The Good Place S01E07 "The Eternal Shriek" Recap

Michael announces that he will be retiring, with the "retirement" being a series of eternal torture treatments. It's also revealed that the only way out of the neighborhood is by train, with the train being something that only a Janet robot can summon and operate.

Chidi tries to convince Eleanor to come forward since it is ethically wrong for Michael to be tortured forever for something he didn't do. She doesn't feel bad until she learns that "retirement" isn't something pleasant for Michael. Tahani also feels guilty since she had been planning a party for Michael without knowing that retirement was torture.

In a series of flashbacks, Chidi is shown to lie to a coworker. The coworker had purchased a pair of expensive, gaudy boots. Chidi didn't want to offend him, so he claimed to like them. But he is wracked with guilt over the fib for three years until the truth explodes out of him after the coworker survives a difficult surgery.

Tahani holds the going away party for Michael but despite her valiant efforts, the party is very sombre.

Eleanor and Chidi learnthat Janet has a killswitch that causes her memories to be wiped out and reset. Eleanor wants to press it since she won't be able to work the train that will take Michael to retirement. But Chidi believes it's unethical so the two argue in-between Janet's safety protocol being triggered any time they get too close to the button. Jason almost presses the button but when Chidi tries to push him out of the way he accidentally presses it himself.

Michael is shocked from the revelation that Janet has been murdered. He apologises to Tahani for lashing out at her for supposedly distracting him from Janet when she was murdered. Janet doesn't die in a traditional sense, since she isn't human, but she does reset all functioning and is not functioning properly yet.

Michael announces to everyone that he will not be retiring, since there is something else going on wrong with the neighborhood than him. He has every intention of finding Janet's 'killer' and Eleanor finally decides to do the right thing. She tells Chidi she loves him (seemingly platonically) and then announces to everyone that she is the problem as she was brought to the Good Place by mistake.

The Good Place airs on NBC.