The Good Place – Season 3, Episode 9 (Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By)
This episode focuses on Michael’s proposed blueprint for humanity and surprises us with an action scene.
The episode kicks off with a man waking up, getting out of bed, putting a music tape in a cassette player, getting dressed, making tea, checking his solar panels, pulling radishes out of the ground and putting them in jars to donate to a local food bank. When he hears a knock on his door, he answers it, and Michael and Janet are on his doorstep, and it’s revealed to the audience that the man is Doug Forcett – the man who accurately guessed how the afterlife works whilst high on magic mushrooms.
Michael and Janet pose as a reporter and photographer respectively for the local newspaper, and tell Doug that they want to do a human interest story on him. Doug recalls his story about accurately guessing how the afterlife works, and how he had an epiphany afterwards that he had to live a perfect life, maximising his points total to get into the Good Place. Janet comments that Doug is very thoughtful with his actions, and Michael tells her that Doug is the perfect blueprint for humanity as he figured out how the system works on his own.
Michael and Janet eventually see that Doug lives simply, self-sufficiently and gives to charity, but as he is living his life to please others at his own expense, he is constantly taken advantage of and miserable. Michael tells Doug to relax and live as he pleases, but he refuses out of fear he still hasn’t accumulated enough points to enter the Good Place. Michael and Janet eventually leave, knowing that Doug is not the blueprint for humanity they were hoping for.
Meanwhile the gang are waiting for Michael and Janet to return at the Puking Moose Saloon. Eleanor asks Tahani for her advice on whether to tell Chidi the truth about their previous relationship. Tahani encourages Eleanor to tell Chidi the truth, but just as she sits down with him to talk, Bambadjan walks in and she recognises him as one of the demons. When Eleanor takes another look around, she realises that they are surrounded by demons. She tries to get everyone to leave quickly and quietly, but they are caught when Jason makes a Molotov cocktail and goes to throw it, only for Vicky to put it out. Shawn walks in and asks them where Michael and Janet are. Michael and Janet walk in as Eleanor is trying to stall him.
Janet ends up starting a fight between herself and the demons after Shawn reveals his plans to take her, Michael and the gang back to the Bad Place. Whilst Janet uses her expert martial arts moves to fight off the demons, Michael opens the door so she can send the demons back to the Bad Place. Hiding behind the bar, Eleanor tells Chidi about their previous relationship and being in love.
Just as two demons try to drag Janet through their own portal, when her face comes into contact with the portal, it restores her powers, which helps her subdue them and Shawn. After being tied up, Shawn tells Michael that he’s just delaying the inevitable and that the gang, their loved ones, and even Doug will go to the Bad Place. After sending Shawn back through the door, Michael tells them that he has believed for a while that something is wrong with the points system evaluating humans. He tells them that he initially thought the problem was that the system didn’t allow for the possibility that people could improve, hence why he got The Judge to send them to Earth, but after meeting Doug, he realises that the problem is much more serious and he needs to gather evidence to prove this. He tells them that he and Janet will go and see the accountants to find out more. Michael tells them to stay at Doug’s house, but when more demons show up, Janet takes them and Michael into her void, which causes the gang’s deaths on Earth.
Overall I felt that this was a weak episode, mainly due to pacing. I felt that the Doug subplot was slow and dragged on for too long, and that the reveal of the demons showing up could have happened sooner. While I did enjoy seeing Janet in action and kicking arse, having her instigate a fight seems out of character for her. However I did appreciate the reveal that the problems with the points system or perhaps the whole afterlife system in general, are bigger than Michael anticipated and therefore need further investigation.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next episode.
Best one liners and interactions:
- “Don’t worry about Raymond, he’s just a local sociopath who comes by my house to take advantage of me.” (Doug to Michael and Janet on a rude teenage boy)
- “How are you this close to being dragged to hell and still horny?” (Chidi to Eleanor when Eleanor calls Janet a straight-up hottie)
Loveday Writing 