The Good Place Review: A Girl From Arizona, Part 2 (Season 4 Episode 2)
It’s not easy being a leader, especially when you’re literally trying to save humanity.
The Good Place Season 4 Episode 2, “A Girl From Arizona, Part 2,” gives us more insight into the struggles Eleanor is facing, and it only confirms how much her character has developed.
She’s an entirely different person than she was when we first met her, and her ability to step up now and lead, even when she knows her peers are losing faith in her abilities, is pretty remarkable. It’s an even bigger deal that she sets aside her own feelings and brings Chidi and Simone together.
What I love most about the story The Good Place has created, I think, is the relationship between Michael and Eleanor. They’ve both learned a lot from one another, and Michael has become, at least at times, a mentor to her. That’s particularly true on this episode, which gives us a heartwarming, yet still funny, scene between the two of them.
Michael: Human beings, as it turns out, are weird. And I will never truly understand what it’s like to be one. This is a job for a human — one who’s tough but also empathetic and has a big heart. And a world-class bullshirt detector. You think you can’t do this? Eleanor, you’re the only one who can do this.
The Good Place has never been silly for the sake of being silly. It’s always been grounded in its exploration of what it means to be a good person and how people relate to one another. That’s what makes a scene like that one so moving.
And the next plan for horrible awful Brent? Trick him into being a good person. As Eleanor points it, the plan relies a lot on her own experience.
While her motivations to do good things and learn to be a good person weren’t for the right reasons at first, she eventually learned from them anyway. The hope is that the same will become true of Brent as he tries to get into the “Best Place.”
That guy really is the worst, isn’t he?
As for Chidi, it’s already interesting to see how he interacts with Simone, who he’s now been told is his “soul mate.” This is a restart for Chidi and it’s either an interesting piece of character development or a misstep that he’s let go of some of the indecisiveness he once had — the very trait that landed him in The Bad Place to begin with.
Whichever is the case, it’s a fascinating move to watch him start over and be completely out of the loop from the rest of the gang.
Other thoughts:
- You can’t help but feel sad for Jason, though I never felt too very invested in the idea of him and Janet together.
- Tahani shows some growth of her own by being there for Jason and reminding him that he’s not alone. It’s a sweet moment.
- It’s so funny to see The Good Place show someone else’s traits in that exaggerated way. Giant golfballs rolling around all that Princeton gear? It’s really something.
What did you think of this episode of The Good Place? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Good Place airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.