1Pilot
Eleanor has just died and her spirit has arrived at its final resting place. In her first conversation with Michael, the spirit who designed the "neighborhood" which will be her home in the afterlife, he tells her some key pieces of information about the afterlife in general and where she has ended up, including that the concepts of heaven and hell are not exactly accurate, but rather that there is a bad place where most end up, while only a handful of who were the most selfless on earth end up in the good place, where she is. The good place is designed to provide total happiness for its residents, including a residence specifically designed for his or her likes, and being paired with another spirit who is truly a soul mate, that spirit for Eleanor being who was a Senegalese man named Chidi Anagonye. Another important spirit in the good place is Janet, a non-judgmental but ever knowing spirit who can appear at a moment's notice and will provide almost any information requested. After ...
2Flying
Eleanor tries to prove to Chidi that she's worthy of his help; Tahani and Jianyu try to help Michael cope with a mysterious flaw in his neighborhood.
3Tahani Al-Jamil
Eleanor is determined to find out who wrote and anonymously slipped her a threatening note. After being the recipient of Tahani's latest good deed, Eleanor is certain that Tahani is the culprit, her goody goody act just that, an act. Despite Chidi's efforts to impress on Eleanor that Tahani is truly a good person in spite of her flaws, Eleanor proceeds to try and discover that Tahini is indeed the note writer, which to her dismay means actually spending "quality" time with Tahini. Meanwhile, Michael wants to expand Chidi's horizons by finding him a hobby, especially one that may go beyond his comfort zone, as Chidi's human life was focused solely on his academic work on ethics and putting his theories into practice. While Michael has an ulterior motive in this task which may affect Chidi's work with Eleanor, Chidi has an answer which addresses Michael's concerns but which may be a little closer to his heart than the direction Michael was proceeding. In the process, Michael also wants ...
4Jason Mendoza
Eleanor discovers that the person sending her what she believes are threatening notes is not Tahani as she initially believed, but rather Jianyu. The notes are not meant to be threatening but rather a call for help, as Jianyu is a fraud like her, and should not be in the good place. He is not Jianyu Li, a Taiwanese Buddhist monk as everyone believes, but rather Jason Mendoza, an ethnic Filipino from Jacksonville, Florida, a not very good electronic dance music DJ and drug dealer with a frat boy mentality. The problem for Eleanor and eventually Chidi, who also learns about Jianyu's true identity, is that once Jianyu opens up about his Jason life, he has opened up a floodgate of frat boy emotions which may not be able to be rebottled. As such, he has no real desire to stay in the good place as he just wants to return to his partying ways. And if Jianyu gets caught, it is inevitable that Eleanor will also be exposed at the same time. So Eleanor and Chidi have to try and convince Jianyu ...
5Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis
Eleanor believes she's reached a true breakthrough in that she did a good deed without even thinking about it before she did it. As such, she is buoyed by Chidi's lessons, thinking that they are paying off for her, which leads her to want even more and more of his time, which is almost all devoted to her already. Conversely, Chidi is feeling that Eleanor is monopolizing his time, instead of he being able to enjoy paradise as he thought he was supposed to in the good place. This incompatibility in priorities leads to bad feelings between the two, who want to split up in private, but maintain their soul mate personae in public. That becomes difficult when Michael issues a directive where no one is allowed outside, leaving Eleanor and Chidi confined to her house together until the directive is lifted. What makes matters worse is that Michael asks if Eleanor's neighbors, Bart and Nina, can stay with her and Chidi temporarily, which may place their already strained relationship under the ...
6What We Owe to Each Other
Eleanor is freaking out about meeting with Michael, to who she promised to help discover the problem with the neighborhood, knowing full well that she is the problem. If she is true to the spirit of her word, she will help Michael and expose herself as a fraud. If she doesn't help Michael, she will break all that she has worked toward being a good person. So she figures she has to both help him and not help him for her to be able to save herself. In her initial meeting with Michael, she thinks she has a way to protect herself, at least in the short term, if she can only get Michael to go along with what she has in mind. Meanwhile, Jianyu is consulting a Magic 8 ball in how to answer anything Tahani says to him. In doing so, he inadvertently agrees to a couples spa outing so that they can really get to know each other. Believing that he will out himself as a fraud spending such intimate time alone with her, he asks for a third on their couples outing, that third being Chidi, who tries ...
7The Eternal Shriek
Eleanor considers Michael's belief that he is the neighborhood's problem and thus should abandon his experiment of an architect living in a neighborhood he designed (effectively meaning he would leave the neighborhood forever) as a win-win situation as Michael will get the retirement he so rightly deserves and needs and she will no longer feel the stress of getting caught by him as a fraud and the true cause of the neighborhood's problems. Chidi, on the other hand, disagrees, as Eleanor's reasoning is built on a lie. Eleanor concedes that she has to reconsider Michael's move after they all learn what retirement for a being like Michael means, it called the eternal shriek. Eleanor comes up with another solution to the resulting problem which would require a sacrifice. Chidi is conflicted by Eleanor's solution as he vowed to help her, but still feels the sacrifice is morally wrong despite it not hurting "anyone". Through the process, Chidi remembers back to a lie he said on Earth, one ...
8Most Improved Player
Michael is in a quandary concerning what to do about Eleanor ever since she admitted that she is a fraud and is in the good place by mistake. What makes the situation even worse for him is that no one in his position in the good place has ever had to deal with such an error, and Janet is still rebooting her system following being murdered by who he now assumes was Eleanor, meaning that Michael via Janet can't yet get access to Eleanor's file. So beyond the bare minimum of having an interview with Eleanor to learn directly from her her story, he decides to have an interview with who seem to be her closest friends in the neighborhood, namely Tahani, Jianyu and most specifically Chidi. Those latter three interviews may cause even more problems for especially Jianyu and Chidi as Eleanor learns and passes along to her friends that Michael has a lie detecting machine, meaning that Jianyu also may be exposed as a fraud, and Chidi identified as Janet's real murderer. As such, Tahani, Jianyu ...
9...Someone Like Me as a Member
Because of Chidi's plea on her behalf, Michael has decided to fight to keep Eleanor in the good place. As such, Trevor and his bad entourage are still in the good place for negotiations. Such negotiations are outside of Michael's mentality - he only knowing how to be good and give in to what others want - so he calls in backup in the form of Tahani. Regardless of what Tahani may or may not be able to teach him, it will still have to be Michael who carries out the actions. Meanwhile, the real Eleanor, Chidi, Eleanor, and Trevor go on a double date of sorts, for the real Eleanor to experience what it's going to be like, especially the food, in the good place after being in the bad place, and for Trevor to give Eleanor a taste of what it's going to be like for her with him in the bad place. Especially as the real Eleanor and Chidi are supposed to be soul mates, it also gives Eleanor an opportunity to see what Chidi's time in the good place is really supposed to be, while giving Chidi an ...
10Chidi's Choice
Now that Michael has decided to do whatever he needs to keep Fake Eleanor in the good place, he has to be prepared for whenever Shawn will make an unexpected visit so that the collective they can defend the decision. Good Eleanor and Bambadjan are to act as her legal counsel. In preparing that defense, they question Fake Eleanor about her life, both on Earth and in the good place. In the process of that questioning, Fake Eleanor comes to believe someone in the good place is indeed her soul mate. In discovering that Jianyu is also a fake, Tahani believes she has also discovered who is really her soul mate in the good place. Simpleminded Jason, who has felt lost in the unfamiliar surroundings ever since arriving mistakenly in the good place, also believes he has fallen in his brand of love with someone in the good place, the one person who has shown him unconditional acceptance. And Chidi, who has always had problems with indecision in his mortal life until the end which has carried on ...
11What's My Motivation
After Michael shows them the scores and rankings of everyone in the good place, the collective working on the defense to keep Fake Eleanor in the good place decide that what she has to do to stay in the good place is amass enough points in doing good deeds from now on before Shawn arrives. It is a steep climb as they figure she will need in the vicinity of 1.2 million points, while she currently is in the -4,000 point range. Tahani decides to help Fake Eleanor in this task. They believe the key to achieving the goal is the fact that everyone else in the good place hates Fake Eleanor for the bad things she's inadvertently caused which have negatively affected them, such as the sinkhole. As Fake Eleanor and Tahani work on this premise, Fake Eleanor comes to the realization of what she has to do to get the necessary points before Shawn arrives. Meanwhile, Jason aka Jianyu, who has married Janet, wants to tell Michael, who he mistakenly believes is Janet's father, of the marriage to get ...
12Mindy St. Claire
After discovering its existence from Janet, Eleanor decides to hijack Shawn's train and live her afterlife in the medium place. Jason and Janet are also in tow as Jason wants to live in a place where he and Janet can live as man and wife, something they can't do in the good place but that they can probably do in the medium place away from Michael's scrutiny. What they find in the medium place, as Janet had mentioned, is exactly one person, Mindy St. Claire. The medium place was a compromise by the authorities in both the good place and the bad place to deal with the unusual situation of Mindy, who was basically a bad person who did one spectacularly good thing before she died in the 1980s. While Jason's sole initial goal in the medium place is to figure out a way for he and Janet to have sex, Eleanor finds that mediocrity may not be all it's cracked up to be as witnessed by Mindy. But what Eleanor does, regardless of what she really wants, is dependent upon Jason and Janet. Meanwhile ...
13Michael's Gambit
With Fake Eleanor and Jason making it back to the good place a fraction of a second past Shawn's deadline, Shawn has to make a call on whether his initial ruling of sending Chidi and Tahani to the bad place in place of Fake Eleanor and Jason still stands. What Shawn rules is that the bad place is still short two people, he no longer caring which two go, leaving that decision for them to decide among themselves. As Fake Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason argue among themselves about which two should go, external forces come into play. Amid all the kerfuffle, Fake Eleanor comes to a unilateral decision about the two people, she having a very specific reason for her choices, about which she knows deep in her heart are the right choices and ones with which Michael cannot argue. Although Fake Eleanor is correct in her assessment, she is unaware that the decision will have dire consequences beyond the on the surface repercussions of who will go and who will stay.
1Everything is Great!
With his first experiment a failure in large part he believing because he paired them up, Michael has rebooted it to torture Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason, erasing their memories of the first go 'round, this time he separating the four but retaining those aspects of the first time which truly did torture them. Michael's plan is still to center the concept on Eleanor and Jason, who will still be mistaken as a Buddhist monk named Jiyanu, knowing they don't belong in the Good Place, while torturing all four initially through some aspect of their new soul mates which are not at all truly what they would consider their soul mate. Eleanor is still to be the catalyst to make it hell for all four of them. Before the formal reboot, Michael convenes the actors to discuss their new personae, some who are confused by their new role and some who just don't like their new role. Michael is also unaware that Eleanor left herself a note implanted into Janet's mouth to "find Chidi" immediately ...
2Dance Dance Resolution
Michael reboots and reboots and reboots the experiment, each time tweaking it to learn about what went wrong the previous times, and Eleanor always seems to find out that they are in the bad place. Michael knows he hits an all time low when something a little different ends one of those reboots. But the problem for Eleanor, and by association Chidi, Tahani and Jason, is that they always lose their memory of what happened on every reboot, meaning that they can't learn from any of the previous trials. Eleanor may finally learn a way to keep some of those memories, with the help of someone she occasionally encounters. Meanwhile, Michael has kept from Shawn that they are no longer on experiment #2, Shawn finding out the truth which would be the end of Michael. In addition, Michael faces strikes and threats of blackmail by those in the know. Frustrated, Michael turns to someone just for an ear, but walks away with an idea to get out of his mess.
3Team Cockroach
One week into the eight hundred second iteration of the experiment and Eleanor having figured out that they are in the Bad Place yet again, Michael proposes to the four humans that they join forces leading into the next iteration. Michael's stated reason for doing so is that he is being blackmailed by Vicky who wants to run the next iteration, and if Michael will not allow her to do so, she will tell Shawn which would lead to the four humans and Michael being tortured in the traditional sense for eternity. Michael's offer is only valid if all four agree. The four humans have to decide what to do weighing the pros and the cons, the biggest and most obvious con being that Michael is the devil who cannot be trusted. They can only decide what to do based on the answers Michael has to some of their fundamental questions. If they don't agree, Michael, for his own survival, has to sweeten the pot to entice them. But their inherent beings - Tahani who only truly learns hers by Michael finally...
4Existential Crisis
With Eleanor as the only other student this day, Michael is attending his first ethics class taught by Chidi. Michael, as evil incarnate, either just doesn't get or refuses to get what Chidi is trying to teach him. Chidi thinks he knows why and thus takes a slightly different approach with Michael. Chidi and Eleanor have to deal with the aftermath of what happens to Michael using this new approach. The reason that Tahani and Jason aren't in the class is that they have to pretend to endure the latest torture inflicted on them. Tahani is supposed to plan a party - her specialty - for Gunnar, but what will happen is that they are later to be told that there was a mix up and that everyone in the Good Place attended another party thrown for Gunnar, resulting in Tahani being devastated. Tahani, however, thinks she has a way of torturing Vicky, namely by planning the best party ever that everyone will want to attend instead of the fake party organized by the actors. In the process, Tahani ...
5The Trolley Problem
Chidi is finding that Michael still can't seem to grasp the concepts taught in the human ethics classes. The latest example is in the ethical dilemma of the trolley problem - if you have no other other choice, do you kill one person or five? does it change if you know the people? would you sacrifice one to save five? etc. - where Michael would try to kill all six people if he could, and do it as brutally as possible. In Chidi addressing the issue with Michael, Michael thinks he knows why he just isn't getting it and shows Chidi and Eleanor how he can learn. What Michael shows them has consequences both for Chidi and for Michael, the latter due to the intent. Meanwhile, Jason wants Tahani to talk to someone about why she feels so reluctant to tell the world that the two of them are together as a couple. Who Tahani turns to is the ever knowing Janet. Janet helping Tahani and Jason with this issue has unintended consequences.
6Janet and Michael
Janet tells Michael that she has been glitching, the latest glitch which is the obvious cause of the earthquake. Janet says the glitches threaten the existence of the neighborhood. Janet being a true Good Place creation (the Bad Janet which could not have pulled off the ruse over Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason), Michael is uncertain what is causing the glitches and has to do his research clandestinely as he knows if Vicky finds out, she would use it to blackmail him further or tell Shawn. After consulting the Janet user guide and speaking to her about the timing of the glitches, Michael believes he has found the cause which does not have an easy fix. Janet comes up with a drastic measure to fix the problem, the drastic nature of it which may be difficult even for Michael to carry out. As the cause is related to human emotions more in line with one of the sins, Michael turns to Eleanor who may greater insight into the situation. Eleanor added to the mix has unintended consequences of...
7Derek
On Eleanor's advice in trying to get over Jason, Janet creates a rebound guy, Derek. Derek's presence in the bad place may cause some problems in and of itself, especially if Vicky or worse Shawn finds out and thus uncovers the ruse, but Derek as a being is even worse for them all as Janet admits that he is not perfect as he is her first attempt at creating a being. Since Jason is the reason Janet has been glitching, Michael sends Jason and Tahani away while he deals with the Janet/Derek issue, not realizing that Jason and Tahani being alone may make things worse as they become closer. Michael turns to Eleanor and Chidi in trying to resolve the problem, Chidi who stands steadfast that the wanted ends of getting rid of Derek does not justify the means, namely in Michael wanting to kill Derek. But the alternative of Vicky and thus Shawn finding out what's going on would send them all to the bad bad place for eternity. What happens between Janet and Derek may factor into what they decide...
8Leap to Faith
Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason learn straight from the horse's mouth that Michael has been lying to them all the time he has pretended to be working in an alliance with them. Based on the work, Shawn has promoted Michael to his dream job, Shawn still believing that they are on iteration number two. The one potential problem for Michael is Vicky, who is still working on her own self interest and would willingly tell Shawn that there have been several hundred iterations if it would serve her purpose. With these turn of events, Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason have to decide what to do to prevent Shawn from sending them into traditional physical torture now that the experiment i.e. the neighborhood will be shut down. Whatever they decide, they will be without Janet's help, she who Shawn has temporarily neutralized. One option is to throw Michael under the bus in the hope that Shawn will be lenient with them in return. However, Eleanor believes, based largely on a previous conversation she had with Michael, that he is still on their side. They have to try and find clues to support or refute Eleanor's assumption in deciding what to do.
9Best Self
Having eluded Shawn, the four humans, Michael and Janet are still in the neighborhood, with their next stop being the Good Place. Michael tells them that he has to build a special transport vehicle to get them all to the Good Place. Because of where they're going, they have to be the best version of themselves before boarding, or else they will be denied entry onto the vehicle. That caveat may be an issue. As a collective, they have to decide either how to figure out how each will be the best version of him or herself all at the same time, or else decide to leave those denied boarding behind, all under the time constraint of getting away before Shawn figures out where they are and that it was Michael who betrayed him. They may be facing a larger issue beyond boarding the vehicle which they are as of yet unaware.
10Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent
Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, Jason, Michael and Janet are on their way to Bad Place headquarters, there, according to Michael, which has the only portal to the judge, to who they want to plead their case to spend eternity in the Good Place. With the exception of Janet who gets a free pass, Michael, once at the Bad Place, needs to obtain four more pendants for the humans as the only means to get through the portal, he already having one for himself as one of the senior managers at the Bad Place. Beyond Michael having to find somewhere to keep the humans safe at headquarters while he goes on his mission, he, via Janet, provides them all with disguises just in case anyone from the old neighborhood runs into them and recognizes them. This plan works for Eleanor, Tahani and Jason who have lied, cheated and/or schemed their entire lives, but it is difficult for Chidi who believes it is morally wrong to tell a lie, and for Janet who is programmed to assist and be good. Things get more complicated when Michael's chosen hiding place isn't as secluded as he thought, and as his plan to obtain the extra four pendants doesn't work out quite as he had mapped out.
11The Burrito
Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason all make it through the portal to the judge's chambers, there where Eleanor tells the saddened others that Michael sacrificed himself for her. Regardless, they, once actually finding the judge, proceed to tell her their story. Despite not following protocol, the judge does allow them to plead their individual cases. Despite not being allowed to be tried as a collective, the four humans decide to be judged as a collective, meaning that even one failure among the four will result in them all being sentenced to the fate of the failed one. The individual tests the judge issues are customized to deal with the specific problem items associated with each. Beyond completing what seem to be the relatively simple tasks, each person tries to see if there is a trick they are missing that will seal their eternal fate and that of the other three. Meanwhile, Michael is being interrogated by Shawn regarding the treason. While Bad Janet is by Shawn's side, Good Janet is not by Michael's, she who was discovered and neutralized. So Michael awaits his fate as sentenced by Shawn, that is unless he can figure a way to escape Shawn's clutches.
12Somewhere Else
Just before the Judge is about to send Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason back to the Bad Place for eternity for collectively failing the tests she gave them, Michael, with Janet by his side, makes his way through the portal to the Judge's chamber, he who pleads their case by poking holes in the process which determines who goes where in the afterlife. The Judge is at least willing to listen to Michael. If Michael is able to come up with a solution, the four humans, led by Eleanor, want to go through whatever process and be sent to whatever place as a group. What Michael is eventually able to convince the Judge to do in the interim, unheard of within her tenure, still does not answer the question of where the four will eventually land in their eternity, Michael who places his faith in the four and what they have gone through since they first arrived in the neighborhood.
1Everything Is Bonzer!
Michael prevents the deaths of Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason, hoping a second chance at life will allow them to become better people.
2The Brainy Bunch
Michael is forced to take drastic measures when his grand scheme hits a snag.
3The Snowplow
An announcement from someone in the group threatens to tear them apart.
4Jeremy Bearimy
The group explores the three main branches of ethical thought.
5The Ballad of Donkey Doug
Jason visits with some people from his past while Chidi gets help in resolving a problem.
6A Fractured Inheritance
Eleanor makes a startling discovery that tests her resolve, Tahani looks to make amends and Janet does some bonding.
7The Worst Possible Use of Free Will
Eleanor recalls some forgotten events from her past.
8Don't Let the Good Life Pass You By
Michael and Janet take an important journey. Eleanor ponders whether she should share a secret.
9Janet(s)
Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason are now in Janet's world, an endless void, made necessary when Shawn's minion demons came a calling out of his makeshift portal. It's up to her to protect them while Michael tries to get information on just how the points system works for Good Place/Bad Place separation from the former's accountant who assigns said points.
10The Book of Dougs
Michael's resolve is put to the test. Meanwhile, Jason wrestles with his feelings and Chidi surprises Eleanor.
11Chidi Sees the Time-Knife
Eleanor and the gang meet the judge at the crossroads of all dimensions, time and space to plead their case and Janet makes a reconnection.
12Pandemonium
Michael's crisis forces Eleanor to assume the title of the neighborhood architect. Tahani makes a discovery about the new humans.
