The Good Place recap: Season 4, Episode 5, “Employee of the Bearimy,” Aired Oct. 24, 2019
Good news: Michael really is Michael. The episode opened with Vicky in her Michael suit torturing Janet in the Bad Place. Her Michael performance is definitely lacking, but at least we know Michael has really been Michael.
Meanwhile…
In Janet’s absence, the humans had to start doing things for themselves again, and it was up to Derek to keep the neighborhood running. Things did not go well.
The residents acted any way but normal, and Derek completely lost control. To distract the humans from the management issues, Eleanor asked Tahani to throw a party.
“Insert me, coachman”
Eleanor had Tahani take the humans to a far-away lake house to occupy them until Janet was rescued. However, Tahani wanted to help out more than with party-throwing. Another slight problem: Chidi decided to stay back and read. Have no fear; Tahani is on the job.
Tahani arrived at the center of the neighborhood to find it in chaos thanks to Derek, so Eleanor worked to keep Chidi busy while Tahani went back to the lake house to distract the other humans. Of course, Tahani still wanted more responsibility, so she took it upon herself to improve Derek by rebooting him to make him more advanced. Not a bad idea, but it did not fix the problem.
Luckily, Eleanor is skilled at thinking on her feet, and she managed to get Chidi to the lake house without him seeing Derek’s mess. She also gave Tahani a little pep talk in which she told her the parties are important to the experiment, and the two shared a nice moment.
Demon Con
Torture 2.0: Personalized skin suits.
Michael’s plan to rescue Janet was to pretend he was Vicky in a Michael suit and that Jason was Glenn in a Jason suit so that the two could “torture Good Janet” themselves (aka rescue Janet). The plan looked like it was going to work until Shawn decided the two should torture Good Janet live onstage at Demon Con. Janet played along, and the plan would have worked if not for real Vicky coming out in her Michael suit while Michael was still onstage.
Michael appealed to the demons’ morality, and when that didn’t work, he exploded two of them, including Vicky. That must have been satisfying for him. And armed with the demon exploder, he and Jason and Janet walked out of Demon Con to head back to the neighborhood.
I couldn’t end this The Good Place 4×05 recap without mentioning Michael’s trip down memory lane. It wasn’t easy for him to go back to the Bad Place and remember the life he used to lead as a demon, but he confronted it and realized he’s a better man – er… demon – now. Even Jason had some wise words on the subject.
Well, I’m certain Shawn won’t be pleased with the success of the rescue mission, so I expect so see some more Bad Place interference soon. I’ll be back next week for a recap of The Good Place airing on Halloween.
What did you think of “Employee of the Bearimy”? Let us know at @PureFandom on Twitter!
The Good Place airs Thursday nights on NBC at 9:00/8:00c.
(Image: Colleen Hayes/NBC)
