The Good Place Considers What We Owe To Each Other

One of the biggest surprises about The Good Place so far has been the lack of screen time shared by Eleanor and Michael. It makes sense from a storytelling standpoint. Eleanor’s relationships with the people immediately around her (Chidi, Tahani, and Jason) need to be established properly first before we focus on her relationship with the neighborhood architect. Additionally Kristen Bell and Ted Danson are pretty much the only “names” in the cast so pairing them off with the less known ensemble members helps us get invested in everyone. It makes sense from a storytelling standpoint too, as Eleanor is not going to be eager to spend time with the man she least wants to learn her secret. Still given their prominent place in the advertising and Eleanor’s job as his assistant, you would think we’d have seen a bit more of them interacting. Thankfully, What We Owe To Each Other makes up for this lack of Eleanor/Michael stories by pairing them off to wonderful results as they try and figure out the source of the troubles in the neighborhood.

The main thrust of What We Owe To Each Other is Eleanor trying to figure out how to help Michael without really helping him. Chidi’s ethic lessons are starting to have an effect on her, even if her instincts still lean toward tyranny when Chidi explains the veto part of contractualism, and she wants to help Michael but she doesn’t want to expose her secret. Seeing Michael obsessed with figuring out what the flaw in his design is to an irrational degree, (He’s found the 78 most suspicious rocks in the whole neighborhood) she suggests he takes a day off. This gives them a chance to bond and become friends like Ross and Phoebe (“An odd combination, but OK”.) as Eleanor and Michael play arcade games, bowl, and sing karaoke together. It also gives us a chance to learn much more about Michael. It turns out he is obsessed with humans and has always wanted to be among them. He has a collection of forbidden human objects in his office, a la The Little Mermaid and he watched all 10 seasons of Friends to prepare for making human friends (His constant references to the show become a terrific running gag throughout the episode). He loves humans so much that he’s become the first architect to ever live in his designed neighborhood with the residents. It turns out his bosses aren’t happy about this and he’ll be in big trouble if the neighborhood fails, which explains why he’s so desperate to fix the flaw in the neighborhood. Ted Danson has been The Good Place’s MVP since the beginning and he’s great here, capturing Michael’s clear passion and glee about humanity, but also the fundamental disconnect between Michael and his charges. Michael loves humanity but he doesn’t understand it. That may not be the biggest problem with the neighborhood, but it’s still a significant problem.

Bell is also great, and her chemistry with Danson is helpful in capturing the full nuances of Eleanor’s dilemma as she grows to like and genuinely want to help Michael, even as he gets closer and closer to figuring out her secret when he realizes a human must be acting unpredictably and causing the problems as a result. Flashbacks this week return to Eleanor as we see her agree to dog sit, ditch early to go see Rihanna in Vegas, and leave the dog to grow permanently obese from the excessive supply of emergency food she left. They’re a little blunt and unnecessary, but they do capture the contrast between the Eleanor who’s more than willing to abandon her obligations when they threaten to get in the way of her happiness and the new, slightly better Eleanor who can’t stand by as Michael rolls around on the floor of the newly rebuilt Good Plates in a grey hoodie, trying to get the sinkhole to open back up and swallow him (an excellent bit of physical comedy by Danson). So Eleanor goes in to encouraging Michael, telling him she’s willing to help him, even though she’s just a normal person and he’s “a super magical Orville Redenbacher-type guy who invented the entire universe”. It’s one of the most selfless gestures we’ve seen from Eleanor yet, as she’s willing to risk her safety to help her friend but it’s also the one that helps her initial plan to “help him and not help him” succeed when Michael realizes what the flaw in his design must be: himself. He announces to the whole neighborhood that he is going to leave forever in order to fix the problem. It’s a plot swerve that feels earned because of Danson’s excellent performance and the quick exposition from earlier about architects not typically staying in their neighborhood. It also gives Eleanor a new dilemma to deal with: does she let Michael leave forever despite knowing how much his time in the neighborhood means to him or does she put herself further at risk to help him stay? Since it seems unlikely that Danson will be leaving the show anytime soon, it’s almost going to definitely be the latter but we’ll have to wait until next week to see how this unfolds.

Meanwhile, Chidi, Tahani and Jason get their own storyline this week without Michael or Eleanor around to bolster it and it succeeds just fine without them, while setting up an intriguing new development. William Jackson-Harper, Jameela Jamil, and Manny Jacinto have all been turning in great work since the beginning and it’s nice to see them play off each other here. The story is a familiar one: Tahani wants to go to a couple’s spa with a slowly-speaking “Jianyu” and Jason convinces Chidi to come along and help him impress Tahani (who he describes as “pretty like Nala from The Lion King and she talks so smart like… Nala from The Lion King”) without giving away his secret (He’s been relying on Magic 8 Ball answers like “All Signs Point To Yes” and “Made In Taiwan” but those can’t help forever). It's a story that unfolds as expected with Jason being unbelievably dim, Chidi nervously scrambling to cover for him and Tahani being frustrated at her inability to connect with "Jianyu", but it's played terrifically by all the actors. It also leads to Chidi and Tahani discovering they actually have a lot in common (besides the being stuck with the wrong soulmate thing that only Chidi knows about). They correct the person who mistakes them as soulmates, but watching Jackson-Harper and Jamil, it's easy to see how one could jump to that conclusion. Would Chidi and Tahani be happier together? It certainly seems that way based on the impressionist painting Jason gives Tahani that's a lot different than the one he originally wanted to give her (A painting of "the best impressionist of all time" Frank Caliendo). "Only my true soulmate could ever give me such a perfect gift", Tahani declares, her faith in "Jianyu" restored. It certainly seems like we'll be heading into a love triangle situation, which should definitely shake things up as we move into the second half of the season.

Ultimately this was another winning installment of The Good Place, which shone a much needed spotlight on Michael, and gave all the characters a moment to shine. At this point the only character who still could use some defining is Janet, but D'Arcy Carden still succeeds with everything she's given so it's alright if that takes them a little while longer. But between Michael on the verge of leaving forever and Chidi and Tahani on the verge of a love connection (even if Tahani doesn't realize it), it looks like The Good Place writers are in no fear of their show turning into the 8th season of Friends ("Out of ideas and forcing Joey and Rachel together, even though it made no sense!"). And thank God for that.

Memorable Moments

-Theory Corner: OK, so personally I think that Eleanor and Chidi actually are soulmates as are Jason and Tahani and the mistake has something to do with a glitch in whatever determines "soulmates" causing Chidi and Tahani to get paired with their actual soulmate instead of their "good place" soulmate. Because it doesn't seem plausible that everyone in the good place's soulmate also happened to belong in the good place. So while I'm fine with Chidi having feelings for Tahani as a storyline, I'm still holding out that Eleanor and Chidi actually belong together.

-Eleanor has named all the clown paintings in her house. "Psycho, Creepo, Crazy Head, Stupid Juggling Weirdo, Freaky Feet, and Nightmare George Washington." Creepo gets replaced by a sexy mailman painting though.

-Eleanor's thoughts on the veto part of contractualism in full: "Well, my first rule would be that no one can veto my rules." "Well, that's called tyranny. And it's generally frowned upon."

-Chidi doubts Eleanor's helping and not helping plan is possible. "Oh, really? I once posed as a hot prom date for my cousin, both helping him and later, according to his therapist, not helping him."

-Michael really likes Friends. "Boy, those friends really were "friends," weren't they? Although- and I realize this is the kind of observation that would only occur to the mind of an eternal being- how did they afford that apartment?"

-Michael has come to love Frozen Yogurt. "There's something so human about taking something great and ruining it a little so you can have more of it."

-Hopefully this isn't the last of Micheal and Eleanor singing Karaoke together. Their rendition of "Blaze of Glory" was terrific.

-Michael on Karaoke: "This is so interesting! I mean, there's no point to it. The images on the screen relate to nothing. Some time passed, and then it was over."

-Michael asks Janet to call a meeting. "Should it be festive and casual or moribund and devastating?" "Moribund and devastating, please." "Great!"