Good Omens – Season 2 Episode 2 “Chapter 2: The Clue” Recap & Review

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

Episode 2 of Good Omens season 2 titled ‘Chapter 2: The Clue featuring the minisode A Companion to Owls’ begins with Demon Crowley being sent to the Land of Uz to destroy Job’s lambs. Aziraphale shows up ready to stop him and they catch up as he is surprised to see Crowley. But as they go back to business, Crowley refuses to stop the destruction as he has a permit from God!

Aziraphale is shocked and goes to Heaven to recheck. He is aghast at learning that God has made a bet with Satan. Satan claims that Job, God’s favourite human is a strong believer because God is kind to him. So God has allowed Satan to take away his prized possessions aka Job’s trials. If Job’s faith doesn’t waver, he will be rewarded twicefold including double the children. Oh, but his old existing children that he loves will stay dead.

Back in present-day London, Gabriel is trying to help by arranging the books in order of the first letter of the book’s sentence. Tired, Aziraphale lets him be till he hears Gabriel singing a song. Elsewhere, Shax shows up and threatens Crowley unless he helps Hell. She also reveals that an archangel-scale miracle took place at the bookshop and so Crowley must know something.

Back at the bookshop, Aziraphale decides to ask Maggie about the song but she is too busy crying over Nina. She narrates how she made a fool of herself the other day and that she is in love with Nina. Aziraphale hopes to help but he has run out of miracles and she further beats herself up for telling him about her tragic love life.

On to the song, she says it is the 1957 song ‘Everyday’ by Buddy Holly. Aziraphale asks for a record and she pulls out tons of them. Turns out, she has a tie-up with an Edinburgh pub, The Resurrectionist (the very same pub whose name is written on the matchbox found by Muriel). Unfortunately, every single record she has sent has ended up magically playing ‘Everyday’ and so they have sent it all back to her.

Before Aziraphale can look into it, he feels archangels on Earth. He rushes back in time to see Saraqael, Uriel and Michael in front of his bookshop. As they ask about Gabriel, the amnesiac archangel welcomes them in and introduces himself as Jim, the book-seller assistant who is also sometimes called Gabriel.

But they don’t find anything amiss as Crowley and Aziraphale’s miracle holds – they don’t recognize Gabriel. They declare that an archangel-worthy miracle took place and Aziraphale tries to cover up by saying it was just him helping Maggie and Nina fall in love. They state that they will send someone to verify the love miracle and leave.

Following some research, Aziraphale calls Crowley to a pub next door. He immediately regrets it as he is swept into hosting a monthly get-together for the local traders and shopkeepers association. Crowley wonders why they couldn’t just meet at the cafe and Aziraphale says the cafe owner is part of the problem. He explains how he needs to get Nina to fall in love with Maggie and Crowley fails to see how it is their problem.

Aziraphale reveals how he messed up and now the archangels are going to send someone to verify his ‘love miracle’. They then get to discussing how to fix it with Crowley suggesting Richard Curtis’ move of having two people taking shelter under torrential rain and falling in love. Aziraphale, on the other hand, wants a Jane Austen moment and Crowley is surprised to hear she is the same person as an iconic female thief he knew back in the day. 

Anywho, they head back to the bookshop and ask Gabriel about the song. He cannot seem to remember but when he tries extra hard, he gets back a memory from way back. His eyes go purple and he says a phrase before panicking and saying he should not remember those memories. As he goes to rest, Crowley points out that Gabriel just said the same phrase that God told Job.

We are finally shown what really went down during Job’s trial. Crowley heads to the mansion to kill Job’s children. Aziraphale tries to stop him when he suddenly notices that the crows are bleating. Turns out, Crowley never killed the goats but disguised them as crows.

Aziraphale is over the moon upon learning that Crowley is siding with him. When they finally meet the kids, the eldest two are annoying and Aziraphale almost worries that Crowley may go back on his word. But he simply turns them all into lizards. 

The next day God finally speaks to Job. God keeps asking him if he knew how God made the world, ostriches and whales. When he returns, his wife, Sitis is confused by the turn of events. At that moment, Gabriel, Michael and the other angels appear before them and reward them with double the cattle. The couple only cares about their kids, and the angels say they will get new children.

Before Sitis can curse them all, Crowley shows up, pretending to be an old acquaintance, Bildad the Shuhite and claims he is a midwife. He and Aziraphale tell her to play along and declare that she is ready to give birth. With Gabriel only having seen Eve’s birth, they pretend that Sitis has pulled out 3 of Job’s ribs. As they hug, the fake bones disappear and Crowley turns the children back into humans.

Michael wonders why they are not babies and Gabriel claims kids probably come in all shapes and sizes like Eve. Of course, the annoying son, Ennon keeps insisting that they are all the old children. Michael and Gabriel almost catch on and turn to Aziraphale for an answer. Crowley looks at him knowingly, and after much hesitation, Aziraphale swears that the kids are the new children. The matter is solved and the archangels are happy.

Back in the present, Crowley leaves while Aziraphale wonders about the record. Outside, Crowley runs into Nina who asks him about his powers and he just brushes it off. He asks her how she feels about sheltering under torrential rain and looks at Maggie. Nina thinks he is insinuating that she and Maggie are a thing, and she vehemently refuses, going as far as to say that getting locked together was a terrible day for her. Ouch.

They move along only for Crowley to now be interrupted by Aziraphale. With his 90-year-old driving license, the angel wants to take ‘their’ Bentley to the Edinburgh pub to investigate while Crowley is to look after ‘their’ bookshop and Gabriel. The demon tries to refuse but who can refuse Aziraphale? 

We get one last flashback to explain why Crowley has such a strong bond with him. After Job’s trial, a crying Aziraphale goes to Crowley and says he is ready to go to Hell. Crowley doesn’t understand and Aziraphale thinks he is going to hell for lying.

Crowley says he won’t tell anyone if Aziraphale doesn’t. Aziraphale is just an angel who goes along with Heaven as far as he can just like Crowley listens to Hell as long as it works for him. They accept that it can get lonely and sit together while looking at the horizon.

The Episode Review

Good Omens season 2 continues to question the world and the way it works as seen in episode 2. It can be quite risky with Aziraphale being the devout voice of reason as he tries to understand God’s mysterious ways while Crowley is the voice of atheists but it works. It is also pretty cool how they tie it up with the rest of the plot.

But is it just us or does something feel off with Gabriel? Is he messing with them? Does he get his memories back or did he never lose them in the first place? Maybe he sabotaged them – how else did Crowley and Aziraphale’s miracle be confused as a miracle done by an archangel? if it is indeed them, how powerful are they together?

As for the episode 2 flashbacks to Job’s trial, there is something definitely sinister afoot. Does it have something to do with Job’s quote on the matchbox? It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to believe that Job is the one responsible for Gabriel’s memory loss or the magical jukebox in the Scottish pub.

As for our dynamic duo, looks like they are taking the role of matchmakers pretty seriously. They have no idea how love works and with their only reference being Richard Curtis and Jane Austen, we are so ready for the hijinks to ensue.