OOC: Entranceway App

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Name: Kelsey
DW username: eise
E-Mail: rpdina(at)gmail(dot)com
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Character Name:Eleanor Shellstrop
Series: The Good Place
Timeline: Season 2 finale, just as Michael enacts his plan for the humans | 4/15 Canon Update: End of S03E06, after confronting her mom and finding out she and Chidi had a romance
Canon Resource Link: Link
Character History:

Eleanor Shellstrop's life was full of tons of stories. But this one doesn't start until after that life is over.

In an instant, Eleanor awakens and is invited into an office by an older gentleman in a bowtie. He introduces himself as Michael, the architect of the place she's found herself in. He informs Eleanor she has died, and reveals that she's made it to the "Good Place". Eleanor is understandably relieved, and happily begins her tour of the afterlife.

It turns out the Good Place is essentially a small, picturesque town referred to as a Neighborhood. It's populated by about 200 people, all of whom qualified for the Good Place by scoring points during their life. It turns out all actions a person takes are assigned either positive or negative points, and humans are judged and sorted in the afterlife based on their accumulated totals. Getting into the Good Place is very difficult, and everyone who doesn't get in is tortured for eternity in the Bad Place. It also turns out that every person has a perfect soulmate, and that that soulmate is in the Neighborhood waiting for them.

Michael brings Eleanor to her new home-- a small, modern place with plenty of clown portraits. It also has a giant screen from which Eleanor can relive all of her humanitarian efforts from throughout her time on Earth. As Eleanor is taking this in, a man walks in and introduces himself as Chidi, Eleanor's soulmate. Michael leaves them to get acquainted. Eleanor takes advantage of this time alone to confirm that Chidi will always be on her side, and having done so, drops a bombshell:

She isn't supposed to be in the Good Place. The volunteer work playing on that screen aren't her memories, she hates modern architecture and clowns, and she was kind of a dirtbag in her life.

Chidi, a moral philosophy professor, is horrified, and becomes further horrified as Eleanor admits that her most recent job was knowingly selling fake supplements to sick and elderly people. Eleanor asks Chidi to help her stay in the Good Place, since she didn't earn her way in. He summons Janet, the woman representing the Neighborhood's database and who helps to maintain it, and asks about the Bad Place. From the sounds of agonized screaming Janet plays, it sounds like the Bad Place is...pretty bad.

That night, Eleanor's neighbor Tahani is throwing a welcome party at her mansion, and Chidi and Eleanor attend together. Over the course of the night, Eleanor gets so annoyed by all the perfect people talking about how good they were during their lives and how much better they are than her and she gets super smashed, eats all the shrimp, and calls Tahani a giraffe. She does briefly talk to Chidi about whether anyone might miss her now that she's dead, but largely she's just kind of an asshole the whole night.

The next morning, the Neighborhood is in chaos. Giant shrimp fly through the sky, giraffes are on the rampage, and everyone's wearing awful yellow and blue stripes...except Eleanor. Chidi and Eleanor quickly put it together that Eleanor's presence has disrupted the nature of the Good Place.

Michael gathers everyone and tries to distract them with getting the chance to fly, but Tahani volunteers to put together a group to clean up the now destroyed neighborhood-- and Chidi volunteers himself and Eleanor. Chidi argues that if Eleanor wants to prove she's good enough to stay in the Good Place, she should be able to avoid the temptation of flying and do cleanup duty. And she does pretty good! Until the last call goes out and she dumps her garbage and runs over to the flying booth...which makes garbage start raining from the sky. Chidi concludes that she's too selfish and there's no point in trying to help her.

That night, Eleanor reflects back on her life of choosing herself over others-- including several incidents where she avoided or otherwise rigged a designated driver system in a group of coworkers so she never had to stay sober --and heads out to clean up garbage. Chidi finds her and asks if she's doing it because she feels bad for what she'd done. Which...is part of the truth, since she also wanted to prank people with the garbage, but still. Chidi agrees to help Eleanor learn to be a better person by teaching her about ethics and morals.

Which is great! Except someone slides a note saying "You don't belong here" under her door.

The next day, Tahani comes by with a housewarming present in the form of a small tree. Eleanor accuses Tahani of being the person who wrote the note (and of being a nice person for SOME REASON). As Eleanor speaks badly of Tahani, the housewarming tree beings to wilt. Chidi suggests the two things are connected, but Eleanor isn't convinced-- or maybe just doesn't care.

Eleanor tags along with Tahani on her tour of welcoming people to the Neighborhood with the intent of exposing her of being a horrible person who writes dumb stupid notes. But she just learns that Tahani is beautiful sexyhot, an accomplished philanthropist, a talented cook, and a thoughtful neighbor. Eleanor, in comparison, once insisted on continuing to go to a coffee place run by a sexist pig because who does her boyfriend think he is, boycotting the place? Does he think he's better than her?! Whatever, she's stealing Tahani's diary to match the handwriting to the note and learn about all the bad shit she's done in her life!

But of forking course, Chidi points out that 1) stealing is bad and 2) it's more likely that Eleanor probably manifested the note out of her own guilt. Which...yeah. Eleanor admits she feels insecure around good people like Tahani. For his part, Chidi admits he might not know what he's talking about given his life's work was an unreadable mess of a book on moral philosophy, but Eleanor disagrees and insists that putting that much work in says something in and of itself.

Ultimately, Eleanor's efforts to find something about Tahani that is less than perfect do work out, sorta. Despite her giant house and the fact that the entire Neighborhood loves her, Tahani is distressed about her soulmate Jianyu. Jianyu is a monk who's continued his vow of silence in the Good Place, and Tahani's socialite nature makes this match torturous for her. She admits that she doesn't feel like she fully belongs and Eleanor, taking pity on her, comforts her and suggests that Tahani and Jianyu have all of eternity to get to know each other. Tahani pays Eleanor back by suggesting she be Michael's assistant in the Neighborhood, which Eleanor has little choice but to accept.

When Eleanor returns home, Chidi praises her for having learned something-- the tree has not only recovered but fully bloomed from Eleanor's kindness towards Tahani --and Eleanor praises Chidi's teaching. But then another note arrives, and Eleanor goes to meet the writer-- who turns out to be Jianyu.

Jianyu is actually Jason, another person who doesn't truly belong in the Good Place. He's a complete moron who only managed to go under the radar by taking advantage of his supposed "vow of silence", and he only figured out that Eleanor also doesn't belong because she drunkenly told him so at the party on the first night. After they talk, Jason decides he misses being himself and gives himself away to Chidi. Chidi and Eleanor try to convince Jason to continue to pretend he's Jianyu, but at a dinner that night Jason tries to tell a true story from his life. In an attempt to make a distraction, Eleanor destroys a fancy cake-- which makes a sinkhole appear in the middle of the restaurant. Not the ideal outcome, but Chidi invites Jason to ethics lessons, and Eleanor shouts at him for being stupid when he refuses. Which apparently works, because he shows up to the lesson the next day, and Eleanor tells him she's proud of him.

All the lessons apparently begin to have an impact, because Eleanor has a breakthrough-- she lets someone else go first while she decides on a frozen yogurt flavor. She's so excited by this that she runs home to tell Chidi right away, and then (after momentary reluctance) even returns to get the frozen yogurt she forgot to get for them.

Eleanor's brain is actually getting super horny for learning and spending time with Chidi...to the point that Chidi's begun to tire of all the lessons and Eleanor Time TM and how they take time away from his own chance at experiencing paradise. Eleanor suggests that if spending time with her and teaching her is SO AWFUL, he should just move out!!!!

And that's when Michael quarantines everyone and puts the Neighborhood offline.

Days later, Eleanor and Chidi are at each others' throats when Michael barges in and asks them to house two people who've been displaced by the sinkhole-- one of whom is a marriage counselor and one of whom is an expert on identity theft. They immediately pick up on the conflict between Eleanor and Chidi, but Eleanor suspects they just want to swing and hey maybe that'd keep them from asking questions? Chidi refuses, of course. Prude.

But in the course of things, it comes out that Chidi's not just exhausted by helping Eleanor-- he's also saddened at the reality that he might never get a real soulmate. Feeling bad, Eleanor arranges a day off for Chidi and gives him a "Fork Off, Eleanor" card to call on whenever it all gets to be too much. At the same time, the sinkhole spontaneously closes up, and Michael tells Eleanor that they have to figure out what's been causing all the glitches.

This absolutely sucks, since Eleanor's the cause of all the glitches, but Chidi insists that because Eleanor has agreed to be Michael's assistant, she should keep her promise to help him. Eleanor concludes that the best course of action is to find a way to both help and not help Michael figure out the glitches. This turns out to be a good approach, because the stress is clearly getting to Michael given he's taken to interrogating individual rocks. Eleanor takes Michael out to get his mind off things and gets to know his weird, human-obsessed side.

Michael realizes that a quintessential aspect of being human is that sometimes humans focus on how to have the most fun possible, which reminds Eleanor of the time she left a friend's dog an entire bag of dog food rather than dogsitting him for real because she wanted to go to a Rihanna concert. He also reveals that architects like him don't usually stay in their Neighborhoods after they are set up.

All the fun makes Michael realize that human spontaneity is what could be causing the glitches-- meaning that one of the residents is the cause. They begin narrowing down the list of possibilities. But that quickly becomes impossible and Michael becomes depressed. Eleanor can't help but comfort him and reassure him that she'll be by his side as he figures out what's going on. Michael has a breakthrough and calls a Neighborhood meeting. Eleanor believes she's been found out, but instead Michael announces that he is the cause of the glitches.

Michael goes on to explain that this means he will have to leave and Retire. At first this seems like a perfect solution, as Michael will get to retire peacefully and Eleanor gets to stay in the Good Place. Chidi disagrees and says that this doesn't make up for the lying and deception they've been carrying out, but Eleanor ignores him...until it turns out that Retirement for Michael's kind means being tortured for all eternity on the face of a sun.

Obviously, Eleanor has to find a way to stop Michael's Retirement without outing herself. And obviously the best way to do this is to prevent him from leaving. And since Janet has to drive the train that allows Michael to leave, obviously the best way to save Michael from Retirement is to kill Janet.

Or. Shut her off. Whatever.

Of course Chidi's all "but that's murder and that's a big moral no-no" even as Janet insists she isn't human and can't feel pain, although she will beg for her life as a failsafe. Neither Chidi nor Eleanor have the stomach for Janet's very realistic begging, but in his efforts to stop Jason from pressing the button that kills Janet, Chidi accidentally hits the button anyway.

Thankfully, Janet actually just resets and needs to reboot her memory, and double extra thankfully, her memory's been wiped so she doesn't know who killed her! Unthankfully, Chidi insists he has to confess the truth, but given his promise to help Eleanor he'll try to ignore how much he hates to lie. Eleanor can see how much this stresses him out, and at the next Neighborhood meeting, she confesses to everyone that she does not belong in the Good Place.

Michael gives Eleanor a test to see if Eleanor was fundamentally good or bad in life, and she actually does okay! But Michael needs to know who killed Janet, and says that whoever did it could be going to the Bad Place. Eleanor refuses to tell him, and even starts quoting Kant as she tries to figure out how they should avoid getting Chidi in trouble.

Janet eventually manages to get Eleanor's file, which contains the highest scoring events in Eleanor's life, like how she would hang out with her cousin's daughter because her cousin was a mess. It also contains the story of how she secretly borrowed and ruined her roommate's dress, then profited on t-shirts mocking the roommate when she sued a dry cleaner. This story is the last straw, and Michael calls the Bad Place to come and pick Eleanor up.

As Eleanor is about to leave, Chidi tells Michael that the progress Eleanor has made proves she might be worthy of staying in the Good Place. At the last minute, Michael stops the train to the Bad Place, insisting that because this situation has never happened before that they have to sort everything out. Trevor, the demon from the Bad Place in return reveals that they had had the "Real" Eleanor the whole time. It turns out the two Eleanors died almost simultaneously in the same accident, hence the mix-up. Michael suggests some sort of deal with Trevor in order to allow Eleanor to stay.

Real Eleanor and Chidi immediately hit it off, and Chidi insists that he and the now "Fake" Eleanor never had a relationship beyond teacher/student. Whatever, though, not like Eleanor cares! She's gonna get drunk with a demon named Trevor! Trevor tells her that even though she will be tortured forever in the Bad Place, at least she'll finally belong. It's hard not to agree with him, even as Chidi says they're still a team-- and Eleanor realizes that, for once, she wants to be a part of that team.

When Trevor announces that Eleanor has decided to go to the Bad Place, Eleanor stops him. No, she doesn't belong in the Good Place-- but she wants to. Michael takes Eleanor's side and throws Trevor and the other demons out of the Good Place, but not before Trevor promises to get Shawn, the "Eternal Judge", involved.

Everyone bands together to build a case for Eleanor. As they discuss the progress she's made, Eleanor can't stop mentioning how much Chidi has helped her, and the others point out that she seems to have feelings for him. Eleanor protests, saying she finds Chidi annoying, but only manages to come up with things she finds endearing about him, which leads her to conclude she is in fact in love with Chidi. Eleanor confesses to Chidi that she wants to stay in the Good Place because she loves him-- only for Tahani to barge in, having recently discovered not only that Jason isn't Jianyu, but that all the nice things she'd thought he'd done for her were actually things Chidi had done. Tahani tells Chidi that she knows Chidi is in love with her, leaving Chidi suddenly in a love rectangle with both Eleanors and Tahani.

Tahani and Eleanor agree that it's up to Chidi to decide, and while Eleanor fully plans to be a sore winner if it comes to that, she admits that she wants to continue her weird friendship with Tahani regardless of the outcome. The two spend some time together watching TV, and Eleanor suggests they take their friendship to the next level-- hair braiding. As Eleanor is braiding Tahani's hair, she apologizes for not telling Tahani about Jason, and Tahani forgives her and suggests that, given the circumstances, it's possible that Jason is Eleanor's soulmate.

And then Janet arrives to announce that she and Jason are getting married. Eleanor and Tahani attend the ceremony and agree that they both dodged a bullet not ending up with the immature and moronic Jason. Still, Eleanor admits that she thinks if they'd all been friends on Earth, she might have really made it into the Good Place. Chidi arrives, ready to decide between the three women in his love rectangle, only to have both Eleanor and Tahani admit they had been overemotional and were wrong to assume they were his soulmate.

Tahani comes up with a plan to save Eleanor involving earning posthumous good points in the Good Place. It quickly becomes clear that the best way to do this is to somehow make things up to all the residents of the Neighborhood affected by the glitches Eleanor's presence caused. Eleanor realizes that the last time everyone was truly happy in the Good Place was at Tahani's party, and suggests they host a new party to start things over. Eleanor earns some points when she advises a stressed-out Chidi to stop worrying about whether he truly loves Real Eleanor as she loves him and accept that they are universe-approved soulmates, but the party has no affect at all. This is because all her apologies and good deeds were done out of self-preservation, not out of true goodness.

To fix this, Eleanor writes personalized apology notes to every member of the Neighborhood...and secretly plans to leave. This earns her a ton of points, but only because her true motivation has changed. Simultaneously, Jason and Janet also want to escape to avoid Janet being reset and possibly falling out of love with Jason. Janet reveals that there is a Medium Place, and that she can take the three of them there by train. A train arrives, but it turns out to belong to Shawn, the eternal judge. But that's cool, because Eleanor, Janet, and Jason just steal that one.

The three arrive in the Medium Place, which is inhabited by a single woman named Mindy. It's decidedly medium, and Eleanor is willing to make due with it rather than go to the Bad Place. Meanwhile, the others back in the Good Place have been arguing with Shawn for Eleanor's right to stay, and Shawn comes to a decision. Using Janet as a walkie-talkie, he announces to Eleanor and Jason that the two of them must return to the Neighborhood or Tahani and Chidi will be sent to the Bad Place in their stead.

Instantly, Eleanor prepares to return to the Good Place. Jason doesn't want to leave now that they're off the hook, but Eleanor explains how she's realized she doesn't want to be the nightmare she was in life anymore. Jason asks her how it was she became such a nightmare, and Eleanor tells him about her neglectful, unpleasant parents and how she emancipated herself from them as a teenager in order to stop having to support them. While her horrible parents are obviously a contributing factor in her own bad behavior, she says that she can no longer use it as an excuse.

The three return to the Good Place seconds too late. Shawn decides that all four deserve to go to the Bad Place, but the Bad Place is only expecting two, so it is up to them to decide which two go. Without hesitation, Eleanor says she and Jason should go as they truly don't belong, and she even manages to convince Jason of this fact, albeit reluctantly. Real Eleanor barges in and announces that since her soulmate Chidi doesn't love her, she'll go to the Bad Place, leaving only one other slot. Jason celebrates, immediately taking himself out of the running.

What ensues is general pandemonium, with all parties arguing to take the last slot for various reasons. It is as this argument consumes the group that something dawns on Eleanor. She announces she has a solution and summons Michael and Shawn back. All smiles, she tells them that she and Chidi will go to the Bad Place. Shawn refuses, saying that Jason should go instead of Chidi, but Eleanor points out that they were given the choice and this was the choice they made. She then explains what she's figured out.

They were never going to call the train to the Bad Place because this is the Bad Place.

Eleanor is right. Michael is infuriated, and explains how the Neighborhood was his new plan for torturing humans by having them torture each other. Everyone in the Neighborhood-- including "Real Eleanor", who is actually named Vicky --is an agent of the Bad Place, and the four humans are there for an eternity of agony and despair caused by their mismatched personalities. Eleanor points out that while they did torture each other, they also came together as a team and made each other better. This makes Michael realize that what he should do is spread them apart in the next iteration to achieve more of a slow burn.

Michael leaves to reset their memories for a second try, and Eleanor tells the others they need to plan. In her panic, the best she comes up with is to write a note and stuff it into Janet's mouth (since Janet cannot eat it). Michael returns, snaps his fingers, and instantly resets their memories.

Just like that, they begin again. Eleanor gets a new tour of the neighborhood and a new hot mailman soulmate. Janet delivers the note she found in her mouth to Eleanor, and it reads "Find Chidi". The first day in the "Good Place" ends with another party, wherein Eleanor manages not only to stay sober but to find Chidi. However, this time around Chidi is too distracted by the problems introduced by his new soulmate situation. Eventually, however, he realizes that the note Eleanor showed him was written in one of his moral philosophy books, and that this means that he was likely teaching her about moral philosophy.

It is Tahani who ruins this iteration of the party. This doesn't work for Michael's plan, as they cannot trigger a set of glitches for Tahani's mistakes as she believes she belongs in the Good Place. Overall, the plan is crumbling even more quickly than before, and Michael is actually relieved when Eleanor reveals she's figured out they aren't in the Good Place thanks to the note giving them clues. Knowing this was the problem, Michael resets the neighborhood again.

Except...that doesn't help. Michael and the demons send the humans through hundreds of slightly different iterations with different tortures and soulmates and conflicts, but every time they figure out that they're actually in the Bad Place. They go through 802 iterations, each failing to truly enact Michael's plan, before Michael's employees-- led by Vicky --go on strike.

Meanwhile, Eleanor and Chidi have begun their moral philosophy lessons anew...only to stumble on a striking demon out of his "human suit". Realizing this is the Bad Place, they get Janet to help them leave he neighborhood, and they arrive in the Medium Place-- apparently for something like the 15th time. Mindy tells them they always try to come up with a plan, but that obviously so far nothing has worked. Chidi becomes despondent at their constant failure and gives up, which irritates Eleanor. As she complains to Mindy about Chidi, Mindy tells her that she and Chidi love each other, and reveals a secret tape she made of them confessing they love each other during one of the times they visited in the past. This comes as a shock to Eleanor, as in this iteration she's only known Chidi for a couple days, but Mindy argues that in truth they've know each other for a long time. Eleanor announces they're going to go back to the "Good Place", and she keeps the tape.

Back in the "Good Place", Vicky blackmails Michael in exchange for getting to run the next reboot. Michael doesn't want to lose control of his project, and so asks the four humans to team up with him in order to defeat Vicky. He'll reboot the Neighborhood, but he won't reset their memories, allowing them to continue their moral philosophy lessons in secret. If they refuse to go along with the ruse, Vicky will figure it out and they'll end up going to the real Bad Place. To sweeten the deal, Michael claims he can get them into the real Good Place instead.

The others are each convinced that this is the best course of action rather quickly, but Eleanor isn't so sure, and tries to secretly escape to the Medium Place again. Chidi catches her and tries to convince her to do the right thing and become a better person, but she doesn't see how she owes them anything when they haven't known each other very long. Still, troubled by their obvious connection, she asks Michael how many times Chidi refused to help her, and he reveals that Chidi never refused no matter how Michael set the iterations up, and that no matter what, she did actually get better with Chidi's help. Eleanor decides to go along with the new plan because that's what Chidi would do (and is doing). She does, however, add another condition: that Michael has to take Chidi's lessons and become a better person too. Reluctantly, he agrees, bringing Janet along on their team as well.

Michael, being an immortal demon, has trouble understanding moral philosophy, and Chidi realizes this is due to his lack of an understanding of mortality. Chidi induces an existential crisis in Michael which causes Eleanor to reflect on her own contact with death during her life. She realizes that her awful parents made her less afraid of death, but instead made her long for the safe and loving family that she never had. She helps Michael recover from his crisis by explaining that ignoring the sadness of constant awareness of your own mortality just causes that sadness to leak out elsewhere.

In another lesson, Chidi introduces the Trolley Problem, which Michael fails to understand. In an effort to understand the problem better, Michael takes Chidi into a simulation of the Trolley Problem and similar thought experiments. Each distresses Chidi deeply, and Eleanor realizes that Michael is just torturing Chidi again.

Meanwhile, Jason and Tahani have started sleeping together, and Janet becomes their couple's counselor. Simultaneously, Janet begins glitching, and she tells Michael that if this continues the Neighborhood could collapse. Michael realizes that this is because Janet retains her feelings for Jason from the original iteration and is going against her programming by denying this. Janet suggests that the best solution is for Michael to kill her, but he cannot bring himself to do so, and instead seeks Eleanor's advice. Eleanor advises Janet to find a rebound relationship, which causes Janet to create a boyfriend named Derek.

When Eleanor finds out about Derek, she and Michael agree that they have to kill him in order to maintain their cover and keep Vicky from finding out about their ruse. Chidi, of course, is anti-murder. He says the only way they can justify it is to avoid the alternative of breaking up Jason and Tahani by telling them about Jason and Janet's past. Eleanor is pleased to find out that, in an instance like this where keeping a secret is the better than telling someone a truth that would cause them harm, the right thing to do is keep the secret-- as she has been keeping her knowledge of their previous romantic relationship a secret.

While the others are distracted by trying to deal with Derek and Janet, Jason and Tahani decide to get married. Eleanor interrupts the ceremony and reveals the truth about Janet and Jason's past, and suggests they all get rebooted to clear all their memories (mostly so she can forget what she knows about her and Chidi) but Michael says they've come too far.

Janet is distressed at not knowing why she's so upset. Eleanor takes her aside and tells her she gave her bad advice, as she hadn't realized that Janet had truly loved Jason and was experiencing true heartbreak, and the only solution is time and talking about your feelings, not having sex about your feelings. Eleanor offers to be the person Janet can talk to.

All this makes Eleanor realize she has to tell Chidi the truth, so she shows him the tape. She asks him if he has any similar feelings now, and he says he doesn't think he does. Covering for her own feelings, Eleanor says they're on the same page and ends the conversation.

Michael comes to ask Eleanor how she's been able to keep trying to become a better person in the "Good Place", given her tendency to give up or avoid problems in her life. She tells him that in life she had a "little voice" that would tell her when she was doing a bad thing, but she tended to just ignore it. Now that she's making an effort to become a better person and learn about ethics, doing the right thing is easier, and she doesn't hear the "little voice" anymore.

Shawn-- actually Michael's Bad Place boss --arrives and, thinking they are still on the first iteration, tells Michael he is getting a promotion and that this experiment is over, meaning the humans will be sent to the regular Bad Place to be tortured for all eternity. Michael summons the humans to his office and "reveals" they've been in the Bad Place all along.

The four humans debate what to do now that Michael has apparently betrayed them, but Eleanor wants to trust that Michael is still on their side, as Michael mentioned one of the philosophers Chidi had taught them about. Michael throws a roast of the humans for the amusement of the Bad Place demons, and that night as the demons party and destroy the Neighborhood, Eleanor realizes that the roast was full of clues to an escape plan. The four humans hide and trick the demons into thinking they've gone to the Medium Place, and that Vicky had helped them. The demons leave to catch the apparently escaped humans, leaving Michael and Janet behind.

Left in the now empty Neighborhood, Michael reveals that they cannot take a train to the Good Place, and instead has Janet construct a hot air balloon. The balloon is constructed to only allow beings that are the "best versions" of themselves on board. Initially, all but Chidi are able to board happily, but Eleanor is able to convince him that if they're all their best selves, it is only because Chidi has been the best teacher. Unfortunately, his anxiousness infects Eleanor instead, and she says she thinks her best version is the one who could easily admit she loved Chidi. As the humans debate how to solve this problem, Michael finally admits that the balloon is a fake and he doesn't know how to get them to the Good Place.

The humans, Michael, and Janet conclude that there's no avoiding going to the Bad Place, and have one last party. Later in the night, they discuss what going to the Bad Place will be like, and Tahani wonders if they could "speak to a manager" by going before the judge that decides on cases such as theirs. Michael says that in order to get to the judge they would have to pass through the offices of the Bad Place undetected and then somehow convince the judge they deserve to go to the Good Place after all. Eleanor points out they have very nothing to lose in trying this, so they board the train to the Bad Place.

Disguised as Bad Place demons, the humans are left in a museum in the Bad Place while Michael arranges for passes to get them to the judge. While the museum should have been empty, it is instead quickly filled with a party celebrating the success of Michael's project. The humans initially blend in fairly well, but are discovered when animatronics of them are unveiled. The four flee to the portal leading to the judge, and at the last moment Michael pushes Eleanor through without him, saying she has to keep an eye on the others.

The humans meet the Judge, who initially refuses to judge their cases as they did all earn their spots in the Bad Place. The humans argue for a chance to show their improvement, and the Judge gives them all a test. Eleanor asks that they all pass together or not at all, meaning that if any of them fail they will go to the Bad Place as a group. Eleanor enters her test and is told she and Chidi made it to the Good Place, but that Jason and Tahani have not, and the Judge gives them the chance to go back on their plan to pass/fail as a group. The two humans debate what they should do, with Chidi finally concluding that, ethics aside, maybe the two of them deserve to be together and happy for once. Eleanor summons the Judge and explains that she won't take the deal, and that the person she'd been talking to this whole time wasn't really Chidi-- as Chidi would never sacrifice his friends for his own happiness. The Judge tells Eleanor she's passed the test, but when the four regroup it turns out she is the only one who passed-- not that she lets the others know this. The four humans prepare to head to the Bad Place, only to be interrupted by Michael and Janet finally catching up with them.

Michael manages to convince the Judge that there might be a problem in the system overall, and that the humans all had the chance of qualifying for the Good Place had they received a "push" during their life. The Judge agrees to an experiment that might prove this.

What follows is either a legitimate return to life for Eleanor or a simulation of it a hard reset of the human's lives. At the moment when Eleanor would have been hit by a car and killed, she is instead saved (presumably by Michael). This shakes her, and she decides after this near-death experience to try and become a better person. She joins an environmental group with enthusiasm and even goes vegetarian. But when she admits to her roommate that she not only ruined her dress but made t-shirts mocking her, and is subsequently thrown out of her apartment, she loses her momentum. Deciding that trying to be a good person is too hard, she goes back to her old ways, and ends up drinking at a bar-- which turns out to be tended by Michael. Eleanor bemoans her failed attempt at being a good person, and Michael suggests that she consider "what we owe each other". Eleanor searches this phrase online and finds a lecture of Chidi's. Inspired, she flies to Australia, visits Chidi in his office, and asks to talk.

CANON UPDATE

Eleanor and Chidi talk and realize they both had near death experiences that caused them to change their behaviors and attempt to improve upon their individual fatal flaws. Chidi agrees to teach Eleanor moral philosophy, and teams up with a neuroscientist named Simone to start a study about how near death experiences affect people's brains and behavior. Eleanor sees that Chidi and Simone have chemistry and encourages Chidi to ask Simone out, and the two start dating, with Eleanor coaching Chidi on his indecision about the budding relationship.

Meanwhile, the study expands to include Jason, Tahani, and Trevor. The humans have no idea how Michael and Janet have been working behind the scenes, and definitely don't recognize Trevor as a demon sent from the Bad Place to disrupt Michael's experiment. Trevor immediately goes to work breaking the group up. He suggests Chidi shouldn't be friends with his study subjects, which drives him away, he encourages Jason and Tahani to hook up, and he just generally irritates Eleanor. With the group changed and Eleanor no longer getting the one-on-one attention she'd enjoyed from Chidi, she withdraws. With Simone's encouragement, Chidi finds Eleanor and asks her to come back to the study.

Behind-the-scenes, the Judge catches Michael, Janet, and Trevor interfering with the experiment. Michael and Janet manage to escape the Judge's wrath, but only just. They continue working to make sure the group can stay together, only for Tahani to decide to move to London with the fiancee they reconnected her with. Chidi decides this is a sign that he should get a new group of subjects, which Eleanor rebels against by acting out. Simone convinces Eleanor to chill out, and the group agrees to reunite once a year.

...And then the humans catch Michael and Janet openly discussing their plans and demand an explanation from the mysterious man who has interfered in all their lives. Michael and Janet come clean, revealing everything from the point the four humans orginally ended up in the Bad Place. Jason and Tahani react by giving away money to the "needy", Chidi has a mental breakdown, and Eleanor decides to give up on being a good person and go back to how she used to be. But after all the work she's done, she struggles to do so when faced with an actual moral dilemma. Instead of stealing a wallet, she goes to great lengths to return it. Realizing she can't go back to who she was, she convinces Chidi to come with her to Michael and Janet. The original crew reunited, Eleanor suggests they try to do good and get people into The Good Place, and the group agrees.

While Tahani, Michael, and Jason visit Jacksonville and attempt to improve Jason's father's life, Eleanor and Janet help Michael find a way to break up with Simone. When the breakup conversation goes poorly, Eleanor convinces Chidi to talk to her again, leaving them on more amicable terms. The team meets up again in Budapest to help Tahani reconcile with her sister, and in discussing family, Michael reveals that Eleanor's mother is not dead as she had believed.

Eleanor is incensed and demands Michael bring her to her mother for a confrontation. It turns out Eleanor's mom has been living a cozy suburban wife with a man and his daughter, and has been doing an admirable job of living well and being a good stepmom. Eleanor is skeptical of her mother's ability to live a truly good life, and admits to jealousy over not having this sort of upbringing when she was a child herself. She reveals her mother's stash of "running away" cash, only for the conversation to reveal that her mother has no interest in losing this life she's built, and for Eleanor to realize she is being selfish. The two reconcile, and Eleanor and Michael leave. In discussing Eleanor's difficulty with becoming emotionally close to people, Michael reveals that in one of the iterations of his neighborhood, she and Chidi fell deeply in love.



Abilities/Special Powers: Can fit 50 shrimp in her mouth at once.
Third-Person Sample:

[While Eleanor hasn't seen any fire monsters yet, she's still not totally convinced that she hasn't just been thrust into some other weird experiment run by immortal beings. Mostly because she's pretty sure that's what Michael and the Judge said they were going to do, but still. This whole "Wonderland" nonsense? All these people? She ain't buying it. There's something else going on here, and she's going to figure it out.

And while she'd like to do so by only doing good things, you can only have so many people tell you there's no way out of here before your head explodes. So, no nice chit-chat and riddles, this time. This time, she might just have to start breaking down walls.

Literally. Because how is she supposed to know if there's for sure no portal if she doesn't check every single room in this goddamn place? Even if everybody's legit and telling her the truth, there's still a chance that somebody just missed a room or something. Hell, maybe they missed a drawer. Maybe it's a portal in a drawer. You don't know. Eleanor's seen things. Lots of things. It's possible.

Which is why she's taken to opening any door she can and walking right in. To her credit, she's not, like, actively reading any diaries she finds. But she's also not putting back any clothes she rips out of closets as she searches them for secret switches. She's in a bit of a hurry, after all. Who knows what the other three are getting up to without her.

Of course, she could probably stand to slow down enough not to upend boxes on high shelves onto her head.]

Fuuuuuuuck. Ow.

[Eleanor rubs her head, groaning. This is going to take forever.]

First-Person Sample: Show us that you can portray the character’s voice in a network post. Minimum of five sentences.

[Eleanor's never really been close enough to anyone to care about Facetiming with them, but it seems like the easier thing than texting right now. Especially if it'll catch one of the others' eye and get them together faster. She frowns into the camera, looking uncertain of the new technology before finally just sighing and giving a tight smile.]

Uh, hi! So. Figure this isn't a real, like, place or anything. Place, I mean. With the capital P. But, uh, just figured I'd at least try and send up the bat signal or whatever in case one of you guys is out there, so...

Chidi? Tahani? Jason? ...Michael?

[Michael wouldn't be here with them, would he? Not that she got much of an idea of what was going to happen in this experiment, of course. She sighs again.]

I tried calling for Janet, but again, probably not a Place, she probably doesn't have her powers, yadda yadda yadda. But y'know, if you're out there girl, hit me up.

[She restrains herself against the urge for finger guns, but only just barely.]

Anyway, uh, as for the rest of you. If any of you are like, real, and not just holograms or whatever. Is there a portal out of here? Or a train? Because that would definitely speed this shit up a lot.

[Eleanor's eyes light up suddenly, her mouth forming a perfect "o".]

Oh shit! I can say shit here too! Okay, this place isn't as bad as I thought, actually.

[She gives a little shrug, and ends the feed.]

RE-APP SAMPLES

Third-person sample:

[Eleanor's memories are a shitshow, thank you very much Wonderland. She had totally forgotten her last reset in Michael's neighborhood when she went home, but now she remembers it AND not remembering it? And her brain just hurts trying to make sense of it.

She needs a distraction. If her first arrival here taught her anything, it's that drinking is the worst possible option for this. She tries reality TV, but honestly the knowledge that most of these people are losing all kinds of Good Place points just makes it depressing. She would masturbate if it didn't just make her think about Chidi. She's starting to run out of options when she remembers that she doesn't need to get drunk or high to enjoy food. And if she's going to enjoy food, she's going to enjoy the best of the best.

So she absolutely wrecks the dining room with shrimp. Popcorn shrimp, shrimp cocktail, shrimp scampi, shrimp gumbo, coconut shrimp...All the shrimp. Every table. A buffet of shrimp. All for her.

...Until someone walks in. And she realizes how this looks. There's a long, long pause, before she finally tries:]

...I'm celebrating a shrimp-related holiday?

[Deep sigh.]

Nope, I'm just trying not to have a worse breakdown. But I will share, since it is literally unlimited up in here. Sooo. Help yourself, witness to my madness.

First-person sample

[Eleanor isn't...great about being vulnerable as it is. But it's even worse knowing how many people she's about to open up to. So she takes a deep breath before she actually speaks, letting it out in a slow sigh. And gives the most forced smile ever.]

So...hi. I uh. I was gone, for a bit. Went back to my world and stuff happened and now I'm here again. And it kind of means my memory is all over the place, because, surprise, Michael reset my memory again while I was back there. And I'm kind of...having a hard time.

[Eugh, that was so honest and sincere. She closes her eyes, as if it doesn't count if she isn't looking. Honestly it doesn't work at all, and she stares into the camera again, expression tight.]

Just. What do you guys do to like...ignore how fucked up the inside of your head is? Fuck, nobody else is probably dealing with this. My point is I need a distraction, or maybe a head injury. Suggestions welcome. Fucking. Bye, I guess.

[She scowls, annoyed at how that fell apart at the end, but. Fuck, she tried, right?]