I Can't Believe it FINALLY Happened! | The Good Place *Reaction* 3x9 "Janet(s)" (Commentary) 

I think Chidi shutting down the idea he could have anything in common with "that other Chidi" is based in fear, a lot like the Phoenix library conversation where Eleanor was stubbornly trying to avoid any vulnerability by ascribing their past relationship purely to Michael's manipulation.

I think this is my favourite episode. It's crazy how quickly you just see Janet as each of the characters. D'Arcy Carden is an amazing actress and Janet is my favourite character

"What're you gonna use it for" is definately one of my favourite jokes from this show! Amazing delivery. I think you'll kick yourself when you realise how the points have been "tampered" with

The points loss from the destination theme wedding is probably half waste, half the material difficulty caused in the lives of loved ones by making them plan a long-distance vacation, wear elaborate costumes, rehearse a much more complex ceremony, and generally immerse themselves in something they may or may not be interested in, just to celebrate your wedding. It’s a big commitment to demand of family, and some people see weddings as a social obligation. You can’t just… not go to them. Personally, I say save the destination for the honeymoon. You don’t have to go far in most countries to find any manner of beautiful natural scenery, if a church or ballroom isn’t your speed. The point threshold is 1 million, based on Michael’s fake Good Place.

When I was younger, I made up a sculpture-based pet theory about the whole "nature vs nurture" thing. I imagined that the "nature" aspect of people's temperment sort of relates to different media of sculpture; like metal, marble, wood, clay, etc. and the "nurture" aspect of the circumstances of your life are kind of like the different means of sculpting, like hammer and chisel, moulding, carving, pottery wheel, and so on. So one reason parents and teachers might have a difficult time with certain children might be because they are trying to use a pottery wheel to create a sculpture from a lump of bronze, for example. No amount of spinning and gentle pushing is going to change the form of that bronze. Or conversely, someone might try to use a furnace, hammer, and anvil to forge a piece of oak and take something that should be sturdy and strong and just burn it to a crisp. I actually still like this analogy, and I think it does have some small amount of utility as a thought experiment. Maybe some multiverse version of me became a psychologist and studied this. But this version of me recognizes too many flaws in the analogy and I'm aware that it's VERY easy for things like this to become very culty very quickly. Actually, that gives me an idea for a YA dystopian-future novel about a society that gives infants personality tests to determine their "medium". There's a caste system where those determined to be made of metal are given heightened status or something. Everything I know about "Divergent" I learned from the Ryan George 'Pitch Meeting' video of it, so if someone who has read the books could tell me if this idea is too similar, I'd appreciate it! :)

When you said 20 pound note I forgot you were British and imagined a note that weighed 20 lbs 😂

is the “i can’t believe it finally happened!” title about finding out more about how corrupt the overall system is or about michael being back in a bow-tie? scholars say we will never know…

"NOT THE CORNER PIECE!" Poor Neil. He really wanted that cake.

You know what this means? Mindy St. Claire is the best person of the last half a millennium, as she’s the only human who hasn’t ended up in the bad place.

all this multiverse talk has me thinking, if you haven't seen it already, i am _begging_ you to watch everything everywhere all at once for the channel. i would love to get your thoughts on it. if you love multiverse talk, "true self" discussions, meaning of life stuff, and oddly intense philosophical discussions framed in deceptively silly premises, then you are going to fucking love that movie.

Janet's speech to Michael about taking charge gives me chills and makes me emotional. Because the world is forked and nobody's fixing it and we have to step up and do it ourselves.

I was so looking forward to your reaction to this episode, it's one of my favorites. You and your commentary did not disappoint! 0:00 Also, all the praise for Darcy as she carried the bulk of this episode on all of her shoulders. It's really amazing how well she handled all that the writers put her through in these 20 minutes. Not only is she playing herself, but the reiteration of 4 of her castmates' characters, but just so she didn't get bored they're also decided to add to that some additional hoops like a Neutral Janet and how about maybe Eleanor-Janet pretending to be Jason-Janet. All of that for the actor who was initially casted to play not-a-robot. Chef's kiss ❤

One headcanon I’ve come up with is that Jason’s tattoo is actually not spelled “Jasom” but it is written in cursive and Jason probably doesn’t know how to read cursive

This was the first episode i actually bought into the Chidi/Elanor relationship, which considering how great Kristen Bell and WJH are, is a real testament to how great D'arcy Carden is

The fact that D’Arcy Carden didn’t win any awards for this episode is a crime.

I really enjoy your reactions to this show. All the best Tyler!

Loved hearing all of your thoughts and super excited to see your reaction to where we go from here

Eleanors favorite "movie" is the clip of John Travolta saying Adele Dazeem, who was actually Idina Menzel. Kristen and Idina were Anna and Elsa in Frozen, this line was a quiet nod to their friendship.

I like your discussions bc this show is obv very philosophical, but sometimes it kinda exhausting when 30 sec into the episode you go on a 20 minute rant about something that will be answered if you just hit play 😭

So iirc, the actors all read and recorded the lines (and maybe even acted out the scenes?) for their characters, and then D’Arcy listened to (and maybe watched) those recordings on a loop!

Great episode ❤ Chidi's dilemma about past versions of himself always reminds me of a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode called "Dax". Jadzia Dax is a joined Trill - Jadzia joined with a sentient, long-lived, intelligent symbiont called Dax. From Wikipedia: "Jadzia is Dax's eighth host. The two share a single, conscious mind, and her personality is a blending of the characteristics of both the host and the symbiont. As such, Jadzia has access to all the skills and memories of the symbiont's seven previous hosts." In the episode, Jadzia is detained for murdering someone. The problem is, the accused is actually the Dax previous host, Curzon. Jadzia (not accused) and Dax (accused) cannot be separated without killing Jadzia. The question in the episode is, 'Can innocent Jadzia be charged with a crime that was committed in Dax's previous lifetime?"

The actress who plays Janet truly did an amazing job. Before their clothes change, there was little doubt which Janet was each character. So.. Chiddy isn't responsible for his actions in another version of himself? SO if you buy into the multi worlds theory that every choice we make creates a new reality, and that all choices play out... just how would that impact a spiritual beings 'rating'? Can there actually be ANY rating if we act out all choices?

Such a great episode. D'Arcy Carden is stellar in it and I'd have given her all the awards.

I like how this reaction shows how great art can make someone ask the real important questions. Like, how *did* John Travolta get "adele dazeem"? We may never know, but it is worth contemplating nonetheless. Looking forward to your analysis of what's really going on with nobody getting into the good place.

This episode aired in 2018. 2018 - 521 = 1497.

god I love this show

i just can't help but think of wheatley from portal whenever i watch this episode...

Don't want to spoil anything yet, but it's also interesting they picked 521 years as the last time someone got into the good place for a specific reason, will come back here tonsay why after the next episode

The question about the threshold to get into the Good Place is interesting, because surely it needs to be a function of your age. Like, if a newborn baby dies, they would have zero points because they've never done anything, good or bad. Surely they shouldn't be kept out of the Good Place just for that! But if an 80 year old dies with zero points, surely they should go to the Bad Place because they have failed to put anything good into the world in all that time.

Surely this is your yap record 😂

Man, it's been a minute. WOOHOO

My favorite episode! Amazing performances from D’arcy Carden and an appearance from my celebrity crush Stephen Merchant!

@24:15 is when I realised just how scary my Florida-commonality connection to Jason shines through 💀 Wonderful reaction, as always!

What if you’re drunk and you blink out of consciousness are you not responsible for the actions taken in that black out?? Your chain of consciousness is broken

The best thing about Brits reacting to stuff: They actually recognize Stephen Merchant!

Your "nature vs nurture" monologue (and Chidi's "who are we really" lecture) are both full of impossible questions like, "what is the personality of a newborn?" and "what if my brain was split in two and put into two different people?". I have some ideas that are a little more concrete. You know those news stories where a set of identical twins are seperated at birth and find out about each other as adults because a mutual friend of both twins noticed how similar they look and behave, even though they've never met? Maybe it's because they are innately similar, or maybe it's because both twins were raised in the same culture and the same generation. How do we know there aren't dozens more sets of twins seperated at birth who never find each other because they aren't similar enough to draw attention to it? It'd be unethical to intentionally send one twin to another country for the purpose of a study, but I'd be willing to bet that would have a massive impact on the similarity of the twins as adults. Here's a possible (but equally hypothetical) scenario that examines nature vs nurture: you adopt a 3-year-old dog with an unknown history. Could've been spoiled, could've been abused, you don't know. Like all animals, he has his quirks and idiosyncracies - you don't know if it's in the breed or because of his past experiences. He barks at strangers: because protecting his owner is in his nature, or because he's had negative experiences with strangers? He loves chasing after a ball, but never brings it back: was he never taught to retrieve, or does he just not have enough retriever in him to begin with? The dog dies. You, having the dog's body and $10,000 to spare, send the dog's DNA to be cloned (that's a thing) and 7 or 8 months later, you recieve three 8-week-old puppies, perfect clones of your previous dog. Do they behave like your dog, or not? Do they behave like each other, or not? If they're seperated for a year and treated differently, surely they'll develop differently. What happens if they were brought back in the same home? Would they act like each other again, or remain very different for a time, or permanently? Do they bark at strangers? Do they bring the ball back? Personally, I think 90-95% of who one is comes from the way one is raised and the things one experiences. Some obvious exceptions include significant genetic mental health and developmental issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, Down syndrome, and other diagnoses with a clear genetic component. There are studies that suggest other mental health issues like psychopathy and sociopathy may be the result of a fetus' brain getting too much or not enough of certain chemicals in utero. Even though that happens before birth, it's still 'nurture' because (studies suggest) it's something that happens to the individual, not (necessarily) a genetic predisposition. This kind of stuff will tie your brain in knots and I genuinely hope that this and so many more questions are answered in the afterlife.