Good Omens Finale Review: Loses the Magic

Good Omens’ last episode, ‘The Finale’, could have been a last hurrah, or a wahoo, but instead, it presents us with an underwhelming, lackluster twist. 

Good Omens’  second season left us with something we didn’t have at the end of series one: a devastating cliffhanger. Going into the episode, we have a single question we want answered, because it was the question we were left with three years ago. Will Crowley and Aziraphale find their way back to each other and acknowledge their feelings? But how do you reconcile with someone you have known since the origin of the universe, whom you have met again and again over 6,000 years, everywhere from the Garden of Eden to the Bastille, and whose presence you fled after they confessed their feelings for you? You lose Jesus. 

The Finale of Good Omens’ doesn’t pick up where season 2 ended. Instead, we are transported to the battle in heaven, where the angels have won against the rebel angels. A setting mentioned in previous seasons that doesn’t carry much plot relevance in the finale, it mainly serves to establish the location of the Eternal Flame, which will later play a role in the plot. When we return to the familiar Whickber Street, time has passed since Crowley (David Tennant) and Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) went their separate ways.

Crowley is now homeless, and Aziraphale has been promoted to archangel, and while a full series may have expanded on how the duo came to be in these positions, The Finale does not. The street and the characters feel detached from the ones we saw in Good Omens season 2. Whickber Street is now in ruins, with roadworks, rats, and vacant shops; it’s nothing like the vibrant street we left behind. By the end of Good Omens’ final episode, Whickber Street almost seems like a metaphor for the show, as something that was once exciting, comforting and vibrant has now been stripped of all the elements that made it so welcoming and special. 

The Good Omens finale includes everything you could imagine it would, from the battle in heaven to the second coming of Jesus, the disappearance of angels, and the destruction of the book of life. On paper, it sounds like the perfect fast-paced plot with something for everyone, but in reality, the significant cut in the overall runtime hasn’t left enough for all this to happen in a way that is digestible for the audience.

Good Omens‘ previous pacing felt well thought out, with a main plot and subplots as well as characters that we saw develop. Unfortunately, The Finale presents us with a convoluted Frankensteined-together plot that is a mix of all six episodes, to the extent that, as viewers, we can almost see the ghost of where each episode’s ending would have been. And the characters are given no development or depth; there’s very little conversation between them, and when we see them interact it is only in relation to the plot. 

Good Omens simply does too much in too little time. After it splits off into what could be its main plot and subplots, the finale doesn’t seem to know which plot should be treated as which. With the runtime of a feature-length film, instead of shaving down the plot to align it with this, all plots are kept, which means we spend very little time with each of the characters, establishing very little about them. Which is off-putting given that prior episodes gave each element of the plot time to breathe: there were filler scenes and episodes that let us sit with the larger elements of the plot, so we were not made to feel like each and everything we heard or saw was vital to the resolution.

In the Good Omens Finale there are points that are brought up once but never again, a big one of these being towards the end when Crowley and Aziraphale establish that, ultimately, any book can be the book of life. A discovery which could, in theory, mean they would be able to replace the Book of Life, which was destroyed. This reveal could have been explored and used in more depth now becomes a throwaway to simply get from A to B.

Good Omens’ Finale also has a strange juxtaposition where it gives us too much yet not enough at the same time. While we are given a lot of information, none of it really feels like it has any depth or relevance. Once the end credits roll, it’s difficult to pick out one moment in detail, over 90 minutes, that stood out in the series, which.  presents a strange contradiction where, if everything is important, then nothing really is. The previous seasons have felt so clean cut in comparison, with narratives we knew would end with positive resolutions and an established normality that we knew would be restored.

Seasons 1 and 2 felt like watching a puzzle be completed piece by piece, knowing that at the end everything will fit together and form a resolution. But The Finale throws out this structure: all the separate plots play out separately in a way that feels disconnected, with fantasy elements that are cut back in favour of a somewhat more somber ending.

Fortunately, The Finale does have some silver linings. The acting from the whole cast is incredible and one of the key aspects that keeps you drawn in. Even after thirteen episodes together, Tennant and Sheen’s onscreen chemistry as Crowley and Aziraphale is as solid and charming as ever. The introduction of Jesus is a strong point, as Bilal Hasan (Half-Man) steals any scene he is in with his comedic and charming portrayal of the resurrected biblical figure. We are reunited with the memorable and menacing quartet of angels, and Liz Carr, as Saraqael, delivers one of the funniest lines in the season when Canada disappears from existence.

The fantastic Peter Anderson Studios are back too, with onscreen graphics and a visually rich title sequence that follows Crowley and Aziraphale through their antics. The comedy is still there, and although it feels scaled back, it still shows in scenes where the main duo are in cahoots, especially when they win back the Bentley in a game of competitive crossword solving. 

Ultimately, what is missing most from Good Omens is its lighthearted philosophy. The core of the show has always been silly, with angels, demons, aliens, and a child antichrist with a hellhound called Dog. The problems that posed threats in prior seasons always had an easy resolution: in the  first season Satan is defeated simply because his son tells him to go away. A good ending doesn’t need to be deeply philosophical or original; it just needs to carry the show to a satisfying resolution. While there are glimmers of the previous seasons’ tone throughout, The Finale loses sight of the show’s silly nature. By the time the end credits roll, it’s difficult to ignore the possibility that the Good Omens Finale hopes we will accept that what we have been given is better than nothing. 

The last episode of Good Omens., ‘The Finale’, is now available to stream globally on Prime Video.