The Good Place: A Chip Driver Mystery (4x06)

This episode had some structural issues, and there was one thing about it that actually kind of broke the magic of the show for me, at least in a small, temporary way.

Cons:

Another review pointed this out, and I kind of can't get it out of my head now. The reason that Eleanor believed she was in the Good Place in Season One is that Tahani and Chidi were believably people who might end up in heaven, at least superficially. It therefore made sense that Eleanor and Jason would believe there had been some kind of a mistake. So why do Simone, Chidi, and John not realize that Brent couldn't possibly be in the Good Place? Why don't they challenge this at all? It's going to keep bugging me until they address it.

On a more thematic note, I really liked Simone's question to Eleanor about why she and Tahani should have to be accommodating and kind to someone like Brent. Why should they take on that emotional labor? It's a big and important question, one relevant to real life. And the episode didn't really bother to explore it in any way. Eleanor thinks about it, comes back, and suggests they try to be more constructive when criticizing Brent's book. So she basically just says they need to tiptoe around this racist, sexist white man's feelings. And things predictably blow up, and we don't really get back to the very legitimate question at hand.

That's another thing that felt slightly unbalanced about this episode. The whole thing is framed by Michael telling Bad Janet the story of how Brent wrote a horrible book and had his feelings hurt by the others, and how it brought out the worst in the humans for the experiment. But then, Michael sees Eleanor, Tahani, and Jason dust themselves off and get right back to work, planning new ideas for how to help the humans improve. This is supposed to be the lesson, about how we don't need to decide if humans are "good" or "bad," but rather whether they are trying to be better today than they were yesterday.

Cool moral, but Brent is still a bigot. I thought the buildup was going to show a spark of change in Brent there at the end, or at least show that he realizes in some small way that he's in the wrong. But instead, the story is largely about Brent, Chidi, Simone, and John and their journey... and the lesson in the end is about Eleanor, Tahani, and Jason. It didn't quite gel for me, and I wanted more from Michael's conclusion in the end.

Pros:

As is always the case with this show, the comedy was on point. All of the little details and lines from Brent's book were so funny and perfect. I particularly liked the fact that Chip Driver solved the mystery right away and then the rest of the book is about golf. That actually sounds funny as hell. And all of the horrible sexism and racism was handled with the type of humor I've come to appreciate from this show, as it demonstrates the true horror of ignorance and bigotry, while also showing strong women of color being absolutely NOT here for any of that shit.

I liked the idea of the framing device with Michael and Bad Janet, even if the resolution felt a bit lackluster. It was fun to see Michael put his lessons to the test, as he let Bad Janet go, with a book telling the story of the humans and their progress over time. Maybe it'll come back to bite him, or maybe helping Bad Janet now will end up helping them all in the end. I like the ambiguity, the hope, inherent in Michael's decision here.

We're also getting some new developments with the humans, as John finds out the truth about Jason not really being a monk. This is bound to amp things up, although at least for now, John is okay with keeping this secret, despite his tendency to gossip. It's fun to see Jason continue to play his role so well. He has to pretend to keep one secret, while really keeping another, and he's doing such a good job with it.

I really liked the awards ceremony part, where Eleanor hands out prizes for being the hottest, and for being the most helpful on the mission. Apparently she does this each week, and often awards herself the "hottest" award. I thought the punchline to that joke would be that Tahani would get it every time, but it's pretty funny to see a mix of Janet and Jason in there as well. No Michael, though, to his own chagrin.

So that's that. This feels like a transitional episode in a lot of ways. It set the stage for some potential progress with Brent, but then had no follow-through. I'm waiting for things to click into place, but I have hope that this show will find its footing before too long.

7/10