Chapter 5: Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis is the fifth episode of Season One of NBC’s The Good Place. It is the fifth episode of the series overall, and aired on October 6, 2016
Synopsis
Chidi tires of spending so much time teaching Eleanor. Tahani snoops and doesn't like what she finds. Michael quarantines the neighborhood.
Plot Summary
The episode begins with Eleanor ordering frozen yogurt. Because Michael feels guilty about the sinkhole, there are a lot of new flavors. Eleanor, instead of holding up the line while trying to make a decision, allows the person behind her, Glenn, to order first. She is so excited by the fact that she did something selfless that she immediately runs back to her house to tell Chidi about it. He congratulates her but asks if she brought the yogurt like she said she would. After briefly trying to back out, she realizes that a good person would follow through and heads to the shop again.
Chidi is teaching a lesson about utilitarianism, and Jason recounts the time he framed a girl for theft so that she wouldn't marry and move away with the "best pop-and-locker" on their 60-person dance crew. He then asks if he can leave to go to Tahani's brunch before the miniature waffles run out. Chidi excuses him, and Eleanor asks if they can jump into a new lesson. Chidi says he's tired from standing and wants a break, so Eleanor asks if he will grade her paper instead. He agrees begrudgingly.
At Tahani's brunch, she and Michael are chatting when Janet appears and alerts Michael that they have a "Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis." Michael asks if Tahani can take them to a private room. Once there, Janet reveals that the sinkhole is not repairing itself. Tahani overhears this and tells Michael she actually saw it get bigger last night. Michael tries to play off his anxiety and leaves.
Back at Eleanor's house, Chidi is trying to politely get time to himself, without Eleanor tagging along. However, Eleanor insists he's hiding something.
Tahani is scrolling through the neighborhood point rankings, and is dismayed to find she is number 321, or second-to-last. We cut to a flashback of Tahani as a young girl. On this particular day, she is showing her parents a picture of a bird she drew, only to be upstaged by her sister Kamilah's reflective birdlike statue.
Eleanor keeps pestering Chidi until he finally breaks and tells her that she is the thing that has been bothering him. He doesn't want "a full time job" and wants to be doing "paradise things," like rowing out on a lake with a bottle of wine and some French poetry. They get so fed up with one another that Eleanor tells him to leave. Just as they make this decision, Michael appears with a neighborhood warning that it's too dangerous to go outside.
It has been several days since the lock-in began, and Eleanor and Chidi are still squabbling. In the middle of it, Michael interrupts and introduces a new couple, Bart and Nina, who need a place to stay until the sinkhole is repaired. He volunteers Eleanor's because she's his assistant.
In Tahani's mansion, she announces they have a full day of activities planned, leading one woman to comment on how good Tahani is. Tahani agrees, but upon checking her point total learns that nothing's changed. In a new flashback, Tahani is hosting a fundraising event which is only at 5.2 million pounds earned. Her parents insist it's time to bring out something new, and Tahani introduces Kamilah to auction off a date. The bidding starts at 3 million pounds, and entire crowd immediately raises their cards.
Bart and Nina put Eleanor and Chidi on edge when they reveal they were experts on catching falsehoods and giving relationship advice, respectively. They go into another room to argue but are seen by Bart and Nina, who then decide to help the couple. Bart discerns that Chidi has a secret.
Tahani meets Michael and Janet out by the sinkhole, offering them some donut holes until the negative side effects of a human getting too close to it start to change her. Janet knocks her out before too much harm can be done.
After Bart and Nina's prodding, Chidi reveals he's never had a serious relationship before, which is why he's so tense. Bart offers him a massage, but Eleanor and Chidi turn it down and go to bed.
Tahani has recovered from the sinkhole, and Michael wants to know why she did something so stupid in the first place. We flash back to the reading of her parents' last will and testament, where they bequeathed her inheritance to "Tahini." Frustrated, Tahani says Kamilah can have everything; she will strike out on her own. Tahani confides that the source of her insecurity is that she ranked so low on the point evaluation. Michael reassures her that she belongs in The Good Place, and Janet lets them know that the sinkhole is fixed.
With the lock-in lifted, Eleanor has left a note for Chidi to go to the lake. Eleanor tells Chidi she understands that helping her is not easy, and gives him a card that reads, "Fork off, Eleanor," for him to use whenever he is overburdened. She apologizes for the tricky situation she has put them in and gives him a basket of wine and French poetry. Chidi gets into a boat and Eleanor pushes him off into the lake. Once in the middle of the lake, Chidi says he has no idea what he's doing and that it was a theoretical fantasy.
Eleanor walks up to Michael, who is showing the residents that the sinkhole is fully repaired and saying that he figured it all out. After the crowd disperses, Michael tells Eleanor that he has no idea how this happened, which is bad news. He resolves to figure it out, with her help, first thing in the morning.
Cast
- Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop
- William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye
- Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al-Jamil
- D'Arcy Carden as Janet
- Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza
- Ted Danson as Michael
Guest Starring
- Steve Berg as Gunnar
- John Hartmann as Bart
- Rebecca Hazlewood as Kamilah Al-Jamil (flashback)
- Anna Khaja as Manisha Al-Jamil (flashback)
- Ajay Mehta as Waqas Al-Jamil (flashback)
Co-Starring
- Lynnette Gaza as Eunice (flashback)
- Yaniellie Ireland as Young Kamilah (flashback)
- Jill Johnson as Henriette
- Monnae Michaell as Nina
- Graceanne Pullappally as Young Tahani (flashback)
Trivia
- Original broadcast audience: 4.97 million.
- Some of the new froyo flavors are "Full Cell Phone Battery" and "Folded Laundry."
- Jianyu has the second highest point total, while Eleanor Shellstrop is sixth in the neighborhood and Chidi is fifteenth.
- Jessica Nakanoi is fifth, and Patricia Camarillo (who is probably the same person as Chef Patricia) is 14th.
- The only person with a lower point total than Tahani is Glenn.
- Eleanor is seen wearing a Michigan Law crewneck.
- Tahani introduces her sister saying, "Take it away from me, Kamilah!" instead of the correct phrase, "Take it away!"
Gallery
