Good Omens Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Chapter 1: The Arrival
Diana Keng
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The quirkiness of the television adaptation of this Gaiman/Pratchett literary world hasn't dimmed at all in its hiatus.
Good Omens Season 2 Episode 1 drops us right into the bureaucratic machine that is God's hierarchy of angels and demons.
Juxtaposed with angels uncertain of all earthly materials and demons flummoxed by human nature, our intrepid mavericks, Aziraphale and Crowley, are positively street savvy. Spoilers ahead!
I, for one, didn't know that frozen peas are the healthy alternative to feeding ducks. Thanks, Crowley.
Additionally, I appreciate the brief glimpse of our favorite serpent-eyed demon before his fall from angelic grace.
There's such joy in his geeky delight as the universe swings into action.
He describes his nebula the way an engineer might outline the function of a new hydroelectric generator or a programmer launching the next generation of Smart Home developments.
Aziraphale: You’ve heard of Earth?
Crowley: Not as such?
Aziraphale: Ah. A blue-green planet? It’ll be over there somewhere when they roll out that quadrant? Now, that’s where the ‘people’ – that we’re currently designing – are going to be. I’ve seen the plans. We’re going to start out with a breeding pair, and then pretty soon there’ll be oodles of them! They’ll breed like, um, well, they’ll breed like people. The impression I get is that the stars and your… um…
Crowley: Called a nebula.
Aziraphale: Right. Well, they exist just so the people can look up into the night sky and marvel at the illimitable vastness of the Almighty’s creation.
Crowley: But that’s idiocy! It’s the universe, not just some fancy wallpaper! Millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, oodles of everything. It’s not just put here to twinkle! Most of it won’t even be visible from Earth! Why don’t you put Earth in the middle of the universe so the view’s better?
Meanwhile, proto-Aziraphale is still the toe-the-line, unquestioning company man we've come to know.
Crowley clearly shocks and intrigues Aziraphale in equal measure.
Aziraphale: It’s not our job to advise the Almighty on the details of creation.
Crowley: Well, whose job is it? I mean, someone has to say, ‘Look, boss, this is a really, really terrible idea.’
Aziraphale: Well, I suspect that would be considered… inappropriate.
Even before he was a demon, Crowley's mouth was bound to get him in trouble. Of course, all his questions and feedback are completely reasonable concerns, but they certainly are not the expected behavior of a celestial minion.
Seeing the two of them back before the beginning establishes the unlikely friendship we know will develop over the millennia.
What is interesting to consider is that while Crowley's devil-may-care attitude does eventually loosen Aziraphale up a bit, Aziraphale's influence is not so much to reform Crowley but to remind him that he too came from the wings and halo sect, back in the days before there was another option.
Crowley: Well, I don’t suppose anyone could object to me putting a note into the suggestion box.
Aziraphale: I don’t believe the Almighty has actually created a suggestion box. And, furthermore, I don’t think it’s our place to start suggesting that there should be a suggestion box.
Despite his flippant attitude now, we see that proto-Crowley was a maker of the earliest and highest order.
Aziraphale: You made it all yourself?
Crowley: Well, I mean more or less. I wasn’t the original concept designer but I worked very closely with Upstairs on it.
Aziraphale: Well, it’s very pretty.
Crowley: Oh, thank you.
He reveled in producing something new and beautiful that held the potential for eons of future creation and birth. His only quibble was that had to end.
That his replacement, Shax, still feels she needs his guidance is precious.
Her observation that humans invariably make poor choices for themselves is an elegantly brief dissertation on the nature of free will.
Shax: Was it always this easy?
Crowley: Easy?
Shax: I keep planning complicated, strategic strikes to spread misery and panic among the humans and just as I’m about to put one into motion, they come up with something themselves which is so much worse than anything I could’ve thought of.
Crowley: Yeah, always this easy.
Crowley is a popular sort of person non-grata among the doomed sect.
Not only is he advising Hell's representative to London on the down-low, but Lord Beelzebub also has him on her speed dial when things are getting spicy in the Upstairs.
His friendship with Aziraphale has always been the cornerstone of the show.
When he realizes that Gabriel -- can I just say Jon Hamm never fails to impress? -- is hiding out in the bookshop, I suspect his desire to dump the Supreme Arch Angel in Dartmoor is more about protecting Aziraphale than himself.
I'd say it's more about protecting his friend than his personal hatred, but since much of that hatred stems from the danger Gabriel once threatened Aziraphale with, it's one and the same.
Maggie: You can’t just forgive me eight months’ rent.
Aziraphale: Oh, I can. I’m very good at forgiveness. It’s one of my favorite things.
After all, Aziraphale may excel at forgiveness, but Crowley certainly doesn't let things like that go.
Now, onto the mystery at the heart of the new series.
What has happened to Gabriel?
Gabriel: I’m me. I just don’t know who ‘me’ is.
Aziraphale: I see.
Gabriel: But you know me. You recognize me.
Aziraphale: Well, I know someone who looks like you.
Gabriel: That’s probably me then. I think that’s one of the main ways you can tell.
What do we know?
He arrives in London, naked and carrying an empty box. He has left behind in Heaven a single matchbox from a pub called The Resurrectionist that includes a passage from the Book of Job on it.
He walks directly to Aziraphale's shop, claiming he knows he'll be safe if he gives Aziraphale "the thing."
He cannot articulate why he would feel safe and what "the thing" is.
Meanwhile, he's discovering hot chocolate, togas, and dusting.
It's a real test of his hosts' moral fiber to give sanctuary to the angel -- or at least the shell of the angel -- who has treated them with high-handed superiority since the dawn of existence.
Shax: Crowley, I am now Hell’s representative in London, and Hell doesn’t care how jobs get done.
Crowley: Yeah, I remember. They just care that somebody does them.
What is truly brilliant in the framing of the celestial and infernal forces is how much they resemble each other.
Being essentially denizens of the same organizational structure, what affects one shakes the tree of the other.
So when the Supreme Arch Angel goes missing, protocol becomes paramount.
Archangel Michael is out to take control, and Archangel Uriel is damned that she'll let her.
Archangel Saraqael is a new addition to this crew but a familiar face as Liz Carr portrays the purveyor of secrets, Fenn, on The Witcher.
Speaking of familiar faces, two of our favorite sisters of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl return as local business owners, fittingly named Maggie (played by Maggie Service) and Nina (played by Nina Sosanya).
(Fun fact: None of the actors who played other nuns of St. Beryl were named Lindsay. In case you were wondering.)
Their more mundane human relationship shades in the corners of this mostly unearthly conflict.
It goes to show how chaotic life in London must be that seeing a naked man in the street and another that appears to self-immolate before getting struck by lightning on the same day is only a conversational talking point.
You can’t just create a universe, run it for a few thousand years, and then stop.
Crowley
I have some questions about an electrical system that throws deadbolts when the power goes out. Also, how is it that Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death doesn't have a backdoor or fire escape?
Over to you, Fanatics! What are your burning questions? What do you think Gabriel meant to bring to Aziraphale?
How are they going to explain the miracle that set off Heaven's alarms? Hit our comments with your best guesses!
Diana Keng was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X.
