Did they really stick it to God?
There’s another piece of meta that’s been on my mind lately. I’ve seen a number of comments from people who liked the ending of S3 because, in their view, it was a big "stick it to God" moment. The sentiment seems to be, "Yay! We got an atheist universe. That’ll really show Her." If that’s your interpretation, I genuinely encourage you to engage with this post, because I have some questions. I’m not trying to be snarky. I really want to understand how you arrived at that conclusion.
First of all, do you realize that the new godless universe only exists because She allowed it to happen?
To me, saying the ending "stuck it to God" feels a bit like saying, "Yeah, my boss let me take the day off. I really showed him." No... you didn't. For almost the entire story, everything unfolds exactly according to Her plan. Then, right at the end, the new universe feels less like a victory and more like a consolation prize, a participation trophy. It comes across as God saying, "Yep, I got everything I wanted. Sorry, you never stood a chance. I know, very sad. Here, have one wish to make up for it."
I genuinely struggle to see how that's interpreted as defeating Her.
That struggle is further compounded by the fact that religion still exists in the new universe.
If the new universe is meant to be our universe, and there's graffiti depicting angels and demons, then that lore has to come from somewhere. Which raises another question: are Aziraphale and Crowley actually free from Heaven and Hell?
The only difference is that, before, Heaven and Hell loomed over them in a very literal sense. Now Heaven and Hell loom over them the same way they've loomed over humanity throughout history: through persecution, inquisitions, witch trials, sexism, homophobia, indoctrination, zealotry, religious wars, and countless other forms of oppression. In that sense, they're still not free from Heaven and Hell. Nobody is. So what exactly was the sacrifice for?
And let me please remind you: Aziraphale and Crowley had absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe their God was benevolent. This is the same God who was perfectly comfortable drowning children in the Flood. The same God who sanctioned the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The same God who signed off on the deaths of Job's children. And that's only the material directly referenced by the show. Expand beyond that, and we're talking about the God who killed every firstborn child in Egypt to punish a Pharaoh. The omniscient, omnipotent being who witnessed the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the transatlantic slave trade, and every act of sexual violence in human history, yet never lifted a finger to stop any of it. And if we're embracing the interpretation that free will was an illusion all along, that She was secretly orchestrating everything from the beginning, then the implications of all of those events become... yikes.
By that point, in my opinion, any interpretation of the finale that relies on God suddenly being trustworthy, benevolent, merciful, or compassionate in any way just falls flat for me. That God? That’s the God you’re wholeheartedly trusting to give us a “better universe”?
Well, then I have a bridge to sell you.
My own interpretation is that the new universe is essentially the Job wager on steroids. In both the show and the biblical story, God makes a wager with Satan that's basically, "He's so loyal that I can destroy his entire life and he'll still worship me." The ending feels like the same wager, just scaled up to encompass an entire universe.
"I'll create a universe where I don't even participate. I won't perform miracles. I won't answer prayers. I won't reveal myself. It’ll be as if I don’t exist. And look, these plebs STILL worship me."
That motivation feels far more consistent with the egotistical deity we've been shown throughout the series than the idea that She suddenly had a change of heart and decided to give everyone a genuinely better universe.
Which brings me back to my original question: did they really stick it to God?
Because from where I'm standing, the only character who truly got everything she wanted was Her. Her plan succeeded. She retired (or evaporated herself) on her own terms. She created a universe where she doesn't even have to exist, yet billions of people still worship her. That's not getting owned. That's having your cake and eating it too.
If I were writing an ending intended to stick it to God, then God would actually have to lose. A lot of fans suggested ending things with a card game. That could've worked. Others suggested using Jesus as an active character, having him stand up to his mother the way Adam stood up to Satan, and then having Adam and Jesus build a genuinely better world together. That would've been sticking it to God. Or, I dunno, they had the Book of Life in their friggin hands. They summoned Her with it. They could have just as easily told her to bugger off with it. Don’t know why that didn’t occur to them.
But having an arguably sociopathic deity get everything she wanted, voluntarily step away from creation, leave behind a universe where she's still worshipped, and leave the protagonists living in a world that's still fundamentally shaped by religion...
No matter how hard I squint, how far I tilt my head, or how much I try to read between the lines, I still can't see how that's "sticking it to God," and I’m not even fully convinced they’re free from Heaven and Hell.
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