WiC Watches: The Good Place season 4

THE GOOD PLACE — “Chillaxing” Episode 403 — Pictured: (l-r) Kristen Bell as Eleanor, Ted Danson as Michael — (Photo by: Colleen Hayes/NBC)

Episode 403: “Chillaxing”

Okay, now this is what I’m talking about. After a couple of episodes of set-up, the final season of The Good Place felt like it got off to a proper start in “Chillaxing,” an episode that delivered on the show’s promise of sneaking actual moral and philosophical lessons in between the character-driven humor and parade of cultural references. (Good lord, Tahani was working overtime this week.)

The gang needs Chidi to help the other three new arrivals become people, lest humanity be doomed to eternal damnation. The problem is that he has no reason to want to do anything other than enjoy heaven, since no one’s in danger of being found out, like Eleanor was when they first met. The solution is simple: have Jason adopt his Jianyu the Monk persona, ask for Chidi’s help, and hello stomach aches.

I love how economical The Good Place is with its pacing. Some shows would drag out the new Chidi-Jason dynamic for episodes, but here we come back from commercial to find it’s been a week and that Jason is shotgunning cheese whiz all over Chidi’s apartment and generally making him miserable. From there it’s a straight shot to Chidi freaking out and waddling away on a Pam Anderson-airbrushed motorcycle Jason summoned from the depths of his soul during a town-wide luau. That image gave me the biggest laugh of the episode. This show knows better than to retread old ground; it gets right to the good stuff.

And there’s a bigger, human insight at the bottom of this story: Eleanor is just a little too eager to torment her ex-boyfriend with the impossible problem of Jason Mendoza, not just so he’ll be in a place where he’s willing to make people better, but also because she’s irrationally angry at him for “abandoning” her. One of Michael’s patented pep talks gets her over the hump (“You guys are often happy when you should be sad, angry when you should be happy and texting when you should be driving”), but it’s a nice reminder that even as they help the newcomers improve, our four principals aren’t done working on themselves yet.

And they’re making progress on both fronts. How that mysterious figure on the train track can throw a wrench into things, I have no idea.

The Good Bullet Points

• Two words: Helper ants.
• “Now hand me that jar!”
• I also enjoyed Tahani’s story with John, but mostly because it provided Tahani with an opportunity to drop a torrent of names. “Our story begins when I ran into Robbie Williams, Heidi Klum, and the remaining members of Fifth Harmony at the Dolce & Gabbana spring show.” Then references to Timothée Chalamet and Daniel Day Lewis before wrapping up with this masterpiece: “Blake Lively invited me a birthday party held for Leonardo DiCaprio held aboard Paul Allen’s mega yacht.”
• “So Natalie Portman does ALL of Scarlett Johansson’s stunts?” That one deserved its own bullet point.
• “I recreated the private tour of the Louvre where they let you touch all the art.”
• Apparently there are eight Game of Thrones characters based on Tahani. Which ones? Ask Michael Schur.
• Shel Turtlestein.
• “I win. I mean, I’ll start.”