The Good Place Season 4 Ending & The Final Door Explained

NBC’s feel-good afterlife comedy The Good Place has finally come to an end with the season 4 finale, “Whenever You’re Ready,” in which the Soul Squad all move on in different ways. The show has taken Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason to hell and back (literally), but by the time the credits roll for the last time they’ve all achieved their own version of cosmic peace – though not all in the same way.

Created by Michael Schur, The Good Place originally began with Eleanor dying and finding herself in an eternal paradise, apparently as the result of an afterlife clerical error. At the end of season 1 she figured out that the so-called “Good Place” was actually the Bad Place in disguise, and her stress-filled situation was really an innovative new form of torture. The following three seasons were mainly dedicated to Eleanor and her friends attempting to reach the real Good Place, which they finally did in the penultimate episode, “Patty.”

When the Good Place turned out to be filled with dull-minded zombies driven to utter boredom by being given everything they ever wanted, Eleanor added an addendum to the newly-designed afterlife. People would go through a series of tests to become their best possible selves, be rewarded with the Good Place and, when they’d done everything they could possibly want, be given the option of going through one final door. What lies beyond that door is a mystery, but it promises to be peaceful.

That’s where The Good Place season 4’s ending begins – with the Soul Squad left to spend however long they like in their revamped version of heaven. And one by one, they each decide to move on.

Chidi, Jason and Eleanor Go Through the Final Door

The once-chronically indecisive Chidi is actually the first member of the Soul Squad to cross through to the other side, after an emotional farewell with Eleanor. Jason, who had supposedly gone through first, actually hung around the door for thousands of Jeremy Bearimys because he forgot to give a parting gift to Janet. When she finally returns with Chidi, Jason reveals that he has spent all of those Bearimys in quiet contemplation of the universe, before running through the door after Chidi. There’s a certain poetry to both endings: Chidi spent his last moments of consciousness in absolute certainty of what he wanted, and Jason ultimately did live the life of a Buddhist monk.

Eleanor takes longer to get ready for the final door, because she has some loose ends to tie up first. Eleanor’s whole character arc has been about learning to want to help other people, so it makes sense that helping other people is how she finally achieves fulfilment. First, she convinces Mindy St. Claire to leave the Medium Place and go through the new testing system so that she can make it to the Good Place. Eleanor sees Mindy as a “what if?” version of herself if she’d never met her friends, and feels that she can’t leave until she’s symbolically saved herself. However, that’s still not enough to push Eleanor through the door. What finally does it is figuring out a way to help Michael go through the door. More on that later.

Tahani Becomes An Afterlife Architect

In between Jason getting dropped off at the final door and Chidi walking through it, Tahani decides that she’s achieved everything she needed to in the afterlife. She and her sister, Kamilah, are reunited with their parents in the Good Place. Having gone through the testing process, the Al-Jamils now understand how terribly they treated their daughters, and are endlessly apologetic and loving. Tahani’s desperation for love from her parents is the one thing that has held her back (and fueled her endless approval-seeking), and once she receives it and spends a few Bearimys enjoying it, she realizes there’s nothing else the Good Place can offer her.

Instead of going through the door, however, Tahani decides to stay behind and train as an architect for the afterlife. Since arriving in the Good Place she has spent her time studiously learning how to do things the hard way – everything from cooking to woodworking. Fittingly, then, Tahani’s eternal afterlife is also about working hard and earning what she gets, which she never had to do on Earth.

Why Michael Becomes Human

As mentioned, Eleanor has one final person to help before she can go through the door herself: Michael. Once the afterlife is up and running smoothly, the afterlife council is disbanded, leaving Michael at a loose end. He tries to go through the final door himself, but it was built for humans rather than demonic fire squids, so it doesn’t work. Eleanor comes up with a solution and puts it to the Judge, proposing that Michael be turned into a human and allowed to go and live on Earth to live a human life. Once he dies, he will go through the system and be tested, and then finally got a chance to experience the Good Place and go through the final door.

As with the other characters, Michael’s decision to become human is the natural conclusion of his character arc over the past four seasons. Even as a demon, Michael was obsessed with humans and what makes them tick, and one of his happiest moments in the show was when the Soul Squad declared him an “honorary human” and gave him a box full of useless human items. Michael’s character arc throughout the series is symbolized in the finale by his struggle to teach himself how to play the guitar. It’s only when he becomes human, returns to Earth, and actually gets guitar lessons from a human (in a surprise cameo by Mary Steenburgen) that he can finally start to learn – in the same way he’s learned everything else from Eleanor and the gang.

What Happens When People Go Through the Final Door

The question of what happens when people go through the final door is supposed to be a mystery, but The Good Place‘s ending actually provides a fairly clear answer. As she spends her final night with Chidi, Eleanor asks him to share some comforting wisdom with her, and Chidi eschews his former favorites like Kant, instead turning to Buddhist philosophy. He asks her to picture a wave breaking on the shore. Even though the wave is coming to an end, Chidi explains, the water that the wave was made up of still exists. This is an old Buddhist metaphor, as articulated by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh in his book The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching:

“When we look at the ocean, we see that each wave has a beginning and an end. A wave can be compared with other waves, and we can call it more or less beautiful, higher or lower, longer lasting or less long lasting. But if we look more deeply, we see that a wave is made of water. While living the life of a wave, the wave also lives the life of water. It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water. It would think, ‘Some day I will have to die. This period of time is my life span, and when I arrive at the shore, I will return to nonbeing.’

“These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish. A wave can be recognized by signs – beginning or ending, high or low, beautiful or ugly. In the world of the wave, the world of relative truth, the wave feels happy as she swells, and she feels sad as she falls. She may think, ‘I am high!’ or ‘I am low!’ and develop superiority or inferiority complexes, but in the world of the water there are no signs, and when the wave touches her true nature – which is water – all of her complexes will cease, and she will transcend birth and death.”

Put simply, each person who goes through the final door is like a wave breaking on the shore. The wave ceases to exist, but the wave was only ever a temporary form for the water to begin with. The moment of sudden peace and readiness that first Chidi, then Jason, and finally Eleanor experience is analogous to the moment at which “the wave touches her true nature;” they aren’t afraid to “die” by going through the door, because they realize that it’s not really the end.

The Good Place does offer a glimpse into what form the “water” might take after Eleanor walks through the door. Particles of light float away and then descend onto Earth, where one touches the shoulder of a man and inspires him to do the right thing instead of the selfish thing, in delivering a misaddressed letter rather than throwing it away. The recipient of the letter is none other than Michael, who is delighted to have received it. It’s an overt echo of a scene from season 3, in which Eleanor finds a lost wallet and decides to return it to its owner. As in that scene, the act of kindness makes two people happy: Michael, for having received his letter; and the man who delivers it, whose day is made better by Michael’s effusive happiness.

In essence, the form that Eleanor takes after passing through the door is that of the little voice in her head that tells her to do the right thing – only this time, she’s a voice in someone else’s head. By becoming the best possible version of herself and then returning to the universe, she’s infused the universe with just a little more goodness. And that goodness ultimately allows Michael to fulfil the dream of a lifetime that has lasted a million Jeremy Bearimys: telling someone to “take it sleazy.”

About The Author

Hannah Shaw-Williams
(3313 Articles Published)

Hannah has been with Screen Rant since 2013, covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more! You can follow her on Twitter @HSW3K

See also  10 Best Rom-Coms Of The Past 10 Years For Fans Of When Harry Met Sally

More From Hannah Shaw-Williams