This recapper heartily recommends Good Omens. What a charming and delightful show! And “The Very Last Day Of The Rest Of Their Lives” was a lovely finale. Well done, everyone.

RELATED: Here’s the recap of the second-to-last episode!

It seemed the end of the world really was nigh as all sorts of people and supernatural beings descended on Tadfield Airbase. At the end of the last episode, Adam (Sam Taylor Buck) announced his arrival to the Four Horsemen, and at the beginning of this one, they emerge from the base building where they’ve prepared nuclear armageddon to begin on Adam’s word. 

When the Apocalyptic Foursome greets their master, they’re surprised to find him flanked by three other children. Neither Adam nor these others is interested at all in world domination, either. 

As Adam’s “new friends” and true friends face off, Anathema (Adria Arjona) and Newt (Jack Whitehall) sneak up from behind. They see that the building is empty and go inside, where they determine that the room full of computers is rigged to launch every nuclear device on Earth.

Anathema turns to her index cards of Agnes’ predictions for guidance, and the card she chooses says “he isn’t what he says he is.” This elicits a confession from Newt that he isn’t really a computer engineer, although he’d like to be, and that computers hate him. Whenever he tries to fix them, they die. 

Outside, Crowley (David Tennant) is temporarily undone by his beloved Bentley exploding (rather later than one would have expected, considering that it had been engulfed in flames for some time). When he recovers, he, Aziraphale / Madame Tracy (Miranda Richardson) and Shadwell (Michael McKean) scoot onto the base to join the standoff. 

Shadwell has brought a witch finder’s weapon with him, and Aziraphale / Madame Tracy takes aim at Adam, intending to shoot him in order to prevent the end of the world. Although the Aziraphale half is duty-driven to pull the trigger, the Madame Tracy half can’t shoot a boy and forces the weapon skyward at the last second. 

Adam asks the duo why they are sharing a body, then separates them back into two people.

The Four Horsemen are growing impatient with Adam’s resistance to his destiny. War (Mireille Enos) swings her flaming sword, which turns out to be Aziraphale’s (Michael Sheen) misplaced sword from 6,000 years ago. As she rants about war, Pepper (Amma Ris) steps up to declare war to be a tool of the patriarchy. Adam explains that the Horsemen are essentially nightmares, not really real, and encourages Pepper to speak truth to War. 

Pepper kicks War in the shin, causing her to drop her sword. Pepper retrieves the sword and drives it into War, obliterating her while announcing that she believes in peace. At Adam’s direction, she drops the sword as soon as the deed is done. 

Brian (Ilan Galkoff) retrieves the sword and drives it into Pollution (Lourdes Faberes), declaring that he believes in a clean environment. When he drops the sword, Wensleydale (Alfie Taylor) picks it up and plunges it into Famine (Yusuf Gatewood) while declaring the importance of a good lunch. Dog, former Hell Hound, assists on the last one by biting Famine’s ankles. 

Death (Brian Cox) departs, vowing to come again.

At about this time, Anathema realizes that Newt’s curse with computers is the gift they need. She challenges him to use the computers to make the weapons launch, and as soon as he keys in a command, the entire computer system dies, freeing all the nations of the world from the lock it’d had on them. They emerge from the building, where Adam acknowledges what they’ve just done. 

There’s no time to celebrate the world being saved, though. Beelzebub (Anna Maxwell Martin) and Gabriel (Jon Hamm) appear, and neither of them is happy. They both have millions of troops ready to go to war, and now the war has been cancelled. Gabriel shouts that Adam can’t just refuse to be who he is and insists that Adam must fulfill the Great Plan, which inspires Aziraphale.

Aziraphale steps to Adam’s side and asks Gabriel if the Plan that must be fulfilled is the Great Plan or God’s Ineffable Plan. Crowley catches his drift and joins Aziraphale and Adam. They point out that although the Great Plan may be written, the ineffable plan is, by its nature, unknowable. Perhaps everything that’s happening now actually fulfills God’s ineffable plan, and the war would be in opposition to it?

Outwitted, Beelzebub and Gabriel disapparate. Again: no time to celebrate the world being saved, because Satan himself is coming. With a great earthquake preceding him, Adam’s “true father” is on his way to address the stalled war. Thinking fast, Crowley blinks himself, Adam and Aziraphale somewhere else (a desert?). He and Aziraphale explain that for this moment, reality will still listen to Adam and do his will. He won’t be able to fight Satan, but he will be able to do something, and he’d better make it good. Whatever he does, they’ll be by his side. 

They blink back to Tadfield Airbase, and Satan (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) pushes his giant way out of the ground. He orders his son to do his job, but Adam stands firm. He tells Satan that a real dad doesn’t show up after 11 years of absence just to yell at you, and that his real dad is the one who has been there the whole time. Then, in a reality-shaping moment, Adam declares that Satan is not his father *and never has been.*

Satan is shocked and dissolves into smoke as he disappears. The Earth stops shaking, and it finally seems safe to celebrate a bit. 

In the aftermath, Aziraphale and Crowley take a bus back to London (as Crowley’s Bentley has been incinerated). While waiting for the bus, Aziraphale reveals that he has Agnes Nutter’s final prophecy, which fell from her book when they returned it to Anathema at the Airbase. It is cryptic, as always, and says that the readers should choose their faces wisely, as they’ll be playing with fire. 

Once back in London, they discover that Adam’s choice undid quite a lot. People who were dead are alive again, Crowley’s Bentley is restored and good as new and Aziraphale’s book shop never burned. The angel and the demon meet for ice creams in the park, where they compare notes on the things they’ve observed and wonder when their “sides” will do something. 

Suddenly, Aziraphale is bound and gagged by Uriel (Gloria Obianyo) and Sandalphon (Paul Chahidi)! Then Crowley is clocked in the head by Hastur (Ned Dennehy), borrowing the form of a woman (Meg Kubota). They’re dragged to Heaven and Hell, respectively, where they’re each given a quick sham of a trial and condemned to oblivion. 

In Hell, Crowley is surprised by the appearance of Archangel Michael (Doon Mackichan), who arrives to fill a bathtub with the holiest of Holy Water. In Heaven, Aziraphale is similarly surprised by a demon (Paul Adeyefa) who has come to deliver a tornado of Hellfire. Crowley is ordered into the bathtub by Beelzebub and an irritated Gabriel orders Aziraphale to walk into the fire. 

To the shock of their accusers, neither is affected by the means of their intended demise! Crowley splashes placidly in the bath, asking for a rubber duck before suggesting to his judge and jury that if Holy Water doesn’t affect him, perhaps they should question what all he is capable of. A playful Aziraphale stands in the fire unscathed, blowing some at Gabriel and his lackeys for effect. When Michael returns for her Holy Water, expecting the tub to be empty, she joins her hellish counterparts in agreeing that perhaps Crowley and Aziraphale should just be left alone from now on. 

Meanwhile, on Earth, Anathema and Newt are surprised by a delivery reminiscent of the one at the end of Back to the Future II. Giles Baddicombe (Sanjeev Bhaskar) comes to Jasmine Cottage with a box bequeathed by Agnes Nutter, which was delivered by her daughter, Virtue Device (Bryony Corrigan), into the care of a lawyer 300 years ago on Agnes’ instructions. That lawyer was given the means to ensure the box would be cared for until the exact date at which Baddicombe delivers it. 

Anathema lets curious Baddicombe open the box, where he discovers a gold florin for himself and a warning from Agnes that he should run fast if he doesn’t want word of his extramarital affair to get out. He takes flight, and Anathema and Newt look in the box and find… a sequel to Agnes’ original book. 

Anathema is crushed, having finally thought she was free of her ancestor’s cryptic prophecies because she helped save the world. Newt decides that she can be free, and they take a little picnic to a field and burn the manuscript together, choosing not to be descendants for the rest of their lives. 

They aren’t the only ones choosing future over past. Madame Tracy tones down her look and invites Shadwell to dinner. He accepts the invitation into her “den of iniquity,” because of all they’ve been through together. After a lovely meal, Tracy tells him she has enough set by for retirement, and that it would be nice to move away from London and have a man around the house. A flustered Shadwell pops the question: How many nipples does she have? When she confirms that she only has the two, and thereby is not a witch, they decide to get married and live out their days together. 

Adam, who has been grounded in the wake of sneaking onto the Airbase, can feel something changing. After cleaning his room, his mother gives him permission to play in their garden with Dog. His friends sneak up to the back hedge to invite him to go see a circus being set up, and he tells them he’ll be grounded for years… or until the next day, when his parents are likely to have forgotten all about it. 

The friends depart, and then Dog, with the help of a little remaining supernatural power, wilts part of the hedge so he can escape, forcing a very willing Adam to give chase through an apple orchard where he picks a forbidden fruit and frolics with his little companion. 

In London, Crowley and Aziraphale reunite on a bench in Berkeley Square. Believing they’re safe from the agents of both Heaven and Hell, for now, they clasp hands and switch back.

It turns out the secret to their survival was having swapped faces and bodies, per Agnes’ instructions. Aziraphale is delighted with himself for the way he teased Beelzebub and ordered Michael to miracle him a towel. Crowley projects that there is still war in their future– likely between them, all of humanity and the combined forces of Heaven and Hell. For now, though, he asks his best friend if he can tempt him with a meal. Aziraphale is tickled and chooses lunch at the Ritz, where a table for two has miraculously just opened. 

As they sip champagne and enjoy the peace of being on their own team, they appreciate that it’s the fact that neither of them is 100% good or bad that allows them to get along so well. BFFs Forever, y’all!

RELATED: Read all of our Good Omens recaps here!

 

 

Leona Laurie
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