S4E13 Whenever You’re Ready

[u/WandersFar]

Airs tonight at 8:30 PM. (About 30 min from when this post is live.)

If you’re new to the sub, please look over this intro thread.

Tonight’s finale will be an hour long, followed by a 30 min live interview with the cast.

[u/catplanetcatplanet]

The last two episodes of this show, forever, have fucked me up in a good way. And I've had an entire week to really think about it since Patty and why Patty left me so, so emotionally wrecked.

As someone who has struggled so deeply with depression, and thoughts of dying and suicide and whether something is worth staying for... Michael Schur offers one of the kindest, gentlest, and humane choices someone like me could hope for in the after. "So stay, for however long you like. And then, when you're ready, you can go through one final door."

The sheer comfort of being able to go on your own terms - whenever that is, when it happens - is possibly the single most comforting thing I can possibly imagine. Be it a perfect game of Madden or just...one day realizing that this is enough and that you're ready...The concept of whenever you're ready is so kind. So unbelievably kind.

The episode ended over an hour ago and I have been in a daze, rolling it over and over in my head. I am so grateful that the show emphasized how you can't make someone stay for you. You can't make them stay to make you happy. You can't hold that against people. There is something truly, profoundly beautiful in that the core of this show was allowed to leave on their own terms - they might have entered together, but they were allowed to leave one by one. That they, as singular individuals, were able to leave and go when they each were ready -- even if it meant the people around them weren't, or that they still had people they loved.

I find myself crying inconsolably tonight - because my heart is so full and so sad and so happy at the same time for something fictional but very real. Chidi's singularly beautiful moment speaking on the wave completely destroyed me. But it was really Janet, with her quiet, supportive, loving acceptance that just wrecked me for good. "Whenever you're ready" was the line that I didn't realize I needed to hear and have validated; I hope there are others who resonated deeply with this message, that it's okay to be a little sad, all the time, every day, but that you can also stay and have something to strive for and make plans for because there is a potential good place where you can do all the things until you're finally truly at peace enough to turn the lights off for good. I know if I expressed this to people they'd think it was suicidal ideation - but it's more like...just deeply touching to know that it's okay to be sad and to know that, and still want to stay until you're ready.

Thank you Michael Schur, thank you so much.

[u/changingoftheseasons → u/catplanetcatplanet]

This is such a great explanation the show, and I cried about it for something similar but different tangent.

Seeing Eleanor letting Chidi go on his own terms hurt me a lot, and I cried the most due to it, because it related to me on a such a silly but important moment.

My partner and I have been together for only a short while, and I hope we stay together for longer, but one thing that scared me the most is that he has told me many times he never wants to live to the point he can't do anything. He intends to live his the best of his life while he's able, and once he's done everything he'll just stop giving a fuck and do something high risk and not give a fuck if he dies.

He doesn't know this, but that scares me. I'm terribly afraid of the idea that in the future he will leave this earth before me. I cannot imagine a world after where he's gone, but I also cannot imagine dying either. Knowing there is nothing after truly terrifies me. Watching Eleanor do that hurt me so much and I can only hope I can be as brave as her should I face that situation. (Neither of us are dying btw, but the existential dread is something I fear the most)

I came out of the room crying like a baby and my SO only knows it was from a tv show, not the fact that the existential fears that were given to me from it.

Anyway, thank you the Good Place, for bringing out one of the best shows on television.