History Recap / TheGoodPlaceS3E05TheBalladOfDonkeyDoug

The group goes their separate ways to begin to help people. Jason, Tahani (having broken up with Larry Hemsworth offscreen), and Michael go to Jacksonville to try to save Jason's father (who it turns out is his dance crew buddy/rival Donkey Doug). Chidi, Eleanor, and Janet stay in Australia, where Chidi tries to figure out how he's going to break up with Simone.

* NoodleIncident: Tahani's breakup with Larry Hemsworth happens offscreen; we only see a magazine cover saying it's over.

* PsuedoCrisis: The previous episode ended with Larry Hemsworth putting Tahani in an awkward position when he expects them to start their new life in Britian. This episode glosses over that, showing Tahani broke up with Larry offscreen.

The group goes their separate ways to begin to help people. Jason, Tahani, and Michael go to Jacksonville to try to save Jason's father (who it turns out is his dance crew buddy/rival Donkey Doug). Chidi, Eleanor, and Janet stay in Australia, where Chidi tries to figure out how he's going to break up with Simone.

* TheReveal: A few significant details viewers and several characters are shocked to find out:

--->'''Janet:'''So the thing is, one of your parents is not technically actually dead.

* WhamLine: Janet reveals that Eleanor's mother is actually ''alive''!

* ExactWords: Chidi asks the waiter to "give us a second". He waits exactly one second before bothering them again. Chick also tries this in a simulation, telling Simone he's dying...in the sense that we're all dying from the moment we're born.

* ExactWords: Chidi asks the waiter to "give us a second". He waits exactly one second before bothering them again.

* ShipTease: Eleanor (who's essentially {{Bi|TheWay}}) and Simone's interactions in Janet's simulation, which is supposed to be very accurate in terms of how characters will react, very much implies that Simone enjoys the idea of getting together with Eleanor. Eleanor's annoyed when Chidi takes the simulation earpieces away from her before she can kiss her.

** Many jabs are made at Jacksonville, Florida, not being a very bright or well-functioning place.

In the end, everybody meets up in Budapest, where they plan to try to reconcile Tahani with her sister. But Janet and Michael accidentally drop the fact that Eleanor's mother is actually still alive. Eleanor declares that she won't be helping save Kamilah, as she has to go murder her mother instead.

* WhamEpisode: Janet lets it slip that Eleanor's mother is actually ''alive''!

* TheCameo: German comedian-musician Flula Borg as Helmut the waiter.

** To Michael's failed attempt at acting like Rick Justice, FBI:

* FailureMontage: Chidi running through break-up scenarios.
* GetRichQuickScheme: Donkey Doug's entire life has consisted of a succession of these.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Jason's father is like him, but much much worse.

* TheReveal:
** Donkey Doug is Jason's father.

* ShipSinking: Chidi / Simone is thoroughly sunk.

* StealthHiBye: Janet clearly wants to do this, but she isn't very good at it. So she's reduced to asking people not to look at her as she leaves the room.
* SnowballLie: Chidi avoided talking with Simone for so long she assumed he had laryngitis, and he started taking antibiotics instead of clearing it up.

** Yet again, to Jacksonville, Florida.
** And to Elon Musk, whom Tahani calls a "weird creep".

* WhamEpisode: Michael lets it slip that Eleanor's mother is actually ''alive''!

** Michael tricks Pillboi by saying that he's a spy and that Pillboi is part of a secret mission, just as Michael tried to do when the group saw the door to the Afterlife. This time, however, he's successful.

* ShoutOut: To ''Film/CrocodileDundee''. The cafe where Chidi and Simone meet is at the intersection of Thatsnota Street and Thisisa Street.

** And to Elon Musk. Even Tahani doesn't know why she's friends with him.

Tahani visits Pillboi at the nursing home where he works and tells him that they don't need him at the factory. Jason goes in his place and tries to talk Donkey Doug out of including Pillboi in any; when the police show up, Donkey Doug offers to distract them while Jason runs out the back. Afterward, the gang all meet up with Pillboi again. They tell him a ridiculous story about being spies from NASA who need him to be an undercover agent at his nursing home. This means that it's crucial that he's as nice as possible to everyone and also that he doesn't do anything illegal.

* CliffhangerCopout: After the previous episode ended with Tahani running into Larry Hemsworth after having married Jason, this episode skips over the whole affair entirely.

** The "every business in Australia is named after ''Finding Nemo'' gag from the last episode makes a return, as Chidi and Simone meet up in the French Pressing Nemo Cafe.

* ContinuityNod: Eleanor once again uses Janet's knowledge of literally everything in the universe to get the dirt on old boyfriends.

Janet knows everything about human nature and also computer programming, so she offers to create a virtual reality simulator where Chidi can practice different breakup scenarios. Eventually Chidi figures out an approach based on the top ten of these scenarios, but when he gets to a cafe to do the breakup in real life, it all goes wrong: they're at the wrong table and the waitress keeps interrupting them. Finally he just blurts out that he wants to break up with her. Later, they have a (slightly) more mature conversation and agree to go their separate ways.

In Florida, the plan is to talk Donkey Doug into getting his electrician's license. But when the gang meets him, he has other ideas: he and Pillboi intend to get rich by selling a combination body spray/energy drink. Tahani and Michael are almost willing to go along with this, but then it turns out that they plan to get their stock by robbing a body spray factory and an energy drink factory (and also a bottle factory).

* HeroicSacrifice: Donkey Doug gives himself up to the cops so that Jason can get away, as his father did for him, and his father and as (so he says) Jason will one day do for his own son.

The group goes their separate way to begin to help people.

* TheReveal: Donkey Doug is Jason's father

** Yet again, to Jacksonville, Flordia.

** To Jacksonville, Flordia.

* TakeThat: To Jacksonville, Flordia.

* TakeThat: To Jacksonville, Flordia.

* RealityEnsues: After Chidi's "chili episode" the university naturally fires him.