The Good Place season 2 finale ending completely changed the status quo of the series, and laid the groundwork for season 3. Thankfully, NBC renewed The Good Place for season 3, so we already know it's in the works.

From creator Michael Schur (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation), The Good Place series premiere introduced viewers to four humans who had died and gone to the afterlife: Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil), and Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto). The four wake up in the Good Place, where they're introduced to the afterlife by Michael (Ted Danson) and a guide named Janet (D'Arcy Carden). Much of the conflict in season 1 surrounded Eleanor quickly realizing she was sent to the Good Place by accident, and was meant to go to the Bad Place.

Related: The Good Place Season 1 Finale Twist Explained

However, The Good Place season 1 finale delivered arguably one of the greatest twists in TV history when Eleanor realized her and her friends weren't in the Good Place at all. They had, in fact, been in the Bad Place all along, which was confirmed by Michael, who's actually a demon rather than the angelic neighborhood architect he pretended to be. The Good Place season 2 featured Michael trying to get his experimental neighborhood - in which the humans were meant to torture each other rather than being tortured by demons - to work throughout a number of reboots. Instead, he was forced to turn to the humans for help, and all five of them began studying to become better people in hopes of earning spots in the actual Good Place.

At the start of the season 2 finale, Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason had plead their case in front of Judge Jen (Maya Rudolph) in an effort to go to the Good Place, but all except for Eleanor failed the Judge's tests. Thankfully, Michael convinces the Judge that they deserve another shot, but this time they won't know they're being tested or that their reward is a spot in the Good Place. Now, we break down what happened in The Good Place season 2 finale and how it sets up the season 3 storyline.

What Exactly Is the Judge's Test?

Before anything can be explained to Eleanor, she wakes up moments before her death, when she's fighting with a clean energy advocate outside the grocery store. But, instead of being hit by shopping carts, someone saves Eleanor, and the near-death experience prompts her to live her life as a better person. She quits her job, and starts working with the clean energy advocate, turning her life around for a time. However, after bad things happen to Eleanor despite her trying to be a good person, she devolves back into her bad ways.

Meanwhile in the afterlife, Michael and Janet are monitoring the progress of Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason in a room by themselves. When Michael sees Eleanor slipping into her old ways, he appears to her as a bartender - in a fantastic Cheers reference in The Good Place finale - and talks to her about little voices in your head telling you to be a better person. He leaves her with the question: "What do we owe to each other?" The next morning, Eleanor googles the phrase and stumbles across a lecture Chidi gave on that exact topic. Leaving her life behind, Eleanor travels to Chidi's university and approaches him about his lecture.

So what exactly is the Judge's test? Essentially, it appears she resurrected Eleanor - and, presumably, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason - and reinserted them into their original lives. They don't have any knowledge of their time in the afterlife or each other, but they are the people they had become in the afterlife. So, the Judge is testing whether Eleanor and the others have truly changed due to their time in the afterlife, or if they're the same people who wound up in the Bad Place. As Michael argues in the beginning of the episode, the test to determine whether humans deserve to be in the Good or Bad Place doesn't account for the possibility of humans learning to be better (or, conversely, worse) people after death. The best way to determine whether Eleanor and the others have changed, is to throw them right back into their lives - which is what the Judge does.

What Will The Good Place Season 3 Be About?

The early part of season 3 will no doubt explore Eleanor and Chidi's relationship, this time in the real world rather than the afterlife. The pair fell in love a number of times throughout Michael's many reboots of his neighborhood experiment - enough times that it seems inevitable the two will fall in love in the real world as well. In fact, in an earlier episode, Chidi wondered what would have happened if he and Eleanor had met in a "normal" way, like after one of his lectures or if she knocked on his office door asking for help with philosophy, which is exactly how it plays out in the finale, indicating that comment had been foreshadowing. Still, each have lived an extra year of their life by the end of the finale, and both have undoubtedly struggled to be the better people they were when they were together.

As such, season 3 will likely show viewers how Chidi, Tahani, and Jason spent their year while Eleanor was herself struggling to be better. Based on what we know about the characters we can presume some of what they wrangled with in their own lives. Chidi is notoriously indecisive, so he would likely be faced with a number of decisions to be made. When Eleanor finds him at the end of the premiere, it's unclear how exactly he's doing, whether or not he's been able to live as a better version of himself. As for Tahani, she was able to stand up to her parents in the initial test from the Judge, but it's unclear if she'd be able to do the same when she didn't have the moral dessert waiting for her. Finally, Jason would need to stop going along with bad decisions and think for himself.

Our best guess is The Good Place season 3 will dive deeper into the humans' time on Earth after being resurrected. Now that Michael has set Eleanor on the path to team up with Chidi in order to become a better person, presumably they'll eventually meet up with Tahani and Jason. And, since we spent much of the season 2 finale following Eleanor's year after being saved from her original death, we'll see what happened to the others. But, there's plenty we don't know about what to expect in The Good Place season 3. Though we know that the endgame is for the four humans to eventually make it to the Good Place, and season 2 has undoubtedly taken them a few steps closer to that goal, there's still plenty of unanswered questions going into season 3.

Unanswered Questions After The Good Place Season 2 Finale

There's still a great deal we don't know about the Judge's latest test, especially in regards to the particulars. Although it appears she resurrected the humans and reinserted them back into their lives, is that actually what happened, or is it all a simulation? But perhaps the most important question about the test is: When and how does it end? If they were resurrected, do they simply live until they die again - or will the Judge and/or Michael step in after a certain amount of time? Presumably, since it's a test, there are set parameters established by the Judge and Michael that the viewers simply just don't know yet.

Further, what happens after the test is complete? In the penultimate episode of season 2, Eleanor and the others made an agreement with the Judge that they would only go to the Good Place together. Since their memories of their time in the afterlife have been wiped, does that deal still stand? Will their memories of that final reboot of Michael's neighborhood ever be restored, and if not, will the four humans choose to stick together again? Given what we've seen through the first two seasons of The Good Place, one of the few things we know for sure is that the four humans have formed an incredible bond of friendship that makes them better people. This is why, when Eleanor begins slipping back into her old ways, Michael sends her to Chidi in order to get back on the path to being a better person.

Another major question set up in the season 2 finale is what will happen if the Judge discovers Michael meddled with Eleanor. Michael makes reference to slipping in and out of the room where he and Janet are monitoring the humans' progress without being noticed, so it's clear the Judge (and perhaps others) are invested in the results of the test. Earlier in the episode, Judge Jen even says it's something they've never done before. So it's understandable if the whole afterlife, those who run both the Good and Bad Place, would be invested in the outcome. If it's discovered Michael intervened, how will that affect Eleanor and her friends' chances of getting into the Good Place? How will the results of the test affect the afterlife as a whole?

Of course, the real question The Good Place has yet to answer - despite the show's title - is: What is the Good Place really like? We've seen Michael's neighborhood, which is meant to fool the humans into thinking they're in the Good Place even though they were in the Bad Place, but without viewers having seen the real Good Place, we don't know how Michael's neighborhood compares. With The Good Place heading into its third season, it's time for the show to visit its eponymous afterlife.

Next: The Good Place Season 2 Finale Review

The Good Place will return for season 3 on NBC.