The Good Place Review: Help is Other People (Season 4 Episode 7)

It’s better to throw a Hail Mary than to use prevent defense, right?

This is Eleanor’s last chance on The Good Place Season 4 Episode 7, “Help Is Other People,” to show that Brent can be a good person, and it’s proving to be the most challenging play in this experiment to save humanity.

With just a few hours left before the clock runs out and Janet violently eats her babies, Eleanor still believes that the humans will finish with a win, even Brent, who’s continuing his campaign to be the worst good person of all time.

Nothing has made me shout at my television as much as watching Brent fork up over and over. How many times has he proved that he’s driving those around him crazy, offending them left and right, and yet he truly still believes he’s infallible? It’s absurd, yet rings true to real life.

We all know a Brent.

Eleanor knows it, as well. That’s why she’d kill to at least know that at some point Brent has said, “my bad!”

Eleanor cannot lose because she’s invested everything she had into making this experiment work for the greater good, including her soulmate, Chidi, or should I say, ‘Ducky?’.

I love the eleventh-hour revelation that Chidi’s ‘Muffin’ Simone is a rogue loose end that Eleanor didn’t count on ruining everything she’s worked so hard for.

Simone has been likable since we met her. She’s not annoying, not bad. She’s never been written as some sort of obstacle between Eleanor and Chidi living happily-ever-afterlife, which is why it’s been somewhat hard to view her as such.

We’ve had no reason to believe that she isn’t Chidi’s soulmate. They’re seemingly perfect for each other. 

It’s a shame that she doesn’t believe in soulmates.

That, however, isn’t what drives Ducky and Muffin apart. It’s also not that Chidi’s been keeping Jason’s secret from Simone. Or that Simone’s been making a madness detective board about the neighborhood behind Chidi’s back.

The final straw for their romance is that she’s bailed on saving Brent when it was of the utmost importance, and their final conversation. 

Chidi explaining the relevance of why he needs to help Brent get out of the sinkhole to Simone is simple; he just has to. It’s moral obligation.

Simone, meanwhile, points out that if you conduct an experiment a thousand times and always get the same results, then it’s time to move on.

To fully feel everything that’s wrong with Simone’s argument, one must go back to The Good Place Season 2. 

Michael reset the neighborhood hundreds of times on the humans to prove that they wouldn’t always find each other. And every single time they did. 

The same results. 

That’s what led them here, to this moment, proving that humans can become better in the afterlife. If Michael had moved on back then, accepted his fate and been retired, the afterlife would have been flawed forever.

Chidi and Simone part ways, respectfully. Their separation is perfect because as I just said, it’s been hard to find the flaw of Simone. 

And the true answer here is that neither she, nor Chidi, is wrong. They are both acting on their fundamental values. At the end of the day, Simone and Chidi just believe and want different things. 

Some people just aren’t soulmates. It doesn’t mean they belong in the Bad Place.  

 Pushing through the heartbreak, Chidi continues to try and help Brent, who still doesn’t get it.

At this point I feel as though I’ve descended into my own madness because I cannot believe the writers have saddled our humans with such an insane obstacle to overcome as Brent.

Eleanor and Michael go back to the beginning, with one final Hail Mary — let Chidi and Brent think they are in the Bad Place, a call back to The Good Place Season 1 finale.

I’d tell you about how frustrating it was to watch Brent spend so much of his final seconds stammering, but I was more struck by Chidi telling Brent he’s a bad person in those final seconds, and Brent’s humiliating reaction.

We’ve watched Brent’s excessive hubris all season. He’s been nothing but pompous. When Chidi tells Brent that he’s a bad person it’s satisfying to watch his face slowly change, to watch his bravado break apart, and to see self-realized fear and confusion in his eyes.

And when the clock runs out before Brent can say, “I’m so-,” which I hope was about to be a forking apology, it seems as though all hope is lost in this cliffhanger — which happens every four episodes, so I’m left to wait with bated breath to see how the writers write themselves out of this.

Other Observations:

• What would you eat on a day when everything was chocolate? I think it would depend on if it was hollow or solid. That’d be a true indicator of whether or not I was in heaven or hell.
• Chidi legitimately thinks he’s in hell because he drinks almond milk. More on that, please.
• I need a bonus video of “Purple Train to Groovy City” STAT.
• According to Jason, the opposite of a box full of donuts is a toilet full of broccoli.
• Listen, I’m on board with hating on dumb-shorts Cathy. She sounds like the worst.

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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