‘The Good Place’ Had the Best Ending of All Time

The Good Place deserves to be up there with the greatest TV shows of all time, and a big part of that is because of its absolutely heartrending ending—heartrending in a very good way, I must add.

All throughout The Good Place, the characters struggle with systems. The afterlife is unfair, and they need to fix it. They come up with an idea and present it to the Judge. Humans will be tested after they die, being rebooted as needed but retaining some trace memories to learn to be better people until they pass the test (if they ever do) and are admitted to the Good Place. And this proposal is accepted! Humankind is saved! But that’s not where the story ends.

The four central humans—Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason—are finally, finally admitted into the Good Place. But what they find is very different than what they expected. The residents of the Good Place are bored, lifeless zombies. Among these folks is the ancient philosopher Hypatia, a.k.a. “Patty,” and eternity in heaven has really messed her up.

“On paper, this is paradise. All your desires and needs are met. But it’s infinite. And when perfection goes on forever, you become this glassy-eyed mush person,” Patty explains. It’s clear what must be done: The people in the Good Place need to be allowed to leave. After all, what makes life (and now, afterlife) precious is the fact that it ends.

Our heroes come up with a way of allowing people to peacefully end their existence. Whenever they’re ready, they can walk through a door in a beautiful forest, and that’s it for them. They become one with the universe, and their time as an individual being is done. This act restores meaning to the Good Place at last.

But the story doesn’t end there, either.

The final episode of The Good Place, titled “Whenever You’re Ready,” deals with the final fates of all the main characters. It’s a beautiful, sad, joyous, magnificent finale, and it deserves to go down in history as one of the best things American television has ever produced. No, I’m not kidding.

All the main characters showcase in this episode just how much they’ve grown. Jason, who was previously an immature and reckless guy, spends a very long time in silent reflection contemplating the universe. Tahani, who was selfish, becomes an Architect of the afterlife and helps others. Chidi, who could never make decisions, decides to end his existence by going through the door (after a devastating farewell to his true love, Eleanor). And Eleanor, who was perhaps the worst out of all of them in the beginning, spends the longest time of all in the Good Place trying to help Medium Place resident Mindy St. Claire and the redeemed demon Michael. She helps Mindy take her first steps towards the Good Place and helps Michael become what he always wanted to be: a human who will eventually die.

Only then is Eleanor able to walk through the door and become one with the universe. When she does, she turns into little specks of light, and those lights drift to Earth. Then comes the powerful final scene of the show. A mailman is about to throw away a wrongly labeled letter when Eleanor’s light touches him, and he changes his mind. He does the right thing and takes the letter to the right person, who turns out to be Michael. Michael thanks the man profusely and signs off with Eleanor’s catchphrase: “Take it sleazy.”

The best parts of Eleanor—the best parts of everyone—live on in the universe. It’s a beautiful message and a perfect, perfect finale to a wonderful series. I cannot sing its praises enough. It’s not many shows that fundamentally change you as a person, but I think The Good Place did that for me.