'The Good Place' Episode 13 Review: Team Cockroach helps patch Paradise's problem with perpetual perfection
Spoiler alert for Episode 13 'The Good Place'
Team Cockroach has done it! After everything they've gone through, it has been determined by a universal Judge (Maya Rudolph) that the four human souls have done what no human in over 500 years has done — they've earned themselves a spot in the Good Place.
It's not a hoax, or a dream, or another form of torture — the four humans are finally given everything they could ever have hoped for — their happily ever after with an emphasis on the "ever".
It's a dream they've been fighting for such a long time that they never actually stopped to consider what that might mean.
When Eleanor (Kristen Bell), Chidi (William Jackson Harper), Tahani (Jameela Jamil) and Jason (Manny Jacinto) first arrive, the Good Place is exactly what they could hope for.
Flying puppies with friendly welcomes, candy that gives them "The Engery You Had When You Were Twelve", magical green doors that take you to any time or place, real or imagined — instant gratification for anything they could ask for.
We have seen Michael's version of what heaven might look like, with simple, everyday pleasures taken to imaginative extremes, but the actual Good Place somehow takes everything a step further.
The cast really sell it too, their joy and wild excitement radiate off the screen. Their initial reactions to heaven are so wonderfully ecstatic, the four-season wait seems entirely worth it.
The only one who is really worried is Michael (Ted Danson), who is worried that a demon might not really be allowed into the Good Place, and it feels for a moment like that might be the episode's main conflict — is heaven really heaven if they have to leave Michael behind?
It turns out that the problem runs much deeper than that, however. Heaven itself has suffered a stagnation problem — because once you've achieved perfection, what else is there to do?
The Good Place architects, in a moment of uncharacteristic trickery, put Michael in charge and then literally run off. Constant, and immediate satisfaction has rotted the brains of the Good Place residents, as there's nothing left to challenge them, nothing to attain, and nothing to strive for.
It's all explained by ancient Greek philosopher Hypatia — Patty, for short — played by the delightful Lisa Kudrow. Even someone as dedicated to knowledge as Patty has been intellectually numbed by perfection.
It's a problem that has baffled the Good Place architects (who have come up with such desperate solutions as adding more chocolate to chocolate, or waiting for Beyonce to arrive and ask her to fix things), and a problem that now faces Michael after he's left in charge.
Fortunately, Michael has put a lot more time into understanding human nature than most of the afterlife's various angels, demons and architects.
In a callback to Michael learning to deal with his own mortality in Season 2, Eleanor reminds him that what gives life — and now, possible, the afterlife — its meaning is that constant nugget of sadness every human holds, knowing that one day they will die.
The actual word "death" is avoided, but what Michael does to fix the afterlife is create a door that, once passed through, will end a person's existence — permanently.
The problem brought up by eternal bliss is an interesting one, but the show's solution isn't quite as neat as its solution to the afterlife's system of judgment. What's being advocated here is essentially a kind of suicide.
It's a heavy concept, one that the show perhaps takes a little too lightly — especially given that offering this solution to heaven's residents is met with immediate celebration — but then again, with this being the penultimate episode, quick resolutions are something of a necessity.
It's easy to see how 'The Good Place' could have maybe spun out another season, with the characters trying to breathe new life into souls blitzed out on bliss, but with their entry into the Good Place, the stories of Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason are reaching a natural end.
The Good Place turns out to have been worth the wait, being a genuinely thrilling place to be, albeit one with its own problems.
The episode is a fun celebration of the reward that Team Cockroach has earned themselves, but dealing with its heavy philosophical implications of the Good Place's new final option is hopefully something that's dealt with a little more in the season finale.
The next episode of 'The Good Place' airs on January 30 on NBC.