Loveday Writing

After showing her a three-second memory for her brain to adjust, Michael shows her how she and Chidi got to know each other, including when they got to pick pets in the afterlife, and Eleanor asked Michael if Chidi could get a new one on his behalf. It’s revealed that Eleanor and Chidi fell in love after Eleanor kissed Chidi in appreciation for helping look for her pet lizard. Her and Chidi eventually became suspicious of Michael, fled to Mindy’s, but eventually told him that they were in love, only for him to reboot them.

Michael tells Eleanor he didn’t want to show her how cruel he used to be, and Eleanor concludes that she is still incapable of love, as she only fell in love with Chidi because Michael manipulated her into believing she could love someone, and therefore their relationship was deterministic. However Michael tells her that it wasn’t deterministic as there were times where he couldn’t predict her behaviour.

When the library closes and they go to a nearby diner, Eleanor asks Michael to prove that she made one choice of her own free will that he couldn’t anticipate. Michael tells her about her confessing that she wasn’t supposed to be in the Good Place on his first attempt, and that during one reboot he actually complained about her unpredictable behaviour to her face. However Eleanor remains unconvinced and goes further by suggesting that Michael himself could be subjected to determinism by other unknown and higher influencers. This leads to Michael pouring a glass of iced tea over Eleanor’s head, telling her that she’s using determinism as a defence mechanism, and pointing out that if there is no free will, then their efforts to help people get into the Good Place are pointless.

The episode ends with the Soul Squad reuniting in Arizona and Eleanor apologising to Michael. Eleanor points out that as they know what happens in the afterlife, they are the only true free beings and they should use this knowledge to make a bigger impact in the world. Michael agrees, suggesting that they find someone to use as a blueprint for humanity, whose life is so good that they use them as a role model. Michael tells the gang that they’ll be going to rural Canada, suggesting that he already has someone in mind, but he doesn’t identity who this role model would be.

The final moments of the episode show the Bad Place team, lead by Shawn, arriving on Earth via a makeshift, illegal portal.

Overall I felt that this was a weak episode. Whilst Eleanor’s memories and the events of the reboots are new to her, due to her memory being wiped, these memories and events aren’t new to us as an audience, it’s essentially re-hashing. However, I did appreciate re-exploring these memories and events through the free will vs determinism debate. The reveal of the makeshift, illegal portal didn’t really surprise me as the Bad Place team were going to reappear and throw another spanner in the works at some point, that being said it will be interesting to see where we go from here.

Stray Observations:

-Eleanor’s high school peers voted her “most likely to die young and unaccomplished”.

-Jason thinks that penguins are mythical animals.

-Michael wore a lot of French cuff shirts during the reboots as he thought they were classy.

-Eleanor explains the definition of determinism to Michael by reading it out of the book, Philosophy for Ding Dongs for Morons.

-On reboot #445, the welcoming statement outside of Michael’s office says “Welcome, everything is okay!” reflecting his frustration and complacency on the reboots and maintaining his cover.

-Eleanor’s shames include: shrimp farts, Spotify playlist ‘forgetting Brad’, problematic Halloween costumes, sexual attraction to Sam the Eagle, can’t remember how to spell ‘calendar’ no matter how many times she learns, love of Barenaked Ladies, and Mr. Peanut tattoo.

-The information on Eleanor’s family life include: Mom’s date with Anthony Keidis celebrity look-alike, her mother introduced her to a nurse as her little sister, her dad forgot her birthday and changed the birth certificate so he wasn’t wrong, her dad’s fistfight with the entire Arizona State University financial aid office, and her mom once made mac n’ cheese with wine instead of milk.

-Eleanor’s bad memories include: Ambien-Hamster mishap, hair pullings (others), hair pullings (hers), summer camp GI issues, and lifetime ban from post office.

-Eleanor’s enemies include: various Rite Aid employees, Princess Jasmine (note: one sided, fictional), Neil Degrasse Tyson (note: one sided, from his side), Barefoot Contessa (note: one sided) and Rihanna’s bodyguard.