You've Changed, Man is the 10th episode of Season 4 of The Good Place.
Plot[]
As the Judge keeps searching for the device to reboot the Earth in Janets' voids, the 'soul squad' tries to come up with a new afterlife system.
Summary[]
Judge Gen is all set to reboot the Earth and all humanity, but needs a remote control to do it, and it is hidden inside one of many Janets; the Janet we know delays the Judge long enough for Michael and the others to come up with an alternative.
Chidi and Eleanor come up with one: the current system results in an eternity of cruel punishment for any failures, which doesn't match the life someone lived. There should be a Bad Place for the truly bad, a Good Place for the truly good, and a Medium Place for the majority of humanity who are neither. They propose it to the Good Place Committee, who agree to it instantly without even hearing it. But Shawn won't go for it.
They up the offer: in exchange for the Medium Place solution, the original four humans volunteer for eternal punishment. For Shawn, that's still not good enough.
After thinking it over, they all get another idea. Judge Gen doesn't want to hear their idea, but Janet puts up a door in her void that has a sign that says "End the universe clicky thingy" pointing towards it. Judge Gen goes into it to find all of them waiting and is upset at her falling for the trick. When she asks why she should even listen to their idea, Janet creates her Timothy Olyphant, whom the judge had previously mentioned and was her newest obsession since binging Justified and then Westwood. Judge Gen compliments Janet when Timothy tells the judge to hear them out. Judge Gen pulls in Shawn, and the team make a different proposal. In the current system, people get one shot at life, get evaluated, and get a final destiny. But in Michael's "Good Place", the four humans had hundreds of "lives", and through them got better and better. They propose that the life humans have an Earth be considered not the test of one's ultimate destiny, but just a starting class. Timothy Olyphant starts to interject, saying he's just trying to catch up and Eleanor states she was "just about to explain it further Timothy", and he tells her to "Call me Tim."
At death, the humans point total will give them a place to begin. All of them will go through a test, a simulated environment like Michael's Neighborhood, set up by two architects, one from the Good Place and one from the Bad Place; with all of the demons having parts to play in the neighborhoods. They will make a scenario which exposes the person's moral shortcomings. At the end of the scenario, someone will sit down with them and explain what they need to work on, then they'll get rebooted. Timothy asks how that's going to help since they'll forget everything, and Eleanor explains that what they discussed will remain with them, like a little voice in their head. Humans will go through it as many times as needed. In each reset "life", most people will improve until they are the best versions of themselves. Some people won't, but most will, which will allow them into the Good Place.
Judge Gen is willing to go with this, but Shawn denies it. The judge goes off to find her "End the universe clicky thingy" in Janets' void. Michael, suddenly realizing why Shawn is so adverse to this plan, takes those few minutes to go talk to him. When Michael tells him he's won and he'll see him in a ton of billion years, Shawn indicates his joy at winning. He says he's going to start his speech about how he won and Michael tells him to go ahead. When Michael fails to even bother battling him, Shawn gets upset. He states that he doesn't want to change because he's had more fun battling Michael than in anything else in his entire existence. Michael tells him that the world is going to be rebooted or he'll accept this plan, but either way, their battling is over.
Shawn realizes that Michael is right and finally agrees with the new system. They get back to Judge Gens' office just after she's found her clicker. However, before she clicks it, they stop her again. She gets upset, but they tell her that Shawn has agreed to the new system. When Judge Gen asks how they begin, everyone turns to Chidi, who tells them that he's just the "idea" guy.
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 Jason Mendoza
- Ted Danson as Michael
Trivia[]
- The episode is originally titled as "Putting Cruelty First."
- The episode's title comes from Jason's line "You know Shawn, you used to be cool, but you've changed man," which was a notoriously difficult line to get through during production: a combination of the sheer absurdity of the line and Manny Jacinto's delivery caused an hour delay in the schedule because the cast could not stop laughing.[1][2]
- The repeated takes are included on the Season 4 blooper reel.
- During filming of the ending scene where Jason tosses the remote that could erase the Earth, Manny Jacinto fumbled the catch and broke the prop remote, prompting his castmates to improvise their reactions to the apparent destruction of the world.[3]
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