The Good Place Review: Tahani Al-Jamil (Season 1 Episode 3)
Eleanor’s transition to becoming a better person is already a forking mess.
On The Good Place Season 1 Episode 3, “Tahani Al-Jamil,” Eleanor takes an opportunity to bond with her neighbor and discover the hidden bad person underneath her peppy, condescending demeanor.
Eleanor: Who died and left Aristotle in charge of ethics?
Chidi: Plato!
Unsurprisingly, her search leads Eleanor to self-discovery. Her insecurity has always ruled out in her relationships with others, as we see in the flashback with an ex-boyfriend and in the present day with Tahani, which allows even more growth for the character before she’s able to flourish.
Eleanor has to establish a confidence about the good things she’s done and continues to do, or she’ll never be able to continue the path because there will always been someone better, someone nicer, and she’ll attempt to drag them down to her level and set herself back.
The real star of the episode is Janet, the celestial guide. In an attempt to make her behave more human, Michael makes her even more hilarious. Her rude personality shift as they explain the mess that is Chidi’s book highlighted the episode, mostly because it was so out of the ordinary.
Did anyone else not even suspect Jianyu as Eleanor’s blackmailer?
He’s a monk. Uh, he was a monk. Actually, he probably isn’t a monk. The place of the person he took was probably a monk, so who knows who Jianyu is? His use of “homie” probably excludes a religious path for him, but we’ll see.
It’ll be interesting to see how Eleanor and Jianyu play off of each other, and to see which one of them was worse in life. They both have to become better people in order to maintain the neighborhood, but Jianyu lying to Tahani is the biggest issue as of now. Will he tell her, his soul mate? How will she react, seeing as she actually is a decent person?
Michael is about the worst coordinator ever.
Like, ever.
What did you think of this episode of The Good Place? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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The Good Place airs Thursdays at 8:30/7:30 on NBC.
Jay Ruymann
Jay is a freelance writer and a Slytherin, who uses Leslie Knope as a role model, suffering from an addiction to coffee and television that is only encouraged by his professional life. While busy slaving away at the day-to-day, he also enjoys a good binge-watch of Parks and Recreation and Pretty Little Liars.