‘Good Omens 2’ Delivers Exactly What Fans Want — While Still Pissing Them Off

The first five-and-a-half episodes of Good Omens Season 2—which began streaming on Amazon Prime today—feel like a perfect, hand-picked gift for the fans.

(Warning: Major Good Omens spoilers ahead. Only read this article after you’ve finished Season 2, Episode 6 of Good Omens.)

As a longtime fan myself, I could scarcely believe it: We get to see Aziraphale and Crowley’s first-ever meeting as angels? Aziraphale and Crowley have an “I Was Wrong” dance? Crowley likes Richard Curtis films? Is that an extended version of the scene where Crowley saves Aziraphale’s books?!

It felt like winning the fandom lottery. It felt like watching Michael Sheen and David Tennant act out fanfiction, and I mean that as a compliment. It felt too good to be true. And, as it turns out… it was. Well. Kind of. It’s complicated.

Series creator Neil Gaiman—who co-wrote the original 1990 novel with Terry Pratchett, and co-wrote every Season 2 episode with John Finnemore—has never been the type of writer who indulges in fan service. In fact, among Good Omens fans, he’s infamous for denying us what we’ve always begged for: confirmation that Aziraphale and Crowley are, obviously, in love. After the 2019 series, in which Sheen and Tennant blatantly played up the romance between the angel and demon BFFs, fans became even more convinced. When the series was renewed for a second season—one which would go beyond the canon outlined in the book—the fandom made their demands clear: Aziraphale and Crowley must kiss. No more winking double entendres. No more ambiguity. No more queer-baiting. Let them kiss, dammit!

(Seriously, if you don’t want to be spoiled for the Good Omens Season 2 ending, stop reading this article now.)

And guess what? They do kiss. They really kiss. In the last 15 minutes of the sixth and final episode—after all the extraneous Gabriel plot stuff has been resolved—they freakin’ kiss. But it is not a joyful moment. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. Because this is not a celebratory, happy, getting-together kiss… it’s an excruciating, heart-wrenching breakup.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic break-up scene. It features some of the best acting of both Sheen and Tennant’s careers. Crowley’s voice-breaking, mid-romantic speech, as he asks Aziraphale to run away with him—for real, this time—will haunt me until the end of my days. Aziraphale shaking like a leaf as he wrenches his mouth off of Crowley’s, before spitting out, “I forgive you?” I need at least three extra therapy sessions for that line delivery alone! This scene made me feel things—like my heart was being physically ripped out of my chest, for one—and that’s what makes it art.

But did Aziraphale and Crowley’s ending have to be so devastatingly tragic? They’ve been pining for over 6,000 years. Some fans have been waiting for this moment for over 30 years. Is that not worth a moment of celebratory, joyful queer love?

Such a moment never comes. At the end of the episode, after their breakup, Aziraphale goes to Heaven. Crowley stays on Earth. They do not reunite. They do not get back together. They certainly do not kiss again. The final image is a dual shot of both demon and angel looking miserable—separated—while the credits roll. I held out hope up until the very end. But there is no post-credits scene. Other than a small, baffling smile on Aziraphale’s face, there is no indication that these two are ever (ever, ever) getting back together. Gaiman found a way to give us exactly what we asked for—confirmation that this is a love story—while still finding a way to pull the rug out from under our feet. “Be careful what you wish for,” Gaiman seems to say to the fans, “because you might not like what you get.”

I have to admit: After I was done screaming, crying, key-smashing, and pacing around my apartment ranting to my partner like a mad woman, I came to grudgingly respect this stroke of sadistic brilliance. No one can accuse Good Omens Season 2 of queer-baiting. At the same time, no one can accuse Gaiman of losing his edge and pandering to his fanbase. Plus, it’s an ending that will send a lightning bolt through the fan community, invigorating a new level of passion for this romantic pairing—and therefore generating a swell of fan-driven marketing for the show. (That’s especially crucial now that Gaiman and the stars are unable to fully promote the series during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.)

Look, is it what I wanted? No, of course not. But this ending demonstrates a masterful understanding that the heart of the Good Omens fandom comes from filling in the gaps of the love story first created by Gaiman and Pratchett. Gaiman, a regular presence on the fandom-friendly website Tumblr, knows the story won’t end here. Even if there is never a Good Omens Season 3—Gaiman has said he has a third season mapped out, but the season has not yet been greenlit by Amazon, so that’s a pretty big if—the fan-fiction writers and fan artists are already hard at work on their fix-it stories.

Think about it this way: At least both of them are still alive. If he’d really wanted to be a jerk to the fans, Gaiman could have pulled a Season 4 finale of The Magicians and completely crushed our hopes and dreams. Instead, we got some delicious, though heartbreaking angst, with the door left open for more. Crowley and Aziraphale will get their happily ever after—you might just need to go to archiveofourown.com to find it. And tonight, fans can rest easy knowing it was a love story, after all. Even if it was a tragic one.