The Good Place – The Worst Possible Use of Free Will

By: Ariba Bhuvad

For those of you were missing the romantic moments of #ChidiNor had their wishes granted in this week’s episode “The Lizard and the Owl” of The Good Place. The episode begins with Michael (Ted Danson) and Eleanor (Kristen Bell) in a library in Arizona, where there will be absolutely no distractions because no one is around. The reason for minimal distractions is because Eleanor wants to revisit the memories from their time int The Good Place and the moment where she told Chidi (William Jackson Harper) that she loved him.

Love is a foreign concept for Eleanor and she never imagined ever being able to tell someone that she loved them and so her curiosity pushes her to convince Michael to let her see those memories. But how exactly will this happen? It appears Michael has a device that will allow him to show her what she wants to see, but before anything he needs to do a trial run. This causes Eleanor to lose all her hair. Apparently, this was expected and now Michael can show her what she wants.

During her flashbacks she sees Chidi teaching her about free will and determinism and spending the day together at Pick-A-Pet day that will allow them to pick a bet that will bond to their souls forever and ever. Naturally, Eleanor picks a lizard that wears a cowboy hat (because why not) while Tahani (Jameela Jamil) gets a “mirror centaur” that is half her-half-horse and Jason (Manny Jacinto) gets excited over the prospect of getting a penguin. An animal Eleanor points out to him is not a mythical creature, but that’s okay as we’ll let him have this one. And then there’s indecisive Chidi who cannot pick between two of the cutest puppies we’ve ever seen. His lack of decision causes him to lose out on the puppies who someone else takes and he ends up with an owl (his other option was a tarantula-squid). Unfortunately, he has a hard time bonding with the owl, who attacks him while Chidi is trying to teach him out to fetch. To help Chidi out, Eleanor asks Michael if the owl can be exchanged for a different puppy, but he asks Eleanor to wait because at a party later that night they all get to turn into their pets for a brief moment, which means Chidi will get to fly.

Right before the party Eleanor loses the lizard and decides to skip out on the party while everyone else goes. Frantically running around The Good Place, she’s afraid that if she can’t find the lizard that everyone will find out she’s not the real Eleanor because the lizard won’t bond with her soul.

But then something magical happens, Chidi makes a decision and leaves the party to go and help Eleanor with finding the lizard. In fact, he left behind an opportunity to be able to fly to come help her and if that’s enough to ignite romance, then we don’t know what is. It is here that Eleanor and Chidi share a kiss–and the rest is history (at least for that simulation).

As the flashback continues, Chidi and Eleanor fall deeper in love and become the couple that everyone can’t stand because of their obnoxious PDA and the way they share all their food. One of the memories also includes when both of them are at Mindy St. Clair’s and tell each other “I love you” while in bed.

But before Eleanor could see any more, Michael disrupts the flashback because he’s embarrassed for Eleanor to see the rest and see how evil he was to them. But he eventually gives in and shows the rest of the memory, which involves Eleanor and Chidi going to his office, hands clasped together and ready to confront him about the reboots. But Michael reassures them that even if he does another reboot their love will live on because they’re soulmates and will come together again.

Of course, he’s just being a jerk and lying about the soulmate thing and snaps his fingers, causing them to reboot once again. Ugh, not nice, Michael. Not nice at all! But instead of being angry with him, Eleanor realizes that she isn’t capable of falling in love because everything that happened was Michael’s doing.

She realizes that she believes in determinism and has no free will and is unable to control her own actions. Michael tries to make her see reason and tells her that she would always screw up his plans because she made unexpected decisions on her own. He goes on to say despite having a fifteen million point plan, he failed because she always came up with something.

But Eleanor is too far gone at this point and it takes Michael dumping iced tea on her head to snap her out of it. He tells her that she’s just scared of being vulnerable so she puts up walls to keep people and feelings out. But everything has to be put on hold because the rest of the group is coming back and Michael has to pick them up at the airport, even though he doesn’t want to.

Realizing Michael is right and giving Chidi the cutest smile ever, Eleanor decides that the group needs to find someone that can serve as a “blueprint for humanity,”  someone to which she can look up. She suggests Rihanna, but Michael interjects to say he knows just the place to find this person–rural Canada.

But things are about to get way more complicated because demons from The Bad Place (Shawn, Vicki and Val) have just entered through a portal onto Earth. Oh no, this won’t end well.