The Good Place – Whenever You’re Ready

By starrymag | February 5, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

 

Michael (Ted Danson) is working on yet another project, but not the kind he’s used to. He’s on attempt 803 on his quest to learn songwriting and playing the guitar. Janet (D’Arcy Carden) offers to give him a guitar that can already play the notes, but he says he wants to learn stuff without afterlife magic. 

 

Chidi (William Jackson Harper) teaches Afterlife Ethics 101, in which some of his students are famous philosophers. Most definitely Chidi’s dream came true!

 

At the Joint Council of Afterlife Affairs the Judge (Maya Rudolph), Vicky (Tiya Sircar), Shawn (Marc Evan Jackson), Chidi, Michael and Janet all meet to talk about the system. Naturally, Shawn doesn’t like the new system and still thinks they should go back to the old one. 

 

As Jeremy Bearimys go on Jason (Manny Jacinto) realizes he’s ready to leave and go through the entrance where he will cease to exist. He’s spent time with Janet and even played a perfect game of Madden alongside his father, Donkey Doug (Mitch Narito). He decides to tell the group by having them meet in a version of their old neighborhood. And in true Jason fashion, he throws an epic party before leaving where he not only DJs but holds a dance performance. Donkey Doug and Pillboi (Eugene Cordero) speak at Jason’s party in honor of him leaving. Not everyone is thrilled about him wanting to go. Naturally, Janet is sad that Jason is leaving but she knows that it’s time. 

 

Given that he’s the first of the group to want to leave, Chidi is curious as to how he knew. According to Jason, he felt very calm and just knew. But even knowing that he’s afraid Janet will forget him, so he made her a necklace with their first initials on it “J&J.” Once Jason and Janet arrive at the entrance, Jason realizes that he lost the necklace and is heartbroken he can’t give it to Janet. But she reassures him that she will never forget him. 

 

Tahani (Jameela Jamil) is the next to figure out what she wants in this new afterlife. She has a bucket list of things she wants to accomplish, one of which includes building things. Enter Nick Offerman who check outs one of the chairs she has built from scratch. While completing this list, Janet tells Tahani her parents Waqas (Ajay Mehta) and Manisha (Anna Khaja) have made it into The Good Place. 

 

Spending a memorable day with her parents was one of the final things Tahani wanted and now she too is ready to go. Before she officially leaves, Tahani tells Eleanor how much she admires her while Michael says he admires Tahani’s breadth and knowledge. This prompts Tahani to realize she doesn’t want to go but she doesn’t want to stay either. She wants to do what Michael does – design afterlives. Even though she’s human, she wants to be able to try at least. So, she becomes an intern in the design department and in her honor Micahel gives her his bowtie.

 

Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and Chidi spend their time in the afterlife with one another and getting dinner with their friends and family. They hang out with Eleanor’s friends Brittany (Meryl Hathaway) and Madison (Angela Trimbur) and Chidi’s friend Uzo (Keston John). With each passing moment’ however, Eleanor is starting to realize that Chidi is ready to go, too. She hopes Michael and Janet can help but Janet doesn’t really agree with Eleanor’s plan to make Chidi stick around. Nonetheless, Eleanor has Janet set up a trip to Athens for her and Chidi – a trip he absolutely adored when he went in college. 

 

When they finish their trip in Athens Eleanor pretends there is still another location they’re going to visit. Janet takes them to Paris – somewhere Chidi used to live. Chidi finally admits and shares with Eleanor that he’s ready to go, but she gets upset and asks him not to leave. She’s not ready to be alone. Seeing her distress, he says he’ll stick around, even though he feels that quiet in his soul. But seeing how sad Chidi is and how much it means to him to go, Eleanor admits she can’t find any justification to make him stay. She owes it to him to let him go so they spend one more night together. All Eleanor asks of him is that when he leaves the next morning he does without waking her up and says goodbye to her before bed. Luckily for Eleanor, he leaves behind a Jeremy Bearimy calendar filled with a different pictures of him. 

 

When Janet goes to drop Chidi off she finds Jason still lurking about. He never walked through the entrance because he found the necklace and wanted to give it to her. 

 

As everyone is starting to leave, Michael starts to feel like he’s not very useful. He’s made the perfect neighborhood and done pretty much everything he can do. But the Judge reassures him that his system is working perfectly and won’t let him change anything. 

 

While watching the video of her and Chidi in bed that Mindy St. Claire (Maribeth Monroe) made, Eleanor feels like she might have found some purpose – to convince Mindy to take the test for The Good Place. We catch a quick glimpse of Derek (Jason Mantzoukas) who is now a weird space version of himself after being rebooted so many times. With some hesitation, Mindy goes with Eleanor to speak to Tahani who promises that once she is certified she will design Mindy’s test. 

 

At this point Eleanor think she’s ready to walk through the door but she’s not. And when Michael tries to right after her, he learns he actually can’t. It’s frustrating for him because he doesn’t have anything else he wants to do. Eleanor decides to help him out by talking to the Judge about letting Janet turn Michael into a human. She reluctantly agrees to let Michael become a human and live on Earth. When he dies, he’ll get to go through the system like anyone else. While saying goodbye, Janet is overwhelmed with emotion and makes sure Michael is all set up on Earth. 

 

Eleanor is finally ready to go through but wants to sit down with Janet before she does. She wants to know Janet’s favorite moments with the group during her “not life.” She says when Eleanor suggested they help other people on Earth, when they first arrived at The Good Place and every time she kissed Jason. 

 

Naturally, Janet is wondering how Michael is doing but Eleanor eloquently describes that he will be doing what every human is–he’ll have good days, bad days, spend time with friends, learn how to do things, ask for help, and mess up. 

 

As Eleanor walks through, she transforms into specks which travel onto Earth and land on a man named Ken (Kurt Braunohler). He finds Michael’s mail in his and is about to throw it away. The specks, a/k/a Eleanor, convince him otherwise. When Ken delivers the mail to Michael we see that it’s a rewards card for Coyote Joe’s Marketplace addressed to Michael Realman. 

 

Something about Eleanor’s presence (even as specks) makes this moment special. So, as he thanks Ken for doing what he did, he tells him to “Take it sleazy”–just as Eleanor would have.