Written by Gabriella Gamez
The fifth episode of The Good Place’s final season premiered Thursday night, so let’s recap all the events!
We begin the episode with Janet locked in a cell in the Bad Place, where Vicky (in a Michael suit) is attempting to torture her. Janet just isn’t buying Vicky’s portrayal of Michael, and Vicky confesses that she isn’t either. Shawn tells her that it’s important for her to pick up on Michael’s subtle mannerisms to properly torture the humans.
We follow Michael and Jason as they’re on their way to the Bad Place. Jason asks Michael if they have a plan yet, and Michael says he does but has no idea if it’ll work yet. Michael tells Jason that he hasn’t given him all of his afterlife memories back (for obvious reasons), but decides it may be necessary for them to survive the journey to the Bad Place. Jason remembers that the last time they were in the Bad Place, he threw a Molotov Cocktail, but Michael says that for this plan to work, they can’t afford to be reckless.
Jason and Michael have arrived at the Bad Place, where Jason confesses his fear. He wonders if all the time he and Janet have spent apart will affect their relationship with each other. Michael confesses his most pressing fear: that they’ve just arrived at the birthplace of evil.
Meanwhile, Eleanor, Tahani, and Derek must cover their ground so members of the experiment don’t suspect anything. They are still hiding Bad Janet at Mindy’s house, who is handcuffed and stuck to the refrigerator. Eleanor has Derek take over the three hundred Janet babies, promising to keep the humans out of his way and also has Tahani host a party for members of the experiment at the lake house. Tahani asks Eleanor for a more important task, but Eleanor insists that she needs Tahani to take care of the party.
To be fair, Tahani has a point…
The humans arrive at the lake house, where Tahani greets them with snacks, but one important person is missing: Chidi. Tahani leaves the humans at the lake house to go look for Chidi before he sees anything he shouldn’t with the Janet babies. Eleanor stands by the train station, impatiently awaiting Michael and Jason’s return. She encounters a malfunctioning Janet baby and finds Derek, where he is struggling to keep them all in control.
They bump into Tahani as she is on her way to find Chidi. Eleanor follows her up to Chidi’s residence, where he is reading. After telling Tahani to go back to check on the humans, Eleanor decides to distract Chidi from the chaos outside with a “puzzle” she has “devised” specially for him.
Back in the Bad Place, Shawn is hosting a 4,000 hour DemonCon on the future of torture. Jason suggests a Molotov cocktail, which Michael vetoes before the words are out of Jason’s mouth. He makes the risky decision to show himself and interrupt Shawn’s lecture. Shawn thinks he’s Vicky in a Michael suit and he tells the crowd that he’s come up with a new invention – a Jason suit to torture Janet. Michael asks Shawn if he can practice using the Jason suit to torture Janet, but Shawn says he has a better idea: he’s going to bring Janet onstage to torture her with the Jason suit.
While Derek is continuously struggling with the Janet babies, Tahani suggests he reboot them. Derek (with some trouble) presses the button to reboot himself and all the Janet babies, who all collapse collectively. Eleanor devises a plan to get Chidi out of the apartment while all the Janet babies are down.
In the Bad Place, Shawn brings Janet onto the stage and Michael posing as Vicky shows her Jason posing as a Jason suit. Jason apologises to Janet about the fight they had and says he still loves her. When Michael asks how it makes her feel, she says, “terrible”. Just as Michael and Jason are about to get away with Janet under the guise of bringing her back to her cell, the real Vicky in a Michael suit comes out onstage and blows their cover.
Shawn and the other demons discuss the confusion, Jason reveals the demon exploder that Bad Janet created and gives it to Michael to help them escape. Vicky shows herself by taking off the Michael suit, and Michael and Jason’s covers are effectively blown. Michael confesses he knows all about the Bad Place’s plan to sabotage the experiment, and that he once believed what he was doing as a demon was right and morally balanced but that he’s learned that humans and demons can both change, and the crowd applauds him. When Vicky tells him he hasn’t changed at all, Michael uses the demon exploder on her. To another round of applause, Michael, Jason, and Janet leave the stage and the Bad Place behind them and Janet destroys the entrance to the Bad Place to stop the demons from following after them.
Eleanor and Tahani bring Chidi to the lake house, where Simone greets him with a kiss. We’re all crying on the inside with Eleanor. Tahani and Eleanor leave the lake house and have a heart to heart about their capabilities when Tahani confesses how useless she feels.
It seems that all is well for our favourite soul squad again, but how long will it stay that way?
Am I the only one who was confused about how Janet’s handcuff-magnets got removed? She obviously can’t take them off herself, otherwise what would be the point? Maybe Jason did it, but it isn’t shown on camera, and could he do it without a key or something?