Summary
All the chess pieces are slowly moving into place for the final showdown. “The Doomsday Option” gives us plenty to think about and a few surprises along the way.
We’re almost there now aren’t we? It’s starting to get quite serious and the end of the world feels like it’s getting close.
“The Doomsday Option” opens with Crowley charging through London in his car at some speed, Queen blares out on the stereo (he does love his Queen doesn’t he?) and he pulls up outside Aziraphale’s place and discovers it in flames. Fearing the worst about his best friend he swears bloody revenge before discovering Agnes Nutter’s book on prophecies.
Adam is now tormenting his friends whose mouths he has sealed shut (there is sort of a Donald Trump vibe about him the more petty and capricious he gets isn’t there?).
Aziraphale is now in heaven where the angels are handing out weapons etc, he’s given a bit of kit and told to hurry up to the war. We then learn that on the journey to Heaven his body was discorporated. He needs to get back to Earth, the only way for him to do so without a body is to become a Demon and possess a human, so off he goes. This feels like quite a major plot development that has been slightly blown past…
Newt, basking in the afterglow is after another round with Anathema. Not so fast fella, the prophecy only says we must do it once. Let’s get back to work and follow the next prophecy. Eyes on the prize chief.
Crowley is drowning his sorrows with a couple of bottles of whiskey before Aziraphale appears before him as a sort of ghostly apparition. He instructs Crowley to head to Tadfield and he will do the same once he has found a body to inhabit.
In “The Doomsday Option”, the four horsemen all finally get together in a roadside café. At last they get to catch up to a heavy metal soundtrack. They don’t actually ride horses anymore though, they ride motorcycles obviously.
Madame Tracy is hosting a fake séance where she fleeces a bunch of local idiots during which Aziraphale takes over her body; but not before one of Tracy’s patron’s demands to speak to her husband who causes something of a scene. Anyway, Aziraphale has the body he needs to go and avert the end of the world.
Crowley is slowly making his way to Tadfield but his progress is halted by a traffic jam on the M25, a road so treacherous that it could only have been devised by the demon himself. Spontaneously, the cars on the M25 start to burst into flames, creating an impassable ring of fire. He makes a judgment call and heads out on an alternative route.
A call center employee is cold calling people in “The Doomsday Option” about ‘an accident they had that wasn’t their fault’. Unfortunately, Hastur is still in the answer phone and this call gives him the opportunity to escape.
Shadwell stumbles upon Madame Tracy/Aziraphale and gets brought up to speed on the impending Armageddon. He’s going to be a crucial part of the team and he grabs his medieval gun type thing from the cabinet.
Hastur appears in the passenger seat of Crowley’s car and taunts him about how he is doomed to be stuck on the M25 forever. Crowley rises to the challenge and drives straight into the middle of the fire surrounding the M25. He grits his teeth and uses the power of his imagination to will his car into surviving the journey, taking Hastur out in the process and quite frankly it’s about time, that dude was starting to get on my nerves.
Back to the woods with Adam and his crew and he starts carving up the world and assigning responsibility to his friends. They, however, are not especially pleased with the turn that Adam the despot has taken, so they tell him off and tell him they don’t like him anymore, even Dog takes off with them. Visibly distressed by this Adam lets out a primal scream and collapses to the ground. His powers gone, Adam returns to the normal child he was at the start. Suddenly full of remorse he instructs his friends to get their bikes, so they can undo the damage he has caused so far. ‘Oh and by the way guys, my friends are coming and they are total bad-asses that are going break into the military database at the airbase and end the world.’
Anathema and Newt are discussing their next move. Newt points out that if everything they do is prophesied they might as well pick a card at random and follow – bingo! The card they find directs them to the airfield.
Also heading to the airfield are the four bikers of the apocalypse. It looks as though we might be headed for a showdown. They use a bit of misdirection to get past the guard casually thumbing his way through a copy of Gaiman’s American Gods (Easter Egg alert!). They make their way to the operation command center and the music gets suitably austere to tell us that bad stuff is about to happen. Sure enough, nuclear warheads and chemical weapons start launching all over the world.
Shadwell and Aziraphale/Madame Tracy arrive at the base and try and talk their way past the guard. Hang on, here comes Crowley with his flaming car and Queen blaring out of the stereo (this whole Queen thing is starting to become a bit of a motif isn’t it?) and the kids on bikes not far behind them. If Steven Spielberg/Stranger Things has taught us anything it’s that kids on bikes can always save the day.
Adam, it turns out, is not what he seems and he still has some powers which he uses to put the soldiers to sleep and summon the Horseman. Was he pulling the old ‘pretend to not be evil anymore but actually secretly being quite evil still’ move? Classic Adam!
