The Good Place season 3 finale review: Interference and a new game plan

It’s the season 3 finale of The Good Place! As the new experiment begins and Michael loses it, how will the team make it through this round?

Welcome to the season 3 finale of The Good Place. I can’t believe we made it, folks. So what does this show have in store for us? How will it destroy our minds and break our hearts?

Not-so-short summary and analysis

Michael’s still flailing, so Eleanor steps up to be the new Architect of the neighborhood. She does… a passable job. “Uh oh. Michael looks like me. That’s… bad,” Chidi says as Janet shows John around the neighborhood.

As it turns out, John is a gossip columnist who wreaked havoc on Tahani when she was alive. The Bad Place picked the people who would be the worst for them.

And enter Simone. Didn’t we all kind of anticipate she’d show up in some other form?

THE GOOD PLACE — “The Brainy Bunch” Episode 303 — Pictured: (l-r) William Harper Jackson as Chidi, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Simone Garnett — (Photo by: Justin Lubin/NBC)

The Judge says those two first subjects can stay, but the next two can’t be tied to Team Cockroach. Simone gets her memories erased back to just before Chidi came to her with the study idea in Australia.

While everyone else can play it cool, it burns at Chidi. And we all know he’s not the best at keeping secrets or playing things cool. Or making decisions… or doing too much of anything. It’s going to make things a serious problem.

Chidi comes up with a solution: Erase his memory. How can Chidi teach them ethics if he still has all his memories of Simone? If he slips up, he dooms everyone. It’s a big deal and a big decision and it weighs heavy on the whole group.

“You don’t have to apologize for making a huge sacrifice to save your friends,” Eleanor tells Chidi in a sweet moment between them. To top it off, Michael gives them a clip show of their reboots and their best moments.

It’s like Eleanor says—they found each other hundreds of times before. What’s one more time?

As Eleanor prepares to face a rebooted Chidi as the new Architect, Janet gives her some solid motivation: “I got you, dog.”

THE GOOD PLACE — “Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By” Episode 309 — Pictured: (l-r) Jameela Jamil as Tahani, Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza — (Photo by: Colleen Hayes/NBC)

Favorite moments and lines

“Like, this whole box is just one trip to Wendy’s,” Chidi says of the files he has to look at of John’s time on Earth.

“I haven’t seen a more perfect couple since I set up Drake with Ruth Bader Ginsburg!” Tahani exclaims. They were also the craziest secret celebrity hookup.

This was a much more emotional finale of The Good Place than I anticipated. It certainly isn’t as revolutionary or head-turning as the first two seasons. But it’s still very impactful. Eleanor asks Janet for the answer to everything, but she doesn’t give it.

Instead, she provides the insight Eleanor needs: Love gives you a sense of normalcy in a chaotic world. Doesn’t that make the feelings and the memories worth it?

Well, that’s it until the fall for The Good Place. We’ll just have to sit and wonder how the start of next season will play out.