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Ch. 2: Allison Jones and Ben Harris, Casting Director, Alan Yang, Writer

Ch. 2: Allison Jones and Ben Harris, Casting Director, Alan Yang, Writer Featuring the voices of host Marc Evan Jackson (MEJ), casting directors Allison Jones (AJ) and Ben Harris (BH), and writer Alan Yang (AY). Intro and outro features D’Arcy Carden (DC) as Janet, and Ted Danson (TD) as Michael. Clips from 1X2 of The Good Place include the voices of Kristen Bell (KB) as Eleanor Shellstrop, and William Jackson Harper (WJH) as Chidi Anagonye.

Ding!

DC: Hi there, I’m Janet. Welcome to The Good Place, the podcast.

TD: Janet, what is a podcast?

DC: It’s like the radio but there’s no music and literally anyone can do one at any moment about any subject. And, there’s a billion of them!

TD: Sounds great! Hope you enjoy this week’s episode!

[Opening music]

MEJ: Welcome to The Good Place, the podcast. I’m Marc Evan Jackson, I play Shawn. Today we’re talking about episode 1X2, “Flying”. In the aftermath of the chaos, Eleanor tries to avoid suspicion, Michael is distraught and believes he’s made a mistake in his first neighbourhood, Tahani puts together a group of volunteers to clean the neighbourhood, but anyone who participates will miss out on flying day, Chidi volunteers Eleanor, but Eleanor hides trash quickly in order to fly which causes a trash storm and ultimately Chidi refusing to help her. Eleanor feels guilty and cleans the entire neighbourhood herself so Chidi changes his mind. The cliff-hanger of this episode is Eleanor receiving a mysterious note under her door that she doesn’t belong in the Good Place. This episode features guest cast Allyn Rachel, Amy Okuda, Susan Park, Jorge Diaz and Steve Berg, and today my guests are casting directors Allison Jones, Ben Harris, and the writer of the episode Alan Yang. Allison Jones, Ben Harris, Alan Yang, welcome! Everything is fine.

AY: Thanks for having us.

BH: Yeah.

AJ: Thank you.

AY: Also just wanna say, amazing hearing Marc just read that intro. That, that was the first take guys, no editing on that just amazing elocution.

MEJ: I appreciate it, does it bring back any memories – do you now recall the episode?

AY: I recall that episode, also yeah thanks for that recap. I was just telling these guys, it feels like we did this so long ago, ‘cause since then we did the second season, I was telling them I remember the episode I directed season 2, and you know, I also work on some other shows… so I think since then we did season 2 of Master of None and season 1 of this Amazon show that’s not out yet but yeah so, so thank you for that recap, otherwise man, I would have no idea what was going on.

MEJ: Of course, of course, so I guess to get us started, Alan, you had been – you know, you were in the room for season 1…

AY: I was! I was there for a lot of it, so the way that sort of happen was – you know I’d finished season 1 of Master of None, which was a show I did with Aziz Ansari and then I came back to LA, you know, we shot the show in New York and I have a bungalow on the Universal Studios lot with Mike Schur, the creator of The Good Place and my good friend, so we were both writing stuff in the bungalow and he was working on a show and gradually, as we’d walk together to go eat lunch, de would start giving me bits and pieces about the show and he was, ‘like what do you think of this? What do you think of this?’ and I would give him an opinion here or there, and he was like, ‘oh that’s interesting, that’s interesting’, then he pitched the whole pilot to me and I was like, wow that’s really good, and then eventually he was like, ‘What if you helped out on it a little bit’ and I was like ‘okay’ and he was like, ‘what if you were in the writers room a little’, I was like ‘okay’ and he’s like, ‘how about you write episode 2’ and I was like ‘okay’ so suddenly I was on this – I was on the staff. So yeah, it was really fun and, and I was excited to help out.

MEJ: Now what were the marching orders following the pilot – because obviously, the pilot establishes a bananas world, and what was the goal of episode two? I mean, you know, you had to play off that she found herself there incorrectly –

AY: Well, the whole season I would say was kind of broken as this… very cohesive, almost movie-like single narrative, and that is – so much of it comes from Mike’s brain. You know he had the pilot, I believed he pitched not only the pilot but a good amount of the first season when he pitched the show, so when he came into the room it was a fun – just a fun group of people, a lot of old Parks and Rec people, you know I worked on Parks and Rec for the whole run of that show as well, so it was a lot of old friends and y’know, a lot of what was in Mike’s brain – so he sort of had kind of the ending, which is you know, crazy twist ending.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AY: And then along the way it was very important to him, you know, some of the inspirations for this show – and I think he said this before – were some of these Damon Lindelof shows and these buddies were ____ (?) , so like Lost and The Leftovers and stuff like that, and so each episode it was important not only to establish the characters – and there’s a lot of character combis like there was in Parks and Rec, The Office, but a lot of cliff-hangers and so the cliff-hanger at the end of episode 2 was the start of many, many, many cliff-hangers to come.

MEJ: Oh my goodness yes, cliff-hangers including some brilliant cast that were discovered, found, searched for, gathered by Allison Jones and Ben Harris. Part of the magic I think of these people is that they weren’t household names prior, these were people I think specifically of the character of Jiayu – later Jason Mendoza – that’s a person we have to buy as someone who could be a silent monk, right?

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: If that had been an actor that we’d seen on The Office or Parks, you’d go, ‘I’ve heard that person talk before, I don’t – ’

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: He’s gonna talk eventually, right, he’s the gun over the fireplace (?) or whatever. Tell us everything that goes into finding geniuses.

AJ: The writing first of all.

MEJ: Okay.

AJ: It starts with the writing, period, in every, every occasion. Secondly, it is in pilots – there’s a lot of legwork involved where you’re meeting a lot of – you do what’s called a breakdown and you send out agents a description of the character and you read many, many, many people, hoping to find a new face in TV pilots. That’s always the best thing to do, Mike Schur loves to do that, Mike Schur loves a challenge.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: That one required a lot of leg work and a lot of pre-reading and a lot of guys, and I was not sure of many of the future actions of these particular characters, especially him being a silent monk…

MEJ: Right.

AJ: This one was fun because he was actually supposed to be an idiot, so it was really funny to read them and then have them do the stupid dialogue.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: Which was truly funny, we had about 5 great guys for that, Ben and I remember reading Manny in our office –

BH: Yeap.

AJ: And Jordan Rodrigues and all these good guys who once they opened their – they looked pious and serious

BH: Rene Gube.

AJ: Rene Gube… they looked pious and serious but then they could do the dumb really well.

MEJ: [Laughter]

AJ: Which is always a delightful thing to cast.

MEJ: That was the step of not only “I don’t always want to be a DJ in Jacksonville…”

AJ: Oh my god.

MEJ: “Maybe I’ll be a DJ in Tampa.”

BH: Yes.

AJ: Yeah we heard that a lot, yeah.

BH: A lot.

AJ: We heard a lot of those, I don’t know if you were in it, you weren’t in on the pilot initially…

AY: No, not for this show, for other shows I’ve been –

AJ: It was terribly funny, we went with a lot of different diverse choices blah blah blah blah, but you really want someone to believably be a Thai monk…

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: And it was just delightful having to find someone who could get the comedy, and also do it without seeming fake.

MEJ: Now the – Alan, do you remember, at all, if you put anything in the stage direction at one point, still as Jianyu he comforts Ted silently, he comforts the character of Michael and sort of puts his reassuring hand on… Were there any thoughts that you offered the character, like what he means to be saying silently?

AY: I think there was a lot of stage direction for Manny because he doesn’t even have lines for a long time! We were putting stuff in the script to get him stuff to do but you know he also – he, he made that character something really great, especially y’know, after the reveal happens, and – and man it was really fun writing those dirtbag Florida lines. I know there was a lot, and later the Jacksonville Jaguars stuff.

MEJ: Oh the Bortle stuff.

AY: Yeah, the stuff that happens in season 2. It’s really funny because then the Jaguars got really good.

MEJ: They got good, somehow.

AY: But yeah –

AJ: – The budhole was my favourite –

AY: – yeah exactly! And it ended up in Many and Joe Mande going to Florida, going to Jaguars games and playoffs, which was great.

BH: Aw right!

MEJ: I saw that.

AY: But yeah just a delight to write for him, and – and man working with him on set was great. You know season 2, I was on set more so it was really, really great to work with him.

MEJ: The… it was it deserves lauding, his ability to you know, convey so much silently because it, it would be tempting as an actor, I tell you, to really ham up those lines and sort of be doing a lot of facial-ness as though you’re saying like, ‘this bank is being robbed please call the police’ you know, like trying to convey a lot with your eyebrows, and he was so subtle and great. About some of the other characters I – it’s my understanding from Mike that you saw everybody in the world for Janet, it could have been a child, it could have been an old person, is that true?

BH: Yeap, very much so. I mean just for – actually just for Mike we probably auditioned 50 people?

MEJ: Is that right?

BH: And that’s, you know, then we’d also pre-read, just Allison and I in our office.

AJ: It’s also years of trying to find funny women who didn’t have to be gorgeous. With all due respect to D’Arcy, ‘cause she’s pretty –

MEJ: Sure, she’s very pretty (?)

AJ: But we didn’t have to have the funny gorgeous woman. We didn’t have to have – we could just have the woman who was the funniest.

MEJ: But a very ef–

AJ: So we thought that would be easy, and it wasn’t easy.

BH: It was not it was actually the most –

AJ: No, ‘cause there were so many good women.

BH: – difficult role to cast.

MEJ: I can’t imagine.

AJ: Mmhmm.

MEJ: It’s my understanding that from D’Arcy that it the breakdown didn’t even include sort of a Siri or Alexa kind of thing.

BH: No.

AJ: They didn’t want anybody to know –

BH – that it was robiotic

AJ: – anything about those points

MEJ: Interesting.

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: But often oftentimes the breakdown includes like, gender and an age range kind of thing, and that wasn’t – you were saying you were told to go find what?

BH: It was pretty all over the –

AJ: Funny.

BH: Yeah it was just, we were just looking for funny.

MEJ: That’s amazing.

AJ: And for us, that’s the dream.

BH: Yes, that is ideal.

AJ: So we were, like can we bring in 10 more women for you please, yeah. And out of that group we have cast a lot of the other people on the show too.

BH: – and I –

AJ: Because we, we’ve seen, Mike always remembers who he likes.

BH: – and I think –

AJ: And will use them again.

BH: – with the pilot, Mike had written dummy sides.

MEJ: Right, fake.

BH: Right, fake sides for –

MEJ: Little bits of script that aren’t really going to be in the show.

BH: – and with Janet instead of saying Alexa – I, he had her being a, I think it was like a ph- an operator.

MEJ: A helpline.

BH: Yeah a helpline, and that was I think how he tried to get the Alexa or Siri.

AJ: We even brought in JJ Totah, who then went on to star in NBC’s Champions.

BH: That’s right.

AJ: And he was hilarious and Mike was going to use him for something, but I believe that’s a part that possibly you got instead.

MEJ: Is that right?

AJ: Yeap!

MEJ: I like that.

AJ: One of the bad guys.

MEJ: I’m happy with the recasting.

AJ: [Laughter]

MEJ: So it’s my understanding as well that Jameela, I know that she was a BBC presenter but not an actor prior to this, what… how did you, or had you been aware of her prior?

AJ: Oh god no, that was a, that was a tough one.

BH: That was also ___ (?)

AJ: that had to, that was pretty specific, a British-Indian beautiful actress and so we did a breakdown and read quite a few women, and she came on a Saturday – ‘cause in pilot season you’re frequently working on Saturdays, you can read people on Saturdays ‘cause they’re not working on other things.

MEJ: Oh wow.

AJ: And she came in and she was this giantess, personality-wise and physically and –

MEJ: [Laughter]

AJ: I think she intimidated everybody in the waiting room.

BH: Very much so.

AJ: And she was, she was great, I think she freaked out everybody when she first auditioned, Mike’s like, ‘woah!’ and then it was basically, how do you say no to Jameela ‘cause she was delightful.

MEJ: She is, she is a force of nature.

AJ: Oh my god.

AY: It’s hard to know where Jameela ends and Tahani begins.

AJ: Yeah.

AY: Because in the show she knows everyone famous, and then in real life she like – I, I –

AJ: Same thing.

AY: I know! I directed this Jay-Z video last year and I was talking to Jameela about it and she’s like, oh I know Jay and Beyonce and then, and then this – I went to this, I went to this party that, this Oscar party that Jay-Z and Beyonce threw and I walk in and Jameela’s there and…

AJ: No way!

AY: Of course I’m like, oh there, there you are and she’s like, she knows everybody there.

AJ: I didn’t know that.

AY: Her boyfriend is James Blake the singer and like yeah, she’s regularly hanging out with these people so alright.

BH: And I believe she told me this, I think it was her first audition like for –

AJ: I think it was.

AY: Well, good for her!

AJ: I didn’t know, I don’t know what a presenter is.

MEJ: A host.

AJ: I always am asking my British friends ‘what is a presenter’ and ‘do you look down on them acting wise’ and they’re like, ‘yes we do!’

MEJ: [Laughter]

AJ: I asked this great British casting director Lucy Bevan, ‘Do you know Jameela Jamil?’ and she said, ‘I looked her up, I think she’s a presenter’ and I don’t even know, there are so many of them on British television…

MEJ: Right.

AJ: But she is instinct, her timing is incredible, her comedy timing is incredible.

MEJ: She’s also fearless, like I saw her interviewing Russell Brand and she mopped the floor with Russell Brand.

AJ: Yes, I’m sure she did.

MEJ: Which is not an easy task.

AJ: She has more of an Essex accent, like she has a great London, East London type of accent naturally I think, and so she – she caught the posh accent for Good Place and it really works.

MEJ: Mmhmm.

AJ: I forget what the reason was for why she has the British accent though, on the show, and nobody else does.

AY: There is some in universe lore for that, yes, there an explanation.

AJ: I know there is an explanation, yeah.

AY: I think, I think it’s if you want to sound like that you can, I think the theory was she wanted to keep it or something.

MEJL It’s mentioned?

AY: Yeah, I think so.

BH: Yes.

AJ: Yeah.

BH: They address it.

AJ: ‘Cause we interviewed some great British actresses for that over there, and here there’s, there’s a number of them and they were great, but she was just a, a force of nature and funny and sort of shocking, and she’s pretty dirty in person. She’s pretty dirty-mouthed, potty-mouth, yeah…

MEJ: She’s a bit of a dude.

AJ: Oh, yeah.

MEJ: Yeah, I think that’s why we hit it off so well immediately. I mean all of these people are, are delightful. We, we talked before, we in recording, you know Mike has a policy – like Mike curates just great people, cast and crew.

AJ: Yeah, mmhmm.

MEJ: There doesn’t appear to be a lot of drama. William Jackson Harper, how did he come across your desk?

BH He was –

AJ: Same thing.

BH: Yeah he was out in New York.

AJ: Yeah, his agent taped him in New York.

MEJ: Did you know immediately?

AJ: No, never a shoo-in.

MEJ: Is that right – is that a, across any –

AJ: I have to say – that’s… to dispel that myth. For me it’s never a shoo-in.

MEJ: That’s fascinating.

AJ: They’ll say it is but it, it never is and if a director goes ‘that’s the one I want!’ then it’s probably going to tank.

MEJ: That’s the kiss of death, really?

AJ: I don’t think the kiss of death but I don’t, I don’t ever think someone is a shoo-in. I never would have thought he was a shoo-in for that.

MEJ: Interesting.

AJ: And Mike and Alan, you all see what you want – what you like in the character and then how you can fit that into the world you’re creating. William Jackson Harper was just a damn good actor when he came in. Really good. He had some stiff competition, too.

BH: I’ve said besides Ted and Kristen…

AJ: Yeah.

BH: Everyone else all those other roles that we would actually test and find a new face. They were all – it was not an easy decision.

AJ: No, Mike – Mike, he was tortured a bit.

BH: Yes, very much so:

AJ: Yeah, ‘causewe got some good choices.

BH: But after the test I think it was, you know, Mike was –

AJ: He had us over there one night to talk about it.

BH: Yeah.

AJ: And we couldn’t help him on that one.

BH: It was, it was a laden night.

AY: You might say a Chidi level of indecision.

BH: Yes –

AJ: Yes.

BH: – Very true.

AY: Agonising, it was causing chest and stomach pains…

AJ: Completely, absolutely.

AY: Yeah. William – William was as skilled an actor you know, he’s able to do the dramatic stuff and the comedic stuff and you know sort of working with him reminded me of Adam Scott on Parks and Rec where he’s really able to do the straight man stuff, but also be so – so funny and yeah he really, he’s really been great in the show.

AJ: Mike’s always been willing to see someone who is not particularly right for the part, and who may not knock you out at first, and then you think about it and he’s like, ‘that’s who I want to write for’. I have to assume writers look at this and say, ‘who do I want to write for?’

AY: It’s al– I always feel like the best stuff is when the actors own personality starts imbuing the character.

AJ: Yeah.

AY: And sort of informs the character.

AJ: Yeah, especially in comedy.

AY: Especially in comedy and especially in television where it’s a long developing role, and you’ve seen that in, in a lot of the stuff that I’ve worked on, stuff with Mike especially. but you look at how Nick Offerman informed Ron Swanson you look at how Chris Pratt informed Andy Dwyer and all of it, all of the actors on that show – but as you’re doing 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 episodes, you would be a fool not to draw from the characters experiences, and then that’s how it was on Master of None too and then and these are all sort of shows in the same family. But yeah, I mean those characters are just the actors on some of these shows so you just pull from them, their assets (?)

AJ: I know, I agree. And always in TV you find new faces, just don’t even – just find the new faces and the payoff is much, I think much bigger creatively and also for an audience.

MEJ: It keeps it from being one note I suppose, you can – especially playing someone dumb or you know an __ character like a grumpy separatist (?)

AY: But yeah, the specificity makes it real, right. The specificity makes it real and the realness makes it funnier, because there’s nothing better than the real stuff, man! There’s nothing better than the real life experiences, so I like meeting with actors and talking with them about their lives and it really informs a lot of the stuff I have written.

AJ: I try to have the role fit the actor, not the other way around. They don’t try to squeeze the actor into what they have in their head, they’re open to – I mean they ____ and Larry David and ___, Alan Yang, and Aziz (?) and Mike Schur and Greg Daniels, it happened in the past – in the casting and the pilot as well, they see what they have there and then how they can work them into the role, vice versa.

BH: Exactly.

AJ: They don’t care about line readings, they want someone who is going to be good to write for., who’s sort of fascinating to watch, and who’s just inherently funny – in any different way they find funny, inherently funny.

AY: We write, we write to the person.

AJ: Like William – yeah.

AY: We write to the person.

AJ: William Jackson Harper is not funny in the way Ted Danson is funny, but he’s funny.

MEJ: In a completely different – I think about Will that you, you believe he’s having a stomach-ache.

AJ: Oh god, yeah!

MEJ: He’s not playing – it’s not, it’s not something he slips into, like he looks tortured.

AJ: His agony is… yeah.

MEJ: He looks, yeah, his agony is palpable through the screen and –

BH: And while the roles of Chidi and Tahani and Janet, the – you know, those were all three had such stiff competition, but it’s very difficult to imagine anybody else now.

MEJ: Forget it.

BH: Yeah.

MEJ: I mean –

BH: You can’t imagine it.

AJ: Bad Janet is everyone’s favourite character.

MEJ: Oh, I I hosted an Emmy panel of – the other day and never got to this but on my list was to say that I adore D’Arcy, I love janet, I love love Bad Janet.

BH: Yes.

MEJ: I mean for her to get to sink her teeth into something like that…

BH: And I’m sure the writers love writing for Bad Janet.

AY: Idiots and mean people are always, always fun to write, yeah.

MEJ: I think it was in the episode of season 2 that you directed that we did a no– Shawn and Bad Janet did a no-look high five hand slap, that was pretty amazing.

AY: Oh yeah that’s right, we did a couple of oners too, that was fun. I remember getting Marc to do that.

MEJ: Pretty great. Alan, do you share Mike’s hatred for Florida and Arizona?

AY: I don’t know what’s up with that, man, I don’t know what’s up with that@ I think it’s, it’s fun because Florida’s one thing, but also just jokes about Arizona, you don’t just – you don’t just see that many of them, so it’s nice to, to get that, although I did watch this other thing this other day where Charles Barkley was making fun of the food at the Phoenix Suns Arena, it was very, very specific but yeah, no… I – it’s, it’s funny you know, like, ‘cause you, you wanna – I feel like one thing you wanna do is, is play some jokes where there ain’t. You know, ‘cause like Arizona jokes, but – Florida jokes may be lower hanging fruit but it’s, it’s more fun to do original jokes than to play on well tread ground.

MEJ: I feel like the audiences imagination could fill in some blanks after the pilot about how bad a character on earth Eleanor Shellstrop was. Was it difficult – what are the things did you consider, how did you arrive at her ditching her duties as a designated driver over and over again in these flashbacks?

AY: Yeah, that was a real push-pull ‘cause that’s the kind of thing that a writers room is good for, I think, because you wanna hear people’s opinions on how far to push the line, and you know that first season I think I always was pushing for Eleanor to be a little worse, a little worse, a little worse, you know, ‘cause there’s, there’s more comedy that way. You want – you know, also for the eventual twist where you want her to be really bad, so… But Mike has a really great instinct which I think was borne out in Parks and Rec and, and somewhat on The Office too you know, where he has this fundamental humanistic sort of optimistic generous view of humanity that I think comes through in all of the shows he’s created, and I, I honestly – like that has been influential on me as well. I’m a more optimistic happy person, as is all these guys now and so, so that comes out a lot but it’s not always comedy comedy, you know.

MEJ: Right.

AY: It’s the common thing to do in comedy, is to make your people real asholes.

BH: If they’re despicable, they’re despicable.

AY: Yeah, exactly, and it’s just, it’s just some… Somehow its, it’s a little easier to write sometimes to make people good people, so that I don’t know, there’s always a push and pull in the writers room about how far to push the line, right. It’s the same like how dumb do – do we make Andy on Parks or you know, it’s like that kind of thing where, where you talk about it.

MEJ: There’s a fun bit on the bottom of this episode 1X2, where it appears as though she’s learned her lesson and is cleaning up the neighbourhood in secret by herself, and then of course she’s instructed Bad Ja– instructed Janet to put the garbage in in someone else’s – Antonio’s bedroom or whatever.

AY: Yeah, yeah.

MEJ: Pretty terrible. Eleanor struggles to be a good friend to Chidi, as you will hear in this clip.

WJH: Tell me one fact that you know about me – and we spent the whole day together, you must remember something. What country am I from?

KB: Is it racist if I say Africa?

WJH: Yes! And Africa is not a country. I am from Senegal. Do I have any siblings, where did I go to college?

KB: Trick question, you didn’t.

WJH: I was literally a college professor! Do you not remember one single thing about me?

KB: Dude, things have been nuts around here! I bet you don’t know anything about me.

WJH: You were born in Phoenix, you went to school in Tampa, you were an only child, your favourite show was something called The Real Housewives of Atlanta and your favourite book is Kendall Jenner’s Instagram feed.

KB: How did you know all that?

WJH: Because you are constantly talking about yourself! You’re the most self-obsessed person I’ve ever met!

KB: You should see Kendall Jenner’s Instagram feed.

WJH: Okay, this is my fear about you, Eleanor. You are too selfish too ever be a good person.

KB: Well, I think you’re wrong1

WJH: What country am I from again?

KB: Sen…sodyne.

WJH: That is a brand of toothpaste.

MEJ: This clip comes from episodes found on Amazon, Google Play and iTunes, and watch recent episodes on the NBC app. Did you receive promotional consideration from Sensodyne toothpaste?

AY: Lifetime supply, baby! It’s just every day, grab it for lunch and dinner, Sensodyne.

MEJ: It’s such a, it’s got to be such a fun puzzle to try to you know, have her try to improve and fail so miserably over and over again.

AY: Yeah I mean that’s another thing that I think Mike is really skilled at doing, is you want there to be change in the characters but you can’t progress them so rapidly that you’re left with nowhere else to go, and one thing I think he’s been really good about doing is having characters grow and change over the course of the season, and then still having room to progress and that’s really difficult, and I think, I think season 1 you know they, it just – the plot moved, it moved really quickly and that is not easy to do so.

MEJ: It’s got to be difficult to accomplish because as you say you want them to progress not too fast but you still want to be ahead of the audience, you want to surprise them.

AY: Yes, and there are a lot of charts and graphs in the writers room.

MEJ: Is that right? How many writers are there, who’s in the room?

AY: Man, season 1 got… man, I can’t even remember, like 10 or so…? I could be wrong, I don’t remember how many exactly it was, some 8 to 10, something like that probably, and there literally was a graph of a chart showing the 4 main characters and, and just how they were torturing each other and because of the eventual twist that they were in the Bad Place was oh , how is each one specifically torturing someone else and there’s a lot of talk about you know, circles of hell and all that stuff which is really crazy. I don’t think it happens in a lot of sitcom writers’ rooms.

MEJ: Oh, I’d imagine that.

AY: Lot of talk about Aristotle and Jeremy Benthan and John Stuart Mill, John Rawls…

MEJ: And did you have any background in this prior?

AY: …so it was a lot of fun. I took a class or two in philosophy in college but I didn’t remember any of that. Who remembers what they did from college? I was a biology major, I don’t remember anything, so yeah.

MEJ: I would guess that Mike Schur remembers a lot of things from college.

AY: He was reading a lot of books, man! He was reading a lot of books, that bother. He gave me some packets, I was like, ‘yeah, I’m gonna read these.’

MEJ: What goes into casting the afterlife and when you’re, when you know at this point in the show’s trajectory, we all believed that that was indeed the Good Place and it was you know, a utopian society full of frozen yoghurt, so you want it to look like planet Earth presumably. What… what were you offered as guidelines for that?

AJ: Funny.

MEJ: Okay.

AJ: Funny and my – Ben’s and my instincts are always to go with people who could do more than what they’re given in the first episode, because these people do come back.

MEJ: Sure.

AJ: And they all sort of have a comic identity. Susan Park has her own identity, Amy Okuda has her own identity, Steve Berg, all good improv people, all – definitely good improv people, John Hartman, the one who plays the, the guy asking her for money in a flashback and she says smell my farts or something…

MEJ: Eat my farts.

AJ: Yeah, eat my farts, great because they have a lot of reactions to do as well, which is hard to do and everybody that Mike seems to pick that we like brings in – including yourself – is a great reactor as well, which I think also helps Kristen and Ted but it also defines the character and the afterlife. I think it was all sort of, I of course probably didn’t remember as much as Ben did, that they were actually demons.

MEJ: So you did know that at least.

BH: We knew.

AJ: Yeah, we knew, and I guess I, I knew and with a few lines somebody who can make a difference and somebody who is cheerful looking I literally really truly – cheerful looking…

MEJ: Yes, of course.

BH: Well, I think at this point –

AJ: ‘Cause Jorge and Steve both a cheerful couple, yeah.

BH: All, all – I mean Susan Park and Amy Okuda, I think, they are funny was first and foremost, I think. Second, at this point, the audience doesn’t know yet that they’re demons, right, and so I think we were looking – or I think Mike was probably looking for the, the positivity and you know levity.

MEJ: This happens later, but he definitely hits it with Tiya Sircar, you know she comes in and saying like, ‘Chidi don’t!’ then when he goes, ‘Vicky, stop’ like, she can turn and be like, ‘aw man!’

AJ: Yeah, definitely.

MEJ: It’s really satisfying.

AJ: That’s what D’Arcy can do.

MEJ: Oh, for sure.

AJ: Even in like episode 3, where she just – Michael had told her not to be flirty with somebody and she turns all pouty and nasty, it was hilarious.

MEJ: Yeah have, have you found that improvisation is something newer for the past ten to fifteen years in casting? That like, it, it’s a different skill set, it like –

AJ: 100%, yeah.

MEJ: It’s, it’s fairly recent, right?

AJ: I would say since I started working with Judd (?) Judd sort of brought that into the fore in my, you know, career, I would say that used to be you could deliver a joke and if you went off the lines, people were horrified.

MEJ: Right.

AJ: Like, oh my god, he can’t remember the lines!

MEJ: That was the case in my – I’ve lived in Hollywood for about 17 years and I can remember I came from the second city, I came from an improv background and I would spice things as I saw fit and some people would go, ‘did you, were you handed new pages?’

AJ: Yeah exactly.

MEJ: In a ‘how dare you’ sense.

AJ: Yeah I was never – I never thought that was gonna transpire until I was doing one pilot where Amy Sedairs who was from (?) Chicago and she ad-libbed and she was funnier than anything that was written, and the late great Chris Thompson said, ‘I like that girl. She’s funny.’

MEJ: Yeah.

AJ: And I was like, ‘but she didn’t stay within the lines!’ ‘Nope, she’s funny.’ And she got the part and that was probably 25 years ago, but I think Judd with the onset of hiring people like Steve Carell where they’re funnier than anything anybody could write definitely stated the trend, in my minimal casting section. Now everybody should – everybody wants to know if they can improvise, and most people can.

MEJ: Right, that’s so interesting.

AJ: In comedy.

MEJ: And I’m thankful for it because I think it does – and I can tell you as an actor, it’s a quicker way to showing the writers and producers and directors what I might bring to the role. Forget what’s on the page right now, but this is who, this is how I find funny and here’s something I hope you can rewrite to – at some point.

AY: Exactly and, and tying back to what we were talking about earlier about writing towards the actor, certainly for the larger roles on Master of None, we would have, we would do the scenes and then we would just have a scenario and say like, ‘okay you are hooking up with Aziz and the condom broke, now just improvise this scene and just do it for 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and…’

MEJ: See what you find.

AY: Yeah, exactly, see what kind of person that is, and then if you end up casting them like we ended up casting Noel we just hung out there a lot and tried to rewrite for her. So I think that’s just so valuable because you just know more about the person. It’s not, it’s not the case with every role, you don’t need it for every role necessarily, but sometimes if you got those – also if you got those Gatling guns, use them! You know you would be a fool not to let them go in some scenes, you know they don’t do it in every scene but some of the scenes where it’s like, ‘hey let’s do one where you guys are a little looser and you know they give us stuff that we again, could never have come up with on our own.

MEJ: In the writers’ room, did you have a lengthy and epic conversations about what heaven might be like? What perfection might be like, because I don’t know, that I feel that must be very universal because it definitely strikes a chord with me. I would love to fly.

AY: Yeah I think flying was always up there. .It was at one point – I believe the episode was going to be about gardening, and we were like no it’s not going to be gardening that’s crazy that’s –

MEJ: That’s not heaven.

AY: Yeah exactly, so whatever, it’s flying, everyone wants to fly so yeah I think there are some pretty… Look, the, some of the difficulties with a show like this where your world-building is man, there, there – because there are no limits, you can really talk about it forever. It can be anything so… so that in some ways, sometimes the constraints help you, right, because you can just spiral off into madness and so yeah I mean, totally.

AJ: Art direction and set direction. I mean, kudos to their art director…

MEJ: Crazy, right.

AJ: Yeah, oh my gosh, yeah. I would love to live in the place where they live.

MEJ: Me too.

AJ: I would love to live in – I would even take –

MEJ: A clownhouse?

AJ: Yeah the clownhouse, no, I would, I would…

MEJ: You mean the town square.

AJ: Take a lot of Jameela’s furniture – Tahani’s furniture, for sure.

MEJ: Oh I mean it’s (an) epic mansion.

AJ: Yes but as opposed to most television shows, this one is really a product of some incredible visual imagination.

MEJ: And Mike talked about that in the last episode of this podcast, to say that it was important to them – as in the writers room – to exploit the infinity possible, you know, that they wanted everybody to be in stripy clothing, to have giraffes walking through, and madness – shrimp falling from the sky because you have that ability so pull that trigger.

AY: Yes, it’s a kind of like the problems of the premise right, if you’re gonna do a show like this, you know, make use of what you have, otherwise it would just could just be another show of people sitting in an office or friends hanging out watching TV, so…

MEJ: And I think of another example of the brilliance of the balance in the show is that you have that you know, unlimited anything that you want and then the specificity of Eleanor’s thing that brings her joy being people puking on rollercoasters, or that you know, cups – to go cups where the lid fits so tightly it doesn’t leak at the seam, like that’s so earthbound and specific.

AJ: That’s my favourite thing in the show in three seasons, because like I come out of my favourite coffee place, Go Get ‘Em Tiger, and I have drips of coffee all here and I’m like, why can’t they figure out a coffee cup where the water doesn’t leak out when you drink it? It pisses me off.

MEJ: Right.

AY: I would say this –

AJ: And I thought that was genius – was that your thing?

AY I would say this – I don’t think that was, but there’s, but it is you know, a good balance of observational and absurd, right. Like you want, you want the imaginative stuff and you want the real granular Seinfeldian observational stuff so – by the way, great shoutout and slam of Go Get ‘Em Tiger.

BH: Yeah, that was what I was about to say as well.

AJ: Exactly.

AY: You love it, and hate it.

AJ: Yeah, but also for example, great slam and shoutout of season 8 of Friends too.

AY: Yeah.

AJ: That stuff is what’s great about that show.

MEJ: Another thing that I love about this is that early on establishes so much about Eleanor, I think that she is a person who would say ‘in my defence…’ and then say something about herself completely damning. You know like, ‘in my defence, I did it ‘cause I’m selfish’ right, ‘cause basically you know she kind of comes off as…

AY: Very little self-awareness. Also by the way, very different from Kristen Bell in person.

AJ: Oh yes, yes.

MEJ: For sure.

AY: That’s an example of a character being different from real –

MEJ: She is, she is fairly saintly.

AY: Yeah she is, you know she sets a good tone – her and Ted both really are just, just being super professional and generous and kind and you can’t say that about everybody, so really want to shout out those two. No slam, just a –

BH: No slam, only positive (?)

AJ: I want to shout out to you, Marc.

MEJ: Please.

AJ: Just as a as a (?) to Mike Schur’s appreciation of humour, you tested for – and I didn’t know you until we tested for the cop role…

BH: Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

AJ: In Brooklyn Nine-Nine pilot and you were outstanding, and it was another thing where he talked and he chidi-like talked and talked and talked, ‘do we go with Joe or do we go with Marc, do we go with Joe or do we go with Marc?’ Either way – and he, he basically extrapolated what your character would become in the first couple seasons as a cop and what Joe would become and he went with Joe for whatever reason but –

MEJ: Because Joe is Charles Boyle. I mean, it’s like he’s the Chidi of the – like there is no other way…

AJ: Exactly, but then he started using you all the time.

MEJ: Thank you, yes.

AJ: He did not remember you, and you were one of the rare things that comes in: someone who’s – you were not known before, you were in your early 30s or mid 30s and you freaking killed it.

MEJ: Thank you.

AJ: Yeah but it was a totally different version of the character.

MEJ: I would tell you that, that’s true, I tested for the role opposite Joe Lo Truglio for Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and did what I can do like, that character was written as kind of sad-sack, kind of slobby. I am C3PO and cannot do that, it would be foolish for me to try.

AJ: And he said that that you were the opposite of how he thought of that role.

MEJ: Right, Mike Schur wrote the kindest email to my then-manager and said, ‘Just want to let you know, Marc couldn’t have done anything different or better, this – he, you know, was just 180 degrees from what, how the character’s written but we kept bring–‘ Like, and my manager wrote, forwarded it to me and said, ‘I don’t get these a lot.’ Like, Mike’s a special type.

AY: Marc, you are Mike’s, you’re like Mike’s favourite actor, you’re in everything he’s ever done. I’m pretty sure if he did a movie next year, it’s between you and Daniel Day Lewis, he’d be like Marc, man, Marc’s my man, Marc’s my dude…

MEJ: I’m certain. What movie are we doing next year? I’m available, I’m available.

AY: I don’t know, I bet he would though, I bet he would, man, he loves you.

MEJ: Oh that’s so kind, thank you.

[What’s good?]

MEJ: Thank you all so much for being here today, we like to finish off with a segment that we call What’s Good, something that makes you happy, a charity you support, the feeling of otters holding hands, that sort of thing. Anything come to mind and – something positive, something optimistic, something Mike Schur.

BH: My little niece, Mary-Ann (?)

MEJ: Oh that’s nice, how old is she?

BH: She just turned two.

MEJ: Very cool. Has she chosen a college?

BH: She… They’re, she’s between Harvard and Yale.

MEJ: Oh okay, she can commute (?)

BH: Let’s see if Alan Yang has anything to say.

MEJ: For you, anything come to mind?

AJ: Yeah, the instance where in the Harbour (?) fires just north of California recently, and that man jumped up and down and risked getting on fire himself to save the bunny.

MEJ: That little bunny.

AJ: That killed me.

MEJ: There was a video.

AJ: I thought that guy was heroic.

MEJ: It was on a roadside, he had gotten out of his car to rescue a wild hare right?

AJ: He couldn’t prevent himself, he saw the little hare in pain and he rescued it.

MEJ: I love that.

AJ: Yeah.

MEJ: Alan?

AY: I guess something way more indulgent (?) We were talking about – right before we started the podcast, there’s a restaurant in downtown LA called majordōmo that my friend Dave Chang does and Ben was talking to me about it so… yeah. Go there and get the lamb or get any of the large __(??) dishes, make yourself happy.

BH: Yeah, that –

AY: Do something good for yourself.

BH: Treat yourself.

MEJ: Allison Jones, Ben Harris, Alan Yang, thank you so much for being with us.

AJ: Thank you Marc Evan Jackson.

AY: Thank you very much.

MEJ: This has been The Good Place, the podcast, I’m Marc Evan Jackson. Now, go do something good.

[Closing music]

DC: Hi there! The podcast is over. I think what I’m feeling is… sadness.

TD: Oh, don’t worry Janet! This podcast is the most perfectly engineered invention since the paperclip.

DC: Fun fact, the man who invented the paperclip is in the Bad Place. For tax evasion!

TD: It’s available on Apple Podcast, and all major podcasting platforms, or wherever you get podcasts.

DC: Stop saying podcasts!

TD: Hosted by Marc Evan Jackson.

DC: Produced by Graham Ratliff (?).

TD: Written by Lizzie Pace.

DC: Music composed by David Schwartz. Yay!

Ding!

what’s good?

majordōmo

A restaurant in LA serving California cuisine inspired by the different food cultures present in Los Angeles and the bounty of Southern California products. Located in 1725 Naud St. Los Angeles, CA, 90012.

#the good place #the good place the podcast

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summerdutkowsky · 7 years

Text

the only love i’ve ever known, the only soul i ever saved, come back to me darling

Fandom: The Good Place Ship: Eleanor/Tahani Words: 6281 Genre: Angsty angst (seriously the most painful of angst) Rating: T (there are implied sexy times though)

Part One (or Ao3 link) // Part Two (or Ao3 link)

Tahani pov of ‘there’s nothing i hear louder than the words i never said’ except way more painful.

Tahani and Eleanor were soulmates when they were alive but now in “The Good Place” they discover they’re not. They try to move on and accept that fact, thinking it’s better this way. It’s painful to watch the person you love most drift away from you

Title from ‘Chasing Twisters’ by Delta Rae (yes it’s a theme)

As always shoutout to my best friend @bannedfromzoos who cleaned up my mess and without their support I honestly couldn’t do this. Thanks for the confidence my friend

There will be a happy ending part three because I cannot leave them this broken. It’s too mean. Also formal request for you guys to drop in and leave me fluffy prompts and/or cute moments from this timeline that you would want me to expand on because throughout November I’ll be writing little ficlets that fit in this au

Tahani opened her eyes with a start and took in her surroundings, there was so much grey. Too much. She didn’t know if she should be more offended by the horrible drab décor or the fact that she seemed to have been kidnapped, or something of the sort. She had no recollection of how she got here. In fact, the last thing she remembered was riding in the passenger’s seat of Eleanor’s obnoxious, environment killing vehicle. Feeling the rush of anger every time she saw her sister’s name mentioned in the particular editorial she was reading. Then Eleanor patted her knee in sympathy to which she replied that Eleanor should be paying more attention to the road which was met with a trademark Eleanor smile and then… nothing.

Well not nothing, Eleanor’s smile to a grey, sad room.

It was a significant step down.

“Tahani?” An older gentleman stuck his head out of a door to her left and she took a step back, still trying to wrap her head around the situation. “Please, follow me, everything will be fine.”

She took a tentative step toward the man and the Mystery Room, she had no other choice, she supposed. Upon entering the room, she saw it was a small, even sadder, office with filing cabinets lining the wall behind the desk and a lot of plants. “Where am I?”

“You’re in The Good Place.” He must have read the confusion on her face because he elaborated. “When a person dies on Earth they’re taken one of two places. It was decided you belong here, in The Good Place, because of all the generosity you showed on Earth.”

Tahani preened at that. She smoothed her hair and gave her best modest smile, of course she was in The Good Place. Where else would she be? She stopped short. “So… I’m… dead?” Michael nodded. “Can I ask how? The last thing I remember was riding in a vehicle.”

“Yes, well, while you were in the passenger’s seat your driver wasn’t paying attention to the road or the bus coming from the left intersection.” He fiddled with some papers on his desk as Tahani mulled over the words.

Her driver. Eleanor. If she were here then Eleanor must be also, but she was afraid to ask, she knew Eleanor and loved her with every beat of her heart but deep down she knew Eleanor wasn’t a great person. In fact, Eleanor did a lot of bad in her life before they met but it didn’t make Tahani love her any less. She loved her more for learning and growing and trying to become a better person.

But surely Eleanor had changed enough that she had to be here too.

“Is… is Eleanor here? My driver? Eleanor Shellstrop?” She clenched her fists tight at her sides trying to hide all the anxiety she was feeling.

“Janet!” Tahani started when a person suddenly popped into the room next to Michael. “Is there an Eleanor Shellstrop in this neighborhood?”

There was a slight pause, a pause that, to Tahani, felt like a millennium. “There is no record of an Eleanor Shellstrop in The Good Place.”

“Oh.” Tahani didn’t know that feeling one’s heart break was actually possible until that moment.

“Thank you, Janet.” With a pop the person disappeared. “Now that’s not to say that she won’t be at some point though, she could have a complicated case and numbers are still being crunched. She could show up at some point.”

Tahani held onto those words like a lifeline. She didn’t know if she could spend an eternity without Eleanor. She didn’t want to spend a day without her on Earth, the possibility of the rest of time without her seemed unbearable. Torturous.

“In the meantime, let’s show you around the neighborhood, shall we?” Tahani was ushered out of the room and into the bright, beautiful, picture perfect neighborhood that was her new home. She appreciated the quaintness of it and how everyone seemed friendly and eager to know her. Of course, there were things that caught her eye that made her frown, like how there were an extraordinary amount of cookie shops (at least they had one that exclusively sold Eleanor’s favorite, she made note to pick some up before she arrived) and the cheesy milk fountain in the center of the town square. It wasn’t exactly Tahani’s paradise, but it was adequate.

“And this is your soulmate, Jianyu.” For the first time in her life Tahani was struck dumb. Soulmate? Surely there was a mistake, Eleanor was her soulmate. Not this… monk? He looked like a monk at least. As nice as he seemed (and he did seem nice, he bowed to her and had a kind, almost simple smile) he wasn’t Eleanor and that was not acceptable. Before she could protest Michael disappeared leaving her alone with a stranger.

***

The days that followed were strained at best and outright nightmarish at worst. Tahani loved her house but she kept getting lost only to be found in a bathroom (always a bathroom, there were so many bathrooms) hours later by Jianyu. He would offer her his hand which she would brush away testily, smooth the front of her dress, and storm out after him. She should feel bad for being so cold, he had as much of a choice about his soulmate as she did, but she couldn’t help it. A piece of her was missing and she didn’t know if she would ever get it back.

Tahani often reflected in those days in the silence of her big house, on the moment of her death. It was the last happy moment she had to cling to and she was going to cling to it for all she was worth.

Especially if it was the last moment she had with Eleanor.

She felt so comfortable then, how right the moment was. She remembered, just before the blackness, she was never more at peace with herself and her life than in that moment. They had just run to the liquor store for Eleanor’s weekly haul (though it wasn’t nearly as much as that first day, she had cut back quite a lot since they had been together). Tahani always found that weirdly sweet Eleanor would go out of her way to go to the same store. The store where they had met. Now that they had moved in together the store was almost inconvenient to go to but Eleanor always made the trip.

Tahani’s legs were tucked under her in the passenger’s seat, leaning on the center console of the monstrous vehicle with the magazine propped up on her lap. Eleanor’s hand was warming her thigh (she had pushed up Tahani’s dress a couple of inches above her knee just so she could have skin to skin contact and that never failed to make Tahani’s heart race, even after all this time) her thumb traced soothing circles on the inside of her thigh every time Tahani tensed and huffed about seeing Kamilah’s name.

Tahani was struck then, in the low evening light behind Eleanor’s head. She had never let her guard down like this. Had someone hang on her every word like Eleanor was. Had someone she loved and loved her back. They hadn’t said it yet but she felt it. It was on the tip of her tongue but instead she said, “Do pay more attention to the road, darling, this is just nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense if it’s bothering you babe.” That blinding smile. That smile that made all of Tahani’s anxieties and insecurities vanish. The one that she knew was genuine and real and meant only for her. The one that made her feel like everything was okay and she could just be herself, not the Tahani everyone expected. “Now let’s get home and I’ll make you forget all about that stupid magazine. Watch me beat this yellow light.”

She never got to tell Eleanor how much that moment meant to her. She never got to tell Eleanor she loved her and it was a heavy burden she would carry with her for the rest of eternity.

If only she could see Eleanor one more time.

***

It felt like weeks before she felt okay enough to talk to Jianyu. At first it was a passing hello, to which he would only respond with a slight bow of his head. She was truly grateful for him and the space he allowed her. He never pushed his presence on her and it was only after the first few times they spoke that she realized he never spoke a word since she had known him. At first, she thought it was because he was mad at her for being so cold at first, but she soon caught on to the fact he never spoke. To anyone. Not even a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, but Janet informed her that Jianyu was in fact a Taiwanese monk who took a vow of silence he was even carrying over to the afterlife.

Surely there must have been a mistake. If there was a whole scientific method to this soulmate business then how did she get paired with the only person in The Good Place who didn’t speak. Another notch in the curious column.

Already under that column? Why her soulmate was a man. Being with Eleanor on Earth really helped her accept that side of herself, she never broadcasted it, it wasn’t like after her first time with Eleanor she screamed from the top of the building she was a lesbian but she sure as hell wanted to. No, it was a subtle acceptance, Eleanor helped her see that what she felt with men was nothing more than an affection at their attention. She just figured since this whole soulmate thing was real, if she wasn’t with Eleanor then surely it would have been another woman (it wouldn’t have been much better, but it would have made more sense).

She kept quiet though, just filed away these curiosities silently and went about her afterlife.

***

It took another few weeks for her to finally get out of her house and explore her neighborhood. Which actually meant networking, building relationships with these people she would be spending eternity with. She couldn’t care less about the seemingly endless cookie shops (with names, she noted, that would make Eleanor want to throw something), she was more interested in the people and what kind of information they had on this curious place and situation they were all in.

The frustrating thing was that no one had any answers. Or were particularly adept at dodging the questions. She talked to all of her neighbors and shop owners and started a little system of important people like she had on Earth but still no answers about why some things were the way they were, or if they heard of a woman named Eleanor. So, to take her mind off her spinning thoughts she decided to do the one thing she did best, throw a party.

A “Welcome to the Neighborhood Tahani and Jianyu” party, since no one else seemed to have one of those planned. And anyway, it would have paled in comparison to hers.

She threw herself into making sure this party was up to Tahani levels of greatness. It was a nice distraction from thinking about all the strange things she noticed going on, and the lack of Eleanor of course.

Until it wasn’t.

Until she was very certain she spotted a familiar blonde head walking quickly in the other direction, away from the milk fountain, and she was bustled along by the throngs of helpers she enlisted. Hope bloomed in her chest. Eleanor. It had to be, she would know that stature, those clothes, that walk anywhere. Eleanor was here and it was only a matter of time before they were together again.

Until they weren’t.

Days passed and she heard nothing from Michael or Janet or Eleanor herself. She was so certain it had been her. She would have bet her house on it, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. She told Jianyu as much and was met with a caring pat on the back and an understanding nod. She appreciated him even more lately, despite not speaking she felt his care and support and he never pushed their relationship past friendship. It was all she could ask.

The more she went out the more she thought she saw Eleanor, in a cookie shop, in the alley between buildings, in the gym (that one surely couldn’t be her). But she was always so close but so far and moving further away. It got to the point where Tahani felt like she was playing Where’s Waldo but with more heartbreaking results.

On the day of the party she refused to leave the house. She had too much to do and while she longed to just glimpse Maybe-Eleanor it was too close to leave it in the hands of people she really didn’t trust fully. She put the finishing touches on the balloons and petting zoos and all of the tennis courts. She asked Janet for a shrimp cocktail bar because if anything would bring Eleanor around it would be that and soon she stood by the door. Jianyu on her arm, greeting people with the fakest smile she could muster.

Until she thought she caught a glimpse of Maybe-Eleanor by the front door, on her way out.

She chased the shadow to the front lawn only to find it was one of her neighbors from a few blocks over. The hope she felt building in her chest deflated when she fell onto the bench next to her front patio. That was the thing, she was hoping (always hoping) against all odds that Eleanor would somehow make it here with her and this whole soulmate fiasco would be sorted out properly. That somehow Eleanor turned her life around enough to end up in The Good Place with her. Tahani didn’t think that at the end she was Bad Place material, maybe Middle Place (if that were a thing) for sure that, but surely, they had saved each other, turned each other’s lives around so they both ended up here. Eleanor made her a better, calmer person just as she thought she made Eleanor a little more giving, and gave her a sense of decorum. Maybe that wasn’t enough though, maybe she wasn’t enough to save Eleanor, maybe she just was cursed to never be enough.

She never gave up hope these little sightings she had were more than just wishful thinking though.

The party went on around her, without a single hitch.

***

The only other thing Tahani took pride in and cared about, aside from her fabulous parties, were her gardens. If she had the most lavish house in The Good Place the gardens had to match. Not only that, the flowers reminded her of Eleanor, of their apartment on Earth. Eleanor had put up such a fuss when the first few plants were brought in but soon Tahani noticed Eleanor tending to them, watering them, making sure they had proper sun. Eventually Eleanor was the one bringing Tahani plants for her little office she set up in the corner of their apartment to make things brighter, and it may have taken a while but she admitted, out loud, they made the place smell better. Which is why Tahani took one day a week to maintain the flowers in the front lawn, near the drive. She stepped out that morning in her favorite gardening hat and blue dress, ready for inspection and trimming where necessary. It was The Good Place, however, so of course little had to be done.

Jianyu stepped out soon after her, as he usually did, to at least keep her company. She loved throwing anecdotes about her life his way and although he would never return words to her, she was grateful for the companionship. He plucked one of her freshest roses and handed it to her, she appreciated the gesture, but her brain was screaming in horror at her now imperfect plant. “Thank you, Jianyu, that’s very kind.” She leaned down and kissed him quickly on the cheek, tucking the flower away in the basket of garden tools at her feet.

That’s when she heard it. A choked sob? No. A gasp? Something in-between definitely and she spun on her heel to face her gate where the sound originated. The air was knocked from her lungs so quickly she thought she may just pass out. There at the end of her drive looking as beautiful as ever was Eleanor. Her Eleanor. It felt like the world, stopped just for them.

“Eleanor?”

But then everything crashed down around her because Eleanor was walking away, practically running away and Tahani couldn’t, wouldn’t, let that happen. Not when she was so close to her own personal Good Place. She took off down her driveway and was thankful for her long legs because in no time she caught up and stopped Eleanor in the middle of her street like one of those terribly romantic movies she made them watch on Earth. “It is you. My god you are real.” Tahani had to touch. She couldn’t stop her hands from moving to every exposed piece of skin she could reach, through the soft golden hair she remembered nightly. It was as if nothing had changed, she cupped Eleanor’s face, and took in those too blue eyes. This right here, with Eleanor in her arms like this, this was her Good Place. “I… I thought I saw you, in the square by that cheap little milk fountain but I thought I was just seeing things. How?” She didn’t know what she was questioning, she didn’t know a lot of things at that moment, she barely remembered how to breathe.

“Apparently, when you said I should pay more attention to the road I actually should have listened.”

“No, I know that how. Michael told me that how. I mean,” She didn’t know what she meant, her mind was going too quickly to make sense of everything.

“Tahani al Jamil at a loss for words. I never thought I’d live to see the day.” A pause. “Well, I guess technically I never did get to live to see the day, but you know.” Tahani laughed. It was so wonderfully Eleanor to break the moment with a joke, but there was also something heavy behind it. “So, um, nice place you got here. Very you.” Tahani shrugged, she supposed it was her but a part of her really missed their quaint little apartment back on Earth. Then the bomb dropped at her feet. “Nice soulmate too. He looks like a nice dude.”

Guilt sunk deep in Tahani’s stomach. Guilt for what she had no idea but seeing the pain so clear on Eleanor’s face was too much. “Jianyu. Yes, he’s, he’s a Taiwanese monk. Um, apparently he’s taken a vow of silence because he hasn’t said one word to me since we got here but he’s very kind and doting.” She felt her throat get thick with emotion. This forking soulmate business was complete and utter nonsense. How can he be her soulmate when her real one was standing right in front of her? Her soulmate that was in obvious pain. Pain she wanted so badly to make go away.

But then Eleanor took a step back away from her. “I’m glad, you deserve good things Tahani. Even if I can’t be the one to give them to you. I’m glad you’re not alone.”

“Eleanor, why…” Why was she just walking away? Why didn’t she come here sooner? Why was she looking like she wanted to run? There were so many whys.

Instead of answering any of them, Eleanor just took another step back and Tahani folded in on herself like she had just been punched. Or a piece of her had been ripped out. Which she supposed in a way it had. “Just, be happy Tahani.”

I’m glad you’re not alone. Those words echoed in her head because she felt more alone now than ever. Tahani hated being alone more than anything. Sure, she hated other things, a lot of things actually (for example: her sister; when her celebrity friends were in a feud and she had to choose sides;her sister;when her parties didn’t get the rave reviews they deserved; her bloody sister) but being alone? That was number one.

And ever since she watched Eleanor walk away from her she felt so achingly alone.

She had her house, she had friends, a neighborhood that adored her, and she had her… well whatever Jianyu was. She still didn’t feel right calling him soulmate, that title was reserved for the woman that left her standing in the street. Tahani supposed it always would be Eleanor, even after everything Michael told her about the algorithm nonsense. But despite having everything she could ever want, she didn’t have Eleanor, and nothing filled that hollow in her chest.

Tahani stood rooted to the spot until she couldn’t see Eleanor anymore and the sun was setting low behind her. Her cheeks were streaked with tears that wouldn’t stop no matter how hard she wished they would. She just wanted Eleanor to turn around, just for a second, to give her some hope to hold on to. Some hope that they weren’t done. That they would hold each other again.

She jumped when she felt a gentle touch on her lower back and shrank away when she saw it was Jianyu. She felt bad about it, really, she did, he treated her kindly and didn’t deserve her hesitations. He didn’t deserve to be pushed away but right now her world was in a tailspin that she couldn’t figure how to right and his presence wasn’t helping.

Tahani gently dabbed her cheeks with her handkerchief and let Jianyu lead her back in the house. “That was Eleanor.” She watched his eyebrows rise in acknowledgement, he knew all about her, he knew all about them on Earth. Tahani talked about Eleanor and their relationship every day since she accepted the situation in which she was placed.

“Did I ever tell you how we met?” She asked him as he led her to the more private sitting room (which was to say the fourth door on the left when you turned the first right corner, she really did love this house but it was such a maze sometimes). It was a silly question to ask because of course she did, she told every story there ever was to tell about the two of them. But holding Eleanor, even for a fleeting moment just mere moments ago, she needed to do something. Cling to anything she could, the smell of lavender in Eleanor’s hair, the feel of her in her arms, anything. Any memories she could.

“It was a Thursday afternoon in a shabby little liquor store.” She let Jianyu get comfortable on his pillow across from her before she poured them each a cup of tea. She knew neither of them were going to drink it, it was more of a distraction for her hands than anything. “I happened upon this little hole in the wall store and was hoping they would be kind enough to cut the price of some spirits if I bought them in bulk for a fundraiser I was throwing for an environmental cause when I heard this irritated noise from behind me.” She remembered hearing an annoyed scoff at her haggling, a distinct ‘move it or lose it giraffe’ was uttered and Tahani spun on her heel. “Just as I was about to give this person a piece of my mind I was knocked dumb.” She laughed, a sad breathy thing. “I know! Me. Speechless!”

She rolled her eyes at Jianyu’s sarcastic eyebrow raise, he may not speak but her could tell a story with his facial expressions. “I was though because I was face to face with this tiny, beautiful ball of fury.” My god was she beautiful. Tahani thought back to that day and felt her heart flutter just as fast now as it did that day. “Just the way her passion flared and her stunning eyes. Oh, it was poetry, Jianyu, I was struck.” She laughed to herself because Eleanor was the only person in the world that could be gorgeous when fighting about her booze.

She took the warm cup in her hands and closed her eyes, picturing the day clearly in her mind. “I wasn’t fool enough to think I would ever see her again. I thought I was forever bound to that dreadful ‘if only’ feeling.” She couldn’t help the smiled that tugged at her lips at the next thought. “It shouldn’t have surprised me when she showed up to the gala. It wasn’t a pleasant surprise at first because she pulled up to an environment gala in the most horrendous air choking vehicle ever created but as soon as I saw her throw her keys at the valet I couldn’t help but laugh. It just felt like it was meant to be.” Tahani still found it funny how destiny worked, that this tiny little ball of fire, this person who was so opposite of me, that stood for just about everything I wanted to change in the world. “She was going to be it for me. I knew it deep down.” She put a hand over her heart and opened her eyes to see Jianyu smiling at her. “I was so taken with her bravado I asked her to take me to dinner the following weekend. It remains the best first date I’ve ever been on.”

Jianyu smiled gently at her, in his sweet simple way and she continued. “You know, before Eleanor I had never been in a relationship with a woman.” She paused. “I mean, there had maybe been only one serious relationship before her anyway, he was a Prince of a small island, but that doesn’t matter.” She let the heat from the tea soak into her hands. “I couldn’t understand why it didn’t work, but then I met Eleanor and it all clicked.” She squeezed the cup in her hand, this precious fragile thing, just like she was feeling. “After the first date we continued to see each other, more and more frequently.”

Tahani smiled at the thought. “It was obvious that relationships weren’t a thing Eleanor was familiar with because before she left the morning after our first real date she turned to me and said, ‘hey hot stuff, wanna do this again?’” Tahani’s voice mocked a poor American accent but it made Jianyu choke out a laugh, so it was worth it. “I kissed her on the cheek and sent her on her way.” That may have been a tiny white lie. She may or may not have pulled Eleanor back into her apartment and made out with her like a teenager pressed up against her front door, but what Jianyu didn’t know wouldn’t kill him.

“The first time I introduced her as my girlfriend I thought that was it.” Tahani set the cup of tea back on the tray, undrunk. “I thought she would bolt first chance she got, but she stayed. And not only did she stay, she stood up to my parents.” An incredulous laugh bubbled from her lips remembering the moment. “It was a fundraiser for saving the whales and it was stunning, of course, and every party I threw I would send an invitation my parents’ way just in case.”

A little half shrug, as if she didn’t care, but she knew her face betrayed her longing for acceptance. “Well they happened to be in town that day, so they showed up and I was just so proud. Just bursting, Jianyu! I had this wonderful fundraiser that was on par to be my biggest money-raiser to date, I looked stunning, and I had the most beautiful woman in the room as my date. I had been told as such by several famous actors that night. Everything was wonderful, and my parents showed up without my beloved sister.” Her voice choked on the word. “I had to pull Eleanor away from the shrimp, but it was worth it because my parents were there!I was on cloud nine and then I said ‘Mum, Dad, this is my girlfriend Eleanor.’ I felt her tense next to me and I held my breath just waiting for the best thing in my life to leave me like always.” Tahani swallowed hard and thought back to ten minutes ago when she watched Eleanor walk away. The best thing in her life, and afterlife, leaving her, like she was always afraid of.

“But then my dad said some awful thing, truly horrible. It never bothered them when Kamilah had a girlfriend, but god forbid I was happy. So he finished his nonsense and I waited. I waited for either of them to leave or for Eleanor to run but instead she took my hand, like she had done so many times before, pulled me tight against her and kissed me. Can you imagine? Right there in front of my parents she kissed me for all she was worth. She had insisted I wear flats that night and she wear heels so we were a little more close in height.” Tahani laughed, a sad breathy thing. “And then she pulled me onto the dance floor. That was the last I had ever heard from my parents, and after that I truly didn’t care. I had everything I needed in Eleanor.”

Tahani sighed again, she still hoped that Eleanor had changed her mind and she would be there. “I think that’s enough reminiscing for the night. It’s time to start my night routine.” She rose from the sofa and bid Jianyu a good night. She was thankful her tears held off long enough until she found herself alone in her bedroom. Jianyu was a caring man, and she cried in front of him often, but that didn’t mean she liked doing it. Given the choice she would much rather wallow in her misery by herself.

She crawled into her king-sized bed alone, as she had done every night since arriving here, and let her thoughts wander to Eleanor. She picked up where she left off in the story with Jianyu, this next part wasn’t for him, that night, that memory was for her and Eleanor alone. She reached over to the cold side of her bed, remembering that night after their first date she could almost imagine Eleanor’s warmth in those luxurious sheets with her.

Tahani closed her eyes and remembered the feeling of Eleanor’s body on hers, of every sense just overwhelmed with everything Eleanor, to the point Tahani thought she would drown. Happily, so. She had never felt so much pleasure all at once, no one had ever made her feel so good. She laced her fingers tight in Eleanor’s soft, golden hair afraid that if she let go it would all go away, the feeling of Eleanor’s tongue on her and the hair in her hands being the only thing to anchor her to the moment. She remembered the shiver and the look in those blue eyes when she came with Eleanor’s name on her lips, like a prayer. A look in those eyes that said she felt something too.

She was too spent to keep her eyes open, but she felt the soft kisses Eleanor placed on her scattered freckles and birthmarks, so reverent, so gentle and caring. So, unlike the firecracker she had encountered at the gala and even on their date. Feelings weren’t a part of this going into the night, Tahani was sure of that, but something shifted, but she really hoped Eleanor couldn’t feel her heart race with every kiss. She didn’t want to be the one to break first.

She opened her eyes to the dim light in her room and the (always) cold side of her bed and felt her eyes burn.

She cried herself to sleep that night as she had every night since she arrived, except now she knew Eleanor was here and her bed was still empty.

And that was worse.

***

Tahani woke from another restless sleep, chest and eyes still aching from the night before. Except now in addition to the pain she had anger. A deep anger building. How long had Eleanor been here and she never came to look? How could she just walk away from what they had when they were alive? How dare she just assume that Tahani was happy without her? Okay so the last one wasn’t really anger, more disbelief but still.

Was what they had on Earth even real?

She felt her stomach roll at the thought. Her love, her heart, her everything on Earth, everything she held dear and true. It couldn’t be a lie, she wouldn’t accept that.

Tahani regretfully pulled herself out of her bed, every cell in her body screamed at her to just stay put, that one day wallowing in her bed wouldn’t hurt. But she had seen Eleanor, she didn’t want to stay away, she had gotten a taste and she wanted more. Needed more. So she pulled herself out of bed and trudged her way through her morning routine; shower, makeup, and outfit decision one (and two and three, she wanted to look her absolute best). She would call Janet for breakfast but her stomach was too out of sorts that morning to even think about food. Eleanor was the only thing on her mind.

She didn’t even say good morning to Jianyu before she was out the door and heading quickly towards the town center. She had no real idea where Eleanor lived or she would go there but she figured waiting, conveniently, near her favorite cookie place would be a safe bet. So that’s what she did, she found a table outside a shop across the square and sat and waited. And waited. And waited. And at some point during her wait Jianyu showed up with a latte for her and an oversized cookie for himself. And just when she thought it was hopeless she caught a wisp of blonde hair and plaid button down and Tahani was up and at the door behind Eleanor.

There was so much she wanted to ask, to say, anything to hold onto what little connection she had but Eleanor, as stubborn as ever, ignored her very presence. Not even a glance her way. So Tahani put on her bravest smile, tucked her arm around Jianyu’s, and let him lead the way through the bustling town square.

The next few days were more of the same, Tahani conveniently bumping into Eleanor at cookie shops or the fountain or the place that doubled as a library (which they both knew neither would step foot in otherwise), only to get painfully brushed aside. Tahani wanted to grab her and shake her and ask why she was doing this. Why she wasn’t even trying. But truth be told she was afraid of the answer.

Soon she stopped going to the square every day and instead went once a week for a month. She was numb from head to toe every time she saw Eleanor pointedly not looking her way.

A week after that she stopped going altogether.

***

“Tahani?” A soft voice from behind her made Tahani jump. She thought she was alone in the house, or Jianyu was there but… “there’s something I should tell you.”

Tahani spun on the chaise to face Jianyu, who actually spoke words to her for the first time since they had been together. “Jianyu?”

“That’s something you should know. My name, isn’t Jianyu, it’s Jason. I’m not a monk, I’m a pre-successful DJ from Jacksonville.” He paused and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Go Jags!” Tahani looked on in horror. “I don’t think I’m supposed to be here, I think this may be some kind of prank show or something. I’m not sure but I just couldn’t lie anymore, not talking is exhausting.”

“Jia- Jason.” Tahani sat up straighter in her seat, suddenly frightened but curious. “We’re dead and this is The Good Pla-” Wait, she thought, if Jianyu wasn’t Jianyu, if… she struggled with her thoughts for a second. Bad Place. “Jia- Jason. If you’re who you say you are, and Eleanor is...” If Eleanor was here (she loved Eleanor with everything she was but she had to admit The Good Place was probably not the first choice for her), and Jason was Jason and the exact opposite of who they assumed he was. This most assuredly wasn’t The Good Place. She didn’t know what that meant for her and her soul and she really didn’t care. She just felt relief. That meant the soulmate nonsense was just that. Nonsense. She and Jason weren’t meant to be together, obviously, that meant that she and Eleanor were being tortured by being separated. Told they couldn’t be together, that everything they had was a lie. Everything suddenly made sense. “This is The Bad Place.” She whispered more to herself.

She’d rather spend an eternity in The Bad Place with Eleanor than one more second without her in supposed paradise.

She stood suddenly, knocking a few throw pillows to the ground. “I have to find Eleano-”

SNAP!

#elhani #eleanor x tahani #the good place #elhani fic #the good place fic #okay i formatted it for tumblr instead of just an ao3 link because it needed to be consistent with part one #my fic

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