This article contains major spoilers for Good Omens season 2, episode 6. You’ve been warned!
When the dust settles after the demon attack in the Good Omens season 2 finale, it looks like everything can go back to normal for Aziraphale and Crowley. While the Metatron takes Aziraphale away for a quick private chat, Crowley remarks that it’s time to blow off some steam with an extremely alcoholic breakfast at the Ritz.
But then, Aziraphale returns with a shocking proposition: he’s been offered the job of Supreme Archangel, and Crowley can come along as his second-in-command.
I don’t think any of us Good Omens fans were prepared for what happens next. Aziraphale doesn’t just accept the offer. He’s actually excited about it, rushing back to tell Crowley that they can both return to Heaven and leave their Earthly lives behind. All the work that he and Crowley did to carve out lives for themselves seems to have been for nothing.
Crowley is rightfully incensed at the idea of returning to Heaven. How could Aziraphale possibly think that Crowley wants that? It’s almost as if Aziraphale never really knew Crowley at all.
Wait. Is that what the series is trying to tell us?
Aziraphale never fully accepted Crowley for who he is
It’s telling that Aziraphale thinks Crowley would ever want to return to the stuffy, toxic bureaucracy of Heaven.
In season 1, Aziraphale struggles with the idea of working with a demon to thwart the apocalypse, and it’s only after the final battle that he really seems to accept that he’s not as good an angel as he always thought. In fact, there’s some lovely symbolism in Aziraphale’s last gambit with Crowley: he survives by literally becoming a demon, at least in appearance.
The season 2 finale shows that even now, after Heaven ruined Job’s life, tried to end the world, and almost killed Aziraphale himself, Aziraphale still sees it as the “good” side. He waves away all the awful things the Archangels have done by saying that he and Crowley can “make a difference,” but deep down, he can’t understand why a demon would ever want to be a demon.
This revelation shows us a heartbreaking aspect of Aziraphale’s character. Like someone who can’t recognize a manipulative abuser for what they are, he’s still loyal to Heaven, and he’s never really accepted Crowley for who he is. The moment he has a chance to change Crowley into something he thinks is better, he jumps on it.
It turns out that Aziraphale and Crowley are far from the perfect couple that fans thought they were. At the end of season 2, there is, as Crowley points out, no nightingale singing in Berkeley Square. This clearly isn’t a rift that’s just opened up between them—it’s a fissure that was there from the start, bound to reveal itself eventually.
Did Aziraphale want to kiss Crowley?
Here’s an interesting detail from the scene in which Crowley angrily pulls Aziraphale into a kiss: Aziraphale doesn’t actually seem into it. He stiffens and doesn’t return Crowley’s embrace. I can’t help but think of the moment in season 1 when, during a confrontation with Crowley, Aziraphale blurts out, “I don’t even like you!”
Let me be clear: Aziraphale obviously loves Crowley as much as Crowley loves Aziraphale. We can tell by how stricken he is when Crowley leaves at the end of the scene. That touch to his lips! But his ambivalence around the kiss seems to indicate that he’s still wrestling with conflicting feelings.
What’s with Aziraphale’s smile at the very end?
The saddest shot in the series is Crowley, standing by his car, watching Aziraphale abandon his life to leave with the Metatron. Crowley drives away, making sure to smack the radio off when it starts to play “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” while Aziraphale goes up the elevator to Heaven.
Then, mysteriously, Aziraphale smiles.
What does that mean? As I wrote in my recap of the season finale, he could be corrupted, or he could be hatching a plan to get Crowley back. There’s also the possibility that the Metatron influenced Aziraphale in some way that we didn’t see; after all, his sudden willingness to abandon Earth is a very weird move for him. Was there something in that coffee? The episode does place a lot of emphasis on that coffee. (But if it’s the coffee, does that take away from all the character development that made the scene so good? Hmmm.)
Whatever’s going on, that smile is a fascinating moment that leaves us with plenty to chew on as we cross our fingers for Prime Video to greenlight season 3.
The Good Omens season 2 finale was devastating, but the right choice
Good Omens could have been a fluffy, low-stakes love story. Season 2 could have been six episodes of pure fan service. To be sure, there was some great fan service (those dancing scenes!), but ending the season on a dramatic note makes for a richer, deeper story. I don’t know what exactly will happen in season 3, but it’ll be much more satisfying to watch Aziraphale and Crowley navigate their way through this crisis than it would have been after a less dramatic cliffhanger.
(featured image: Prime Video)
Published: Jul 31, 2023 09:00 am