The Good Place Season 3, Episode 11 (“Chidi Sees the Time-Knife”)
NBC
Jan 17, 2019
Web Exclusive
One of The Good Place‘s defining features is that its frequent setting and plot changes don’t derail its poignancy and believability. “Chidi Sees the Time-Knife,” the series’ newest episode, deviates from this trend. Rarely has one single 22-minute episode of sitcom television felt so unending. Although we’re reminded why we love Janet, Eleanor, Chidi, and especially Michael, this episode’s narrative takes serious effort to untangle.
“Chidi Sees the Time-Knife” opens with Michael and Janet transporting Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani to the Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes (IHOP), the “crossroads of all dimensions, like Grand Central Station, but for space and time.” IHOP is a CGI-and-editing-heavy space in which everything is hued blue and it looks like, as Jason says, “we all smoked too much salvia.” For every flaw in this episode’s structure, Jason’s dialogue is no less hysterical.
Maya Rudolph’s Judge Gen quickly arrives at IHOP, and her gesticulation-heavy petulance despite her position of ultimate authority is as immediately hilarious as ever, the sort of delirious contrast Rudolph was born to act. Rudolph carries a massive amount of this episode’s humoristic weight, and her first moments are perfect: She lists all of Michael’s crimes (a helpful way to recount the full season’s plot, because so much happens in this episode) before revealing her newfound crush on Chidi, instantly making her The Good Place‘s most relatable character. “If things don’t work out with Blondie over here,” she says, pointing at Eleanor, “you know who to call: thissss bitccccch.”
Judge Gen, ever the wild one, uses her powers to make IHOP resemble an actual IHOP. (Here, she later says to Chidi, “Oh no, you are nobody’s problem, sweetheart.” The crush is strong.) Michael here argues that the afterlife points system is flawed because, in short, again, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism: “Humans think they’re making one choice, but they’re actually making dozens of choices they don’t know they’re making.” In this one sentence, The Good Place takes the position of, “Just because you see what’s wrong with society doesn’t mean you can exit it”; the onus to make things better, it’s implied, is on those in power.
In this case, that would be Judge Gen, who just doesn’t hear it at first. Michael attempting to floss doesn’t save the day; instead, what does is, somehow, Jason recounting a story from his dance era. One of his dancers was constantly late not because he was irresponsible, but because he had to balance three jobs and care for “four grandparents, who all lived in the same bed.” Jason stopped giving him a hard time, and he urges Judge Gen to do the same: “You can’t judge humans, because you don’t know what we go through.” This line, despite its origins in all manner of platitudes, resonates pretty strongly.
Soon enough, Judge Gen does get to know what humans go through. On Michael’s encouragement, she visits Earth. Her visit lasts eight seconds on the IHOP timeline. As Earth time goes, it lasted a while, because she went to Tanzania, Paraguay, Vietnam, Denmark, Hawaii, and a Black Friday sale in Michigan. “It’s terrible everywhere, and always in a different way,” she says. “Earth stinks, y’all.” (Also: “I guess I’m black, and they do not like black ladies down there!”)
Judge Gen, ever the fast decision maker, immediately hails Shawn (Marc Evan Jacobs) to IHOP. She uses her powers to change the setting to a conference room, where she argues that humans might not be as bad as The Bad Place thinks. Shawn makes a fair counter argument—“Limp Bizkit? Slavery? The prosecution rests.”—and says that Michael has no proof that the humans did get better in his hundreds of reboots, because he never tracked their points. This notion compels Chidi to stand up and make a speech. And this is when he meets the Time-Knife.
Despite occasional reminders from Janet that IHOP is still the setting, Chidi, in his fervor, forgets where he is. By walking forward to address the room, he falls into a void where he “saw a trillion different realities folding onto each other like thin sheets of metal forming a single blade.” None of the afterlife beings care, even though Chidi is mortified: “Yeah, yeah, the Time-Knife. We’ve all seen it. Let’s get back on track, bud,” says Michael. It’s a weird scene to name the episode after, since it’s neither the funniest nor most significant moment (though Chidi’s recovery from seeing the Time-Knife is great), but so much happens in this episode that the writers had to choose something.
Ultimately, Chidi suggests repeating the Bad-Place-posed-as-Good-Place experiment with new human subjects. Not a reboot: a new human crew, a simulation in which The Soul Squad will help behind the scenes. This proposition, which Judge Gen accepts, is the core of the episode’s emotional pull: our protagonists will use their experience to pursue less human afterlife suffering. It’s beautiful.
Under terms that Gen, Shawn, and Michael agree upon after some debate, the new neighborhood for this experiment will be built in The Medium Place. This merits the return of Maribeth Monroe’s coke-and-sex-addled, delightful Mindy St. Claire. She appears for all of ten seconds. It’s a woefully missed opportunity: Mindy is The Good Place‘s funniest recurring character besides Judge Gen. Instead, the Medium Place more strongly reintroduces Jason Mantzoukas’ manic, Janet-created, wind-chimes-for-penis Derek. It turns out that Mindy has rebooted the newly “martini”-loving Derek half a million times—don’t forget, these AI types get smarter with each reboot—so Jason have some competition for Janet, for whom his feelings have reemerged. Although the potential reforming of the Janet-Jason romance could lead to some amazing jokes—a Floridian idiot dating an AI in secretary clothes?—this side of the plot is a dry distraction.
Much to Jason’s chagrin, Janet and Derek work together “professionally” to make the many non-human residents in the new neighborhood, where an Earth-time year will pass before the experiment concludes. Here, Eleanor chooses to live in the same clown-heavy torture house as in the actual Bad Place, because in the memories that Michael has shown her, she fell in love with Chidi there. She’s excited to live with him and “chill out, just relax, study philosophy,” but he’s mostly excited about the sex. In other words, this scene represents an intentional, hilarious 180-turn for both of them: “Horndog!” says Eleanor, to which Chdi says, “Nerd!” Even when The Good Place‘s plot gets messy, the Eleanor-Chidi romance is infinitely minable for wholesomeness and bursting with character-based in-jokes.
Towards the episode’s end, we learn that Shawn’s plan to torture our protagonists, should the experiment fail, is for a demon in a Michael-suit—“R&D said it couldn’t be done, so I made it out of them”—to torture them for eternity. So, at the episode’s end, when Eleanor motivates Michael by saying, “Your friends will always trust you,” he breaks. “I can’t do it. It’s too scary,” he says when Eleanor asks if he remembers the plan. This ending is awfully weak for an episode that navigates through vast settings and plot developments, although it would’ve functioned far worse as a season finale. Hopefully, that upcoming episode will redeem this one. (www.nbc.com/the-good-place)
Author rating: 6.5/10
Average reader rating: 8/10
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April 23rd 2009
8:05pm
this album is amazing!
April 26th 2009
9:00pm
What a weird combo. ‘The Last Picture Show’ is a great film.
April 27th 2009
6:56am
This movie so rocks. I loved it.
April 27th 2009
8:05pm
It’s weird, “That Beep” sounds so much like Annie. AIH have definitely changed up their style.
April 28th 2009
11:47pm
It’s all about vinyl: http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/01/music-sales-up-10-in-2008-thanks-to-downloads-and-vinyl.ars
April 29th 2009
5:14am
A lackluster DVD so mediocre that it’s been reviewed twice on this website!
April 29th 2009
6:59am
Can I get a comment on the music of Conor Oberst and not his comments or who he dedicated songs to. Please. It’s not too much to ask from a music website is it.
May 2nd 2009
1:31am
I still haven’t seen this movie. I’ve really admired Aronofsky’s previous films though.
May 2nd 2009
1:32am
What a terrible DVD cover. WOW. Terrifying.
May 20th 2009
1:51am
I’ve never been a big fan of Silversun…meh.
May 22nd 2009
4:52pm
“The material isn’t always up to par the way earlier between-the-records EPs were, but it still beats the hell out of Plans.”
THANK YOU. and agreed.
May 26th 2009
6:52pm
great review! both shows rocked!
May 26th 2009
7:14pm
This reviewer really transported me to the show! Great writer for a great performer.
May 27th 2009
9:47am
Hello Kyle lemmon, Really very nice information on Buraka Som Sistema. Really very nice and fantastic info on black diamond. Thanks for your nice info.
May 28th 2009
3:35pm
I just wanted to say I really liked your review of House of Mystery. It was good to know how it has developed over the years. Keep up the good work.
May 30th 2009
12:47am
This is an ok ep. I have to say that none of their recent material is even close to their earlier albums.
June 5th 2009
5:46am
FYI just watched this show, sucks! Wished it didn’t but it does. Haha all wealthy people are dumb, evil, and think they can buy anthing… jeeze lets just stereo type everyone. Wealthy people just don’t deserve to live I guess according to all these shows that exploit wealth as evil.
June 7th 2009
8:26pm
Rockband for real. It’s realy kicks ass) I hope the part two kicks ass as twice)))
June 11th 2009
9:39pm
The lyric in “James Blues” is:
“James incurred the wrath of jealous woman
And not long after that
Was spending all his weekends
Trying to relearn
How a young man yearns after a nurse”
It’s about castration. I have little more of a sense of humor than your interpretation suggests.
June 11th 2009
9:42pm
“have a little more of”. oops.
June 18th 2009
1:06am
Great review, Frank.
June 22nd 2009
8:57am
This picture represents a huge leap forward for its director..a very nice post Chris.
June 22nd 2009
9:06am
Wonders never cease, Coachella’s when this both fabulous performers start the event with a great start it is great to watch..
June 22nd 2009
9:12am
The rock band which we can say alternative is My Bloody Valentine..This is a very nice post
June 22nd 2009
9:19am
She’s so hot/cute/adorable….....She is so cute…
June 22nd 2009
9:22am
Wow! Marcus, This is a very nice post…Depeche Mode are fabulous..
June 22nd 2009
9:45am
Some styles are more casual while others are meant for going out on ...poofing up skirts is very good
June 22nd 2009
10:01am
When Bruce Springsteen finally broke through to national recognition in the fall of 1975 after a decade of trying, critics hailed him as the savior of rock
June 22nd 2009
10:04am
The bonus features with Doubt on Blu-ray start off with From Stage to Screen, a series of interviews with the cast and crew about…
June 24th 2009
9:40am
I’m one of the fans of The Killers. They’re cool.
June 26th 2009
10:00pm
I saw them play in Austin a few weeks ago. The new stuff is awesome, and they played beautifully. My favorite track is “Slow Fade,” a single tear streamed down my face when they played it. So good.
July 3rd 2009
9:33am
Thanks for such a detailed review. You’ve very keen observation for the details that should be there, indeed.
July 3rd 2009
9:39am
Hi Chris, you are so right about the borders - the top one is incredible. Great thinking!!!
July 3rd 2009
9:42am
Bonnaroo has always placed an emphasis on local and sustainable ways of making music. ..Nice Blog.
July 3rd 2009
9:49am
I was actually hoping for a really good Doubt as a Blu-Ray comp….and it is able to prove itself….
July 5th 2009
7:13am
I totally get what you mean when you say “the sound of best friends making music together.” I think their sound is really warm and strangely intimate. I don’t know. It feels like music at a house party and the band is having beers and talking between songs—I like it; but the production is really thin, as you said.
Thanks for the review, Laura.
July 9th 2009
7:29pm
You have to be kidding me Lily. This show does suck and bad. Totally unrealistic specifically in how these characters behave. Stupid crap.
July 10th 2009
12:24pm
Saw Bruce in Philly April 28th and April 29th. ALWAYS a great show! I went with a friend who had never seen him and she said it was more than a concert, it was an event—how right she was.
July 13th 2009
6:36pm
It is really a nice post, its always great reading such posts, this post is good in regards of both knowledge as well as information. i like stuff like ghostland observatory, the hush sound, the kills, indie music, black moth super rainbow, radiohead. anything that sounds weird and funky and has good sound to it. i do not like the teen boy singing the song. generations i like are indie, visual, experimental, psychedelic. along those lines. thank you in advance for the helping me on my music quest.Thanks for the post.
July 14th 2009
11:34pm
Nice Cracker reference!
July 16th 2009
7:51am
A full album is set for release in September 2009. The confidence, wide range of obvious natural talent and exceptional promise of these songs is undeniable. The future for First Aid Kit feels star bright.
July 17th 2009
5:57pm
thanks for info.
July 19th 2009
7:43am
The “barely” is everything in Wendy and Lucy. The sparse dialogue and lack of plot was the film’s message. Its panoramic moments said so much without saying anything at all. Wendy appears sedated much of the film but in a single moment, a bathroom meltdown, her story unravels. A story no one is sure of. In most every shot of the film we follow Wendy but learn little. We leave her without closure, but feel satisfaction without the closure nonetheless, amazed that such simple experience could be so captivating for two hours. I only wish I knew what her bandage was for and why her sister rejected her. Why else was she hurting and why was it so important for us not to know?
July 19th 2009
7:53am
thank you
very much
oo fantastic film
July 20th 2009
8:01pm
This was SO good!!!!
July 21st 2009
4:09pm
Why are you so LATE on the tallest man UTR? I’m disappointed and mad at you for it. I hope you do a feature on him when his next album is release!
July 24th 2009
6:25am
Counting down…freaking out. Come on Friday!
July 25th 2009
6:26pm
thanks for article.
July 31st 2009
8:57am
I downloaded a few songs from this collection, I like it.
I really love it, play it on my laptop regularly.
July 31st 2009
3:25pm
I love “Tracy’s Waters” , it’s a wonderful mix of Psych folk and Dream pop
August 5th 2009
8:04pm
I loved Grizzly Bear! It was so calm and intimate in that space
August 7th 2009
6:27pm
So, if I understood this correctly, they are Australians making Brit pop? I’ve seen a lot of this lately. Looks like UK nostalgia never died out.
August 8th 2009
2:00pm
I think I’ll get this from the library if they have it… I know nothing about this band.
August 11th 2009
7:11pm
Wow…you totally missed the boat on the Jane’s review…Claiming you were there to see the one song that was a commercial smash led me to discount your review immediately, but I read on to see if you redeemed yourself. Nope. Fans of the band would absolutely disagree with your take, as the band’s true genius was displayed over and over during the set, Perry’s prancing aside. He’s a consummate front-man, great voice, showmanship, and control of the spotlight.
And, yes, ugly girls DO have to be sluttier than the good-looking ones. Stick to reviewing bands you have a clue about.
August 12th 2009
5:10pm
You are, of course, referring to Alexander Mccall Smith’s series. There are so many witty observations in these books regarding male-female differences and the impact that these have on relationships.
Mma Ramotswe believes that women are best suited for detective work because women notice details, are observant, listen, and have more insight into human psychology than men.
August 14th 2009
6:53am
Gives Thanks, Very fascinating read, you should be dramatic of your web logs. I’ve been genuinely delighting developing up your situations from meter to time. Looking forward to understand your future positions
Many wonderful selective information, thanks for partaking. Testament definitely be back more often….
August 16th 2009
3:24pm
i thought it was a good movie
August 18th 2009
9:39am
This game looks just as terrible as the movie!
August 21st 2009
12:27am
At first I thought Hester and Parks were just biting ‘Ghost Rider,” but I’ll have to check it out sometime.
August 21st 2009
12:30pm
They are COOL
August 24th 2009
8:57pm
wow! that was a lame review. I think they are great. Apparently thousands of others do too. They love them in Europe as well. U.S. is always the last to recognize real talent.
August 25th 2009
4:08pm
The looks very pretty :)
Thank you for the post and photo.
August 27th 2009
9:42am
Agreed. This was a dope show. One of the better I’ve been to in ‘09. Check out their performance of “Jump In the Pool” from the show.
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August 27th 2009
9:44am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il83g8-bkA0
August 28th 2009
6:58pm
This high of a review score makes me question how you call yourself a journalist. I read the initial issue and it was utter trash with no redeeming value whatsoever. This title could have done for Greek mythology what Fables did for children’s stories and fictional characters. Instead the writer decided to go for the disgusting, unimaginative stories. I agree that Peter Milligan can be hit and miss in what he writes but this 1st issue made me want to throw up and regret spending $1.00 to give it a try. I have read Vertigo comics for about 10 years and this comic is truly the worst executed idea with no redeeming value I have ever had the misfortune to read.
August 31st 2009
6:49pm
I would’ve loved to see Henry Rollins. He cracks me up!
September 2nd 2009
12:39pm
Thank you for your review. If this show was a decade earlier, I would’ve been there! Also, I empathize on your anger, when people leave before the show is “over” [the encore]. A band like MEW deserves an encore!
“Comforting Sounds” is awesome to hear live. My husband and I were privileged to see/hear them in D.C. a few years ago.
September 2nd 2009
7:08pm
I love this show! Can’t wait untill next summer to pick up the New Shows.
September 5th 2009
8:45am
Whats Fray for the uninitiated? A buffy spin off comic from a few years back, which I understand never got its story finished. So Joss has decedied to combine it with a buffy story to finish it.
So we have a back history a number of fans may be unaware of and time travel etc thrown in? sounds like an awful idea but it works excellently.
The art is by Korl Moline who i believe did the original Fray comic, he is fairly similar in style to Georges Jeanty who usually does the book so its all pretty familiar.
The story is complicated and takes a little while to see where it is going but the end result and character writing are excellent. Not a good starting point for new readers but a great read none the less.
September 5th 2009
9:34pm
I became interested in this topic and tried to find additional information. Much of it I downloaded from http://www.ebook-search-queen.com.
September 6th 2009
1:07am
As I visited the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair it was interesting for me to read The Road to Woodstock (http://www.ebook-search-queen.com) and to compare its contents with what I saw. Great!
September 7th 2009
9:37am
The overarching plot, revolving around the secrets buried underneath a clandestine basement, fares much better. Head writer, Matthew Sturges, is learning at a fast pace as the series[..]
September 8th 2009
9:58am
Did anybody watch this film? Share your impressions, please.
September 8th 2009
11:42am
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful well let me know how it turns out! I love what you guys are always up too. Such clever work and reporting! Keep up the great works guys I’ve added you guys to my blogroll. This is a great article thanks for sharing this informative information.. I will visit your blog regularly for some latest post.
September 9th 2009
6:14pm
I’m in the middle of reading this book and was stoked to see it reviewed in one of my favorite mags. The review is pretty strait up, as is the book. Interesting for those who know about Steve Kilbey or not. For those who have been in or are in music groups, with it’s drama and challlenges, No Certainty Attached of particular interest.
September 10th 2009
8:12pm
“smashing success” = 6/10?
September 11th 2009
8:10pm
It’s a fine record, but not quite worthy of a 7 or 8, which are reserved for top twenty of the year candidates, which this honestly isn’t for me. But if you’re a fan of Polvo, you’ll like it, and even if you aren’t, it’s an excellent invitation to explore their great back catalog. And “smashing success” is removed from its context of “As far as unheralded reunions go,” as many are downright insipid, and this one is anything but that.
September 14th 2009
5:48am
Who designed Stephanie’s Jacket in science of sleep and where can I get a similar coat?
Science of Sleep is a movie and her military jacket is cute
September 18th 2009
3:13am
I concur my friend.
September 20th 2009
3:05am
The hype machine sold Sweet Tooth #1. It was pretty good, but I’m hoping we’ll see a little more happening in issue #2.
Then again, I ought have a little more faith in Lemire, he’s pretty damned good.
September 21st 2009
6:09am
Will there be a second season of the No 1 Ladies Detective agency?
find public record
September 26th 2009
2:35am
Can’t wait until this year’s concert. Fantastic stuff. Sooo hot though. Bringing plenty of water this year
September 29th 2009
11:33am
Ok this is by far the best series ive seen so far its got great story line, Animation, and good art work…. But one problem is the disc has trouble reading on a Xbox. I putted in the disc once and it worked 2nd time it got defective. Great series to watch a must see
October 3rd 2009
7:08pm
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. It’s got a great soundtrack too: Jens Lekman, Tilly & the Wall, The Go! Team, Radiohead, and others.
October 4th 2009
1:24pm
wow, San Francisco’s Girls must have been very bad. It has been a while since I have read such a damning review of any band
October 4th 2009
3:53pm
Jenny Lewis is a babe. I also like the killers. I think they are class
October 6th 2009
12:19pm
The track wasn’t used and in fact went unheard for two-plus decades, but Gordon and Mingus occasionally unpacked it live. In any case, one can only hope that when Mingus finally flipped the calendar past the greatest year in jazz, dude hit the mattress for a well-deserved nap.
October 10th 2009
4:45pm
Great reviews. Loney Dear has been my favorite band because their music touched my soul and makes me feel good. Live they are incredible. I saw them in Fortaleza, Brazil, and I’ll remember that day for a long time.
October 13th 2009
7:06pm
I like bands what make good musics. And banana splitses.
October 14th 2009
1:51am
Did UTR ever do a review of the Rhino San Francisco nuggets box set?
October 21st 2009
2:22am
As a fan of the series who buys it month-to-month, I guess I’m biased in that I enjoyed it. I would be interested to see if non-Fables readers enjoyed it.
It’s great to see my favourite magazine cover my favourite comic. I check for a mention of it in every printed-issue of Under The Radar, and so far have only seen it in there this month!
October 21st 2009
10:39pm
Wow! Sounds like a fun show. Now if only we could get him to come out west…
October 22nd 2009
11:56pm
mellow but good/interesting mellow, not boring mellow. also check out whitest boy alive (same singer)
October 23rd 2009
10:33am
Where can I buy waterproof trousers not over trousers?
tuxedo trousers
October 23rd 2009
6:55pm
who the hell says “blogosphere” anymore?
October 25th 2009
10:52pm
its a Grower not a Show - er!
October 26th 2009
2:22am
I wish this had been posted earlier. They had a show where I live tonight, and I could have gone ... oh well.
October 26th 2009
4:05pm
This is a fantastic review. I’m one of those people that consumes all things Pearl Jam (50+ live shows). You nailed Backspacer perfectly. I want to tell you how great it is but it isn’t - it is a step in the right direction though. Nice job.
October 27th 2009
6:41am
The overarching plot, revolving around the secrets buried underneath a clandestine basement, fares much better. Head writer,
October 27th 2009
9:07am
What is the best tourist attraction in the Philippines?
camping tourist