Written by Gabriella Gamez
Holy forking shirtballs has this series been a wild ride. With the fourth and final season of The Good Place premiering on September 26th, I’m afraid our time with our favorite interdimensional fugitives is almost over. Cue Janet’s impersonation of human crying.
Luckily we still have one more season to look forward to! In usual style, the last season finished with a huge cliffhanger and left us with burning questions we need answers to right now. Let’s recap together all the important moments of season 3!
3.01: Everything is Bonzer
After seeing Eleanor’s second chance at life on earth in the Season 2 finale, we get caught up with how everyone else is doing. Chidi makes the decision to be more decisive with the help of neuroscience colleague, Simone, but quickly spirals back to his old ways after one decision ends up hurting another colleague of his. Tahani decides to spend some time out of the spotlight at a monastery, but later ends up writing a book entitled “Out of the Spotlight”, which effectively puts her right back in it. Jason forms a breakdancing crew and discourages them from committing crime, but after they run out of money for rehearsal space he changes his mind and tells everyone to “go do crime”.
We also see Michael break the judge’s rule to go down to earth many times to get our gang together for Chidi’s near-death study so that they can all help each other become better people. And it almost works, until we see a familiar demon enter the study…
3.02: The Brainy Bunch
Adam Scott reprises his role as Trevor the demon to make sure the study goes wrong. Michael and Janet try to stop him while remaining under the humans’ noses. Janet doesn’t have her summoning powers on earth, so they have to be creative with their schemes.
The episode ends with the judge catching on to what Michael has been doing. Every item Janet tried to summon on earth begins appearing, and she and Michael are able to escape from the judge with the help of the tons of stuff that begins to appear.
3.03: The Snowplow
We see the ethical study carried out in seasonal glances. Michael and Janet continue to meddle in the humans lives to make sure they’re able to stay in the study and any choice they make doesn’t tear the group apart. Michael’s plan to make sure Jason and Tahani backfires when runs into the forgotten Hemsworth brother and they later get engaged.
The episode ends with the four humans walking in on Michael talking to Janet about how to save them, with a portal open to the afterlife.
3.04: Jeremy Bearimy
Michael and Janet are forced to tell the humans the truth, dooming them from ever reaching the actual Good Place. Each human takes the news differently. Chidi falls into a nihilistic view point, thinking that nothing matters. Tahani decides to give back for “virtue’s sake” and enlists Jason’s help to help give away her riches. Eleanor falls back into her old habits but realizes she can’t ignore her conscious anymore.
Rather than give up, Eleanor suggests that they help the people around them become better people so they can get into the Good Place.
3.05: The Ballad of Donkey Doug
Jason returns home to Florida with Tahani and Michael to help his father become a better person, but end up doing more harm than good as they get wrapped up in a scheme of Donkey Doug’s that results in his arrest. Eleanor and Janet help Chidi figure out a way to breakup with Simone.
The episode ends with Eleanor discovering her mother is actually alive.
3.06: A Fractured Inheritance
Eleanor discovers her mother is actually alive and travels to Arizona with Michael to help her become a better person. When they get there we’re shocked to see that her mother has seemingly turned her life around, though Eleanor has her suspicions.
We see hope for Eleanor in her mother.
Eleanor reflects on her mother’s growth and how she has never fallen in love before, prompting Michael to come clean about her relationship with Chidi in the afterlife.
3.07: The Worst Possible Use of Free Will
Eleanor asks Michael for her memories from the afterlife. She comes to the conclusion that none of her decisions in the afterlife were made from free will because Michael manipulated the entire situation. Michael makes Eleanor realize she’s only using the theory of predeterminism to distance herself from believing she’s capable of love.
Michael and Eleanor come up with the best possible way to use their free will now that the soul squad knows the truth of the afterlife. The episode ends with the demons entering an illegal portal to earth. Dun dun dun!
3.08: Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By
Michael and Janet find Doug Forcett to use him as a blueprint for how humans should live to get to the Good Place. But what they discover upon meeting him as that he lives to make everyone happy, which in turn causes him misery. Upon further investigating, Michael finds that Doug hasn’t accumulated nearly enough points to get into the Good Place.
The episode ends with the demons finding the soul squad on earth, resulting in an epic fight. During the fight, Eleanor confesses her feelings to Chidi. But there are too many to fight off, so Janet ends up sending them to her void, which kills them instantaneously.
3.09: Janet(s)
In D’Arcy Carden’s best episode, our fellow humans are brought into Janet’s void to escape from the demons chasing them. The effect makes the four humans all look like Janet. While the soul squad stays in the void, Janet and Michael visit the head accountant to find out if the demons are somehow affecting the point system to make more souls go to the Bad Place. Meanwhile in the void, Eleanor and Chidi struggle with their feelings but end up realizing they’re actually in love with each other.
The episode ends with Michael, Janet and the soul squad escaping into the Good Place through the accountant’s mail shoot.
3.10: The Book of Dougs
Our favorite interdimensional fugitives make it to the mail depot of the Good Place. Michael meets with residents of the Good Place to form a committee to discuss the possibility of demons interfering with the points system. While he investigates more into it, we find out that it is actually much harder it is to be a good person. Menial choices can have unexpected and drastic, unknown consequences.
Upon this realization, Michael schedules a meeting with the judge to discuss this new discovery.
3.11: Chidi Sees the Time-Knife
Michael and the soul squad meet the Judge in the interdimensional hole of pancakes to discuss the complexities and hardships that come with being a good person on earth. They tell the judge that she cannot properly judge humans as good or bad because she has never lived on earth. The Judge agrees, and decides to visit earth. When she comes back, she realizes that Michael was right and that life on earth is awful. Also, Chick-fil-a’s homophobia gets called out in the ultimate back-handed compliment.
The episode ends as the team decides with the judge and Shawn the demon that they must create an alternative afterlife place for people who are genuinely trying to be good, but fall short based on the rigged points system.
3.12: Pandemonium
The team creates a new neighborhood in the backyard of the Medium Place. They repeat the experiment with four new humans to see if they can repeat the same results with our favorite soul squad. Michael freaks out about repeating the experiment, leaving Eleanor to take the lead.
However, Tahani begins to suspect something is amiss when someone from her life on earth is chosen to join the new neighborhood. Her suspicions are confirmed when Simone also appears in the new neighborhood. They discover that Shawn has rigged the experiment to make it harder for our favorite team of humans to conduct the experiment. Chidi is forced to make a tough decision for the sake of the new experiment when he asks Michael to erase his memories. Chidi and Eleanor spend time together before his memories are erased.
The episode ends with Eleanor opening the door to Michael’s office and welcoming a rebooted Chidi inside.
