The Good Place

S1 The Recap

E1: Everything Is Fine

Eleanor Shellstrop wakes up in an afterlife utopia called "The Good Place," where she is welcomed by her neighborhood architect Michael. Michael tells her she's in the Good Place and explains about it. Eleanor quickly asks if Michael is God in a sense.

Jokingly, he responds that he is at a low stage compared to the Ultimate Frog-God. The criteria for entry to The Good Place is based on doing good in the world, and only a very small percentage of people qualify. Michael praises Eleanor for being a lawyer who got innocent people off death row. Michael escorts her to a home designed with all of her preferences in mind, and where she can access memories from her life.

Everyone in the good place has a soul mate. Eleanor's is Chidi Anagonye, a Senegalese ethics professor.

However, Eleanor reveals to Chidi that all of Michael's information about her is wrong—the biography, memories, and house are someone else's. In reality, she was crass and uncaring. Eleanor made a living by knowingly selling a worthless supplement to the sick and elderly. Chidi experiences a moral crisis over whether or not to help Eleanor stay in the Good Place. Eleanor becomes frustrated and angry at a party hosted by her neighbors, soul mates Tahani Al-Jamil and Jason Mendoza.

The next morning, the neighborhood comes under attack by representations of elements from Eleanor's life and her misbehavior since she arrived in the good place. Eleanor and Chidi recognize that she doesn't belong there, and could be sent to the Bad Place. To avoid this, Eleanor asks Chidi to teach her how to be good.

E2: Flying

Eleanor avoids suspicion in the aftermath of the chaos, and Michael fears he has failed in his first big project. Tahani Al-Jamil organizes a clean up day, but anyone who volunteers will miss out on the opportunity to fly.

Chidi Anagonye agrees to teach Eleanor to be a good person, and requires her to volunteer. She does, but then hides the trash to go flying after all, causing a trash storm to occur; Chidi loses faith in her.

That night, Eleanor feels guilty and cleans the neighborhood herself; Chidi sees her and agrees to continue to help her.

A note is slipped under Eleanor's door, saying that she doesn't belong in The Good Place. Flashbacks to Eleanor's life show that she habitually shirked the responsibility of acting as a designated driver.

E3: Tahani Al-Jamil

Eleanor suspects Tahani of writing the note but ultimately accepts that Tahani is genuinely good and begins to form a real friendship with her, comforting her over her dissatisfaction with Jianyu's vow of silence.

Michael tries to get Chidi Anagonye to take up a hobby, but Chidi only wants to work on his ethics manuscript; after Michael admits that it is terribly written, he agrees to become Chidi's advisor.

Janet cycles through a series of bizarre personalities.

Michael recruits Eleanor to help investigate the problems in the neighborhood. Jianyu reveals that he wrote the note; he confronts Eleanor, speaking to reveal that he also doesn't belong in The Good Place.

In Eleanor's flashback, her boyfriend Andy makes a conscious effort to be good, but Eleanor concludes that being good is pointless and too much work in a world full of bad things.

E4: Jason Mendoza

Jianyu reveals to Eleanor that he doesn't belong in the Good Place either. He's really an amateur DJ and drug dealer from Jacksonville, Florida, called Jason Mendoza, who went along with Michael's suggestion that he was a Buddhist monk in order to avoid detection.