@hcolesmith95 When you really think about it, this solution means there are only two options for an aftermath: either you cease to exist or you are tortured for all of eternity. What about people who are suicidal? They wanted to die and are now being tortured? And they have no chance at truly dying until they pass the test?
I think a better solution would have been reincarnation. When you die, you go through the trials. If you pass, you get into the Good Place. You can have and do anything you want in the Good Place, but there will always be two doors available to you. One will end your existence permanently. The other will reincarnate you, putting you in a new life on Earth with no memory of your old one. When you die in your second life, the process repeats. Having the greatest things in life only matter if you have a life. Some people thrive on suffering, on being able to improve themselves, on being able to help others, etc. You can't do any of that in the Good Place because everything is perfect. So, the best thing to offer people is the chance to take away the perfection by living a new life. And after a few centuries, if people are tired of reincarnation, they can walk through the other door without regret...
@hcolesmith95 that was probably the best and most reasonably eloquent comment I've read during this final season of The Good Place. A show that used to be more than just "good" and is now seen every week dragging itself in the mud, just like a wounded horse waiting to be put out of its misery with a shot in the head.
Review by filmboicoleBlockedParentSpoilers2020-01-27T05:35:32Z
It's been almost four entire seasons for this show to finally stop mucking about and actually do something. Was a lot of it entertaining along the way? Absolutely. But that doesn't change the absolute muddiness of the journey. This episode represents everything that has been good and bad with this series: there are good jokes and interesting problems that arise from the naturally derived conflict. However, it is mired within an absolutely uneven pace that frequently makes solutions come out of nowhere and many of the jokes feel like they're too "pop-culture" for their own good (the whole "finally understand Twin Peaks" thing? Really? It's not really difficult to understand).
But what makes me the most frustrated is that the vast majority of the most interesting conflict that The Good Place has brought to the table has been truncated within the past two seasons. It's baffling that we spent two seasons stuck inside the bad place waiting for the protagonists to break out when the latter two seasons will show them on the lam and then coming up with a solution, only for the penultimate episode to show them getting to the Good Place finally only to realize that they need to fix it as well. Why could the final season not be about them trying to solve the problems of the Good Place? It's so uneven that I genuinely don't understand what the writers were thinking.
However, there's something very sweet about the resolution of this episode that has a nice beat to it. I like the suggestion of finality, but I don't necessarily agree with it. Underneath everything it suggests that good people should only be around good people and when they're too bored of each other then they might as well just die. It has a nice poetic ring to it within the context of the show, but from an outsider standpoint it feels like a bit of a cop out (not to mention like a double standard. If people like this then they need to re-evaluate their distaste of the LOST ending).
I don't know. I have been overwhelmingly lukewarm on this entire series and absolutely nothing about this final season has made me want to change my mind. Although this episode had a nice emotional beat to it, that doesn't change the fact that it was rushed, unearned, and confused within the logic of the world itself. Again I ask: WHAT YEAR IS IT ON EARTH? In this episode Patty said they like to keep things current but didn't the protagonists die like like a long time ago?