History Recap / TheGoodPlaceS4E13WheneverYoureReady

* RefreshinglyNormalLifeChoice: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Janet intentionally gives Michael enough money so he can live comfortably but not extravagantly. He's also not going to get any special treatment regarding the afterlife system, and will go through everything in it the same way every human does. But the mundanity of his existence now is exactly what Michael wants; Michael's always loved the simple things about humanity, and he's clearly having a blast finally getting to experience them firsthand.

* AllOfTimeAtOnce: In this episode, Janet reveals she perceives time this way, which means that even the sad farewells we see here aren't truly final -- in Janet's mind nothing ever truly ends. (And yet, even so, [[TimeyWimeyBall future events can still surprise her]], or at least make her ''act'' surprised.)

* RunningGag: Throughout the episode, Michael tries to learn how to master the guitar. He wants to learn how to do it himself, yet, over the course of thousands of Bearimies, can never figure it out. It's only when he becomes a human on Earth and accepts a guitar lesson that he finally gets it right.
-->'''Michael:''' ''(laughing to his guitar teacher after getting the note right)'' You have no idea how long I have been trying to figure that out!

** Michael once created the persona of Jianyu the monk to torture Jason, who couldn't stand any amount of time without the stimulation of video games and partying and drugs to keep him from getting bored. In this episode, Jason spends untold eons of time waiting in the forest by the door peacefully waiting for Janet to return so he can give her the necklace he made for her, in total silence and solitude so as not to disturb the others who've come to leave. As Janet wryly observes, somehow along the way Jason has [[BecomingTheMask become the mask]].

* BroughtDownToNormal: Michael is warned that if he truly becomes human he will lose all of his authority as an architect and go through everything other humans do -- including being completely at the mercy of the afterlife when he dies, even if Shawn should overturn the system just for the sake of torturing him eternally. It turns out that the vulnerability and uncertainty of true mortality is exactly what Michael wants.
** Janet, to a lesser extent. Unlike Michael she can never actually become human or be less than what she is but she reveals when she's with Jason she turns off some of her omniscience so she can truly be present with him.

* DePower: Michael chooses to become a human, which subsequently means he loses all of his demon powers.

* BigGood: This setting was formerly famous for not having any character who fills this role -- Gen, the Judge, has a BlueAndOrangeMorality that almost led to her destroying the universe, and the original Good Place Committee was [[GoodIsImpotent mostly known for being useless]]. Now the universe finally has a BigGood: Michael, who is the new ruler of the Good Place and sits on the Council as humanity's greatest advocate. He ''kicks ass'' at it, too... So much so that [[VictoryIsBoring he soon puts himself out of a job]].

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: Tahani is the first human to become an Architect and create new worlds in the afterlife herself, something Michael thought was impossible (even after having Eleanor pose as an Architect for the sake of the experiment in the first half of Season 4).

* MundaneLuxury: There's nothing incredibly glamorous about Michael's new life; Janet created an identity for him that has enough money to live comfortably but not extravagantly. He's shown eating Chinese takeout and a TV dinner, he lives in a normal apartment building, and is making connections to other people. By all practical means, Michael, the formerly immortal demon, is now just any other human, puttering around doing ordinary human things... which is exactly what he wants and has always wanted. ''This'' life, our world, our humanity, is Michael's Good Place.

* TheFunInFuneral: Of a sort; Jason's going away party is just that - a party. It's filled with DJ music, his sixty person dance crew, strobe lights, and everything else Jason loved in his life and afterlife. Jason is there for the whole thing, and remarks that it's a night he'll never forget (well, until he walks through the door and dissolves into the universe, but you know what he means).

* PinocchioSyndrome: The Judge gives Michael permission to become a human on Earth, with all of his memories of the afterlife. This means he will live, die and go through the trials. Janet sets up a bank account and a life for him, but she warns him he can't have salty food and needs to schedule a doctor's appointment.

* DistantFinale: Set hundreds of Jeremy Bearimys into the future, enough that the Soul Squad's friends and families have all died and successfully went through the afterlife tests.

** Notably, Michael reaches this point, just like humans in the Good Place used to do, he's done everything he's wanted to do, yet he still has infinity left to go. However, while the Door has since been invented to solve this problem, it doesn't work for Michael because he's an immortal being. The solution to this is to allow Michael to become an actual human himself, meaning that he will one day die and (after passing his afterlife tests) enter the Good Place and be able to walk through the Door and end his existence whenever he's ready.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Carrying on the theme of the previous episode, all of the events of this episode are driven by the fact that no human can remain in the Good Place indefinitely without becoming weary of existence and seeking to pass on -- and that once they reach this stage, they may choose to stay out of love for others, but their continued existence can only be a form of suffering.

* MundaneLuxury: There's nothing glamorous about Michael's new life; Janet created an identity for him that has enough money to live comfortably but not extravagantly. He eats a lot of TV dinners, he lives in a mediocre apartment building, by all appearances he's just another fixed-income retiree puttering around... Which is exactly what he wants and has always wanted. ''This'' life, our world, is Michael's Good Place.

* NotSoStoic: Janet's voice breaks when she asks Eleanor if she can watch her friend walk through the door.

** Derek has been rebooted over ''150 million'' times that he has evolved past his humanoid form, becoming an omnipresent mini supernova space cloud. And yet, he still somehow is a ThirdPersonPerson.

* AmbiguousEnding: Played with. We do get an unambiguous, final closure for all of the main human characters showing how they complete their evolution and pass on out of the Good Place. We learn nothing about what happened ''on Earth'' during this time, though -- just that all their friends and family eventually died and joined them, which was always inevitable -- and the final ending has Michael pop into mortal existence in the present day, with Janet warning him the future will now be totally unknown to him, just as it is to us. (Even the hope of reuniting with her in the Good Place is uncertain, because the whole theme of the show is the rules of the afterlife can always change.) And that's just the way he likes it.

** Those who walk through the door leading out of the Good Place meet an ending something like this -- no one, not even Michael and Janet, actually knows what they experience, only that it's an end to their conscious identity as themselves. The ending sequence implies they scatter as particles throughout the universe to merge with other souls and make them just a tiny bit better.

* BittersweetEnding: The new system works and everyone eventually become good enough to enter eternal paradise. Tahani reconciles with her family, who have reformed. Jason, Chidi, and Eleanor, however, choose to walk through the door, leaving Janet and Tahani behind. Tahani is allowed to intern and become an afterlife architect and seems to take to it. Michael is given permission to become a human on Earth, which means he gives up his powers and he won't see Janet and Tahani until he dies and passes the trials in the Bad Place. Even though that means he'll be tortured by Shawn and Vicky, who will definitely have him run the gamut, Michael is excited to be really human and no longer a fire squid. He starts with guitar lessons to master something he ''wants'' to do, rather than something he ''has'' to do.

--->'''Michael:''' ''Oh. I thought you were gonna...never mind.''

* BecomeARealBoy: The finale finally pays off years of hints that this was always Michael's deepest desire and true destiny -- the overwhelming fascination with humanity and dissatisfaction with his own nature as an eternal demon that led him to create the false Good Place in the first place, triggering all the other events of the plot, culminate in the revelation that he'll never be truly happy until he experiences humanity himself.

** Jeff the Doorman is given a real frog by Michael. Jeff then points to Michael and says he has the perfect name for it. Michael lights up...and then Jeff says he's going to name it [[BuffySpeak Mr. Jumpy Legs]].

* BrickJoke: Shawn once again grumbles "Shut up Glenn", although he now does it as a reflexive tic while trying to make something not sound evil.
* BroughtDownToNormal: Michael is very seriously warned that if he truly becomes human he will lose all of his authority as an Architect and go through everything other humans do -- including being completely at the mercy of the afterlife when he dies, even if Shawn should overturn the system just for the sake of torturing him eternally. It turns out that the vulnerability and uncertainty of true mortality is exactly what Michael wants.

* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: Michael seems briefly offended that the Doorman doesn't think to name his new pet frog "Michael". When he makes it to Earth, he goes on to name his Great Dane "Jason".

** Janet is the only member of the Soul Squad whose fate is left completely ambiguous, apart from her implicit promise to wait for Michael and the fact that she's not human so she can't die by going through the door. But whatever it is, it's no doubt as satisfying as the other members' fates.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: This episode gives an update on the afterlife status and the whereabouts of most characters throughout the series (both major and minor), but we also get one within this episode for Michael -- a brief montage that plays over Eleanor's wistful monologue wondering what his life on Earth is like, giving us no solid details about his life as an ordinary Arizona retiree but assuring us that he's doing well, living in an unassuming apartment with a big dog and a rich social life.

** After Jeff the Doorman is given a real frog by Michael, he says he knows just what to name it... and says [[BuffySpeak Mr. Jumpy Legs]].

* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: PlayedForLaughs when Jason looks for thousands of years for his bracelet for Janet, which was in his ''other pocket'' all along.

* OverlyLongGag: Shawn saying he will never ever, ever (multiple evers) admit Michael is right.

** Eleanor quotes what she said the very first time she realized they were in the Bad Place word for word when she tells Michael he'll become a human.
-->''You know, it took me awhile to figure it out...''