"You know, maybe I'm not as great as Real Eleanor, but I'm better than I used to be. I'm medium-good. Why haven't you forkers invented a medium place?"
"Can't believe you thought you could pretend to be Real Eleanor. She's like a perfect ball of light, and you're like a... wet pile of mulch. Someone made a person out of wet mulch and leaves and, like, dead slugs, and that's you."
— Trevor
As negotiations begin to determine the fates of the two Eleanors, Michael uses Tahani's house as a meeting place only for the Bad Place demons to turn the event into a party where they walk all over Michael, much to Tahani's dismay. Meanwhile, Chidi and the good Eleanor bond over dinner with Eleanor and Trevor. During the main negotiation session, Michael stands up to Trevor and his demons, declaring war on the Bad Place and promising to fight for Eleanor. Trevor promises to get Shawn, an "Eternal Judge", involved. Michael ultimately throws the demons out of the Good Place. That night, Jason finds Tahani in his "meditation room", demanding to know who he really is. In flashbacks, Eleanor is shown to dislike joining social groups.
Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Real" Eleanor's description of the Bad Place includes being bitten by flying piranhas, burned by lava monsters, and sitting through college improv.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When Janet is asked to procure jalapeno poppers.Janet: Sure! Quick question, what is a "jalapeno"? Also, what is a "poppers"? Also, what is "jalapeno poppers"?
- Burn the Orphanage: The real Eleanor mentions in passing that her Dark and Troubled Past included fleeing a burned orphanage.
- Complete-the-Quote Title: From a Groucho Marx quotation, from his 1967 letter to the Friars' Club: "Please accept my resignation. I do not care to belong to any club that will accept someone like me as a member".
- Extreme Doormat: Michael is terrified of the Bad Place demons and lets them walk all over him.
- Evil Counterpart: Janet has a Bad Place version of herself known simply as "Bad Janet", who is just as obnoxious as the other demons.
- Evil Is Petty: Trevor and his lackeys never miss a chance to be unnecessarily unpleasant, and the torments of the Bad Place involve a lot of persistent nagging inconveniences (e.g., the train going there makes a million unnecessary stops and the restaurant car is always closed) along with more traditional forms of Cold-Blooded Torture.
- Freudian Excuse: Discussed. Eleanor believes that her terrible parents are partially to blame for how she turned out. However, the "real" Eleanor had an even worse background (bordering on Hilariously Abusive Childhood) but channeled that into becoming an altruistic humanitarian. Moreover, Trevor points out that lots of kids have screwed-up family backgrounds (in fact, nearly half of all kids in America alone have divorced parents) but don't turn into self-absorbed jerks, so it's not really a good excuse.
- Grew a Spine: By the end of the episode, Michael has gained the courage to throw Trevor and his lackeys out of the Good Place.
- Improv Comedy Is Inane: "College improv" is one of the Faux Horrific things listed in Eleanor's personal hell.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Mixed with Villain Has a Point - Trevor is a demon who enjoys being evil, but his retort to Eleanor about how her cruddy childhood doesn't give her a free pass or excuse her awful behavior is not far off.
- Mythology Gag: The pilot originally had a shot of Eleanor waking up and being happy about not having a hangover (and this line was heavily featured in the promos). In this episode, Eleanor wakes up with a huge hangover because the Bad Place demons turned the hangover filter off.
- Personalized Afterlife: Trevor paints Eleanor's fate in hell as specifically tailored for her.
- Precision F-Strike: Michael's speech to the demons ends with him yelling, "Get the fork out of my neighborhood!"
- Shout-Out:
- Eleanor thinks Elton John is a jazz musician.
- Real Eleanor learned English from watching Seinfeld.
- Michael puts on "Who Let The Dogs Out?"
- Eleanor's room mate once invited her to go watch Spider-Man 2. Eleanor couldn't believe they made another Spider-Man.
- Thought-Aversion Failure: As one of the many petty things about the trip back to the Bad Place, the train there is uncomfortably hot and gets one degree hotter everytime passengers think about how hot it is.
- Wham Episode: The Stinger. Jason enters his budhole... to find Tahani, who has caught on to his lies, summarizing what she knows "Jianyu" isn't, asking him to tell her who he really is.
- Voice Changeling: The demon lackeys do "karaoke" to the infamous Nixon tapes, somehow changing their voices to (an impersonated) Nixon.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Eleanor is less than pleased to learn Trevor and the demons are fans of her Earthly behavior and think she'd be happier with them.
