- ❝ I can't go! I'm too young to die and too old to eat off the kids menu! What a stupid age I am!! ❞
- —Jason, Attempt 3: Day 128
Chapter 16: Dance Dance Resolution is the 3rd episode of Season 2 of The Good Place.
Plot[]
Michael reboots his neighborhood to torture the humans, and fails again. And again. And again.
Summary[]
Michael reboots the neighborhood (and Janet) again to try torturing Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason again. However, no matter how many times he tries and modifies it, from giving the humans different soulmates to altering the environments, Eleanor eventually figures out its true nature, over and over again (and during Attempt #649, Jason figured it out). Michael grows more frustrated as time goes on, even hitting rock bottom during Attempt #484 where he gorges himself on junk food and alcoholic drinks, but refuses to give up.
Michael launches Attempt #802. He goes outside to a neighborhood meeting, and nobody is there except Vicky, who says he's lost control of the experiment and the demons have gone on strike. Vicky complains that everyone is sick of the constant reboots, they often can't remember what their jobs are, and she herself is still upset about the size of her part. They have a list of demands, and Vicky says Michael will have to fit them into his system.
Meanwhile, Eleanor is taking ethics lessons from Chidi again. She's bored and suggests they go outside, where they notice the town streets are empty. They notice a strange burning smell and follow it, finding a group of demons (including one lava monster named Todd who isn't wearing his human skin-suit) complaining about the constant reboots and of Michael's version of the Bad Place in general. Eleanor and Chidi are horrified to learn that they've literally been put through hell hundreds of times and got their memories erased and try to figure out what to do. They use Janet to escape and she takes them on the train to the Medium Place, where Mindy St. Claire greets them. She reveals that this is the sixteenth time Eleanor has come by here with Janet and some other human and is frustrated that she's forgotten to bring cocaine again.
Vicky presents the list of the other demons' demands. Hers is to take over the next reboot and be a "main character". Michael is outraged, but Vicky has ammo: if Michael doesn't comply with this, she will reveal the 800 reboots to Shawn.
Back in the Medium Place, Mindy explains that Eleanor, Janet and one or two of the other humans (usually Chidi, but sometimes Jason and/or Tahani) will come to the Medium Place to escape from Michael, but they would eventually end up going back to rescue whoever was left behind. Chidi says they need a plan, so Mindy pulls out a board consisting of all the things they've tried before to defeat Michael, which include trying to seduce him, outright attacking him, or trying to make him think he's in the bad place.
Michael is standing on a bridge, and Jason comes calling for anyone, so Michael takes him aside to bounce ideas off of.
Chidi and Eleanor try to go over their options. Chidi is discouraged and says it's pointless - they're trapped in an endless loop and they lose their memories every time they try to break out of it. Eleanor gets upset with him giving up and goes to complain about him to Mindy. Mindy is tired of her complaining, and says Eleanor and Chidi have it bad for each other. Eleanor denies this, but Mindy shows her a video she recorded from the sixth time they were at her home, showing Chidi and Eleanor in bed together telling each other they love each other. Eleanor is stunned by this; from her perspective, they've only known each other for a few days and she considers Chidi to be an uptight and humorless dork. Mindy disagrees, and asserts there's a reason why they keep coming back to each other. Eleanor calls Janet and Chidi over to announce they're leaving and takes the tape back with her.
Michael bounces options off of Jason as he feels he's caught between a rock and a hard place - he's certain Vicky's plan would be a failure, but if he doesn't go along with them otherwise, she'll rat him out to Shawn. Jason then relays the story of how he and his old friend Donkey Doug were in a dance team, and then they got into a fight due to Jason framing Donkey Doug's girlfriend for stealing a boogie board. Donkey Doug organized a rival dance team and challenged Jason's dance team to a dance-off, so Jason's team went there and slashed their tires. From something in there, Michael gets an idea.
Michael gets to Eleanor's house, where she, Chidi and Tahani are, and Jason joins them. Eleanor says they keep figuring out the puzzle of the Good Place, so they're winning and he's losing. Michael says that they're on the same page and tells them that he wants to team up with them.
Cast[]
- Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop
- William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye
- Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al-Jamil
- D'Arcy Carden as Janet/Bad Janet
- Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza
- and Ted Danson as Michael
Recurring Cast
- Tiya Sircar as Vicky
Guest starring
Co-Starring
- Bambadjan Bamba as Bambadjan
- Josh Siegal as Glenn
- Aisha Kabia as Kamaria
- Jess Rowland as Sebastian
- Joe Mande as Toddrick Hemple
Trivia[]
- The episode debuted to 4.67 Million viewers.
- The previous plans for defeating Michael are: "physically attack Michael", "stab with small knife", "find Michael's boys, blackmail, drug him", "seduce Michael", "throw Tahani under the bus", "stab with large knife", "make Michael think he's the one in TBP", "indecent proposal him", "Shawshank our way out", "try to stuff Michael back in his magic lamp", "find Ray Donovan but an angel", "catch that magic panda, use her powers", "Eleanor turn self in", and "find Doug Forcett".
- ||Spoiler|| - In the montage of Eleanor repeatedly realizing she is in TBP, you see her holding balloons surrounded by cacti. This is a reference to the show artwork where Eleanor is holding balloons and Michael is next to her.
Gallery[]
