Dots And Stripes

Michael showed Eleanor her memories?

Yep! David Niednagel (yes, I had to google the spelling). The cast also uses his name as shorthand for visual effects. Example: Did Kristen really throw the lamp or was it Niednagled?

I love Jake calling Holt "Dad." Jake had most of my favorite lines tonight, including his reaction to Hitchcock and Scully talking like Trump.

Maximum Derek! Loved seeing Mantzoukas return. I hope tonight's set-up means we get a few more weeks of the new and improved Derek. I'm wondering if Shawn picked a mailman as one of the four new humans to try and drive a wedge between Eleanor and Chidi. I could totally see all of the new humans being chosen to specifically drive our cockroaches crazy. The Niednagel name was cute. For those who don't listen to the podcast, Niednagel does special effects for the show.

I recognized Nicole Byer's voice when she first spoke from the other room. Nailed it! I like that Michael made some real progress tonight. Tahani being selfless was sweet. Jameela was great in this episode. I liked the idea of Eleanor and Chidi as a couple, but seeing them as an actual couple is freaking me out.

No, it’s a new one. I’ve seen an old one with Jake dancing at the bar (same scene, Amy is wearing a wedding dress.) The Holt quote is new.

We need a spoiler thread! Anyway, did NBC drop a spoiler in the promo during the Golden Globes?

I didn’t mind Andrea, but Amanda definitely crossed the line from snarky to rude in the last 2 episodes. Very happy for Tina!

The story with Batali isn’t dead. (Grub Street did a follow-up on his businesses 2 weeks ago.) I still see periodic headlines into new details about how bad the culture was at his businesses. With someone like Batali, lying low is a way to hope people still go to his restaurants without realizing they are lining his pockets. If one is guilty of the accusations, getting people to stop talking about you is a win. I feel worse for the winner who never got to reap the rewards of her win than I do for the Judge who paid a price for his own actions.

They all have the option to reuse their couple's choice dance, so I don't see it as unfair. Besides, the couples all get to play to their strengths with their choice in the last round.

The result tonight looks like the dances tonight didn't matter. Kevin blew it with the showdance, but Stacey's popularity made that a non-issue. Gosh Kevin's ego is going to be unbearable. On the bright side, we can stop hearing about how Kevin has been robbed so many times. Can we get Gio a win next series, please?

Nope, I’m not jumping on the Adam is creepy bandwagon. That’s too dark of an insinuation to make based on a few seconds of a cheesy reality show.

They didn't give names in order, but we know this week's top 3 (Kirk, Chevel, Chris), middle 3 (MaKenzie, Reagan, Kennedy), and bottom 2 (Kimberly, Sarah Grace). We know Kennedy definitely placed below the other finalists.

Really? I don't agree. Kennedy got no higher than fourth place last night. No one who has needed the instant save to get into the finale has gone on to win. It's possible Kennedy could be the first, but I think she is an underdog at this point. Adam's antics didn't help him any, but I don't think it doomed Raegan. Going from eighth place one week to fourth place the next also would have been unprecedented. Adam's problems this season started much earlier.

Reagan's arrangement was unusual. It was a big pop/rock song in the early 2000's, I think. Do you mean Chevel instead of Sarah Grace. Sarah Grace did not make it through, even though I find her so much more interesting than Chevel.

As I have said many times, Blake is very good at this show. At no point before tonight would I have guessed that Blake would have 2 artists in the top 3 tonight. Kelly or Jennifer, sure, but I did not see Team Blake making it that far this year. Adam just cannot help himself. He was doing so well until the last time he spoke and he had to back the girls over the boys. Given last week's debacle, that was a surprise. Also, after all that was said last week I kind of have to call out JHud for being so much more subdued after MaKenzie performed than she was for Kennedy. She didn't hide her favorite either. I will miss MaKenzie in the finale.

I didn't mind the package for Raegan mostly because I think there were some who went too far last week and seemed to forget that she is a real person. I don't like coddling the tweens on this show, but I don't like seeing someone get destroyed either. Best case scenario for me is Raegen gets a quick elimination tomorrow. My only doubts that will happen come from the fact that the audience votes for artists, not against. Raegan has become polarizing, which is better than being forgettable on a show like this. I wouldn't be shocked if she is in the middle 3 tomorrow. I think top 3 is out of the question. Also, DeAndre is a class act for the way he handled it all. I'm glad that he got through all of this with his dignity in tact. This show doesn't produce stars, so leaving having shown yourself in a flattering light is a pretty good outcome.

Weird that they didn't have Adam speak until almost an hour and a half in. I guess they didn't want him to say anything until the pre-taped damage control aired. The first hour was a little too heavy on Kelly and J-Hud. Tonight didn't really change anything for me, although I wish Kirk had done better to close. I always like Kennedy, but she has yet to reach her potential. Probably a side-effect of being 14. She is one of the best tweens ever on this show, I will give her that. Chevel started strong for maybe the first 10 seconds, but it didn't go anywhere interesting. Poor Chris had to sing a love song with a 16 year old. He did his best to not make it weird, but towards the end it definitely got weird. I'm over Kimberly's preaching. I usually have a high tolerance artists singing religious songs on this show even though that's not my thing, but that has become Kimberly's one go to move. At this point, I'm rooting for MaKenzie, although I think she'll land in the middle 3. Without the iTunes votes, this show is much harder to gauge.

Two weeks ago, I thought Joe was the front runner. I figured he would be able to dance decent enough and that would combine with his popularity to give him the win. He's had two rough weeks that have made me rethink that. Could this finally be Kevin's year? Stacey seems fairly popular. I liked her Charleston much more than last week's VW where Kevin seemed to hide her. I still want Faye and Gio to win, although I wasn't as wowed by her AT as I was hoping to be.

I really liked Sherry and Emma! Spice had a few good moments, but I really wish there was someone with a bit more energy as co-host. It's always good to see Paul Hollywood (and a Hollywood Handshake too).

They've already made it clear that he didn't lie about everything. Janet was real, and a lot of what he has said about the point system was real. Being able to explain away everything inconvenient as a lie feels cheap. I like @HunterHunted's idea up thread. Shawn is Michael's boss, so it seems plausible that he could have more knowledge about Bad Place schemes than Michael.

I thought back to the pilot too. Michael definitely indicated a few people had made it into the Good Place in the last 500. They may have to explain that away. Maybe Michael lied? I think we're about present day on the earth timeline. We went through Eleanor's first year relatively quickly and I think at least a year passed in Australia.

Janet kissing Janet was so weird! I loved Jason Janet the most. Ted's face when he stared down the accountant than tipped over the case was my other highlight of the episode. So good!

In fairness to Raegan, not all illnesses are the same. We just don’t know enough to say definitively whether sitting out was the right call for her health. I think it’s possible that she was legitimately too sick to perform and it’s possible that nerves or other issues are being obscured. The show was too vague for me to reach any real conclusion about that.

https://tvline.com/2018/12/04/adam-levine-voice-controversy-deandre-nico-reagan-strange/ Nothing new in TVLine’s article, but seeing Adam’s speech from the show in writing is something. What gets me is that he’s worried about breaking Reagan’s heart, but not DeAndre’s. That’s what Kelly understood but Adam missed: all of the artists had their hearts on the line. Every week someone’s heart breaks. TVLine clearly didn’t like how Adam handled things any more than people here did.