at the end of the day good omens is a satirical commentary on religion. it is an atheist show, like that's always been the point. it ends by saying that a christian world with a good side and a bad side, where there is an eternal paradise for the nice people and eternal punishment for the bad ones, doesn't make sense. actually, it ends by saying that world should never exist, because it is inherently corrupt! not even the people running it all understand their apparent roles or why they are fighting. that's why aziraphale and crowley act in subversive ways, an angel who sins and is selfish and a demon who is endlessly good. that's why gabriel throws up his hands and basically says fuck this. that's why michael loses their mind trying to carry out the end of everything.
good omens, instead, dreams of a secular world in which there are no sides, and human choices actually make a difference. we aren't in some rigged game of ineffable chess. we are the creators of our own destiny. we are the ones who get to choose how we live. aziraphale and crowley don't make their own universe. they simply ask for a world that isn't simply god's amusing experiment.
and god, in the original universe, is not good. I cannot help but feel horrified by her when I think of the fact that she said aziraphale and crowley's love made her smile, and then immediately, without emotion, was about to end them for good. this is a commentary on the irony of christianity. the show says, if there is a god, we are all simply pawns in her game. it is a sort of religious horror that lingers, to me, because the end of everything does not bother her in the slightest.
and the show would have always ended like this. it was forshadowed with job, who was abandoned and tortured for god's bet. and every other bible story - noah's ark, jesus being crucified - just adds to this view of a god who has no mercy, who is apathetic in every decision, who would let aziraphale and crowley create their own universe on a whim.
the real grace, the real miracle, the real magic and the real divinity - that's love. messy, human love. and that's why, in a godless universe, aziraphale and crowley still exist. their love surpasses any holiness or great plan. and if the show had ended in any other way, if things had been put neatly back in their place, that message would not have worked.
because at the end of the day, this ending is meta. it is political. it is a cautionary tale of what happens if you live with black-and-white morality. the ending isn't a case of, well, if the world is broken, we can just make another one! instead, the audience are being spoken to directly. they're being told, across three seasons we've shown you what the world would look under your puritan religion. we've shown you why it would not work and the deep suffering and confusion it would bring to everyone, from angels and demons to humanity. and now, we're putting the world back to what it should be, what it is, a secular, godless universe where we are born and we die and we get to choose. the beauty is in humanity and the infinity of our universe.
