WiC Watches: The Good Place season 4

THE GOOD PLACE — “Employee of the Bearimy” Episode 405 — Pictured: Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al-Jamil — (Photo by: Colleen Hayes/NBC)

Episode 405: “Employee of the Bearimy”

“Employee of the Bearimy” basically pays off the setup from “Tinker, Tailor, Demon, Spy,” where we learned that Bad Place operatives had kidnapped Good Janet and switched her with Bad Janet, or as Derek names her, “my sexy, bad girl sister-aunt.” “Employee of the Bearimy” is a more enjoyable watch, both because of the storytelling fireworks and how it points the show in a potentially interesting new direction.

And also it’s pretty damn funny in spots. The comic highlight has to be Demon Con, where Sean drones on for thousands of hours about the future of torture. I love how mundane the evil of the Bad Place can be. As Sean points out, “the first time someone gets butthole spiders, he’s miserable, but then they get used to it. And worse, the spiders get bored.” The real insidiousness comes when the demons gather round to sing the Kars4Kids theme song, or sit through a panel discussion with never-ending slides.

My favorite thing about the panel was the reaction shots from the crowd, like the lady nodding her head in sympathy when Sean says the butthole holes get bored, or the guy raising his eyebrows after Sean pats Michael on the behind. Everyone here is just the worse.

Or are they? Michael, up on stage as part of a failed ruse to rescue Good Janet, points out to the crowd not only that he’s changed, but that they can do. Demons can realize the error their ways; we saw it with Glenn, who tried to help the Michael and Jason out during their trip to the Bad Place more by gurgling out a few words of advice from his bucket. (Did they take him back with them to the Good Place, by the way? Not sure.) Might his outreach work? Sean and Vicki seem beyond hope, but so did Michael at one point. The Good Place always seems willing to see the good in people. Does it see the good in demons, too?

I enjoyed Eleanor and Tahani’s adventures in distraction, too, although I didn’t quite buy that Tahani would be this insecure about her role after everything she’s gone through. Her inferiority complex must go deeper than we thought. And I think we’re due to spend more time with the new humans, if their rehabilitation really is key to saving humanity. With Chidi and Simone officially an item, it looks like we’re going to.

The Good Bullet Points

• Tahani just made the one oblique Sean Connery reference, but John is picking up the slack.
• “Insert me, coach man!”
• I liked Tahani casually closing the curtains in Chidi’s apartment in the least casual way possible. That and the sound Chidi makes when he’s eager to solve a puzzle.
• “Sure the first time someone gets butthole spiders, he’s miserable, but then they get used to it. And worse, the spiders get bored.”
• “Went a little overboard on the cheekbones, but sure.”
• “My comfort zone is basically, like, that chair, and honestly, the arms are a little sharp.”
• “A unicorn died…No, I mean, not a unicorn, my mistake, just a regular horse that someone stabbed in the head.”
• “What in the name of Kevin Spacey’s self-made Christmas Eve video message to try and get back on House of Cards is going on?”
• “The whatever spoon is really only used for certain festive jellies.”