My thoughts on why the good omens final 15 was so devastating, S3 edition
Since finishing the finale, Iâve been reading a lot of all your thoughts, and Iâm glad that other people are also not as satisfied as I wanted to be. Yes, we are very fortunate that we got anything at all, we are fortunate that the creators still care about these two and gave some version of them a happy ending, we are fortunate that it was done as well as could possibly be done in one episode, etc., etc. etc. but I think what a lot of people are frustrated about is the fact that Aziraphale and Crowley still never actually got to be together. They didnât have their happy ending. The entire show was them, literally being in love since the beginning of everything and how theyâre circling each other, and they canât be open and unafraid about their love their entire lives and their relationship was impossible, and then at the very end, the show just kind of confirms that. Itâs basically saying that their relationship was always impossible, and there is no version of it where it can exist, EXACTLY AS THEY WERE. The only version is the rebooted earth where everyone is completely replaced and Aziraphale and Crowley donât exist. A lot of people have made the analogy that itâs the exact same as God giving Job new children when he loved his old children and really just wanted them instead. And I absolutely agree. I think weâre also frustrated because we wanted to see Aziraphale and Crowley, who have the power to create the most insane miracles (25 lazari!) by just barely working together, we wanted to see what they could do when they chose each other and used that power together to create a life for themselves that they always wanted. A better life for the humans too, yes, but the life they always wanted with each other. We all believed in that love and that desire, and it just feels like a slap in the face to have the show say that it was impossible and the only way they can be together is to not be the way that they were, but to be something different.
And, there was a lot that was unresolved in Aziraphale and Crowleyâs relationship that I think we all were hoping for. And of course they only had one episode, but there was a lot of things we wanted to see like them ACTUALLY TALKING TO EACH OTHER, them being more open with each other about their feelings, even just another kiss, goddamnit. Now the only aziracrow kiss we ever got and ever will get was the tortured one at the end of season 2. So yeah. Weâll have to live with that for the rest of our lives. And I know itâs like you donât need kisses or physical affection to convey love for someone, and there were lots of other ways they convey their love over the years, but it all just felt like they were dancing around it and doing the same thing theyâve done the entire show and the last 6000 years of their relationship: stuff is implied, but never said explicitly. They never even say âI love youâ to each other. Itâs God tangentially telling them about their love for each other, as if itâs a fact. Confirmed facts are great, but expression and communicating directly to each other is better.
Personally, my two deepest darkest desires for this episode was that either Aziraphale would apologize to Crowley (there are a lot of things that I wouldâve liked to see him Apologize for, About Aziraphale turning Crowley down so many times, about how anxious Crowley was for years about trying to protect him, about not seeing what Crowley was trying to tell him for 6000 years about heaven and hell, about not just accepting Crowley as the demon he is. [AND THATâS MY BIGGEST ONE btw I personally felt so bad for Crowley when Aziraphale basically told him he was only willing to be with Crowley if Crowley became an angel again and fundamentally changed who he was. Iâve always felt like that was such a slap in the face to Crowley and the show literally never addresses it]) Instead, Aziraphale literally made Crowly apologize to HIM. so. Not really at all what I wanted.
ORâŚ. My other deepest, darkest desire: I would have liked to see both of them have a very clear and candid discussion. About anything really, but especially about their relationship. Because of course thatâs what they spent 6000 years not doing. And I donât know. Maybe the finale is saying that they both already knew all of it anyway and none of it needed to be said. But I just wanted them to say it. And I think a lot of of us feel the same way. We are all just humans who wanted to see them talk properly about their feelings. Maggie and Nina told them they needed to do it. And they just never did. We got a lot of really great things in the finale, but having a clear and candid discussion was not something that they did.
And yes, the south Downs thing. But Aziraphale and Crowley didnât get their happy ending in the south downs. Their alternate universe counterparts did. Which is like the second best thing, but itâs still not the best thing. And there are people saying that the alternate versions of them absolutely are the same, that itâs their literal souls reincarnated into human bodies, and everything that they are is the same. But at the same time, I argue that thereâs so much of them that is lost. All of their memories and experiences and struggles and the times that they chose each other and the times that they didnât, everything they went through to bring them to where they are in the finale. I just think all of that lends so much more weight to what couldâve been them finally choosing each other even with all of the heaven and Hell brainwashing they had to endure for 6000 years. All of that is lost in their alternate counterparts so in a sense, it can never really be them, even if it is a version of them. (Cue âis there a version of thisâ from staged Iâm so sorry) So yes, itâs a win, but there is still much that is lost, and I think thatâs why I and so many others are feeling pain and sadness about that loss. 6000 years of being in love and just once, we wanted to see Aziraphale and Crowey both choose each other at the same time, on the same page, no strings attached. I guess at the end, they both chose the world together. So also like the second best thing, but itâs still not the best thing. So that is what we lost.
BASICALLY: even if you believe that the rebooted universe was just one version, and that there may be infinite versions of them where they find each other in every single universe, that still means that the one version of them that we all actually DESPERATELY wanted to be together, will never be. The finale basically said the one thing that we all, as a fandom, wanted, is impossible. And I think that is the most tragic and devastating thing for me about it.
(and a whole other thing that I didnât even get into is the queer allegory. A lot of people have talked over the years about how Aziraphale and Crowley facing so much pressure from heaven and hell about being together is like how queer people in our society face so much pressure and brainwashing, etc. about being together. It just feels like even more of a slap in the face to be told that Aziraphale and Crowleyâs relationship is impossible and couldnât happen in the world they lived and loved in. Itâs like saying that if they want to be in love, THEY need to change instead of the world doing it. idk it just adds a whole extra layer of tragedy for me since that is a layer that Iâve always seen Aziraphale and Crowleyâs relationship through and it would have been so powerful to see that message affirmed by them achieving the impossible and being able to to be together just as they are)
There. Iâve said my piece. For those that are mad about people people saying negative things about the finale, please understand that there is a lot that we loved and we are very grateful for what we got, but there are a lot of reasons why we are frustrated and why we felt like we lost a lot of things we were hoping for. For those that are very frustrated or heartbroken, I feel you. We are all in this together. There will always be fandom and fanworks and the fact that this story makes us all feel so much about these characters will never cease being the most precious gift I could imagine. There have been at least two universes canonically in the show. I choose to believe that we as fans create a universe where Aziraphale and Crowley chose each other and get to be together, exactly as they are, for the rest of time.
