Netflix God’s Favorite Idiot season 1 recap guide: Episodes 1 to 8

God’s Favorite Idiot is a new comedy series from Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy streaming on Netflix as of Wednesday, June 15, 2022.

The heartfelt comedy follows a mid-level tech employee who discovers that he has been chosen by God for a higher purpose. With the assistance of several of his co-workers and friends, Clark Thompson (Falcone) must do whatever it takes to deliver God’s message, but he has no idea what kind of challenges await him, such as Satan herself trying to kill him.

Below we’re recapping every episode of the show’s eight-episode first season!

God’s Favorite Idiot recap guide: Episodes 1 to 8

The following article contains heavy SPOILERS, so keep that in mind while you’re looking through it. We’re breaking down each episode of the show’s first season.

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 1 recap: “B-Minus”

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 1 begins with seemingly normal guy Clark Thompson (Ben Falcone) looking for his cats to feed them dinner. But then he steps outside. The heavens part, a downpour showers him and Clark is struck by lightning. Is he dead? No. Clark pop back up, seemingly a-okay. The overture of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” and, of course, the nature of the show, tells us that something significant is happening to Clark, even if we don’t know exactly what yet.

Driving to work the next day, Clark yet again hears “Sign of the Times” on his car radio. Every traffic light turns green for him. He passes his co-worker Amily (Melissa McCarthy) on the way. Amily is much more abrasive than Clark, driving an old motorized scooter to her job while listening to a Rush song.

Once at the office, we get a better sense of the show’s key players. Clark and Amily are just two employees at a mid-level tech support company. They’re joined by Amily’s rival Tom (Chris Sandiford), office love birds Mohsin (Usman Ally) and Wendy (Ana Scotney) and their bumbling boss Frisbee (Steve Mallory).

Amily tells her co-workers (sans Clark) that when she came to the office late the other night (after somehow accidentally roofie-ing herself) she saw Clark glowing. No one is sure how to react to that and it gets awkward when Clark enters the break room.

Later, Clark asks Amily out on a date, as he’s nursed a crush on Amily for a long time. She accepts. At the restaurant, while Clark is in a long-winded speech about he and his dad’s perfect chicken recipe, Clark begins to glow again. This time everyone at the dining establishment sees it happen, and several even record it with their phones.

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 2 recap: “The Angel”

Things quickly become complicated for Clark after a video of him glowing in the restaurant goes viral online, accumulating more than 8 million views and counting. Amily, Mohsin, Tom and Wendy attempt to help Clark figure out what’s happening to him regarding this strange phenomenon.

It becomes a little clearer after Clark brings a bird back to life and subsequently gets a visit from an angel of God named Chamuel (Yanic Truesdale). Chamuel tells Clark point-blank that he has been chosen by God to carry out a mission, the details of which remain vague. Lucifer wants to overthrow the throne of Heaven and things are getting bad, meaning there will probably be a war between Heaven and Hell and Clark will be an important part of it all.

Chamuel leaves before giving Clark much to go on, leaving him mostly lost as to what he’s supposed to do next to carry out God’s supposed plan. Even Clark’s dad doesn’t know what to make of his son’s glowing as their traditional father-son sauna sessions come to an abrupt end when Gene (Kevin Dunn) believes Clark is bullsh*tting him.

The press starts to get wind of this story, culminating in a journalist named Judy (Georgie Bolton) showing up at Clark’s house to ask for an interview. He all but slams the door in her face.

At the end of the episode, Clark and Amily are together at his house when they see a news broadcast of Reverend Milton Thorp (Leon Ford) being interviewed and disavowing Clark, calling him a fake and dangerous phony. Not long after, Amily and Clark hear a bunch of people outside of his house, a mixture of believers and non-believers, all either protesting or shouting support.

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 3 recap: “The Preacher”

The third episode starts with Amily and Clark doing what they can to spread the message of God with flyers outside a restaurant. It doesn’t really go as planned, but since Clark still doesn’t know his purpose, he’s not sure what else to try.

His house is still mobbed by a mix of believers and non-believers. While hiding from the ruckus, Amily shows Clark an old infomercial starring the shady reverend from the news report. It turns out he’s a charlatan himself, exchanging money for “miracles.” He swindled Amily’s aunt.

Realizing they still need to go to work despite all of this insanity, Clark and Amily are forced to face the throng of people outside. Some ask Clark to heal them and Clark randomly starts speaking Spanish to one guy, despite not knowing Spanish.

At least things aren’t all bad at work, as Clark’s co-workers do support him. Tom even corners Clark in the bathroom to tell him he’s a follower now.

Reverend Thorp officially enters the picture at Clark’s house. Gene invites Thorp into their sauna session because Gene thinks Thorp can help. But even when Clark does make himself glow, Thorp just calls it “chicanery against God.”

Later, at the office, Chamuel returns. Luckily, no other mortal can see him, which is how we find out that Frisbee is actually an angel, too. He’s an “essential executive,” like a middle-manager angle. Chamuel tells Clark that Satan has arrived on earth.

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 4 recap: “God, Satan and All the Good Smells”

If you can’t reach out to people with flyers, try making a popular, trending TikTok! That’s what Ben and Amily attempt in the opening of God’s Favorite Idiot episode 5.

Tom creates the “Council of Clark,” comprising himself, Wendy and Mohsin, inviting them to stay late after work to discuss Clark and his mission. Tom suspects that Clark is keeping information from them.

Satan (Leslie Bibb) arrives in all of her glory to kill Clark. She drives her motorcycle to his house and cuts through the protestors to storm inside. Too bad Chamuel has protected the entire place with some angel magic, or “Harry Pottered” the house as they start referring to it. So Satan cannot get inside. Chamuel says that all of Clark’s routes have been protected, as long as he doesn’t stray from the protected areas.

Chamuel gets summoned by God. He warns Amily and Clark not to do anything Satan says, since she’s evil and trying to kill them. Satan does everything she can to summon them out of the house. They manage to resist, albeit barely.

Reverend Thorp further incites hatred against Clark by giving a sermon. More people show up at Clark’s, including one guy that throws a brick threw his window.

At work, Clark finally gets to meet God (Magda Szubanski) herself in the bathroom. She asks him to get her message out, which is that all religions are right and no one is wrong. God is fine with everyone’s beliefs as long as they aren’t using her name to hurt people. That’s why she sent the reporter, Judy, to see Clark, to assist him in getting the message out.

Realizing he sent Judy away, clark immediately calls her to reschedule an interview. We see that Judy is actually on a date with Satan, who blows her off to go after Clark again. On their way out of work, Chamuel rushes Amily and Clark into a car because Satan is hot on their trail. They narrowly escape her.

Amily and Clark return to Clark’s house where they finally make their relationship status official. Elsewhere, Satan returns to Hell and her boss, a Leviathan (Michael McDonald). She promises to do better.

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 5 recap: “The Word (It’s Love)”

After spending the night together, Clark wakes Amily up with a home-cooked breakfast. He inadvertently admits that he loves her, but then owns up to it and tells it to her point-blank. Amily doesn’t say it back, at least not yet. In fact, she’s still on Tinder despite agreeing to be Clark’s girlfriend. There’s definitely some hesitation on her part.

Outside, Satan is still hanging around the house. She threatens to go stab an angel if Clark won’t play ball with her. She also mentions that if her boss, Lucifer (Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub are all different demons), comes down things will get much worse for everyone.

At the office, Clark finally has his meeting with the journalist, Judy. She tries to get Clark to glow so she can prove she’s seen it in person, but Clark can’t bring himself to do it. Then he’s interrupted by a vision showing his dad in trouble and at the hospital.

Clark, Judy and Amily rush to the house where Satan has trapped Gene in the sauna. She throws a fireball at Judy and prepares to do it again, but Chamuel swoops down and takes Satan out of there. Clark rushes to the sauna to help his dad, but is he too late?

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 6 recap: “Tom the Baptist”

The sixth episode picks up at the hospital after the showdown with Satan and Gene’s sauna rescue. Judy is asleep, but the doctors expect her to make a full recovery. Unfortunately, Gene’s situation is more severe.

Prolonged heat exposure to his heart has caused significant kidney and brain damage. The doctors are forced to induce Gene into a coma and hope he wakes up.

In the meantime, Frisbee appears and Amily questions him about his “Harry Potter” protection. She wonders why he didn’t at least protect the sauna and backyard. It all comes down to paperwork, apparently. Frisbee assures them that he’s at least protected the hospital so they should be safe, for now.

Clark shares a private moment with his father, apologizing for being too slow to save him. But surely this can’t be the end for Gene, right?

Back at home, Clark’s house is still swarmed by protesters touting the “false prophet” narrative. Things have gotten worse thanks to Satan and Reverend Thorp. In the last episode, Satan coaxed Thorp into signing a contract to work for their personal TV network. Now he’s using his new amplified platform to spread more harmful rhetoric, like only Christians are right about God and everyone else is wrong.

When Clark rushes past him and Thorp tries to reach out to stop him, he gets zapped in return. At least Judy’s article is on Clark’s side. Amily is already at Clark’s house waiting for him. She tells him she’s moving in since it seems safer that way anyway.

Upon returning to the hospital, Clark prays to Chamuel for help in saving his father, but Chamuel is busy in the middle of fighting Satan in hell while Frisbee does more paperwork at a nearby desk. Clark is feeling the weight of God’s mission and he’s frustrated that he still isn’t sure if he’s doing things the right way.

Wanting to check up on Tom, who they left to guard Gene’s room, the group finds him leaning over Gene, crying. One of his tears lands on Gene and suddenly, he wakes up. Tom thinks he’s like John the Baptist, except Tom the Baptist, in this case.

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 7 recap: “The Four Horsemen”

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 7 begins with the four horsemen, War, Pestilence, Death and Famine, riding into town.

Gene is recovering well. The only thing he wants now is his and Clark’s perfect chicken recipe. Clark asks Amily to accompany him to the grocery store to get the ingredients and while there they run into the four horsemen. The horsemen are there to bring on the apocalypse, but they can’t do that until they bring Clark in. Amily kicks Pestilence in the nuts and they make a run for it, escaping back to the safety of Clark’s protected house.

Even though things look bleak right now, Amily and Clark are thankful to be stuck in this mess together. Clark prays to God for some sort of sign, culminating in the knock on the door. It worked! Just kidding. It’s only Clark’s mom, Helen (Robyn Niven), who is pissed at Clark for lying to the world and she even throws some barbs at Amily. Clark finally stands up to her to defend Amily and a shocked Helen leaves.

Later, they deliver their perfect chicken to Gene and they all share a tender moment together. Amily even loves the chicken, solidifying its status as the “clincher.” While enjoying their meal, Clark gets a blocked FaceTime call. It’s Satan. She’s outside the hospital and says Frisbee’s spell can’t keep her out forever. She also claims to have killed Chamuel and threatens to kill them all once she gets inside.

Throughout this episode, Tom, Wendy and Mohsin try to navigate their duties as members of the “Council of Clark,” including an ill-fated sweatshirt design with the initials C.O.C., which Wendy and Mohsin quickly point out looks like it says “cock.” Wendy and Mohsin establish their relationship.

God’s Favorite Idiot episode 8 recap: Quitters Never Win, But Sometimes Winners Quit

The God’s Favorite Idiot finale picks up right after Satan’s FaceTime call. Frisbee arrives to inform them all that the protection will only last until dawn (because paperwork), so they don’t have much time left. He also says he never saw Chamuel’s body, so he might still be alive.

In the bathroom, God visits Clark once again. She tells him that he and Amily need to run because God might need Clark again in the future and she can’t afford to have him dying. Clark returns to his friends and tells them the new plan, which is for him and Amily to escape while the rest try to buy them some time to get out.

They leave, and not a moment too soon, as Satan arrives and starts wreaking havoc in the hospital. But Clark and Amily are stopped by Thorp on their way out. Somehow, Clark is able to talk to Thorp in Latin and tell him things about his personal life that there is no way for Clark to know. It seems to finally make Thorp a believer and he lets them go.

Back inside, fearing death, Wendy and Mohsin kiss and Frisbee takes a stand against Satan. She throws him out the window in return. But it looks like he’s okay. While trying to get Gene out of the hospital, Satan stops Wendy and Mohsin. Somehow Wendy manages to break down Satan’s defenses and get into her head. She implies that Satan needs to return to Hell and take over so she can rise to the top. It works. Satan leaves them.

And Tom runs out in his underwear with a fake sword to stop the horsemen from riding down Clark and Amily. It’s not all that effective but it does give them enough time to get into their car and leave.

Amily drives away with Clark and the pair share a sweet moment as they escape. Amily finally tells Clark she loves him. On their way out of town, Clark wonders if maybe things will be okay after all… as a plague of locusts follows them.

Stream God’s Favorite Idiot on Netflix now.