The Good Place creator Mike Shur has answered the question that fans have been fighting over since season two ended on that cliff-hanger.
He revealed the truth about the final episode, which saw your favourite characters ‘return’ to Earth.
Season two saw reformed-garbage-human Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) fight for a spot in the real Good Place, alongside her loyal companions, Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil) and Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto).
The second season ended on a crushing cliff-hanger when the four friends met inter-dimensional judge Gen (played expertly by Maya Rudolph), who has the ability to seal their eternal fate in the real Good Place.
Judge Hydrogen sent Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason back to Earth where, instead of dying, they suffered a ‘near-death experience’ and lost all memory of their experiences in the afterlife. The aim of this little experiment was to see if they could become good people, for real.
Many fans wondered if the big ‘return to Earth’ episode was simply another simulation for the characters. After all, we’ve been tricked before!
Well, Michael, whose genius mind has also brought fans Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation, recently spoke about the ending with Rolling Stone.
“Normally I don’t like to just flatly state what’s going on, but here I don’t see the benefit of people experiencing ambiguity: The four of them are straight-up back on Earth, in a new timeline where they didn’t die,” Shur confirms.
“A lot of the progress they have made as people has been sort of theoretical… it seemed like a natural move to send them back to a time before they made that progress, and to use the idea of nearly dying to test their ability to improve.”
Mike also confirms that returning the four humans to Earth was what Michael (Ted Danson) and Judge Jen were debating in the opening of the finale.
“Yes – Michael gets the idea, she immediately understands what he’s hinting at and is reticent to do it because it means changing the timeline on Earth.
“That’s why he says, ‘It’s only four people!’ Like, ‘Eh, in terms of timeline-changing, it’s not that big a deal’.”
Well, we guess that settles that!
When The Good Place returns, Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason will all be back in the ‘real world’ on Earth. Here’s hoping they manage to become better people for the second (more like 800th) time.
The Good Place season three is set to air on Netflix in Australia later this year, with season one and two currently available to watch on the streaming service.
