What was Michael's role in Chidi's idea?

What was Michael's role in Chidi's idea? - Red Envelope and Red Rose

In the Season 3 premiere of The Good Place, Michael interferes and goes back to Earth

for a third time

or so it seems when Chidi soon has the idea

to see if other people with near-death experiences have sudden desires to be more ethical.

But what did Michael have to do with Chidi's getting the idea? It seems like Chidi figured it out by himself, along with Eleanor's persistence.

After Chidi decides to implement the idea, Michael is seen saying 'Bingo. Okay.'

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Is this because Michael did something? Or because Michael is glad that Chidi came up with the idea by himself?



Best Answer

TLDR: Michael needed to get all 4 of the humans together, but didn't know how. Chidi's idea for the study gave Michael the opportunity he needed to accomplish that.


Earlier in the episode, Michael and Janet are talking.

Michael: "This is not just about Chidi. I've left too much to chance. Until our group is back together again, this whole thing is hanging by a thread. I'm going back down."

Later:

Janet: "How are you even going to get Jason and Tahani to Australia?"

Michael: "I have no idea. But I have to try."

Down on Earth, Chidi storms into Simone's office:

Chidi: "Elanor and I have nothing in common, except that we both almost died, and it made us want to be better people. This is my thesis idea: I will explore the effect of near-death experiences on ethical decision-making. I will get a group of people together who've had near-death experiences, ask them ethical questions, and see if there's any commonalities."

After Chidi's revelation, he posts a flyer on a campus bulletin board. In the background, Michael says, "Bingo! Okay!" with an obvious sense of relief from his anxiety.

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So it was Chidi's idea, but it gave Michael a simple way to draw Tahani and Jason to Australia (even though it takes some more machinations on his part to actually get them there).




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What is Michael in The Good Place?

The architects of The Good Place are two men named Michael. One, played by Ted Danson, is a demon in a skin suit whose job is to devise preposterous and subtly cruel scenarios with which to provoke maximum silliness among the four oddball characters in his care.

How did Michael Schur come up with The Good Place?

Schur would go on to follow those two legacy sitcoms with the perennially Emmy-nominated NBC sitcom, "The Good Place." The show was about the antics of four drastically different people trying to define what being good is while in the afterlife.

What happened to Michael in The Good Place?

Thanks to Judge Gen, Michael achieves his true wish and becomes a human. He is sent to Earth where he will eventually die, go through the afterlife system, and then have the choice to leave whenever he is ready. Having fulfilled her purpose, Eleanor walks through the door.

What is the message behind The Good Place?

If there's any takeaway, any central theme that ran through every episode of every season of The Good Place, it's that every person is capable of redemption. Literally every person in the entire universe is given the chance, multiple chances even, to be a better version of themselves.



Who Is Michael?




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Images: RODNAE Productions, RODNAE Productions, RODNAE Productions, Artem Podrez