'The Good Place' Season 2, Episode 4 Recap: A Cowardly Traitor, Four Dumb-Dumbs, And A Robot Walk Into A Bar…

Okay, there’s no bar. You got us. Everything is a lie and you can’t trust a thing we say—or can you? That’s basically the dilemma our four dumb-dumbs faces in “The Good Place” Season 2 Episode 4: “Team Cockroach.” After realizing that they’re in the Bad Place (for the 802nd time), can they really trust anything Michael says? In this bottle episode, the answer’s less clear-cut than you might expect.

No Other Options

We pick up right where we left off. A quick recap: Eleanor (Kristen Bell), Chidi (William Jackson Harper), and Tahani (Jameela Jamil) have learned that they’re in hell. They confront Michael (Ted Danson), who is accompanied by Jason (Manny Jacinto). Feeling pressure from Vicky (Tiya Sircar), Michael takes a leaf out of Jason’s book and forms a new dance crew. No, really. He wants to team up with the humans he’d been torturing for 802 different iterations of hell.

Michael explains that Vicky will destroy this version of “The Good Place” in just 30 minutes, which means he’ll have to erase all their memories again. Unless. His plan is that all five of them team-up. He won’t mind-wipe the humans, so long as they pretend to be ignorant that they’re in the Bad Place. That way, they keep their memories, he keeps his job, they all keep their lives – or afterlives. Whatever.
But can the dumb-dumbs trust Michael? Well, obviously not. Michael even admits as much. But as the demon aptly points out, they don’t have a choice. If the next iteration fails and Vicky rats him out to his boss, all five of them will be spending eternity in hot water. Literally.

Oh, Tahani

Of course, the humans are less than convinced. So Michael sweetens the deal. Help him and he’ll take them all to “The Good Place.” Apparently, he knows a way in – but it won’t be easy. Michael reasons that he’ll even be able to pay passage for himself, for “rescuing” the poor, pitiful humans from hell.

But Eleanor immediately calls bull. She calls for a team meeting. In a rare moment of decisiveness, Chidi declares they should accept Michael’s deal. He explains that he wants them to become better people, and that can’t exactly happen in the Bad Place. But this reasoning sits poorly with Tahani, who demands to speak to Michael’s “manager.” Oh, Tahani.
Michael gives the socialite a taste of reality, flashing back to her death. He reveals that Tahani, furious at her sister Kamilah, had gate-crashed her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction party. She tried to pull down a golden statue of her sister, only to be crushed under its weight. Oh, Tahani. The flashback reveals to Tahani just how narcissistic, self-serving, and vengeful she had been. She resolves to “become the person I pretended to be” and sides with Chidi. (And Jason. Who basically just sits pretty, eats his candy, and goes with the flow the entire episode.)

Give It Up For Team Cockroach

That leaves Eleanor as the only holdout. With the help of Janet (D’Arcy Carden), she tries to sneak out and take a train full of cocaine to the Middle Place. (Apparently real, according to Michael, and not a set-up.) But Chidi stops her and pleads for her to do the right thing. Succumbing to guilt and the knowledge that Chidi had never once in all 802 versions ever turned away her request for help, Eleanor accepts Michael’s deal. But on her own terms. First, Michael needs to take “good person” lessons from Chidi, just like the rest of them. (Ha!) And second, if Michael ever betrays them, she’ll turn him over to Vicky.

Thus, Team Cockroach is born. (Michael earlier reflected on the irony of an exterminator depending on the cockroaches he’d been tasked to torture for help.) Version 803 starts up – and it’s back to the beginning. Team Cockroach goes through the motions of the first day. Michael and Eleanor stroll down a street surrounded by yoga places (in a callback to Season 1). Michael gives his welcome speech. And the team listens to Vicky (wearing the Best Person sash) perform a heartfelt rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s “I Need A Hero.”
Later, the team meets up at Eleanor’s place to strategize for tomorrow. Janet reassures them that she won’t rat them out. She found a loophole in her ability to lie: since she exists to make humans happy, she’s onboard with whatever schemes they come up with. Okay, everyone, Team Cockroach on three! One – two –