The Good Place: Patty (4x12)

Leave it to The Good Place to always push things that one step further!

Cons:

I honestly don't know what to say! I loved every minute of this. I guess I wish we could have met with other known historical figures in the Good Place? Maybe we'll get one or two next week. I like the joke of most known figures being in the Bad Place, but just a couple of cameos would have hit the spot.

Pros:

Philosophically, this episode dropped a bombshell. But it dropped a bombshell in the way that this show often does, which is to say that once I realized where they were going with this, I also realized that I should have known all along. Basically the Good Place is great and fantastic and happy, but it's also eternity, and eventually people become happiness zombies, completely numb to the complexities and joys of existence. Eleanor and Michael come up with a solution, based on what Eleanor said about what makes life worth living - knowing that it will end. They set up another door, and it allows for a final exit from the Good Place, whenever you're ready. ("Whenever You're Ready," as it transpires, is the name of next week's finale, so that's gonna hurt!).

This is such an obvious and perfect way of wrapping things up. There's nothing malicious or broken about the Good Place - it is exactly what has been promised all along. And what's promised is a literal eternity. Not a spiritual "your energy lives on" kind of thing, but a literal eternity of just anything and everything you want being given to you instantly. When you say it out loud, it's obvious that this could never have been the endgame. So you end up having a lovely metaphor about death with dignity, in a way. With the idea that people can be trusted to understand their own lives and wants. They can be trusted to know when they are fulfilled and are ready for their journey to come to an end. What comes after that is beyond anyone's knowledge, if indeed there's anything at all.

On the comedy front, I loved Lisa Kudrow as Hypatia, now going by "Patty." She was so funny, and I loved how Chidi was so excited to meet her, and then had to contend with the fact that everything he'd looked forward to had started to erode long before he could ever get there. The milkshakes, forgetting the word "math"... all of it was just so charming and silly.

And the rest of the comedy was on point as well, like it always is. Tahani remarking that she felt like Dorothy in Oz, at least in part because she's so much taller than everyone around her, Jason getting bored with his dream activities way too quickly, the Good Place Janet passively creating and handing over things like rocket ships and giant pieces of candy... it was all very funny, and also created an atmosphere of foreboding, as it became more and more clear that things are not as good as they should be.

Michael's arc here is an interesting one too. After going through so much change and growth, he's left at the end with the worry that he doesn't fit in anywhere. He's a demon. He was created for the Bad Place. And now that he's here in the Good Place, will his good intentions earn him the right to stay? Turns out, that's not exactly what he should have been worrying about, as the Good Place architects immediately declare him the new leader, and leave in a rush to stick him with the problem. And so it turns out that Michael is honestly the perfect person for the job. He knows how to innovate. He has been working this problem for a long time now. With the help of his human friends, he finds a way to reinvigorate the Good Place and get things done!

I think that's where I'll stop. I'm getting very emotional about the fact that next week is the finale of this show!

9.5/10