Written by Gabriella Gamez
Episode six of The Good Place’s final season premiered Thursday night, and it’s the season’s most important episode yet. Let’s recap all the wild and poignant events together!
The episode begins with Michael meeting Bad Janet at Janet’s void, where she is being kept as prisoner. He says that today is her last day, and that he’s come to tell her about the four humans and how the experiment has been going. Bad Janet says she knows exactly how it’s been going, because humans can’t change. Michael disagrees, and tells her why by beginning his story.
The ski trip went even better than expected. The four humans in the experiment have been improving and getting along great with each other. Eleanor notes that Brent has made the most progress and it seems that the experiment is going really well.
But all that was about to change when Brent decides to write a book. Simone is ready to take the book apart, but it appears the book is much worse than the humans could have imagined. His story features characters that resemble and make fun of members of the experiment and our favourite soul squad, as well as overinflating Brent’s ego. Even Chidi is thrown off when he comes across a character clearly based on him. Jason tries to get him out of his head by making him dance to techno music. But John accidentally walks in on them and realises that Jason isn’t really Jianyu the monk. You can see how this would be a problem given his life’s work on earth as a gossip columnist.
As Tahani and Simone read and make fun of Brent’s book, Eleanor approaches them and notes the insensitive choices Brent made and asks if they could possibly forgive him. Simone immediately says no, and raises an extremely relevant point, saying, “This book is objectifying, misogynistic, and racist. Why are we still dealing with this shirt in the Good Place?” Eleanor says she will get back to Simone on her questions after she consults “a number of immortal beings”.
Meanwhile, Michael attempts to get through to Brent while he plays golf with a metaphor that’s a little too subtle. Michael thinks he’s gotten through to Brent, until the day of his Book Signing when everything goes wrong. Despite Eleanor’s insistence that Simone not say anything harsh to Brent, Simone tells him off for the choices he made in his book. Brent storms off and cancels his Book Signing.
When Michael approaches Brent a second time, he’s not so subtle anymore. He tells Brent that his actions hurt people, and “you have to take responsibility for that.” He further tells Brent that he needs to come back and apologise to the group, and Brent reluctantly agrees.
Chidi and Simone talk through what to do about Brent. Chidi wants to get through to him, but Simone doesn’t want to bother at all. Chidi asks why they can’t be the bigger people and rise above it, and Simone comes through with the answer right away:
Michael gathers the group so Brent can apologise, but his apologies are less than sincere. When Simone tells him to truly “apologise or stop wasting our time”, Brent blows up and admits he’s actually not sorry at all. Tahani and Simone both call him out on his racist and sexist behaviour, and Brent counters saying, “I don’t have a racist or sexist bone in my body”. He further states that he’s a good person, and that he made it into the Good Place for a reason. When Chidi attempts to get through to him, it doesn’t go as planned and Brent is pelted with a flying book and knocked into a table.
Bad Janet interrupts Michael’s story to tell him that this is exactly why humans can’t change. She comes through with the greatest quote of the episode, saying, “Do you know what’s happening right now on Earth? Wars, murders, women in $400 yoga pants are refusing to vaccinate their children. Vindictive nerds at Apple are changing the charger cable shape again.” But Michael’s story isn’t over yet.
The soul squad meets up again, and just when all hope seems lost, Tahani and Jason come up with plans to get the experiment back on track. Michael ends the story here and tells Bad Janet that they’ve been debating the wrong question for months. The question they shouldn’t be asking is whether humans are good or bad. He says what matters is if humans are trying to be better today than they were yesterday.
With that in mind, he tells Bad Janet he’s not going to marbleise her, but he’s going to let her go. By doing so, that is how Michael is choosing to be better today than he was yesterday. He sends her off with a book describing their manifesto, and she takes it reluctantly. The question remains whether Bad Janet will return to the Bad Place or come back to help our favourite Soul Squad.
