It’s finally here, the moment we’ve been waiting for. Did The Good Place team manage to prove that humanity deserves another chance at redemption? The answer may surprise you, in quite possibly every way.
“The Funeral to End All Funerals” was a tense episode, to say the least, so it makes sense that our heroes would try and distract themselves. After Michael headed out to see the Judge and find out the results of the experiment, Eleanor, Tahani, Jason, and Janet held their own dream funerals. This involved a private jet, a backyard swimming pool, and, of course, a litre of Lonely Gal Margarita Mix. It was a chance for our heroes, who’ve become a family over the course of their time together, to give their final thanks. They even brought Chidi into the mix, even though he was still frozen in stasis. It was very Weekend at Bernie’s.
Meanwhile, Michael learned how the experiment went: They failed. Even though Simone, Chidi, and John improved, Brent got 1 per cent worse. It seemed like things were hopeless and Team Cockroach would be sent to the Bad Place, but Michael isn’t one to give up. Instead, he argued that the experiment should be expanded—not just to our heroes, who improved greatly over their 800-year time in the afterlife, but also to the people on Earth whose lives they’d changed last season. Tahani’s sister, Eleanor’s mother, even Jason’s Pillboi (Jaguars rule!). They all got better because there were people out there who believed in them and inspired them to try.
[referenced url=” thumb=” title=” excerpt=”]
This was a great callback, one that showed our heroes doing good after realising that it wouldn’t actually make a difference. This carried through into the final moments of the experiment too, as Brent got ready to apologise to Chidi once he’d realised he wasn’t who he thought he was. This is the ultimate theme of the season and series as a whole: People aren’t just good or bad, we’re capable of growth and change at any time. We can always do better and be better, so long as something or someone is there to give us a chance.
This was enough to sway the Judge’s mind, who ruled in favour of Michael and the others. They’re right, the points system is flawed and doesn’t properly track a person’s goodness in such a complex, modern world. What’s her solution to fixing it? Oh, fork. She’s rebooting, well, life. All of it.
The Judge announces that “Earth is cancelled” and they’re going to go back to the drawing board. I’m not just talking about a new Garden of Eden, innocence of humanity thing. I mean full-on single-celled organisms. I’ll admit this was a twist I didn’t see coming, although perhaps I should have. What else was going to happen? In their eyes, humanity has gone past the point of no return. They’ve had humankind around for too long and the warranty’s expired, so best to just wipe the hard drive and send it to a recycling plant.
Then, the true hero arrives: Janet.
Specifically Bad Janet, and Good Janet, and all the other Janets in existence. You see, that episode where Michael told Bad Janet about Brent’s disastrous book release party had a bigger impact than we thought. She took Michael’s manifesto to heart—when she wasn’t wiping her butt with its pages—and sent copies to all the other Janets, bringing them to a new stage in consciousness and inspiring them to side with humanity. The episode ends with the Janets hiding the Judge’s “Destroy Earth Key Fob” in one of their voids so it can’t be used, as Eleanor begs Michael to wake up Chidi and restore his memories…because they have 45 minutes to create a new plan for the afterlife and save the world and he’s the only one ethical enough to do it. Something tells me that’s not going to go over super well.
Random Musings:
-
Sending some love to my series MVP John, who improved a whopping 44-per cent over the course of the experiment…kicking both Chidi and Simone’s well-toned asses. Give that boy an extra session at Oprah’s exclusive day spa with all the mushroom water he can drink. He’s earned it.
-
Of course Eleanor would put Chidi in his postman’s outfit during her funeral.
-
Best line of the episode, courtesy of Shawn: “If he gets to bring random good people into it, I should be able to bring in random bad people. Call Elizabeth Holmes. No, Henry Kissinger. No…PewDiePie!”
-
No one wants a reboot of Ally McBeal, Judge, let it go.