In addition to being one of the best shows on TV, The Good Place is a dense knot of running jokes, visual humor, references to dense philosophy tomes, and breadcrumbs for later episodes. In order to help you keep it all straight, The A.V. Club will be annotating the show’s third season. Catch something that we didn’t? Email us at [email protected].
Read our recap of “Don’t Let The Good Life Pass You By”
But first, a word from you, the readers
Is Seah Fengyu on the right track? “This felt too deliberate and happened for too long for it to be a coincidence: when Michael was talking to Eleanor in the carpark the ‘WRONG WAY’ sign behind them is very visible and keeps popping into view.”
Sara Dawdy caught a few additional digs at The Grand Canyon State: “The shopping bag in which Michael carries the Janet’s memory gizmo (visible when Michael is warning Eleanor of the dangers of after life memories) comes from Coyote Joe’s Marketplace, which fits in well with the names given to other establishments in the state.
Even better is the little menu card in front of Eleanor and Michael as they’re ordering drinks at The Sandy Spoon: It advertises the Arizona Junk Breakfast! featuring the ‘Grand Canyon’ Pancake Stack, Double-Fried Eggs, Grandma’s Slab Bacon, and a side of our Signature Jalapeño Poppers with RANCH!’ There’s some other text in there I can’t make out (and I’m not 100 percent sure ‘slab bacon’ is correct), so if you get a good screengrab, you might be able to see more fun stuff. The writers really seem to go all out when it comes to mocking American food choices.”
Callbacks
Doug Forcett
Guest star Michael McKean brings the only human to ever come remotely close to guessing how the afterlife works off of Michael’s office wall and into the real world, even recreating the awkward pose from Doug’s portrait. Now in order to complete the joke, writer-actor Noah Garfinkel just needs to age into the man who played David St. Hubbins, Lenny, and Chuck McGill.
“Or we do this the old-fashioned way”
It’s a Molotov cocktail. The old-fashioned way is a Molotov cocktail, which Jason can whip together with uncanny speed. Not fast enough to get a full “BORTLES!” out, though.
Chris Baker, Eleanor’s second soulmate
“Bad news,” announces the shirt-averse mailman who was paired with Eleanor in the second reboot, “I’ve been going to the gym—a lot.” The bad news for Chris isn’t necessarily the pool cue he gets upside the head, but rather the recently reaffirmed fact that his predecessor is pretty jacked, too.
Visual gags
The Puking Moose
Alberta gets its own Desert Rash in the form of The Puking Moose, a rustic dive whose namesake can be seen hoisting a beer in the external signage—and regurgitating it (and presumably several others) on the stained glass behind the bar. The set dressing is more or less generic Great White North stuff, so a tip of the toque to whoever decided that Molson Canadian would be the only beer on tap.
The Forcett cemetery
A quick pan across one dusty patch of Doug’s property captures the final resting places of a deer tick, a raccoon, a goose, and a snail, but it also shows us so much more. Considering the way Doug tries to live his life, there’s a number of grave markers here, and a long time passed between the demise of Rosa Park The Deer Tick and Franklin Delano Raccoon (2007 must’ve been a rough year for him) and the feathered Abraham Lincoln Einstein Mandela. The journey from those three deaths to the tragedy that befell Martin Luther Ganhdi Tyler Moore tells the story of a life misspent, of a man so preoccupied with accumulating afterlife points that he pays no mind to how unwieldy these posthumous portmanteaus have become. The slow unraveling of the Doug Forcett myth is one of this episode’s greatest strengths, but sometimes it comes out in one big burst like this, which does in pictures what “Now if you’ll excuse, I’m going to walk to Edmonton to give $85 to a snail charity” does in words.
Allusions
“Don’t Let The Good Life Pass You By”
The episode’s title song, as recorded by The Mamas & The Papas’ Cass Elliot for the 1971 LP Mama’s Big Ones, which conservation-minded, started-his-life-over-in-the-’70s Doug naturally owns on 8-track. (You can’t really make out any of the other tapes in his library, though it appears he has something by Seals And Crofts in there.) It’s a smart choice, period-wise, and the lyrics—which marry hippie-dippy “stop and smell the roses” imagery with genuine pleas for compassion—encapsulate a philosophy that Doug has taken to its extremes. But the most significant part of Mama’s Big Ones’ inclusion in “Don’t Let The Good Life Pass You By” might be the use of other Mama’s Big Ones tracks in Lost, namely “Make Your Own Kind Of Music.”
Peter Singer, The Most Good You Can Do
The book that Doug is reading is Peter Singer’s The Most Good You Can Do. Besides having a Good Place-appropriate title, Peter Singer is a moral philosopher who is best known for his work on animal rights. Singer is vegan, but presumably eats a more varied diet than lentils and radishes.
“You know what, I’ll just check with Yahoo! Answers. I’m sure someone’s weighed in.”
After discovering the one statement that can render Tahani Al-Jamil legitimately speechless—“When is the right time to tell someone you were passionate lovers in an alternate timeline in the afterlife, but he doesn’t remember because technically none of that happened in this strand of the multiverse?”—Eleanor opts to take her query to the online Q&A forum that’s less pretentious than Quora and has fewer hilarious illustrations than WikiHow. There are currently no Yahoo! Answers to this Eleanor question (that’s bound to change in the next few hours), though there are 153,443 results for “is hell real?”, 299,670 results for “is there a heaven,” and over 1,000 imposters of the original “How is babby formed?” post.
Forkshadowing
“There’s an accountant out there, somewhere, measuring the value of everything I do.”
Another reference to whichever afterlife being is (or beings are) in charge of keeping track of human activity on Earth and tabulating the points associated with it. We’ll presumably get to meet them as part of Michael’s latest Hail Mary pass, but until then—time to head into Janet’s void! Maybe Derek will be there!
“The Bad Place is going to get them all eventually: These four, their loved ones, even your precious pee-pee king Doug Forcett”
Here’s an interesting little nugget of malice that Shawn tosses out shortly before being kicked through the Door To Earth: He seems to have it on good authority that a whole lot of people are going to The Bad Place. Preventing such a thing has formed the spine of this third season, but this kicks the urgency up a notch. Were it not for Janet’s foot, would we have heard Shawn lay out some grand scheme for dooming all of humanity to eternal damnation? Does this have anything to do with the nagging sense that’s been at the center of the show from the very start—one that Michael articulates at the end of “Don’t Let The Good Life Pass You By”—that the whole point system is unreasonably skewed in The Bad Place’s favor? Is there even a Good Place to begin with? Or has The Bad Place been the only place in the afterlife this whole time?
62 Comments
No, Derek was with Mindy St Clair, remember?
I wonder what happened to those two? We only heard the altercation when Shawn’s goons interrupted them mid windchime coitus.
He can presumably go back and forth between the void and the Medium Place though, just like Janet does.
Perhaps, but would he want to?
They made it very clear that Janets (and Derek, I assume) cannot use their powers in The Medium Place, including phasing in and out of the Void. Janet complains about needing to walk in one episode.
Yeah, I remembered that after I wrote this, but it was too late to go back and edit. Silly me. Thanks for the correction.
I loved that one of the first things Chris did was to take his shirt off. Like he always did. Although I have to wonder how his actor audition went “and then you will take you shirt off in every scent you are in”.It was also great to see so many returning faces from the old neighbourhood.I loved that this time Eleanor told Chidi about them being in love in the past iteration and that she has feeling for him so much quicker. Of course Michael and Tahani helped.
As I said in the other thread Judge Gen said the motives for doing good matter too and Doug’s motives are all about points so they are as faulty as Thani’s were. It’s not really surprising he’s going to The Bad Place.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the nod to LOST in the opener.
I half expected Henry Ian Cusack to show up, to be honest. It was absolutely deliberate–and shot the same way. A number of shots of the back and side of the actors head spliced together with a number of close insert shots. It’s very clear they watched the original sequence from LOST and modeled the sequence after it as a result. You can see the original here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qky7zaS5eTM
“Does this have anything to do with the nagging sense that’s been at the center of the show from the very start … that the whole point system is unreasonably skewed in The Bad Place’s favor? Is there even a Good Place to begin with? Or has The Bad Place been the only place in the afterlife this whole time?”
I do think there’s a Good Place, but I’ve been wondering if anyone has ever gotten into it because the point system was so ridiculously skewed to punish people for such minor offenses. But now, I’m wondering if the demons running the Bad Place have decided to fuck with the natural order of things and tampered with the points system so that everyone on Earth ends up in the Bad Place.
Didn’t Michael say at some point that Abraham Lincoln got in? Granted, he was still in full-on Lying Demon mode at that point, but a lot of the things he said in S1 seem to be true anyway.I agree that it’s seeming likely that The Bad Place has messed with the process in some way, or at least that they’re taking advantage of the system’s weaknesses.
I thought it was a reference to everyone Team Cockroach talked to and interfered with were automatically sent to the bad place because they were somehow cheating. Then it would be the four humans + their loved ones they talked to + Doug.
It’s one of the rare missteps in the podcast that the bumper for this season mentions that “the number one podcast in the Good Place is Mozart and Jimi Hendrix discussing music” [the number one pod in the Bad Place is Stalin Recaps the Bachelor]. I have to imagine that the producers didn’t sign off on that, as seemingly meticulous as they’ve been about giving no definitive information about the real Good Place.
The Jerseys, numbers 06 (hockey) and 85 (football?). Given the nature of this show, i would be shocked if there was not a meaning behind them.Elenors sweater reminded me of The Bays striped pattern they use for their clothing. This is a large stretch i will grant that.
Man, the mise-en-scene in this show is out of control!
Continuing the Lost allusions; I thought Doug Fourcett’s morning routine was filmed like and somewhat thematically linked to Desmond’s routine in the bunker. Gotta push the button to save the world.
Absolutely, especially with the Mama Cass song, echoing the wonderful S2 cold open.
I was about to write this, suprised it wasn’t mentioned by main review or here. Maybe these writers are too young for Lost? (insert lost generation reference here)
I was about to write this, suprised it wasn’t mentioned by main review or here. Maybe these writers are too young for Lost? (insert lost generation reference here)
I was about to write this, suprised it wasn’t mentioned by main review or here. Maybe these writers are too young for Lost? (insert lost generation reference here)
I hope it’s more of an “obsession” thing and not an “age” thing.😅🤗☯️
Definitely too young for Lost
I mentioned it to my wife, who then asked what had ended up happening to Desmond. I googled his character bio on Lostpedia, and I remembered about ten percent of all the goings on. It might be time for a re-binge.
That’s the only part of Lost I’ve ever seen, and I immediately had the same thought. Had to have been deliberate.
Schur’s on record as a fan and talking to Damon Lindelhof before starting “The Good Place.” I believe you’re correct.
Well…yeah. https://variety.com/2016/tv/news/the-good-place-kristen-bell-ted-danson-michael-schur-1201828975/#!
Cool bro. I know how to use google.
That has been confirmed by the writer of the episode on The Good Place podcast (hosted by Marc Evan Jackson!)
That’s cool! I’m not too much into podcasts but I love this show. Thanks for letting me know!
Oh, it definitely was, down to the way we don’t see his face the whole time — and then my joy was compounded because it’s Michael “why the entire F was he not nominated for an Emmy last year for BCS” McKean!!
I know from the excellent Good Place podcast that Mike Shur asked for advice about twists and changing premises from Damon Lindelof, so Lost refs is almost certainly deliberate.
On the podcast for this episode, the writer mentions specifically that they referenced Desmond in the bunker for this. They’ve mentioned on other episodes of the podcast that the writers all love Lost and it works its way into a lot of the show.
Example: in the flashback episode last week, the numbers at the bottom of Eleanor’s failure board in Michaels office are the Lost bunker numbers (check the screengrab in last weeks annotation).
Another notable reference is the guy who asks Chidi “do you want to see god” in his breakdown episode is a reference to the Leftovers, also by Damon Lindelof, and that guys name in the script was credited as Damon.
Yes that’s why we’re here talking about specific references on the show. We do it every week. I don’t listen to podcasts but glad you enjoy it.
This was mentioned on The Good Place the Podcast and was absolutely the writers’ intent.
I didn’t know Doug Forcett was a writer-actor with an IMDB page, thought he was just a friend of the producers. I was very disappointed when I clicked the IMDB link and didn’t see his Doug Forcett portrait as his official portrait. He really needs to do that.
the link is through Joe Mande: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/04/196066/new-girl-noah-garfinkel-the-good-place
I like to imagine it’s his Facebook profile photo. Or maybe Tinder.
I also have been looking for signs, ever since the season 1 reveal, that the Good Place doesn’t exist at all, considering that we’ve not seen anyone from there, or have any confirmation that anyone on Earth ended up there after they died.Even Mindy St. Clair’s “Medium Place” seems like a specialized method of torture designed for her. The loneliness (which she claims not to mind but is obviously slowly driving her mad) and the total lack of cocaine.The point system itself (which the show has hinted was corrupt since the very beginning) seems like an elaborate torture method on the whole human race.
But… the existence of Good Janet(s) and the Judge would be a little difficult to explain away in the event of a twist like that. Still, it’s telling that we’ve never seen the Good Place or its inhabitants in any form.
As someone who was (very briefly) in charge of the editorial side of Yahoo Answers at the beginning, let me state that the horrors to be found in it on those days would have made Bad Place demons weep. I can only assume it’s gotten (somehow) worse.
Are you sure you didn’t die and go to The Bad Place for a bit? Did you wake after that job in a hospital bed?
So we’ve had Doug Forcett, Donkey Doug and Doug Shellstrop. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a pattern here.
Turns out the reveal of this show is that it’s an elaborate prequel to The Doug Place.
As a wise Korg once said: “Another day, another Doug.”
Peter Singer isn’t only a vegan and moral philosopher, he’s also a utilitarian. Probably the most well-known and influential utilitarian of the past 50 years, so a very appropriate pick for an episode about the pitfalls of utilitarianism.
My absolute favorite part of this episode was the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade homage (confirmed in the podcast):
Loved that.
We never saw the void where Janet resides, right?
This better be a trip of psilocybin mushroom-induced proportions and then some.
Well, since it’s invariably referred to as a “void,” I’m pretty much expecting a void.
The longer the show goes on, the more and more convinced I am that there is no Good Place. That then begs the question of why the elaborate charade of acting like there is one (especially with The Judge), but I simply can’t imagine a way that they can build a real Good Place into this narrative. But hey, they’ve surprised me before.
Yeah, I’m more and more convinced of that too, and that what we’re seeing is the revolution that eventually creates the Good Place. This show is an origin story!
what we’re seeing is the revolution that eventually creates the Good Place. This show is an origin story! I’ve thought of this too – and that the Soul Squad will, essentially, sacrifice themselves to create the actual Good Place. After six seasons I would hope, and maybe a movie.
Mindy St Claire had a representative of the Good Place in her Medium Place orientation video. And since we’ve never heard even one iota of suspicion that the Medium Place was fake or that Mindy St Claire is actually a Bad Place operative, I think that definitely proves that there IS a Good Place out there somewhere.
Schur actually said that the Medium Place is a “real place.” Other than to torture some people, why bother with the charade of a Good Place?
“The Bad Place is going to get them all eventually: These four, their loved ones, even your precious pee-pee king Doug Forcett”This made me picture what I hope the end of the series will look like:Michael, now operating a genuine Good Place with Janet (where instead of devising torture he devises happiness instead), but now having the portraits of the 4 Soul Squad members on the wall instead of Doug Forcett. “Oh, them? They fixed the afterlife, for everyone.”
“I’m very lucky to have those.”
Whoa. I’m pretty sure you’re the Doug Forcett of the “The Good Place” commentariat!
No way. If a little sociopath like Raymond was showing up at my place, I’d turn the hose on him. AND enjoy every minute of it, for maximum point loss.
Easy, friend! I only meant that I think your finale predictions will prove to be 92% accurate! And I’m with you on that a-hole, Raymond. I’ll hold him down if you want to give him an Awful Waffle. Just sayin’. I’ll even bring the tennis racket and maple syrup.
I just realised one more thing. All Shawn says about everyone being doomed to The Bad Place is all true. Sure, he probably wanted to torture them with the knowledge but he also actually knows. They hacked The Accountant’s system few episodes back so he knows the actual point tallies.
Also, the people he listed are fairly obvious. It’s canon that the main four (at this point) are doomed to the Bad Place with no hope of changing that. Their family members are mostly a-holes who have no chance of achieving Good Place level points. Kamilah is the only potential exception to that. Doug Forcett had tainted motives, so of course, he was doomed.
Wouldn’t janet already know all about how doug forcett was living?
I am rewatching the DVD, and Doug calls Michael “Mark” and has a panic about losing points, and spirals and kills a snail, because forgetting someone’s name is really bad. In A Fractured Inheritance, Eleanor calls her mom’s boyfriend Mark, he says it’s Dave, and she says she knows, she’s calling him a mark, i.e. the particular fool she thinks her mother is scamming. Doug freaks out about making Michael lie and then accusing him of lying, while Eleanor is accusing her mother of lying and Dave knows everything and kind of likes it.