Warning: SPOILERS ahead…
The Best of Friends
Aziraphale and Crowley are supposed to be the most unlikeliest of friends. After all, an angel and a demon are sworn enemies. But audiences have always come to love the stereotype of opposites attract so for us, it’s really not all that unlikely is it? Their friendship gives the audience what we enjoy watching – a comedic duo on opposite sides of the fence, standing together to battle both sides for the greater good. We get the good guy occasionally being tempted to do some wrong things and the bad boy with a good heart (though don’t say that to Crowley himself, he could get in trouble with his head office). Their friendship is also not surprising due to their love of being on Earth with humans. In episode one, we see two demons waiting on Crowley and stating he’s spent too much time on Earth. They find this disgusting and the audience can see the clear difference physically between all the demons and Crowley. Crowley looks almost human, except for his snake eyes which he covers with sunglasses even at night. Other demons have boils, bugs flying around, skin sores, and more. Crowley is closer to humanity than any of them. Aziraphale loves human food. We first see him about to dig into some sushi when the archangel Gabriel appears, who is disgusted by the food. He enjoys humanity as a whole, even going to Shakespeare’s dud play Hamlet in 1601 and enthusiastically shouting to the actors. He understands them and loves their books, eventually having his very own bookstore in London. The other angels, especially shown by Gabriel and Sandalphon when they go to speak to Aziraphale in his store and loudly proclaim they need to speak to him private about buying “a pornography,” are clueless about humanity. Crowley and Aziraphale are the only angel and demon who understand humanity and enjoy being around humans. This common interest unites them and causes them to be the only two celestial beings willing to fight to stop the apocalypse.
Their friendship begins at the beginning of time with Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden. Crowley is the snake that tempted Eve and Aziraphale helped Adam and Eve leave the Garden, even giving Adam his flaming sword that God, a female, had entrusted to him, because he felt sorry for them and wanted to give them some sort of protection. As the first rains of creation arrive, Crowley steps closer to Aziraphale and Aziraphale puts a wing over his new demon friend. Later, we see Aziraphale patching up the hole in the Garden’s wall and telling God that he must’ve put the sword down somewhere. Throughout time, they constantly bump into each other, usually due to having orders from their head offices to perform either miracles (angels) or temptations (demons) in the same area. They’re at Noah’s Ark together where Aziraphale explains that God is going to cause a flood, though he’s sure it’s just for the locals… But not to worry, because then she’ll create something new called a rainbow which is a promise to never do something like this again. Crowley, of course, is very sarcastic about the entire thing and incredulous that kids are going to be killed. “That’s more the kind of thing you expect my lot to do.” It does end on a more amusing note with Crowley yelling that one of the unicorns is making a run for it. They also are at Jesus’s crucifixion, meet in Rome 8 years later, are the White Knight from King Arthur’s court and the Black Knight respectively in 537, at The Globe Theatre in 1601 (where Crowley creates a miracle that brings large audiences to see Hamlet as a favor to Aziraphale), and Crowley saves Aziraphale from the guillotine in Paris in 1793 and then from Nazis in 1941. Throughout all of time, we see these friends from opposite sides coming together, eating lunch, helping each other, and enjoying each other’s company. At one point, they realize that they are often canceling each other out, with Aziraphale creating miracles and Crowley creating his temptations. This leads Crowley to suggest that they just write to their head offices that their jobs have been done without actually doing anything. Other times, instead of both working, they will flip a coin and the loser will do both jobs while the other goes home. Aziraphale at first is offended by the idea, but eventually he agrees. I have to say that one of my favorite moments between them, is when Crowley changes the pronunciation of his name because Aziraphale never bats an eye. He accepts it without question, as he’s always accepted Crowley, even though Crowley acts in ways Aziraphale disagrees with. Through their interactions over the centuries, they rub off on each other, a little temptation in the angel and a little good in the demon, and create the perfect duo for saving the end of the world. What we are left with at the end, is a bromance between an angel who is a little bit of a bastard and a demon who is a little bit of good.
Supporting Actors
There are a number of appearances from various actors in Good Omens that are entertaining to see.
Nina Sosanya is one of the first familiar faces for me. She plays Sister Mary Loquacious of the Satanic nuns. Ms. Sosanya performed in the 2005 made-for-tv movie Casanova written by Russel T. Davies with the lead actor played by none other than David Tennant. Ms. Sosanya played the castrato Bellino and was Casanova’s fiancee for a short time. As Sister Mary, she was the key for thwarting the plans of both Heaven and Hell by accidentally placing the antichrist with the wrong family, allowing him to grow up without being influenced by either side in a small village rather than with the rich family of a US ambassador. (You can read my overview for Casanova here and the discussion for Casanova here.)
Sian Brooke plays the mother of the antichrist, Dierdre Young. Her real baby goes to the US ambassador family. Her down-to-earth personality and affectionate relationship with her husband, Arthur Young, helps keep Adam grounded. Fans of the BBC series Sherlock will recognize Ms. Brooke from her role as Euros, the sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes.
Also running down the list of Sherlock actors is Mark Gatiss, who played Sherlock’s and Euros’s brother Mycroft along with being co-creator and co-writer of the series. In episode 3, we see Mr. Gatiss playing a Nazi who has recruited Aziraphale to bring prophecy books for the Furer. His character is very nonchalant and quite fun to watch for the short bit we see of him.
Next for Sherlock is Jonathan Aris who is quickly recognized as he plays the Angel Quartermaster, giving out uniforms to the angels for battle. Mr. Aris played Anderson, one of the forensic team members working with DI Lestrade. He was consistently being insulted by Sherlock and was at odds with him until Sherlock died, leaving Anderson feeling guilty over his potential involvement of Sherlock’s death.
And last, but certainly not least, for the Sherlock squad is Benedict Cumberbatch himself. Mr. Cumberbatch played the almighty Satan in the final episode of Good Omens. His confrontation with his son, Adam, leads to an unexpected turn of events for him.
John Hamm plays the archangel Gabriel. Completely clueless about humans, his main goal is to let the apocalypse happen so Heaven can win the war. Mr. Hamm is probably best known for the series Mad Men but can also be seen in the comedy movie Tag, among a wide variety of other shows and movies.
Most known as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation, Nick Offerman plays the US Ambassador Thaddeus Dowling, the intended father of the antichrist. He seems to have good intentions, wanting to be there in spirit during his wife’s labor and delivery (though he can only do it through video calling) and intending to spend more time with his family, but his government obligations have him away from his family more often than being home.
Miranda Richardson, known for parts such as Rita Skeeter in the Harry Potter movies and Queen Mab/Lady of the Lake in the tv movie Merlin, plays the prostitute and fake psychic Madame Tracy. Madame Tracy’s importance in the apocalypse is that she is the vessel for Aziraphale when he is discorporated. Ms. Richardson also played Marquise d’Urfé in Casanova.
Another actress who has performed with Mr. Tennant before is Susan Brown. She played Beth Latimer’s mother Liz Roper in Broadchurch, and in Good Omens she played one of the Satanic nuns. (You can read my discussion on Broadchurch here.)
David Morrissey, best known in the US at The Governor on AMC’s The Walking Dead, appears briefly as well. He plays a ship’s captain that finds the lost city of Atlantis. He is also known for an episode in Doctor Who where he believes he is the Doctor (during the 10th Doctor’s reign) and has also acted with David Tennant in Blackpool.
The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Notter
Everything that happens in the apocalypse, is told through the prophecies of Agnes Notter, a witch from 1656 who was burned at the stake, and took her murderers down with her. Agnes saw everything that was to come, and wrote them down to help those in the future. She accurately predicted Apple and informed her progeny to invest money into an Apple “no man can eat.” This allows her family to focus on stopping the apocalypse and gives Anathema the funds to travel to Tadfield, exactly where she needs to be. The prophecies also tell Aziraphale where to find the antichrist, how Newton Pulsifer could stop the apocalypse with his electronic bad luck, and helps Aziraphale and Crowley escape certain death at their head offices, among other helpful tidbits. However, fans can be left wondering if Agnes didn’t accidentally set off the apocalypse herself. Adam creates a cynical view of the world after speaking to Anathema and she begins to tell him of the rainforests being cut down, whales being killed, nuclear power stations being bad for the environment, GMOs, and more. Adam can’t see how the world can get better so he decides it needs to be destroyed instead. Would he still have had this view if he wouldn’t have met Anathema in the first place? Perhaps. Maybe there would have been a different reason for him to want to destroy the world without her being there. We just simply don’t know. What we do know, is that naming his dog begins the apocalypse and would have happened without Anathema’s presence, and it was his friends and Dog who turned him back to the good side.
The prophecy with the biggest emphasis is:
“2230: Four shalle ryde and three sharl ryde the Skye as two,
and Wonne shal ryde in flames;
and theyr shall be nostopping themme:
not fish, nor rayne, neither Deville or Angel.
And ye shalle be theyr also, Anathema.”
It is the one Anathema’s mother has her state through memorization when we are first introduced to Anathema as a child, and we see it again when Anathema pulls it out of her index card box. “Four shalle ryde” can refer to either the Four Horsemen or the four children on bikes. Considering the others referred to in this prophecy are there to stop the apocalypse, I assume this refers to the children. “three sharl ryde the Skye as two” refers to Aziraphale in Madame Tracy’s body and Sergeant Shadwell flying to the US air base on her scooter. “Wonne shal ryde in flames” would be Crowley in his burning car after going through the M25 flames. Anathema arrives on the base with Newton.
There is one prophecy that is not said aloud in the show and only shown briefly on screen while Aziraphale is reading the book.
“3017: I see Four Riding, bringing the Ende, and
the Angells of Hell ride with them, And Three sharl
Rise. And Four and Four Together be Four, an the
Dark Angel sharl Own Defeat, Yette the Manne
sharl claim his Own.”
This prophecy is about the defeat of the Four Horsemen and Satan himself. The “Four Riding” refers to the Four Horsemen who have arrived at the US air base and used the computers to bring nuclear war. The “Three sharl rise” are Adam’s three friends – Pepper, Brian, and Wensleydale. Adam and his friends arrived on the US air base on their bicycles to stop the apocalypse. “Four and Four Together be Four” – Adam’s friends are able to defeat the Horseman that is opposite of them. Pepper first faces off against War with the flaming sword in hand. When Adam tells Pepper to say what she believes, Pepper turns to War and states, “I believe in peace…bitch.” War flames out of existence. Adam tells Pepper to drop the sword quickly and Brian picks up the sword before Pollution gets to it. “I believe in a clean world.” Pollution is defeated and the sword is dropped. Wensleydale picks up the sword stating, “I believe in food and healthy lunch,” and Famine is gone. Each of these kids face off against their own type of personality. Pepper is a feminist and (somewhat) pacifist. Therefore, she ends War. Brian is a messy child, as shown when he eats his ice cream cone earlier in the show, and faces off against Pollution (who took over after Pestilence retired), hopefully showing that Brian will become a cleaner person himself. Wensleydale is a prim and proper child who probably does receive three proper meals a day. Adam tells Death he has to stop; Death makes a quick speech, and goes off on his own – Death can never be defeated. “Yette the Mann sharl claim his Own” – The final end to the apocalypse. Satan comes out of Hell to punish his son, yet Adam still retains the power to shape reality. With the support and guidance of Aziraphale and Crowley, Adam makes his move. He claims his human father as his real father and rejects Satan. “You’re not my dad. Dad’s don’t wait until you’re eleven to say hello and then turn up to tell you off. If I’m in trouble with my dad, then it won’t be you. It’s gonna be the dad that was there. You’re not my dad! You’re not my dad, and you never were.” This makes Adam’s claim true, and ends the apocalypse.
Season 2 for Good Omens?
The only disappointment you’ll find in Neil Gaiman’s and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, is that there are only 6 episodes and probably no season 2. Mr. Gaiman and Mr. Pratchett never wrote a second book, though, according to express.co.uk who interviewed Mr. Gaiman, they did plot out a sequel. Is there a chance of a season 2? Perhaps. With having a plot written, Amazon could potentially move forward with it. However, it will be without Mr. Gaiman. He told express.co.uk:
“So far, Good Omens has taken me four years, or five years since I promised Terry [Pratchett] I’d make it.
“In that five years I haven’t been writing novels,” the author of American Gods and Coraline continued.
“It’s time for me to go back and be a novelist.” ( https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1134755/Good-omens-season-2-will-there-be-another-series-of-good-omens-amazon-prime-neil-gaiman )
Would a season 2 be as good as season 1 without the creator? Maybe time will tell. We’ll all just have to wait and see.
The Variety of David Tennant (and friends) 