So who the heck actually ends up in the real Good Place?

Probably the people you would think that michael said didnt

Probably people who aren't pretentious like Tahani or head cases like Chidi. The neighborhood shouldn't be the "good place" or "bad place" but rather the place for people who aren't bad but are in some way a pain in the a** to those around them.

(this signature was absent on picture day)

But as we saw earlier, his minor flaws did have huge consequences on others, much in the same way that helping certain people often entails enabling a behavior which is ultimately detrimental to that person.

As a friend of mine puts it, there is a not so subtle difference between rigorous honesty and ridiculous honesty.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

Chidi wasn't a bad person, but he wasn't a *good* person, either. His indecisiveness hurt people and he was a cowardly lion about helping others. What he has in common with Eleanor, Jason and Tahani is that all four of them are intensely self-centered.

As for who gets into The Good Place, I'm guessing from what we saw that they are people who care about others and help them without having to be pushed or bullied into it. And some of them might well have done a whole lot of swearing along the way, since The Bad Place arbitrarily takes that ability away.

We also don't know if there's a redemptive element to The Bad Place or not. If there is, then The Bad Place is more like Purgatory than Hell.

The Historical Meow http://thesnowleopard.net

At the moment, we don't even have evidence The Good Place exists.

> If someone like Chidi - whose only flaw was excessive indecisiveness - can end up in the same level Bad Place as someone like Jason...what exactly are the standards for people getting into the Good Place?

Recall that we never really heard why Chidi was considered to be a good person. He was a learned scholar and seemed to care about his environment, but that's about it. And, for that matter, Jason didn't really seem like a bad guy. He was just dumb as a box of rocks.

> I understand Michael's project was experimental, but it just seems so riddled with flaws and contingencies and messing with people that weren't necessarily bad.

According to classic religion, everyone is full of sin. So, maybe there is no "good place;" only a bad place and everyone goes there. Sin is sin and there are no big sins and little sins. Everyone just goes to the bad place.

Think of the people you know that might be on the short list for going to the good place. Are any of them really perfectly good? Nope. They each have something they do or did that damns them to the bad place.

> I understand Michael's project was experimental, but it just seems so riddled with flaws and contingencies and messing with people that weren't necessarily bad.

Well, that's the breaks. The angels that rule the afterlife have to amuse themselves somehow.

--
What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?

I still suspect that this may be more of a purgatory situation than a necessarily permanent one. All of the four are flawed people, in varying degrees, but by no means evil. And all have shown themselves ready, willing, and even eager to learn to be better. That's significant. There's got to be a purpose to it, given that the elements herein are deliberate.

So I think they're here to earn their way to the real Good Place. That everyone, barring the worst of the worst, gets that chance.

I further suspect that Michael has no idea that this is what he's actually in charge of.

"Don't call me paranoid, it makes me paranoid!"

People who make the world a better place?

Chidi's crime, although his intentions were pure, was that he kept hurting the people who cared about him by being a spineless wimp and a terrible writer. The powers that be decided the world was a better place without him in it, which I could see. Sad, since he's a good guy who never meant to harm anyone.

Sort of the opposite of Tahini, who tried to hurt people with her charitable acts.