Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dan Hamamura | TV | November 2, 2018
This was kind of a strange episode for my purposes, as A Fractured Inheritance was the most straight-ahead episode of The Good Place to date, which means not nearly as many fun hidden things for me to pause and obsess over.
In fact, the first semi-hidden visual gag doesn’t come until almost halfway into the episode, when Eleanor and Michael follow Donna Shellstrop Diana Trumaine to her PTA meeting at:
MGM Grand Luxury Resort And Casino Elementary School
I mean, that motto.
Eleanor’s Snack Hoarding
She may have spent a year in this timeline becoming a better person, and they may not have shrimp, but that doesn’t mean Eleanor still isn’t gonna take advantage of a free spread:
It’s a tiny, silly bit of joke continuity, but I love that you can see she took ALL of the cheese.
The True Meaning Of “Ya Basic!”
While The Good Place: The Podcast may have revealed the real-world origins of “Ya Basic!”, here we get to see the true meaning (or at least, a positive usage) of the devastating insult, as Eleanor helps her mother realize that she really does love her new life as a suburban step-mom.
Oh, Stuff Happened In Budapest Also
Look at this image of the rest of the main cast in a car together! Do you see the hidden message? The hidden message that definitely isn’t that I didn’t find any hidden messages in the B-story?
At Least We Have The Credits
As always, the credits provide a last bit of relief, with one of the (I think) PTA moms being named Peaches McPlum, and a few other names that don’t seem to mean anything, unless you find yourself desperately digging for content and so you run the names through Google Translate…
That’s weird. But then if you take out the hyphen…
I have no idea if either of those is correct. But I guess I have a new thing to do every week from now on.
Last Looks
Before we go, a couple of random things that stuck out to me:
Eleanor saying: “How dare she steal the identity I stole.” cracked me up every time I watched it. It kind of reminded me of this classic:
Andy Daly, as always, was a delight. His casual explanation that he likes that Eleanor’s mother is a “selfish lover” because he doesn’t know what he wants during sex was just right.
And of course, I am legally obligated to mention Eleanor’s write-in candidate for PTA Secretary: “Bofa Deeznuts”. So juvenile. So tonally perfect.
Next week, looks like the gang will finally be back together again!
