I kinda wanted Eleanor's explanation to Simone to be "you're having a certain kind of fun drinking with a friend and mutually tearing this book apart, right? You couldn't have that in the Good Place without someone like him to provide it."
Although with Simone, any hint of "Brent didn't actually earn his way into the Good Place" and it wouldn't be long before she started wondering "who else among us didn't earn it, and is this really the Good Place at all?"
I think Tahani's approach is different enough that it wouldn't help Brent. She had this underlying inferiority complex from being pitted against her sister, so when she was confronted with a personal failing, she reacted by thinking "that must be justified, I didn't work hard enough, I shall do twice as much next time." (Thus season-1 Michael torturing her with "you're the lowest on the point-totals list, so your whole life fell short, in a no-longer-fixable way.")
Whereas when Brent is confronted with a personal failing, he reacts by thinking "that doesn't make sense, I'm great in every way, some external cause must be rigged against me." And then he lashes out at the nearest convenient target.
...also, Brent being Brent, he would dismiss any insights from Tahani as "you just don't understand the white male perspective." Michael is the one with the best chance of getting through to him (in spite of being secretly a six-thousand-foot fire squid). I liked that this episode explored that a bit.
no subject
Although with Simone, any hint of "Brent didn't actually earn his way into the Good Place" and it wouldn't be long before she started wondering "who else among us didn't earn it, and is this really the Good Place at all?"
I think Tahani's approach is different enough that it wouldn't help Brent. She had this underlying inferiority complex from being pitted against her sister, so when she was confronted with a personal failing, she reacted by thinking "that must be justified, I didn't work hard enough, I shall do twice as much next time." (Thus season-1 Michael torturing her with "you're the lowest on the point-totals list, so your whole life fell short, in a no-longer-fixable way.")
Whereas when Brent is confronted with a personal failing, he reacts by thinking "that doesn't make sense, I'm great in every way, some external cause must be rigged against me." And then he lashes out at the nearest convenient target.
...also, Brent being Brent, he would dismiss any insights from Tahani as "you just don't understand the white male perspective." Michael is the one with the best chance of getting through to him (in spite of being secretly a six-thousand-foot fire squid). I liked that this episode explored that a bit.