- Title: The Good Place – Michael’s Gambit
- wiki: link
This changes everything. If you haven’t been keeping up with The Good Place, stop reading and catch-up because there is a major spoiler ahead for this First Season finale that turns the entire show on its head and (literally) resets everything. What a forking twist! Returning from the Middle Place with Jason (Manny Jacinto) and Janet (D’Arcy Carden), Eleanor (Kristen Bell) faces judgement at the hands of Shawn (Marc Evan Jackson) who decrees that two people must leave the Good Place and he’ll leave it up to Eleanor, Jason, Tahani (Jameela Jamil), and Chidi (William Jackson Harper) to decide who stays and who goes.
After episodes which gave us Eleanor choosing to put the needs of the group ahead of her own and the ridiculous marriage between an moron and an computer, The Good Place takes a major turn with Eleanor’s realization about the afterlife. Correctly calling out Michael (Ted Danson), Eleanor reveals the true nature of the neighborhood (which is further explored in flashbacks to Michael’s designs). Eleanor isn’t the odd one out. In fact none of the four characters belong in Heaven, and (to everyone’s surprise) that’s not where they have been living. Turns out Michael has a particularly nasty sense of humor designing a Hell for the enjoyment of his co-workers that continues to put the four guinea pigs through various forms of struggle and torture without their knowledge. Knowing all this changes things, right? Well, it would except for Michael resetting the world. Now let’s see how things change the second time around.