Chapter 5: Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis

## Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis

**Chapter 5: Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis** is the 5th episode of Season 1 of *The Good Place*.

## Plot

Eleanor's eagerness to learn ethics from Chidi becomes the full-time job he never wanted. Meanwhile, Michael and Janet focus their attention on a Neighborhood emergency deemed a Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis.

## Summary

Eleanor orders frozen yogurt. Because Michael feels guilty about the sinkhole, there are a lot of new flavors, many based on concepts. Eleanor, instead of holding up the line while trying to make a decision, allows the person behind her, Gunner, to order first. She is so excited by the fact that she did something selfless that she immediately runs back to her house to tell Chidi about it. He congratulates her but asks if she brought the yogurt like she said she would. After briefly trying to back out and make excuses, she realizes that a good person would follow through and heads to the shop again.

Jason has agreed to join Eleanor in learning ethics to become a better person. Chidi is teaching a lesson about utilitarianism, and Jason recounts the time he framed his friend (and father) Donkey Doug's girlfriend for theft so that she wouldn't marry and move away with Donkey Doug, who was the "best pop-and-locker" on their 60-strong dance crew. He then asks if he can leave to attend Tahani's brunch before the miniature waffles run out. Chidi excuses him, and Eleanor asks if they can jump into a new lesson. Chidi says he's tired from standing and wants a break, so Eleanor asks if he will grade her paper instead. He agrees begrudgingly.

At Tahani's brunch, she and Michael are chatting when Janet appears and alerts Michael that they have a "Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis". Michael asks if Tahani can take them to a private room. Once there, Janet reveals that the sinkhole is not repairing itself, but growing. Tahani overhears this and tells Michael she actually saw it get bigger last night. Michael tries to play off his anxiety and leaves.

Back at Eleanor's house, Chidi is trying to politely get time to himself, without Eleanor tagging along. However, Eleanor insists he's hiding something.

A holographic screen used by Michael and Janet while discussing the emergency is left open in the room, and Michael tells Tahani not to look through it. She ignores this and tries to check a list of point rankings in the Neighborhood, which leaves her dismayed to find she is number 321, or second-to-last. Being second-best always was a difficult thing for Tahani. Throughout her childhood, she was always treated like this by her parents, who favored her younger sister Kamilah, such as the time she tried showing her parents a picture of a bird she drew, only to be upstaged by Kamilah's bird statue.

Eleanor keeps pestering Chidi until he finally breaks and tells her that she is the thing that has been bothering him. He doesn't want "a full time job" and wants to be doing "paradise things" like rowing out on a lake with a bottle of wine and some French poetry. They get so fed up with one another that Eleanor tells him to leave. Just as they make this decision, Michael appears with a neighborhood warning that it's too dangerous to go outside.

It has been several days since the lock-in began, and Eleanor and Chidi are still squabbling. In the middle of it, Michael interrupts and introduces a new couple, Bart and Nina, an agent and a marriage counselor, who need a place to stay until the sinkhole is repaired. He volunteers Eleanor's because she's his assistant.

In Tahani's mansion, she announces they have a full day of activities planned, leading one woman to comment on how good Tahani is. Tahani agrees, but upon checking her point total learns that nothing's changed. One time, back when she was alive, Tahani hosted a fundraising event which was only at 5.2 million pounds earned. Her parents insist it's time to bring out something new, and Tahani introduces Kamilah to auction off a lunch date with. The bidding starts at 3 million pounds, and entire crowd immediately raises their cards, including her parents. Though odd, this was most likely just a strategy to get others to keep piling on the bid.

Bart and Nina put Eleanor and Chidi on edge when they reveal they were experts on catching falsehoods and giving relationship advice, respectively. They go into another room to argue but are seen by Bart and Nina, who then decide to help the couple. Bart discerns that Chidi has a secret.

Tahani meets Michael and Janet out by the sinkhole, offering them some donut holes until the negative side effects of a human getting too close to it start to change her. Janet knocks her out before too much harm can be done.

After Bart and Nina's prodding, Chidi reveals he's never had a serious relationship before, which is why he's so tense. Bart offers him a massage, but Eleanor and Chidi turn it down and go to bed.

Tahani has recovered from the sinkhole, and Michael wants to know why she did something so stupid in the first place. She thinks back to the time after her parents died, where, during the reading of her parents' last will and testament, they misspelled her name as "Tahini". Frustrated, Tahani says Kamilah can have everything; she will strike out on her own. In the present day, Tahani confides that the source of her insecurity is that she ranked so low on the point evaluation. Michael reassures her that she belongs in the Good Place, making her better than all the others who weren't good enough, and Janet lets them know that the sinkhole is fixed.

With the lock-in lifted, Eleanor has left a note for Chidi to go to the lake. Eleanor tells Chidi she understands that helping her is not easy, and gives him a card that reads "FORK OFF, ELEANOR" for him to use whenever he is overburdened. She apologizes for the tricky situation she has put them in and gives him a basket of wine and a French poetry book. Chidi gets into a boat and Eleanor pushes him off into the lake. Once in the middle of the lake, Chidi says he has no idea what he's doing and that it was a theoretical fantasy, before panically asking how to row a boat.

Eleanor walks up to Michael, who is showing the residents that the sinkhole is fully repaired and saying that he figured it all out. After the crowd disperses, Michael tells Eleanor that he has no idea how this happened, which is bad news. He resolves to figure it out, with her help, first thing in the morning.

## Cast

Kristen Bell as **Eleanor Shellstrop**
William Jackson Harper as **Chidi Anagonye**
Jameela Jamil as **Tahani Al-Jamil**
D'Arcy Carden as **Janet**
Manny Jacinto as **Jason Mendoza**
**and** Ted Danson as **Michael**
**Guest Starring**

Steve Berg as **Gunner**
John Hartmann as **Bart**
Rebecca Hazlewood as **Kamilah Al-Jamil** *(flashback)*
Anna Khaja as **Manisha Al-Jamil** *(flashback)*
Ajay Mehta as **Waqas Al-Jamil** *(flashback)*
**Co-Starring**

Lynnette Gaza as **Eunice** *(flashback)*
Yaniellie Ireland as **Young Kamilah** *(flashback)*
Jill Johnson as **Henriette**
Monnae Michaell as **Nina**
GraceAnne Pullappally as **Young Tahani** *(flashback)*
## Trivia

* Original broadcast audience: 4.97 million.
* Some of the new froyo flavors are "Full Cell Phone Battery" and "Folded Laundry."
* Jianyu has the second highest point total, while Eleanor Shellstrop is sixth in the neighborhood and Chidi is fifteenth.
* Jessica Nakanoi is fifth, and Patricia Camarillo (who is probably the same person as Chef Patricia) is 14th.
* The only person with a lower point total than Tahani is Glenn.
* Eleanor is seen wearing a Michigan Law crewneck.
* Tahani introduces her sister saying, "Take it away from me, Kamilah!" instead of the correct phrase, "Take it away!"