Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.

After Michael reveals to Eleanor that she fell in love with Chidi in one of the reboots, she demands to know more about this impossible scenario. Eleanor thinks she’s incapable of loving another person. To ease her worries, Michael decides to show her that exact reboot scenario.

I died of extreme laughter when he sets Eleanor up with the machine for three seconds of memory time. She fries her entire hair off and according to the demon who isn’t capable of judging human physiology, Michael admits she couldn’t pull being bald off. Her head was literally smoking after she heals up.

We also got a brief glimpse of Vicki, the demon who hadn’t made an appearance since early season two. She makes her return in this episode and travels with Shawn to Earth. The Bad Place created an illegal door to Earth to cause mayhem for our main characters.

The other Soul Squad members: Chidi, Tahani, and Janet are shoved to the side in this episode, even in the flashbacks. It helped that they didn’t show up at all until the end when Michael and Eleanor picked them up from the airport.

After reliving the reboots, Eleanor believes she did not have free will and was forced into falling in love with Chidi through Michael’s manipulations. I thought her argument was not strong enough to outshine the love we witnessed between Chidi and Eleanor. Love is the strongest emotion in story-telling. It’s what we look for in character interactions.

Ted Danson and Kristen Bell are our best performers.

Giving them the weight of this episode feels light and their dynamic is heartfelt / natural. The scene with Michael pouring his iced tea over Eleanor was amazing and the mentions of porn being shot at their two main settings were spot-on. After this, Michael is able to convince Eleanor that she is only using determinism to avoid dealing with her feelings.

Next week’s adventure should continue the fun and give our Soul Squad something else to contend with when they meet the man with the most soul points. They will also have to deal with Shawn and the Bad Place Crew ruining their fun. What the Fork, right?

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