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Good Omens Recap: You Can’t Tempt an Angel

Season 2 Episode 2 Editor’s Rating4 stars ****

Photo: Courtesy of Prime Video/Courtesy of Prime Video Poor Aziraphale. In the last episode, we saw the seed of Crowley’s fall from grace, and in this episode, we get something similar for Az. It hits hard for anyone unpacking religious trauma from their childhoods, I’m sure. What was the moment you realized the people in charge weren’t as good as you thought — and even scarier, way worse than they thought they were? Sound off in the comments below! Jk. Unless …

This episode also includes the mini-sode “A Companion to Owls,” but I can’t tell for the life of me where the episode ends and the mini-sode begins. It all feels pretty seamless to me, although it does mean this mini-epi is more backstory than present-day plot. A huge chunk of the story concerns Job, he of the matchbox quote last episode. Apparently, Job’s trial was the real start of Crowley and Aziraphale’s “arrangement.” It’s when they realized they had more in common with each other than with their respective side in the cosmic cold war.

Side note: The Good Omens book is deeply “end of the Cold War”–coded, as was the style of the time. Does this sequel series feel more forever war on terror? People are certainly less certain; the people at the top seem dumber. That feels accurate to current geopolitics, no?

Let’s separate the two timelines apart and cover the current mystery first. Jim/Gabriel has really taken to his role as an assistant bookseller, even though he doesn’t fully get the purpose of books is to read them. He has taken it upon himself to alphabetize Aziraphale’s shop. By first word of first sentence. Az is basically like, “Go off, king! I have flashbacks to ponder.” He’s briefly pulled out of flashbacklandia by Jimriel humming a tune: “Everyday,” by Buddy Holly. Maggie helps him find the tune and also lets it slip that there’s a pub in Edinburgh where all the 45s in the jukebox turn into that song. But before he can fully ponder the Clue he’s been given (he insists on capitalizing Clue, even in speech), the angels come to his bookshop for answers.

So bad news: The angels know Aziraphale performed a miracle. And not a little guy, too. A huge freaking miracle. Good news: It sorta worked? The angels can’t recognize Gabriel, even when he’s standing right in front of them. In this scene and the one where he’s being interrogated by Az and Crowley, Jon Hamm goes beyond himbo and into a level of dumb acting that I’ve only ever seen in Muppets before now. Emmy! 10,000 Emmys!

Aziraphale thinks quickly on his feet and tells the angels that the miracle was actually to bring Maggie and Nina together. It was the first thing he could think of. Hmmm … I wonder why gay longing was so easy to access in his mind! Aziraphale and Crowley plan to get Maggie and Nina together by hook (Jane Austen–inspired ball) or crook (Richard Curtis–inspired wet eye contact). “Get humans wet and staring into each other’s eyes, va-voom! Sorted,” says Crowley. It makes us sound like Gremlins, but it’s probably true. In this scene, Crowley learns that, alongside being a jewel robber, rum runner, and spy, Jane Austen wrote some books. If Prime Video wants to dedicate a bonus episode to The Name’s Austen. Jane Austen, I wouldn’t be averse.

Crowley puts some feelers out about Nina, re: Maggie, and she’s not receptive. Apparently, Nina’s partner has taken a page from Jonah Hill’s (alleged) playbook and has weaponized therapyspeak against her. Bummer. But before any more can happen in this plot, Aziraphale asks Crowley to lend him “our car” so he can check out the pub in Edinburgh. Exsqueeze me? Our car? Right now, it seems like Crowley is living out of his car (maybe the flat he had last season was rented by Hell, and Miranda Richardson is in it now?). He’s not going to give it up without a fight. And why can’t my dads go on a road trip together? That sounds fun. Oh, yeah, someone has to look after Jimriel. And it’s not going to be Aziraphale because he’s been processing his hostile feelings toward Old Gabriel in a flashback.

Now the Job stuff: We learn alongside Aziraphale about the plan to test Job. Satan’s minion, Crowley, has license to kill Job’s livestock, destroy his house, and explode his children. And if he stays faithful to God, Heaven will give him back double what he lost. Crowley kills 100 goats, Gabriel gives Job 200 goats. Crowley kills Job’s three kids, God will force Job’s wife through seven geriatric pregnancies. Isn’t that nice?

Being the only representatives of Heaven and Hell who spend any time with earthlings, Crowley and Aziraphale both bristle at their orders. Crowley can’t even kill the goats; he merely transmutes them into crows. Aziraphale bets on Crowley’s conscience and begs him to save Job’s children. It’s the old “I know there’s good in you” argument. It can go well, like in Return of the Jedi. Or it can go bad, like when Elena tried it on Damon in The Vampire Diaries season one, and he snapped her little brother’s neck. He got better, but it was still a whole thing. Luckily, Crowley went Darth instead of Damon. Not only does he keep Job’s kids safe, but he also helps with the subterfuge needed to keep Heaven from knowing God’s weird bet with Satan didn’t go exactly how they’d planned.

Speaking of God, they’re voiced by Frances McDormand and use they/them pronouns. That’s a fun cosmology! Who’s your favorite God? I’m personally fond of mute Alanis Morissette, but I was the exact right age for Dogma when it came out. I could also see arguments for George Burns or even the God program in Futurama. God tells Job, essentially, that he can’t go questioning the pine plan until he can enact any of it. Or, as Job summarizes, “Come back when you can make a whale.”

Both Crowley and Aziraphale are jealous of Job for being able to directly address the Almighty, which speaks to their loneliness. They appear to be the only angel or demon who questions what the fuck the point of all this universe stuff really is. It’s lonely, but a little less lonely if they do it together. Fuck, that’s cute.

Biblical Apocrypha

• Gay-o-meter is back down to DEFCON 5: FADE OUT. Less horny, more bromance-y. But the parallel romances of Aziraphale/Crowley and Maggie/Nina could rear up at any moment. They just need to decide if they’re going the Richard Curtis or Jane Austen route.

• It was really fulfilling to see how Az and Crowley got to the status quo we saw at the beginning of season one. But I could have done with a more period-appropriate Heaven. That overhead fluorescent lighting existed before electricity is a real bummer.

• Good show on Good Omens for letting it stay so U.K., despite being made by an America-based global corporation. The two forms of love being Love Actually or Pride and Prejudice, all three of the first sentences Jimriel reads coming from U.K. authors, and people cheerily day-drinking in a crowded pub all make this feel more specific than many adaptations of British work.

• Speaking of those books Jimriel sorted, the last one he put in place was the original Good Omens. Now that’s just silly.

• Kudos to Saraqael for miracle-ing herself a ramp, but shouldn’t Az have made his shop accessible by now?

• Remember Job’s shitty kids? One of them was played by David Tennant’s stepson, Ty. Dude’s on House of the Dragon too.

• I know last episode, I said I was put off by Crowley always calling Aziraphale “angel,” but now I think it’s his way of reminding him that he’s still good and hasn’t become a demon, and that’s sweet! Fuck!

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