not the coolest but a little interesting

Hastur: think you're gonna get across that (the road on fire)? There's nowhere to go.

Crowley: let's find out.

Hastut; wh- why are you driving? What- stop this thing.

Crowley: you know the thing I like best about time? Is that every day it takes us further away from 14th century. I really didn't like 14th century. You'd have loved it then. They didn't have any cars back in the 14th century. Lovely, clever human people inventing cars,and motorways, and... Windscreen wipers. You got to hand it to them, haven't you?

Hastur: stop this! It's over! You're doomed! You hear me, Crowley?! You're doomed! Whatever happens, doomed!

Crowley: see? This day's already got better!

[...]

Crowley: you are my car, I've had you from new. You are not going to burn. Don't even think of it!

This scene is so symbolic and revealing. Hastur says, "You're doomed", " There's nowhere to go". He tells Crowley that he won't make it across the road of fire, a symbol of a long, painful, impossible path. He tells him that he's doomed, that he should give up.

But Crowley doesn't give up.

He puts his foot down on the gas pedal and says, "Let's find out."

Even though he's terrified (his snake eyes taking up almost all of his eyes, showing just how stressed and afraid he is), he refuses to surrender. He keeps going. His faith is stronger than the fire, stronger than the burning Bentley, stronger than the risk of discorporation itself.

That faith comes from knowing that Aziraphale is alive and waiting for him. In many ways, Aziraphale is the embodiment of Crowley's faith and hope. And alongside that is Crowley's love for humanity (his speech about how clever humans are, inventing cars, motorways, and windscreen wipers)

That belief and love will always be stronger than the voices telling us we're doomed, that there's no way out, that we should just give up. We have to keep fighting, no matter who tells us that all the bridges have been burned and nothing can be fixed anymore. Even if we don't succeed perfectly, we tried. We didn't surrender. We kept going until the very end.

To me, this scene captures one of the central ideas of Good Omens perfectly: even if you're driving a burning car down a highway consumed by fire with only a few hours left until the end of the world, that doesn't mean you should give up and say, "To hell with it, let everything burn down. Maybe another world would be better anyway." (Yes, Good Omens 3, I'm looking at you.)

Summary:

“We’re drunk, Crowley.” “Sober up, then.” “I —,” Aziraphale hesitated, catching himself; a hard thing to do, when his face was still hot with drunkenness, his tongue far too loose and uninhibited. “I don’t . . . want to.”

It didn't commit to a tragic ending or a happy ending. And it didn't really commit to a true bittersweet ending because, imo, that requires character continuity. The characters have to know what they've lost (and gained) to make it poignant.

It didn't commit in any way philosophically, which has been explained very well by many eloquent people, so I won't add more.

It didn't commit to A&C's relationship. We never learn whether they enjoyed the human love rituals they tried and wanted more, or not. We don't get a clear answer about when they each fell in love or learn what the nightingale meant to them.

It didn't commit to a clear explanation for the discontinuities that were teased.

It didn't commit to a characterization for Aziraphale. He became whatever would generate maximum drama in a given moment.

It didn't commit to a characterization for Crowley either, but at least he got to be the only "real boy" in the old universe, the one person who actually mattered.

Crowley was abandoned and has long accepted it, the people were very cruel for his entire life; Aziraphale was abandoned by very kind people and refuses to believe that they will not come back for him

(This is very personal to me btw because my cat was dumped by her old owners and I cannot stress enough how much I despise people who dump animals)

“college is absolutely nothing like this” “why are we writing four people on the team scoring a hat trick in one game” “so tech work is nothing like this, hope that helps!”

You see this?

That's not a river. That's the South Canal in Mesa, Arizona (Phoenix metro area).

This is a view of the East and South canals. At least half of all the Phoenix metro canals were originally built by the Hohokam (from roughly 200-1400 CE), and are still in use (restored) today.

Phoenix, Arizona actually has more miles (kilometers) of Canals total than both Venice and Amsterdam. No, really. Phoenix has about 180 miles of canals, many of which are built on ancient canal foundations.

below is an aerial view photo taken in the late 1930's of one branch of Phoenix's canal systems:

Also have the "Montezuma Castle," if you need a castle:

Crowley and Aziraphale becoming human: I don’t love, but you could argue that that was what he planned, and I would buy it. It does follow some of his themes.

But there is a knife’s edge that Pratchett balanced between fury and compassion. He absolutely loved humanity, but he also hated what humans did to each other out of malice, spite, or even laziness. Good Omens the novel was filled to bursting with that.

The end here lacked all of that somehow. God in S1 is unknowable, but God is S3 is just a capricious bitch who seems to have it out for Crowley specifically and through him Aziraphale. The viewer certainly gets angry at God, but the narrative seems to be that, while cold, she is doing the right thing and giving them their happy ending. And while Crowley expresses compassion for humanity, it falls on such deaf ears that the narrative doesn’t actually support that.

The closing sentiment seems to be that we can make their lives better by just erasing all their trauma and baggage. No. Sam Vimes did not pull himself out of the gutter and bodily hold himself out of it every day to be told that actually amnesia would be best. If you wanted to make them human: make them keep their memories. That would have been fine.

Terry would have Crowley and Aziraphale say “fuck you” to God and protect the earth as it was. The way they protected Job’s children. The way they did at Tadfield Airbase. Here they just throw in the towel and start a new universe. They accept their failure so quickly as to be farcical.