Loveday Writing

One of Chidi’s first memories consists of him giving a presentation to his parents at 8-years-old on why they shouldn’t get divorced after overhearing them argue. This presentation and its perceived success convinces him that every problem has an answer if you read enough books and think hard enough, although this also causes him to overthink and lead to his signature indecisiveness.

We are then shown Chidi in adulthood having dinner with his parents and his girlfriend, Alessandra. Alessandra breaks up with him over his indecisiveness and obsession in using philosophy to try and solve his problems. His thesis advisor also “dumps” him over his lengthy, nonsensical thesis that tries to answer every philosophical question. We are then shown his death and Michael welcoming him in his first afterlife.

When Jason marries Janet, Chidi asks him how he could easily make such a big decision. Jason tells him that you could look at a problem from every angle and drive yourself crazy, or you could just take a chance and see what happens. After a game night at Tahani’s house where Tahani pairs Chidi with Eleanor after his mismatched soulmate, Esmeralda, leaves he asks her how she has so much confidence when throwing events. Tahani tells him that her confidence comes from failure and learning from it.

We then see Chidi remembering meeting Eleanor in Australia and being in the Canadian saloon whilst Janet fought off the demons. The final memories we see are Chidi walking with Michael after saying goodbye to Eleanor before his memories were wiped for the experiment. Chidi asks Michael if soulmates are real, Michael says he doesn’t know but doesn’t think so, but if they do, they are found not made. Chidi then asks Janet for a pen and paper, writing himself a note and gives it back to Janet for safekeeping.

Chidi finally wakes up, his memories restored, in the last two minutes of the episode. He is at peace with the idea of the equal possibility that many or no answers exist. He asks Janet to give him back the note he wrote, which says “there is no ‘answer’ but Eleanor is the answer”.

Overall I felt that this wasn’t the strongest episode. Whilst the insight into Chidi was necessary and long overdue, a good chunk of the insight was really a rehash of what we already knew about him.

Stray Observations:

-Chidi gives his parents his presentation on 19 April 1991 when he was 8-years-old, which means he was born in 1983.

-Chidi’s thesis was 3,600 pages long and partially titled, ‘Who We Are and Who We Are Not..’

-Chidi was featured in a medical journal for being the youngest person ever to suffer from a stress-induced ulcer.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Esmeralda, you don’t bring knives to a friendly game night, who does that?” “(as she gets a knife out) The prepared.” (Chidi-Esmeralda)
• “What was…why did you…who was it?” “Okay, I’ll take those one at a time, I guess. It was a kiss, I did it because I wanted to, and as far as who it was, it was me, weirdo.” (Chidi-Eleanor after Eleanor kisses Chidi)