Season 3 Episode 12: Pandemonium

[sorchasilver]

Here's your reaction post for the season 3 finale, airing tonight in the US. Feel free to squee, yell, flail, discuss and speculate in the comments.

I'll be watching it when it hits Netflix here tomorrow (once I catch up with last week's ep, *cough*), so I'll join you when I can ;)

Comments

[ironymaiden]

Oops, I thought last week was the last one. This season has had a lot of endings.

[thatwasjustadream]

This.... show. I can't even. Some of what happened we guessed was coming. And then....

Another series of twists - more like switchbacks, if it were a road. And they made me cry; actual wiping away tears, ugly crying. Not at the "Obvious Scene" but the one right after it - and the very end of the epi.

I need time to process this one, clearly.

[yourlibrarian]

This definitely felt like the most emotional episode to me, lots of moments.

[thatwasjustadream]

Yes - and I think they hit the mark with them. Loved the convo with Janet, and that ending.... ugh.

Makes sense as an S3 turning point epi - first big loss, in terms of Team Cockroach being separated by fate, that kind of thing. In most shows, S4 would get better, better, better, until...ULTIMATE Cliff Hanger! Then S5 would wrap it up. With this one, though... who knows. ;)

[acequeenking]

Won't be able to watch until tomorrow, but everyone on my friends list whose watching is ugly crying and I have a simultaneous sense of deep foreboding as well as eagerness to see how this season ends...

and a fear of how we'll all survive the bad place waiting for season 4, of course!

[enemyofperfect]

I love this show so much!

I guess we know now why they rushed Eleanor and Chidi into a romantic relationship again so quickly. And weirdly, I find myself better reconciled to the way they fell in love at the end of season two.

Because that wasn't the pinnacle, was it? That was just one step along the way. In season one, they were dear friends; in season two, they were brave enough to commit to a kind of relationship that always scared them; in season three, they're brave enough to give up that relationship; and who knows what future seasons might bring?

And I love Tahani taking his arm after he broke the news, and Jason's concern that he at least remember pizza, and I'm so proud of Tahani for not falling into the trap the demons laid for her, and look how much Janet has grown!

I was pretty upset to learn that Simone had died, but if season four does right by her, I will be appeased. It does seem like there will almost definitely be some more love triangle shenanigans, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I guess after three years I can try giving the show some trust, huh?

What a finale, honestly.

(Eleanor is absolutely a snack, and I love that how no matter how much she grows, she's still herself. Being good isn't boring! It's sexy as hell, people!)

[author_by_night]

in season three, they're brave enough to give up that relationship; and who knows what future seasons might bring?

Oh, wow. Great observation!

, and I'm so proud of Tahani for not falling into the trap the demons laid for her,

Me too. That was an amazing moment for her.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I was also happy about Tahani. It's important they keep showing all 4 moving past their old selves.

[brainwane]

The Drake-RBG callback made me laugh aloud.

The "deleted scenes" of past Eleanor-Chidi moments - so lovely.

Whom will the Bad Place bring in to needle Jason and Eleanor?

questions for next season

[oldtoadwoman]

Whom will the Bad Place bring in to needle Jason and Eleanor?

Or was Simone the one meant to get under Eleanor's skin and there's someone else to torment Chidi?

I have trouble even imagining someone Jason wouldn't get along with. Perhaps someone genuinely good, but a stickler for rules. That would drive him bonkers.

Re: questions for next season

[enemyofperfect]

Or was Simone the one meant to get under Eleanor's skin and there's someone else to torment Chidi?

Oh, that's a great thought! There's even another existing character who might work for him: the red cowboy boots guy.

[author_by_night]

I just sent this in a Facebook message to a friend:

That moment when Joss Whedon dies and comes back to life as Michael Schur.

Other questions:

- How did Simone die? Also, will she and Chidi wonder why they're the only ones who worked at the same place? Although I guess if Eleanor's tormentor knew Eleanor...

- I really hope we don't get a contrived love triangle, because those irritate me. Knowing this show though, it'll somehow only last about two episodes.

- I am glad to see Simone back, though. I always wondered if there was more to her than met the eye. She was way too cool about Chidi dumping her for no apparent reason.

- Is the Judge just evil? Because I'm sorry, but... what Shawn did really was epic cheating. Of course, that's probably the whole point.

[yourlibrarian]

I get very impatient with love triangles too (which is why I'm glad they changed their minds about involving Tahani in one).

[littlestclouds]

Schur seems pretty steadfast about not doing a love triangle (x) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed:

So rest assured that even as Schur and his writers throw a very familiar wrench in the Eleanor and Chidi love story in Season 3, it won’t wind up being something audiences have seen before. The sitcom introduced Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Simone, Chidi’s extraordinarily likable co-worker and new love interest. Even audiences rooting hard for Chidi and Eleanor to connect will have a hard time disliking her. But despite its familiarity, Schur says this new dynamic won’t develop into a worn-out love triangle audiences have seen again and again.

“I personally hate, more than anything, stories in which women fight over men,” Schur says. “I think it’s the single most retrogressive, sexist, and frankly boring trope in the history of television. We were very careful to design a scenario with Eleanor and Simone where the point was never, not once, not for one second, jealousy or ‘how dare you—that’s my man,’ or any of that boring old crap that people have been doing in a very sort of like reductive way for decades. There’s no reason Simone and Eleanor shouldn’t be friends. There’s no reason Eleanor and Tahani shouldn’t be friends. Like we just sort of like wipe the slate clean with all that stuff, and as a result, I think we are telling more interesting stories than we would have been if we had just kept everything going the same way.”

[erinptah]

Eleanor playing Architect was everything I'd hoped for.

Not sure why Jason's pretending to be a monk again. If he remembered earlier reboots I could buy it as a habitual thing, but he doesn't.

I do like that we finally got Simone back. Do I even want to know how she died? I'm torn.

Really hoping someone's story will be "they lived a long full life and died peacefully in their '90s." Everyone so far has been so young! Maybe have someone who chooses to appear in a younger version of their body, and then get comedy mileage out of them chastising all the young upstarts.

Facepalming pretty hard at the let's-give-Chidi-amnesia twist. We've seen this four times already! And that's not even counting all the offscreen reboots. It's like every show where they don't know how to write an established couple, so they keep putting in contrived circumstances to break them up. (And realistically, how is Jason going to avoid tipping off Chidi that something's up?)

Ever since I saw the title I was hoping they'd bring up Pandemonium as a location in Dante's hell. Nice shoutout.

[enemyofperfect]

They are awfully young for a bunch of dead people, aren't they? I'd love to have someone older -- someone who could offer input on the way the world is growing more complex over time, even! -- although I admit I'm not holding my breath.

...Actually, come to think of it, the show is ignoring the question of age really hard, isn't it? Because if not one human has made it into the Good Place in over 500 years, and Mindy is the only person in the Medium Place, that would seem to imply that kids who die are getting tortured too. Wow.

[erinptah]

Yeeees. I feel like people have brought up the question of kids before, and I've had this same "uh-oh" moment, but then let it slip out of mind again.

In Dante's Hell, the outermost circle is Limbo, a no-torture zone whose denizens include pre-baptized babies and righteous nonbelievers. Given the shoutout this episode, I think it's reasonable to hope the Bad Place has a similar failsafe for "people who didn't make the points cutoff but can't be held responsible."

Given the show's focus on do-overs, my first guess would be that their souls reincarnate and have to try again. Although it's really entertaining to picture a Kid Place, some kind of playground Neighborhood overseen by a teenage Babysitter Janet...

[enemyofperfect]

Reincarnation does seem like the most likely option if the show ever goes there. OMG, though, the image of a teenage Janet!

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I was wondering that about Jason as well. Maybe everyone else thought it would be the best idea for him to have his vow of silence back to avoid giving the game away?

I was both happy and sad to see Simone back -- that was young to have died! And you're right, everyone in the Fake Good Place seems awfully young. Perhaps they all revert to a young age after death?

[enemyofperfect]

Maybe everyone else thought it would be the best idea for him to have his vow of silence back to avoid giving the game away?

I like that theory! The only other possibility I could think of is that he and Tahani saw a picture of his old outfit in Janet's void and Tahani was into it.

[erinptah]

Ooh, now that you mention it, it's gotta be the vow of silence plan. (Now I'm wondering if any of the new humans will have the experience to see that he's Filipino and not Taiwanese.)

If age-reversion is an option, it makes sense that a lot of people would take it. But I do hope it's an option, not a default.

[la_dissonance]

I was not aware this was the season finale while I was watching it so I was like "cool cliffhanger, can't see where they'll take this next week!" Honestly, the shock is still sinking in.

The plot line of Tahani having to make nice with this guy who harassed her relentlessly in order to ~be a better person~ really didn't sit well with me. It would be really different if he was some coveted blogger who always covered Kamilah instead of Tahani, or something - but they introduce him as someone who had a countdown to when the Olsen twins would be "legal" which is so massively gross that all the onus of becoming a better person should be on him. I really hope they do something better than what I'm imagining, but that setup does not leave me very optimistic.

Man, this comment is a downer. On the plus side, Janet and Jason were extremely cute and I love them the most.

[littlestclouds]

I NEED SEASON FOUR RIGHT NOW.

Also I'll be in my corner crying over Eleanor and Chidi.