- ❝ Well, it's not the heaven or hell idea that you were raised on. But generally speaking, in the afterlife, there's a Good Place and there's a Bad Place. You're in The Good Place ❞
- —Michael
Chapter 1: Everything Is Fine (also known as Pilot) is the first episode of Season 1 of The Good Place.
Plot[]
Newly-deceased Eleanor Shellstrop is sent to the Good Place, but only by mistake; Eleanor is determined to become a better person in her afterlife with help from friends Chidi and Janet.
Summary[]
Eleanor Shellstrop awakens in a room facing a sign saying "Everything is Fine", and is called into an office by the celestial Michael, who confirms that Eleanor is dead and that she is in the heavenly afterlife called "The Good Place."
Michael gives her a tour throughout the Good Place neighborhood she'll be residing in before getting her to meet with newcomers and watch an informational video. In the video, Michael explains that every action humans make in their lives is assigned either a positive or negative points total depending on their choices and actions. The quantity of these points are proportional to how good or bad the choice or action was. After a person dies, their total points are tallied by accountants and only people with very high scores are allowed into the Good Place. Eleanor earned her spot for her work as a lawyer that defended innocent people on death row and championed for human rights. Also, she learns every person in the Good Place has a soulmate, a person with which they are to spend their eternal life together.
After presenting Eleanor with a house designed specifically for her tastes, Michael introduces her to her soulmate, Chidi Anagonye, a Senegalese ethics and philosophy professor. When Michael leaves, Eleanor reveals to Chidi that everything Michael said about her life is wrong and she's not the person he says she is. Eleanor made a living by knowingly selling fake medicine to the sick and elderly and was crass and selfish, unable to recall doing any kind or altruistic deed in her life. Michael then introduces Eleanor and Chidi to Tahani Al-Jamil, a wealthy British socialite who earned her spot for her extensive charity work, and her soulmate Jianyu Li, a Buddhist monk who is still keeping to his vow of silence. She is also introduced to Janet, an AI mainframe construct who runs the neighborhood, appears out of thin air behind anyone who calls her name, possesses all the knowledge in the universe, and can give a resident any physical thing they desire.
While at a party hosted by Tahani and Jianyu at their mansion, Chidi begins to question whether he should help Eleanor or not as she gets drunk and stuffs her face with shrimp cocktail. He takes her back home, and despite her general behavior, Eleanor expresses appreciation for Chidi and acknowledges that he's a kind person and laments that he probably has people mourning him while she likely doesn't. The next morning, Eleanor wakes up to discover that many things that represent her crass comments about her life and her insults to Tahani at the party have taken on a physical form and are wreaking havoc on the neighborhood. Chidi tells her that presence in the Good Place is the cause of the disruptions. Eleanor begs Chidi to help her become a better person just as Michael knocks on the door to inform them of an emergency meeting.
Cast[]
- Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop
- William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye
- Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al-Jamil
- D'Arcy Carden as Janet
- Manny Jacinto as Jianyu Li
- and Ted Danson as Michael
Co-Starring
- Bambadjan Bamba as Bambadjan
- Seth Morris as Wallace (flashback)
- Jill Remez as Gloria
- Ruman Kazi as Sachveer
- John Hartman as Joe (flashback)
- Jamila Webb as Good Woman
Trivia[]
- Written by series creator Michael Schur and directed by Drew Goddard.
- "The Giraffe" and "The Lady Bug" elements was originally an off screen joke.
- "Chapter 1" attracted 8.04 Million Viewers.
- The music that sounds in the background at the party is an aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute called Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja.
- In the Chaos sequence, everyone but Eleanor is wearing yellow and blue, the colors of the University of Michigan, which is where the other Eleanor went to law school. Eleanor is wearing a Michigan Law t-shirt, presumably because the other Eleanor would have had this in her wardrobe.
Gallery[]
The gallery of Chapter 1 can be found Here
