Blake Bortles getting cut is the best possible thing for ‘The Good Place’

Jason Mendoza is in for a rude surprise when The Good Place returns this fall. The Jaguars signed Nick Foles, cut Blake Bortles and it’s the best possible thing the show could have asked for. Even one of the show’s writers, Megan Amram felt the pain when Foles was signed ...

Advance warning: There are going to be a lot of spoilers for the show here. If you haven’t caught up on Season 3 then please, by all means find another piece of fine content here on SBNation.com.

Up to this point Jason’s arc on The Good Place has been the most stagnant of the main characters. He’s had his personal struggles, typified by meeting his father, Donkey Doug and Pillboi — but there’s been something missing from his development: Hardship in the afterlife. Eleanor and Chidi have had their budding relationship, Tahani was learning altruism as typified by her trying to re-unite Jason and Janet — but Jason himself, not so much.

The core themes of Season 3 were identity and relationship, oft intertwined. While Jason has a plot line with Janet and their evolving romance, it’s also primarily used as comic relief — not as a true source of change. It’s here where Blake Bortles enters the fray.

There has been one constant to Jason since the first season: His ever-living, undying love for Bortles and the Jaguars. At first this was resigned solely to the Jags, but over time this became more about Bortles himself. When Jason arrives in the mail room of the “Good Place” he smells Bortles accepting the Super Bowl MVP trophy — the Jaguars are still his love, but so is Bortles.

Now the show needs to reconcile an existence where the object of Jason’s affection is no longer on his favorite team. Sure, they could simply pivot this to be all about Foles, but there’s something far more interesting the show could explore.

The tail-end of Season 3 established a new “Good Place,” with Eleanor in the architect role following Michael’s breakdown. The experiment is to prove that humans can improve morally without the pressures of the real world on them.

Death, to Jason, has been largely great. He saw his favorite football team get good and he’s falling in love, but now there’s a road bump that can shatter his identity: Bortles is gone. Keep in mind that the Good Place, as constructed by Michael and Janet in Season 1, was an eternal punishment, one which Jason was able to drift through blissfully. Now he’s in a designed paradise, but with the pressure of his favorite player not being on his favorite team.

In many ways this is hell for him — and the turmoil could be enough to destroy the entire experiment, especially considering Jason’s poor impulse control. A scenario could easily emerge where the manufactured perfection of the neighborhood is thrown asunder as Jason mopes and complains about Bortles. A quarterback change for the Jaguars could have ramifications not only for Jason, but for the future of humanity.

Now we need to wait until the fall to see if the move to switch Bortles for Foles was good, and whether the decision could doom the humans race.