ShortList is supported by you, our amazing readers. When you click through the links on our site and make a purchase we may earn a commission. Learn more

Fans of ‘The Good Place’ have some big theories about how Season 2 will end

Could we be in for another big twist?

Fans of ‘The Good Place’ have some big theories about how Season 2 will end
Tom Victor
23 January 2018

Most TV shows with any sort of a fanbase will inspire enough predictions that someone ends up guessing what’s on the horizon.

If you hear about a big twist, at least a couple of people out there have probably suggested the exact same thing on internet messageboards – sometimes months earlier.

However, The Good Place has long been the exception to the rule, with just one person anticipating the Season 1 twist and no one seeming to buy into their theory at the time.

Has that stopped people chiming in with thoughts about how the second season will end? Of course not.

The Good Place will definitely return for a third season once the current one is over and done with, and plenty of fans think we’re due another big twist akin to the ‘Michael’s Gambit’ episode before then.

Here are the best theories we’ve discovered on Reddit. If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t like reading fan theories just in case they end up being true, look away now.

However, if you’re of the ‘I want to read the theories in case they seem plausible’ school of thought, carry on…

The cast having a great, great time

The Good Place and The Bad Place are fake

Right, we already know the Good Place of Season 1 is an artificial creation, designed by Michael to test its inhabitants, but what of the fabled Bad Place?

Could it be that this – which, remember, we have no actual evidence of outside explanations from those with a vested interest in keeping Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason ‘living’ in fear – is also non-existent?

Redditor RevengeWalrus thinks so, arguing: “The whole Good Place/Bad Place arrangement is an illusion.

“In reality, people who have died but are ‘morally compromised’ are grouped together and put in a situation where they must teach each other how to become good people. They learn to correct each other’s flaws and become people who deserve eternal happiness.”

Those humans… aren’t actually humans

Looking back to the season one finale, Eleanor is the one who determines they are all in the Bad Place, overriding suggestions from others in the process.

Could it be that, while she is a human being tested and her arc is consistent with this, the same is not true of Chidi, Tahani and Jason?

As per stephmtl’s suggestion, “Chidi, Tahani, and Jason are demons with implanted memories. They Represent Eleanor’s Superego, Ego and ID. They volunteered to go through this so Eleanor would have foils to bounce against and learn how to be a better person.

“Once she’s fully ‘good-i-fied’ the curtain drops and everyone congratulates Michael on a bold new strategy to help humans become their best selves and move on to the Good Place…”

It’s all a dream

Look, it’s hardly the most original idea, but – as CloneSix notes – the Wizard of Oz references in the episode ‘Best Self’ surely weren’t for nothing.

That episode features a hot air balloon, an emerald city, and even Dr Oz, so we know all of that is hardly a coincidence, but CloneSix thinks there’s more to it:

“With all the allusions to Wizard of Oz, though, I’m wondering if Eleanor merely got knocked into a coma-like state and all of this is happening in her brain.

“I realize this is the most cheap fan theory in the world, BUT in this case the show is sending us massive clues - especially with lots of Wizard of Oz references. In this show’s case, they can point back to how much they were warning us it was all a dream so it won’t seem cheap when Eleanor wakes up and, well, tries to live a better life.”

A happy medium

Towards the end of Season 1, we saw the main characters discover the Medium Place and Mindy St Claire. While hardly paradise, it’s somewhere we’ve seen brought up as a potential destination by the characters themselves in more recent episodes.

But why would they settle for a Medium Place when a real, genuine Good Place is in the equation? LaddingtonBear8 has a theory:

“I think they’ll get to the real Good Place and for some reason decide they don’t like it, so Season 3 will be spent trying to get their own medium place.”

(Images: Vivian Zink/NBC/Rex)