The Good Place ended last night, and I want to give you a place to talk about all of your feelings! Below the cut are a few of my scattered thoughts, with spoilers for the whole series throughout.
Also, nota bene: do not watch this sucker without tissues.
A Brief Unscientific Postscript About Some of the Best Things The Good Place Did With Its Time on Earth:
This is very brief—especially by my standard—cause I’m going to need more time to process this. But I think we can agree that The Good Place has been an incredible ride. It’s been one of the sharpest and funniest comedies I’ve ever seen. The cast was simply perfect. It gave us a half an hour a week to stare at Manny Jacinto’s cheekbones. It had characters who were enthusiastically bi. The show was fluffy and sexy and sweet, and, up to the very last moments, knew how to lighten melancholy with a carefully-deployed margarita.
Maybe best of all? Eleanor, Chidi, Michael, Tahani, Jason, and Janet (especially Janet) are going to stay with me until I walk through the door. And I’m assuming I’m not the only person here who wants to say that. I’ve written up a couple of thoughts below, but please tell us your favorite moments in the comments!
The Good Place Was Unafraid of Change
From “THIS is the Bad Place” reveals to something like 800 reboots to Chidi’s memory being wiped to Chidi’s memory being restored to hook-ups to break-ups to finally getting to The Good Place only to learn that The Good Place was also forked, this show was never afraid to shake up its cast, its premise, or any of the core relationships. It was the greatest high-wire act I’ve ever seen in a TV series. And it just continued it through the finale, with a nod to Six Feet Under, Michael’s new path, Tahani’s dedication to learning, and Eleanor saving one last soul.
But Some Things Stayed The Same
Jason Mendoza remains a Florida Man. He is just as proud of a well-thrown Molotov cocktail at the end of the series as at the beginning. But he also has that crazy enormous heart and optimism, so really, did he need to change? Of course he’s the first to go through the door (kinda) because he’s always been the most himself, the most attuned to the feelings of others, the most sincere…and also because he played a perfect game of Madden, and what in all the afterlife could possibly top that?
Philosophy for Beginners
Over the course of the show, the cast name-checked dozens of philosophers, including:
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Diogenes
- Socrates
- Thomas Aquinas
- Kant
- Hume
- Scanlon
- Kierkegaard
- Locke
- Sartre
- Bentham
- Dancy
- Derrida
You’ll notice those are all dudes? But then in “Patty,” when we actually finally meet a philosopher in The Good Place, the first real life philosopher we’ve met so far, it’s Hypatia.
Hypatia was a neoplatonist mathematician/philosopher who lived in the 4th Century C.E.. She was a highly-regarded thinker, respected enough to teach in Alexandria despite all those icky girl parts. And then a mob of Christian men decided they hated what she was teaching, and they hated that she was a woman while teaching it, so they chased her through the streets and beat her to death.
Yes, this really happened. It’s regarded by some people as an endpoint of Classical Antiquity.
Can I tell you how loud I shrieked when, after the show’s parade of white male philosophers, THIS was the one we finally got to meet? Can I tell you how much my insides melted watching Chidi freak out cause he got to meet her?
No, reader, I cannot. There are not enough words, or space on the internet.
The Single Greatest Line of Dialogue in Any Television Show Ever:
“Do you think I would have been a good symbologist? If that were a real job?”
And right there, Chidi says the thing that my former-religion-student ears have been longing to hear since The Da Vinci Code came out.
The Best Pun Shop Names in All of Human History
I don’t yet have the complete list of puns, but I’m gonna get it. In the meantime, I want to remind us all of this tweet.
here's an abridged version of the full list of food puns i turned in with my first draft of tonight's #TheGoodPlace episode pic.twitter.com/x335NYNN09
— Megan Amram (@meganamram) September 29, 2017
Michael’s Guitar Teacher!
I’m not going to name her here, just in case you’re skimming over this without having seen it? But reader, I cried.
The Sense of An Ending
After all of their work to get to the good place, the first thing they learn is that The Good Place will rot their brains and make them happiness zombies. So, to borrow a line from Beetlejuice, they draw a door. Now everyone who has ever existed has an out. Get sick of paradise? You can go through the door and into what I think is non-existence. For me this is an utter nightmare—I want to keep existing. I wanted to be a filmmaker because it would allow me to live dozens of lives. I love Quantum Leap because Sam gets to keep trying new stuff basically forever.
But I can see how endless bliss could suck the sense of fun and adventure out of everything.
This is an especially big development because part of the reason Michael started helping the cockroaches in the first place was because he was so afraid of Shawn winking him out of existence. Now he’s mature enough, and empathetic enough, to offer this as an option to those who have become pummeled with too much happiness.
And in the end it was this that made this show go from a great comedy to one of the best things I’ve ever seen. The easy choice would have been for the show to end with them on the balloon on the way to The Good Place. Fade to white…happily ever after, literally.
Instead it walked us through the idea that ultimate happiness isn’t really the answer to life, the universe, and everything. There are no answers—only a journey that we create as we go.
So. Many. Tears. An hour after it ended, I was still getting too choked up to explain the ending to my wife (who does not watch the show, but did watch S1 with me). The answer to “what’s beyond the final door” was just painfully perfect.
Thanks, Leah :) I’m also still processing the finale, and I need to watch it again to catch all the tiny jokes and call-backs to the last four seasons (and maybe cry less this time? But probably not.) But I just wanted to take a second to recommend The Good Place: The Podcast–just when I thought I couldn’t love the show more, I started rewatching it along with the podcast and it just takes it all to another level.
Marc Evan Jackson (who plays Shawn) is a spectacular host, and the insights that the cast, writers, directors, and other behind-the-scenes folks bring to each episode are fascinating–but they also drive home what a truly special and inspiring project The Good Place was and is. It’s a show about how to be a better person made by people who seem to have deeply embraced that question (and who also happen to be incredibly smart, funny, and charming). Can’t recommend the podcast enough, if you want a deeper look into what makes the show so heart-crunchingly wonderful :)
The show kept changing, but always stayed the same. In fact, the whole season was full of call-backs to the first one. The real change was the growth of the characters. I mean, even Vicky has become so great an actress that she can effectively train new actors!
Among the cameos in this last episode, there were philosophers Todd May and Pamela Hieronymi, the consulting philosopher for the show. And how many shows have a consulting philosopher? I’m not sure Peter Singer was mentioned in the show, but Doug Forcett being introduced to us reading The Most Good You Can Do made me really happy!
Now that The Good Place is over, I know that I can recommend it to everyone without fearing that the ending would ruin it. It was just the perfect ending to a perfect show.
How strangely Lovecraftian. That’s basically the ending to “Ex Oblivione”, the story Lovecraft wrote under a pseudonym because he didn’t want to risk being associated with its thesis.
I cried a lot during the finale, and again today thinking about it all over again. It was such a beautifully sweet, fulfilling ending. I never could have imagined a show about being a better person would have been so good. It’s my favorite show ever. Full stop.
I’m going to miss it so much, but it was perfect.
@BMcGovern
The podcast is sooo good. I’m seriously going to miss it just as much as the show. Luckily we get an ‘exra’ episode since the last one runs long & they split it up into two parts.
If anyone recommends the podcast to new viewers, make sure they have seen the first two seasons in full before starting to listen. Each episode of the podcast covers an episode of the show, but since they didn’t start recording until after season 2 ended, spoilers abound for both season 1 & 2 until they catch up with season 3. After that, the new pod episode releases right after the new episode airs & only contains spoilers up to & including that ep.
Janet telling Jason there were no bad parts…Michael’s gift of a real frog…the look on Shawn’s face when Michael says “I know, buddy”…the fact the heart pendant perfectly matched Janet’s clothes…the calendar…puppy Jason…Eleanor’s final gift to Michael after she walks through the door…Michael’s human last name…
I’ve never actually watched the show, reading this makes me think I should.
But I’ve always thought that the traditional version of paradise was pretty awful. Consider the last verse of “Amazing Grace.”
When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Then when we’ve first begun.
Sounds like the showrunners really thought about the implications of that. I mean, I don’t want to go to heck when I die, and I don’t want to just stop–I would like to think that some kind of consciousness continues–but not singing hymns for all eternity. Hmmm.
When I saw Michael’s guitar teacher I laughed and thought oh that’s cute.
I thought when people went through the door they’re reborn? not oblivion or you know becoming part of the ocean.
I’ll have to watch the last five minutes or so again because I missed Michael’s human last name.
The pod cast sounds fun. I’m sorry I missed it the first time. It will give me something to look forward to when I go back and watch the episodes I missed in season 3.
@8. Thomas: “but not singing hymns for all eternity.”
One of my brothers said something like that when he was about 8 years old. Some church person was describing eternity as being in a choir singing God’s praises forever. Bro’s response: “That’s boooring!”
– Jason learned restraint and thoughtfulness and remained inherently Jason.
– Tahani’s massive internal database being turned towards eternal improvement instead of complacency
– Chidi makes a decision and sticks to it.
– Eleanor pushes past the twin traumas of her nature—selfishness and loneliness paired—and comes full circle.
– Janet allows herself to Not Know Everything.
– Michael gets his dearest wish.
Wait, we didn’t get to see Adam Scott as Trevor again, did we? Was he just left alone in the void between worlds, without the possibility for growth absolutely every being in the cosmos got? That’s sad…
While I did love it, it does not posit a reason for our existence. Perhaps this is petty of me, but self realization & compassion do not seem like the whole picture. I prefer the end of the movie, “What Dreams May Come,” where you get back on the reincarnation roller coaster to improve humanity as well as yourself. I understand that that is, in some ways, what Michael’s journey leads to, but I prefer a feeling of higher purpose in my afterlife scenarios. Just a quibble which I am only able to state since the show had such high standards I wanted it to solve everything while still entertaining me.
I couldn’t stop crying the whole time, although a sizable portion of me still doesn’t buy Eleanor and Chidi as a couple.
I squeed when we see Michael’s guitar instructor. The brief moment with Simone made me realize how awesome she was and how much I missed her.
The al-Jamils’ reunion was lovely, but I don’t really want to think about the repercussions of the fact that Tahani and her sister were a) there first and then b) Mr and Mrs al-Jamil arrived together which might mean that both daughters predeceased their parents which is always a tragedy and also that the parents died together which usually means an accident. Awful.
Way to bum everyone out, Bel.
Other than that, it was a lovely capstone to a wonderful series, and I shall miss it.
p.s. Hypatia wasn’t just beaten to death by a mob, she was hacked to death with sharpened clamshells. Someone had to say it.
@14: Don’t forget: Jeremy Bearimy. Time in the afterlife is not the same as on Earth, so Mike getting to live in the present thousands of Bearimies after the last time we saw Earth doesn’t mean anything regarding how much time passed for the rest of the cast, including the new arrivals. Kamilah Al-Jamil didn’t necessarily died before her parents; all we know is that she managed to pass the test earlier, which mostly indicates that the elder Al-Jamils were not as good people as their daughters: a fair assessment, I would say. Regarding the fact that they arrived together, I think it’s because, for their growth, it was better that they took all the tests together (it’s an important aspect of the show that it’s easier to become a good person when you’re not on your own).
“I squeed when we see Michael’s guitar instructor.”
You squeed? Did you… Fire squid?
@14 Tahani did of course die before her parents and worked on improving her points for all the resets. She also reconciled with Kamilah during her second chance on earth, so Kamilah had less work to do once she died. It is interesting that her parents arrived together, but that seemed more like there was a co-dependence there so they ended up in the same neighborhood during their trials and the passed them at the same time. We don’t know, but perhaps neighborhoods are like the first one Michael created, with a small population of souls learning to improve and then they all help each other to reach The Good Place at the same time.
@13 I actually liked Tahani’s ending the best, because she does go on to continue to improve, well if not the world, then at least the people who need her. That was very satisfying to me. My own beliefs lean toward reincarnation and using what we learned in this life to improve the world, but I don’t have an issue with the way this ended either. An eternity with no struggles and no challenges doesn’t sound that great to me either.
No Tahani/Jason interaction in the finale at all. I think their story together got majorly dropped after season 2 to keep it from conflicting with Jason/Janet. But would have liked some better resolution between the former soulmates.
Hypatia’s murder appears to have been the result of a political conflict (led by Christians on both sides), rather than because of objections to her teaching philosophy. She’d had good relations with one bishop of Alexandria (who appointed one of her students to another bishopric), but not so much his successor, Cyril. She then allied with and advised the (Christian) Roman prefect when he and the bishop came into violent conflict.
Riots and retaliation escalated, and rumors (possibly started by Cyril) circulated that Hypatia was trying to egg the prefect on and prevent reconciliation. Those rumors incited/were used as a pretext for Cyril’s monastic thugs to brutally murder her.
http://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2018/08/06/who-was-hypatia-of-alexandria-really/
Quite right, mschiffe, Hypatia was caught up in political infighting with a religious cast. Her death had nothing to do with her profession.
@9 Michael’s new last name was “Realman”
We know Tahani’s parents predeceased her, since she was there for the reading of their will, which miscalled her “Tahini. Like the sauce.” Presumably unchanged in the revised cycle since it happened before Tahani’s original death. So we can assume they spent quite a bit of time in the Bad Place before the new system was introduced.
Though it would make some sense to wipe people’s memories of the Bad Place before running them through the new system, so they may not remember that.
I went from watching this to binging the final 8 episodes of Bojack Horseman. Both great conclusions but I wouldn’t recommend the combo. Bit of a sadness overdose.
Totally OT, but just found out there is a 6 episode Brooklyn 99 podcast hosted by Marc Evan Jackson and all eps are out now! Since we were talking about The Good Place: The Podcast, thought other fans of both shows might be interested. :)
mschiffe @@@@@ 21 – ah yes, I had totally forgotten that! Thanks!
I still think the first of the four seasons was the best, but the last was second best (even if Shawn disappointingly didn’t cocoon anyone – I think he was softening already).
Maybe I was spoiled by reading some of the last bit a few decades ago. The last chapter of ‘A History of the World in 10-1/2 Chapters’ by Julian Barnes has many aspects of Heaven in ‘The Good Place’. I kind of knew what was coming from the start. [*]
But to be fair to the latter, it did follow Eleanor through the Door.
All in all, a fantastic series, 50+ short chapters but it never outstayed its welcome.
@8, @10, I’m not familiar with Biblical paradise but I believe the singing hymns to God’s grace for all eternity is Dante’s version of paradise.
The Final Gate reminded me a lot of the Underworld window left open towards the end of The Amber Spyglass, even the visuals once we see Eleanor walk through it is what I imagined happens to the shades when they become Dust.
@26. tkThompson: head explodey/go boom! This show was about Dust!
I haven’t watched this series, but I may now that it is finished.
The ending actually sounds Buddhist. Theravada, specifically:the idea that liberation, not a heaven (to put it crudely, Theravada theology has many heavens, reflecting different gradations of virtue, and virtue is orthogonal to enlightenment) is the true goal.
The Chidi calendar came at exactly the right time, I was literally sobbing and that made me laugh so hard. They were both in such a bind, and how it played out was perfect for their character arcs. Chidi knew he was ready (I liked that he didn’t need to sit on the bench), and Eleanor knew she had to let him go (her realization was brilliantly done).
I’ve never seen a show this smart and deep. Very sad to see it go, as it was definitely one of the funnier shows (“Ugh, Aristotle… like, who died and left him in charge of ethics?” (Chidi, looking at a blackboard with Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle on it) “Plato!” that one just killed me), but I am so glad they did the ending right.
Have you guys seen Chidi’s Kierkegaard Rap?
Kierkegaard’s the Man
One of the comments below that video says:
“Seinfeld: A show about nothing. The Good Place: A show about everything.”
@8 & @10, etc.
I like to use the metaphor of a talking grasshopper who in every other way is still a grasshopper.
Me: What is heaven?
Grasshopper: Never ending fresh grass.
To a middle ages drudge beaten down by poverty, disease, famine, etc, spending millennia singing, “Thank you God for your kindness, thank you God for curing my blindness (and parasites, tuberculosis and etc) may seem like a pretty good deal in comparison.
If (The very very big if) there is an afterlife, it is vanity to assume that our mortal consciousness and experiences allow us to fully comprehend what it will be like before we go through the transformative process of dying.
My wife and I discovered this series after the 3rd season, and bingewatched it all. Couldn’t wait for the final season to be broadcast. Possibly the best sit-com dramedy on commercial tv in at least a decade. And the cast was perfect.
Leah, I politely disagree. The “easy choice” was, for this viewer, the best choice because the writers made Paradise simple, and dumb. Excess and gluttony, as if True Happiness were a matter of having your biological and material needs met. That they got bored of it makes sense, but their solution–eternal union with the void–was bleak AF. The only feels I felt were dismay and sadness, because after all Eleanor and Chidi and the gang went through, they ended up literally annihilated from existence. With due respect to Opus (the penguin), I need a dandelion break after that.
@33. Samuel: Not sure if entropy is the right word to use here, but the endgame for heaven is total energy dispersal. Not sure that counts as bliss, or enlightenment, or anything. It’s the complete dissolution of self. So in this construction, the good place provides for the burning off of identity or distinctiveness.
What’s to point of struggling so much toward an afterlife if it doesn’t last?
From the sound of it, I’m fairly sure I’ve heard better endings. Both Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and Job: A Comedy of Justice. Richard Bach’s Jonathon Livingston Seagull. Andy Weir’s The Egg, Diane Duane’s The Wounded Sky.
For me, the real question of the afterlife and religion is: What comes after you reach the peak of Maslow’s Hierarchy? You’ve got your physiological needs met, your safety assured, your emotional needs take care of, your esteem, and finally, your self-actualization… What comes next?
I’ve always liked the image of life and the Universe as an RPG that That Which Is came up with to fill Eternity, with That Which Is taking on the roles of the playing field, the DM, the PCs, and the NPCs. All one gestalt, no real separation save for pure convenience in discussion.
Have you considered what kind of self you want to roll up for the next round after you die?
I loved this show, including the ending.
I think viewers who are dissatisfied with the system outlined in “The Good Place” as a model for the afterlife are missing the point. The show is not about the afterlife. It’s about life.
As for whether an ending to the afterlife is disappointing or comforting is also a matter of opinion. Being educated in Christianity as a child, I of course found the idea of eternal punishment pretty upsetting. But to be honest, I didn’t find the idea of eternal bliss to be exactly unproblematic. I couldn’t conceive of something that I would want to do FOREVER. My teachers would assure me that I’d be a different type of being in the afterlife, so floating around endlessly praising God would be so wonderful I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I wasn’t so sure about that, and worried that either the afterlife would end up being like a ride I was unable to get off of, or that my concerns were a sign that for sure I was headed to the Bad Place.
Picking up on the thread of the person who mentioned Maslow’s hierarchy, I think one of the points the show is making is that achieving our full potential as a being in the limited time we have on earth is not possible. So maybe an afterlife in which we have the time to fully achieve our potential and then exit our existence when we are ready (instead of when we get hit by a train of shopping carts or crushed by a window air conditioner) isn’t disappointing. Maybe it’s beautiful.
@33, I’m all about the bleak drudgery and meaningless existence that is our lives, but I don’t know how you see the ending as bleak. Chidi made the most important decision in his existence and is happy rather than torn by indecision. Jason played the perfect game of Madden and knows the not-woman he loves will never forget him. Eleanor helped a hopeless cause achieve peace. Tahani is building amazing things that will enrich the lives of billions of people. Michael finally understands what it means to be human. Janet is still Janet and can not ever forget Jason. I can’t think of anything more pure and beautiful. It was an amazing end to a phenomenal show.
Thanks for this lovely response to the finale. I love this show with all my heart.
The part of the end story that touched me the most is possibly the most obvious, but it hit hard nonetheless.
Chidi and Eleanor, sitting on the couch. Chidi tells the story of the wave. Spiegel im Spiegel plays in the background.
I have rarely been so moved by something on a screen.
The Good Place is a grand achievement: brilliant, hysterically funny, painfully real. I know I will miss it like blazes.
I cried too, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that kept bugging me when I thought about the ending. And I think @33 nailed it.
They made the Good Place too dumb.
Not the show, but the actual place those “good” souls go after they die. The Bad Place was much more interesting, with all the physical and psychological torture and the ways people reacted to those. The best seasons explored that.
I suppose it says something about us humans when the writers can come up with a fascinating view of Hell, but can’t do Heaven the same justice. Our lack of imagination with regard to complete and total happiness is actually quite sad when you stop to think about it.
I didn’t need tissues (because I am, y’know, a Tough Guy), but I had to pick up one of our cats and hug them three separate times while watching.
Loved that they never went to religion. Refreshingly beautiful!
I boohooed during the scene where Eleanor was saying bye to Chidi. It just perfectly encapsulated how you say goodbye to someone who know’s they’re dying. The wave returning to the ocean. Gosh. It still makes me kinda tear up as I write this.
I had to have my partner sit with me while I watched it. He kept trying to console me, though he didn’t really understand why I was sobbing so hard. My favorite show.
@39, I wouldn’t say that they made the Good Place “too dumb.” (Although I’m told Paradiso is the weakest part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and I can believe it. I’ve known people who had Inferno assigned as reading in school, but I’ve never met anyone who had to read Paradiso or Purgatorio. Part of that is because, as you point out, it’s a lot easier to think of some torture you definitely wouldn’t want inflicted on you forever than something you would like to do for fun forever.)
I think that a cool place where you can do whatever you want forever wouldn’t be as satisfying to people as they think it would be, and that this is one of the points the show is making. I think human beings largely define their existence around struggle and challenges, and an afterlife where there are no challenges might seem great for a while but would ultimately be unsatisfying. Along those lines, having the characters just arrive in a place where all of their problems are solved wouldn’t be terribly satisfying to viewers. So having the Good Place present yet another set of challenges to the characters not only allowed the show to explore additional questions about what makes life meaningful, but also kept the show interesting all the way to the end (and, in fact, allowed an ending to a story that in some sense wouldn’t have had an ending if they’d stopped with, “And they lived happily ever after for all eternity.”).
@42, I was in the exact same situation, curled up in a ball on the couch, full on snotty faced ugly crying while my partner wrapped me in a hug during that last scene between Eleanor & Chidi.
Honestly, between that, the frog, Michael on earth, Tahani finding her place, Jason & Janet…I was actually cried out and a bit emotionally numb by the time Eleanor went through the door. But oh gosh, what a ride.
@12, you can see Trevor in the background floating through the void while they are on the bridge.
I felt the ending was just like that feeling, when you pick up a jalapeno popper, and you’re sure it’s going to be too hot, and then you put it in your mouth and it turns out to be just the perfect temperature…
@43. Steve: ” it’s a lot easier to think of some torture you definitely wouldn’t want inflicted on you forever”
And perhaps easier to think of tortures you want inflicted on other people. Dante had some pretty pet peeves when he assigned the souls of the damned to his circles of hell. I don’t remember the specifics, but there were definitely some headscratchers. Things we would regard as petty crimes, or even less relevant to a modern audience, religious “crimes”, were further down the well than seemed logical. As an analogue: imagine assigning a debt collector or telemarketer to a circle lower than whichever one Hitler was on.
I wasn’t entirely happy with their solution to the problem of the Good Place until Tahani revealed another option — you don’t have to give up existance, you can stay and do something useful. That should’ve been the solution in the first place, IMO. Though the show never answered — or even asked — the question of *why* is there a good place and a bad place? What purpose does it serve?
(This is not to say I didn’t cry like a baby during the last episode.)
@35 I believe that Tahani made the choice to continue creating ‘neighborhoods’ rather than disperse herself. So that is clearly one of the possible choices of The Really Good Place.
@43– I *loved* both Purgatorio and Paradiso! And I wish that Larry Niven would go ahead and do his versions, rather than two editions worth of Inferno (though I’m sure that Jerry Pournelle suffering Permanent Author Failure doesn’t help). I find that Ciardi has the best lyric poetry in his translation, but Dorothy Sayers has the cooler notes. Wish there was a good prose version of the whole shebang with the references built in, so that flipping back and forth isn’t necessary.
@47, Just as Niven and Pournelle ground some axes of their own in their novel Inferno and particularly in their (in my opinion vastly inferior) sequel Escape from Hell.
@49, I wouldn’t suggest holding your breath for Niven to write his own versions of Purgatorio and Paradiso, since he’s one of the people that’s given me the impression that they are weak in comparison to Inferno.
@leah S. I just want you to know that I caught your clever nod to Kierkegaard with your Brief Unscientific Postscripts heading!
I know I’m late to the game, but for anyone who comes across this beautiful article on the future, having a definite ending to the Good Place is a Heideggerian concept. Our consciousness is structured such that or death if a frame for existing, dasein and all that. I don’t think they explicitly mentioned that in the show, but I think that’s what Chidi picked up on.