Aziraphale and Crowley Married and Human, No Goodbye Kiss (Exclusive)

Good Omens, in the end, is about love. But the finale, the 90-minute episode that makes up Season 3, has some twists and turns to get there, especially where it leaves the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and former demon Crowley (David Tennant). TV Insider spoke with director and executive producer Rachel Talalay about that ending and more. Warning: Spoilers for Good Omens 3 ahead!

Aziraphale and Crowley, separated for years, reunite when the supreme archangel needs the former demon’s help finding Jesus Christ (Bilal Hasna), who leaves for Earth amidst the chaos in heaven. Long story short, Michael (Doon Mackichan) uses the Book of Life to remove pretty much everything from existence, including, along the way, the Metatron (Derek Jacobi), Sandalphon (Paul Chahidi), and Uriel (Gloria Obianyo), until Aziraphale and Crowley find the angel at the Eternal Flame. There, Crowley’s able to grab one page from the fire, leading to him and Aziraphale holing up in the latter’s bookshop, the only place left in the world … but they’re not alone.

Satan (Toby Jones) joins them, and then, summoned into appearing, God (Tanya Moodie) does as well. God allows each to ask a question. Aziraphale wants to know why give him Crowley, make him complete, then take it away. As God explains, “You were able to value what most people never even know they have. Your love for him was the messiest, silliest, most predictable thing in the universe. And it always made me smile.” As for Crowley, he wonders why make an infinite universe only to end it after 6000 years. In the end, God decides to let Crowley and Aziraphale choose what’s next, and they sacrifice themselves to give humans a world with free will — without God, Satan, angels, or demons. To say goodbye, Aziraphale kisses his lips, puts his fingers to Crowley’s, and the former demon kisses his fingers. And then, they and what’s left turn to dust…

On the new Earth, Aziraphale and Crowley meet as humans — bookseller Asa and author Professor Anthony Crowley — in a classic meet-cute. Yes, Good Omens pretty much goes full rom-com in the last seven minutes or so, with Derek Jacobi encouraging Asa to ask Anthony out. Asa does, in his own awkward way, and Anthony asks where they’re having dinner. That date takes place in a bar where new versions of the characters we know also are — including Jesus and the former Antichrist Adam (Sam Taylor-Buck) having a beer together — and then, Zooming in on a portrait of Sir Terry Pratchett (who co-wrote the book on which the series is based), we jump forward 20 years to Asa and Anthony, married and living in a cottage in the South Downs, listening to a nightingale and watching a shooting star (or rather, meteorite debris). “I don’t need anything more than this,” Anthony says. “I have the universe out there, and I have you. I have everything I’ve ever wanted.” And the story ends there.

Courtesy of Prime

Other notable moments from the finale: Aziraphale tending to Crowley’s wound after the War in Heaven in the opening flashback; Aziraphale posing as a demon in hell; Crowley willing to give up his Bentley to protect Aziraphale’s bookshop, not wanting to lose that after losing his friend; the two flying the Bentley up to the Eternal Flame while Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” plays; and Aziraphale starting the “I was wrong” dance before Crowley stops him.

Below, Rachel Talalay breaks down Good Omens Season 3.

Why that ending Aziraphale and Crowley? Why the sacrifice of giving up immortality and only giving them a human lifetime together without knowing that history that they have?

Rachel Talalay: It’s a Terry Pratchett question. And Rob from Pratchett’s estate, Rob Wilkins, has a whole philosophy that Terry had about this question. It [feels] like it belongs to him and Terry to really tell that story. What I love about it is that any place in it, love conquers all, and any place in any universe, it’s not about the humanity as much as the feeling that they would, if it’s ineffable, find that kind of love, they would find each other no matter what. It’ll be very interesting to see the fandom seeing and understanding that.

What I like about that ending though is also it’s kind of dropping them into a romcom, basically. You have the meet-cute, the first date, the happily ever after together. So talk about directing that and working on those scenes with David and Michael. Because it is a bit of a switch of genre from the rest of the finale.

There’s something about saying to David and Michael, “Now you’re going to do a meet cute at 50 years old or 40 years old, but you’re going to do a real meet cute.” And they were like, “Absolutely.”

I just can’t say enough about how much David and Michael own their characters from beginning to end. So, when you come and say, “OK, but now we are in the real world, what kind of changes do we want?” that was everything to do with that was done in collaboration with them. I also can’t say enough about how brilliant they are, how brilliant they are to work with, but also watching every nuance. I mean, I watch that scene with them against the wall where he catches up and asks him out, and I’m just blown away that both of them have every nuance down. I’d love to say that that’s good directing, but that’s just wonderful acting, and I can watch it over and over again.

I also like going through the bar and seeing every character in there human. That was an incredibly fun challenge, both for costumes, for all the actors: Who is your human form and what are you dressed in? And creating that world as well. But again, the real-world version of them, it was all a dialogue with Michael and David.

Yeah. I like that dialogue also because the fact that throughout Good Omens up to this, it’s always Crowley who’s been trying to get Aziraphale to run away with him, but it’s Asa who’s asking Anthony out.

And there’s something in Crowley playing this incredibly shy professorial type and Derek Jacobi playing this character who tells them, “I think he liked you.” And he’s like, “Oh, I don’t know.” It’s right in the feels for me.

Talk about that bar scene. What I liked is the fact that you linger just enough on each person and each pairing to see who it is. And I love seeing Adam back and seeing him with Jesus — the former Antichrist and Jesus together was so good.

It was great because, initially, there was a much bigger Adam story. When we were six parts, there was a much bigger Adam story. And so finding a place where we could do it and then just saying, “Let’s put Christ and the Antichrist having a beer together.” This little piece of explosion right there, and playing it all as that one piece, so that you get a moment for, I feel like the fandom [will be] slowing the whole thing down and listening very carefully to the tidbits of conversation. And then there you go in fan fiction, you can tell every story, but Jesus and the Antichrist, and so Adam and Jesus together, is just so rich.

Can you say anything about what that story would’ve been with Adam?

No, I don’t think it would be appropriate. I have no idea if they will release the six scripts or not.

Christopher Raphael / Prime

Was there anything about that story that you were keeping in mind for that small part?

Only that there were meetings between the Christ and the Antichrist, and so knowing that that could have been … And if you had to ask me what I missed, I mean, it’s hard to say what I miss most from the six episodes because in many ways, the 90 minutes is very much the right way to go — it’s what we have and in the best possible way. And it keeps it Aziraphale and Crowley’s story with lots of other stories, but keeps them absolutely centered. Of course, I missed moments, but it’s almost like the way filmmaking is that stuff gets edited out of everything you do.

I was going to bring that up because we know it’s down to this 90 minutes, but were there any deleted scenes that you did film for the finale that didn’t make it into the cut?

Very minimal.

So nothing major?

No, nothing big, heartbreaking, little bits and pieces that just kept the story. It’s almost always in the first 10 minutes where you go, “OK, we spent too much time setting it up. Let’s just get on with the story.” So there were little bits and pieces, but nothing big came out at all.

The end, when you’re going into the Terry Pratchett portrait, which great, love that, and then going to the South Downs Cottage — can you just talk about filming that final scene with David and Michael as Anthony and Asa sitting there and looking up at the universe?

Well, I think going into that idea of Terry Pratchett looking over, that portrait, and that was very much Michael Ralph, the production designer, initially suggesting that we allow Terry to be in the background, and then the idea developed that we would move into it and allow it to be the transition. And that was also, I want to give a shout out to JC [Deguara], who’s the visual effects supervisor, who was also very — been on all three series — creatively engaged in helping things like make those transitions really magical because some people don’t get the credits that [they deserve]. And Peter Anderson, who does the title sequence —

Which are so good.

Yeah. There’s little bits and pieces within the show that are Peter Anderson’s that you couldn’t know, and even ones that aren’t so obvious that you couldn’t live without his genius humor. So between JC and Peter, I just had the best support for making things like that work, and you’re doing that big time jump as well. So that was a difficult one. And I mean, we’re moving to a very small set because everything was budget limited and we had to keep most of it, almost all of it’s on stage except the new bookshop. And so trying to get South Downs in this tiny space and that transition, lots of challenges, but that’s what we like.

The scene where they’re saying goodbye before they give up everything. There was all this buildup to Crowley kissing Aziraphale in the Season 2 finale. But in that moment when they’re saying goodbye, we get Aziraphale kissing his fingers and then touching them with Crowley’s lips and then Crowley kissing his fingers. Were there any conversations about anything else that may have been included in that as you were working on that scene with David and Michael?

Yes. I mean, there was conversations throughout, quite specific in the script about that, there wasn’t another huge kiss. And the main conversation with Michael and David was, what could we do that means more than what was in Season 2? And the answer is the plot line is greater than what happened in Season 2, but another kiss would be — and I know that I say this with great love for the fandom because I know they desperately want, and they can write their whole sex scenes in fanfic, but definitely the whole group together felt like another kiss would be the same or less, and therefore really heading toward the emotion of it.

What you bring across is the intimacy of it. What’s important is also hearing about their feelings for each other because we hear the Crowley’s heartbroken, and we hear the word love in relation to Aziraphale, which I feel like is what was needed.

I’m glad to hear you say that because yeah, those are the things that were discussed and that the eternity of love, the greatness of the eternity of love, which is what it’s about, and that no matter what universe they will find each other and they will always be together, whether it’s limited in this universe or parallel universes, or they will always — that kind of love endures is the point of it, and that is so much greater than a one physical kiss. That may not make every fan not disappointed, but it was definitely a group discussion.

I mean, to me, the Tree of Life scene is incredibly powerful. There were tears on set all around watching it be filmed, and then that moment of the beauty of the simplicity of the hand and that choice and the tears in both their eyes in that scene. So, I give them a huge amount of credit for feeling that these were the right ways and then letting the story of their love be the point.

I love the way you show the wedding ring just long enough that we see that yes, they are getting their happily ever after together.

Yeah. So, I mean, we will never satisfy everyone, but those were the thoughts behind it.

Do you know if this is truly the end or if it’s possible that this world and David and Michael’s characters, whether we’re talking Crowley and Aziraphale or Anthony and Asa, we get any more with them?

I would love to see the next version of the next world. I would absolutely love to see that. And it’s science fiction and religion, and anything can happen, but no, there’s no discussion at this moment about anything but how do we make people really love the enduring love of this? And the sacrifice is not … One other thing I like is that I think when I read fan comments about — because there was so much discussion spoiling about them ending up in the South Downs, a lot of fear of them just choosing to be human. And I feel like this — just me, but opinion — has a much bigger, more scope-y, greater depth in the sacrifice they make and the decisions they make, and that it’s not obvious that they will meet. It’s not obvious, but it’s ineffable.

Courtesy of Prime

Because they could have also just met and we didn’t get to see their happily have after. It could have easily ended at the bookshop at that end. But instead we get to see, yes, they’re still going to fall in love no matter who they are. I wanted to ask about your approach to the scenes of having Crowley in heaven and then Aziraphale in hell because Aziraphale as a demon was so funny.

Yeah. I mean, Michael, what can you say? It’s just the most wonderful opportunity for him to just love playing that character and just letting him run with it and he was very engaged in what he was going to look like. He had specifics that he wanted in his prosthetics. He had Sir Laurence Olivier‘s prosthetic nose that he had bought at an auction, and he insisted that that would be the prosthetic, which was fantastic. As we watched it and he was just genius, and yet I feel like the other characters hold up. It’s just that it’s his scene, but the other characters really, really hold up. But he said, “I had Sir Laurence at my back, or on my nose.” [Laughs]

We had seen Crowley in heaven in the Season 2 finale, so it feels like you were able to be a little more understated with him in heaven this time. It didn’t have to be about, oh, see he’s in heaven. And that look of his? So good.

Yeah. And that costume he’s got — I made him just open his jacket just for a second because he’s got the lining as snakes. And I’m like, “This is the coolest thing ever. How do I get to see that? ” Because I think Kate Carin, who’s the costume designer, and her team were just absolute geniuses. There’s so many Easter eggs from other episodes and big concept ideas. And the streak of white in the hair, that was David’s idea. He saw it and said, “That’s the extra thing I want to add.” But he’s just so comfortable as Crowley as that sort of loose and whenever you put him in, whatever he does with it, his walk is so brilliant.

What was your favorite scene to direct?

I hate favorites.

Was there one that you just really enjoyed getting to put your eye on and showcase what you wanted to?

I think I was delighted every single day to be doing it. The hardest scenes were things like Jesus and the pizza and that being what is Jesus’ — so this is the opposite answer. What is the sermon on the mount with pizza instead of fish and not very many extras and how do you make that work?

And everything I got to do with Michael and David.

But also the day with Derek Jacobi was incredible. And particularly the day in the Metatron’s office was like, I can’t believe I’m working with Derek Jacobi and it’s so brilliant. And we had this idea that the space was very, very small, which you don’t see because we did all this work to make it [look that way]. One of the things I’m really, really pleased about in visual effects — but we also had projections on the side. So we had live projections of him on the side all the way through because I said he doesn’t feel like the Metatron, this actor at this huge desk doesn’t give him any scope. So all those additional ideas that came both from Gavin Finney, the director of photography who just worked with me in such concert to come up with ways to take a small white room. And then the visual effects supervisor, JC Deguara, who just said, “Could we cathedral this?” “Absolutely.” And then suddenly it became, there’s this huge Derek and there’s all these Dereks throughout. And that’s the incredible team from all three seasons who loves the project and who brings everything to it.

Good Omens, Streaming Now, Prime Video