The Good Place – Janet(s)

By: Ariba Bhuvad

The Good Place gave us one hell of an episode before it’s winter hiatus, and it was the absolute perfect way to sign off for the holidays. In a rush, Janet (D’Arcy Carden) transported the group into her Void, which is quite an interesting place. Basically, it’s exactly how it sounds – a void that extends beyond forever encapsulated within a white wall of nothingness. But in transporting everyone to the Void, they have all turned into Janet(s). Side note: Carden kills it in this episode by capturing every character’s subtle nuances while maintaining her physical form. She’s quite possibly the most talented actress on television right now!

While the Janet(s) wreak havoc in Janet’s Void, Janet and Michael (Ted Danson) go off to meet the Accountants that are responsible for keeping track of points. You know, the points that accumulate over a person’s lifetime and what ultimately determines if they’re going to The Good Place or The Bad Place. Every employee has their specific job title in which they catalog the daily activities of every person. This includes sexual deviant acts and more very specific behaviors that a human could indulge in.

Michael wants to know how it all works and is insistent on having every single aspect of the points system explained to him. It becomes obvious that the system is skewed and not operating properly because not even the human saint, Doug Forcett (Michael McKean), is going to make it into The Good Place. Upon further inquiry, Janet and Michael find out that no one is good enough to get into The Good Place, at least not in the last five hundred and twenty years. The Accountant (Stephen Merchant) does not seem to care much about this system flaw. He just wants the corner piece of the literal cake.

Meanwhile, Janet is starting to glitch hardcore because the group is messing around in The Void. Between using their newly found Janet powers and doing whatever they want, it’s causing Janet’s system to overload. The main cause behind this is Eleanor’s (Kristen Bell) break down over who she is and this growing crisis is beginning to weigh on Janet. But all’s well that ends well because Chidi (William Jackson Harper) and Eleanor share a passionate kiss! You see, Eleanor recently found out about her past love affair with Chidi and now these feelings have surfaced. As a result, she shared them with Chidi who is now realizing he is in love with her, too. The end result? Two Janets make out until they transform into Chidi and Eleanor in their proper forms.

With very few options, Michael takes the group into a room and starts tossing them into the pipe leading to The Good Place. First up is Jason (Manny Jacinto), who is pretty oblivious to everything and probably doesn’t care what is going to happen. There’s no way of checking what happens to him so the rest of the group follows him, too. And just like that, they end up in the real Good Place! How do they know? They forking test that shirt out, that’s how!