‘The Good Place’ Season 3 Recap: Everything You Need to Know Before Watching Season 4
Although NBC’s The Good Place is one of our favorite comedies, we still don’t quite remember what last happened to Eleanor (Kristen Bell), Michael (Ted Danson), and all of the soul searchers since the season finale was so forking long ago.
We know its probably going to be reboot number 4,762 but let’s take a closer look at what happened in season 3 just to be sure we are ready for the final season.
What is ‘The Good Place’ about?
When the series began, Eleanor found herself in a Heaven-like afterlife called The Good Place, which was actually The Bad Place. She was afraid someone would find out that she was not actually a good person on Earth, so she asked her soulmate, Chidi (William Jackson Harper) to help her become a better person.
Michael, the creator of the simulated town was actually a demon who was tasked with torturing the people who did not earn enough good points on Earth. He chose these four humans in the hopes that they would drive each other crazy — which they do, a little bit.
To Michael’s dismay, Chidi ended up teaching Eleanor and the other two soulmates — Jason (Manny Jacinto) and Tahani (Jameela Jamil) — ethics and what it means to actually be a good person. Michael ends up rebooting the town thousands of times in the hopes that he will be able to torture the humans appropriately, but it never works.
The two pairs of soulmates always ended up finding out that they were in The Bad Place and, in many scenarios, they traveled to The Medium Place. They became better people along the way and tried desperately to escape the hell-like afterlife in season 2.
Season 3 of ‘The Good Place’ determined that living on Earth is awful
In the most recent season, Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason were given a chance to return to their lives on Earth and attempted to earn enough good points to get them into the actual Good Place.
During their time on Earth, Michael and Janet (D’Arcy Carden) interfered in the humans’ lives countless times to ensure that they met each other. The governing body of the after-life found out about the interference and informed the group that they will never be allowed in The Good Place. The four pledged to dedicate the rest of their human lives to helping others earn their way into The Good Place.
As the season went on, Michael and Janet discovered that it had been 521 years since anyone had been allowed into the actual Good Place. They appealed to Judge Gen (Maya Rudolph) and explained that since all good deeds have unintended bad consequences, no one will ever earn enough points.
Gen visited Earth herself to see what Michael was talking about and returned to the after-life with the stark realization that being a human on Earth isn’t so great. They even called out Chick-Fil-A with a back-handed compliment, “There’s this chicken sandwich that if you eat it, it means you hate gay people — and it’s so good.”
Judge Gen agreed to let Michael create a new simulated neighborhood in The Medium Place to determine if humans can actually become better people if external factors are removed.
Season 4 of ‘The Good Place’ will continue The Medium Place experiment
In the season 3 finale of The Good Place, four new deceased human test subjects are chosen by the Bad Place to be apart of the new experiment.
The four original characters will remain in place to help guide the new humans into becoming better people. The only catch is that The Bad Place chose subjects who will purposely make it more difficult for the original four to help them.
The first character was Simone (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) — Chidi’s ex-girlfriend on Earth — which sent Chidi into a panic. He insists that the group erase his memory so that he does not ruin the experiment.
The second new subject was a blogger who tormented Tahani on Earth. And, the other two new humans were not revealed, but likely will have a connection to Eleanor and Jason.
Michael also had a breakdown and was unable to fulfill his job as creator, so Eleanor takes over.
As we await the fourth and final season of The Good Place, fans can turn to Netflix to watch seasons 1 through 3. The new season will premiere on NBC on September 26, 2019.
