Good Omens Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Chapter 2: The Clue
Diana Keng
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Spoiler Warning: It's quite the family affair on Good Omens Season 2 Episode 2 as we get another glimpse into Aziraphale and Crowley's past adventures together.
Not only does David Tennant's own son, Ty, portray Job's son Ennon, but Job himself is played by Tennant's father-in-law (and Ty's grandfather), Peter Davison. It's a biblical family outing! Fun times, if you have the pull.
Meanwhile, seeing Gabriel in his previous officious, supercilious role reminds us that Aziraphale and Crowley are saving him purely out of altruism and not because he was ever kind or understanding to them or humanity.
His assertion that his knowledge of human childbirth is extensive because he witnessed God creating Eve from Adam's rib is both absurd and surprisingly useful to our heroes.
Unlike the wig he's sporting in 2500 B.C., which is just absurd.
Nearly five thousand years later, Aziraphale is only slightly better at lying to archangels than when Job's children were on the line.
The parallels between the Job mini-episode and Gabriel's current predicament are clever and fun to parse.
Aziraphale: Avaunt, foul demon! In the name of the Almighty, I command thee, BEGONE!
Crowley: No.
Aziraphale: No?
Crowley: No, thank you? See, I have a permit.
Aziraphale: A permit? From whom?
Crowley: From God.
First, there's the paperwork.
Crowley has a permit to torment and persecute Job, signed off by the Almighty and confirmed by that adorable Muriel.
When Aziraphale claims the plume of miraculous activity that set off the alarm in Heaven was him making Nina fall in love with Maggie, is there any sort of reprimand for interfering with the free will of humans?
No, instead, Saraqael simply states that said miracle must be confirmed and documented by one of their clerks.
Then, there's the fooling of the angels.
Much of this depends on their poor understanding of humans and human nature and their refusal to admit to their ignorance.
Aziraphale: Are we sure that Sitis wants to give birth four more times?
Michael: Seven more times.
Aziraphale: But she’s already got three children.
Michael: Yeah, but, those ones will be dead. Keep up.
Aziraphale: We’re not bringing the old ones back?
Gabriel: Well, of course not. But we’re giving them new ones.
Aziraphale: I think they quite like the old ones. And if we kill them…
Gabriel: Aziraphale, we are the good guys, okay? We’re not killing anyone. What we’re doing is simply not stopping Hell. What they do is up to them.
You've got to hand it to Aziraphale. The angel's capable of some straight-up, Grade-A deception when properly motivated.
And killing grown and innocent (if incredibly entitled) children -- or letting them be killed, if we want to split Gabriel-style hairs -- and replacing them with new babies is a plan he cannot get on board with.
One might even suspect he'd really like the heavenly suggestion box Crowley mentions on Good Omens Season 2 Episode 1 to be a real thing at times like these.
I recognize that the minisode's title, "A Companion to Owls," refers to Job 30:29 and Job's many alliances with various living creatures, but -- Fun fact -- in the same passage, Job calls himself "brother to dragons." Does that mean dragons were a thing in 2500 B.C. in Uz? What happened to them?
Crowley's soft fuzzy feelings about living things aren't necessarily unexpected. We already know he's not as demonic as he fronts.
The difference is that -- having fallen from Heaven -- he's got a lot more grey area to operate in since Hell doesn't seem to care as much for the paperwork.
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.
So, while he's happy to make it look like he's playing fireball pinball with Job's goats as per his orders, the uptick in crow population goes unnoticed until they start baa-ing.
As mentioned, David Tennant's son Ty played Job's eldest son Ennon. Ennon is the first to be turned into a lizard. How long do you think Ty can milk that at home? LOL.
How many of you are still humming that blasted Buddy Holly B-side tune?
Miraculous musical transmogrification is a foundational element of Good Omens' world-building.
Crowley's 1933 Bentley turns any cassette in its tape deck into the Best of Queen.
So a jukebox that turns all records into Buddy Holly's "Everyday" is clearly a Clue with a capital C and Aziraphale is perfectly fitting that it needs investigating.
The complication of having to get Nina and Maggie to fall in love without additional miracle plumage is a relatively benign flex.
What's fascinating is that in all their time among humans on Earth, neither Crowley nor Aziraphale has any practical knowledge or understanding of romantic love.
Crowley: You mean like a sudden rainstorm forces them together beneath the canopy. They look into each other’s eyes, and realize they were made for each other.
Aziraphale: Sounds a bit unlikely.
Crowley: No, get humans wet and staring into each other's eyes, Va-voom! Sorted.
Crowley takes his cue from films, while Aziraphale pins his hopes on Jane Austen's balls. (#Phrasing)
(Side note: What was Jane Austen up to when she wasn't writing novels?!?)
I'd wager that neither woman is interested in providing an alibi for a miracle, but it'll be entertaining to see how the schemes play out.
A clue that Aziraphale is unaware of yet is that the pub he's going to investigate is the same pub where the matchbox Muriel found in Heaven is from.
Furthermore, the quote on the side of the matchbox is Job 41:19: "Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out."
Add in the fact the name of the pub is The Resurrectionist, and it feels like Aziraphale is onto something.
Now the real miracle is if Crowley will actually let him drive all the way to Scotland in his beloved Bentley.
So our favorite Heavenly-Hellish duo has their work cut out for them.
Solve the mystery of Gabriel's amnesia.
Keep the archangels and infernal managers away from "Jim."
Get Nina and Maggie to fall in love.
What odds do you give them, Fanatics? Hit our comments with your thoughts!
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.
