The Good Place season finale (SPOILERS)

[kate_nepveu]

HOLY FUCK THAT REVEAL

All the things that didn't seem to make sense, like the reason for Jason's mixup being so thin compared to Eleanors with the same name, and Tahani's selfish motivations, and Chidi not seeming to have done much, and the whole concept of soulmates to begin with: it was ALL FAKE.

AND CANONICALLY BI ELEANOR THINKING SHE MIGHT BE INTO TAHANI FOR REAL, be still my beating heart! I was convinced Eleanor was bi based on her comments to Tahani and actually-fake Eleanor but I didn't think we'd actually get out-loud acknowledgment of it, let alone the possibility of a canon queer relationship.

It's so elegant! Sheer elegance in its . . . well, no, it's not simple at all. But the reason for such a tight focus on the four of them, and the weird uniformity of age of everyone else, and just everything, wow, I'm so surprised and delighted, I can't believe it did this and it worked, it's a masterclass in plot.

Random bits:

Jason/Janet is surprisingly sweet! So is Jason, honestly, Manny Jacinto does amazing puppy-dog eyes that do a lot to offset Jason's remarkable stupidity. I loved the wedding episode that kept undercutting Chidi's romantic importance -- I am so impressed with the casting for this show, William Jackson Harper hasn't, on a quick glance, had a lead role before, and this is Jameela Jamil's first role as an actor in IMDB, it's been all TV/radio host work, but they're both wonderful, and of course Kristen Bell and Ted Danson -- how CREEPY did he get all of a sudden there, whoa, and then the slide back into reassuring benevolence even before he wipes their memories!

Oh, hey, in Mindy St. Claire's story, she doesn't mention having been judged, so that was a hint. I thought there was a clue in a different direction, Shawn gives a case number that boiled down to "3" and I figured she was 2 and someone else must've been 1, and maybe there was precedent in the prior case.

I wonder what the actual Good Place is like, and whether it's as exclusive as Michael claimed? Probably not, is my guess, because that did not seem right. I suspect it doesn't have soulmates, either.

Argh, I don't know what else to say, come yell with me in the comments and I'm sure I'll remember stuff that was driven out of my head by shock and delight!

Comments

[coffeeandink]

We should have known a place with so much froyo and no ice cream was the Bad Place.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It makes so much sense and yet I was SO SURPRISED!!

I think Eleanor/Chidi, or at least Eleanor and Chidi, is going to be the core relationship, but yeah, Eleanor is totally bi.

[kate_nepveu]

I honestly don't know, relationship-wise, and I'm totally okay with that? [*] When the whole love thing was so spectacularly deflated at the end of the wedding episode, I figured that was a signal that the show didn't want to focus on ships, that it was going to be about other bonds that saved Eleanor, and that the whole soulmates thing was going to be left aside as too complicated to resolve in the time left. And that was obviously not right, but now everyone's relationship foundations have been so thoroughly shook that I think everyone will be re-evaluating -- by which I mean the presumption that they all _had_ soulmates was definitely influencing their reactions to each other --and there's a lot of possibility in every direction?

[*] Except I really need Eleanor's possible thing for Tahani to be taken seriously, naturally.

MELY I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IT'S SO GOOD

(Also I figured the froyo was just random quirks because Michael wasn't very good at this yet, hah, how I was fooled!)

[coffeeandink]

Yesssss, I am so glad they blew up the notion of "soulmates", it was always troubling. And very pointedly caused a significant intensification of stress for all concerned. I don't think the show is particularly committed to romance, but I didn't see it as backing down quite as much as a lot of people did, especially since Chidi apparently came to a choice which he never had the chance to relate. (Now indefinitely delayed by amnesia! And yet I trust them to move Season 2 along just as briskly as Season 1.)

Michael said that frozen yogurt was very human: making a good thing a little worse so you could have more of it. But why do you need to do that in The Good Place?

I want to rewatch the whole thing now!

Also the ending completely blew out of my mind my new favorite lifestyle coping mechanism, growing a cocoon in the face of emotion.

[kate_nepveu]

The cocoon was amazing. I loved the effects on this show, they made good use of what they had.

I missed him making a decision! Was it before or after he knew what was going on?

[coffeeandink]

Chidi? He goes to tell Eleanor and Tahani and Real Eleanor nee Vicky his decision, and then Eleanor and Tahani take the wind out of his sales by telling him they've changed their minds.

[kate_nepveu]

Oh, right, yes. I still think that anyone in that situation ought to massively rethink their life and their choices, romantic and otherwise, so I don't put a lot of stock in that, but maybe we'll find out! I hope!

[kate_nepveu]

In the AV Club comments someone points out that MICHAEL KICKED A DOG

how did we overlook this??!!

[coffeeandink]

It was a fake dog!

[kate_nepveu]

truly, a masterpiece of plausible deniability. so impressive!

[tablesaw]

My hope is that, to keep things interesting in season 2, they'll focus on eleanor/Tahani as the core instead of eleanor/chidi.

[kate_nepveu]

I am weirdly conflicted about this, I want them to take Eleanor/Tahani seriously obviously, but I also think Chidi is adorable and their relationship was great, so basically I want them not to focus too seriously on romance while acknowledging that people's feelings exist and are valid, because if they're going to keep this tight (so tight!) pace and plot, there isn't a ton of time for that.

[hebethen]

So now I have watched the actual finale and... I think their relationship is great, but it doesn't have to be a romantic one? I would be ecstatic for Eleanor/Tahani of course but trio-friendship would feel very *right*.

[kate_nepveu]

Since we cannot actually hope for an OT3 on NBC, yes, I'd be OK with friendship all around too, which would also be subversive in its way!

[thingswithwings]

OH MY GOD the reveal!!! I hadn't thought about the fact that actually they have soulmates IN HELL because the concepts of soulmates makes relationships HELLISH and now I'm just. so happy. so so happy, Kate.

AND YES the canonically bi Eleanor moment was the best! She's been making all those little comments all season and I thought they were just going to tease without being upfront about it. It was so nice for her to acknowledge it, and also - I think - a sign of her increasing maturity and self-knowledge. Chidi taught her that self-knowledge is one of the keys to becoming a moral person, and that's what led her to her revelation about Tahani AND ALSO the bigger revelation about this being the Bad Place. Which is of course why she has to find Chidi again, and learn from him again, to get that self-knowledge again that will lead to knowledge of the world around her.

AUGH sorry to rant I'm just excited! That was so awesome!

[kate_nepveu]

Yes yes yes! And Chidi learns from her, too, to make decisions, it's mutual, and it's all so great.

[likeadeuce]

I lovvvved it.

[kate_nepveu]

The best!

[j00j]

oh my god yes!

My partner watched it the night it aired and nearly exploded trying not to tell me until I had the chance to see!

There were so many things that were creepy and awful (soulmates!) about the neighborhood and I wasn't sure whether we'd be finding out heaven was terrible or what but ahahaha, it's The Bad Place!

I really hope they get a season 2 and do more amazing things in it!

[kate_nepveu]

Heroic restraint!

So many things that were, well, is this just because it's a sitcom? And it was in purpose, so meta!

[skygiants]

From episode one I was like, "they HAVE to be going to a revolt in Heaven place with this, right? They have to, too many things are wrong, this cannot be right!" BUT I HAD NO IDEA. I cannot believe how very far I was from seeing that twist from coming. *__*

[kate_nepveu]

:D :D :D

I thought it was probably just price of admission to sitcoms, which is very meta, because no, it's not just bad TV, it's clues!

[rushthatspeaks]

Having finally managed to watch the finale, I find myself saying OH THANK GOODNESS, since I watched the whole show in a peculiar state of suspense.

I called the twist in episode one, is the thing, because of Michael's bow tie. When Michael does Eleanor's intake interview, he is wearing an (amazing) bow tie which has the eye of a peacock feather as each side of the bow. One of the more entertaining titles of Lucifer is the Peacock Angel, and Lucifer is also the opposite/nemesis of the Archangel Michael, so I said to Ruth, Michael is trolling everybody and the question now is whether this is Hell or Purgatory (i.e. has this been set up to make them into better people or just to torture them, which until the finale could have gone either way).

And then Ruth pointed out that the peacock angel thing is actually kind of obscure, and I have to admit, I don't know what bits of angel/demonology count as obscure, although Lucifer as the Peacock Angel has come up some in Western newspapers recently because of the ongoing Daesh genocide of the Yezidis, who worship that aspect. But we couldn't figure out how esoteric the show was willing to get-- all of the philosophy was correctly cited, which was a point towards very, and they were putting in a lot of details which reward freeze-frame or rewatch, but-- and it would have been SO DISAPPOINTING if they'd done something less cool with that beautiful setup.

So when we watched the finale, it was a nice moment of OH THANK GOODNESS I AM NOT OVERINTERPRETING I have not yet fallen into that critic's hell where you think every tiny thing is meaningful when it isn't, and also this show is as smart as I wanted it to be.

That was an amazing season of television. And thanks, because your rec is the reason I picked it up.

[kate_nepveu]

Wow! I had no idea, that's amazing. What a great detail, thank you for pointing it out. And I'm so glad you liked and my rec was useful!

[villeinage]

I loved the whole season; really the best new show I've seen this season.

[kate_nepveu]

I watch very little TV but I'm super glad I carved out time for this!