History Recap / TheGoodPlaceS1E01EverythingIsFine

* TakeThat: Eleanor says everyone who was medium ought to spend their afterlives in Cincinnati.

* UndignifiedDeath: Eleanor's death. She'd been buying stuff at a grocery store and then dropped a bottle of margarita mix in the parking lot and as she bent down to pick it up, she got hit by a runaway column of shopping carts, which swept her into the path of a truck advertising a performance enhancement drug, killing her stone dead. And just to add insult to death, the first EMT on the scene was apparently an ex-boyfriend of hers.

* OhCrap: The episode ends with the Neighborhood descending into chaos, presumably as a result of Eleanor's presence and mistakes. One of the clues is the giant shrimp flying through the sky. Eleanor, of course, freaks out. Michael, too, tells Tahani that everything has gone wrong and responds with a surprised "Yes!" when she asks if they should run away.

'''Chidi:''' If you're trying to swear, you can't, apparently some of the residents don't like it.\\
'''Eleanor:''' Well that's bullshirt.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Some of the first things Tahani says to Eleanor are meant to be compliments, but are also slightly insulting.

* AllMythsAreTrue: All religions are 5% true, as Michael puts it, stating that each and every religion has about 5% overlap with the real afterlife. Nobody has been able to get right on the mark, the closest being one kid who, high on mushrooms, managed to spout off an afterlife that was 92% correct.

* FlashbackCut: Beginning with Chidi asking Eleanor what she did on Earth, namely selling fake medicine. Then, asking her to recall what she did the day before she died. Cut to Eleanor being a jerkass to an environmentalist, then back to Eleanor claiming she can't remember anything specific.

* YouCanPanicNow: During the AttackOfThe50FootWhatever, Michael gives Tahani permission to run.

--> '''Chidi''': Actually, you're a hammer, just smashing the gears into dust.

* VictoriasSecretCompartment: At the party, Eleanor stashes a bunch of shrimp down her dress.

* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: A stoner from Canada named Doug Forcett was the one person to most closely accurately guess the true nature of the afterlife while high on magic mushrooms.

** This leads to a slight PlotHole in Season 3, when [[spoiler:the gang is sent back to Earth with their memories wiped, and Chidi continues to speak English with the exact same precision and accent]].

After presenting Eleanor with a house designed specifically for her preferences, Michael introduces her to her soulmate, Chidi Anagonye, a Senegalese ethics professor. When Michael leaves, Eleanor reveals to Chidi that everything Michael said about her life is wrong and she's not the person he says she is. Eleanor made a living by knowingly selling fake medicine to the sick and elderly and was crass and selfish, not recalling any good action she's ever done. Michael then introduces Eleanor and Chidi to Tahani Al-Jamil and her soulmate Jianyu Li, their neighbors. Tahani is a wealthy philanthropist while Jianyu is a Buddhist monk who has decided to keep his vow of silence. He also introduces them to Janet, an AI construct and repository of all information in the universe who runs the neighborhood and can grant the wishes of anything a resident desires.

While at a party hosted by Tahani and Jianyu at their mansion, Chidi begins to question whether to help Eleanor or not. The next morning, Eleanor wakes up to discover that many things that represent her crass comments about her life and her insults to Tahani at the party are wreaking havoc on the Good Place. Chidi tells her that remaining in the Good Place is cause for the incident and her actions are affecting it. Eleanor then asks Chidi to help her become a better person just as Michael knocks on the door to inform them of an emergency meeting.

--->I mean, you... you ''do'' get how that's worse, right?

* NotHelpingYourCase: Chidi asks Eleanor to describe a good deed she did in life. Eleanor can't think of any, so Chidi asks her to think of an average, non-terrible thing she did. Eleanor can't think of anything there either.