Good Omens season 2 has been confirmed by Neil Gaiman himself, opening the opportunity to answer some of the biggest questions left by the end of the original season. Spanning just six episodes, the Amazon Prime series covered the entirety of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s original Good Omens book, so despite rave reviews, a second season was never guaranteed, or even expected, and the announcement of a second season came as a surprise.
Gaiman is basing the new season (at least in part) upon the planned but unwritten sequel that he and Pratchett plotted over three decades ago: 668 – The Neighbour of the Beast. While details on what that sequel entailed are closely guarded, there are some clear mysteries that need clearing up after those first six episodes.
Good Omens season 1 closes out with a number of plot lines apparently tied up neatly: the Apocalypse has been averted, the Antichrist is no more, the prophecies of Agnes Nutter have been fulfilled, and Crowley and Aziraphale escape scot-free. However, there are plenty of follow-up questions about the characters and the universe they inhabit that remain unanswered. Here are the five biggest questions remaining from the first season that Good Omens season 2 can answer.
Is The Apocalypse Cancelled Or Just Delayed?
Controlling Adam Young, the Antichrist, is Crowley and Aziraphale’s main goal throughout Good Omens season 1 as they seek to keep him from turning to evil and thus bringing about the Apocalypse. Through almost no fault of their own, they succeed in this task as a comedy of errors leads to Adam not being raised in the household of a high-level diplomat from the United States as the demons had planned, but rather in the idyllic Oxfordshire village of Lower Tadfield. When faced with the possibility of destroying the world and being reunited with Lucifer, his birth father, he sees how scared his friends are and uses his powers to instead stop the Apocalypse, concluding the story of Good Omens.
While Crowley and Aziraphale persuade the other angels and demons that this might have been God’s plan all along and that God intended for them to stop the Apocalypse, it is not clear that this is actually the case. God’s plans remain “ineffable” throughout the series and Crowley and Aziraphale follow ulterior motives as they do not want the Earth to be destroyed because they quite like living there, having become accustomed to human comforts. The door is open for the Good Omens season 2 plot to also center on an impending Apocalypse of a different origin.
What Does Adam Do With His Powers?
Intended to lead the Four Horsemen at the end of Good Omens season 1, Adam, as the Antichrist, wields complete control over reality. After reading a conspiracy magazine, he begins parroting things that he has read as facts and these statements become true leading to bizarre world events including the appearance of the Lost City of Atlantis in the middle of the ocean. When he stops the Apocalypse, he does so by speaking his identity as the Antichrist out of existence, informing Lucifer that he is “not [his] real dad.”
While at first, it might seem that relinquishing his position as the Antichrist would also mean losing his powers entirely, this is clearly not the case. At the end of Good Omens season 1, Adam not only puts the world back to the way it is supposed to be (mostly), but one of the closing scenes shows him lamenting to his friends that he can’t leave his garden because he is grounded, but then speaking a hedge out of existence so that he and his dog can run and play. While Adam has so far seemed to be largely using his powers inconsequentially, Good Omens season 2 can address what a teenage Adam Young with such easy-to-use powers might do without even entirely intending it.
Will Agnes Nutter Have More To Say?
The subtitle of Gaiman and Pratchett’s original Good Omens also serves as a central feature in the television series: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. These foretellings from 1655 were both entirely true, and yet also so specific as to be difficult to interpret until after the event had already happened. Agnes Nutter foresaw the Apocalypse and also provided a key that helped Crowley and Aziraphale to escape execution in the immediate aftermath of averting the Apocalypse.
At the end of season 1, Agnes Nutter’s descendent, Anathema Device, receives a strange package that her ancestor had arranged to arrive after the Apocalypse was averted. The package contained the book, Further Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter. Anathema, who had felt the predetermined predictions of the original text had ruled her life, burnt these new prophecies without reading them. It seems strange that Nutter would have sent this second set of prophecies as she would have known that Anathema would burn them. However, it is entirely possible that there are even more prophecies out there or that Nutter had a secondary copy sent elsewhere–potentially to Aziraphale’s bookshop. These could become, if not a key plot point, then a fun reference for the second season of Good Omens.
Will Heaven And Hell Really Leave Crowley And Aziraphale Alone?
In one of the biggest changes from the book, Aziraphale and Crowley had to face off against a large cast of angels and demons in Good Omens as they tried to prevent the Apocalypse. Gaiman and Pratchett had always intended to include these figures more prominently in the sequel, but they were comparatively absent from the Good Omens book. Despite the Apocalypse being averted, the angels and demons declare both of them traitors for working together rather than against the other side and sentence them both to death. Through trickery and switching places they both survive their death sentences, leading the forces of Heaven and Hell to be terrified of their power and letting them go instead.
It seems unlikely that any animosity would end there. Now that Crowley and Aziraphale have returned to their lives on Earth, Heaven and Hell will presumably monitor them and potentially want them eliminated again. Gaiman has already teased that Good Omens season 2 will open with an angel with no memory of who they are arriving at Aziraphale’s Soho bookshop, so angels will clearly play a key part from the outset. Season 2 will have an opportunity to examine how the divine and infernal forces feel about Crowley and Aziraphale continuing to exist as free agents, and whether they are a thorn in their side, a tool to be used, or both.
Where Is God In Good Omens?
While hosts of angels, hordes of demons, and the devil himself all make appearances in Good Omens season 1, God is notably lacking as a player. Although much theorizing takes place as to what God’s “ineffable plan” is, the only representation of their presence is provided by Frances McDormand in the role of narrator. If God chose to remain a serene voice of narration throughout the impending Apocalypse, it is hard to imagine what might bring them out into the open.
However, by having the narrator credited as God, Good Omens confirms that they exist and are still around in some capacity. As the second season is poised to further explore the role of angels and Heaven, God’s absence is going to become a less avoidable elephant in the room (the absence being a stark contrast to Neil Gaiman’s other recent TV adaptation, American Gods, which has an abundance of gods). It is possible that the story for the second season could center on God’s absence if the mystery brought to Aziraphale results in him needing to literally find God, reminiscent of Dogma or Supernatural.
These are the biggest questions left at the end of Good Omens season 1. However, exact details about the plot of the next season of the show are still thin on the ground and there is not yet a release date. As Good Omens season 2 is set to focus on Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship, it is possible that the show will go in an entirely new direction and leave some of these season 1 questions unanswered a little longer.
