'The Good Place' finale walks us through the final door and addresses all our afterlife concerns
Spoiler alert for Season 4, Episode 13 of 'The Good Place' — 'Whenever You're Ready'
When 'The Good Place' brought up the subject of 'Whenever You're Ready' door (WYRD, for short), we had some concerns. With all of eternity and infinite "afterlife magic" at their fingertips, surely there was a better solution to the mindlessness of bliss than death. We should have had more faith. With its extra-long finale, 'The Good Place' addresses every concern we brought up and sells the necessity of the WYRD. Let's take a look at just how it does that.
Exclusivity of the Good Place
One of the most disturbing things about the Good Place was not just how hard it was to get in — not one soul in the past 500 years — but how little its residents seemed to care about the people in the Bad Place. Before Team Cockroach changed the system, the only options were eternal reward or eternal damnation, and those blessed with the former seemed to care little for the latter — possibly due to being blitzed out on bliss.
With the new system, however, Good Place residents can hold onto hope that their loved ones will be joining them soon. The system gives everyone fair and endless chances to get to the Good Place and to arrive as the best versions of themselves.
What's more? As Tahani (Jameela Jamil) proves, those who live in the Good Place can give back to the rest of the afterlife community. Tahani works her way into becoming an architect, designing challenges for souls to help them become better people. She is met with resistance, but while she may be the first human architect, it's unlikely that she is going to be the last. Even after receiving her eternal reward, Tahani has a chance renewed sense of purpose doing important work, that really matters.
The diminishing returns of perfection
As the final episode illustrates, repeatedly, there actually is a point of peak contentment. Maybe it comes from playing a perfect video game. Perhaps it comes from manually perfecting every skill you want to perfect, or maybe even something as mundane as the aftermath of a dinner with family.
Chidi lingered long after he had found his sense of peace, and it was obvious how much it was wearing on him. Joy hits a point of diminishing returns, however, and every day in the Good Place is one of joy. Chidi could have erased his memories, sure, but to do so would be to invalidate every moment he had experienced.
Good Place residents have their goals and once those goals are accomplished afterlife becomes aimless. With infinite time, Chidi could have experienced everything — which would mean that one moment would not matter any more than another. His moments were already starting to matter less. The WYRD's existence means that a soul's experiences are limited - the experiences they get to have matter more than the ones that didn't. Meaning, that their experiences mattered.
Leaving your loved ones behind
Chidi and Eleanor (Kristin Bell) are very much in love, and that never dimmed in all the JeremyBearimes they spent together. When Chidi is ready to leave but Eleanor isn't, is it not unethical of Chidi to have Eleanor suffer his loss for the rest of her afterlife?
As discussed above, when it's time to go, staying only makes things steadily worse. It's Eleanor who figures the quandary out — there is no moral justification to be found in forcing someone to remain when that person's continued existence is only increasingly detrimental. It's a selfish want, and you don't get into the Good Place by being selfish. It hurts, but people owe each other the freedom to make the decisions that benefit them the most. 'The Good Place' did not forget its central question of 'What We Owe To Each Other' after all.
Demons welcome
We had brought up Shawn — an eternal demon who managed to find renewed purpose in the fight against Michael (Ted Danson), and now the rehabilitation of humans. However, it turns out that even demons long for a sense of purpose and a finite life. Michael manages to be the first demon to become "a real boy", but like Tahani, he is unlikely to be the last. With humans taking on demonic roles, eternity has more than enough people to handle the demand for keeping the afterlife system running. It's all-inclusive — just like paradise ought to be.
Take it sleazy
The WYRD represents a sad fact of life — that it all must end. That it needs to end. In the system that 'The Good Place' brings about though, one does not get to the WYRD without becoming the best version of themselve and accomplishing everything they could hope to. The WYRD isn't the oppressive, uncertain death that people on Earth are subject to. It's the freedom of choosing your own, best ending, whenever you are ready.