Good Omens season 2’s shocking ending makes sense, say Tennant and Sheen

[Ed. note: This interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike against the AMPTP went into effect.]

In the most recent season, a different type of Armageddon occurred. Good Omens. It isn’t a globally epic one, like in last season, but a personal one.

For all their six millennia’s worth of bantering and bonding, the jovial angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and his brooding demonic companion Crowley (David Tennant) haven’t been able to admit that they’re a match made in heaven — or hell, or Earth. Neil Gaiman, the showrunner/writer and Terry Pratchett wrote the 1990 novel that gave them their happy ending. This was replicated by season 1.

Just when you thought season 2 would bring them to a new chapter of their lives beyond the original material, they find themselves at a crossroads in their relationship. It’s an outcome both bittersweet and baffling, yet appropriate for the pair, as wounding as a flaming sword impaled through the heart.

[Ed note: Spoilers follow for the end of season 2 of Good Omens.]

Image: Prime Video

Gaiman’s and John Finnemore’s season two has become a classic Crowley/Aziraphale narrative. God’s voice (voiced Frances McDormand), which was formerly narrated by Frances McDormand in episodes 3 and 4, is now a distant voice. So Crowley and Aziraphale essentially own the narrative — their love story — all to themselves. Crowley and Aziraphale are Ineffable husbands in the mortal hearts of their viewers. But like Jane Austen’s characters, they’re slow to grasp the romance brewing beneath their friendship. This is true even as people point they’re once again working Very closely as they help the amnesiac archangel Gabriel seek refuge in Aziraphale’s bookshop.

The final scene is marred by Metatron’s (Derek Jacobi), a higher-up being that works for God. Impressed by Aziraphale’s handling of the Gabriel matter, he offers Aziraphale a surprising promotion in heaven: to assume Gabriel’s former Supreme Archangel office and conduct God’s future projects, thus nullifying Aziraphale’s excommunication. Sweetening this deal in Aziraphale’s eyes, Metatron throws in this job benefit: Aziraphale could exercise the authority to restore Crowley’s angel status and employ him as second-in-command. Aziraphale rejoices, while Crowley does not.

Crowley releases the Red Sea (in his restrained style where he grunts a lot to prevent himself from saying something too emotional). “We don’t need heaven, we don’t need hell. They’re toxic! It’s time to stop using them [to Alpha Centauri]. You can be yourself You can also find out more about us on our website.,” he manages to say. Crowley finalizes his point by planting a Big Damn Kiss on Aziraphale, as if to holler, “You idiot, this is what you’re giving up!” Upon Arizaphale’s stern rejection (he can only utter “I forgive you” through his shock), Crowley storms out of the bookshop. They both seem pretty disappointed after the fight.

But even if you’re on Team Crowley here (I am), the decision makes sense for Aziraphale’s character. When opportunity knocks, it’s believably easy for Aziraphale to be allured back into heaven’s “truth” and “light.” In an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA , Sheen surmised that Aziraphale’s decision to accept the promotion is “part of that search for what is the right thing to do.” In the angel’s eager eyes, having authority inside of heaven gives him more access to the “right thing.” He could be the angel that advocates more ardently for humanity. He must be the angel who speaks out against the extermination of innocent children. Aziraphale can prevent worst-case scenarios, such as the Job incident, as long as he is in contact with celestial power. Also, reflect on the season 1 meeting when Aziraphale attempted to file a suggestion with God, only to be shattered that heaven chose war over peace all in the name of “winning”; his helpless expression at the time says it all. If he gets to reshape Heaven’s policies, he’ll be more equipped to protect mortals.

Photo: Mark Mainz/Prime Video

Tennant believes that Crowley was after more personal gain for both of them. “I suppose the thing that Crowley learns from Aziraphale is that the path of least resistance is not always the one to take,” Tennant says. As a fallen angel “who sauntered vaguely downwards,” Crowley can’t just be suckered back and reassimilated into a Heaven that suppresses his doubts and those “damned questions” that pester Metatron. Rejecting Aziraphale’s offer is his way of taking a stand — “albeit futilely,” in Tennant’s words. If there’s anything Crowley might also implicitly understand, a toxic place like heaven may as well be co-opting Aziraphale’s talents — his relatability to humanity and Earth — for its own bureaucratic missions.

This is a major theme in Good Omens It is not. Shades of grey are used to portray good and bad. Across the eons, “good” and “right” are forever shape-shifting concepts for both Crowley and Aziraphale. Before hell or heaven expelled the pair, they had seen and experienced moral grays in humanity. Season 2’s finale is a perfect encapsulation of the dramatic possibilities of their differing stances: Aziraphale sees all he can solve with divine institutional access, while Crowley wants to wash his hands of it, hold only onto Aziraphale, and flee to Alpha Centauri together.

But there’s no dream getaway to Alpha Centauri. What’s left is a widening chasm between the two angels who find themselves on different sides: Aziraphale’s tentative homecoming to heaven, and Crowley on his own on Earth. Hope is still in limbo. There is a promise (as seen in the resolutions of either of season 2’s other romance subplots) that they could reunite romantically. Crowley, symbolically, glances over at the mortals alone (their romance put on hold), in their respective stores. He’s resigned to the distance between him and Aziraphale — for now, at least. Their separate journeys of soul-searching may be essential to their future reunion.

Before they can get together, both must find their own selves. They have to find themselves before they can be together. Good Omens gets a season 3 and Aziraphale engineers the Second Coming under Metatron’s orders, we’ll see what it might take for the two divine beings to mend the bridge. For my bet, Aziraphale may owe Crowley the “I was wrong” dance.

Good Omens Prime Video has now added season 2.