Simulation? Dream? The Good Place creator finally explains the season 2 ending and what comes next

For a series that prides itself on pulling the rug out from under us, The Good Place season 2 sure took it to a whole ‘nother level when it came to presenting a confusing conclusion. So much so, that show creator Michael Schur has had to come out to actually explain what the hell was going on – and give us a tease for The Good Place season 3 while we’re at it. A spoiler warning for The Good Place season 2 is in place, people!

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Schur confirms that the sitch Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani were left in – that being a second chance at life, avoiding their deaths – wasn’t a dream, product of a simulation, nor anything else, but the real thing: “a new timeline where they didn’t die.”

Woah. That’s pretty big, and has pretty serious ramifications for The Good Place season 3. Schur explains the reasoning behind it and the setup for the next season. “It seemed like a natural move to send them back to a time before they made that progress,” the show creator says. “And to use the idea of nearly dying to test their ability to improve. Especially because now that Michael has watched them improve, over and over, he has started to wonder whether or not there is something fundamentally wrong with the way humans are judged.”

But that doesn’t mean Michael and Janet won’t be sticking around and messing with the quartet on the rebooted Earth. In fact, Schur teases that some omniscient jiggery-pokery will go down in episode 5 of the new season. Of course, it’s not all existentialist hand-wringing. The Good Place season 3 will still bring the silly: There’s even going to be an episode dealing with what would happen if the Jacksonville Jaguars had won the Super Bowl. “We developed a plan for them winning, and a modified version of that plan will actually appear in episode three,” Schut reveals. Bortles!

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I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.