'Good Place' Season 3 Spoilers: New Theory Has Us Rethinking Everything

Ever since The Good Place aired its shocking Season 1 finale, fans of the show have been waiting for another huge twist that can match that initial reveal. Season 2 never really delivered on that promise, but it looks like Season 3 could finally surprise us — assuming this clever new theory is right.

Spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2 (and potentially Season 3) of The Good Place ahead.

The mind-boggling theory comes from Reddit user dontmakenosnense, who lays out a pretty convincing argument for why the idea of a Good Place is just another lie cooked up by the demons that run the Bad Place.

It actually makes a lot of sense. After all, the only thing that could make eternal torture even worse is the knowledge that you’re being punished for being a bad person while other better humans are living in some heavenly paradise.

“They wanted to taunt everyone being tortured with the idea that if they had been just a little bit better, they could’ve ended up in paradise,” dontmakenosnense writes.

Still not convinced? There are several clues that may win you over.

Basically, even after two seasons of The Good Place, we still have no idea how to actually get to the Good Place. We’ve seen the Medium Place, which our heroes reached by train but apparently doesn’t offer access to this world’s version of Heaven. We’ve also seen the Judge’s chambers and a door between the Bad Place and Earth, but still no Good Place.

Even more mysterious are the origins of Janet, who was allegedly stolen from the Good Place. In Season 2 we learn she actually came from a warehouse outside of the Good Place, even though Bad Janets are stored right there in the Bad Place. So what gives?

As dontmakenosnense notes, it’s likely that very few demons even know the truth about the Good Place. Michael (Ted Danson) definitely has no idea, but his old boss Shawn might (which may also explain why he’s so determined to stop the humans back on earth in Season 3 before they figure it out).

If this is true, then Season 3 might end with with our heroes finally gaining access to the Good Place only to learn it never existed at all.

“They step out of the portal, and there’s nothing,” the theory concludes. “Just blank space, every way you look. No people, no buildings, just emptiness. And then they realize, there’s nothing here.”

That’s a pretty dark ending, but according to a similar theory from earlier this year it could be even darker. Reddit user DaylanHammer previously speculated the same thing in a May 2018 post titled, “Fan Theory About What the Good Place Really Is.” In it, they argue that the Good Place does exist, but not as a physical location. Instead, it simply represents eternal peace. Death.

“The Good Place doesn’t exist,” they wrote. “At least, it’s not a location in the sense of a ‘place,’ but a ‘location’ in the sense of a state of being, namely, the state of non-existence. Those who make it to the ‘Good Place’ no longer exist, they truly die.”

After surviving the Bad Place, simply ceasing to exist might not be such a terrible conclusion, but after growing to love these characters over the course of three (or more) seasons, seeing them simply die and disappear would be a pretty depressing way to end The Good Place once and for all.

The Good Place Season 3 airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC.