MovieChat Forums > The Good Place (2016) Discussion > Clues given to the audience (spoiler, ob...

Clues given to the audience (spoiler, obviously)

posted 8 years ago by inuimari
19 replies | jump to latest

What were some of the clues given to the audience that the four members weren't in the good place?

1) Tahani being miserable in the Good Place.
2) In What's My Motivation, it was revealed that Eleanor can't gain points if good deeds are done for selfish reasons. However, Tahani's flashback reveals that the main motivation behind her charity work was related to her conflict with her family members.
3) Compared to the supposed deeds of real Eleanor/Vicki, Chidi hasn't done many good deeds.
4) Clowns in Eleanor's house.
5) Tahani's focus group on why the residents don't like Eleanor. I thought it was really odd that the residents weren't trying to help Eleanor stay in the good place considering they were supposed to have done extraordinary "good" things while on Earth.

[–] thharlequin 8 years ago

Tahani as a whole was a big clue; I always thought that despite all the good she had done in life, all those back handed compliments and passive aggressive condescension towards Eleanor, all the bragging about her accomplishments and some of the vain remarks she made like "my hair is barely cascading down my shoulders" would never be made by a "good person". Because of all that I was half expecting a twist where she turned out to be a fraud like Eleanor and Jason.

other than that as a whole, there is also:

6) In episode 3 when Michael critiques Chidi's book and Chidi says he has a stomach ache, Michael covers his mouth with his fist to hide a tiny smirk.

7) Michael kicking that dog into the sun was a pretty big red flag on his true personality.

[–] rodman012003 8 years ago

Yeah, the whole time I'm watching the show I'm thinking these guys all seem like a bunch of a-holes actually. I was primarily watching it for the Eleanor/Chidi/Jason flashbacks which were all just hilarious. The reveal was great.

[–] SBL84 8 years ago

I did notice all of Chidi's flashbacks were based on his indecisiveness and ethical dilemmas, and that he annoyed his girlfriend and friends with those problems. But I figured that was just a result of the quirkiness of the point system, and that his good deeds/morality were greater than the people he annoyed.

[–] Ayababi 8 years ago

But a good point was made. What good deeds did he actually do? Okay, he was moral. But actions.

[–] babastooey 8 years ago

I thought that it was brilliant that the Good Place was set up as a points system. It made us believe that Tahani got in by the sheer volume of the things she did even though she didn't seem like a good person. It wasn't until the episode where we saw Eleanor's point total not move because the good things she did out of self-preservation where the whole logic on Tahani fell apart. The finale just confirmed it. Spacing these episodes apart helped us believe that just maybe Tahani should have been there. Seeing her name far down the list also helped.

[–] jwwalrath-227-85487 8 years ago

I think what played in the show writer's favor is that we'd attribute a lot of the inconsistencies as plotting errors. Let's be honest, it happens a lot in shows these days (looking at you Once Upon a Time.)

[–] jwwalrath-227-85487 8 years ago

8) Michael got fed up with Tahani a couple times.

9) Trevor was about to leave with Eleanor but didn't produce real Eleanor until Michael came. Trevor said he was going to hold onto real Eleanor till he got Fake Eleanor but let her go without a fight.

[–] inuimari 8 years ago

All good suggestions. Thanks for pointing out the ones I missed.

10) Not a clue per se but a foreshadowing. During the Eleanores, Chidi, and Trevor mix-date, the "fake" Elenore saying that her parents are probably in hell together torturing each other.

[–] Brooklyn329 8 years ago

I was thinking about that but my reference was the pilot, when Eleanor told Chidi that her parents were probably in the Bad Place and that the two of them being used to torture each other would be, according to Eleanor, effective.

[–] barkbarkwoof 8 years ago

For me kicking the dog and FROZEN YOGURT.

[–] CharlesTheBold 8 years ago

11) Michael telling Chidi that the book he devoted years of his life to was boring. Whether it was or not (and we now know that Michael doesn't care about ethics) it was a cruel remark to have made.

[–] thesnowleopard 8 years ago

Tahani being such a massively self-centered bitch was a huge red flag. Also, that everyone else in the neighborhood was basically some kind of Tahani clone in terms of being some rich, privileged person who bought their way into Heaven by giving to charity. And it seemed a tad odd that they were so cold and impatient toward Eleanor for people who supposedly had gotten saved by being kind and generous and giving. Either the show was being super-cynical in its world-building or something was really off about where they all were.

"Real" Eleanor's sob story was *way* over the top.

When Michael "admitted" that the "real" Jiyanu hadn't actually done anything good. He'd just taken a vow of silence and been a turnip his whole life. Come to think of it, that really mirrored Chidi's backstory in the end.

The clowns. Dear God, the clowns.

The yogurt thing always struck me as off. Why frozen yogurt? What's so heavenly about it? Why have a zillion flavors of it?

The Historical Meow http://thesnowleopard.net

[–] jman1982 8 years ago

Some good thoughts, but I don't really agree with 1 and 4 being good clues. Tahini being miserable was in large part because her "soul mate" was an impostor and thus was stunting her happiness (thus her happiness was a byproduct of a mistake in the formula and not necessarily intentional, so we were misled to believe anyways). The clowns in Eleanor's house weren't really a clue to me because believe it or not some people actually do like clowns (I know it's not easy to believe...) and it wasn't really her house to begin with (again so we were misled to believe).

[–] thesnowleopard 8 years ago

It wasn't that they were clowns. It was that they were creepy clowns.

The Historical Meow http://thesnowleopard.net

[–] thharlequin 8 years ago

Just realized something about Eleanor's apology party that make it obvious with hind sight that all the other inhabitants are plants from Michael's world:

11)After she apologizes to them all, a handful of people list things Eleanor did that they still don't like her for. If they were really "good people" they wouldn't hold grudges like that after two apologies.

12)Only pop culture illiterate types from were Michael comes from would never have heard the pobody's nerfect joke and laughed that hard.

[–] aliencat 8 years ago

One woman at the party mentioned that she fell into a turkey carcass due to a sinkhole caused by Eleanor. Even after Eleanor apologized, she was still upset and reminding Eleanor of it. Though a bit greasy, that's hardly horrific.

I also found the Good Place to be a bit dictatorial. What if you didn't want a soul mate but wanted to live alone? What if you didn't like frozen yogurt? What if you wanted to smoke?

And how could Michael make such stupid mistakes?

[–] vxxxjesterxxxv 8 years ago

The turkey carcass lady was a nod to one of the first episodes. It was when they did the flying lessons and the trash fell out of the sky. Michael me tinned there was 1 lady flying like 1000mph that flew straight into a turkey carcass and it just exploded everywhere. So if that was true, it's plenty reason to be mad... Lol

I think they did a good job hinting, but not giving the twist away. The biggest things I picked up on have been mentioned already. The largest would be Eleanor realizing she couldn't gain points for selfish reasons, but tahani being there despite all her good deeds being to spite her family.

[–] edgar1975 8 years ago

13) (a variation of 1) The four protagonists all felt miserable there. They didn't have time to enjoy anything because they were always worried about something.