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- ❝ You know how some people pull into the breakdown lane when there's traffic? And they think to themselves "Ah, who cares? No one's watching." We were watching. Surprise! ❞
- —Michael addressing everyone on orientation day.
Michael is a main character in The Good Place and is played by Ted Danson. Starting off as a friend to the other main characters, Michael is revealed at the end of Season One to be the main antagonist of the show.
History of Michael
Michael is an immortal being called an Architect who constructs neighborhoods for humans to live in in the afterlife. He falsely portrays an Architect for a Good Place neighborhood when in reality, Michael is an Architect for the Bad Place. He masterminded a Bad Place to fit four people, who would slowly torture each other over the course of thousands years. The people selected for his project were Eleanor Shellstrop, Jason (Jianyu) Mendoza, Tahani Al-Jamil, and Chidi Anagonye. Before his villain reveal, Michael seemed to be a form of mentor and guide through her self-designed self-improvement course.[1]
Season 1
Michael is first introduced as the architect that constructed the neighborhood that Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani reside in The Good Place. When terrible catastrophes occur Michael has no idea whats causing them and scrambles to solve the problem, enlisting Eleanor to help. He comes to the conclusion that he is the problem and decides leave for retirement, upon hearing what retirement means Eleanor feels immense guilt and confesses that she is whats causing the problems and that she doesn't belong here.
Upon learning this Michael contacts Trevor from The Bad Place so that he can come take Eleanor but when Trevor arrives Chidi pleads with Michael so that Eleanor can stay. Michael refuses to let Eleanor leave with Trevor so he decides to bring in Shawn, another Immortal Being who acts as a Judge to settle disputes between The Good and Bad Place.
After Shawn arrives Eleanor steals his train and leaves for The Medium Place with Jason and Janet. Michael, along with Chidi and Tahani pleads their case as to why Eleanor should stay in The Good Place but Shawn rules that despite the good she has done and how much she has change it doesn't change that she was a bad person in life. Shawn sets a deadline for Eleanor to return or Chidi and Tahani will go to The Bad Place in her and Jason's stead.
Eleanor and Jason return but miss the deadline by a few minutes. Shawn states that The Bad Place is owed two people and gives Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani 30 minutes to decide which two should be sent to The Bad Place. After arguing among themselves Eleanor comes to the realization that they are already in The Bad Place. Michael confesses that Eleanor is right and the whole thing was a trick to get Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani to torture each other. After getting permission from Shawn to try again, he wipes their minds and starts the whole thing over again, but not before Eleanor writes down a note and stuffs it inside Janet's mouth.
Season 2
After rebooting his neighborhood and erasing the minds of Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani, Michael tries again but Eleanor figures out on the first night that she is in The Bad Place. Michael erases their minds again and reboots his plan a third time, lying to his boss Shawn that he is still on attempt number two. Eventually, Eleanor once again figures it out, forcing Michael to erase and reboot. He does this over 800 times until eventually the other demons involved in his plan get sick of it and, led by Vicky, blackmail him into letting them take control of his neighborhood.
After Vicky's coup, Michael joins up with Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, Tahani and Janet, promising them that in exchange for not erasing their minds and rebooting one more time so that Vicky can take over, he will help them get into the actual Good Place so that he can avoid retirement. He begins to learn about ethics, taught by Chidi. It is difficult for him to understand the concepts, owing to the fact that he is an immortal being whose only purpose is to torture humans. Eleanor tries to help him understand, but this backfires, and Michael gets a midlife crisis.
Powers and Abilities
- Immortality: As an Immortal Being, Michael cannot die. The only known way he could be killed is by the Eternal Shriek.
- Extra Dimensional vision: Michael can see in 9 different dimensions.
- Memory Manipulation: Can erase the memories of any deceased human.
- Reality Warping: Michael at will can alter the reality of the afterlife to anything he desires, however this is most likely restricted to just the neighborhood he himself has created.
- Simulation projection: Michael is able to construct any type of artificial simulation he desires no matter how complex.
Trivia
- Michael once stated that he can read the entire world's literature in about an hour.
- He claims to have existed since the beginning of time.