By Caitríona Ní Chonaill
*spoilers included*
We get a tantalising treat of a series in which we get far more of Crowley and Aziraphale’s backstory, a confusing tale involving the Archangel Gabriel and more teasing scenes between our two maybe-maybe-not lovers.
The series opens with Crowley and Aziraphale meeting for the first time, when Crowley is creating the universe. (For those of us that were confused at Crowley being an angel in this scene, it is because this takes place before his fall from grace, as he was the demon, in serpent form, who tempted Eve). A Crowley muses over the creation of humanity however, Az lets him down by informing him that the universe is only going to last 6000 years, much to Crowley’s chagrin. We also see the surprise appearance of the Archangel Gabriel, who comes to seek refuge in Aziraphale’s bookshop, with no clue who he is or how he got there. With Azirpahale having been ostracised from Heaven, however, we see this being taken as Aziraphele having captured Gabriel, in Heaven’s view, and this being a terrible situation for both Aziraphale and Crowley, who is being shadowed by Shax, the demon who took over his position in Hell when he left. The pair perform a miracle together to hide Gabriel from both Heaven and Hell, until they can figure out what is going on.
The angels show up in Aziraphele’s bookshop to investigate the miracle, and on the spur of the moment he claims it was to make two shopkeepers on his street fall in love. Heaven demands proof of this, which leads to a charming subplot of the angel and the demon trying to get the shopkeepers to fall in love.
The next episode takes place mainly in flashback mode, where we see the pair aiding in the tale of Job, who, having being God’s loyal servant and been extremely devout, has his loyalty tested by having all his earthly belongings, including his children, destroyed. With the demon and the angel’s intervention, however, Job’s children are returned to him, after an amusing scene where i becomes evident that the angels of heaven have no idea how human birth works. They also aid a grave robber in 19th century Edinburgh in the next episode, where Aziraphale learns that not every action has a black and white moral reasoning behind it. However, upon the death of the graverobber’s friend, she is about to attempt suicide, whereupon Crowley promptly swallows the poison she was going to use (which has entertaining results) and we see the pair achieve a satisfying ending.
In the first series of Good Omens, it was mentioned that Crowley had a hand in blowing up a church with Nazi’s inside, and we now get to see the consequences of that action. I an episode involving 3 Nazi zombies, Aziraphale moonlighting as a magician and Crowley being forced to fire a gun straight at the angel’s mouth while on stage, the pair also manage to escape any conviction from Hell by Aziraphale achieving a proper slight of hand trick when it mattered.
The final two episodes culminate in the conclusion of three couples in the series addressing what they mean to each other – Angel Gabriel and Beelzebub from Hell, the two shopkeepers and Crowley and Aziraphale. The last scene of episode six will make you cry and squeal in joy in equal measure, as we finally see the main pair address their feelings towards one another after all these years.
Will we have a Season 3? After the cliffhanger of the last episode, I very much hope so!