{"id":11315,"date":"2020-02-05T17:36:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=11315"},"modified":"2021-11-09T21:59:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T21:59:48","slug":"goodbye-to-the-good-place-really-bestbye-to-the-best-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2020\/02\/05\/goodbye-to-the-good-place-really-bestbye-to-the-best-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye to The Good Place (Really Bestbye to the Best Place)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, my little chili babies. It\u2019s been almost a week since the 104% perfect finale of The Good Place<\/em>, and I\u2019m still crying so let\u2019s talk it out. Although everything to say about it has already been said, it doesn\u2019t feel right to not have something about it on my website for posterity. I mean I have a whole thing on the finale of How I Met Your Mother<\/em><\/a><\/span>, which was super disappointing, so having that and not anything on the best TV show finale of all time would be point-losing nonsense. If you want to read my writing about my favorite show where I try to sound smart, click here to read<\/a><\/em><\/span> my recent article for Tenderly Mag on Medium. If you\u2019re cool with nonsense dribbled out in mostly recap form while I cried for the 1000th<\/sup> time in 5 days, then go ahead \u2013 whenever you\u2019re ready. (Hot tip: You are only ready if you have watched every episode of the show.)<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
i’m an artist!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you know me, or you watch television, or you have taste, you know that The Good Place<\/em> is the best show ever. There isn\u2019t one line that isn\u2019t great, in four seasons. I mean I love lots of TV and have lots of favorites but man alive, even Friends<\/em> has entire episodes I would cut. TGP was as tight as a drum, with every line, action, even every costume flawlessly committed to telling a coherent full story. I love everyone involved with this show for making it, from each writer (especially Megan Amram and her puns) to Marc Evan Jackson for the podcast (it\u2019s so good and where I got a lot of the inside treats to come) to David Niednagel for the ridiculous special effects to Kirston Mann for the costumes (I agree about the stripes messaging, Marc) to Gay Perello for the amazing props (will never get over Jason\u2019s first philosophy assignment, where he handwrote it and said \u201cBy Jason Mendoza, Age 27. Perfection). The cast is uniformly excellent, some of the best acting ever ever ever ever done. (\u201cActing is reacting. And reacting is pre-acting. And pre-acting, well that\u2019s just being.\u201d) And of course, creator Mike Schur, who might have a lot of annoying ideas about veganism, but he is a gd genius. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the pilot, anyone who tried to predict what would\nhappen on this show has looked like a fool LIKE A FOOL. This most unpredictable\nshow, lauded for how it solved in one episode or less what most programs would\nfocus on for an entire season, always kept us on our toes. It felt appropriate\nthat the finale would still be exciting and overwhelmingly emotional and\nbrilliant but not entirely surprising, wrapping up everyone\u2019s story,\nremarkably, in a way that was, only in hindsight, clear from the beginning.\n(\u201cIs there a question?\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t you think that\u2019s remarkable?\u201d) Even though the\nshow was constantly surprising, they told us from the start what the end would\nhold for our heroes, if you paid attention. They each had to conquer their\nbiggest flaws, and once they really and fully did, they would be ready to end\nthis part of their existence. And often, doing so made them come full circle to\nthe versions of themselves they pretended to be, whether on earth or in\nneighborhood 12358W. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to talk about each of my friends one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with Jason, since the episode does. After 2,242 Bearimys since we last saw him, Jason decides that his time in The Good Place has come to an end. At first I paraphrased Michael in the season 2 reboot montage and exclaimed, \u201cJason finds peace first? Jason?! Oh, this one hurts.\u201d It\u2019s no secret that Jason Mendoza (\u201cthat\u2019s my boy right there!\u201d) is my favorite character (well everyone is my favorite but I love that goofball so much). He is so dumb and sweet and surprisingly wise and so pure. The kids describe too many things nowadays as being \u2018pure\u2019 and it\u2019s getting overused but really it is best used for Jason. I love that my boy is so pure so his is the shortest journey to finding inner peace. It makes sense that he would be the first of Team Cockroach to have that realization of tranquility in your soul that you are ready to be at one with the universe, or whatever you think happens when you walk through the door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Janet realizes what Jason needs to talk about, after he\nmakes dinner for her the first time, that seems like the proper starting point\nfor crying during this episode, but that assumes you haven\u2019t been crying since\nthe moment it began, or really since you started gearing up for it the week\nbefore. The moment that marked my transition from teary-eyed to heaving bawling\nwas when they showed him playing Madden with Donkey Doug. Donkey Doug was the\nfirst new person we saw who had made it through the new system, and that, that\nbroke me. Oh dip Donkey Doug! (\u201cOh dip\u2026you\u2019re<\/em>\nDonkey Doug!\u201d (that\u2019s a deep cut of my favorite blooper ever from the blooper\nreel of season 3.)) The best thing about this show was on full display \u2013 its\nperfect blend of heavy moments and deep thoughts with ridiculous comedy. Like\nJason\u2019s comment that his goodbye party would play EDM all night and Eleanor\nsaying \u201cwell now I\u2019m bummed about two things.\u201d My favorite Eleanor moment\nduring Jason\u2019s section was obviously the jalapeno poppers bit (\u201cwhat is a\njalapeno? Also what is a popper? Also what is jalapeno poppers?\u201d will inexplicably\nforever be my most quoted line from this show): Jason explains that he knows\nthis is his time, because he realized the air inside his lungs was the same as\nthe air outside his body \u2013 the same sort of peaceful feeling as when you bite\ninto a jalapeno popper you think will be too hot but then it\u2019s actually the\nperfect temperature. Eleanor immediately confirms she knows that feeling, as\nshe would, because she is fellow trash. I always loved their connection as two\nformer trashbags with similar experiences, and I\u2019m glad they had another such\nmoment in the finale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through seemingly throwaway lines, the writers pack in so much information. When we see Doug Forcett overdoing it on fried chicken (Doug Forcett got in!!), Chidi says \u201cgood thing you chose your young body!\u201d So we know that everyone we see from here on didn\u2019t necessarily die at whatever age we see them; you get to pick what age you\u2019ll spend eternity as. Noice. Smort. And when Pillboi (I cried so hard when we saw that Pillboi made it; I love him so much) in his toast that includes the phrase \u201cCaspers the Ghost\u201d, the best pluralization ever, says that Jason is his hero, it makes me believe that everyone who makes it to the Good Place learns about the people responsible for this new system. Thinking about how Doug and Pillboi know that Jason is responsible for saving every soul in the universe, and how Uzo knows that about Chidi, and how Donna knows that about Eleanor, and how Tahani\u2019s parents know, it wrecks me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But nothing wrecks me more than (well every minute of this finale) when Janet and Michael talk about being sad that Jason\u2019s leaving, because FRIENDSHIP! THE REASON IS FRIENDSHIP! Ever since \u201cJanet and Michael\u201d in season 2, their relationship has been my favorite (they are all my favorite relationships but come on). It\u2019s so special to watch the only two non-humans on Team Cockroach help each other grow during all these crazy experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most important part of Jason\u2019s section (well, his first)\nis Janet explaining that she doesn\u2019t experience time like humans do, and that\nshe is living all times at once. We need to hear this so we\u2019re not depressed at\nthe thought of everyone eventually leaving Janet, thinking about how one day\nall her friends will be gone. For her, they aren\u2019t. WE NEED THIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a little bummed that we said goodbye to Jason so\nquickly, but oh dip! We didn\u2019t! The second half surprise that, since he lost\nthe necklace he made for Janet, he looked for it (it was in the other pocket,\nobviously) and then waited until she came back to the forest \u2013 for thousands of\nyears \u2013 was the best surprise. He passed all that time pretty chill, just\nletting his mind wander and thinking about the universe. LIKE A MONK. Jason,\nhaving started the show pretending to be Jianyu the monk, ending up monking it\nup harder than any monk ever has. That\u2019s the kind of full circle Amy Sherman\nPalladino wishes she could write. So beautiful. Pretending to be Jianyu was\ntorture for Jason, since he had to control his impulsivity, so his time in the\nforest proved that he had conquered all his worst traits and then some. He was complete,\nand he was ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not before the greatest line ever on this show full of the best lines ever: Jason says goodbye again to Janet, and runs through the door shouting, \u201cChidi, wait up!\u201d after Chidi had gone through (more on that soon). It\u2019s so adorably dumb and perfectly Jason \u2013 he still sort of has no clue what\u2019s going on, but it also shows how sweet and innocent he is and how much he cares about his friends: no matter what happened to his friend, or what form his essence is in, he\u2019s coming to hang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fun facts: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • The passing yards Jason achieved in his perfect game of Madden totaled 12358. <\/li>
  • The actor playing Doug Forcett isn\u2019t really an actor, he\u2019s a comedy writer. So he didn\u2019t know not to really eat all the food he was stuffing in his face take after take. He threw up after filming his scene.<\/li>
  • The subtitles have no idea what Pillboi says at the end of his toast: He calls Jason his \u2018Gardner Minshew\u2019, the footballer who replaced Nick Foles after he broke his clavicle (\u2018FOOOOOOOOOLES!\u2019). This show taught me so much about literally every subject.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    \u201cIt is I, Tahani.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Next, 323.6 Bearimys later, Tahani has become an expert\nwoodworker (and is wearing overalls, incredible), along with completing nearly\n10,000 other afterlife goals she set. We need to look at her list:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • Land a triple axel (made me realize I would TOTES take\nup figure skating in the Good Place.\nYou can\u2019t break your head!)<\/li>
    • Solve the Poincare conjecture (lol NERD)<\/li>
    • Perform Il Dolce Suono from Lucia di Lammermoor at La\nScala (is Tahani\u2019s list my list?)<\/li>
    • Burp the alphabet (I CAN ALREADY DO THIS!)<\/li>
    • Become a master woodworker (okay it\u2019s officially not my\nlist)<\/li>
    • Learn how to repave a driveway (see above)<\/li>
    • Break Graham Gooch\u2019s record of 456 runs in a single\ntest (what are these words)<\/li>
    • Master conducting – orchestra (alright)<\/li>
    • Master conducting \u2013 train (lolol best joke for Z)<\/li>
    • Beat NBA Jam on all-star (??)<\/li>
    • Free Solo the Colossus of Rhodes\n(even when already dead I\u2019d be too scared for this)<\/li>
    • Fix the Jesus fresco that lady messed up (this is the\nFUNNIEST FORKING THING EVER)<\/li>
    • Tahani al-Jamil\u2019s \u2018Borges\u2019s \u201cPierre Menard, Author of\nthe Quixote\u2019\u201d\u201d (WTF DOES THIS MEAN)<\/li>
    • Make a vegan dessert that nobody suspects if vegan\n(ughhh Mikey my boy you still have a long way to go with your unfunny vegan\njokes. This isn\u2019t a hard thing to accomplish \u2013 if a food is bad, it\u2019s not\nbecause it\u2019s vegan, it\u2019s because it\u2019s bad. We\u2019ve all had bad desserts and they\nweren\u2019t bad due to the presence or lack of milk or eggs. They were bad because\nthe person making it didn\u2019t know what they were doing. Ughhh)<\/li>
    • Invent new musical instrument (I\u2019d rather learn all the\nexisting ones)<\/li>
    • Really nail the Lisa Left Eye Lopes rap from\n\u2018Waterfalls\u2019 (DONE)<\/li>
    • Finish Infinite Jest (NEVER)<\/li>
    • Spend one meaningful day with my parents [and she ending\nup having thousands! Ughh the best!] <\/li>
    • Defuse a bomb (YES)<\/li>
    • Fly a helicopter (NO)<\/li>
    • Perfect the backhand slice (DONE, BABIES)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      When Janet tells Tahani, \u201cthe thing you wanted me to tell\nyou when it happened? It happened\u201d, I thought OMG IS IT KAMILLAH OR HER\nPARENTS, KAMILLAH OR HER PARENTS? The cut to her already being BFF with her\nsister and them living together (soulmates!) wrecked me so hard. Kamillah\nalready made it and they have the relationship they always wanted. It was too\nmuch, and then you realize that that means the parents are coming. When her\nmother opened by shouting \u201cMy darlings!\u201d oh my god if you didn\u2019t gasp cry then\nyou are dead inside. It was perfect, it was too much, it was beautiful. I keep\nthinking of that moment. It\u2019s some of the best TV ever. How they built up that\njourney for this family, seeing how much they tortured Tahani, and then how she\nwas responsible for them not being tortured forever but being redeemed so they\ncould all enjoy what they missed out on, it might be the most emotionally\nmeaningful argument for what they\u2019re trying to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      At Tahani\u2019s goodbye party, she namedrops Frank Gehry (how many godparents does this b have!!) and we get a treat of seeing that John has made it as well, and as always he swans in and out faster than you can track and is at the ready with the funniest g-d line (\u201cAlexander the Fine\u201d) and gone before you catch your breath. He was such a great addition this season. Tahani realizes that she isn\u2019t ready to leave through the door, but she wants to leave the Good Place \u2013 and train to be an afterlife architect, like Michael. This is my favorite. I love that not all the humans went through, and I love that Tahani is REALLY committing to helping people, and not just talking about it like she did on earth. On the podcast earlier this season, Jameela talked about how much she loved Tahani\u2019s special growth and journey and we didn\u2019t know what she was talking about until this great decision. Whereas Jason came full circle to how he started as Jianyu, Tahani finally became what she pretended to be on earth: someone who really and truly helps people, as well as an incredibly accomplished woman. She can literally do everything now, and she helped save humanity. (And she \u201csnogged Ryan Gosling. Couple of times, actually.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I also loved that she trained all the animals, including the\nserver panda. BUT QUESTION: Is this a magic panda that she trained to wait on\nher? Or did she train a regular<\/em> panda\nto speak, serve, &c, and so she trained him to be magic? IF IT\u2019S THE\nLATTER, and we know that Jeremy Bearimy works in mysterious ways, THEN MY BIG\nQUESTION IS GOING TO REMAIN IN ALL CAPS: IS THIS REGULAR PANDA THAT SHE TRAINED\nTO DO MAGICAL THINGS THE SAME MAGIC PANDA THAT JASON REFERENCES IN SEASON 2\nTHAT THEY SHOULD CAPTURE AND USE TO HELP THEM????!!!!!!!!! Did Tahani train the\nmagic panda that then somehow was the panda that showed up two seasons ago??!! that\u2019s\nsome \u2018Interstellar\u2019 time shit right there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Tahani and Michael go to the architects offices, and there we get a whole bunch of amazingness in a short time: Brett is on a TV screen in the hallway, being debriefed after another failed test. I like to think that his line of questioning shows he is really trying to think through his actions, and just still has a lot of work to do, but he will make it eventually. Then we see Glenn, my fave, who is super excited to have Tahani on his team! It\u2019s so sweet! And craziest of all, Shawn is there, and although his face and tone still say evil, he\u2019s\u2026he\u2019s pretty much not. It\u2019s so forking good, as is his never-ending \u2018ever, ever, ever\u2019 delivery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Fun facts: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • Nick Offerman (not Ron Swanson) makes it to the Good Place, which is fun (hope he learned in his tests to stop making stupid vegan jokes), but not as fun as knowing that the chair he\u2019s praising, that Tahani has crafted, he actually despised in real life. They couldn\u2019t get the $50,000 chair Nick suggested they get for this scene (wonder why) and he said that the chair they chose was so poorly made that his woodworking friends were going to make fun of him for praising it on TV.<\/li>
      • The al Jamils watch \u2018Home Alone\u2019 together on movie night, the movie Tahani was afraid of when Jason first showed her, but now she\u2019s not afraid of her family abandoning her. (\u201cyou hear that? I\u2019m not afraid anymore!\u201d)<\/li>
      • Kamillah was painting waves. <\/li>
      • When Michael and Tahani go into the hub where the Doorman sits (now so much livelier and busier due to all the happenings in the universe, I love it), you can see (mostly hear) Trevor screaming as he flies across the space. In season 3, the judge pinged him off the bridge, and he has been pinging around every since. I CANNOT WITH THIS SHOW.<\/li>
      • Michael\u2019s gift to Tahani on her first day as an intern is the peacock bowtie he wore in the pilot.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n\n\n\n

        Chidi Annakendrick time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        When the screen showed that another 661.7 Bearimys had past,\nI started hyperventilating knowing that this was going to be the Eleanor and\nChidi section. We start with the two nerd lovers reading, Eleanor finally\nfinishing Scanlon\u2019s What We Owe to Each Other (the book she ripped to\nwrite the \u2018Eleanor – Find Chidi\u2019 note), and Chidi reading The Da Vinci Code,\ncalling it a garbage book. Our favorite pair still seems as happy together as\never, despite thousands and thousands of Bearimys spent together, but Chidi you\ncan tell is weary. They have another fun dinner with their friends \u2013 Simone,\nwho I sobbed seeing, along with Eleanor\u2019s old roommates (the dress bitch made\nit in!), which also made me sob, and UZO, my favorite! I\u2019m vexed, Uzo, truly\nvexed! Having this group of people together is the best part; this is what the\nGood Place should be all about. I love that Eleanor\u2019s old friends haven\u2019t had\ntheir personalities changed \u2013 they are still trash who want a karaoke bar\nthat\u2019s also a tanning salon, so the harder you go at the song the tanner you\nget (incred) \u2013 but they are better people now. It shows that the system really\nworks. You don\u2019t have to be boring or flat to get in; you can be yourself as\nlong as you\u2019re a decent person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Anyway this group made me so happy and so cry. But when\nEleanor says how fun it was, Chidi says yeah, it\u2019s always fun, all the hundreds\nor thousands of times they\u2019ve gone out with this group. We also learn that\nDonna and Chidi\u2019s parents have made it in and have met many times. Chidi\nrecounts these facts in a tired manner \u2013 everything he ever wanted, he got long\nago. Chidi is ready to go, you know right away, and so does Eleanor. Oh my god,\nthe sobbing. How does one leave the other? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        I\u2019m so glad I forgot that people saw the show filming in Europe\nlast year, so I got to enjoy the surprise Athens\nand Paris emergency getaways as\nintended. This was an incredible section, not just for the views of the\nacrompolympse (this is how I pronounce it so I may as well be honest in my\nwriting it) but for focusing solely on Eleanor and Chidi\u2019s story. They deserved\nit after all they\u2019ve been through. They got to go up the acrompolympse before\nit opened to the public one morning, and the local Greek crew was so emotional\nthat it makes me emotional to think about. I went once and it was packed to the\ngills with sweaty tourists, so this is nice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        People always point to \u201cJanets\u201d as evidence of how good D\u2019Arcy Carden is (rightly so), but her best performance for me might be the subtle faces she makes during this section. You can see on her face that she is going to help Eleanor, but she knows it\u2019s wrong. If Chidi is ready, then you need to let him go. She does say this eventually, but her face said it first, and continues to show her disagreement with Eleanor while continuing to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        After Athens,\nJanet zipped them to Paris, where\nthe weather was indeed perfect for Paris:\novercast and chilly. The cut right to Sacre Coeur made me cry too even though\nmy only really strong memory from all my visits is hilarious (my cousin and I\ntried to buy Invicta backpacks off of Italian tourists on these steps,\neventually successfully, and we met a man who kept saying \u201cyes yes I write many\nbooks!\u201d). We knew Chidi had lived in Paris,\nand when he walked to his old apartment, you could feel him saying goodbye to\neverything he did in his life. Eleanor finally admits to him that she knew he\nwanted to leave and didn\u2019t want him to because she was always abandoned and\nalone on earth, and it is heartbreaking. She\u2019s overcome so many of her terrible\ntraits but she\u2019s still scared of being alone forever. But the biggest problem\nshe overcame is her selfishness, and so she quickly realizes that the last\nselfless act she has to do is let him go. She says she owes it to him to let\nhim go, calling back to Scanlon (and the whole message of the show, really).\nTHIS SHOW IS PERFECT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If you weren\u2019t crying the entire time already, this really started the unending cry wave. Chidi\u2019s goodbye party was done silently, with just that music that was too much playing, so it was a punch in the gut. It was so well done, so perfect, and so sad. And then it got worse (\/better), when Chidi talked about the wave returning to the ocean and hot goddamn, this is the most beautiful idea ever. I\u2019m not going to copy it here because it will cheapen it, but it shares an incredible idea, and the perfect Eleanor and Chidi ending, along with his beefcake calendar. Ugh my heart. With Chidi\u2019s final exit, his journey was perfectly completed, since unlike everyone else, he didn\u2019t need to sit on the bench till he was ready. He was ready, and he strode right through \u2013 the biggest decision in the entire universe, he made easily. He was complete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Fun facts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        • It took Eleanor 2000 Bearimys to finish Scanlon\u2019s book,\na joke Schur included because he still hasn\u2019t finished it.<\/li>
        • We learn that Tommy Quine Quine made it in, along with\nthe show\u2019s real philosophy advisors, Professors Todd May and Pamela Hieronymi\n(seen in Chidi\u2019s class).<\/li>
        • A few episodes ago in the judge\u2019s chambers, Chidi asked\nfor some warm pretzels, because if he was going out, he was going out with a\nbelly full of warm pretzels. In Athens,\nEleanor and Chidi walk down the street eating koulouri, a typical snack that is\nsooort of like a soft pretzel! He\u2019s going out with a belly full of sort-of soft\npretzels.<\/li>
        • Eleanor and Chidi are the first people to be together\nfor thousands and thousands of years and still use the terms girlfriend and\nboyfriend.<\/li>
        • The music played over Chidi\u2019s party is the incredible\nSpiegel im Spiegl by Avro Part. It broke me.<\/li>
        • Someone translated the calendar that Chidi gave\nEleanor, and two of the big chunks of text are lyrics to \u201cThe Power of Love\u201d.\nThere\u2019s also a day called Monday2.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n\n\n\n

          Eleanor and Michael<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          My favorite trashbag and the best demon in the world had the\nmost unbelievable journeys. Michael went from an evil demon wanting to torture\nhumans in a new fun way to helping save all of humanity and truly loving humans\nmore than anything. Eleanor went from a mean loner who was Arizona\nshrimp horny to saving humanity with her best friends. Her ethical journey,\nshown from the layman\u2019s perspective, helped simplify the immense concepts of\nthe show, making all the lofty goals palatable and natural. When you think\nabout how much she sucked on earth, it really shows how strong and how smart\nthis new system is, how much it could help nearly everybody and how even people\nwho suck may be worthy of redemption. Eleanor was not a good person before, and\nnow she is our hero. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          However, she\u2019s not ready to move on, despite years now\nwithout Chidi, even though she wants to be ready. Letting him go was one of her\nmost selfless acts, showing how much she\u2019s grown. But she needs to keep helping\nthe people close to her who remain, so she can be sure she did everything she\ncould to make them happy. First, that means a return to my favorite person in\nthe entire world, Mindy St. Clair. Mindy stayed in the Medium\n Place this entire forking time, rebooting Derek so\nmany times that now he is, I don\u2019t even know what he is, an all-powerful being\nthat is at once a singular point in space but also contains space itself, whose\nmoment of creation is now the same as the inevitable heat death of the\nuniverse. So yeah, he sounds super annoying. Niednagel outdid himself on this\nnew Derek form, with the swirling martini glasses that also have Dereks in\nthem, and those Dereks also have martini glasses. It\u2019s INCREDIBLE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Mindy is still crabby and blas\u00e9 about her existence. It makes a kind of poignant, lovely sense that she is the worst case version of Eleanor, if Eleanor continued to always be alone, and that\u2019s why Eleanor needs to help her. It makes me cry all over again thinking about how all their stories connect. Mindy doesn\u2019t want just anyone in charge of her if she decides to go through the system so she can go to the Good Place \u2013 but now Tahani is an architect (with the best line, \u201cMindy St. Clair as I neither live nor breathe\u201d) who could handle her case. It\u2019s beautiful, as is Mindy\u2019s thank you to Eleanor about how she never gave a crap about herself, so it\u2019s nice that Eleanor gave a crap about her. Of course her capper is the hysterical line \u201cI\u2019m really glad I filmed you having sex\u201d. Typical Mindy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          But ensuring Mindy\u2019s eventual salvation isn\u2019t enough. The\nmost important player in this whole epic is still left: Michael. The reveal of\nwhat Eleanor realizes she needs to do for Michael is magically done, starting\nwith Maya Rudolph smacking her desk and shouting \u201cCOCKAMAMIE\u201d as no one else\ncould. I was in the middle of thinking \u2018that was one of the best moments ever\u2019\nbut then it cut to the one that rips your heart out: Eleanor saying, \u201cMichael,\ncome on in.\u201d That mirroring of his famous first line, plus the mirroring of\nEleanor\u2019s 1.13 speech (\u201cit took me a while to figure it out\u201d &c.)\nabsolutely slayed me. That is incredible writing. Michael becoming a real boy,\nPinocchio, is of course where his story has been heading the entire time; I\njust never guessed. Eleanor and Janet warn him that life will be hard (\u201cyou\nhave blood now!\u201d) and that they don\u2019t know if the system will still be the same\nwhen he dies, and he says \u201cthat\u2019s what makes it special. I won\u2019t exactly know\nwhat will happen after I die. Nothing more human than that.\u201d That\u2019s it man,\nthat\u2019s the whole thing. Oh man Ted Danson is THE BEST.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The waterworks continue courtesy of the Doorman finally getting a real frog and from another big Janet Moment. She was never sad about the others, because she knew they were ready to be at peace with the universe (and she lives all times at once so won\u2019t be lonely (I\u2019m really holding fast to that)). But with Michael going to earth, she\u2019s really sad, because she will be worried about him the entire time and unable to help him. I love them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The shots of Michael\u2019s life on earth are hilarious \u2013 he does\neverything he wanted to do as a human, including take guitar lessons. He has a\nbig oafy dog named Jason, with a Jaguars bowtie (of course he named the dog\nJason, Jason is a puppy). And you may have noticed he lived in apartment\n 322 (the number of residents in his neighborhood) at 12358\nBlatta Vista (the number of his neighborhood, and Blatta means cockroach. Team\nCockroach for life). I don\u2019t think I ever cried as hard as I did during the\nlast five minutes, when Eleanor and Janet say goodbye, when Eleanor walks\nthrough the door, and when we finally see what happens. It\u2019s just vague enough\nthat everyone can decide for themselves what they want to believe. All the\nexisting little firefly lights, the essences of people who have walked through\nthe door, are joined by Eleanor\u2019s lights, and they float to earth and inspire\nhumans to be just a little better. I honestly still can\u2019t believe what one of\nher little lights brought about on earth, to Michael Realman, the stupidest\nbest name. This ending is so gorgeous and so perfect. I\u2019m blown away by what\nthey accomplished. Our humans worked so hard to become better people and they\nforever inspire others to do the same, regardless of their own form of\nexistence. Some people don\u2019t understand the point of the door, saying that if\nthey had eternity in the Good Place\nthey\u2019d enjoy it forever. Well, bully for you. I get it though. As Chidi says in\nhis philosophy class, \u201cmortality offers meaning to our lives\u201d (\u201cand morality\nhelps navigate that meaning\u201d, the point of the show). All good things need to\ncome to an end eventually, otherwise they wouldn\u2019t be good. I feel that, my\nlittle chili babies. Hot diggity dog this was the best forking show ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Okay that\u2019s enough crying. Take it sleazy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Hello, my little chili babies. It\u2019s been almost a week since the 104% perfect finale of The Good Place, and I\u2019m still crying so let\u2019s talk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoodbye to The Good Place (Really Bestbye to the Best Place) - Laughfrodisiac<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2020\/02\/05\/goodbye-to-the-good-place-really-bestbye-to-the-best-place\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goodbye to The Good Place (Really Bestbye to the Best Place) - Laughfrodisiac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hello, my little chili babies. 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