'The Good Place' Revealed A Huge Twist

All dogs may go to heaven, but not all "so-so" people get to go to The Good Place. NBC's new sitcom imagines an afterlife in which only the top one percent of people get to have an enjoyable post-death experience, and, unfortunately, Kristen Bell's character Eleanor isn't one of those people. Yet, somehow, Eleanor has ended up in The Good Place's titular neighborhood, despite her earthly job of selling chalk pills to the sick and elderly. Eleanor's a bad presence in her new home — somehow, the fact that she's not-so-good causes the world around her to change in dangerous, destructive ways. Now, a new twist in "Tahani Al-Jamil" of The Good Place reveals that maybe it's not just Eleanor who is causing giant lady bugs to attack The Good Place. Another Good Place resident has been upgraded in the afterlife as well. That resident is none other than Jianyu (Manny Jacinto), who, up until this point, we assumed was staying quiet because of his history as a Buddhist monk.

Jianyu, who is apparently the soulmate of the pretty and perfect Tahani (Jameela Jamil) was always a bit of a mystery, given his lack of speech, but it turns out that there was another big reason why he kept that vow of silence. After Eleanor began receiving threatening messages saying that she didn't belong in the Good Place — messages she assumed were a part of her subconscious — Eleanor goes into town and runs into Jianyu. It turns out that Jianyu is more than willing to talk to Eleanor, because, just like her, he doesn't belong in the Good Place either. Mind blown.

I have to say, it's probably a great thing that we're getting a not-so-nice resident of the Good Place to pal around with Eleanor — the Good Place may be a sweet place to live, but its also a little too saccharine at times. Eleanor gives the neighborhood a bit of bite, even if most of her neighbors assume her harsh words indicate that she's just joking around with them. The real question here is, what's going on that put both Eleanor and Jianyu in a "better place" when they were meant to be in a bad one? Is Michael's less-than-stellar architecture of the neighborhood to blame, or could there be something deeper going on that's causing all of the trouble in the Good Place?

Now that Jianyu and Eleanor are both in the wrong place, it's about time the show tells us what the fork is up with that.

Image: Justin Lubin/NBC