‘The Good Place’ Season 2, Episode 3 Recap: Sex, Love, and Stone Cold Steve Austin

It’s official: NBC’s The Good Place has entered the pantheon of television shows you need to watch live. Fork you, DVRs!

I had two minor concerns after watching last week’s sensational season premiere: How can you properly tell this story if the audience is so far ahead of the main characters, and will Michael’s repeated erasing of everyone’s memory completely invalidate all the character development from Season 1? Both of these issues were addressed in Chapter 16: “Dance Dance Resolution.”

You got the feeling from the season premiere that Vicky could be the instrument of chaos who’d end up throwing Michael’s intricate machinations into disarray, and that’s exactly what happened this week. Through a series of montages, we learn that Eleanor and the gang have thwarted Michael’s devious schemes on literally hundreds of occasions. This not only helps to show how exasperated Michael has become, but it also gives the writing staff plenty of opportunities to unload an arsenal of jokes, including a variety of puns for Good Place eateries (“Knish From a Rose,” “Beignet and the Jets,” “Biscotti Pippen”).

No longer willing to accept the ignominy of going from “Fake Eleanor” to background player, Vicky attempts to blackmail a downtrodden Michael and take over as the new architect of the Bad Place’s Rube Goldberg mental torture machine. Shawn already set the stakes last week: If Michael’s experiment fails, he’ll be forced into retirement where he’ll spend eternity burning on the surface of a million suns, which, breaking news, is not ideal. Little does Shawn know that Michael’s latest attempt, along with hundreds of additional trials, have been a bust.

Advantage Vicky.

Vicky’s coup leads to one of my favorite pop culture tropes: Enemies being forced to team up to battle an even graver nemesis. Desperate, Michael seeks advice from Jason, of all people, and caught between a rock and spending eternity underneath a hard place, he comes clean to Eleanor and the gang and suggests they form an alliance.

“So whataya say? New best friends?”

I could not be more invested in this potential alliance. Not only does it give Michael a genuine reason to stop erasing everyone’s memory, but it’s also an abundant source for story and conflict. How do you trust someone whose sole purpose is to torture you for eternity? How can you be sure this isn’t an elaborate plot? I’ll be very interested to see where this goes next week.

The other major development from tonight’s episode is that Eleanor and Chidi took the train to the Medium Place and made a stop at a quaint little villa I like to call Bone Town, USA. Eleanor may not remember Chidi’s Season 1 efforts to make her a better person, but thanks to the Medium Place’s resident pervert Mindy St. Claire (and her hidden camera), Eleanor discovers that she and Chidi have had sex numerous times during one of their many trips to Mindy’s mediocre village of perpetual boredom. The cherry on top of this sexy sundae? Mindy’s hidden camera footage reveals that Eleanor and Chidi have also exchanged ‘I love you’s,’ which is a meteoric revelation for Eleanor.

“I’ve only ever said I love you to two men my entire life: Stone Cold Steve Austin, and a guy in a dark club… who I mistook for Stone Cold Steve Austin.”

This twist helps assuage my concerns about the invalidation of previous character development. Eleanor’s clever enough to understand the positive effect Chidi’s had on her. Also, before you poke fun at Eleanor’s taste in men, look at the following photo and tell me this man couldn’t punch his way out of the Bad Place with nothing more than ten fingers, a crooked smile, and an endless supply of smoldering sexuality.

The Good Place continues to be one of the funniest, most imaginative comedies on television. If this show isn’t “Must-See TV,” the term should cease to exist. What does next week’s curiously titled episode “Team Cockroach” have in store for us? We can’t wait to find out.

Quotes of the episode:

“And after I pull this off, they’re going to hang my picture in the Bad Place Hall of Fame, right next to the guy who invented bees with teeth.” (Michael)

“Go fork yourself, ya mean giraffe.” (Eleanor to Tahani)

“So it’s gonna be a hard pass on Superdork Jones over there.” (Eleanor to Janet about Chidi)

“You’re just like those childhood bullies who said I’d never get tenure.” (Chidi to Eleanor)

Where to stream The Good Place