Chapter 12: Mindy St. Claire

**Chapter 12: Mindy St. Claire** is the 12th episode of Season 1 of *The Good Place*.

## Plot

With the help of Chidi and Tahani, Michael faces his biggest challenge yet. Meanwhile, Eleanor, Jason, and Janet are faced with a monumental decision.

## Summary

Eleanor, Jason, and Janet escape on a train to a zone of the afterlife outside of the Good and Bad Places. Eleanor recalls the day she died - she was shopping for groceries and while exiting the store, a young man who worked for an environmentalist agency approached her, only for her to rudely brush him off before getting hit by a column of runaway shopping carts pushing her into the path of an oncoming truck. She wakes up when Janet says they've reached their destination. They discover they're in the Medium Place and meet its sole inhabitant, Mindy St. Claire, who freaks out screaming, as she's naked and has been alone up until now. Mindy recounts her story to the group - she was a high-powered corporate attorney who practiced during the 1980s and generally led a selfish life. One day, during a massive cocaine bender, she came up with an idea to form a massive global charity and withdrew all of her money, only to die in an accident shortly afterward. Mindy's sister found the designs and was so inspired by it that she created the charity in Mindy's name, which went on to help millions of people. Both the Good Place and the Bad Place argued over whether or not Mindy should receive credit for the good things done in her name. Unable to agree where Mindy should go, a compromise was formed and they created a new afterlife neighborhood just for her: The Medium Place, an afterlife designed to be as mediocre as possible. Eleanor realizes that this medium afterlife isn't all that great either, as Mindy is isolated and clearly bored out of her mind with little else to do besides watch *Cannonball Run 2* and masturbate constantly, desperately hankering to have some cocaine again.

Meanwhile, Shawn proceeds with his trial on Eleanor and Jason, with Chidi, Tahani, Michael, and Real Eleanor trying to argue in Eleanor's favor. Chidi argues that while Eleanor did start off bad, she did improve immensely, but anytime he and "Real" Eleanor get emotional in their arguments, Shawn just cocoons himself up. Ultimately, Shawn judges against Eleanor and Jason, decreeing that if the two don't return within a couple of hours, Chidi and Tahani will be sentenced to go to the Bad Place in their stead.

Eleanor tells Jason that they can't abandon their friends and they must return to help Chidi and Tahani. Jason would rather stay in the Medium Place, even if he doesn't like it that much, and even he can see that Eleanor's parents were terrible after she relates the story of how she emancipated herself from them on her fourteenth birthday (which they didn't even raise a fuss over). However, Eleanor is done making excuses for her own bad behavior and says it's time to step up to the plate and take responsibility. Jason and Janet board the train to go back to the Good Place.

## Cast

Kristen Bell as **Eleanor Shellstrop**
William Jackson Harper as **Chidi Anagonye**
Jameela Jamil as **Tahani Al-Jamil**
D'Arcy Carden as **Janet/Bad Janet**
Manny Jacinto as **Jason Mendoza**
**and** Ted Danson as **Michael**
**Guest Starring**

Adam Scott as **Trevor**
Tiya Sircar as **The Real Eleanor**
Marc Evan Jackson as **Shawn**
Maribeth Monroe as **Mindy St. Claire**
Leslie Grossman as **Donna Shellstrop** *(flashback)*
Allyn Rachel as **Betsy** *(flashback)*
**Co-Starring**

Jailene Arias as **Vanessa Garcia** *(flashback)*
Tom Beyer as **Doug Shellstrop** *(flashback)*
Sarah Casolaro as **Google Crosby** *(flashback)*
John Hartman as **Joe** *(flashback)*
Avery Hayes as **Young Eleanor** (*flashback)*
Mele Ihara as **Beadie**
Georgia Mischak as **Yoga Woman** *(flashback)*
Seth Morris as **Wallace** *(flashback)*
## Trivia

* Original broadcast audience: 3.93 Million
* When Eleanor looks at her horoscope in a magazine, it says "LUCKY NUMBERS: 1, 23, 58"; after she dies, she's sent to Neighborhood 12358W. 1,2,3,5,8 are the first five numbers generated in the Fibonacci sequence (after the starting values 0,1).
* When Michael brings frozen yogurt for Tahani and Chidi, he explains this is because there's no Janet here to serve them, so he even dresses like Janet.