it doesn’t fix the damage she caused to her, and that it’s why she isn’t emotionally close to anyone. Michael then informs her that she and Chidi fell in love in one of the reboots.

Tahani, Chidi, Janet and Jason – While Michael and Eleanor are in Nevada, Tahani, Chidi, Janet and Jason are in Budapest at the opening of Kamilah’s museum exhibit. Tahani’s goal is to make amends with Kamilah, as Janet points out to Tahani that her competitive relationship with Kamilah was a major reason for her not getting into the Good Place, and the same would be true for Kamilah.

When Tahani apologises, Kamilah refuses to accept her apology, which leads to Tahani lashing out and vandalising one of her exhibit pieces, and her and Chidi being detained by security. When Tahani makes a comment implying that her parents would be ashamed of Kamilah’s work, Chidi questions her on it believing that they would be proud of Kamilah for having a museum wing dedicated to her work. Tahani tells him that their parents standards were incredibly high, they were impossible to please, and always pitted her and Kamilah against each other. As she says this and takes another look at Kamilah’s work, she realises that her inspiration was taken from this emotional cruelty. Tahani then hugs Kamilah and apologises again. Kamilah returns the hug, accepts her apology, and has her and Chidi released. Whilst they make their way back to Michael and Eleanor, Chidi finds an online article on Kamilah’s latest art installation – the installation Tahani damaged – which states that Kamilah has credited Tahani as its co-creator.

Overall, I felt that this was a strong episode, especially with having the Soul Squad split up and help two people at once – Eleanor’s mother and Tahani’s sister. With Donna, her case was unique as she found the right path on her own but she just needed the push from Eleanor to stay committed to the path. With Kamilah, she seemed beyond redemption until Tahani realises the source of her inspiration, pain and behaviour. When Tahani has this realisation, she is truly able to take responsibility for her behaviour and make peace with Kamilah, and in turn Kamilah is able to do the same.

Now that three out of the four members of the Soul Squad (Jason, Tahani and Eleanor) have helped people in their lives get on the right path to the Good Place, it will be interesting to see who Chidi helps and where we go from here now that Eleanor knows about hers and Chidi’s previous relationship.

Stray Observations:

-Donna describes Michael as a “sexy, stretched out Alex Trebek”.

-Tahani is friends with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

-Chidi speaks Hungarian.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Why didn’t you tell me sooner man?” “I’d already told you that you’d died, and that I had tortured you for centuries, and that you’re doomed to be tortured again. I just didn’t want to be a bummer.” (Eleanor-Michael when Eleanor asks Michael why he didn’t tell her that her mother was still alive).
• “How dare she steal the identity I stole!” (Eleanor to Michael on Donna going by her fake ID name)