#25 Lazurii

[drconstellation]

The Passion Of Jimbriel

Part 1: The Entry into Soho

The story of events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, and the days following, until his ascension to Heaven, are collectively known as the Passion narratives. It comes from the Latin "to suffer," or "to endure."

More than one op has mentioned there are parallels to this in S2, so I thought I would try and find how well the whole narrative was followed. Oh yes, is the short answer, it certainly does! And how! And in places you might be surprised about. I hope this series of metas might answer some of the odd mysteries of "why is that there...? that are still floating around at the moment for you.

I've tried to match the narratives to scenes and incidents in S2 as closely as I can, but I only have sketchy Anglican Christian background, so if you have had a more thorough Catholic upbringing than me and see something I have missed, slip me a message and I'll do my best to edit things.

A word of warning before we start - it's not a linear match-up. I'm planning to run through the traditional sequence of the Passion in order, but will match with the S2 scenes as needed, and those are scattered back and forth in time. It's Catch-22 again - everything thrown up in the air and landing at seeming random places, where ever they seem to fit best for the narrative.

AZIRAPHALE: Ah, you startled me. GABRIEL: Is that good? AZIRAPHALE: I just didn't see you coming.

I actually thought I might start with this little scene, where Jim gives Aziraphale a jump-scare by creeping up next to him silently. Annoyed, Aziraphale tells him to make some noise as he moves about, and Jim trolls him with some creaking noises, before starting to sing.

There were prophecies about the arrival of Jesus, but the ironic thing here is that Aziraphale, someone who has a vast collection of prophecies and is someone you could consider an expert, had no warning of Gabriel's arrival - he just crept up to the door as a nasty surprise!

Starting proper, there were the three temptations while Jesus was fasting in the wilderness.

Making bread out of stones (I've also covered the Eccles Cakes here in the Altar of Eccles Cakes. They have multiple purposes!)

2. Being tempted to jump from a pinnacle of a temple and relying on angels to break his fall.

3. Being tempted to worship Satan in return for ruling all the kingdoms of the world.

This one was actually covered in S1, at Golgotha. I know Crowley mentioned to Aziraphale that he was the one who tempted Jesus, but I wrote a meta about it because I realized most people were missing the joke in the TWO demon names that Aziraphale suggested Crowley had changed his name to, and how that relates to that particular temptation.

The last miracle performed before the Passion was the raising Lazarus from his tomb, four days after he had died.

After Crowley is dragged down to Hell for an interview with Lord Beelzebub and finds out they are being threatened with the Book Of Life for being involved with Gabriel, he rushes back to Aziraphale and says they have to hide them. As they decide they will try a shared minor miracle Jimbriel descends the spiral staircase:

GABRIEL: Hello. Where did you come back from? CROWLEY: Outside. GABRIEL: Outside? Hmm. Is it big? Can I see the outside? CROWLEY: No, no, no, no, no. No, no no. You need to stay here, inside the bookshop. We can look after you in here. Just stay here.

Inside? Inside the tomb? Aziraphale has even 'wrapped' him up for the occasion.

Later, we find out that:

AZIRAPHALE: Jim is in his bedroom upstairs. I told him bookshops are always closed on a Wednesday. As for Inspector Constable, at a guess, they were sent to verify the 25 Lazarii miracle you and I seem to have accidentally performed together the other night. CROWLEY: That's how you lot measure miracles? How many times it could have brought someone back from the dead?

Uh huh. The miracle of Lazarus.

The Entry into Jerusalem

Jesus made his way into Jerusalem by donkey to show that he came in peace, not as conquering king on a horse. Gabriel does the same.

But he walked in, you say, on foot!

Yes, but he walked by the Dirty Donkey pub on his way to bookshop.

Next, was the Cleansing of the Temple.

What temple? The bookshop, of course! Is it not a temple of books?

Aziraphale sets Jim to cleaning it, with a duster.

I'd say you could also call the bookshop a temple to Crowley - it is decorated in his colours, after all. The presence of Jim initially drives the merchants and money dealers demon away, snatching his sunglasses from his mini-altar as his goes.

The last step on the Passion I'll cover in this meta is the Anointing of Jesus. It tells the story of how Jesus had an expensive perfume, worth a year's wages, poured on his feet from an alabaster jar by woman who was considered sinful. The gathered Disciples were aghast at this waste - they asked why she did not sell the perfume instead and give the money to the poor. Jesus thanked her for preparing him for burial.

This one had me stumped for a while, and I had to think hard about where something had been "poured out" on feet, because I was pretty sure no one had been "anointed" on the head, which is another version of this part of the narrative. Then I remembered seeing a GIF that was Aziraphale focusing on the floor for a number of seconds after Crowley had upended the box Gabriel had carried to the bookshop with his fly in it to read the message on the bottom of the box.

My precious...! You poured them out at your feet, Crowley!

Alabaster is a soft white stone that is easy to carve. The bland cardboard box makes a good analogy for this. And in it we see Aziraphale has filled it with priceless treasures - not one but two lost Shakespeare plays!

If at this point you are going "Wait - Wot? Now you're telling me both Jim/Gabriel and Crowley are playing the part of Jesus here?" I'm saying yes. It's not the first time I've said it. I'm not the only op who has been saying it, either. And as we head into part two of this meta you'll see Crowley take on more of this role from Jim/Gabriel. The two of them have a lot in common, much more than you might have suspected or might even want to acknowledge. This is the past echoing into the present again. I think it also gives us some interesting things about the future to contemplate.

Next: Part 2 - Trials and Denials

Where we move on to the Last Supper, and the Arrest of Jesus before his before he is judged before a court of priests and then Pontius Pilate, and the gathered crowd.

This post was inspired by @mr-period 's long meta Remembering Something Forgotten-Where is Jimmy Boy?

More reading on the Dirty Donkey in my meta here.

[goatbeard-goatbeard]

Revivals

“And the dead will leave their graves and walk the earth once more. And there will be great lamentations. Every day it’s getting closer.”

Thinking about the running theme of revival in Good Omens 2.

Thinking about how the only dead who actually left their graves were the Nazis.

Thinking about how Aziraphale and Crowley got a few years of not being bothered by heaven and hell, but now the Second Coming is ramping up.

Thinking about the running theme of revival in Christian evangelicalism — a revived fervor that comes roaring back, cyclically, after periods of increased secularism, in the form of Great Awakenings and revival tents.

Thinking about the early 2000s, and how it was common knowledge then that conservative evangelicalism was dying out on its own.

Thinking about now, when ultra-conservative Christians are explicitly organizing around revival tents and Great Awakenings.

Thinking about how much easier it is to work miracles when you believe your every tiny action or inaction has consequences for eternity, leading to a wild mismatch in passion between evangelicals and non-evangelicals toward incremental progress like voter persuasion and school boards and controlling the levers of political power.

Thinking about how the biggest miracles (for good OR for evil) come from each person doing an incomplete fraction of a miracle, while trusting others to do the same.

Thinking about how easy it is to resonate with Crowley, with the idea that it’s not worth engaging with heaven or hell — might as well talk to a brick wall. Besides, their influence is dying out on its own. And when do the dead ever leave their graves?

[drconstellation]

I…am…speechless…almost speechless after reading this. There is a lot to think about there. It is certainly a nice description of Jim's storyline. But there is so much here, its so big, and covers so much, I'm going to have to come back and take notes (and maybe finally start making those note files I've been telling myself I need to make.) But thank you. Well done. And I look forward to reading more from you, OP.

Re the Book of Life and Crowley - have you read this meta where they propose that S2E2 turtle-neck dressed Crowley is on a 1967-style James Bond/Master Spy mission to find the Book of Life and destroy it save Aziraphale?

Edit: The names of the demons on the screen are Morax and Skittles. Morax is listed as an Earl of Hell with the head of a bull on the body of man, reminiscent of the Minotaur. So the white haired demon would be Skittles, which I imagine refers more to the game of skittles, rather than the candy.

Remembering something forgotten ————Where is Jimmy boy?

I feel I may find some thing that be hidden in S2.New to tumblr,and English is not my first language,hope what I want to express can be understand correctly,and plz forgive me if there's errors of some religion words.

The famous magic theory has mentioned many things wrong in S2, and some plots are deliberately set to be unobtrusive, suspicious slides off them like water slides off ducks. But the drawback of magic theory is that it sets the whole script to nothingness. The key to solving puzzles is to have practical meaning. It is a fallacious to make the whole story illusory just for put all the contents into the theory.

For abstract :S2 contains a hidden story line of the resurrection of Jesus under the love story.Like mentioned in the bonus video,S2 contains not only large amounts of Easter eggs for the second coming in S3,but really a character might be Jesus under the noses of the audience.So for me the S2 is like Neil Gaiman rushing into Amazon Prime’s senior office,throwing the script on the desk and roaring:“GIVE ME SEASON 3 OR GIVE ME DEATH!!!”

Before we begin,I need to clarify some roles or directions.

First of all,according to some puzzle we have in S1&S2,like the body change at the end of S1,or the hidden goats in 202,the clues of mystery in the show always have a obvious answer, even it feels make no sense before realize the link between.All the information from the focusing places in the picture can be use.But like the shortage of the magic theory,it is unacceptable to distort the story itself just to fix a theory.Actually I still not figure out all the puzzles in S2,so in the second part of this post about my personal theory of who is telling the story and who is watching,I will point out that it’s a assumption but not deduce.

Secondly,there are multiple story lines in S2,three love stories above,the hidden line about Jim/Resurrection of Jesus,the main line frame to explain the logic of the whole script,and the story of Metatron.What's more,the crew also prepared a large amount of Easter eggs.Some of them,such as the lovely little hat of Doctor Who in the magic shop,can be seen as a simply fan benefit.

But there are also some Easter eggs not only Easter eggs,but also related to the plot or hidden story.For example,I have write a article about the Blitz minisode is the thing actually in the box(didn't trans it in tumblr yet),because the prop books in he box displayed in 206 is two of the "Lost Quartos" of Shakespeare plays mentioned in the Good Omens Book.It could be an Easter egg,but when you notice that the plot of the prototype of these two plays are mentioned about the bullet(arrow) catch and the show girl,which can link to the Blitz minisode specifically,that makes this Easter egg a clue.

So after accepting theser premises,let's start the detective game.

First of all,we need to question ourselves:There is a character who has his own personal poster and a promotional video, who is in the story from the beginning to the end,but no one say goodbye to him?Even Nina and Maggie have a "say goodbye forever",Even Beelzebub said thanks you to Aziraphale,but this absolute S2 main character had never be mention again at the end.

Where is Jim?

After Gabriel recovered his memory,the friendship established between he and Crowley and Aziraphale vanished immediately.This unbalanced weird feeling was washed away by the coming broken-up and makes the audience have no time to think about that. Actually,it's quite unnatural because the relationship between Jim and Aziracrow have a complete grown arc.We can see Crowley finally give Jim hot chocolate,Aziraphale say to Jim that he said he will protect,and he well,and at the beginning Jim said happily he have two friends.But when Gabriel recovered his memory,Aziraphale look like want to drown Gabriel into holey water and distory him as soon as possible.The relationship they built during six episodes simply disappeared like the undropped second shoe upstairs.The story about Jim is far from over.

That's my explanation about why Jim and Gabriel are two different characters,and also,the rationality of the existence of the hidden story.Then let's come to the key question:

Who is Jim?

In S1,the special effect design used a red fabric to show the blood in the crucifixion of Jesus,and in S2,they obviously find a more cheap way(considering the price of tomato maybe more expensive) to express blood.

Look at these tomatoes here.The released bonus video makes this clue more obvious.Because they deleted the plot about the reason why these tomatoes scattered,but keep this pic in the tense minutes limit.The reason is so obvious :It's a CLUE!

Jesus was stabbed in the ribs and bled,his hands were painful by nailed,and he was forced to drink myrrh.Our Jim is much luckier,his arms are no longer hurts and have sweet hot chocolate.

It is amazing to find so much connected information after realize the story line of Jim,which in turn proves Jim's story is not my delusion.

First thing is the clothing.Apart from the daily look in the bookshop, let's have a look at some other looks of Jim:

Pay attention to the posture of Jim preaching in Figure 3 and the shape of the cross formed by the whole shape. Let’s take a look at the image of Christ in a religious painting:

Pay attention to clothing and posture. And the familiar posture of holding the cross in the lower right corner. Although most of the scriptures believe that another person helped Jesus carry the cross on the way of crucifixion, but some other view,for example, in <Gospel of John>,believed that Christ himself carried the cross. This familiar gesture corresponds to another neglected clue in the 203, which is the purpose of the seemingly unsuccessful trip to Edinburgh: the mysterious statue of Gabriel.In other words, we can say that it is not Gabriel's statue at all, but Jim's statue.

Far-fetched? In fact, S2 has showed an image of Christ:

Look this similar outfit, I think the correspondence to Jim's identity is already obvious. By the way, cleansing of the temple occurs on the Monday of Holy Week, remember that cute feather duster?

Actually, we have even more obvious hints,that is in the Jane Austen's ball. During the ball, everyone is dancing, but what is Jim doing?

He's handing out vol-au-vent. The hint to the Last Supper is so obvious here that it's my strongest evidence for Jim's story.

There are some other supporting details about Jim is Jesus, including that Jim keeps saying that he came to find Aziraphale, but it was Beelzebub that Gabriel was looking for. And a cipher, the rhythm that Jim showed when he played the lamp and his mouth: — — — - - -

Two long and three short, which is the number 7 in Morse code. Remember how God loves 7? Jesus is both the Son of God in religion and is sometimes considered to be God. I found this clue because I felt that the plot of Jim playing with his body at the ball was too long as a pornographic joke, and finally found that he played his body in a rhythm, which is as same as how he play the lamp.Every scene in S2 have sense.

Another allusion shows Jim's connection to God is the book he drop:

<My best games of chess>is a Easter egg of <A Matter of Life and Death>.But also,as I mention in another article about God play chess game in the ineffable bureaucracy(not post on tumblr yet),and the chess in Aziraphale's book shop which never be used.All this implies that the development of the world is under ineffable manipulation of God.And here, Jim drops the book, complaining that things didn't stay at where he put them. This is an obvious God's perspective complaint. At the same time, it once again emphasizes the main purpose of this book.

Also as one comment in my original article,someone mention that Jim rearrange book in his own way is just what God do.

And, let's consider about Jim's prophecy:

First:"I remember when the morning star sang together,and all the Angels of God shouted of joy." which we know God said this in Job's minisode.

The third one:"If it happens again I can make it seem like it's an institutional problem" said by Metatron,who is the voice of God.

And the second one:"There will come a tempest,and darkness,and great storms.And the dead will leave their graves and walk the earth once more.And there will be great lamentations."The first hale comes from <Hebrews 12:18>,describing the ominous sign sent by God.The last half is from <Matthew 27:53> describes what happened after Jesus died.And this is the only one that Gabriel himself didn't hear—is evidence that Jim is not Gabriel but Christ.

It can be seen that most of these prophecy are related to God and Jesus. Although these prophecies correspond to the plots in the main storyline, they are all hints of the resurrection of Christ when they are connected together.

There's another clue here, and it's highlighted in the latest trivia message.S2 gives a unit of miraculou power to bring a person back from the dead: Lazarii.The prototype of the word said in trivia isLazarus,: Lazarus of Bethany, who was resurrected by Jesus four days after his death.This miracle is the last one before Jesus's crucifixion, and it is also the most important miracle, because it means that Jesus finally defeated his final enemy: death.

And in S2, the day Jim arrived is Sunday, because Nina mentioned that it all started with the blackout last week.And the ball is on Thursday night. So Gabriel died on Sunday and was resurrected four days later, corresponding to the resurrection of Lazarus.And the "tiny" miracle for hiding Jim's required the power to resurrect Lazarus 25 times, and it's hard to explain why this was so costly, except for Jesus himself.(I still not figure out what the number of 25 means.Once finished, I may add it here.) And the last day in S2 when Jim disappeared was Good Friday.

At this point, Jim's story line has almost been clarified. The miracle done by Aziraphale and Crowley together works so well that even the audience doesn't notice Jim anymore. At the end of the story, they achieved their original purpose, and Jim disappeared in silence. No one in both heaven, hell, earth and the audience in front of the TV noticed this.

The last clue of Jim's identity appears in the first shot of present time:

"Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of ..."<Matthew 24:30>

God descended from the sky/clouds, and there are also some views believe that God will be accompanied by angels and trumpets. We heard the sound of trumpets when Michael and the others came in the 202. Let's take a look at some posters and screenshots.

The feather representing Jim falls from the sky, and Jim's cup not only has a heart for Gabriel's story, but also a smoke from the top.

And this pic of Jim walking down from the upstairs, and Jim's voluntary devotion when he wearing the feather coat.

And one of the funniest hints. Gabriel was lost, and Metatron said no need for alarm just find him, but the person who hidden Gabriel would be erased, and the miracle of hiding Gabriel would immediately raise the alarm. It can be seen that the important thing is not Gabriel, but Jim. There is still a lot to say about this in detail, and I will put it in Metatron's branch line in detail later.

This is the fun of decryption. You will find out more and more clues when you find the answer. There are so many informations in S2 just like cookie crumbs heading to the candy house.

Another question:who wants to hide Jim? Why? And why set up these clues, hoping someone to find out?

Before answer these questions, the following discussion of will contain lots of delusion, because of the lack of conclusive evidence. Just put it here as my personal theory of what is the frame of S2.

First of all, according to the discussion above, we know that under the sweet love story in S2, like S1,our story is actually shrouded in the shadow of a coming doomsday. So, who is telling the story in S2, and who is listening to the story?

There is a humanoid creature who has a habit of talking nonsense when he wants to hide his ture thoughts. For example, when he was bullied by other angel colleagues, he uttered a lot of nonsense about choosing sides, or when he wants to misleading his husband to doing what he unwilling to do,he portrayed the threat from Metatron as a wonderful chance with a lot of subjective narrative and gags.

That's my piont, if there is a cheature who wants to hide the existence of Jim, and in the narration of the story of S2, cleverly misleading the audience to focus on the love story, there is no one other than the greatest magician Mr. Fell who fooled Nefertiti. Just like the coin magic he showed in the Blitz minisode, the farthing has vanished! Aziraphale's conjuring is so skillful that he had highlighted it again later in the replacement of the photo (evidence).

The book of Job is displayed by Aziraphale, and the minisode in Edinburgh is directly the diary of angel, and after the ball, Nina asked Aziraphale when it all started, and his answer is:"This all stared a long time age."

He has aready figured it out! It's a pity that staff happened one after another, he and Crowley never had a chance to communicate, and finally they started the next journey in different directions.

The entire S2 is like Aziraphale's adorable detective clippings, narrative by time-line with pasting a few clues he thinks are relevant.

And the blitz minisode is the clue he left to the audience after completing his wonderful magic show. This clue was placed in the box carried by Jim, and in GO2 after showing the items in the box, the lens shows Aziraphale had a quick look at them. This item is the key to avoiding some treble. I won't go into details about the specific plot, but I just want to mention that when Neil wrote the key plot of season 3, he must be so proud that he wrote this line in the magic shop: “I've find my showstopper.” And Considering that this magic was chosen by Aziraphale, it is also possible that the corresponding plot in the third season may came from Terry, and Neil wrote this sentence with infinite nostalgia and admiration to his old friend. The Blitz minisode embodies the importance of trust and cooperation, and repeatedly emphasizes Aziraphale's magic skill. What's more,the Professor's Nightmare which setting in the middle of this three acts play,Neil retweeted the actor playing this magic,it is definitely important!

The picture here almost deliberately captures Aziraphale in the mirror. This camera language means that the actual narrator here is Aziraphale himself in the mirror. He is proudly showing how he used Several story lines cleverly hide all the clues in S2, and imply the progress of the whole three seasons is showed in the Blitz minisode.

By the way, this does not mean that the entire Blitz minisode is fake,my opinion is that all the minisodes in S2 are real, but be added some clues base on the original story. Therefore, the interpretation for minisode should be to dig out the unnatural places as clues,but keep the whole story as real.

So, who is the expected audience of this complex structure story of S2, and who is the minisode hidden in the box written for?

Who else can Aziraphale write for, who can Aziraphale hand over all the secrets, who can Aziraphale entrust his back and life, and who do Aziraphale need to trick God to send this information to save the world from doomsday?

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there is a very weird scene in the title sequence, which is the last theater. Although the magic theory directed everyone's attention to the book of life that the curtain might represent (this does make sense partly, which I'll mention later), but we had ignored that he theater of the blitz minisode has been shown before.

Where there is a curtain, there is another theater, or a screening room.

And there is no screening room in the entire S2. A couple of scenes that don't contain in the show in the title sequence, one at the end is the holy mountain, which is an allusion to Jim's story line. The tunnel at the beginning is also closely related to what I will talk about later. And the rest is this screening room which never appeared.

Wait a minute, there's a screening room isn't,there?

This is the only screening room in the Good Omens universe.This old Victoria Station cartoon theater was long since demolished in our word, but Neil has a romantic explanation for it: because Crowley mentioned he liked it, Aziraphale kept it around.

The bonus video gives a supporting clue to this idea, that is, many of the characters on the side of this theater are from S1. This is an Easter egg, but may also imply that this scene should go back to the first season to find clues.

And we all know that Crowley came here to sit down and collect his thoughts as Neil mentioned in his Q&A,which was exactly happened after they broke up at the bandstand. That maybe the reason that everyone was killed by the ending of S2, but Neil just compared that as what happened in bandstand.

So here's my story time:

S2 is happened when Crowley hiding in the cartoon theater after leaving, looking back carefully at what's happening before all this chaos.I believe that like the audience can't believe Aziraphale will leave Crowley because of heaven, just like Mr. Yang would never give up maintaining him car.Crowley will definitely feel that there is something wrong after the end of S2, then chewing the memory carefully, reading the funny detective hand book that his angel left him, and finally project this intertwined story of S2 with memory of two of them.

Personally, I think that the future is all contaions in the candlelight dinner in 1941.

In addition, there is another important clue in this theater, which is the Book of Life highlight in the magic theory.

I don't have a perfect explanation for this either, but I can at least piece together a vague picture from the clues available.

First of all, when the curtain was burned, there was an obvious sound of flipping book. The book of life and erasure seemed to correspond to these. But here's a clue, the image was burned. In fact, among the various ominous signs about the resurrection of Jesus/Jesus, black sky, storms, trumpets, etc. all appear, but there is one sign that is mentioned in S2, but never happened.

This prophecy also from the book of Job, and it describes Leviathan,the controlling meaning of it I had mentioned in the analysis of the story of ineffable bureaucracy. However, this prophecy is literally a description of flame. And this material object is a matchbox. It must be noted that there used to be matches in it.

Forget about the fireballs in 202, this is the only thing about fire in S2.

So where else have matches?

Exactly,there was only one audience in the theatre where the curtain was set on fire, so it is no surprise that Crowley burned them.

If we assume that Crowley is the one who burned the smoke ring on the Book of Life, where did he get the Book of Life?

The first mention of the Book of Life is in Michael's phone call. She said to the person opposite: "Book of Life?"

The reply is: " I'm on it." That may be the answer to stat hunting Gabriel, or it may be because the book of life is in the hands of the person beside the phone. Because the debate between heaven and hell in 206 had mentioned that the right of heaven to propose punishment, and then hell will execute it.

So who is the person on the other end of the phone? Shax threatens Aziraphale that Crowley risks destruction, but not erasure. And Beelzebub was the one who told Crowley that the extreme sanctions would be the Book of Life.

Another clue that has been forgotten is what appeared on the curtain of 205, and it is also a clue that I have not solved before. Only after I solved it, I have finish my own story.

On the curtain of 205 are the bull-headed demon and the white-haired demon. They even have character names in the cast list, but unfortunately the main storyline did not mention it at all. I haven't figured out what's the means of the bull-headed demon yet, but the plot of the white-haired demon is to hand Shax some letters to Crowley.

That's it, Shax handed Crowley letters twice in S2, and the second time was particularly abrupt on the night of ball. When she first sent him the letters, Shax mentioned that she took them to hell, but the finance department said they can't accept Shax's signature as replacement."Bills mostly." We can see Crowley throwing the bills into a trash bin.

It can be seen that being burned from the curtain is indeed an effective way of making people forget about it. I also completely ignored these letters until I noticed the white-haired demon. After throwing away the bill, what was left by Crowley?

After laying out the clues, here comes story time:

In my version of story, the book of life should be kept by hell, and heaven is responsible for authorizing rewriting. In order to keep their lover, Beelzebub sent the Book of Life to Crowley by letter. Crowley, on the other hand, carefully burns away what he thinks needs to be hidden in the theater.

He hided what's really inside the box in 201 . Looking closely at the pic of when the box outside the bookshop, it can be seen that the fly actually fly into the box. And in 206 Crowley emptied the storage of the box made it seem unimportant.

The Job's story in 202 and the statue in 203 are all related to Jim. After burning these, the clues about the prophecy are left behind. We can see Crowley firstly talking to Job, and it is Crowley who find the status. (Looking at a statue of the annoying boss in the extremely cold midnight,Crowley you are really a good at planning a date)

In 204, there are too many people on the curtain and the effect is not so well. Many people aware of the three zombies who inexplicably disappeared in the long river of time. These three zombies also died because of Crowley.

The white-haired demon in 205 has been mentioned above, but I haven't solved the bull-headed demon yet. They have only one thing in common, they all wear masks on earth. And masks are used to cover the facial features of inhuman demons, which they obviously don't need.And they only spoke to Crowley.

The clue for 206 is the halo, I think after watching the last 15 minutes, no one will keep entangled that the halo is actually a signal for starting the war. After the arrival of the heaven and hell, Crowley directly asserted that there would not have a war and fooled the matter.

Then what is his purpose of burning these pics?

01 02 03 even 04 are clues to the second coming. 05 is about the receiving the book of life. 06 is to suspend the war.

Now you can see why I think I'm telling a story with such an explosion of clues, because these clues are obviously not connected perfectly.Some kind of framework can be seen by them, but it seems like can be put together more neatly. I will edit it here if I solve more clues in the future.

So as telling a story, what Crowley did was hidding the information he had that might reveal the event of the coming of Jim, and also hide the fact that he had the Book of Life, and temporarily stabilized the situation.

According to my person theory, book of life is handled by hell, and the authority to modify it is in heaven.

And now,the book of life is in the hands of Crowley, and the right to modify it is in Aziraphale.

Does this means that the whole S2 we see, including the modified plot of Book of Life, is the result of the communication between Azirapahle and Crowley?What will happen in S3 if then can do this?

After all it's just a theory I built from limited evidence and added lots of my personal conjecture,so it's highly possible to be uncorrected.

Here is the end of this long article. Thank you for your time for reading.And can't wait for Season 3 :)

[wistfulnightingale]

The Circle Kiss Theory ("I Don't Think You Understand..." A Final 15 Theory)

Part 6 of 8 in The Chess Moves Theory Set by @wistfulnightingale

The Final Fifteen of Good Omens S2 was agonizing to watch. Aziraphale and Crowley were in so much very real pain, confusion, and grief. The peaceful, fragile existance they had carved out for themselves was shattering. The Metatron was outside, perhaps able to hear them. There was no time, no privacy, no way to say everything or anything they needed to say...

We watched them struggle to communicate with the clock ticking behind them. So close together at first, Azi staring desperately into Crowley's wide golden eyes. Then... "Nothing Lasts Forever."

The dark glasses go on. Crowley strides towards the door, Aziraphale follows, stops midway. Like moves across a chess board. Aziraphale is truly distraught -- Crowley doesn't understand! Will he actually leave?

"I understand. I think I understand a whole lot better than you do."

Azi nods, speaks, turns away. The music builds, Crowley rushes towards him, pulls him in by his lapels. As their lips meet, we hear a bell, slightly off-tone, a metallic clang. We see a multitude of emotions in Aziraphale, and just before the kiss ends, we hear another peal of the bell. This time, it is a solid note, clear and pure.

After Crowley leaves, and the Metatron returns, for a moment we see Azi there, still struggling to regain his composure.

He's standing on The Circle.

Crowley made sure his Angel was standing on The Circle. The Circle that helped magnify the tiniest, most insubstantial, fractional joint miracle into a 25 Lazurii Alarm.

Their Kiss happened on that powerful Circle. And the bell tolled for it. Was it signaling an end? Or, perhaps, something more?

The Circle was uncovered and fully powered during the battle with demons. Powered by whom? That's a question for later. The Circle remained uncovered after Crowley's return with the archangels and the arrival of the demon authorities. We see it briefly in the opening shot of angels and demons arguing chaotically in a circle around it. It remains uncovered during the Metatron's arrival in the bookshop. We are very specifically shown Crowley covering it after he and Aziraphale leave for their "chinwag."

Crowley has been left in the bookshop with nothing to do but worry and think. What can he do? The Metatron is obviously trying to corner them -- he's never seen Aziraphale look so defeated, even before he left with the Metatron. (See Part 4, A Hefty Jigger of Death) Should they try running away? What other options are there? What about... The Circle?

We saw in Season 1 how our Ineffables often stumbled across their best solutions because of accidental knowledge, a desperate reckless daring, and Imagination. It's how Aziraphale decides to try posessing a body so he can return to Crowley to stop the Apocalype. It's how Crowley decides that he can imagine himself driving safely through a Hellfire that discorporates a higher ranking demon... so that he can return to Aziraphale. It's how they attempt the appearance swap that no other angel or demon had even thought of -- so they can survive and return to each other, to finally be truly together. (See An Old Married Couple)

There's a pattern here... Their most daringly clever new ideas are propelled by their desire to save each other and be Together, and inspired by accidental discoveries. I believe this was no exception.

Crowley is a demon with Imagination. Aziraphale is an analytical problem solver. In the Final Fifteen, they were cornered. The bookshop was no longer safe. (See Part 5, Nothing Lasts Forever) The Metatron had anticipated a possible Appearance Swap, and could have destroyed Crowley with the laced coffee. (Check out Part 4, A Hefty Jigger of Death). There is nowhere to run or hide. Using the Circle for a Miracle is a crazy step, especially when they haven't planned for this. Using the Circle to change fate -- that's unrealistic, insane, ridiculous fantasy denial thinking.

That's just the kind of thinking that led to an angel posessing a human, to a flaming Bentley, and to an ethereal and an occult being swapping appearances with each other.

The Kiss was desperate, unexpected. Crowley couldn't tell Aziraphale his idea, even in coded language. He could only get Aziraphale onto the Circle, and try.

Now, there have been many theories already speculating about what may or may not have happened in that Kiss. My theory, this Circle Kiss Theory, simply supports the idea that SOMETHING happened, something that is a very powerful and positive countermove for our Ineffables in this deadly game of chess with the Metatron.

(In Parts 7 & 8, I'll also show you two more things that may prove my hopeful optimism, The Nightingale DID Sing, and Aziraphale's Jubilant Smile (not the crazy elevator smile!))

..........

Speaking of smiles... You know by now that I'm a sucker for a great Michael Sheen microexpression! I've genuinely enjoyed looking at clips almost frame by frame to see the amazing things he does with the tiniest shifts that change everything! Below is a series of looks from just after Crowley says, "I understand. I think I understand a whole lot better than you do."

Believe it or not, the top 3 are each slightly different micromoments, as you can tell on close inspection. They strike me as being soft, gentle, calm. Especially in the eyes. Then Aziraphale looks down, and the smarmy smile is back, followed by terse anger.

I won't put this micromoments part out as a proof, because it's so subjective... a meta, really. But I really wonder if this was part of the coded communication our Ineffables are known to do. The distraught pleading was real. Azi actually feared that Crowley misunderstood what he was trying to communicate about the Metatron. He was terrified that Crowley thought the "attitude" was real, rather than a frantic attempt at code... He was afraid Crowley was truly leaving him.

"I don't think you understand what I'm offering you!" It meant, "I don't think you understand that I'm telling you this isn't my choice. I don't want this, but we're backed in a corner, and he'll destroy you if I don't comply. I don't know what else to do! Please, please stay and please hear what I'm actually trying to say!"

And Crowley responds in code as well. "I do understand, Angel. I understand and I'm one step ahead of you ('better than you do') because I have an idea." I see the first 3 photos as Azi feeling calmer and comforted, reassured now that it'll be alright, they have a chance, there's a plan. Crowley just can't communicate to him that the plan involves a kiss. The surprise for that is also real, I believe.

What I believe also lends support to the theory that something happened in the Kiss is Aziraphale's movements around the room after the Metatron comes back in. Again, it reminds me of moves on a chess board. As the Metatron comes forward onto the rug (the Circle), Azi backs off of it, gesturing and looking distractedly about the room. A classic magician's Misdirection attempt? Then, when the Metatron leaves the Circle and nears the door, Aziraphale returns to the Circle. (Reinforcing the miracle on the Circle, perhaps?) That's when he looks out the window again to Crowley, his face partly shadowed.

Of the various Kiss theories I've seen, the one that makes the most sense to me is by @251-dmr. We are both in @sendarya's Discord server, and found out in June 2024 (or earlier?) that we shared some similar ideas about the Final Fifteen, but at that point we couldn't find enough evidence to justify them as anything more than intuitive headcannon. There are several posts on @251-dmr 's blog that lay the groundwork and more directly express their theory that Aziraphale and Crowley become connected in some way by that Kiss, including The 2-Aziracrow Theory, and hinted at in Blurring the Edges.

I hope we'll hear more from them!

If anyone has seen a similar theory about shared communication, or shared souls, established in The Kiss, please let me know -- I'd very much like to add credit for them here! It was my dm's with @251-dmr, and with @luv4thethindarkduke that inspired me to pursue the Circle Kiss Theory, and it was my research to justify the Circle Kiss that led to the other discoveries and theories!

As you can see, my 8-part Chess Moves Theory Set is literally a set of interconnected theories that all link together and support each other. I hope you'll enjoy checking out the others at @wistfulnightingale! Here's the links:

The 8 Chess Moves MetaTheory Set:

1 - The Metatron Misdirection

2 - The Metatron's Second Coming

3 - Ineffables in Check

4 - A Hefty Jigger of Death

5 - Nothing Lasts Forever

6 - The Circle Kiss Theory

7 - The Nightingale DID Sing

8 - Aziraphale's Jubilant Smile (Not the crazy elevator grin)

Also: The Chess Moves Theory Set, Why Chess & Magic?

Thanks for coming along on this crazy ride!

[thatlonelycactus]

When it comes to Crowley’s angelic identity I become a little manic terror who reads into everything twice as much as usual. Todays victim is that Crowley shad convo in s2 e2 which goes

Shax: A miracle of enormous power happened last night. The kind of miracle only the mightiest of archangels could have performed. Somewhere very close to your friends book shop. Are you telling me you don’t know what caused it? Crowley: How’d you know I didn’t do it?

Now, sure it was probably a joke.

But, at the same time, if it was a joke why do they both seemingly act like it was a possibility (imo), like Crowley could have performed a 25 lazurii miracle alone.

If he was joking then why didn’t he say “How’d you know Aziraphale didn’t do it?” Because that would have the same effect considering they both did it. Sure, he might have been trying not to suggest that Aziraphale was up to something but still.

Why did they doubt Aziraphale more (other than him being extremely suspicious) when he said he did it then when Crowley suggested he may have?

Please ignore me I’m just saying this because Ive gone off the rails completely.

[craftsystem]

crowley was the reason it was a 25 lazurii miracle because aziraphale was protecting gabriel but crowley was protecting aziraphale

[acheemient]

I'm absolutely not trying to shit on OP's post, but I prefer to think of it as Crowley and Aziraphale just cannot control the power of their miracles rather than their smallest miracles being that powerful.

It's like in baking, and you're like 'oh this recipe calls a cup of flour, I can do that by sight, no problem!" And then you keep slowly tilting the bag of flour more and more. And then the whole bag of flour comes pouring out, and now you're just looking at a horrible mess and thinking, 'iiii shoulda used a measuring cup.'

It is so much funnier to me to imagine these lovable idiots being like 'okay, just the teeeniest miracle on the count of three.' And then they accidentally pour 25 Lazurii worth of miracle flour onto the whole situation.

Their powers combined ARE much more powerful than they should be. But they ABSOLUTELY shoulda used a measuring cup.

Yall realize this means that the MOST MINOR MIRACLE that Crowley and Aziraphale are capable of performing, when done together, could bring back 25 people from the dead??? Next season, if they ever realize their true power, it is going to be over for heaven AND hell 

[drconstellation]

More Half-and-Half-A-Miracle Thoughts

Part 1: Miracle Power Ranking

Part 2: The Dark side of Aziraphale is here. Part 3: The Third Archangel

I was originally going to add some comments as a reblog to @nofomogirl's post on why the 25 Lazurii miracle was so powerful, but the initial thought I had on the matter slipped away from me during that day, and I was left looking at a glimpse at the viridian green back panel of Aziraphale's waistcoat and wondering what had sparked my original thought, and any attempt to try and grasp it again was a futile as Muriel trying to open Gabriel's file in Heaven.

So I wandered off on other tangents, explored other topics I was curious about, and enjoyed reading the new posts that went up, but the ghost of that viridian green panel kept lurking about with a sharp stick to remind me it was there. So I'm here to post some more thoughts in addition to the op's post that I feel might add to the discussion about the little miracle that worked too well.

I also want to say before I get stuck in (and warning - this is going to be a long one!) that I think no matter how much we discuss this or dig at it, ultimately we just don't have enough information to have a definitive answer as to the why at the moment, and, we may never know. But I'm going to speak because I think I there is at least one thing I haven't seen discussed yet in context with this scene, and should be (at least, I haven't seen it yet - if you have, please let me know.)

So if you're in a TL:DR mode and don't want to open links, here is the list of current theories of why two little "half miracles" made one mighty one:

Theory#1: It's love

Theory #2: It's them

Theory#3: It's a fusion

Theory #4: It's Gabriel

Theory #5: It's the portal (that they did it on top of)

To preface my answering ramble the TL:DR again is - its a fusion of "them" i.e. both #2 and #3 together. As in Aziraphale x Gabriel x Crowley. 3x3x3

Hang on, that's 27! Not 25! yeah, yeah, I'm not that bad at math. And I'll admit it doesn't fit - it doesn't "snap" into place. But its either that or 5x5 and I wanted to consider all three elements in this miracle working together for the discussion at the start. And there seems to an emphasis on 3's as well as 7's (Maybe you can cut the middle out at the end, once you can see the bigger picture I'm trying to present, but lets leave it this way for now. Maybe it will give you another idea...)

Firstly, consider the three elements, working in synergy. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. As Crowley describes it in S2E6: " Apparently, if we do a miracle together, it all works a bit too well." (I was originally thinking of the word "gestalt" but on reflection its probably not the right one.)

"...if we..."

Let's ask who is "we" at this point, and how much miracle power they are contributing to the miracle. Are they contributing equally? Yes? Or no? I want to take a closer look at miracle power: the knowns, the unknowns and the possibilities to explore that.

We've already been told that most day-to-day miracles are down in the mili-Lazurii level, a mere few thousandth of the power of the hiding miracle. And this makes sense - we don't see our protagonists bringing the dead back to life willy-nilly. Aziraphale mentions getting into trouble for doing "too many frivolous miracles." But if its one thing Good Omens stands out for its the conspicuous lack of displays of stupendous power. And this actually doesn't help our understanding of the problem.

Indulge me in a "ranking of power" exercise, if you will.

At the top we have the big three - no, four - er, lets make that five actually! Five ineffably, unarguably, omnipotent entities that every one respects and no one will mess with. They can essentially do what ever they will.

God, and Her (ex-) bestie, Satan.

Azrael, the angel of Death.

Adam Young, the Antichrist, who has retained his powers and is still protecting Tadfield.

And lastly the yet-to be revealed second coming of Jesus Christ.

Lets put them all aside and out of the equation.

Next, we have the Metatron, whom we haven't seen lift a finger, only his voice, yet the mere sight of his face evokes fear. How much miracle power can he wield? That's a big unknown, unfortunately. But being the current right-hand being of the Almighty must give him some serious grunt.

The top brass of the respective bureaucracies starts to raise questions. We have our senior Archangels (the seraphim) and the Dukes of Hell. I have no doubt that Gabriel, as Supreme Archangel of all Heaven, should be capable of performing at least a 1 Lazurii miracle on his own if required, and he could even have the potential to stretch to 25 Lazurii...if he could be bothered.

We know that they can be promoted in an out of those positions, and that raises questions about what happens to their powers when they get promoted or demoted. To gain power when promoted? Or lose it when demoted? Or is it a simply a matter of belief? In which case it might rely on the individual's personality.

When looking for examples of expressed power, in both the book and tv series, it is easier to come up with examples of demonic miracles than angelic miracles, and it makes things look a bit biased, imo. I mean, Crowley aside for the moment (I'll get back to him shortly) you have to be impressed with Hastur's escape from the ansaphone into the call center and manifesting into the mass of maggots, for all he was a bit old fashioned and smelled like poo. Shax playing games with Crowley just outside the shop in S2, manifesting as different characters in rapid succession has to be up there with another good demo of demon power (which it certainly worked to needle Crowley into losing his temper with them.)

What do we see the Archangels do in comparison? Hmm. Bitch and snitch. Gossip with Hell on the back stairs. Pretend to be buying pornography from Aziraphale. Then physically punch our angel in guts for fraternizing with a demon before disappearing back to Heaven . Not much.

OK, so Gabriel arrives on a lightning bolt at Tadfield airbase

and there is that intriguing discussion with Sandalphon regarding Sodom and Gomorrah (just read above the cut, that's the important bit for this meta later on) where he was doing quite a bit of smiting, but its all off screen and in the distant past, we don't actually see them in action.

Which brings us back to Crowley and Aziraphale. And then more Aziraphale manipulating Crowley into performing miracles for him so he doesn't have to (the little minx.) The list of miracles I can think of that we have seen Crowley do is far longer and seems more impressive than what Aziraphale has done. Oh, but there is the Eldritch Ball, you say? Controlling multiple people at once? (Hold that thought.) He also sent the soldier at the entry gate of the Tadfield airbase all the way back to his home in the USA in an instant (according to the book) and he flew the moped with both Madame Tracey and Shadwell over the top of the Odegra ring of demon fire to get to Tadfield (again, as mentioned in the book.) And as the op back here says, why didn't they just manifest themselves out? Idiots...

On to Part 2: The Dark Side of Aziraphale.

[wistfulnightingale]

Nothing Lasts Forever (Nowhere is Safe for Us Now - a Final Fifteen Theory)

Part 5 of 8 in The Chess Moves Theory Set by @wistfulnightingale

Everything was happening so fast... Far too fast for Aziraphale and Crowley to work out what to do and talk about how to handle it all! It all spiraled out of control, ending in a heartbreaking separation that left us all devastated.

There were very real emotions crashing and colliding during the agonizing Final Fifteen. The precious, peaceful, fragile existance that Crowley and Aziraphale had carved out for themselves was shattering. There was no time to talk or plan, no quiet place to strategize or share thoughts. The Metatron had come in like a wrecking ball. He was waiting outside.

But first, he had inconspicuously entered the bookshop with a cup of coffee. Alone. Without an invitation.

That morning, after the demon battle, Crowley returned with archangels trailing behind him. They had been invited in previously, when they came to investigate the 25 Lazurii Miracle. The demons popped in because Maggie, who is an occupant of the bookshop property, had accidentally invited in "you lot" -- all of them -- the night before.

But the Metatron strolled in unnoticed, uninvited. When had he been granted permission? Did the rules not apply to the Voice of God?

Sure they do. How could our Ineffables have a safe, peaceful existance if the most dangerous celestial being (who obviously hates Crowley) could walk through the bookshop doors at any moment?

When the Metatron says that he and Aziraphale "need to have a bit of a chinwag," Aziraphale responds, "I don't believe there's anything left to be said. I've made my position quite clear." What?? When? There was a prior discussion?

Yep. I believe they talked the day before. After Azi and Crowley saw him in Nina's coffee shop (see Part 1, The Metatron Misdirection).

I think he got himself invited into the bookshop. And now Nowhere, including the bookshop, is safe.

"Nothing Lasts Forever..."

(If you haven't read Parts 1 & 2 yet, The Metatron Misdirection and The Metatron's Second Coming, you might want to check those out before continuing. And keep breathing, calmly if you can! I mean well, and I think those posts give reasonable support for that theory. Otherwise, bear in mind that everything here is from the belief that the Metatron showed up the day before.)

When the Metatron enters uninvited, bearing coffee, he's barely noticed by the archangels at first. However, Aziraphale turns immediately to see who entered. Aziraphale does a double take. Once again, I really wish I had the skills to make a gif, so you didn't have to go watch the episode to see it. It's at 33:57-33:58.

His look towards the door begins as a casual shopowner glance. The second look shows a raised eyebrow and look of significant concern, tredpidation. If Aziraphale didn't recognize the Metatron, the concern would be for the safety of an elderly human gentleman who might get turned into a pillar of salt for being in the wrong place. Our angel, being who he is, would put on a smile and quickly bustle the gent out and safely away from smiting angels. He does not do so.

Aziraphale's serious expression and arched eyebrow (above) seem to indicate recognition of something unpleasant. Is it apprehension? Distress? Something else? If I saw that look elsewhere, or on Crowley, I might call it anger.

The camara returns to Aziraphale as the Metatron says, "...complete piffle." the guarded frown of is still there as Azi looks from the Metatron to Michael, who definitely does Not recognize him.

Aziraphale's expression is not the look of someone who doesn't recognize the person before them. This is the look you have when you're at a get-together and see the person you least want to see walk into the room, and you're waiting for the arguing to start.

Michael remains oblivious. Uriel seems to be struggling with uncertainty, like Michael did in Heaven trying to remember if Aziraphale had an assistant, despite having already met him. Saraqael's expression is, in my opinion, enigmatic.

Meanwhile, Crowley doesn't blink an eyelash. He's not one bit surprised, and he's not going to play along with whatever game the Metatron has going on. Oddly, the Metatrons seems to expect Crowley to identify him. Our lovely demon does so. (HOw DaRE the Metatron use it as an INsULt?!!) Then we get this bizarre Misdirection Moment:

I have to admit, it's the one piece of this puzzle (the one chess move) that I don't really understand. Why the pretense? Why act now like he doesn't recognize him? He so clearly appears to have recognized the Metatron since his double-take. The whole thing is convoluted! But I have no doubt that it's somehow a show. The Metatron seems to expect that the archangels won't recognize him. He expects that Crowley does. He is completely in control of the room, like a director or conductor (or a narcissist). Did he use an identity concealment, like Azi and Crowley did for Gabriel? If so, does it have to meet certain conditions to work? Crowley knows him. Before Azi's big "surprised look," it was clear that he did too.

I'm guessing that the concealment miracle (if that's the case) didn't apply to our Ineffables because the Metatron had already revealed himself the day before. For some reason, he doesn't want the archangels to know that. A power move? (I'm lousy at understanding power moves!). Somehow, Aziraphale knows he has to keep the secret, and plays along. For us the viewers, it's easier to remember later the funny wide-eyed surprise than the serious double-take his apprehension.

So. The Metatron was in the coffee shop the day before. Crowley isn't surprised to see him today, nor actually is Aziraphale. And Azi indicates that a conversation already took place:

"I don't believe there's anything left to be said. I've made my position quite clear."

Here's what I'm speculating -- The Metatron obviously likes to have the upper hand by not making his activities known, and by surprising people with his presence. Yesterday, after our Ineffables spotted him in the coffee shop, he met with Aziraphale to propose some idea about bringing him back into the fold. Azi, of course, refused, and thought it had all been dealt with fairly amicably. That's why the angel was guardedly looking around when he rejoined Crowley at the cafe, to make sure the Metatron had actually gone (see Part 3, Ineffables in Check for a more detailed scene analysis). He then flirted with Crowley ("Smitten, I believe") because he was so relieved that it was "over," or so he thought.

When the Metatron showed up again, he played along. Until everyone else was sent away, and he realized it wasn't actually over. And he realized that the Metatron had walked right in because Aziriphale had GIVEN THE METATRON PERMISSION TO ENTER THE BOOKSHOP the previous day. It was probably the whole reason the Metatron came twice. The Metatron doesn't really care about Aziraphale. He doesn't care much about anyone. The first encounter went so easily because it was NEVER about anything else except gaining access to the bookshop.

If the Metatron takes away the safety of the bookshop, he becomes an active threat. He can work to separate them. To put them, in chess terms, in Check/mate.

After The Talk with the Metatron at the cafe, Azi return to the bookshop flustered, visibly agitated. There's been lots of fandom discussion and theories about inconsistencies and signals and looks and gestures in his conversation with Crowley. I believe that is true.

I also firmly believe that there are powerful and confusing emotions happening for our Ineffable Husbands. Everything is falling apart. The Metatron is listening. (He heard Michael threaten to use the Book of Life; he's listening now.) He threatened Crowley with death (see Part 4, A Hefty Jigger of Death). Aziraphale and Crowley are desperately trying to communicate, but are misunderstanding some of the messages. Then...

"Come with me... We can make a difference!"

"You can't leave this bookshop..."

It's an earnest, gentle statement. It lingers like a question. Crowley's face has so much concern and tenderness on it. In all the chaos and confusion and pain, he's reminding Azi, "If we can't run away together, at least stay here where it's safe. They can't hurt us in the bookshop."

But Azi has realized his mistake in the deadly chess game -- he already gave the Metatron access. His face breaks. Watch it in slow motion. Look at it frame by frame. There is a pleading sadness in his eyes. Beseeching. Regret. His eyes don't match the superficial meaning of his words.

"Oh, Crowley... Nothing Lasts Forever."

"My dearest... I was a fool. The bookshop is no longer safe for us. I don't think anywhere is safe for us now. I don't know what else we can do... I'm afraid for you. I'm afraid for us both. We're trapped."

We were right to feel heartbroken. So did they.

The first 5 theories in the Chess Moves Theory Set show how I suspect the Metatron got power over our Ineffable Husbands in this game that's a Matter of Life and Death. The last 3 parts give hope, and show the desperate plan that (I believe) was agonizingly and chaotically wrenched together in that painful Final 15.

You can check them all out at @wistfulnightingale, if you'd like!

Hang in there! Thanks for joining me on this crazy ride!

The 8 Chess Moves MetaTheory Set:

1 - The Metatron Misdirection

2 - The Metatron's Second Coming

3 - Ineffables in Check

4 - A Hefty Jigger of Death

5 - Nothing Lasts Forever

6 - The Circle Kiss Theory

7 - The Nightingale DID Sing

8 - Aziraphale's Jubilant Smile (Not the crazy elevator grin)

Also: The Chess Moves Theory Set, Why Chess & Magic?

[drconstellation]

Yin and Yang

Yin - Yang

Black - White

Night - Day

Earth - Heaven

Soft - Strong

Imaginative - Logical

Likes comfort - Likes change

Introvert - Extrovert

Down - Up

Left - Right

@aduckwithears That was a class-A surreptitious half a miracle

[drconstellation]

Yep, I'm pretty sure he was an Archangel, with a capital A. But he wasn't/isn't Raphael, somebody else is. I discuss that here. I wont discuss what his pre-Fall name was, because I'm not sure in a way, and its not important at the moment (at least, I don't think it is.)

Since it seems to be a day for discussing this, I'll lay out the reasoning I've collected, all 13 items, including the two you mention above.

#1. The pink/purple color when he starts up his nebula

#2. The question to Beelzebub about the Book of Life not being real, just something they used to "frighten the cherubs with," has implications that they once used to hang out together. Beelzebub was a senior angel before their Fall, as well, that's why they have Grand Duke status.

#3. He contributed to the 25 Lazurii miracle, when most miracles are only measured in milli- or centi- Lazurii #4. He teases "How do you know it wasn't me?" to Shax when she mentions "Only the mightiest of archangels could have performed" the miracle observed happening in the book shop the night before? (Your above left set of images) #5. When he is taunting Shax in the doorway of the book shop a few days later he says "Maybe you will se an archangel." (Your above right set of images) #6. He can open Gabriel's file in Heaven, which only a Dominion, Throne or above can do. #7. He knows the passwords of the above file.

#8. He worked with Saraqael, another of the seraphim, on the Horsehead Nebula (another dark horse.) #9. He's the only angel or demon that can stop time - a pretty impressive ability. #10. In S1 he drunkenly mentions hanging out with "Lucifer and the guys." Lucifer, the first Supreme Archangel and Prince of Heaven, Fell to become Satan.

#11. His line to Aziraphale near the end of the Final Fifteen: " I understand. I think I understand a whole lot better than you do." implies that he knows what it's like to part of the ineffable bureaucracy.

#12. His dove-grey outfit during his Heaven heist with Muriel. #13. And he still retains a bit of that dove-grey today in his bolo tie

There's also an interesting filming cut during the Gabriel trial scene where the Metatron mentions they have a second Prince of Heaven fall and it cuts to Crowley.

Is this an entity that is used to being in the lower ranks?

No.

This is somebody with experience and confidence. Its very telling.

There are as many holes in Crowley's story as his memory. We don't have the full picture yet.

Bring on S3!

GUYS, can we talk about how Crowley intricately hints to Shax about who he was?

Yes, you can say he's just kidding and talking about Gabriel in 2x03, but these scenes are still ambiguous to me.

[drconstellation]

Questioning the Questioner

Blocking in Scenes in S2: No. 1

Since I'm procrastinating a bit on the meta writing for various reasons (its happening, but slowly,) why don't I throw some short pieces on S2 blocking at you. Here's a related parallel pair.

As always, we need to remember that the screen right is the morally right angelic side, and the screen left is the shady demonic side.

Here we have Aziraphale's initial questioning of Gabriel upon his arrival in the bookshop. Gabriel is on the screen right of Aziraphale, so takes the moral angel side, while Aziraphale sits on the demonic left side of the screen. Aziraphale is asking most of the questions in this scene, so it seems the right place to be. Both of them are in the light, though, there are no shadows here for these two angels.

But notice the balance of the setting - Gabriel is more towards the middle of the shot, and is placed over the centre of the rug. This turns out to be no accident, but a very particular placement.

You might be familiar with the portal under the oculus, which turns out to be part of a Solomon's Magic Circle. But there is a side part to this array, which is placed exactly where the office section of the bookshop is, which can be used to summon and control both angels and demons. It's a place where the truth is demanded. It's just a shame that Gabriel can't seem to remember the answers to the questions that need to be answered.

The second screenshot in this pair is part of the "cupperty" sequence.

In comparison to the above screenshot, we have Muriel looking at her "cupperty" while conversing with a combined Aziraphale and Crowley team in S2E3. I did a more detailed meta around the tea here, but let us just address Crowley nearly sitting in Aziraphale's lap the dynamics of the moment.

Muriel, an angel, is sitting on the screen right. They are all in heavenly white, and there is even a beam of light focused on her cupperty. They have come to ask questions to verify the 25 lazurii miracle that was performed the other night.

On the other side, the screen left, we have Aziraphale and Crowley sitting together as one. As they sit in the shadows, they act as a team, Crowley asking questions to Muriel with a teasing kind of playfulness while Aziraphale tries to coach her on - both things Crowley the demon is known to do.

And how do we know this a significant shadow? The windows are on the east side of the shop, and its morning, just before Aziraphale heads off to Edinburgh. Also we have also just seen some of the side characters conversing in the coffee shop while ordering their morning coffee.

We have the same two chairs being used as well. Muriel sits on the ladder chair this time, while the more experienced angel/demon pair occupy the more comfortable lounge chair that is still positioned on the Magic Triangle.

We even have hot beverages in play. Gabriel's hot chocolate is more about comfort, while the cups of tea are about establishing a connection to Earth.

[drconstellation]

Chiastic Structure of S2

The post preceding this is Chiastic Structure of S1.

S1 was neat, tidy and simple compared to S2.

S2 was...difficult. I have a feeling this is because of the missing minisodes. There felt like there were "holes" in places, where there was a strong scene with no corresponding pair, and yet in others there were single lines matching up.

You will also notice its quite...skewed? The hinging midpoint is right at the end of Ep4, which means the last two episodes mirror the preceding the four! So there are gaps. For example, the conversation in the pub in Ep2 doesn't match with anything specific.

One of the things I hoped it might shed some light on was the purpose of the trip to Edinburgh, which seems like a bit of a dead end. It does, in a way - I will discuss it a bit further below, along with some other parallels that didn't fit the structure.

A: Before the Beginning B: Aziraphale meets Crowley C: "How much trouble can I get into just for asking a few questions?"  D: "I'm very good at forgiveness. It's one of my favourite things." E: Gabriel: "I love you, you're funny" F: Argument about helping the other G: Crowley offered Duke of Hell position H: Crowley apologizes to Aziraphale I: Hiding of Gabriel - 25 Lazurii miracle J: Shax threatens Crowley K: Jobs children are turned into geckos M: Aziraphale's Trial by Temptation N: Aziracrow see God talking to Job: AZIRAPHALE: I don't suppose he's getting any answers. O: AZIRAPHALE: That sounds, um…CRAWLEY: Lonely? P: An angel asks permission for entry to the bookshop Q: Aziraphale makes unauthorized changes to the Bentley R: CROWLEY: Oh, come on, Mr. Dalrymple, it's not brain surgery! S: BARTENDER: You'll be one of those investigative reporters, no doubt? T: Aziraphale goes back to offer assistance to Elspeth and wee Morag U: Aziraphale stalls on saving wee Morag, says he doesn't have permission V: The laudanum toast to wee Morag W: AZIRAPHALE: Will you get into trouble? X: Crowley does Operation Lovebirds - Calls tempest Y: CROWLEY: "What are we talking about now?" GABRIEL: "Who am I? What's happened to me?" Z: Crowley confronts Gabriel about Aziraphale - Its always too late AA: Shax saying to Aziraphale she heard Aziracrow were an item 90 years ago BB: Zombies kill - 1st brain eaten CC: Crowley talks Aziraphale into performing a bigger magic act DD: Aziracrow shake on deal to do more miracles if needed EE: Zombies kill - 2nd Brain Eaten FF: The Staging of the Bullet Catch GG: Aziraphale gives permission for Furfur to enter the dressing room HH: Furfur says to expect a legion to come for Crowley in the morning II: Furfur's audience with the Dark Council, is treated condescendingly 

● SHADES OF GREY  - you said "TRUST ME."

II: Shax is stopped by Demon Josh, is treated condescendingly HH: Shax wants a legion to storm the bookshop GG: Beez asks if Shax has permission to enter the bookshop FF: AZIRAPHALE: I can guarantee you it will be a night to remember! EE: Shax wants killers, 10,000 demons DD: Deal for Dr Who Annual with Mr Arnold CC: AZIRAPHALE: Maggie and Nina are depending on me BB: 70 demons and a malignant and creeping sense of unease AA: Nina asks Crowley about how long he and Aziraphale have been together Z: Crowley confronts Gabriel about Aziraphale - stops him before its too late Y: Nina: "I’m going mad" - is spoken to by all the people at the Ball X: Aziraphale does Operation Lovebirds - Maggie asks Nina to dance W: AZIRAPHALE: I think you're overestimating how much trouble we're actually in. V: SHAX:… they are toast. T-O-S-T E. Toast. Now! U: Crowley stalls Shax on attacking humans, asks if she has permission T: Crowley says he's coming back, won't leave Aziraphale on his own. S: CROWLEY: Officer, I need to report a crime. R: Aziraphale: It all looks so simple in Jane Austen… the brains behind the 1810 Clerkenwell diamond robbery. Q: An unauthorized demon enters Heaven, changes P: Maggie gives permission for the demons to enter the bookshop O: MURIEL: It's a bit lonely. N: Aziraphale opens the portal to Heaven: GABRIEL: I told you you could ask. However, I am the only First-Order archangel in the room, or, you know, the Universe, so I'm not gonna answer so much. M: Gabriel's Trial K: Gabriel puts himself into the fly J: Aziraphale declares war on Hell I: Reveal of Gabriel - memories restored H: Gabriel apologizes to Beelzebub G: Aziraphale offered Supreme Archangel position F: Argument about helping the other E: The Big Damn Kiss D: "I forgive you" C: "Always asking damn fool questions, too."  B: Aziraphale leaves Crowley A: Beginning of  the End – Learn of Second Coming

Discussion on parallels that didn't fit the structure:

1. Crowley is given permission to destroy all of Job's possessions /  Gabriel refuses to give permission to destroy the Earth aka Armageddon II

There is a repeat emphasis on licenses, permits and authority throughout S2, so I really thought Crowley's permit to destroy of Job's possessions would have a match. It did, but it didn't fit the structure! If you look closely some of the other permits and authority lines do slot in. I'm planning some metas on these topics in the near future, as the use of language around these concepts is quite interesting, and there is some history to throw into the mix as well.

2. Crowley deceives the archangels with the help of an angel

This pair is a reference to Crowley and Aziraphale teaming up in the Job minisode to restore Job's children, and then Muriel aiding Crowley to sneak into Heaven. I'd just like to point out that Crowley could have gone to Heaven on his own - remember Eric went up with the hellfire in S1E6 - but he doesn't know where to go and get Gabriel's file, that is what he needs Muriel for.

3.  Popping up to Edinburgh

Ah, the trip to Edinburgh! Why? WHY!!! Why go all that way for ... nothing?

Guess what - it's a parallel sequence to Crowley popping up to Heaven.

I was going to write a companion piece to this but...my to do list is getting a bit long at the moment. Let me know if you want me to expand on it.

4. Ignoring messages

So this one started as "Nina gets txt messages from Lindsay, Mrs Sandwich says not to look at them," at the start of Ep3, then during the Ball Crowley is trying to lead the humans out of the bookshop and Shax confronts him with another bundle of mail. Crowley is succeeding in ignoring his messages from Hell, but Nina isn't.

5. Muriel and The Interrupted Tea Ceremony

In S2 it noticeable that everyone except Crowley needs permission to enter the bookshop, whereas in S1 they could just walk in. Originally I made a comment elsewhere that I thought this part matched with a sub-story to the Ball, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and hospitality to angels, but then I came back and had another look and saw that there was a surface match - but I'm still going to do another post about the "cupperty" because it keeps getting lost in all the noise!

6. Threats and Declarations of War

Shax makes a number of threats throughout the series, to hunt Crowley down and to declare war on Aziraphale. So when Aziraphale inadvertently declares war on Hell with the halo toss, you'd think there would be a matching pair. There is, but not with a declaration of war, just a threat to Crowley. This is probably one of the weaker pairs.

7. Mysteriosity, audacity, ferocity and dangerocity

The Marvelous Mr Fell and his Mysteriosity has a pair with Shax's speech to her fellow demons about the unprecedented audacity of the attack on the bookshop, and how their lack of numbers will be made up for with their ferocity and...dangerocity. It should have fit, but it didn't.

[drconstellation]

Gabriel as a Shoulder Angel: S2 Study

Part 1: Ep.1 The Arrival and Ep.2 The Clue

This meta follows on from Gabriel as a Shoulder Angel: S1 Study

We see a lot more of Gabriel in S2, and we get to see him in the past and as well as the present. He is still our familiar sinister-sided archangel, but he gets to interact with both Crowley and Aziraphale this time, not just Aziraphale and the other archangels. And when that happens, the results tell a story on their own.

Episode 1: The Arrival

When Gabriel arrives, he takes center stage.

He manages to keep himself in the center stage spotlight all they way up to the steps of the Garden of Eden bookshop, where he greets a horrified Aziraphale like a long lost friend.

It doesn't matter if he's looking in or out of the shop, Gabriel is still both center stage and an angel, although actually a kind of fallen angel, as we find out, while Aziraphale stands on his left as a shoulder demon, trying to deny him entry (well, he is Guardian of the Eastern Gate, after all.)

Once settled inside, Aziraphale puts Gabriel on the spot for a bit of questioning, while he remains on scene-left as the questioning demon. This turns out to be a very interesting location - a side position of a Solomon's Magic Circle where you put people - or supernatural beings - for questioning to get the truth out of them.

Eventually the box Gabriel bought with him is remembered, where it was left by the front door of the shop, and Aziraphale retrieves it. Now we see Gabriel on the left-hand side, as a demon. By now, it should be realized that we are following roughly the same story line as the beginning of S1E1, and Gabriel could be swapped for Crowley.

Yes, that's right. Put Crowley in Gabriel's place. A fallen angel/demon sidles up to an angel on the wall of Eden, there is a prompt for a name because they aren't sure who they are, and shelter is given beneath the angel's wing. A new name is given for the fallen. The demon was attracted to the angel as they remembered them as being kind to them in the past.

Later, a Gabriel is presented to Crowley as the problem for him to solve, we find he's back on the angelic right. "See, told you I looked like a Gabriel." (oh, there is more to this one, but I'm saving this for another meta!)

Then he becomes the center of conflict between Aziraphale and Crowley for the rest of the evening:

Until they perform the hiding miracle on him. Once that is done, he moves to the demonic far-left.

Episode 2: The Clue

This episode contains the Job minisode, A Companion to Owls, and we see Gabriel at his demonic left-hand side best. When Aziraphale takes the scroll with the bet to Heaven to get it checked out, Gabriel tells Aziraphale to trust in God's plans, it's not up to them to interfere in anything. Eh, thanks, Gabe.

Back in the bookshop in the present day, he's creeping around, creeping out Aziraphale in a different way.

The archangels arrive at the bookshop door to question Aziraphale over the 25 lazurii miracle that set off alarms in Heaven, and Jim stands behind the angel's left shoulder as a shoulder-demon. (If you would like more information on Jim's vest, see my meta The Assistant Book Seller)

Jim is excited by their visit and runs around the bookshop like a buzzing fly trying to find books to entice them with, but because he's hidden, they don't take much notice of him. When he does pause to make an offering to them, its usually from their left.

When the fly with Gabriel's essence and Jim get too close, and Michael finally gets suspicious, it's still a left-hand encounter.

Then the archangels leave and Jim is left on the right-hand side, with the white bust looking back at him again.

This bust is identified in the meta A. Z. Fell & Co. bookshop and its statues by @youryurigoddess as the Head of the Victorious Athlete. The op applies an interpretation in context to Aziraphale but seeing how we get Gabriel posed next to it twice, perhaps we should have a closer look at what it might be trying to tell us about this angel as well.

The op says: "The presented athlete is victorious because he’s the epitome of the Platonic Triad of higher Forms: Truth, Beauty, and Excellence, understood in the wider context of the Greek Aretē."

Arete. Ah. A perfect concept for what just happened, really. Have you read my meta Portable People? In it I describe how the books represent people and humanity to Jim, and he is excited to be able to share with the archangels what he has learnt down here on Earth already, but they are not interested. If arete is linked to knowledge, and virtue is also knowledge, he is definitely standing on the right side here.

What do you know, Jim? As Jim is questioned by both Aziraphale and Crowley after their visit to the pub on what he remembers, Jim remains on the demonic left-hand side, and Crowley takes the angelic far-right.

He remains on the left as he is possessed and quotes some lines from the Book of Job (recall that only demons are supposed to be able to do possessions of other bodies) and as he comes out of it.

Back in that past, Gabriel is in his usual position again.

Until Aziraphale turns up to stand even further to the left!

I recently wrote about this scene in another meta, Angelic Sheep and Demonic (Scape)goats, so I'm just going to copy it here:

If we take the example from the Job minisode below, we can see quite an interesting dynamic from the scene blocking. On the left, we have Sitis and Job, who is crouching down. They are an Aziraphale-Crowley parallel-pair, and they are even colour-coded with their colours! Sitis, in Aziraphale's teal on the angelic right of yellow tunic-wearing Job, who's modelling Crowley's suffering for sin but without understanding why. Job has crouched down to highlight Crowley's entrance. On the right the glowing angels are arrayed - Michael on the angelic right shoulder, Gabriel in the middle (more often than not he stands on the demonic left) but this time Aziraphale is taking the far left demonic position, and we know why - he's about to lie like a demon! But even on a grander scale, Sitis, Job and Crowley all stand on the angelic RHS of the visiting angels, making the archangels and Aziraphale all collectively LHS demons in this scene. And Gabriel thought they'd won the bet...*snort*

"Aziraphale, who are they?" (Aziraphale lies like a demon while on the left.)

AZIRAPHALE: You know, you really used to be… awful. I mean, so awful. GABRIEL: Am I awful now? AZIRAPHALE: I don't know. I hope not. GABRIEL: Oh… Good.

"It was the day my grandmother exploded." "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Whatever that is. "It was a nice day." That's more like it.

Here's Jim on the angelic side, and I reckon he's in Gabriel the Herald mode here, uttering some foreshadowing for S3. Yep, all three lines. Just look at that light streaming in from behind him...

This meta is part of a series on Gabriel in S2

Gabriel as a Shoulder Angel: S1 Study

S2 Study Part 2: Ep.3 I Know Where I'm Going and Ep. 5 The Ball

S2 Study Part 3: Ep.6 Every Day

First Order Archangels Part 1: Maybe You'll See An Archangel

First Order Archangels Part 2: Foils of War

[drconstellation]

Since this seems to be the topic of the day, let me show my growing list of what I call "reasons that point to Crowley being a former seraphim." He could technically be called a former "prince of heaven" in this regard, because I'm pretty sure he was equal to Gabriel and Beelzebub (whatever their angel deadname was) at the time, and also if you want to get really technical, Aziraphale's status as a Principality also means he is a prince of sorts - its in the title. So there are different kinds of celestial princes - we could be looking at a deception in the Metatron's words. Also we know Aziraphale has moved around in the rankings, and if we look at the Raphael story Raphael was promoted to a seraphim and had a name change when he did. All good there, things fit at the moment.

I'm not going to put any claim on Crowley's deadname, because I don't think it's relevant, his status and ranking is/was far more important in the larger scheme of things. He wasn't Lucifer - that's Satan, and he's not Raphael - that's Aziraphale, so lets get that out of the way right now.

What's on my list? I've posted some of this before, but it was only about 12 items long at the time. It's up to 20 21 at the moment, collected together from my own observations and other ops posts, so its a collective work of sorts.

In no particular order:

The purple/lilac colour when he starts his nebula. This is associated with Gabriel as well, as Supreme Archangel, and although the "Word of God" is he stole the colour from Elizabeth Taylor, I would like to point out that she didn't exist until about 100 years ago...Purple is a Royal colour.

Access to a "book" when he made his nebula (you could argue this one out as a bit random)

He was part of the 25 Lazurii miracle, when they are normally preformed in mili-Lazurii

He says "How do you know it wasn't me?" to Shax, in reference to the 25 Lazurii miracle.

He is the only angel or demon who can stop time.

When he is taunting Shax in the book shop doorway he says "Maybe you will see an archangel."

He can open Gabriel's file in Heaven, which only a Dominon, or Throne or above can do.

He knows the passwords of the above.

Saraqael worked with him on the Horsehead nebula  - Saraqael is an Archangel, also wears the purple in her tartan and recalls exactly who he is.

He tells Aziraphale he "I understand. I think I understand a whole lot better than you do." This infers he has some understanding of that level of the Ineffable Bureaucracy.

Dove/oystershell grey outfit in Heaven = Archangel status

S1 he mentions he was hanging out with Lucifer and the guys.

He questions Beelzebub about the Book of Life being real, about scaring the cherubs with it - there is an inference that they were equals at the time of doing this. Lord Beelzebub was a high ranking angel before the Fall, they are Satan's right hand Demon for a reason.

He is often seen wearing silver, especially after the Arrangement kicks in. Silver is associated Gabriel, the Supreme Archangel. It's all there through S1 if you pay attention, and actually looks a bit odd for a demon when you think about it... there is quite a few connections to Gabriel, actually...

The lightning bolt anger response - again, only seen again with Gabriel when he arrives at Tadfield Airbase in anger (I know there is some argument for Hastur calling lightning down on the Tadfield manor to start the fire, but I would ask you to consider this in context.)

Shax calls him an "arch-traitor" during the Battle of the Bookshop

Red is a colour of the Seraphim. I've pointed out in my colour meta that red is not necessarily a demonic colour, its more an indication of devotional passion. And he's still devoted to God.

He doesn't bother to tell Aziraphale his name in Before the Beginning, because he assumes that he is important enough for Aziraphale to know it

Only one confident enough with power would be willing to rock it in the first place eg ask questions, because they wouldn't think that they could fail.

When he wants to in S2 he just takes over with confident authority and expects to be obeyed eg He yells at the demon legion approaching the bookshop that they are out of order, he tells the assembled archangels and Dark council members that there will be no war, because they are all idiots, and he then stops Maggie and Nina being turned in pillars of salt and takes them outside. Shax still defers to him, too - oh, she's hungry to take over but she knows that he's got the edge on her.

The suspicious special treatment he seems to get from Hell. Furfur spelt it out, really:

No, what's ridiculous is demons like you doing what they please. And somehow still getting on, while demons like me graft for hundreds and hundreds of millennia and never get a sniff of a promotion!

I mentioned once its like Hell is happy to have Crowley out of the way and out of sight, because then it wont remind them of what happened during the Great War and Fall - there is still some guilt associated with it and what happened there, and with Crowley in particular. I've been trying to explore that with my Future Echoes of the Past metas recently [The Great War] [Newt/Crowley] [Not Even at Gunpoint], but as I've discovered some crucial parts of the story is still missing, we've only been given the basics so far. As long as he doesn't cross the line too far, like he did with Elspeth, he's left alone. Plus Beelzebub, while disagreeing that they have an agreement to leave Crowley alone after Armagedon't, says "I can put a price on your head any time I want," - but they crucially do not, they stay their hand, and has a cajoling little "chin wag" with him instead.

Edit (from suggestion below by musingsofmaisie): Hmm yes, this is a good one to go last. So many connections to Gabriel, isn't there...

22. During the watching of Gabriel's trial in Heaven, when Gabriel says " I'm the only first order archangel in the room--or in the universe" and the camera pans to Crowley's face and holds there, his expression completely impassive. (With the inference that there are perhaps two right at that moment...? Hmmm)

Really hoping we get the answers in S3. So many questions!

The idea of Crowley previously being a very powerful angel and still carrying around shards of that power is just so delicious to me. I'm a sucker for characters who aren't at all what they used to be. Underdogs who were obviously once a Big Deal, and you can't see it most of the time, until some improbable bit of classified knowledge or mention of higher connections leaks out. Especially if they really don't like to talk about it or dwell on who they were, if for one reason or another, they want to leave it all in the past.

I have had a feeling about Crowley since season 1. His position on Hell's hierarchy is relatively low, so it's not immediately apparent at first. But things stood out. How he bends reality to his will without seeming to even think about it, sometimes even without realizing. He decides it would be funnier if the paint guns were real guns, but also makes sure no one actually gets shot. This seems to take no effort or concentration on his part; it's done almost offhandedly. Or how he drives the Bentley through a wall of fire, keeping it from falling apart by sheer determination, while the much higher-ranking demon in the seat next to him is discorporated in seconds. Almost as impressive is how he negotiates London traffic, which from what I've heard is a borderline miraculous feat normally, let alone at 90 miles per hour.

And of course, the time stopping. Something even Aziraphale apparently isn't capable of. Something that, with a particularly fierce effort, literally stops Satan in his tracks. The sort of power wielded by a cosmic engineer who once needed it to do his job - 'I helped build that one,' he says, eyes a little distant as stares at a picture of a nebula - and he still carries it with him, skulking around on Earth, far from the cosmos he helped to create. Having let go of most of the rest, even the memories of it, burying them with the person he used to be. He's changed who he is but he can't change what he is, and if you cracked open that lowly serpent, you'd be blinded by the starlight within.

[drconstellation]

I've had this sitting in my drafts box going now where for a while, but thought I'd drag this pair of cheeky bastards out today and clean them up.

So I originally saw someone do a post about Aziraphale making a "tongue-in-cheek" gesture to Crowley about "the Clue" when he was asking to take the Bentley to Edinburgh in S2E2. Just "pop up there myself and investigate." This is just after he just "popped up" from behind the Bentley to investigate whether he could take it himself to Edinburgh? That's bold of you, you cheeky angel!

He's already been teased by Crowley for calling it a Clue with a capital C, (and why we should be wary of Clues)

but Aziraphale is pretty sure he on to something here, as shown to us by the following few seconds (see screenshots below, note there is another tongue-in-cheek moment here at the beginning), just after the archangels leave the book shop in S2E2 having questioned him over the cause of the 25 lazurii miracle. He puts on the single of "Every Day" he got from Maggie to listen to while he examines newspaper clippings from around the world in different languages, each of them reporting about this strange occurrence in Edinburgh where a jukebox "miraculously" seems to turn every record put into it into Buddy Holly's "Every Day:

The parallel "tongue-in-cheek" moment from Crowley happens in S2E1, during the chat with Lord Beelzebub in Hell, while he is lounging across the two thrones that they have installed in their office (and if you are wondering about the thrones there is a nice little post about them here).

Here's what Beelzebub is saying just beforehand:

Well, that's one way of putting it...Crowley knows Gabriel has "vanished" not once, but twice! Firstly in body and secondly his memory has vanished, too. Oh boy. But Crowley is in a dangerous situation here so he's he's acting in his cool-but-alert mode.

Then Crowley uses this lovely, slightly archaic, expression:

"It's a big universe, lots of places an archangel on the lam could have a wonderful time and never be seen again."

"On the lam" is a term that means "in flight from the authorities." In flight? Get it? Go Roger the Stunt Fly! Bwahahaha! Tongue in cheek, indeed, Crowley. *snort*

I would also hazard a guess that the second half of that sentence is a second ref to the Hunting of the Snark in S2E1 (I propose that there one to do with the Eccles cakes here). Gabriel has gone hunting his Snark and accidentally tripped up in front of a Boojum, and has "softly and suddenly vanish[ed] away, and [may] never be met with again."