Fan Theory: Neil Gaiman used the Good Omens sequel's ending in Season 1. By Season 3, there was nothing left.
Here is my theory about the ending of Good Omens Season 3: it wasn't the ending that was always planned.
The ending that was always planned was actually this one:
or, why Terry's final ending was always the face-swap ending we saw at the end of Season One.
Let me present the evidence:
Season 3 was to be based on 668: The Neighbour of the Beast — the sequel that Gaiman and Terry Pratchett plotted together in a hotel room in 1989 but never actually wrote. By 2019, Gaiman confirmed it only existed as a plot, not some unfinished manuscript or even drafts and notes [source]. Nevertheless, it was sold as the story Terry always wanted to tell:
"Terry was clear on what he wanted from Good Omens on the telly. He wanted the story told, and if that worked, he wanted the rest of the story told." [source]
We know a handful of things about what this sequel was supposed to cover. First, The Second Coming and a flight to America (which we did see fragments of on screen). But also, and more importantly for this theory: the inner workings of Heaven and Hell. In interviews during Season One, Gaiman said a lot of the sequel was about "where the angels actually came from." [source]
When building the world of Good Omens the TV show, NG drew heavily on the sequel's ideas. He has said so directly:
"I stole stuff from the sequel we never did and put it in this series." [source]
"A lot of the trappings and the idea of what propelled book two into existence wound up integral to what I did in Good Omens the TV series." [source]
In the original book, we don't actually see many other angels or demons. The Heaven and Hell we see in Season 1 — the corporate offices, the hellish basement, Gabriel too — all of it came from the sequel.
(These guys were not the original book. Metatron was though.)
In a 2019 Guardian interview, Gaiman confirmed that the visual concept of Heaven and Hell as a shared building came directly from the unwritten book:
"It's all one beautiful skyscraper and the angels have the fantastic offices right at the top, and hell is the basement rooms that nobody really wants to be in." [source]
Gaiman did also note at the time as this was all very useful in building out the world of Good Omens for the show: "We never actually see the people behind the scenes who are very, very keen on Armageddon [in the original book]" [source]. But importantly, all of this was something that had left to be explored in the sequel novel, which he was now cribbing from.
I can imagine this all being an interesting development in the sequel book, very Pratchett-esque in its humour, with a bunch of suited angels all gung-ho about The Second Coming after the first apocalypse was called off, and the absolute corporate nightmare of trying to talk to get to someone actually in charge...
But if a bulk of the plot was about Heaven and Hell's office culture, then doesn't Aziraphale and Crowley's face-swap ending from Season 1 fit perfectly here?
Per the Radio Times, Gaiman has admitted: "When I got to episode six [of Season One], I realised that I ran out of story halfway through, so I was going to need more story to take me to the end." [source]. He never said he went back to the ideas for the sequel for this bit, but it does rather make sense.
With so much focus supposed to be on their Head Offices in the sequel book, wouldn't Aziraphale and Crowley effectively getting fired and set for destruction in Hell Fire/Holy Water, wouldn't them tricking their respective superiors into finally leaving them alone be a fitting ending to that story? It just works really well, narratively.
And isn't the face swap also a bit like a card trick? If the 'Find the Lady' plot is indeed also from the sequel, then this ending is also a complement to that.
(Have a gratuitous Crowley in the bath...)
Further to this, Marc Burrows (Terry Pratchett's biographer) has been saying some rather interesting things on Twitter about the ending to S3 and why Pratchett wasn't credited:
"While I actually like the ending, and while I think the moral/philosophical argument Crowley makes is inherently Pratchett, I think this is Neil Gaiman's ending and that's why he has the sole story credit. I also suspect that, even if we'd got the full series, we'd always have gotten this ending." [source]
"What I know for sure: not Sir Terry’s ending. That’s not a guess, I know that for sure. What I don’t know: the full details of what that ending was." [source]
Marc Burrows is close to the Pratchett estate, knew Terry and his work, and is saying this doesn't sound like him. And that Terry wasn't given a story credit does suggest that this story was made-up by Gaiman and did not come from the late-night conversation Terry and Gaiman had about the potential sequel book in 1989. Burrows has also said that the Pratchett estate didn't fight for the S3 finale story to be told after Amazon all but cancelled it, as many fans have claimed, it was actually BBC Studios who did that.
Marc also has some things to say about what Terry had in mind for an ending:
"The 'South Downs Cottage' ending was always Terry's plan [...] But I very strongly believe he wouldn't have destroyed the whole universe and all the characters therein to make his point." [source].
Which leads me back to where we left Aziraphale and Crowley in Season One, dining at the Ritz, polishing off a bottle of wine...and, for all we know, about to jump in the Bentley and drive off to the South Downs to a cottage they rented for the weekend. Finally free of Heaven and Hell, because of a little face-swap trick. I think that ending was, after all, Terry's original ending. The one that was drafted for the sequel novel.
To be clear about what this theory is and isn't arguing: this is not a claim that Season 3 is without merit, or that the ending we got is without meaning. But I do think it was made-up solely by Gaiman, because the actual original ending - where Aziraphale and Crowley were always supposed to end up at the end of the sequel book - had already been used to cap off Season One.
And it's where I prefer to think of them, still and forever more - the Angels Dining at the Ritz.
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