Entertainment

'The Good Place' Just Dropped New Season 4 Pics That Are Missing One Key Character

Colleen Hayes/NBC

Only one month remains before TV viewers will return to The Good Place for one last philosophy lesson. Ahead of the fourth and final season's premiere on Sept. 26, NBC has shared the first photos of The Good Place Season 4. The gang's all back together in the nine preview photos released on Thursday, Aug. 29, with Eleanor, Tahani, Jason, Michael, and Janet reunited. But, son of bench, one major player is forking missing.

Chidi is nowhere to be seen in the new Good Place Season 4 photos. Considering Chidi had his memory wiped in the emotional Season 3 finale, not seeing the moral center of the Soul Squad may have you feeling as anxious as ... well, Chidi himself. But the other photos may have you feeling hopeful that the group's last afterlife experiment will work — even if Chidi isn't leading the way with his ethics lessons.

With time and space being all Jeremy Bearimy, Eleanor and her human crew have lived many lives in and out of the afterlife. But this current go has them attempting to prove that the points systems used to determine who enters the Good and Bad Places is massively flawed. So in Season 4, Kristen Bell's Eleanor, Ted Danson's Michael, Jameela Jamil's Tahani, Manny Jacinto's Jason, and D'Arcy Carden's Janet must prove that humans don't all deserve to be sent to the Bad Place after they die.

Colleen Hayes/NBC
Colleen Hayes/NBC
Colleen Hayes/NBC
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Eleanor already stepped up in a big way for the soul-saving experiment at the end of Season 3 when Michael had a panic attack. She pretended to be the architect of the neighborhood for the newly dead human test subjects. And by the look of the Season 4 photos, she will be taking charge from behind Michael's desk again in the two-part premiere, "A Girl From Arizona." (Hopefully that episode title also means a flashback to Eleanor's pre-death days in the Grand Canyon State.)

Colleen Hayes/NBC

In Season 3, Shawn, being the demon he is, threw a wrench in their experiment by including Chidi's ex Simone as one of the human subjects. For the sake of keeping the experiment pure, Chidi asked for his memory to be erased — and so it's particularly foreboding that William Jackson Harper's character is absent from all the Season 4 group photos released so far. He doesn't have his own character shot, like Eleanor and Jason, nor does he appear in what looks like this season's neighborhood welcome party group shot.

Colleen Hayes/NBC

While Chidi isn't in the photos, he absolutely will be in Season 4. But with no memory, he's not in on the fact that this entire "Good Place" is an elaborate setup. That leaves Eleanor, Michael, and the bizarre love triangle of Tahani, Janet, and Jason to run the experiment without him.

Speaking of this part human, part "not a robot" love triangle, even though Janet and Jason began dating in Season 3, it doesn't look like everything is all good in paradise, err in the Medium Place. Tahani looks rather miserable alongside Jason in one shot. And, in another, Jason appears to be uncharacteristically contemplative. Just imagine the inane thoughts he could be lost in — or perhaps, he's dealing with some bigger moral quandary relating to his sentient being girlfriend Janet and his former wife Tahani.

Colleen Hayes/NBC
Colleen Hayes/NBC
Colleen Hayes/NBC
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Yet, Tahani's seemingly bad mood in the pictures might have nothing to do with Jason and Janet. In the Season 3 finale, Shawn placed gossip columnist John in the experiment to further torture Tahani. So maybe Janet and Jason are plotting to help Tahani overcome her negative feelings toward John like Tahani helped them with their romance. Janet does look quite scheming next to Tahani in the below shot.

Even if the photos don't show it, Eleanor is bound to be the most unhappy of the humans at the start of The Good Place Season 4. But have faith, fellow humans, that with the help of Michael, Janet, Jason, and Tahani, Eleanor and Chidi will reunite again before the final season is through to chill out in the dot of the "i" in Jeremy Bearimy for eternity.