The Good Place Review: Patty (Season 4 Episode 12)
After everything Team Cockroach has gone through, it turns out The Good Place isn’t exactly all it’s cracked up to be.
On The Good Place Season 4 Episode 12, “Patty,” the gang finally enters The Good Place. It’s as wonderful as anyone could imagine — everything their hearts could ever desire is there. There’s just one problem: having everything you want for eternity gets boring and soul-crushing really quickly.
Even someone has historically significant and incredible as Patty (Lisa Kudrow) is broken by The Good Place. Her brain has turned to mush and her life revolves around milkshakes.
The idea is that when there’s nothing to work toward and no obstacles to overcome, life loses its meaning. Even more important than that idea is the realization that life is only worth living if you know it’s going to end.
So with the way The Good Place is structured, there’s no meaning anymore. Everyone isn’t filled with joy. Instead, the “perfect paradise” just turns everything into milkshake-drinking zombies. Even the Janets of The Good Place seem less interesting — though let’s face it, the Janet we’ve come to know is the best one and always will be.
It’s a brilliant take, and a brilliant way to set up the end of the series, because no, they haven’t reached their happily ever after. There’s still more work to do.
That’s in part because at this point, we know that Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason are well-equipped to solve what are literally some of the universe’s biggest problems, and in part because Michael is tricked into running The Good Place.
Well, he did want a new project.
The solution the gang comes up with a simple one, but it’s highly effective. They give everyone an out. They can walk through a door and end their time in The Good Place, just like that. It’s not required, but it’s there. And as for what happens when they walk through the door? No one knows.
That simple idea — that this could all end — is all it takes for everyone in The Good Place to erupt with joy. There’s meaning now that didn’t exist before that option was there.
It’s also fascinating that there’s no answer to what would happen next. Obviously, The Good Place has intertwined itself with religious ideas from the beginning — it’s a story about what happens in the afterlife.
But what the show has done incredibly well all along is to be relatable regardless of what the viewer may personally believe, and not knowing what would really happen if someone walks through that door is perhaps the most relatable idea of all.
The beauty of The Good Place, of the perfect afterlife, is summed up with Eleanor and Chidi, though. It’s having that extra time. Just a little more time to be with the people you love.
Still, with a story that carries such meaning, the comedy is there. It’s there in silly ways, like with Eleanor sniffing a bedpan, for example.
The mish-mash of the perfect party for each member of Team Cockroach is so perfectly executed, funny, and character-specific that it only makes me wish we could have spent more time watching those details. And Lisa Kudrow’s appearance is nothing short of fantastic.
For a show to be this hilarious while being so meaningful and presenting such thoughtfully developed characters is what really makes The Good Place unique, and we’re clearly heading toward an ending that will wrap the series in a satisfying way.
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 series finale, which will consist of back-to-back, extended episodes begins Thursday, January 30th at 8:30/7:30c 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.