The longer I think about the finale, the more it confuses me. The new thought I have is: S2 was conceived as a bridge between S1 and the "real" sequel. However, nothing in S2 ended up being important.
More below the cut:
The kiss. Crowley finally allowed himself to express his feelings and kissed Aziraphale. But they do not talk about it in the finale. They do not really address what this means for their relationship. Actually, right before dissapearing, Aziraphale does the weird kiss with his fingers that to me reads as giving Crowley his kiss back. Which is like. Undoing S2's finale.
The main characters' conflicting views. Aziraphale and Crowley's argument and separation comes from the fact that they have different views on Heaven. Aziraphale chooses to try and work within that system to help humanity, believing that being in charge means he can make a difference. Crowley believes that Heaven is irredeemable: that the only way for him and Aziraphale to live truthfully is being their own side. In the finale, they do have this argument again, but it is not meaningfully explored. Aziraphale never has this moment of being overwhelmed by how evil Heaven is. Crowley never gets to dwell on how "running away together" is not a choice that would make them happy.
Crowley's character development. S2's ending allowed Crowley to finally say no to Aziraphale's "I need you." He refused to go to Heaven with him even when his angel begged him for help. In the finale, he falls back on the same old dynamic almost immediately. It is even explicitly recognized in the text that yes, Aziraphale came back because he needed something. But it wasn't really explored as a problem that needed some kind of resolution.
This is related to the last point but. Aziraphale never accepts Crowley as Crowley. S2's ending was painful because Aziraphale asked Crowley to be an angel again, thus making him feel like he could never be worthy of love as he was. In the finale, Aziraphale calls Crowley "the best angel" and that really shows how this very important conflict was never solved.
Aziraphale being the Supreme Archangel. He sacrificed so much last season to have this role. However, we do not really get to see the challenges he faced (we are just told in passing about them) nor the choices he made. We do not even get to hear the speech he wrote for Jesus to read. Having him being the top angel actually substracts credibility from the plot: why wouldn't Michael delete him from the Book of Life much earlier? If we had this finale right after S1, Gabriel could have been murdered this way. Michael not targeting Aziraphale would make more sense, as he would no longer be in Heaven's radar (in S2 they only go to him because of his and Crowley's miracle to hide Gabriel).
The Second Coming. During S2, the big mistery uncovered by Gabriel that led to him deleting his own memories was the Second Coming. We do have some of that in the finale, but it goes nowhere. Jesus barely manages to give everyone pizza before dissapearing.
Job's minisode. Its existence really makes it impossible to accept the finale as a happy ending. Like. If you make a new universe instead of asking the current one to be saved, then it is as if Aziraphale and Crowley had let Hell kill Job's children.
Not to mention all the S2 characters that we do not see in the finale. Gabriel, Beelzebub, Nina, Maggie and so on. The Metraton is killed almost immediately. What purpose did introducing him even had?
I can perfectly picture how this finale could fit right after S1 with no need of S2 in between. In fact, it would be a bit less jarring, as we would not have all the unadressed baggage from S2's kiss.
