In the midseason premiere of The Good Place, the Soul Squad race to figure out a new afterlife system before the Judge "cancels" Earth and starts the clock on the universe all over again. Thanks to Chidi's newfound level of self-actualization (courtesy of having 800 lifetimes stuffed into his brain at once), he comes up with a new version of the afterlife that both the Good Place, the Bad Place, and the Judge manage to agree upon.
After learning in The Good Place season 3 that no one had actually gotten into the Good Place for hundreds of years, the Soul Squad figured out why the current afterlife points system is so flawed. The first problem is that the world has gotten so incredibly complicated that even supposedly good actions have many unintended negative consequences. The second problem is that the afterlife points system doesn't give humans a chance to continue improving after their death - something that Eleanor and her friends have proved is very possible.
The new afterlife system had to fix both of these problems, without creating any new problems, while also being palatable to Bad Place boss man Shawn. Oh, and Chidi only had about nine minutes to come up with the idea. So, how will the new afterlife work?
The new design for the afterlife isn't based around sending people straight to the Good Place and the Bad Place, but will instead be designed to test people and help them become the best possible versions of themselves. This is the opportunity that was (accidentally) given to Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason by Michael when he created the fake Good Place, and all of them managed to improve. In the new system - as Chidi explains to the Judge, Shawn, and Timothy Olyphant - the points total on Earth will serve as a baseline to "determine how hard or easy your test is."
Like the many reboots that Eleanor and the gang went through, the scenarios could be of any length. At the end of each test, the person will undergo an evaluation and then be rebooted in a new scenario with a vague memory of what they did right and wrong the last time around. The scenarios will be designed by a Good Place architect and a Bad Place architect, while rank-and-file demons will play the roles of humans in the test scenarios. The Bad Place as we know it will cease to exist, but it will be possible to ace the test - which will presumably be rewarded with a version of the Good Place.
The new afterlife sounds good in principal, but it does have some notable flaws. Whereas the old system was unfairly biased in favor of the Bad Place, the new system seems unfairly biased towards the Good Place. The entire system is geared towards making the subject a better person, and there's seemingly no fail state - only an infinite series of tests until the person finally passes with full marks. It's a pretty raw deal for the Bad Place demons, who will have to give up pouring lava down people's throats and flattening their penises, and instead be stuck designing tests or playing roles within the scenarios. If the demons aren't happy in their work (and we saw how much they hated being stuck playing roles in Michael's neighborhood) it could be a threat to the stability of the new afterlife.
Moreover, the kinder and gentler new afterlife might be more fair to the vast majority of humans (who are just sort of OK), but taking away the cruelty also means taking away punishment for people who were truly monstrous down on Earth. Under the new system, people like Adolf Hitler and Ted Bundy could end up in the Good Place. This isn't so much a structural flaw as it is an unpleasant tangle for fans of The Good Place to wrestle with: does everyone deserve an equal shot at redemption and self-improvement?
With four episodes of The Good Place left, we'll hopefully get to see the new afterlife system in action before the series ends. Maybe Chidi really has come up with the perfect solution... or maybe it could still blow up in their faces like a cannon full of puppies.
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