- ❝ Yo, you should listen to me, I came up with hundreds of plans in my life and only one of them got me killed ❞
- —Jason to Eleanor
Jason Mendoza is a principal character in The Good Place, played by Manny Jacinto.
Character
Jason Mendoza was an amateur EDM DJ who earned money by selling fake drugs to college students. He is an avid video game player and snack lover. In Tahani's home, he resides inside his "Bud-hole" or personal hide out. He and Eleanor get along since both of them are frauds. He was mistaken for a monk named Jianyu Li, the accident occurring when Jason died at the exact moment Jianyu entered into a deep meditative state where he was accidentally registered as dead. Jason shares the same IQ as Jianyu, who left school at 7 years old to become a Buddhist monk and observe a vow of silence. He died by suffocating in a safe during a botched robbery with his best friend Pillboi.
Season 1
Jason Mendoza was mistaken for Jianyu Li, a Taiwanese monk. When he arrived in the Good Place, he was asked by Michael if he would like to continue the vow of silence he took while he was alive. He nodded that he would like to, confused at what was going on. But this proved to be a problem with Tahani Al-Jamil as his soulmate, as she kept pressuring him to speak. Jason sat behind Eleanor during the orientation video that Michael showed to the residents.
Later that day, Tahani threw a party at their house. There, Eleanor (while drunk) told him that she didn't belong in the Good Place. The next day, Jason slipped a note under the door of her house that said "you don't belong here". The day after that, he sent her another note that instructed her to meet him that night. Eleanor meets Jason and he explains his actual identity. Eleanor starts helping Jason connect with Tahani without revealing his true identity and Jason begins taking ethics lessons as well.
To avoid Jason revealing his identity to Tahani, Chidi tags along on a couple's spa retreat and helps Jason connect with and cheer up Tahani. When Michael announces his retirement, Jason helps Tahani throw Michael a party and later inadvertently causes Chidi to reboot Janet, as Jason followed Chidi and Eleanor to the beach. After Eleanor gives herself up Jason avoids detection by continuing his silence. Once they think Eleanor is leaving, Jason goes with Tahani to Eleanor and Chidi's house to say goodbye to her.
During Michael's negotiations with the Bad Place group, Jason is around and helps out with random things, which leads Tahani to realise that he's not Jianyu. Jason finally starts talking about who he is and Tahani's disappointed. Jason's sad and afraid he'll go to the Bad Place, so he asks Janet to cheer him up and she brings him food he likes, causing Jason to feel that he loves Janet and ask her to marry him. Janet brings Eleanor and Tahani invites to the 'wedding' and they witness Jason's EDM wedding march-scored, nude pic/bortles shoutout-vowed ceremony.
Jason, thinking Michael is Janet's Dad, confesses his real identity to Michael. Michael tries to deduce his character by giving him the same test Eleanor got, with all of Jason's answers proving him a Bad Place candidate. After Michael reminds Jason how he died, Jason calls Janet and tells him they can't be together because he's dumb. When Michael wants to reboot Janet, she brings Jason (and Eleanor) to The Medium Place to escape being separated. While there, Janet and Jason spend their time trying to figure out how to have sex.
After they get the message through Janet that Chidi and Tahani will be sent to the Bad Place in their stead, Eleanor tries to convince Jason that they should save their friends, as Janet will only bring the train back to the neighbourhood if Jason agrees. After Eleanor explains how rotten her parents were to her and how this is a chance to do something right for both her and Jason, he relents and they return to save Chidi and Tahani. Shortly after, Shawn gives them half an hour to decide which two of the four of them will go to the Bad Place and Eleanor realises they are in the Bad Place.
Season 2
In Attempt #2, Jason is paired with Luang, another monk having taken a vow of silence, as his platonic soulmate. Jason is soon unhappy with the arrangement and ends up connecting with a newly rebooted Janet, having an exchange similar to their first one where Janet helps Jason and he hugs her, prompting her to ask him why he hugged her. Eleanor's not helps her figure out their in the Bad Place in 2 days and Jason reveals his true identity just before Eleanor's second epiphany.
The following attempts always end up with Eleanor's epiphanies, except one time where Jason, to the astounded horror of Michael, is actually the one to figure it out. At Attempt #802, Michael actually asks Jason for advice and casually mentions that they're in the Bad Place. Simultaneously, Chidi and Eleanor overhear some of the demons talking about how they're in the Bad Place, tell Tahani and try to formulate a tactic to somehow fight Michael. Eleanor taunts him with the fact that she always finds out and Michael tells the humans he wants to team up with them.
Quotes
- ❝ I wasn't a failed DJ, I was pre-successful ❞
- —Jason to Michael[src]
Trivia
- Jason's DJ name was Mr. Music the DJ
- Jason is a big fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars American football team. He yells "Bortles!" (as in Blake Bortles, the team's star quarterback) before throwing Molotov cocktails
- In Season 2, Jason mentions how Tahani taught him to not to eat candles because they smelled good.