The episode's theme of death ties in with the series' use of gallows humour, its criticism and satire of war, and its depiction of authority figures contentedly sending their subordinates to face the enemy, while unwilling to do so themselves.

The final sequence, which shows the main characters going "over the top", uses slow motion, as the programme's creators were unhappy with the result of the scripted ending.

Joined by his colleagues – the poor, stupid and unhygienic Private Baldrick (Tony Robinson), and the overly optimistic, upper-class and equally idiotic Lieutenant George Colthurst St Barleigh (Hugh Laurie) – Blackadder tries constantly to escape his position and avoid the "big push", which he fears will result in his death.

George mentions the Christmas truce of 1914 (in which the belligerents stopped fighting to play football) and realises he is the only "Trinity Tiddlers" member still alive; this is paralleled in Baldrick's pets, who have all died.

While sweeping toy soldiers off a map and into a dustpan, Haig reluctantly advises using the previously attempted underpants method, ending the call with "favour returned", causing Blackadder to remark, "I think the phrase rhymes with 'Clucking bell'", realising his fate has been sealed.

Blackadder replies that Baldrick's idea will have to wait, but admits it could not fail to improve over his own plan to feign insanity because "who would have noticed another madman round here?"

[9][10] Elton was primarily responsible for the sequence in which Blackadder explains how the First World War started;[11] the running gag of Baldrick using mud and bodily fluids to make coffee throughout the episode was greatly expanded during rehearsals.

[15] During the filming of the episode, which took place before a studio audience at BBC Television Centre,[9] Rowan Atkinson described sharing his character's dread of impending death and feeling a "knot in the pit of my stomach",[16][17] something that he had never experienced.

[22] Producer John Lloyd cited the episode's lack of another major character as the reason they had time to "explore the relationships of the five principal people".

[26] Comparing Blackadder Goes Forth to the 2012 war serial Birdsong, Alison Graham of the Radio Times commented that "Nothing...evokes the terror of those unspeakable battlefields or leaves such an overwhelming sense of loss as [its characters] going over the top to their certain death".

[27] Den of Geek's Carley Tauchert placed the episode second on her list of "top 10 TV show endings", calling it "one of the greatest interpretations of the madness of war that has ever been put on film".

Both are interspersed throughout, with each character given moments of laugh out loud brilliance and poignant reflection", concluding that "...there is no such thing as a perfect television show or episode, but 'Goodbyeee' comes dang close".

Of the final episode Luckhurst wrote: "Goodbyeee" went a good deal further than any other sitcom or comedy, by terminally sending pretty much the entire cast over the top in 1917, into a silence that has...endured ever since.

Many millions of viewers were shocked, and almost all taken aback by the abrupt realization of tragedy amid much-loved national television and after riotous laughter to that sudden and bitter end ...[30]In a poll conducted by Channel 4 and The Observer to determine television's one hundred most memorable moments, the final scene of "Goodbyeee" came ninth; it was one of only two entries in the top ten that was not news coverage (the other being a scene from Only Fools and Horses).

[25][31] In 2001, Radio Times asked a panel of comedians, writers and producers to pick their "50 favourite sitcom moments"; "Goodbyeee" was the only episode of Blackadder that was included, where it ranked eleventh.

[32] The British Film Institute's Screenonline called the episode's ending "unexpectedly moving", and noted that, unusually for a comedy programme, it was repeated as part of a serious commemoration of Armistice Day:[33] for its 80th anniversary in 1998.

[35] The impact of Blackadder on the public consciousness was so pervasive that Gordon Corrigan referenced it in his book cover copy when he published Mud, Blood, and Poppycock, which was an attempt to "dispel various myths" about the war.