The Good Place season 4 premiere recap: A Girl from Arizona Part 1

The Good Place returned for its fourth and final season on NBC Thursday night. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Holy Shirt – The Good Place has returned!

That’s right, the most inventive comedy on television is back with the Soul Squad: Kristen Bell (Eleanor), Ted Danson (Michael), William Jackson Harper (Chidi), Jameela Jamil (Tahani), Manny Jacinto (Jason), and D’Arcy Carden (Janet).

But remember, this is the final season, which makes me pretty forking sad. But at the same time, it makes me happy that the writers have an end in mind and they won’t write themselves in a corner just to capitalize off of their uber-talented cast. Are they sure they don’t have one more season in them?

Anyway, we left the Soul Squad about to begin an experiment that will prove that bad people can change to good, thus saving the souls of all humanity from entering the Bad Place.

Shawn (Marc Evan Jackson) is in charge of sending the four people to the experiment; only he sent four people who would torment Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Manny… so they think.

First, gossip columnist John Wheaton walks in – he made Tahini’s life a living hell on earth. Then, Chidi’s ex Simone (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) arrives. Fearful that the experiment will be compromised, Chidi has his memory completely erased. This also means he won’t remember he’s in love with Eleanor.

But it’s for humanity.

My heart broke for Eleanor all over again at the beginning of the episode when I remembered she lost Chidi. And it stung even harder when he didn’t even remember her name after she showed him to his house. But it was pretty cool that he could call books to his hand like Thor can call his hammer.

They fell in love hundreds of times; they’ll do it again. I’m sure of it.

The premiere picks up with the arrival of two new subjects: Brent Norwalk, an insufferable, misogynistic materials salesman, and Linda, who’s really into listening to birds.

It turns out Linda is a demon that Shawn sent to mess with the experiment.

The Judge (Maya Rudolph) is furious and threatens Shawn about cheating. The Judge picks Chidi as the fourth subject. Hey, he became a good person before, he can do it again! Spoiler alert, he already was a good person.

The show ends with Michael and Janet putting the demon on the train to the Bad Place. I have to mention; I’m suspicious that they were out of the shot while Eleanor talked to Bad Janet. I worry that Shawn took them hostage and replaced them with the clone of Michael shown at the end of last season.

Funniest bits of the episode

• Apparently, the theme song for hell is 1-877-kars4kids. And their battle cry is “Dead eyes, eat hearts, can’t lose!”
• Because Simone is a neurophysics professor, she thinks she’s suffering from some sort of head trauma. So, she keeps doing wacky things, like squeezing the head of one of Janet and Derek’s (Jason Mantzoukas) Good Place babies. She also pushes over the giant cake at the welcome party and sings Semi-Charmed Life by Third-Eye Blind to wake herself up.
• Tahani casually pats herself on the back for talking Michael out of growing a goatee. She wasn’t as lucky with Robert Downey Jr.
• Did you know there was a statue of Alice Cooper made out of cigarette butts in front of Phoenix’s City Hall? Rock on!

I think The Good Place premiere was great and it will only get better. I get the sense that they are acting and telling the story with purpose, which means we’ll get a satisfying ending.

Read last year’s season 3 recap to refresh your memory.

Watch The Good Place anytime.