Bix dot Blog

Last year, when I must have been going a rewatch, I argued that of all the characters on The Good Place Jason Mendoza had the highest degree of emotional intelligence. Even when he was alive, he was the only one of Team Cockroach truly to have earnest and authentic friendships. Eleanor was too trashbag, Tahani too conceited, and Chidi too anxious. Jason might not know at any given moment what’s going on, but he almost always knows how the people around him feel about it. He’s the most empathetic of them all, but if it’s ever acknowledged it’s only implicitly, only tacitly, and buried somewhere beneath or behind the teasing of his general cluelessness. Easily, then, my favorite part of “The Funeral to End All Funerals” was Janet’s eulogy for him. “Jason was the very first person to ask me about my feelings,” she says. “I hadn’t had any yet, but it made me want to go get some.” So, thanks, The Good Place, for someone finally, openly, sticking up for what truly makes Jason Mendoza.