On paper, Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) and Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper) are about as far away from soulmates as possible.

That’s the gag, isn’t it? The chaotic hot mess Eleanor, who has fumbled her way into heaven in The Good Place, is by no means the perfect partner for the frustratingly indecisive philosopher Chidi.

But as the beloved television comedy unspools, and we learn that Eleanor and Chidi didn’t make it into heaven at all, but into a hyper-designed version of anti-heaven as part of a strange torture experiment gone horribly wrong, suddenly the Eleanor and Chidi partnership looks less unlikely and more inspired. Because what Eleanor and Chidi represent isn’t some kind of frustratingly improbably opposites-attract, but the true power of a connection that isn’t about sparks or thunderbolts but about growth and maturity and the fundamental belief that a person can change, if they really, really want to.

Kristen Bell just revealed the important lesson The Good Place teaches us about love