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BioThermo posted:Somehow, Eleanor now becoming a torturer feels like she's falling into the plans of the bad place. I think this was the plan all along. Keep Elanor in leadership and then push her to slowly torture the other actual humans or otherwise keep their points down. I'm guessing the Bad Place may have an eye on the Accounting or something too.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:17
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| # ? May 20, 2024 20:34 |
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You know what would be amazing? A Back to the Future 2 style episode where fake Michael has to run through the background of the first few episodes, hiding from real Michael and causing various chaos.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:20
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Kristin Bell is so good.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:21
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Wait, how long has Janet had these highlights?
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Oct 11, 2019 02:21
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AWWWW NOT AGAIN
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Oct 11, 2019 02:21
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ooookay what are you doing michael
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Oct 11, 2019 02:22
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Yup. THIS is Evil Michael.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:22
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Pinwiz11 posted:Kristin Bell is so good. I’ve been so impressed by her work the whole series. Eleanor is just such a great character.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:23
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Evil Mastermind posted:Wait, how long has Janet had these highlights? Tahani directly mentioned them; Janet explained that she researched what girls do to get over a breakup.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:24
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Evil Mastermind posted:Wait, how long has Janet had these highlights? She researched what humans do after a breakup. Number 8 was "do something stupid with your hair'
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Oct 11, 2019 02:25
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That HAD to be Real Michael right?????
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Oct 11, 2019 02:30
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I lost antenna reception in the last minute. 
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Oct 11, 2019 02:31
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Bobulus posted:I lost antenna reception in the last minute. It was a shot of a hooded figure operating a handcar on the train tracks headed to the neighborhood.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:32
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BioThermo posted:It was a shot of a hooded figure operating a handcar on the train tracks headed to the neighborhood. A long, long long way to the neighborhood.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:33
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BioThermo posted:It was a shot of a hooded figure operating a handcar on the train tracks headed to the neighborhood. Arist posted:That HAD to be Real Michael right????? Okay, silly idea: one of the hints we got from the actors preseason was that we would see Michael's real inhuman form. So what if... 1) Bad Place replaces Michael and captures him. 2) Bad Place strips him of his human form as punishment. 3) Michael escapes and comes back under a cloak, has to convince Team Cockroach without his charming Ted Danson appearance. 4) Michael ends up wearing the Michael Suit for the rest of the season
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Oct 11, 2019 02:38
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 This is "Shannon was stabbed" all over again.A fake Michael in a Michael suit would not have discouraged Eleanor from torturing Chidi. A fake Michael would not have been helpful to Eleanor. Also, MICHAEL AND JANET WENT ONTO THE BAD PLACE TRAIN TOGETHER, and nobody is going "Janet is fake".
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Oct 11, 2019 02:41
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:
There's literally zero telegraphing of a fake Janet whereas that's at least some telegraphing of a Fake Michael.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:46
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Xelkelvos posted:There's literally zero telegraphing of a fake Janet Exactly my point. You cannot have a real Janet and a Fake Michael because they went onto the train together. Therefore if Janet is real, Michael must also be real. There is no more telegraphing of a fake Michael than there is that Shannon was stabbed and not shot.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:50
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Exactly my point. You cannot have a real Janet and a Fake Michael because they went onto the train together. Therefore if Janet is real, Michael must also be real. I don't understand your reference. I will admit that that's basically the only hole: a nearly omnipotent being getting distracted just long enough for a switch to happen seems unlikely. Michael pushing Eleanor to initially torture Chidi seems like a suspect thing. Also the destruction of problems thing since Michael absolutely knows what problem Chidi's talking about and implies destroying it even if Michael would obviously know that Chidi wouldn't want to destroy Jason.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:55
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Before the season, I read multiple review from critics that said episode 4 would be the best episode this season, so I'm excited for next week.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:58
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Xelkelvos posted:I don't understand your reference. It's to the TVIV threads for Season 2 of Lost. There was an episode where a character called Shannon ran through some bushes chasing after some of the mysterious whispers on the island. A gunshot rang out and we see Shannon bleeding, and the reveal of other survivors from the plane, one of which is holding a smoking gun. Some people sincerely posted the theory that Shannon had been stabbed (offscreen) by another person who then ran off instead of being shot by the fellow survivor. Next week it was revealed to be exactly what it looked like. Shannon was shot by the fellow survivor. In this analogy, the reveal of Vicky in a Michael suit in last season's finale is the equivilant to "we know there are other people on the island so one of them could have been there to stab Shannon". quote:I will admit that that's basically the only hole: a nearly omnipotent being getting distracted just long enough for a switch to happen seems unlikely. Michael pushing Eleanor to initially torture Chidi seems like a suspect thing. Also the destruction of problems thing since Michael absolutely knows what problem Chidi's talking about and implies destroying it even if Michael would obviously know that Chidi wouldn't want to destroy Jason. Michael pushed for torturing of Chidi because as the show demonstrated, Chidi wasn't concerned with holding ethics lessons because he believed that they truly are in The Good Place. It's one of the things which others have pointed out is a flaw in the experiment currently running - without problems, there is no impetus to change. Eleanor and Jason in Season 1 knew something was wrong because Michael gave an incorrect recounting of their history. It seems like there was no such "mistaken identity" problem tipping off any of the new participants, so without interference, they have no reason to be worried and feel the need to change to fit in.
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Oct 11, 2019 03:17
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Xelkelvos posted:There's literally zero telegraphing of a fake Janet Not saying Janet is fake but Janet breaking up with Jason and telling him about Bortles is pretty uncharacteristic of her. Even the thing this episode when Tahani asks about her hair and you would have expected her to say, 'it's not hair'. Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Exactly my point. You cannot have a real Janet and a Fake Michael because they went onto the train together. Therefore if Janet is real, Michael must also be real. It's worth noting that Janet gets off the train first not to mention the bad place could have turned her off or paused her or did whatever the plot needed to do. Michael could be easily seen as someone offering help while subtly egging the other person on. It's pretty clear that something is off from the gang back to torturing each other or making each other miserable to the hooded figure we see at the end.
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Oct 11, 2019 03:19
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Even if I agreed with your premise that there are lots of instances of out of character behavior, the problem is that for every instance of something not being in character for real Michael/Janet which you point to, I can point to an instance of something which IS in character for the real Michael/Janet. Sometimes it's the same instance because we can have different interpretations of what is and is not in character. (I saw nothing wrong with Janet breaking up with Jason, gently telling him about Jake Jortles, or Janet trying new stuff in her hair to try and cope with a breakup (remember that's how Derek was created back in Season 2?). A "they've been replaced" theory needs the show to later on go "by the way Michael was secretly replaced offscreen" AND "also Vicki/Shawn learned how to flawlessly impersonate Michael while offscreen too". That's two implausible things the "replacement" theory needs to explain, whereas the "they're still real" theory has *checks list*... zero implausible things which need explaining.
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Oct 11, 2019 03:34
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I can't believe people are still on this. They actually made significant progress this episode and Michael was directly instrumental in that. He's not a fake. There's a good chance that the Michael suit is exactly what's approaching on the rails though.
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Oct 11, 2019 03:56
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Regy Rusty posted:I can't believe people are still on this. They actually made significant progress this episode and Michael was directly instrumental in that. He's not a fake. Eleanor, Jason, and Tahani are all getting worse, though, and he's encouraging it.
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Oct 11, 2019 04:56
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I wanna try shotgunning cheese whizz...
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Oct 11, 2019 05:10
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:
Did I miss something with Brent? Why is he on the right side of the board when they don't have him cracked? Just because he thinks he needs to be good to get into the Better Place?
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Oct 11, 2019 06:03
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Sub Rosa posted:It really is. The board wasn't "we know how to make them better" it was "we understand what kind of person they are". Brent is completely unrepentant and they still have to figure out how to deal with that in the long run, but they at least know how he thinks and what doesn't work on him. Emerson Cod posted:Eleanor, Jason, and Tahani are all getting worse, though, and he's encouraging it. They definitely are not, I don't know how that's something you got from this episode. Tahani literally on her own came to an understanding with John and figured out how to make him a better person. Eleanor is struggling to cope with her feelings for Chidi and pushed things a bit too far, but Michael reined it in, got Chidi where he needed to be, and helped Eleanor figure out more healthy coping mechanisms. And Jason is Jason. This episode was the single most hopeful for the experiment actually succeeding so far.
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Oct 11, 2019 06:08
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The cloaked figure approaching is Jacob, the entire series has taken place in purgatory. I can't remember if the season we're on is flash forwards, flash backs, flash sideways, or flash afterlife, but there's definitely two different time streams going on. It's probably flash afterlife.
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Oct 11, 2019 06:09
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Oh I get it, when they flushed the island, that was like rebooting Janet
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Oct 11, 2019 06:13
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Sub Rosa posted:It really is. Not the 'Better Place', the BEST Place. 
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Oct 11, 2019 06:17
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Sub Rosa posted:Oh I get it, when they flushed the island, that was like rebooting Janet More like Dereking a murder.
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Oct 11, 2019 06:20
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I 100% assumed a Michael switch when the premiere went out of its way to show us the Michael-suit in the previouslies and then the plot conspicuously had Michael go off alone with the demon whose insertion in the Test Place was not only useless, it was actually counterproductive because it put Chidi back on the scoreboard, so my operating theory is still that that's Michael in the cloak. But if it is, they're gonna really need to explain what the gently caress fake Michael's been doing, because he's been nothing but emotionally supportive and full of good, workable advice. For Judge Gen's sake, Eleanor was tipping over into straight-up Bad Place torture and he talked her down from it!
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Oct 11, 2019 06:26
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He didn't go alone though! Janet never left his side. I rewatched the episode specifically looking for that and there's no opportunity for the switch.
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Oct 11, 2019 06:29
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But... the Bad Place sent one of their stupider demons, who's known for blowing plots, and he accomplished dick-all and not only did he score Team Human a big win by getting Chidi onto the scoreboard, it's a huge self-inflicted wound for the Bad Place, who willingly gave up one of their four slots/opportunities to psychologically attack Team Human. We can all agree that that's stupid beyond any reasonable explanation, and that the Bad Place would absolutely not do something so manifestly boneheaded, and that therefore they were accomplishing something insidious with it, right?
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Oct 11, 2019 06:33
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I have no idea but the evidence that they didn't switch Michael is overwhelming so sticking to that because you can't think of anything else makes no sense.
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Oct 11, 2019 06:37
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If the Olympic games ever introduces mental gymnastics as an event someone in this thread is sure to take home the gold. I'm blown away that even one person is still entertaining the idea that this Michael is the skin suit bad place impostor. The cloaked figure coming on the rail from the bad place; however...
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Oct 11, 2019 06:47
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The cloaked figure could be anyone. We don't really understand how the spatial geometry of that railway works so they could be anyone from anywhere. They could be from the Bad Place, the actual Good Place, an Accountant, the Judge, IHOP.  That said, if the reviews are pointing out this upcoming episode as a big one, I'd probably  a 24 hour probe that the hooded person will be revealed that episode.
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Oct 11, 2019 06:58
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Handcart guy is obviously the Grim Derek
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Oct 11, 2019 07:00
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This episode does remind me of LOST, but for me it's the episode after the one where they find the map and the phonograph or whatever. It's probably the fifth episode. Out on the beach Sayeed discovered a new radio signal or something, and one of the other castaways points to the weathered map they went through a lot of drama to acquire in the last episode. "What about this?" he says. Sayeed literally clears all that junk from the table. "Forget about that," he says, and the creators sincerely meant it. The map's never referred to in the series again. You know someone tagged this as category:unsolved on the LOST wiki and watched the show for years, obsessively waiting for that map to come back. This is chapter 42 of the story, which we see in a title card just before Janet also mentions item 42 on a clickbait list. She says this in front of a banner which says "MAKE SOME ART!" in case you need to be reminded this show is occasionally a light allegory for the process of writing a sitcom. We've now reached the end of the first act of the fourth season, which is usually where our favorite shows start to show their first signs of the dreaded Flanderization. The Good Place has been roughly structured around a couple multi-episode arcs a season like Schur's other shows, but what's different is how it completely blows up the entire premise every... seven episodes or so? Now another arc that could have sustained a whole season is seemingly over, and like Sayeed wiping the board, Eleanor puts a pin in the four New Dummies and says, "What's next?" This time it's a consciously mysterious Hooded Figure, accompanied by our longest single glimpse of the geography of the afterworld (which goes by too fast to see). It could be anybody. I think it looks like death. The end is coming - not many chapters left in this book - so next week we'll likely gear up into a whole new arc. The only thing we can expect is that whatever happens will be something we can't expect. Which is why Michael isn't an imposter, dammit
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Oct 11, 2019 07:59
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