In the second episode of Good Omens, “The Book,” things happen involving people, demons, angels, witches and witch hunters. If you don’t want to have the specifics of those things spoiled for you, then turn away now! Many spoilers about the show I’d describe as “Edward Gorey does Pushing Daisies” follow!
RELATED: Here’s the recap of the last episode!
Now that Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and Crowley (David Tennant) know they’ve misplaced the Son of Satan, they need to work together to find the boy while simultaneously keeping the secret of their goof from their direct reports, respectively Sandalphon (Paul Chahidi) and Gabriel (Jon Hamm), and Dukes of Hell Ligur (Ariyon Bakare) and Hastur (Ned Dennehy).
Let’s backtrack. In 1656, the last witch in England was burned at the stake. That witch, Agnes Nutter (Josie Lawrence), had just received an advance copy of her book, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, when Witch Hunter General Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer (Jack Whitehall) arrived with pitchfork-brandishing villagers to take her to die. She left the book, filled with 100% accurate prophecies for the next several hundred years (including orders to buy Apple stock in 1980) for her daughter, and went out with a literal bang, having filled her petticoats with gunpowder and roofing nails.
Over the intervening centuries, Agnes’ descendants have studied and benefitted from the book’s predictions. In the present day, her many-times-removed granddaughter, Anathema Device (Adria Arjona), is ready to leave the family’s Apple-funded Malibu mansion to fulfill her destiny by saving the world from the Prince of Darkness in the English village of Tadfield.
Aziraphale and Crowley make their way to Tadfield at the same time, revisiting the hospital where the mistake took place in search of birth records that might point them towards the correct boy. When they arrive at the former convent, which we last saw burning at the hands of the Dukes of Hell, it has been converted into a paintball facility for corporate retreats by former Satanic Nun Mary Hodges (Nina Sosanya), conveniently the exact nun who made the mistake.
Aziraphale and Crowley don’t get the information they need, as all birth records burned in the fire, but they’re closer to the right place than they suspect. As Crowley drives manically back towards London, they hit a bicyclist in the dark: Amathema Device. They use their powers to undo the damage to Crowley’s car and Anathema’s body and bicycle, then offer the young woman a ride back to her cottage. She finds the men and the situation suspicious, but nobody thinks to ask each other how they converged in a dark wood near Tadfield.
Anathema has been in that wood every day since arriving, trying to detect the location of the Son of Satan using her witchy tools and heritage. She has unwittingly succeeded, meeting Adam (Sam Taylor Buck), Pepper (Amma Ris), Wensleydale (Alfie Taylor) and Brian (Ilan Galkoff) as they played a game of “British Inquisition” inspired by their having heard that a witch moved into Jasmine Cottage. She found the children hilarious, and dismissed Adam’s Dog as “not what she was looking for,” then departed to continue searching.
After depositing Anathema back at her cottage, Crowley and Aziraphale spend their entire drive to London trying to figure out how to find the boy. As the Son of Satan, he apparently has defensive cloaking to hide him from occult figures like them. They settle on activating their mutual networks of human agents, since humans are good at finding other humans.
When Aziraphale steps out of the car, he notices Agnes’ book on the floor of the back seat, left behind by Anathema in her confusion after the accident. Aziraphale recognizes the book at once, and he runs into his shop to examine it. When he does, he opens to a prophecy meant just for him: that his cocoa is getting cold while he reads!
The book is the key to finding Adam, and now Aziraphale has it. He devours the entire thing in a single sitting, evading Crowley and keeping his own confidence.
While Aziraphale, Crowley and Anathema seek Adam, another drama is unfolding in London. Newton Pulsifer (also Jack Whitehall), descendent of the Witch Hunter who killed Agnes Nutter, has washed out of every job he’s ever had because computers hate him. As he walks forlornly from another failure, he is drawn in by a streetcorner speaker called Shadwell (Michael McKean), a Witch Hunter Seargeant who is still committed too the cause. Newt joins Shadwell’s (now two-man) Witch Hunting Army the next day, armed with their most powerful weapon: the scissors they use to clip items of note from print publications.
Still elsewhere, the next phase of the Apocalypse is in motion. With only two days left until the end of the world, an International Express Man (Simon Merrells) is traveling the globe to deliver packages to the Four Horsemen, activating them. The first he connects with is War (Mireille Enos), and she is eager to get to work.
RELATED: Read all of our Good Omens recaps here!
You can stream Good Omens on Prime Video
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