Good Omens – Chapter 2: The Clue featuring the minisode A Companion to Owls

By: Kelly Kearney

Now that Gabriel is missing, both Heaven and Hell are determined to find him and punish anyone who is involved in his escape. Aziraphale knows keeping him at the bookshop is a risk but he is not ready to abandon the needy and clueless Archangel until he can figure out why he went missing in the first place. With the help of Crowley and his hot rod to Hell, Aziraphale decides to take the Bentley to Edinburgh – the place he thinks Gabriel and his empty box might’ve come from.

Taking Bets and Taking Lives

It’s 2,500 B.C. in the Land of Uz where Crowley (David Tennant) is sporting some killer shades and a flaming goatee – proof the man knows how to dress for the job. At this point in the flashback story he’s already been expelled from heaven and working for Beelzebub, but that doesn’t mean he’s not useful to the big boss upstairs. God (Frances McDormand) is in their fire, brimstone and death for funsies era and no one delivers that level of chaos with more finesse than Crowley. Unfortunately, the pious Job’s mountain goats are currently paying the price. The demon’s deadly thunder catches Aziraphale’s (Michael Sheen) attention and he descends on the killing spree to demand his friend extinguish his flames and leave the poor farm animals alone. No can do, Angel. Crowley has a permit that makes a CVS receipt look like a Post-It note and it’s signed by God themself. It’s an order to destroy everything the faithful Job owns and loves – from goats to children. It’s all got to go. Cue Aziraphale’s outrage followed by his distrust in the demon’s ability to tell the truth. God would never punish Job; this must be a mistake. The truth is not so mysterious. Job got caught in the crossfire of a bet God made with the Devil and now Crowley is the key to settling it for them. It all started when God bragged about how obsessed Job was with them and the Devil laughed that off because Job is only loyal to God because he’s been love-bombed with gifts from the universe. He has wealth, prosperity and three children. Who wouldn’t fanboy over the entity who gave him that? Would Job remain faithful if God yanked those gifts away and destroyed his life? The Devil has his doubts, but not God who decides to prove it to Satan by allowing Hell’s best demon to settle their bet. When Aziraphale hears this, the look on his face says, “My boss is a real jerk sometimes.”

Back to the present where Aziraphale’s miracle to mask Gabriel’s whereabouts seems to be working. While Gabriel, now going by Jim (Jon Hamm), tries to make himself useful by shelving the books by the first letter of the opening sentence he hums a familiar tune that catches Aziraphale’s attention. He can’t place it so he heads to Maggie’s (Maggie Service) record shop to ask her about it. After all, Gabriel shouldn’t be familiar with earthly songs so maybe it’s a clue that shouldn’t be ignored. Unfortunately, Maggie isn’t in the best if moods as the woman is crying over her unrequited love and feels foolish for crying on Mr. Fell’s shoulder. She flips the conversation to the song, which she says sounds like Buddy Holly’s 1957 hit “Everyday.” She starts to pull out album after album (all containing the song in question) explaining she has so many because everytime a pub in Edinburgh, The Resurrection, orders an LP from her yet they wind up sending it back because they all strangely turn out to be Buddy Holly. She can’t make sense of it, but we know the name of that pub is the same name in the matchbook Murial found in Heaven. The answers to why Gabriel is in London are in that Edinburgh pub!

Back to his shop where Heaven’s angels Saraqael (Liz Carr), Urial (Gloria Obianyo) and Michael (Doon Mackichan) drop by to pump Aziraphale for information on the missing Archangel  who, unbeknownst to them, just happens to be standing right in front of them. They’re there because Heaven knows Aziraphale did a little miracle and they sent these three to find out why. Thinking quickly, the retired angel comes up with an excuse about the record shop owner Maggie and her poor bruised heart. He tells them he used his miraculous powers to help her and the local coffee shop owner, Nina (Nina Sosanya) fall in love. The miracle hall-pass monitors head over to Nina’s to check out Aziraphale’s story while across town Shax (Miranda Richardson) drops in on Crowley to threaten him over helping their boss. She knows the miracle took place at Mr. Fell’s bookshop and assumes the demon knows more than he is letting on.

God is in a Kid-Killer of a Mood

Next we find Aziraphale and Crowley at a local pub discussing the three angels and that lovers’ miracle lie. The atmosphere is inspiring nothing but complaints from the demon who would rather talk about this at the local cafe. Aziraphale explains why that can’t happen as Nina is the key to duping those three nosey angels. The two men brainstorm ideas for getting the women together with Crowley imagining a romantic “trapped in the rain” scenario while Aziraphale says he was thinking more along the lines of a Jane Austin moment. They never settle on how they plan to set Maggie and Nina up, but they do agree that’s their best chance at duping Heaven and Hell until they can find out what’s going on. Speaking of, the two head back to the bookshop to pump Jim about where he heard that song and the push to remember triggers a Gabriel pop-in. As quickly as he is possessed by his former self, Gabriel is gone and Jim says his mind must not be big enough for those memories. However, he does remember those investigators who were asking about him earlier. So, the Archangel isn’t completely broken. He’s just blocked. What he did say in his trance-like state strikes a chord with Crowley though and it just happened to be the exact same thing Aziraphale’s boss said to Job after his life was obliterated by God.

In a flashback we find a cursed Job (Peter Davidson) wondering what kind of evil he must be for such a generous God to smite him. That’s when his wife Sitis (Andi Osho) walks in and we realize that the smiting has just begun. Crowley is right behind her to deal with the children. It’s the final nail in Job’s faithful coffin but is Crowley ready to kill? Aziraphale is thrilled to realize he isn’t when he figures out those goats he was sent to kill aren’t dead but were turned into bleating crows instead!  He wasn’t behind the goat killing and he equally can’t wrap his heavenly head around killing Job’s children. Archangel Gabriel, who is also there for the show, promises that Job will get three times the kids out of this deal and all the goats he could dream of. In his simple mind that makes it all good in the B.C. hood and no attempts from Aziraphale to change his mind seem to work.

When the two men set off to meet the kids they find them to be all snark, sass and queer subtext. Crowley can barely contain his demonic fire, but rather than strike the annoying kids down, he turns them into newts. The next day God finally speaks to Job and asks him if he knew how God made the world and everything in it. When Job returns from meeting with their maker Sitis is confused by the downward turn their life has taken. So much for the gifts of their faith now it seems like a curse. At that moment Gabriel, Michael and the other angels appear before them and reward their continued faith with double the cattle but that’s not what they want. Sitis can’t find their children and she starts to realize they’re in the same place as all those missing goats. The angels tell her not to worry as they will get new children (six more than before) and the look on Sitis’ middle aged face is a combination of devastated and apocalyptic. They don’t want new children to replace the ones they’ve lost, but Gabriel (who has no understanding of human love) shrugs off their confusing tears and pushes the angry mother to almost curse them all. That’s when Crowley shows up pretending to be the local midwife, Bildhad the Shuhite. He knows these angels have no idea how procreation works. The only birth they’ve witnessed was when Adam ripped out his rib so God could whittle him an Eve. They’re clueless and the demon plays them for the fools they are. He and Aziraphale motion for Sitis to play along and then announces she’s ready to give birth. He orders her to pull out three of Job’s fake ribs and as the angels watch in amazement Bildhad turns those bones into their three kids. Ennon (Ty Tennant), the oldest and most annoying of Job’s kids, almost outs their plan when he keeps insisting they are the original kids. Gabriel and Michael turn to Aziraphale and ask him what he thinks and the angel lies and says they are the new children. Assuming he would never lie or disobey God, the Archangels and friends are happy the job is done. Every bit of this bet was awful and the Angel Gabriel was one of the worst parts of it. Although, Jim has the opportunity to be better than his counterpart and Aziraphale hopes he can be. While he stays in the shop pondering Jim’s song, Crowley runs into Nina who recognizes him as the man who caused and later helped her during the outage. This is the perfect opportunity to test out his “all romances start out in the rain” theory, but when he drops a few hints about it and nods towards Maggie’s shop Nina doesn’t seem to share his enthusiasm for love. In fact, she gets tense at the idea of her and Maggie and complains about his surge trapping her with the woman and worrying her controlling partner. She seems awfully upset over Maggie and Crowley catches onto those denial vibes, even when Nina’s feelings seem confusing and vague.

With love on his mind, Crowley is just about to climb into his Bentley when Aziraphale shows up with a plan that involves Gabriel’s song, a pub in Scotland, and a miraculous jukebox he knows plays more than the hits. He needed to check this place out and thought they could take THEIR CAR. Crowley is stunned by the co-ownership. As many times as he reminds the angel whose car it really is, Aziraphale knows he will hand over the keys because Crowley is all bark but no bite when it comes to their partnership. At this point these two are the Romeo and Juliet of the Biblical prophecies. They’re the epitome of two world’s colliding. Crowlely huffs and puffs and rants and raves but eventually proves Aziraphale right and hands over the keys. He also agrees to mind the bookshop and play babysitter to Gabriel who  plans on spending his time reading books while avoiding his true self. That last reminder was too traumatizing for the lost Archangel.

As the second chapter comes to an end we get one more flashback and this time it explains why Crowley always has Aziraphale’s back. After lying to God about Job’s kids, Aziraphale goes to Crowley to beg him to take him to Hell. The demon declines because just as Aziraphale has his limits so does Crowley. And one of them is not cursing his friend over something he did, too. It will be their little secret. “Nothing has to change,” he promises Aziraphale. The two men admit that at times this life can get lonely as they sit together watching the sunrise they helped put in the sky. Loneliness is just a state of mind and doesn’t matter much when you’re with the one who matters most. One day these two will realize that.