Written by Gabriella Gamez
The second episode of the last season premiered Thursday night, so let’s recap all the wild events together! After Linda is revealed to be a demon, the gang ponders on why the Bad Place would send such an obvious/easy deception. Michael marks it as a sign of their desperation, and they quickly move on to their other test subjects.
They decide to set their sights on Brent first, an entitled man who Eleanor says, “Thinks the world revolves around him. Because it does.” They decide to plan an event to make him hear about how much better everyone else is than him to make him feel as if he doesn’t belong in the Good Place. When that doesn’t work, Eleanor decides to bring back a signature move from season one.
Brent quickly comes forward and admits that he doesn’t belong in the Good Place. Eleanor and Michael exchange knowing looks, until Brent proclaims, “I belong in the Best Place!”
Tahani and Janet raise concerns that Eleanor may not be the best fit to lead the experiment. Even Jason says she’s screwing up a lot, which he says is, “Kinda my thing, and you wouldn’t put me in charge.” Michael tries to reason with them, but Eleanor stumbles in on the conversation. After a Shellstrop temper tantrum worthy of season one, she quits and storms out.
Michael follows her out, and we see them have a heart to heart. Eleanor shares her doubts, saying she’s not the saviour of the universe. She’s just a girl from Arizona. Eleanor doesn’t believe she’s equipped to handle the situation. Michael, however, thinks the opposite. He says that she may be the only one equipped to save the universe because she’s human. He eventually gets through to her, and the gang come back together to deal with Brent.
Eleanor decides their next course of action: let Brent believe he’s right. Michael and Eleanor tell him that there is indeed a Best Place, and that he belongs there. They further tell Brent that everyone in the Good Place will be evaluated and a small portion of them will be sent to the Best Place to ensure they’re getting the best of the best. This motivated Brent to do good deeds in order to get in to the Best Place, and Michael and Eleanor hope that he will start becoming a better person on his own.
Eleanor moves on to helping Simone by pairing her with Chidi, telling him that Simone is his soulmate. He is excited by the news, but also nervous because he says he’s never been in love before. We of course know this isn’t true and feel for Eleanor in this scene.
Chidi is easily able to get through to Simone by appealing to her philosophical beliefs. She decides to pretend that everything she’s seeing is real “just in case”. Let’s hope the week passes quickly so episode three can come sooner!
