Correct, the first ep was a double, so it’s thirteen but it’s twelve. It’s all very Jeremy Bearimy.
When I first started watching, Chidi was a total nothing to me, just a bit of a nerd cliche. He’s become one of my favorite sitcom characters ever. The constant cracks in his attempts to keep himself together through all the nonsense are just completely charming.
The whole cast is remarkable, but Chidi and Janet steal a LOT of scenes.
Beautiful episode. Very poignant.
Shuddup you balcony monster!
I thought this episode was a bit of a letdown. They have to wipe Chidi’s memory so he doesn’t interact with Simone… isn’t an easier solution to just not have him live in the neighborhood? Why are the previous four humans there at all? Shouldn’t the test be for the new four humans to live in a neighborhood and see what happens to them?
I feel like some important details about this “experiment” were totally glossed over.
And much as I love the characters of Chidi and Eleanor, and the actors who play them, they only kissed for the first time like two episodes ago. A sweeping highlights reel of their relationship seems a bit unearned.
Chidi is there as the guide, just like he was for the rest of the soul squad.
Chidi has to teach the new group Eth(n)ics. So he can’t hide.
StG
Yes, but they fell in love multiple times in the 800 or so reboots, so it’s clearly earned. I found the highlights touching and they showed the many times they had a romantic connection.
At first I thought there was a plot hole with blog douche knowing about Tahani’s death that had been retconned out, but then I realized that he wasn’t talking about the statue fall. Now I’m wondering why the world knows that she died in Canada–did they leave corpses behind when Janet shoved them into her hole or whatever?
Chidi didn’t learn that he and Eleanor were a thing just because they lived in Australia. He learned it because she got access to Michael’s files and revealed it to him. What couldn’t that happen again?
I agree completely with MaxTheVool that having the regular cast in the new experiment is a gigantic cheat that makes the new village meaningless. I’ve got to hope that next season explains that away or undercuts it or makes a huge left turn to otherwise avoid it.
Is it weird that when I saw Simone I was happy she was back because I like her character, but at the same time I was a little sad because her being on the couch meant that she had died on Earth?
I agree that that seems to be the case… but from the initial discussion of the “experiment”, it seemed like they were going to reproduce the original situation, which was four actual humans, in a fake good place, who banded together and got better.
That’s very different from four actual humans, in a fake good place, and four other actual humans, who know what’s going on and have been through it are also there helping them out, and will the new four humans get better?
What we know of Simone, it seems as if she is an actual good person, but the journalist is genuinely Bad Place material. Making him become a better person in only a year will be tough, and he may well pull Tahani down before she pulls him up. Jason and Derek competing for Janet will be fun. Chidi torn between Eleanor and Simone will be more on the painful side. And maybe one of Eleanor’s exes will turn up next. Love triangles form some of the most difficult problems in ethics, or make people throw away their ethics in the “All’s fair in love and war” sense.
Is it renewed for another season? If it isn’t, the final exchange between Eleanor and Janet would make a good ending.
It is - announced in December.
Good catch; IIRC Janet did say she’d have to kill them.
Well, she had to die eventually. 
Still it’s incredibly suspicious that out of 7 billon people on Earth the one most likely to cause the most trouble for Chidi just happened to just as they were doing the experiment. Then again she could’ve died decades later “Earth time” and she’s just being given a youthful body in the afterlife.
Well one problem is that if Chidi knew Simone before he died (the 1st time) as it appears then letting Chidi learn anything would open up a [del]can[/del] sea of worms.
…yeah, that’s how I’m imagining it in my head, and I refuse to consider any contrary information 
Jeremy Bearimy, timey wimey, wibbly wobbly, it all makes sense in my brain!
The only thing I’m disappointed about is having to put up with more of Simone’s godawful Australian accent.
I agree with you both.
The left turn could be that this is all still about the moral/ethical improvement of the four, or of Michael, or of all of them. Clearly the set-up is guaranteed to test all five–ostensibly through the malice of Sean, but…
The ‘test agreed to by the Judge’ aspect would, in this scenario, be nothing but a pretext for more ordeals being visited on the Five.
In re Janet’s remark at the end of the episode:
[SPOILER] Eleanor says to Janet: “For a robot, you make a really good girl friend.” Janet replies: “I’m one out of three of those things.”
…Either she’s not a robot and not a girlfriend, (but is good),
or not a robot and not good, (but is a girlfriend),
or not a girlfriend and not good (but is a robot).[/SPOILER]
Could be a throwaway, or could be important to the Season Four plot. I’m guessing the latter. But we have to wait to find out, fork it!
I interpret it as she’s not a robot, she’s not a girl, but she is a friend.
I thought she meant she was a friend, but not a robot or a girl.
Also, I think this is a officially sanctioned version of what happened in the first season. The original four are still being tested. Part of the test is to teach others to improve too. To see if the original trial run can be opened up to a larger group. Perhaps on the path to becoming a real purgatory. Not a medium place, but a place where souls can improve enough to be allowed into the Good Place. Eventually taking most who would have normally gone to the Bad Place.