The Good Place: The Worst Possible Use of Free Will (3x08)

Yay! Chidi and Eleanor!

Cons:

Uhhhhhh.... Hm. Nope.

Pros:

Okay. Let's start by briefly mentioning the end of this episode, where it appears that our villains have found a way to get to earth. It looks like the respite for our core group of characters might be coming to an end. I particularly loved the bit about Vicky coming out of the cocoon, having missed soooo much since she was put in there. I can't wait to see where this is going!

This episode focused entirely around Michael and Eleanor, as Michael reveals Eleanor's past memories to her to show her how she and Chidi fell in love. Eleanor is at first excited to discover that she has the capacity to love, but then gets caught up in a staunch belief in determinism. She becomes convinced that she was manipulated by external forces to fall in love with Chidi, and that free will is a lie. Michael has to convince her that she was constantly screwing up his plans, and that proves that she has free will. Her denying of it now is just a coping mechanism, because she's afraid of being vulnerable.

There's just so much to talk about. First of all, I just want to say that Janet's memory machine, allowing the characters to remember parts of the afterlife, is such a brilliant idea. As brilliant as this show is for resetting and trying new things so frequently, the one complaint I've had about it is that the character development goes in fits and starts, as a consequence of so many mind wipes. We knew that Eleanor and Chidi fell in love in one of the loops, but we didn't get to see it. Now, we do, and we get glimpses of other loops as well, like #444 (a lucky number in my family, one I have tattooed on my arm) where Chidi is stuck in some purple orb thing. I want to know that story. This gives us the opportunity to get further glimpses into all of the loops we didn't get to see, and I am all about it!

I loved the stuff with the pets. Eleanor was just so cute with her iguana, which spent time just chilling on her head, all tangled in her hair. Tahani's centaur was an amazing foil for her, showing her just how insufferable she can be. We didn't need to go into a ton of detail on this loop to see how this was another effective way to torture the Soul Squad.

And Chidi and Eleanor... I'm so glad we finally get to see the story of them falling in love! It's just so sweet! Eleanor is defined by her selfishness, and Chidi by his indecisiveness. So their love comes in the moments when they can break away from those character flaws. Eleanor is selfless, Chidi makes decisions. They find strength in each other. And it's super awesome.

We also get to see character development from Michael here. He's changed a lot as a person/demon of course, but sometimes it can be helpful to remember how much. Seeing him torture Eleanor and the others just shows how much he really has grown. I love that Eleanor is able to forgive him quite easily once she remembers parts of what Michael has done. After all, it's just his nature. He's grown beyond the limits of what he was meant to do. I honestly think this is part of what makes Eleanor realize that she does believe in free will, after all.

As I've brought up before in reviewing this show, The Good Place is really good at teaching ethics. Here, we get a nice primer on determinism. Eleanor explores the idea in all its absurdity. If Michael orchestrated things so that Eleanor would end up doing all of the things that she did, maybe there's a super-demon who orchestrates everything that Michael did. Pretty soon you start to run in to a problem with that kind of logic. There's also the question of: so what? Let's say that everything we do is predetermined. That doesn't mean we should stop thinking about our choices. We can still take ownership of what we do, even if we believe external forces acted upon us to make it possible.

I'm rooting for Chidi and Eleanor, or maybe Eleanor and Tahani, honestly. But in any case, I'm very pleased with the insights this episode gave us, and I'm eagerly awaiting more.

10/10