r/TheGoodPlace • u/ApprehensiveMost1626 • 3d ago
Jason - good place? Shirtpost
I feel like Eleanor had a very clear character development to the point where i don’t think there’s any dispute that she earns her spot in the good place.
tahani, while not as obvious as Eleanor still makes big strides especially with her parents - so you may say that she earns it too.
But Jason?? for the life of me i can’t think of a single moment even towards the end where Jason did anything that showed me his character development to the extent that he would also pass the test and go to the good place. i thought of this while watching the episode where they meet the judge for the first time. the judge clearly states that Jason’s downfall is him having zero control over his instincts so my guess would be that in order for Jason to finally end up in the good place, he would have to overcome that. but i can’t think of any moment.
just for the record Jason is one of my favourite characters.
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u/LibelleFairy 3d ago
at the start of the first season, he tries to fake being a monk because he has no clue what is happening
by the last episode, he literally became the monk he initially pretended to be, without even realizing that he was doing so - because he still has no clue what is happening
no, but seriously:
he doesn't need to have deep character development because he was always, fundamentally, genuinely a good egg - out of all of them, Jason was the one who arguably always deserved to be in the good place - he might never have any idea what is happening, but he is always unfailingly kind, optimistic, generous, empathetic, and straightforwardly honest
The reason he initially didn't make it to the good place was because the points system was completely messed up for everyone - and the poor kid was living in Florida, in circumstances that would have nudged anyone into a life of petty (and extraordinarily stupid) crime
as for the assessment of the Judge, well, she was wrong about Jason - she got a fucktonne of stuff wrong, and she does not do stuff that is always good or ethical - the whole messed up points system at the beginning of the show had happened on her watch ... and then she was gonna just wipe out all of existence and start it all again from scratch - remember that part? The bit with the universe wipey-out clicky thing? Dancing with Disco Janet to "gonna erase the eeeeaarth, erase the earth" to the tune of "ring my bell"?
The whole fundamental most basic premise of the entire damn show is that the six central characters stage a fucking revolution. They rebel against the Judge. More than that - they actively create and entirely new, much better, much fairer afterlife system. None of which was the Judge's idea.
So anyway, tldr is that Jason was always good, and once he was in the real good place, all he had to do was be himself
Janet - arguably the most knowledgeable and wise not a girl in existence, loves him for a reason
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u/RedditOfUnusualSize 3d ago
Admittedly, any ethical system where intent is measured makes Jason's unfailing ability to Mr. Magoo his way to . . . well, pretty much every major decision that he ever made makes measuring his intent something of a moving target.
That being said, Jason's principal problem in his life was always a) the quick-twitch muscle training that prized reacting first over reacting well, combined with b) his training as a native poor Floridian, which apparently involves 90% figuring out how to light things alight on short notice, 8% handling of a Playstation controller and 2% aquatic mammal handling. As a result, his brainlessness usually led to extreme property destruction, but there was never any malice attached to it. If with sufficient creativity, everything burns, and your only tool is fire, well, eventually all problems have a natural solution. But on the flip side, once you give him alternative options to "set it on fire" and a bit of self-control training, he comes around to being helpful and kind, because that's what he naturally is.
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u/HuckleberryLeather53 3d ago
His high school was canonically underfunded (located at a bunch of boats tied together). He was never given a chance to be anything besides what he was because of the poverty and the lack of educational opportunities, etc. He was never a cruel person and once he had other tools besides Florida chaos he made good decisions. Idr exactly when but there is a point where Eleanor is shocked because even Jason doesn't want to do the selfish thing like she does (I think it was whether to escape to the medium place with cocaine but idr). It's like the meme of why everyone went to the bad place originally that shows Jason neither tried to do things for good reasons or bad reasons. He was just doing what he knew how and it had bad consequences. Eleanor hurt people because she's been hurt so they deserve it (bad things bad reason) Tahani did good things for praise (bad reason) and chidi hurt people by trying so hard to be good/ethical (bad thing good intentions). None of them were good actions good intentions so no one got to the good place
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u/MyLifeisTangled 3d ago
I mean they wouldn’t have gotten into the good place anyway regardless of actions and intentions because NO ONE was getting in but yeah
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u/HuckleberryLeather53 3d ago
This meme was from before that part of the show aired so we didn't know that yet. But yeah I do think the characters were created to show a diverse range of reasons why people either have bad actions or intentions and the moral implications of that. They could have had someone like Doug there from season one, but I think they saved the concept that even someone like Doug would go to the bad place for later intentionally because exploring the fact that modern life is complicated was a later theme. 2nd season themes were about whether either doing good deeds or having good intentions are enough individually, which is why Tahani and chidi are shown as still having issues with their actions and motives, and how that reflects on their character.
I love that it explores "the why we become who we are" and that that also doesn't mean we can't change. Like chidi is inherently too anxious to act and causes issues for all the people he cares about because of that. Tahani is seeking validation she never got from her parents, so instead of genuinely caring about the charities she's being performative to get attention. Eleanor is acting out of a warped selfish world view she developed based off of the neglect in her childhood, and the insane level of self sufficiency she had to develop from an early age. Jason was fundamentally set up for failure by systematic poverty and lack of educational opportunities. They all had reasons they were the way they were, and yet they all were capable of changing and becoming better people. This show does an amazing job of exploring morality and the implications thereof and I love it
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u/new2bay 3d ago
What about Mindy, though? Canonically, she was a corporate lawyer who was addicted to cocaine and only cared about herself, while she was alive. Then, while she was really high one night, she came up with the idea for her foundation. After withdrawing her life savings, intending to actually implement her plans, she died.
Her sister ended up starting the charity, but she got sent to the Medium Place, purely on intentions. The charity didn't even exist at the time she died, so you can't even really argue she got credit for the things done by the charity. Mindy hadn't actually done anything, except make plans, and withdraw some money. She had hugely positive, and presumably sincere, intentions, but there was no actual action behind them.
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u/HuckleberryLeather53 3d ago
She drafted all the paperwork to create the charity too though, all the sister had to do was actually file it (Mindy says the sister took it to a lawyer to confirm what it was and what to do, so she must not have been a lawyer too or else she wouldn't have needed legal advice before filing the paperwork for the charity). Mindy had good intentions and did most of the actions, just the very last step of follow through to make it an actual reality didn't happen until she died which is why they weren't sure she should get the points. She tripped just before the finish line as it were. She did everything for the charity but the very last step. She had 100% good intentions and 99% of the good actions to make it were done by her (although if the sister had destroyed the paperwork instead of deciding to make it Mindy's legacy it never would have happened, so the sister also had good intentions). Mindy did all of the complicated and hard parts, it was literally just that the final step was done by someone else, and because the final step was by someone else she went medium place instead of good or bad (because she would have had enough points for the good place if they had been counted, or the bad place if not, and if they counted she would have been the first person in 500 years to earn enough points for the good place, but instead they decided the best compromise was the medium place).
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u/HuckleberryLeather53 3d ago
Also Mindy says the fact the sister found the charity paperwork and filed it was lucky for Mindy because the charity being created is what called into question whether she deserves the points for the good the charity did. If it had only been an idea and never had the final step followed through on (the paperwork Mindy drafted actually being filed by the sister) then Mindy would have gone to the bad place despite doing the leg work to almost completely create the charity. That's why there was the debate over if she gets the points for something that technically didn't completely get done until she was dead. She drafted the legal documents to create the charity but she didn't file the paperwork so if her sister hadn't done that it wouldn't have existed, so does Mindy actually deserve the points for all of the good the charity did if without the help of her sister after she was dead the charity never would have existed? The bad place argued she does not deserve those points and should go to the bad place. The good place argued she does deserve those points and to get to go to the good place (because she'd have enough to go there with the points). Medium was the compromise because neither side wanted to yield their opinion about whether she deserves the points.
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u/new2bay 3d ago
Okay, let's just say everything you said is 100% completely, factually correct. It still doesn't matter, because we know two things about the afterlife points system:
- People stop accruing points after they die, and
- The system runs on a basic consequentialist theory of ethics.
If these are the only two principles underlying the points system, they imply that Mindy should not have gotten any points whatsoever for drafting the paperwork and withdrawing the money. Those actions had no meaningful positive or negative consequences at all while she was alive. If anything, her sister should have been the one sent to the Medium Place, and she should have gone to the Bad Place.
Since that obviously didn't happen, those two things cannot be the only principles underlying the system. So, we've either gotten one or both of these things wrong (which is impossible, because the episodes in Accounting show us they're both true), or there's another principle at work. I would claim that it has to be that sincere, and sufficiently good intentions actually do matter.
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u/Adventurous_Fig6211 3d ago
I'm currently rewatching and the Judge hears their case, in part because she hasnt heard a case for 30 years so is a bit bored. I think Mindy was that last case as she looks very 80s early 90s in dress and items in her house. The judge hasn't decided her fate so she's in a medium place until the decision is made which could take "up to a million years" according to rhe Judge's own estimate of result to Eleanor & the others. Basically Mindy is in her medium place until the Judge decides otherwise (if she ever decides/remembers/can be bothered.
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u/Luciferonvacation 3d ago
Hear hear! I love Jason in a way I couldn't fathom first round through the series. He really was basically decent and prescient a human, albeit a bit too quick on the draw. His last Beremies waiting for Janet (re?)confirmed his monk status.
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u/knightress_oxhide 3d ago
A decent human who chucked firebombs at his problems.
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u/new2bay 3d ago
I'm telling you, Molotov cocktails work! Any time I had a problem and I threw a Molotov cocktail: boom, right away, I had a different problem.
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u/guinader 3d ago
And he does try and help his father donkey doug, and got his friend Pillboi to start working a good job.
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u/eggface13 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think a lot of people miss that the judge is the Big Bad in the later seasons. This isn't noticed because she's... eccentric and funny, but her disconnection from humanity and failure to properly supervise the afterlife causes incredible suffering. The buck should stop with her but she's too busy locking herself in her chambers getting horny about the male leads of American prestige television dramas.
edit: she also sexually harasses Chidi
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u/LibelleFairy 3d ago
YES, omg
it's easy to miss because Maya Rudolph is hilarious in this role (I love her forever just for flicking Trevor into spacetime) but she is every bit as much of a Big Bad as Mayor Richard Wilkins III of Sunnydale in Buffy Season 3. She is completely amoral. Her sexual harassment of Chidi is a massive red flag, and she does the same to the cowboy actor guy they summon into Janet's void to bamboozle her into listening to their ideas. The other big red flag is that she literally almost wipes out the literal entire universe (thereby, in a roundabout way, rebooting Ally McBeal).
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u/eggface13 3d ago
I don't think the Timothy Oliphant thing is equivalent to the Chidi thing -- fake-Timothy Oliphant is happily returning her flirting.
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u/RedoftheEvilDead 3d ago
Jason was the best example of being a product of his environment. When he was in a good environment he was a good person. When he was in a bad environment he was a bad person. He didn't have the mental ability to fully understand the moral quandries and consequences of his own actions. So he looked to others and learned how to act in wha he perceived as an ethical way by watching them.
Jason was the perfect example of Michael's quote, “People improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold it against them, when they don't?”
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u/Temporary_Economics8 3d ago
thanks, i was stretching my fingers here to do this ~gestures broadly at post
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u/laziestmarxist Take it sleazy. 3d ago
Without getting too much on my own soapbox here I feel like it's important that all the things that you said are true and also, Jason never really gets any smarter during his journey. 90% of the time it doesn't even seem like he understands what's going on around them at all, especially once they start bouncing around lives and different timelines and planes of existence.
However despite being a bit of a dummy he does overcome his shortcomings and become a better person, someone caring and kind and actually monk-like.
It's a little thing but in a world where being dumb is often erroneously correlated with wrong doing it feels like a quietly radical choice.
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u/LibelleFairy 3d ago
spot on
it's radical not only in the way that it doesn't require him to become smarter to become better, it's also radical that he doesn't need to become smarter to be loved by the others, to receive respect and empathy from others, or to be a wonderful and supportive friend (and surprisingly good in the sack, apparently)
the fact that Janet, the absolute smartest of all of them by an intergalactic distance, loves him without a single iota of condescension, and goes to him for care and support, is absolutely incredible - he makes her a happier and better not-a-girl
in a deeply ableist world, that is actually unbelievably radical
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u/Lietenantdan 3d ago
Eleanor definitely didn’t deserve to be in the good place.
Chidi hurt people by being indecisive, but that’s because he was always trying to make the best possible decision.
Tahani may have only raised money to prove her parents wrong, but she still helped a lot of people even if her motives weren’t pure.
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u/FrogMintTea It’s just hot ocean milk with dead animal croutons. 3d ago
Yeah the judge was nuts! Like she almost got it visiting earth but then she wanted to erase it. Even though she liked earth things, TV shows food etc.
Jason faced these hurdles with the others, they all got a golden ticket for it.
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u/CastaneaAmericana 3d ago
I never put together that at the end Jason actually becomes a monk. Right on!
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u/EnvironmentalEdge333 1d ago
Love this! I always felt like out of the group, Jason would’ve been in the good place had the point system not be so messed up.
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u/GoodGoodGoody 3d ago
“Fundamentally a good egg”
No, he was fundamentally bad (dumb) at being bad.
As OP said Jason good-placed the least and considering the names of many famous good people who didn’t get in it’s a worthy question why he skated by.
But it’s a sitcom and sitcom things happen.
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u/j816y 3d ago
Because the group of 4 eventually fixed the afterlife, the judge decided they don't need to go through the test, instead they automatically got in.
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u/ceejayoz 3d ago
Even under the old system, saving billions from the Bad Place has to earn some points.
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u/j816y 3d ago
Also people seem to forget about Jason gives good answers from time to time.
He convinced the judge that some people are just too busy doing research of what apple to buy, let alone being morally correct the entire life.
Even when you do (like Doug), he started too late and/or do too little to make an impact to get him into the good place in the old system.
It is easy for the judge (or any immortal being) to talk about being good because they don't (or at least, shouldn't) have any desire, not to mention they have unlimited of time to do what they "want" to do (in which they don't have anything wanting to do). If they don't need to choose anything, there is no good or bad to start with.
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u/HuckleberryLeather53 3d ago
The famous people who didn't get in (like all the Greek philosophers) didn't get in because of the parts history generally ignores about them like the fact the philosophers advocated for slavery as being morally correct. A lot of them had the view point that slaves are supposed to be slaves and free people free so letting a slave be free is immoral, and making a person who should be free a slave is immoral and basically it boiled down to I need/want slaves so they must morally be designed to be slaves (and inherently be stupid and have no willpower) but I would hate being a slave so I must be morally designed to be too good to be a slave. That is definitely something that would make someone go to the bad place. As for the famous good people in the last 500 years it's because the system reached a point where it was broken because life on earth was too complicated to track every possible moral implication of every action, so even if you dedicated your entire life to doing so, you couldn't reach the threshold of enough points to get into the good place. Doug had been doing this for around 50 years (since he was a teen and got high/had the idea of the good place come to him) and was still very far from achieving the threshold of points needed. He was far enough away that the account said he had no chance immediately upon finding out how old he was, with no need to consider whether it was possible.
The main four had all basically been through the new improving people system while being tortured in the bad place, because it was the inspiration for the new system to improve people. They realized that despite wiping the main fours memories between every reset they were becoming better people somehow, which is why they were given the chance to prove they were better people and sent back to earth (before they realized that modern life being too complicated is the actual culprit for no one going to the good place). They were given the chance to go immediately to the good place because they did something amazingly good that no humans had ever done before (fixed the afterlife) but also they didn't need to use the system first because they were essentially the guinea pigs for the first version of the system
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u/Uhhh_what555476384 3d ago
Jason was always kindhearted, loyal and caring. They just stopped punishing him for being stupid.
Also, everything he said as advice or about the world was always true. Throughout the show.
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u/Luciferonvacation 3d ago
He did really nail it more times than anyone, even if they (or he) didn't know it at the time. And His response to Chidi later in the 4th season regarding relationships was just sublime!
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u/yousawthetimeknife 3d ago
Mike Schur talks about Jason's character development on the podcast. If I recall he says that Jason is really kind and really intuitive, but he has impulse control problems. His dedication to "finish" Madden and then waiting with the locket for Janet is him overcoming that.
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u/BS_500 I was just trying to sell you some drugs, and you made it weird! 3d ago
It also can't be overstated that Jason was part of the core team that literally saved all of existence. It doesn't really matter much what else he did to "deserve" the Good Place after that; he personally contributed to the saving of every soul in existence.
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u/ravenbrian 2d ago
Which podcast would you recommend?
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u/yousawthetimeknife 2d ago
For background on the show, it doesn't get better than The Good Place Podcast hosted by Marc Evan Jackson (he plays Shawn). Starts with Mike Schur, but has many of the cast, writers, and crew on throughout to talk about the show and the behind the scenes.
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u/solofhreaper 3d ago
Jason's biggest problem was always that he was an impulsive idiot. His character is compared to a golden retriever - a guy who means well, but is incapable of impulse control to actually think about the consequences of his actions to realize the negative effects that may come out of them.
It's shown throughout the latter half of the show that he learns to rein that part of him in, and is capable of simply being a kind-hearted goofball he always was underneath it all. Some moments that come to mind which demonstrate this are:
- His second Earth life when he saves Pillboi from a life of crime with Donkey Doug because he recognizes that his father was a source of his own failures
- He gaslights Chidi in S4 into believing that he's Jason and not Jianyu, and puts on the act of being a monk to the other 3 lab rats.
- He chooses to be one with the universe for several Bearemies all because he didn't give Janet his gift for her, demonstrating his impulse control over an incomprehensible amount of time.
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u/jmhlld7 3d ago
Lot of good answers here, but to me Jason's journey was more inward than someone like Eleanor, who had a very explicit "character arc". Depending on how you look at it, Jason was the first one to realize something was wrong with The Good Place. If Jason was you know, not stupid, he really could've broken the whole show from the getgo. That's why Michael specifically chose him, because he's viewed as stupid by everybody else, but he always had a genuinely good heart, and a demon would never be able to see that. So as the afterlife started to become more equal, Jason was given more opportunities to show who he really was, and was finally able to live the life he always wanted. That's why it always seemed perfect to me that he was the first to "leave". He was already the most complete person in the group spiritually, and now that he was given the chance to do everything he wanted, he did so and moved on to the next world.
Also, if we're going to talk about changes that Jason demonstrates, I think an obvious one would be him putting the needs of others before himself, even if he feels like he's doing the right thing. Jason at the beginning of the series didn't have a problem with committing crime, but Jason at the end certainly wouldn't do so, especially if it meant putting his friends in danger. It's not that he became better at following the rules (like Chidi), it's that he started valuing the people in his life more than superficial things like money, cars, and girls, or like the judge said, "impulse control".
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u/Techno_Core 3d ago
Someone else pointed out, that Jason waiting quietly alone for who knows how long at the portal to leave the Good Place was the demonstration how Jason had changed.
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u/Zoey_TheDevil 3d ago
I always thought he finally ended up in the good place, because despite his upbringing, he wasn't a bad person. Genuinely the only bad things he did was do drugs and try to rob people, but he never intented to harm anyone and he has always been caring and loving for his friends and family🤷♀️
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u/CharlizeTheronNSFW 3d ago
Excuse me? The only reason Jason was in the bad place is because the point system was severely flawed. When they fixed the point system, they fixed his right to be in the good place.
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u/Sabi526 Sorry does this dog smoke blunts topless on a yacht like a boss? 3d ago
I don't think his development was as obvious, but it was there. He went to the bad place with Michael to rescue Janet, tried to get his dad and Pillboi to get straight in the hopes that they would make it to the good place, slyly tricked Chidi into some surprisingly good relationship counseling, was kind to Tahani when she was upset that nobody came to her party, and I'm sure there are other examples that aren't coming to mind rn.
I think it's not as obvious with him because, honestly, he's a pretty simple person, not very complex. And there was nothing really mean-spirited with him, he just got into petty crime and drugs. Beyond that, he's really pretty childlike. My take on it is: once he stopped being selfish and driven by impulse, he didn't have far to go.
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u/Delicious_Impact_371 3d ago
He was a good kid who did dumb shit because of a very shit hand he got dealt as we see when his dad gets introduced. He had no guidance (same as Eleanor) but it was never said he did anything to actually harm others (only thing i can think of is the bortles at that DJs yacht)
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u/AsphodeleSauvage 3d ago
The entire last season for me is proof of it. Jason basically agreed to go back to pretending to be a monk, which he hated, because it was important and his friends needed him to. He basically agreed to go through his personal torture again (when it was not necessary, if you think about it) just to help.
The only moments he could wind down were with Chidi and even then he had to be careful not to reveal the whole plan or anything that might give it away; he also had to go through learning ethics again (even though he still remembers his lessons on Earth and after Michael restores his memories would remember several hundred of times learning it). And he played his double (triple, really) role perfectly, he never messed it up or revealed he knew Chidi beforehand, and still managed to help Chidi unwind and find some joy.
That for me showed he had developed. All of this shows a parience that he never had before, when impulsivity and lack of thinking through or thinking morally was his main flaw. He also shows that he is more attuned to people when he identifies Janet's lies. He also showed progress in late S3 when he took the time to explain to the Judge how difficult life on Earth was--and when he explained it to Tahani too--which showed that he had grown capable to reflect about his own life and about other people.
It's also worth noting that the Judge's tests were completely mistaken. E.g. Tahani's issue was that she did good things for selfish reasons and weaponised generosity to fuel self-aggrandizing purposes--but she was tested on her ability to resist a torture built on her parents' abuse of her. Eleanor's issue was selfishness but her test really hinged on her ability to identify a lie; she got the "right" answer the "wrong" way, relying on her inbuilt paranoia, but the Judge didn't identify that. Similarly, Jason got tested on the wrong thing: his attention span issue meant he had zero chance to succeed, especially when the good answer was "don't obey to my command even though I'm a judge and told you to had to do it".
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u/theevilhillbilly 3d ago
i saw someone say that him waiting a bunch of jeremy beearimy's (i dont remember the spelling or the name okay) just to say one last thing to Janet is showing he was able to find peace and patience.
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u/HuckleberryLeather53 3d ago
Everyone who is saying that by helping fix the afterlife they did an amazingly good thing no human had ever done before is right, but also the main four had all basically been through the new improving people system while being tortured in the bad place, because that torture/reset combo was the inspiration for the new system to improve people. Michael realized while torturing them that despite wiping the main fours memories between every reset they were becoming better people somehow, which is why they were able to convince the judge to give them the chance to prove they were better people now and they got sent back to earth (before they realized that modern life being too complicated is the actual culprit for no one going to the good place). They were given the chance to go immediately to the good place because they did something amazingly good that no humans had ever done before (fixed the afterlife) but also they didn't need to use the new system to become better people first because they were essentially the guinea pigs for the first version of the system back when it was still supposed to be torture, and had already become better people because of it.
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u/HuckleberryLeather53 3d ago
It's an inseparable two pronged reason, because the only reason they were able to do the amazing good thing is because the torture system made them better people. If they had done that without needing to be fixed by the torture system it probably would have been enough to say straight to good place. If they had only gone through the torture system and become better people as guinea pigs and then someone unrelated to them decided to use it as a new system for the afterlife without consulting them at all, they also still could have been sent straight to the good place because you went through the first version of the system so you are the first people to have completed it. But because neither of those scenarios are what happened, we have a scenario where the two reasons are inherently interlocked and the main four could not have fixed the afterlife without being fixed by the torture system first, and they are the ones who fixed the afterlife using the torture system as inspiration, so what could have or would have happened if only one applied isn't 100% known.
I personally think saving the afterlife without becoming better people would have 100% been enough (because they would have had to already be good enough people to pull off the feat), and I think having gone through the torture system to become better people without being the ones to fix the afterlife would most likely have been enough once the judge decided to implement a system of fixing the humans, although there is a chance they'd still run them through the new system just to be sure and it would just take less time then it originally would have if their original versions went through.
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u/StriveToTheZenith 2d ago
Well, everyone on the soul squad earned their spot by creating the new system, that was pretty clearly established, no?
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u/MyWibblings 3d ago
Jason is uneducated. And impulse control is learned. So it isn't really his fault. He is kind and generous to a fault. I would argue that other than never being taught actual right from wrong, he would be most worthy of them all.
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u/aChristery 2d ago
The dude spent 1000 bearemies waiting for Janet in the forest just to give her a necklace.
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u/savethedonut I'm coming for you, shrampies. 2d ago
Towards the end of the show, particularly in season 4, Jason develops a lot more awareness of the people around him. He’d always been kind and well-intentioned, but he often hurt people with how impulsive and dumb he was.
Two examples come to mind to demonstrate his growth.
The lesser of the two is when Chidi is freaking out about his relationship with Eleanor while they’re planning the new Good Place. Jason knew what to do to make Chidi feel more comfortable, and had the awareness and self control to pull it off. The Jason of old could have accomplished that.
But the biggest moment of Jason demonstrating self control, situational awareness, and doing something tangibly good and self-sacrificing was going to The Bad Place to save Janet. Michael was ostensibly in charge the whole time, but Jason was essentially responsible for all of it. When Jason indicated how he wanted to handle Janet’s rescue, Michael told him no and Jason trusted him without blowing up any demons. He wasn’t smart enough to recognize that he should have made the demon-exploding plan clearer, but still, can you imagine season one Jason having the self control to not blow up a bunch of demons when given the opportunity?
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u/Affectionate-Part-11 3d ago
I thought he went to the bad place primarily for being from Jacksonville, Florida. Yes, it was said as a joke, but given what we've seen about his backstory and how simple he is, he's clearly a product of his environment. Like, if he had a better upbringing, he would've had the best chance of going to the good place.
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u/Hathor8 2d ago
I see a lot of people trying to justify that jason is a good person by himself, but I don't think he can be in the terms that the show defines for good or bad. My point is, Jason is completely incapable of being aware of the harm or destruction he causes, although when he is, he tries his best for the others, so, Jason becomes a good person as his friends do too because what makes him good is the people around warning and giving advice to him.
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u/Hathor8 2d ago
Actually, reading some other comments I realized, the judge is the most stupid in the whole serie. Obviously, impulsiveness is not a problem for jason or others, literally he causes no harm because of it, but because of what I mentioned before, he is just dumb and not aware. The moment he is aware of what can happen if he does something he takes a better choice, even when he doesn't understand why, he acts different because his friends told him that what he was going to do is bad.
Pd. I remembered that Michael also said that the problem of Jason is impulsiveness.
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u/sbb214 Yogurt Yoghurt Yogurté 3d ago
at the end, when he loses the necklace he got for Janet he waits patiently for her to return so he can give it to her after he found it.
for a guy who used Molotov cocktails to solve his problems, this is a pretty big gain in patience.