The Good Place Season 2, Episode 5 'Existential Crisis' Recap: The Dumb-Dumbs Break Michael [SPOILERS]

Things don’t quite go as according to plan in “The Good Place” season 2, episode 5 as human nature gets the better of our hilarious cast. Including, ironically enough, Michael (Ted Danson), who’s hit with a bout of “Existential Crisis” courtesy of Chidi (William Jackson Harper). Team Cockroach isn’t exactly off to a great start. Meanwhile, Team Demon plots to make Tahani (Jameela Jamil) miserable by beating her at – wait for it – event planning. But Tahani’s driven nature gets the best of her, and instead of purposely losing, she decides to compete in earnest. Against demons. Oh, Tahani.

Michael’s First Crisis

Chidi (William Jackson Harper) starts off his first class with Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and Michael. Today’s lesson in Ethics 101: Socrates. But he hits a roadblock when the demon (“not really accurate,” Michael comments, “a little racist, but it’s fine”) refuses to take it seriously. Chidi correctly realizes the problem is that Michael, as an immortal being, believes he has no use for philosophy because his actions don’t have lasting consequences. All he has to do is wait a couple hundred or thousand years and the guilt fades away.

Now that leaves Chidi in a bit of a bind. Before he can teach Michael to be good, he needs to make him realize that life has an end and that actions have to mean something. And how does he do that? By serving Michael up a good ol’ helping of existential crisis. Suffice to say, it backfires spectacularly. Michael is rendered helpless by anguish and ennui, contemplating the fleeting nature of existence. Chidi remains optimistic that this is the first step to teaching the demon ethics. Eleanor is less convinced: “We broke Michael!”

Michael’s Second Crisis

After an incredibly depressing segue to Eleanor’s childhood where she remembers how her mom first introduced her to the concept of death by lying that her dog went to a happier place (why are Eleanor’s flashbacks always so gosh-darn sad?), Team Cockroach stops by Gunnar’s birthday party. Eleanor leaves Michael alone for a brief minute, but he disappears. The next thing she and Chidi know, he appears driving up in a red convertible with a blonde Janet (D’Arcy Carden) in the passenger seat. Uh oh. The existential crisis has escalated to a mid-life crisis. Eleanor thinks this is great since he’s relatively harmless in this state. But Chidi says that it’s a sign that Michael’s backsliding into denial, not making any real progress.

After more disturbing flashbacks (one involving the time her mom crashing her dad’s funeral; another, reliving her emotional breakdown at Bed, Bath & Beyond), Eleanor decides to talk Michael down from his crisis. She explains that Michael is learning to be human, and all humans are always a little bit sad. It’s a pretty crappy deal. But we’re stuck with it. And pushing down or ignoring our sadness only makes it worse. She leaves him with one last nugget of wisdom from the BB&B employee in her last flashback. “Go ahead and cry all you want,” she tells Michael, “but you’re going to have to pay for that toilet plunger.”
Somehow, the wisdom works. Michael pulls himself back together enough to send off his daily torture report to his boss. He even thanks Eleanor for helping to bring him back from his existential crisis. Not bad progress for a demon – sorry, we mean “immortal being.”

Tehani Throws A Party

Meanwhile, Team Demon gets the bright idea to make Tehani miserable by beating her at her own game: event planning. Basically, they’re going to ask her to throw a birthday bash for Gunnar, but throw an even better one next door and get all the guests. Shallow? Yes. Michael even bemoans the scheme’s lack of originality. But nonetheless, it ends up working swimmingly. Tehani gets the idea that if she throws an even party than Team Demon, all the guests will go to her place instead. She even ropes Jason (Manny Jacinto) and Janet into helping her out.

But when Team Cockroach arrives at Team Demon’s party, Tehani is forced to concede defeat. They’ve got a Build-A-Real-Bear Workshop, a Fly-Like-A-Falcon station – and even a real live unicorn! A unicorn! Demoralized, Tehani rejects the demons’ offer to check out her place to continue the party and leaves early. Back in their mansion, she confesses to Jason that it’s not even losing the event planning contest that got to her – it was the fact that the demons knew it would get to her. “What does this say about me?” she asks. She’s experiencing her own mini existential crisis, too. But Jason tells her that she’s awesome, good at everything, and she should be nicer to herself. Tahani cheers up a little, after that.
Cut to Tehani and Jason in bed together, naked and awkward—at least on Tahani’s side. Jason just says it was awesome. Tehani, still shocked, actually agrees. Jason then rushes off to make them cereal in bed. What?!