‘The Good Place’ S3E11 – “Chidi Sees the Time-Knife” | TV Recap

By Jonathon Wilson
Published: January 22, 2019 (Last updated: December 7, 2023)
0
View all
The Good Place Season 3 Episode 11 Chidi Sees the Time-Knife Recap
4

Summary

The Good Place is moving all of the pieces into place for next week’s finale with some solid laughs and some interesting moments in “Chidi Sees the Time-Knife”.

This recap of The Good Place Season 3, Episode 11, “Chidi Sees the Time-Knife”, contains spoilers.


Things are really taking shape in this week’s episode of The Good Place and at least now we’ve got some idea of where things are heading with only one episode of the season left to go. It’s one of the real strengths of the show that it’s able to keep you guessing right up until the very last moment and that’s quite an unusual thing for a sitcom. I’m sure that I’ve talked about this (at length) before but it really is impressive how the show’s creator (Michael Schur) has managed to maintain such a strong sense of plot as well as a good rate of laughs per episode.

After the twists and turns of the previous two seasons, I wasn’t sure where things would go next and if you’d given me forever to languish in the Good Place, to think about my answer I don’t think I would have guessed. This season has seen Michael leading Chidi, Eleanor, Tahani, and Jason as they made their escape from the Bad Place and tried to avoid an eternity of torture in the Bad Place. It doesn’t sound like great sitcom fodder but it has been fantastic.

In “Chidi Sees the Time-Knife” Micheal finally gets to put his case to the Judge (Maya Rudolph) about why no one has actually made it into the Good Place for 500 years. Life is incredibly complicated, even making good choices can have thousands of negative consequences. It’s a pretty bold message for a mainstream sitcom and I admire it for taking on such weighty issues.

The meeting is held at the IHOP (International Hole of Pancakes, of course), which is a trans-dimensional void of course. It’s something of a surrealist location and the show at its most strange, but it still provides some laughs, like Chidi and his encounter with the time knife.

Another highpoint in “Chidi Sees the Time-Knife” was the return of Janet’s child, booty call Derek (Jason Mantzoukas) who’s been residing with Mindy Sinclair in the Medium Place and he’s been slowly getting more suave and sophisticated (there’s a great running gag of his increasingly silly drinks).

“Chidi Sees the Time-Knife” ends with what I assume is going to be the set up for next season, but then knowing this show it could completely flip things around in time for Season 4. Michael and Shawn (Marc Evan Johnson) from the Bad Place come to an agreement. There’s going to be an experiment, another neighborhood, four randomly chosen souls and then a variety of situations to see if they improve as people. If things go well then Eleanor and co get started on life in the actual Good Place. If things don’t go to plan then they get to spend forever being tortured with teeth flatteners and p***s bees.

Netflix, TV, TV Recaps
View all