Recap of episode 9 of The Good Place: "Do not let the good life escape you"

This week, Vox critic Todd VanDerWerff, film critic Alissa Wilkinson and cultural editor Jen Trolio got together to talk "Do not let the good life escape you" ninth episode of the third season of NBC's crazy comedy The right place. (Because the first two episodes of season three have been broadcast in one installment, the episode number is one hour longer than the number of broadcast weeks of the show.) The spoilers follow! Proceed with caution if you have not seen the episode!

Todd VanDerWerff: Kristen Bell gives the best performance on The right place.

I know I know. The cast of the series is stacked – this week, he even adds Michael McKean as an adult version of Doug, the guy who played very well and who almost understood the Good Place system in the 70s. (It was mentioned Throughout the series pilot project.) And whether you prefer to play for Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, D'arcy Carden or anyone else, you will not have to argue.

But what Bell is doing seems so simple and so difficult in fact that I give him the crown, especially in the third season, which would have already exploded in space if it had not put it on the ground. In "Do not let the good life escape you", she tells Chidi when they were in love, faces her imminent destiny, and gets a little excited watching Janet fight a group of demons as if something is coming out of the womb. And it only takes about three minutes after the screen!

Eleanor is the protagonist of The right placeOf course, but the longer it lasts, the more it must also be the exemplary example of everything she tries to say about the systems of morality and the rigidity of all attempts to codify these systems. It's one thing to see this through Doug, who is so broken by his attempt to hurt no one, that he will not even defend himself slightly. But it's even more powerful to see that, via Eleanor, she learns that she too can be a good person and that you just have to worry about others before thinking about herself.

"Good Life" is another episode of a season where the plot was a bit like a duty (and I say that of a show that enchants philosophical lectures). But it was also my favorite episode of the season so far, filled with strange and delicious moments and based on one of Bell's best performances in a season already full. However, I think, when talking to other critical friends, that not everyone feels that way, so let me take your temperature. Did you have a good time with "Good Life"?

Doug is not the hero The right place needs but he could be the hero that he deserves

Alissa Wilkinson: I did! I love this episode! I call it "the episode of the fight at the bar" when I talk to other people about it, even though it's really the Doug episode in my heart.

Honestly, "Do not let the good life escape you" squeezed my heart a little. I had trouble with rigid and codified moral systems that did not only tell you how to live well, but you were anxious: if you do not follow their rules, you will be fundamentally disabled. a human, not really worthy of taking up space on the planet.

That's what Doug is facing, with his diet of radishes and lentils and his own recycled piss. At first I wondered if The right place would eventually reveal that he was the leader of some cult, then it became increasingly clear that he had good reason is not the leader of a cult: to be in this worship would be zero. Asceticism has its charms, but some forms of ascetic life are a little sexier than others.

Be that as it may, Doug's desperate attempts to literally gain entry into the Good Place through a virtuous life twisted him into the shell of a person whose virtue borders on vice. So much guilt for things that are completely morally neutral, like accidentally calling the wrong name to Michael. So much work to maintain a lifestyle that, in the best of cases, does not harm anyone, but does not really seem to help anyone either.

It is a kind of selfish narcissism that degrades the virtuous life into something much less good for humanity. Notice how Doug is alone. His only interaction seems to be with the boy who comes to mistreat him. Sometimes strict rules designed to help us be "good enough" end up isolating us.

This episode also reminded me of an ongoing debate on the series, namely why Chidi – whose biggest "vice" seems to be only one indecision – would have been sentenced to the wrong place first place. . Is he not simply anxious and sowed with doubts? I wonder if Doug's experience and where the show is about to take us is the key?

Colleen Hayes / NBC

Jen Trolio: Well, I remember Chidi's condemnation that his anguish and indecision had had enough negative effects on everyone around him that he deserved an eternity spent in the wrong place. His most serious offense was never being able to force himself to decide, he could never change, even after realizing that his indecision had consequences for people other than himself.

But I'm interested in your question, Alissa, about how his existence and that of Doug could be related thematically. And I tend to believe that you are on something. When Doug was talking about the very environmentally friendly growing of lenses because they do not require a lot of water, the first thing that came to my mind was Chidi's assumption for the first season, namely That he had been sent to Bad According to him, he continued to use almond milk after learning that almond cultivation is rough on the planet. It's a seemingly minor connection, certainly, but if we know one thing about The right placeis that the show considers very carefully the smallest details.

Towards the end of "Do not let the good life escape you", once the thrill of the fight in the bars has calmed down, our trusty band of wasp nostrils sits down to interrogate Sean. And after Michael abruptly truncated Sean's supervising monologue, it's Chidi who wonders how much Sean could be so confident that Doug – the so-called "plan to lead a good life" – will eventually head to the bad place, no matter how much he grabs his "Pee Pee King".

Granted, Michael only has a few moments to explain his long-standing malaise with the entire points system before an additional group of demons arrives and that the show does not dive into a cliffhanger that seems to officially finish his chapter on Earthbound. But like The right place is preparing for another change in his status quo (Janet's void, here we are!), it's not so difficult to envision a series of episodes where Chidi – armed with both the likely love confession Eleanor and a new uncertainty as to its meaning. to be "good" – undergoes some sort of self-imposed calculation.

As if I never even imagined what Mike Schur had in store, of course.

Colleen Hayes / NBC

Another change in the status quo is coming. So, what are we waiting for in Janet's void?

Todd: I guess the show is leaving Earth just as I got used to the season (at least so far). He had to come back sooner or later in life after death – there were too many wonderful toys out there – but I thought he'd stay in our plane at least the whole season. I suppose not!

The right place In general, there has always been a quest to reverse the kind of "moral inequality" that divides the post-life into a system that rejects almost everyone who dies in eternal torment. It is an insolent way to show how comforting the moral rigidity we are talking about in the abstract (if you think you're on the safe side, of course), but absolutely horrible if you stop thinking about its consequences. That the series can argue that most human beings would end up going to hell after death, while still making jokes, is perhaps his best achievement.

That said: let's talk about the fight! It was exactly as if Schur had said to his writers, "You know what? Let's make a big fight in a bar "and everyone involved immediately realized how fun it would be to see Janet turn all her knowledge into a simultaneous ability to hit others. It was fun to see all our favorite demons come back (and on Earth), but the fight itself was surprisingly well choreographed for a show that will probably never make such a sequence again.

I particularly enjoyed the presence of the portal on Bad Place, which added very tangible issues, including a moment when it seems that Janet was fired there, only to be able to stretch her legs. It's true that it was a little cheap (especially the idea that Janet regains his powers if even a toe goes through the portal), but I really say it after the fact. In the moment, I have been jazzed.

And you, guys? Are you sad to leave the Earth? And since only a few episodes of season three are left – and the series takes a break of a few weeks – what do you still hope to see?

Alissa: I do not stop thinking about the fact that time works in a manner similar to that of Jeremy Bearimy in the afterlife, and I wonder if his looping loops could allude to that. that's coming, especially if – and it seems quite possible – the rules that determine where you end up landing may be ready for an upheaval.

I have so far enjoyed season three, but in a way that has not left me as thrilled as seasons one and two. (You can not beat all the strange little innovations in Michael's original universe, especially word games.) So I'm not unhappy to see The right place return to life after death. (And like you, Todd, I was delighted by Janet's backtracking.)

I hope to see some things. One is a tipping of the rules, perhaps based on Doug's revelations of the trip and some interesting moves from Michael and Janet. (If that means Maya Rudolph shows up again, all the better.) A rebellion! A knock! I do not know, but I'm ready for that.

I would also like to see the real re-emergence of the relationship between Chidi and Eleanor. In appearance, they seem so gloriously incompatible – and yet, the two together actually produce something very good for each other. Maybe if the hell is of other people, heaven is too?

Jen: Think about how The right place To be able to orchestrate the re-emergence of the relationship between Chidi and Eleanor that Alissa hopes to see, I think I will ask for a return to Medium Place. Not only would such a return allow Maribeth Monroe's Mindy St. Claire and Jason Mantzoukas' Derek to return to the series for shenanigans, but it's thanks to Mindy and Medium Place that we learned that Eleanor and Chidi had fallen in love.

It would also seem that returning to the middle place could facilitate some discussion of how to rethink the points system. (In addition to joking about Mindy's taste for cocaine, of course.) And beyond that, if one of Michael's first concerns about the points system was that he did not allow the notion that people could change, It would certainly be interesting to see how a restructuring of the points system, or even its elimination, could alter the functioning of Medium Place, or at least increase its population.

I also think that I might like to visit the real Good Place at one point, to see how it compares to a disguised area of ​​Bad Place.

Todd: Jen, everyone knows that the real good place is the friends we created along the way. Which means that my Good place is these summaries!

And now, before the public loots me with rotten fruit … see you soon, everyone!