Good Season 3 Anticipation, Predictions, Speculations & Wishes

[Kromm]

We did this last year, apart from the standard speculation thread. A temporary thread specifically about the new season, and not just about speculation, but also about what we want to see come out of it as well (aka "wishes"). 

I want Season 3 to continue what Season 2 did thematically. Being brave enough to yank the rug out as often as needed. To wit, here are some speculations I started to post in an episode thread about next season, and realized they belonged more in a speculation area. But as I finished it I realized half of the tone was also more about what I WANT to see from the new season than what I do expect, because I couldn't narrow it down from three major ideas, or even the possibility of a fourth.

 

On 1/26/2018 at 8:16 PM, Terrafamilia said:

I'm crossing my fingers that they manage to get a do-over. At the beginning the judge said they didn't have an advocate or the right forms filled out. Now that Michael and Janet are here they can have both.

I think the crux of the situation is going to be that Eleanor passed.  The others are going to learn she did and choose to stay with them and insist she be allowed to move onto The Good Place. This, with Michael's insistence, will set up the idea that they're worthy too.

I have to say I'm really scratching my head about the setup for next season. Part of me thinks it will be in some test of the whole Good Place/Bad Place setup authorized by the Judge, where she starts to buy Michael's argument that something is wrong with the system, but it has to be proved.  Another piece of me thinks that maybe next season could happen in the actual Good Place, and be about what's wrong with THAT place (we know SOMETHING has to be in this show, because this a version of existence which allows essentially decent people to be tortured for eternity for trivialities). 

 

If it is the first concept, the "prove it" one, I also wonder if the gang finds themselves in a new artificial reality that's basically this testing ground, or if next season could actually happen back on Earth. One of my pet theories is that time is irrelevant in this show and that no actual time has passed on Earth. Also that they probably all died on the same day. Put them back there, in their old lives, and have that be next season. Whether they are conscious of their time in the Good Place or not would also be up for grabs. Do we test the theories about people being improvable by putting back in their lives cognizant of an afterlife and the consequences, or without?  Do we test, as if it were one last reboot of The Good Place, if they actually manage to change in the real world based on the idea that they COULD, or do we send them back knowing they've already changed and see what effect they have on OTHERS?  If next season isn't in the actual Good Place, I'm split between which of these other concepts the show tries.

Damn, this is all turning more into what I WANT to see rather than what I expect to see, when I really have no idea which of these three directions they would go. And yeah, I know what they have in mind could be different that any of these, even though my wide guesses about the end of Season 1 and the general progress of Season 2 have been reasonably accurate, even if the details and timing weren't.

[Kromm]

BTW: Yes, I know the 3rd season is insanely far off, since you know... Season 2 isn't even totally over yet. But this time we know for sure there will be a new season really early on! (and have from last November in fact)

[Notwisconsin]

They go back to earth, but not as people. they go as mayflies or lobsters or HIV retroviruses. What does moral flu virus do?

Or perhaps they go to their own medium place, or find that the good place is oneness with God....or in other words are eaten by the deity and truly cease to exist.

[Chaos Theory]

The Cockroaches get into the real Good Place and no one is there.  The rules of acceptance have been so strict for so long that the Good Place is virtually empty.  

[CherithCutestory]

I'm hoping that eventually they just decide to try to tear this whole system down. They've tried so hard to work within the rules. And even if they succeed so many people like them will still be tortured.  Jason's way will turn out correct. Just throw a Molotov cocktail at it.

I hope they do get to at least visit the Good Place. And I hope Camilla is there. Wait! Hear me out on this! I'm not endorsing Camilla as a better person than Tahani, at all. But there isn't any reason why she wouldn't be there. She's brought happiness to millions of people. And her motives aren't impure like Tahani's. Why? Not because she's better but because Camilla already knows she's amazing. She isn't looking for validation from others. She is perfectly aware of how amazing and wonderful she is and doesn't really care what anyone else thinks about it. If she creates art that makes people happy then she does it for the pure motive of creating art. Not for the adulation. So technically her actions lead to a lot of points. And technically her motives were not impure. The fact that she's a horrid human being is sort of beside the point. Maybe a few negative points but not in comparison to her millions of good points.

I think that would trigger Tahani into realizing the whole system is just totally forked up. And this isn't a place she wants to be. Even if it's only the elite of the elite. Chidi has already noted that it's wrong to torture people even if even God literally says it's OK. Eleanor will ultimately chose the moral thing, at this point in her development. And Jason instinctively opts for burning it all to the ground.

Others have pointed it out but once horrible flaw of the system is it favors people who were raised in prosperous and loving homes and who don't have any chronic mental illness. It's easy to not have your motives clouded by your own insecurity and need for validation when you grew up loved and validated. Easy to be generous and selfless when money is no object. Easy to be decisive when you don't have an anxiety disorder. And, also, all of these four died young. There is no reason to think they wouldn't have grown with time.

Edited January 29, 2018 by CherithCutestory

[Notwisconsin]

7 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

The Cockroaches get into the real Good Place and no one is there.  The rules of acceptance have been so strict for so long that the Good Place is virtually empty.  

I think that Almadovor had a movie starring Selma Hayak based on that concept.

[Chaos Theory]

Spoilers for season 2 finale below;

 

 

 

 

 

 

ok

 

 

my guess after watching the finale that we will find out in the first couple of episodes of season 3 that While Eleanor was attempting to be a better person Chidi had a sudden burst of self confidence and was making choices quicker at least at first.  By the time Eleanor showed up he was starting to fall into the same trap she was of falling back into old behavior.  Eleanor and Chidi help each other which brings them in contact with Tahani (who initially rejects her parents but then slowly let’s their criticism of her get her down until either Eleanor or Chidi publicicaly come to her defense without exactly knowing why). The same with Jason.  He attempts to make smarter choices but his act first mentalality eventually gets the better of him until he runs into Eleanor and Chidi.

[CofCinci]

I’m so curious as to how the gang will reunite. Tahani can easily travel anywhere for a celebrity party and it could remain true to character. She could pop up in Australia for a Nicole Kidman event. The difficulty would be inserting Jason back into the fold. I couldn’t see him leaving Florida.

Also, I’m curious to see if Bad Place personnel will chase after Michael. 

Lastly, what is Janet now?

[DrScottie]

If/when the Bad Place finds out, will they let Vicky Sengupta out of the gooey cocoon as she can affect an Australian accent and knows how to charm Chidi? 

[Kromm]

I will bask in being mostly right. The one part of my main theory which (so far) hasn't held up is that what would follow was based on Eleanor passing the test for the judge. The fact that she did seems to have been made irrelevant, so so much for that (little) theory.  But the return to their lives to test them out did seem to be the most obvious road forward, and the obvious thing sometimes actually IS the best thing.  Especially when the details are so meticulously well done, which the season 2 ender was. 

I will say I have no idea how long Season 3 will stick with the Back to Earth setup, Or that they don't know they are being tested.  I suspect we may get each character being the star of an episode in a row at the head of Season 3. Chidi would be the star of S3 Episode 1, although I can't tell if the episode would begin with him meeting Eleanor or end with it. Tahani and Jason would be subsequent episodes, although I don't know if their route is to meet each other first, or for each to meet Eleanor first. It's hard to say if she's supposed to be the lynchpin, although if she is it WOULD connect back to her passing the judge test indirectly--with her basically being the one who even though she clearly could backslide, did have the most inherent need to be good. 

Eleanor, having already had her back on Earth feature episode would not regain main protagonist status until S3 Ep4, but it would also be the ep to unite them all.

[rab01]

I don't think this something I WISH to see and I'm not even sure that I think the show is doing this but ... it seems odd to me that Michael and the judge are surprised by people changing after subjective years of new experiences and stresses; the show has told us that they are both smarter than humans even if humans don't make much sense to them and I think this would seem obvious to a being that can absorb the entirety of someone's life in the blink of an eye.  The way it would all fit for me is if life on Earth is supposed to be just as much an artificial simulation as the other places we've seen but it's supposed to be the only neighborhood where people grow and change.  What we think of history and technological improvements etc, etc are just the architects changing the parameters of the simulation.  It's obviously not a new concept but would allow them to do another paradigm shift