Warning! The following contains spoilers for the midseason premiere of The Good Place. Read at your own risk!
The big return of The Good Place was a whirlwind of emotions, but in the end, fans were surely satisfied to see Michael end up helping the humans and tricking Shawn and The Bad Place demons to leave. While it appears Eleanor was right to have trusted Michael in the short term, she might have just set herself up for a massive betrayal now that she's helped him eliminate his biggest threat. Is Ted Danson's Michael capable of pulling the wool over the eyes of Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani once again and double cross them?
It's certainly in Michael's best interest to do some double-crossing, and it feels a little too convenient that his master plan for helping the humans escape going to the actual Bad Place just so happened to frame Vicky. Sure, the other demons in the community knew of his failure, but it was Vicky who pulled the power move and forced Michael to give her command to prevent her from contacting Shawn and telling him what a disaster the whole project had been. Now, she's in a gooey cocoon and Shawn is left none the wiser of Michael's failures, with his future promotion still a go.
While it was nice that Michael ended up saving the humans of The Good Place, like most things Tahani has ever done, it was self-serving. His life in The Bad Place isn't bad, so why would he want to join the humans in attempting to get into the actual Good Place, especially now that he's covered and has a big promotion coming his way? For all we know, Michael can't even deliver on what he said and he just blurted it out in desperation when he thought he was facing retirement. He might not actually have any idea on how to get Eleanor and the group there.
That's something we'll find out soon enough. While Michael was able to buy some time, he's going to have to delete the old neighborhood very soon. That means he'll have to find a new home for Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani, which again seems like way more trouble than it's worth considering he just got his dream job. Unless Michael is playing an elaborate long-con and The Good Place is taking us on another journey just for Michael to reveal it was all a part of his plan in another crazy twist, it just doesn't seem worth it for him.
We'll see if Michael is serious about following through now that his stakes are lower. The Good Place is all-new on NBC next Thursday, January 11 at 8:30 p.m. ET. The Good Place isn't the only television show returning in 2018, and those who think otherwise need to head on over to our midseason premiere guide and get educated! For a look at a lot of shows that were canceled in 2017 and some background as to why, visit our cancellation guide.
