Charlesman

Claiming you have artistry just because you've tattooed "artistry" on the side of your face is like claiming you have class because you spray-painted the word "class" on the side of your Winnebago.

Fired up the reruns. It was in episode 2 when the pardon was first announced: After the flash challenge, they all assembled in the big room to announce the elimination tattoo, the Compass Rose. Dave first informed them that there would be a Jury of Peers this season, formed by the team with the tattoo of the day plus one other team of their choice. Then they went over the Compass Rose challenge. Nunez gave some advice on fundamentals. Then, Dave said: "There is one more thing that you should know. For the first time ever (cut over to the peanut gallery where Jason says "that's scary..." and Patrick agrees) each judge will have the power to pardon one artist, saving them from elimination. If an artist receives a pardon, they will immediately re-enter the competition." Nunez then said: "Many seasons past, we've seen people leave on a technicality. We now have the power to show up and stop that elimination while you're packing your gear."

Both times I remember hearing it, in the first episode of this season, and in the episode before this one, I feel it was part of Dave's spiel about what the season was about before the first flash challenge. Like: "You can win a hundred thousand dollars, a feature in Inked magazine, plus, the title of 'Ink Master'. And this season, there's a twist: each judge will be able to pardon one player from elimination if he thinks that person deserves another shot." I am not sure if it was in any prior episodes, as I also FF through all the trash talk in the dorms and only stop when the challenge is introduced. And I hate that every episode they explain what they're playing for and have those stupid reaction shots from the contestants acting like they've never heard that before. It's like when ESPN kept explaining the rules of poker a dozen episodes into the WSOP. Probst doesn't mention the Sole Survivor prize before every Reward Challenge, but, for whatever reason, thirteen years into it, this show thinks we're all idiots.

They announced it in the first episode. There was a reminder in last week's episode, which caught me by surprise when Jordan was really, really eliminated and not saved, since I figured planting it early in the episode (when they go over the deadly boring '"and a feature in Inked magazine" and everyone reacts like it's the first time they're hearing' it part) meant it would finally be used. Like on a drama TV show when some random scene from seven episodes ago shows up on the "previously on" so you know it'll be brought up again. So I wasn't caught off guard this week when it finally got used.

Thanks. I can't help but imagine scenarios and keep having trouble with the decision presented. Like, every time some new people get into the Good Place, they don't seem to care about meeting them? "A whole bunch of new people just showed up. Ghandi, the first guy to walk on Mars, some guy who figured out how to let us talk to dogs and cats, Elon Musk, the first female president of the planetary federation government, the doctor that cured all cancer, and the first post-modern human to get in who was born after the year 100,000AD when we all have clear skulls, four arms, and can see infrared and hear sunshine. Wanna go meet them and talk to them about their lives and experiences?" "Well, honestly, since I just finished reading all of the Jason Bourne novels, I think I'm just gonna peace out."

Another thing that's been nagging me about the finale; I get why Lisa Kudrow et. al would be so bored with the stale Good Place, seeing as no one new had entered in millennia. But once the doors opened up thanks to Team Cockroach, wasn't the novelty of new people worth something? Shouldn't that keep things interesting for as long as new people keep getting in? And for Team Cockroach, after fighting Judge Gen so hard to not reboot the universe, after they win, they... just didn't care to see what happens with humanity? There was no desire to hang out for tens of thousands of years just to see what the humans got up to? If we ever invent time travel or spaceships that leave the solar system? If we ever solve war, famine or racism? No care at all? No desire to hang around and see if their system continues to work once morality on Earth changes? No interest in seeing where evolution takes the species? Maybe it's because no one on Team Cockroach had children. I'm surprised Schur didn't consider seeing he has kids... what it would be like to watch all your descendants and what becomes of the world they left behind. (I'm reminded of what Spielberg said about the ending of "Close Encounters", having Richard Dreyfuss leave his family to board the UFO came from childless Speilberg. Once he had kids, he regretted that ending, since he couldn't believe he'd make that choice.) I would get it, once we reach the Eventual Heat Death of the Universe (and the end of Maximum Derek!), and there were no more people to save, yeah, maybe things get boring after a few dozen thousand bearimys of that. (If you even buy into bearimys, but since Time is a dimension of this physical universe and doesn't necessarily even exist in the afterlife, I'm having a conflict over exactly what that is... my personal beliefs on that are different than the show's, in some ways.) But my curiosity to see if we ever make Star Trek the Next Generation real would keep me hanging on for much longer than Team Cockroach seemed to care about what they left behind and worked so hard to save.

I feel this. The first couple of seasons were a wild, rollicking funny ride. Hilarious jokes, and stuff I couldn't believe they'd say on TV. And then that style of humor just disappeared. It went from "smart funny" to "see how smart I am" pretty quickly. Agree with these also. Well said.

There's a video on the website where Arlene tries to claim the knife wasn't backwards. She's deep in denial.

I guess I'm going to land on "it was a good episode of television, and a good few episodes in a below-average season for this show". But I hooked a friend on this show, someone who struggles with depression, and that friend really enjoyed this show and these characters, and I'm going to have to give that friend a healthy warning before watching this episode. Maybe save it for an up day. Because I don't necessarily agree with the finale's philosophy. It's certainly not in line with my thoughts. So I'll appreciate it's craft and how well it was written and performed, but, maybe not give this ending much consideration.

I don't know either, but, I don't know if we've ever seen the artists who go up to ask what people want before they assign skulls also ask to see their existing tattoos and see who is prone to blowouts. Seems they just go by what they want to draw most. I know we've seen them ask "how long have you sat for" and "how many tattoos do you have already" to avoid those who will tap out early or aren't going to be able to hold up to the pain, but, I don't remember seeing "lemme see what your skin can hold" as one of the questions.

YES PLEASE!!!

I would add a meta-Easter Egg that a video game is how Christopher McQuarrie got the idea for the time-loop movie Edge of Tomorrow. He apparently played the same level of a video game over and over so many times, learning where each trap was and where every bullet was coming from, that eventually he got through it perfectly thanks to the knowledge of all the previous attempts (something that wouldn't actually work for someone doing that for real). I remember doing the same thing trying to beat the best times for levels of the game GoldenEye. Thinking about that inspired McQuarrie to write EoT, and we watched Alan attempting the same thing playing Nadia's video game in the show, but neither of them could ever get past the last trap.

Watching the artists "sketch" their tattoos in the last episode got me thinking... does anyone know what devices they use? And what programs? I just kind of assumed some kind of iPad running Gimp or Photoshop, but that doesn't seem quite right.

While no one could ever replace Mel and Sue, the Sandi/Noel combo did grow on me.

I'm five months behind and just catching up, so I know I'm super late with this comment, but, how did the producers resist the temptation to call the corn search challenge the "maize maze"?