MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
*Spoilers for the first three seasons of 'The Good Place'.
'The Good Place' is a sitcom known for its twists and turns. From the opening scene in Season One when a freshly dead Eleanor Shellstrop wakes up in the waiting room of the afterlife to the season finale when the humans discover that there were in the Bad Place all along, creator Mike Schur (the mind behind 'The Office US', 'Parks and Recreation' and 'Brooklyn 99') has kept the audience on their toes.
The third season of the series saw the Good Place and the Bad Place organise an experiment to determine the true nature of humanity by creating a new pretend 'Good Place' and choosing four different humans as test subjects. Shawn, the head demon of the Bad Place (brilliantly portrayed by Marc Evan Jackson) played them dirty by choosing the ever-anxious Chidi's ex-girlfriend Simone as one of the test subjects. Chidi's resultant decision to have his memory wiped moments after he and Eleanor (Kristen Bell) confess their love for each other so as not to ruin the experiment had viewers sobbing into their screens "I thought this show was meant to be a comedy! It has Ted Danson from 'Cheers' in it!"
Fan theories: the good, the bad, and the crazy
The fourth season of the critically-acclaimed series will premiere in the UK on Netflix this Friday and the revelation that this season will be its last has provoked several debates surrounding how the show will end.
"I don't think that 'The Good Place' exists," says one Reddit user. "I think that it was just made up by the 'Bad Place' to torture the people who end up there." The elusive nature of the titular Good Place does support this theory; in all of the three seasons, we have never met anyone who has actually been to the Good Place. Nonetheless, this idea seems a bit dark for a show that the creator has stated is, at its core, about flawed people trying to become better people. This user isn't the only one that believes that the so-called 'Good Place' is hiding a dark secret, however, with another suggesting that the Good Place, an allegory for heaven, "doesn't want souls" at all, thus sending all humans to hell to be tortured for eternity. As Eleanor would say, "holy shirtballs".
Other fans have taken a more positive view of the philosophical journey undertaken by the four main characters of the series, with one Twitter user arguing that they have been in the Good Place all along and "the struggle to become better people is part of the Good Place journey". This has proved a popular theory, with some fans going on to suggest that perhaps seeing Michael, a demon and the primary antagonist of the first season, transform into a good person will send a hopeful message about redemption and the possibilities of change.
Mike Schur has been open about how he was uncertain whether a comedy about ethical philosophy would be embraced by producers or viewers, but these passionate debates surrounding the nature of good and evil and how it will effect the fabulous four in this final season has shown that fans are hungry for material that is both intelligent and funny.
Not all fan theories are so concerned with the big questions asked by the series, however.
"My favourite...fan theory (is that) Jason has definitely eaten at least one Tide Pod", said one Twitter user of our favourite sweet but slow Floridian.
Tune in to the fourth and final season of 'The Good Place' on Netflix on the 27th September to find out the truth about good, evil, and whether Jason secretly likes the taste of laundry detergent.
