4x05 Employee of the Bearimy

[7.4/10] It’s hard to go back to a place that was once your home, as what feels like a different person. It’s especially hard for Michael, whose return to The Bad Place is a reminder of the demon he used to be, the torture he used to enact. The Good Place wants to play it both ways a little -- having The Bad Place’s tortures seem more comical and annoying that outright horrible, but leaving Michael with pangs of guilt for his role in them.

Still, it’s a relatable feeling (one the show implicitly likens to a high school reunion), and Michael’s pleas to his former colleagues that they toto can change, and his light absolution from jason that he’s no longer that person, are nice places to take the story.

But apart from the internal arc stuff, the Janet caper is just good fun. Michael and Jason having to pretend to be Vicki and Glenn, and crashing “Demoncon” to save Janet makes for a good set piece with a number of cool twists and turns. Jason putting his impulse control in place, expressing his love for Janet, and getting the traditional “not a girl” back is its own form of heartening. And the gags, like the references to Kevin Spacey’s weird video, or the crowd clapping for pretty much everything, are good chuckles.

The show finds interesting things to do back at the Fake Good Place as well. Eleanor trying to keep everyone occupied while Derek struggles to keep the neighborhood functioning without Janet makes for some good chaos. And Chidi’s excitement at the prospect of a puzzle is hilarious.

But the B-story belongs to Tahani. The episode makes the good choice to have her straining to rise above her party-planning past to do something more meaningful when things are in crisis. That ignores a lot of what she’s already accomplished over the course of the series, but still, it’s a good beat for her. There’s a lot of laughs from her overzealous efforts to help (her off-the-cuff description of a stabbed horse is a dark but hearty laugh), and I like Eleanor reassuring her that she gave Tahani the lakehouse party job because she trusts her with the four people on whom the fate of all humanity rests. It’s a nice way to show Tahani striving for more while also affirming what she already is and is capable of.

Overall, this is another solid episode that didn’t knock my socks off, but which does good work for pretty much every major character on the show.