#good omens sideburns scheme

[sonkitty]

The Ball Invitations Mini-game (Good Omens 2)

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's best to either just take my word for it or read these three things.

The Sideburns Scheme

The Earthly Objects Game

Earthly Objects Study - Multiplicative Threshold Tricks

This post was last updated 01/24/2024.

You know, lots of games have mini-games, and that's what seems to be happening here with these ball invitations. Which game is this mini-game for? It seems to be both for Earthly Objects and The Sideburns Scheme with the mechanics based on the former but the purpose is for the latter. Well, The Sideburns Scheme also uses the mechanics. As such, I'll go ahead and say it's for The Sideburns Scheme.

This mini-game must be played by both Aziraphale and Crowley with each one having different requirements than the other.

Each must earn a specially assigned solo set with stricter parameters than the Earthly Objects game usually gives. Aside from a touch they share for Mrs. Cheng and potentially looking at the other at certain times, they are not supposed to rely on each other for most of the mini-game and for the mini-game in particular. In other words, they are playing this game together and apart at the same time.

Aziraphale is inviting humans to a meeting.

Crowley is possibly inviting humans to a special supernatural space he manages or accesses that will form at about the same time as this meeting though he's not going to say that's what he's doing.

This meeting is going to be a ball, and no one is allowed to say that just yet.

The Rules for Aziraphale:

Aziraphale must invite 5 humans on camera to the meeting. There is a special 6th invitation for Crowley to the bookshop that is going to change these rules.

Here are the rules for inviting the humans:

Three invitations must be done in English.

Two invitations must be done in a foreign language and each with a different level of fluency.

Aziraphale must do all of the talking during the actual inviting.

Aziraphale is not allowed talk to Crowley.

When speaking in English:

Aziraphale is dependent on his physical touches to the two earthly objects he has with him compared to the usual dialogue options.

He is not allowed to say "Hello".

If he is going to ask a question, it's not really a question but a lead into a question he is answering.

If he is going to say a number, the number should be a year.

If he is going to say the name of a person, it should not be the name of a person who will be at the ball.

He must say the words "meeting" and "tonight" sometime during the invitation.

The name of the meeting is "Whickber Street Traders and Shopkeepers Association Meeting."

In every conversation, he says at least two words from the name of that meeting that do not include the word "meeting".

To Mr. Arnold, Aziraphale says "Whickber Street Traders and Shopkeepers Association Meeting".

To Mutt, Aziraphale says "Monthly Shopkeepers".

To Nina, Aziraphale says "Street Association".

When he is speaking in a foreign language:

Aziraphale is not dependent on the physical touch of the two earthly objects he has with him. Instead, he is dependent on his use of a foreign language and dialogue options in the foreign language.

When he is speaking more fluently to Mrs. Cheng, the subtitles do include that he says "meeting" and "tonight."

Mrs. Cheng herself includes the words "Street Traders"

The subtitles translate what he says to Mrs. Cheng. They do not translate what he says to Justine to presumably help indicate he is not speaking as fluently. As a viewer who prefers and relies heavily on subtitles, it is really annoying.

Justine says "street traders" and "meeting" at some point during the conversation.

Aziraphale is required to look at Crowley at least once.

The Rules for Crowley:

Crowley will have his own special invitation later.

For now, the rules are:

Crowley is not allowed to talk once Aziraphale has started talking for the invitation. For Nina, he specifically waits until after the invitation is essentially accepted and done with her no longer on camera at least once.

Crowley is required to look at Aziraphale at least once.

He must touch at least one earthly object during the invitation.

He must do at least one self-clothing touch during the invitation.

He must do at least one self-skin-contact touch during the invitation.

In the scenes where it looks like Crowley does not do a self-skin-contact touch, he is using his pockets in ways that the game presumably allows to make the necessary touches.

For some curious reason, Crowley actually does several earthly object touches in the magic shop. I very much want to know about putting that fez on a snake statue by the snake demon with utmost precision in these games. Things like that are cute, but I've seen too much of Crowley's overall play to assume he's just being cute.

He does things with his mouth in most invitation scenes. I don't know if they are supposed to be mouth touches, but still, he does them.

The Rules for Both:

Aziraphale and Crowley are not allowed to talk to each other.

They are supposed to be seen as together, mostly through the looks they make sure to give each other during the invitations.

I mentioned this rule earlier, but again: No one is allowed to say that this meeting is going to be a ball.

They need a correct sides view.

Two of the above will have a further explanation at Nina's invitation because hers is intentionally set up to look like it does not match the rules.

The Touches:

I don't know all of them, especially because in the music shop, Crowley is doing some heavy duty multi-tasking that's supposed to avoid overlap between two Threshold Tricks he is doing. Then he's playing this game in there too. This game is probably supposed to also avoid or at least minimize overlap.

Mr. Arnold (The Music Shop):

The earthly object touch specific to this location is probably the window pane itself thanks to the back, so long as it's not the part of Crowley touching the sign.

The self-clothing touch could be a number of things due to his pocket touches. Each touch for The Pocket Trick, one of the Tricks he is doing here, is a puzzle. The parts I've been able to solve, so far, say that those fingers are touching the pants on the pocket threshold and are specifically for The Pocket Trick, not this mini-game. That right pinky finger might be intentionally excluded because of the shading trying to hide its tip. The tie strands are tied to the hands, and the tassels are thumbs. Because he needs a self-skin contact touch, that means the self-clothing touch probably isn't those. They are touching each other. The jacket is part of the bigger requirements for The Pocket Trick touch, so that one doesn't seem likely either. That leaves the shirt, the vest, and maybe that belt loop that's usually not so clearly visible. Pocket touches seem to transfer touches, so it could even be all three passing everything where it needs to be until one of them is reached. That one is most likely the belt loop since I've never seen it so clear in any other touch. That left vest tip usually covers it.

The self-skin-contact touch is likely his thumbs being hidden in his pockets but having a visual representation thanks to the tie strands being connected to the hands. One must take the time to attempt figuring out The Pocket Trick to learn that. Otherwise, one is left to assume that's what they are doing since they are hidden.

Crowley has no evident mouth movement though knowing pocket touches being as absurd as they are, that snake belt could suddenly have a mouth reaching to nibble at his right vest tip. That would happen from the lighting making it it look like the snake has eyes. The belt is not lit that way for other pocket touches.

Mutt (The Magic Shop):

One of the first touches Crowley does is to place a solitary middle finger to the mirror on the door while having his thumb, index finger, and pinky visible. The ring finger is tucked away but can barely be found near the end of a touch. Such touches are generally not counted because he is using only one digit out of the five available to him. So, I'm not really sure why he does it. A lot of times what he is not touching properly is because he wants to earn the point differently. I'm still not sure that is what he is doing here because when he is avoiding points, it's generally on screen in the same general area he is already sitting or standing in. He'll be walking further in to start earning points. My guess is there's something special about the reflection, but I still don't know what it would accomplish since the fingers are so deliberately separated.

The earthly object touch is probably from walking on the rug. He has notably visible steps on it and makes sure that his foot is on the border of that rug before the camera cuts to the next spot.

The self-clothing touch seems to be most likely as part of when he places his right arm on the top of a panel that is at the end of a counter area. He implies a touch to his jacket, seeming to be confirmed as he stops touching the above item to step away.

The self-skin-contact touch is the clasped hands behind his back as he brushes his shoulder up against some hanging beads, confirming the touch with the noise they make.

Despite seeming to have all the touches done, he picks up a fez, puts it on, and waves his around a crystal ball as if playing around in pretending to use it.

All of that playing around gives Aziraphale an excuse to look at him and Crowley an excuse to look back though he already looked at Aziraphale earlier.

Crowley removes the fez and places it on a snake statue.

In searching for whatever mouth thing might be going on, he is making noise through his mouth, seems to open and shut it slightly when removing the fez, and that fez lands on the mouth of the snake statue.

Mrs. Cheng:

The earthly object touch is most likely from Crowley touching Aziraphale's left arm with Crowley's own right arm. Aziraphale is speaking in a foreign language, so Crowley earns it by extension as supernatural beings are allowed reciprocal touches.

I don't know why it's the only visible physical touch he needs that's not already on himself, but it is.

The self-clothing touch is probably his left hand in his folded arms because he will be using his right hand soon.

The self-skin-contact touch is him placing an index finger on his forehead even though Aziraphale walked away before it happened. Since it happened immediately after he unfolded his arms, that probably helped. His own shadow being on Aziraphale initially as Aziraphale walked away might have helped too.

He made a mouth movement when blurred. Also, when he placed that index finger on his mouth, his facial expression is enough such that a dimple becomes visible on his left side. While Aziraphale does not seem to look at Crowley, there is an unusual view of where, theoretically, he could be looking at Crowley through peripheral vision. Aziraphale's right eye is seen on camera. His left eye is only partly shown on camera, not showing the iris and pupil. Crowley is to Aziraphale's left. Mrs. Cheng is a special character, so that might still somehow pass.

Justine (The Bench):

Crowley is actually standing in a special area that is between the coffee shop and the restaurant with the music shop's entrance in front of him. I don't know what the story wants this area to be called or if it's regarded as a special type of threshold, but nonetheless, that's where he is. He is not past the threshold of the outdoor area of the restaurant, which would probably be having to go up the steps.

All the same, that does not appear to be a requirement for this invitation.

As such, the main earthly object touch Crowley makes is to sit on the bench and quite possibly it is specifically his back to it while using other parts for the other touches. It's hard to be sure because when he was blurred, his blurred hand actually touches the jacket while sitting.

For the self-clothing touch, he is probably using the seat and places his right hand on his pants, more specifically the right side of his right hand.

For the self-skin-contact touch, he is using the arm rest and then resting the left side of his head in his left hand. The way his hand is situated is such that his fingers are touching the area below his sunglasses. There is an actual gap between them and the palm.

This time there is a mouth touch because that palm of his hand is, indeed, touching his left side of his mouth.

For some reason, the camera makes sure to show his shoes in a blurred part of the scene.

This scene makes it difficult to see that Justine sees them as together because of how much she is moving around. There are two hints that she does, indeed, see them as together. The first hint is one of her walks out of the open threshold. Her line of sight is in Crowley's direction. In the next cut, the camera's focus is on Crowley with only a blurred Aziraphale arm in the cut with Crowley. The other, bigger clue is the end of the invitation as Justine has just finished saying, "See you there." She is shown blurred from behind. From that view, both Aziraphale and Crowley are on screen. Crowley himself is blurred too, like Justine is.

Nina (The Post):

The story will never say it, but due to the number of times Crowley and Aziraphale are near the coffee shop individually after their initial visit, yet never, ever in it again during the entire season, I think they are not allowed back in. Hence, they need to make a scene to be spotted by Nina in the first place.

For most invitations, they are not already talking to each other. Aziraphale talks, and Crowley keeps quiet. As soon as Crowley says, "What?", Aziraphale looks at Crowley.

Aziraphale's look is the actual beginning of this invitation. Nina already sees them as together, but Aziraphale still gets his look in.

Now to talk about the sides view because this one will take awhile to explain.

Aziraphale and Crowley have proper sides they are supposed to be on with each other. Crowley is supposed to be to Aziraphale's left, especially when the camera is in front of them. That makes Crowley on the camera's right and Aziraphale on the camera's left when they are viewed from the front. When they are not on their proper sides, "something's wrong." Well, that's how season 1 worked anyway. However, in Good Omens 2, they keep switching to the wrong side or staying on the wrong side after these invitations are done with only glimpses of the correct side happening every now and then. They even do switch sides during these invitations too.

That setup initially suggests the story is repeatedly saying "something is wrong" during a great deal of the last two episodes of the season.

However...

The story introduced them in a phone call on the wrong side the first time they are on screen together in the present day. The credits will do the same thing for the last time they are shown on screen together.

Does that mean something was always wrong, start to finish? Not exactly. This story lies on purpose, but it gives tells too. If something's always wrong, the wrongness becomes overwhelming noise. What does it even mean, after awhile? In my opinion, from this story, it means deception. Not everything is as wrong as it seems.

For these ball invitations, the camera needs to see Crowley facing forward on the camera's right side of the screen during the invitation scenes at some point. That way, he is to the left of Aziraphale if Aziraphale were actually facing forward as well and puts himself in the right place—at least once. In Nina's invitation, it happens after Aziraphale's quick look at Crowley and him saying, "Ah. Um." Aziraphale does not face the camera, but he's still on the camera's left when Crowley is on the camera's right. Both the look and the side view are quick and easy to miss. After that, Aziraphale goes back to being on the wrong side and staying there.

They barely made it, but they made sure to get the look and the side view in before Aziraphale brought up the meeting.

The earthly object touch for Crowley is on the post with his hand, probably touched in the way it is so that Crowley can use a pocket touch as well. When Crowley starts to touch the post, he uses four fingertips that keep moving his hand until eventually his palm and thumb are on the top of the post.

The self-clothing touch seems to be most likely from his legs. As he was moving to touch the post, the right leg moved forward. They look crossed from the side and that the right leg might actually be touching the side of the post, below a certain point. The leg is behind the post from the camera's view. He shows the faintest of skin contact because of how he uses that pocket once digits are in. The index finger and thumb were the chosen digits. Pocket touches do these weird transfer things through the clothes that I don't fully understand. It actually hints to how the index finger and thumb can both touch the pants in The Door Trick with the other left hand fingertips not visible here. The touches are still different with what is seen or unseen of those fingers, but I'm still noticing.

The self-skin-contact touch is also probably also from some trickery he does with his pocket. While the index finger and thumb of the left hand are busy helping the legs out, yet another weird thing about pocket touches is being able to receive assistance from nearby humans using their pockets. Crowley is blurry with a human somewhere further behind him using a pocket. With a glance down, Crowley's right jawline touches part of his neck. Yes, pocket touches really are this weird and open about what they allow. It's part of what makes them so frustrating as a puzzle in The Pocket Trick. The human pocket user lines up all too well with that touch, especially since Crowley has no perceived requirement to glance down otherwise.

The mouth thing happened early when as Aziraphale started to talk. Crowley started to open his mouth. The camera cut to when Crowley started to use the post and pocket. While doing that, his mouth closed.

Now some of the overall puzzle of this whole story is still missing in observing the patterns of this mini-game. Crowley's reaction to Nina after the invitation is accepted is genuine. I do believe he and Aziraphale intended to be seen together before Nina questioning Crowley. Maybe Crowley has to make himself forget, push those things to the back of his mind for the story to move forward, or Nina herself has that effect on him through whatever force is influencing her, such as the Metatron. Maybe it's related to him not touching anything in that moment and not having Aziraphale with Aziraphale holding two earthly objects with him.

Crowley describes something of whatever this missing piece is as a "like a hangover" later when the demons are arriving in the supernatural zone forming I mentioned at the start of this post. The situation is quite similar. Nina is with Crowley again, and Crowley is, again, not touching anything. Aziraphale is absent from the scene.

That sounds related but not quite enough yet. I truly do not know what the missing piece is, and I wish to know. I still believe these invitations were done the way they were on purpose.

Nonetheless, finally, all the on-camera human invitations are done.

Inviting Crowley:

For this round, they are allowed to talk to each other.

First of all, Crowley must invite Aziraphale to speak with him to begin with, and they still aren't allowed to talk to each other until Aziraphale is close enough to the table. Hence, the whistle.

Aziraphale still isn't allowed to say "Hello". He does say the word "meeting" even if he doesn't say the word "tonight."

The initial invitation is actually a question that Aziraphale is allowed to say. "Why don't you wait inside?"

That's the invitation to the bookshop. Crowley is invited to the bookshop, not the meeting. He'll be there, but this story made sure that there was a difference. Even though Crowley's generally welcome to the bookshop already, this story still made sure to have this scene.

Crowley shakes his head, giving Aziraphale a chance to follow that question up with, "You like waiting inside."

So, in a sense, Aziraphale still got to "answer" his own question even though Crowley is about to answer the question too.

The dialogue continues, and Aziraphale almost says "Gabriel." Crowley's own mouth movement with his tongue seems to remind Aziraphale of the rule that he's not supposed to the say name of anyone who is going to be at the ball when speaking in English.

Finally, a real question is allowed that is not really an invitation to the bookshop but leads into Crowley going to the bookshop, effectively accepting the first invitation.

"Have you thought of just talking to him?"

"Actually, I will."

During all of the above, Crowley was still required to do his touches, further confirming that this scene is its own special invitation within the mini-game.

The earthly object touch is most likely his back against the wall because he will be taking that glass of wine with him.

The clothing touch happens quite early when Crowley is seen after he whistled. His shoe is touching a rug, which is what allows him to rest the left side of his left hand on the lap of his crossed legs.

The self-skin-contact touch happens with his fingers on his palm when he's saying "Smited? Smote?" Sometime before that, the camera confirmed that he had his right elbow on the table, and its his right hand that touches itself.

As noted further above, he did a mouth thing when it looked like "Gabriel" was about to be said.

Crowley also might have qualified for a face touch to the sunglasses in the cut right before he says, "I don't think so."

Taking a wine glass and wine bottle with him, Crowley leaves for the bookshop to approach Gabriel.

One little oddity that might be worth mentioning is that we never see the actual drinking of the wine by Crowley either at the restaurant or when Crowley talks to Gabriel later.

All the same, these invitations are done.

The scene with Gabriel is related, but it's still not one of the six invitations. We're stopping here.

The End.

I have a tendency to update my posts, FYI.

[sonkitty]

Oh! Oh!

I don't have the answer to the question itself, but if we're going to talk about Good Omens and games, I've got something!

This game might exist in Good Omens 1, but it is a lot different since there is not such an emphasis on thresholds.

Good Omens 2 has a game that starts with the letter "e" and involves 6 Tricks. It's also quite large and encompassing to the entire story.

The game in question is Earthly Objects.

The tricks in question are the Threshold Tricks.

The Threshold Tricks are 6 of Crowley's advanced moves, but he does not have to do them alone. I believe Aziraphale plays a part in every Trick, but a player, such as myself, has to make that assumption. I cannot prove it.

Not only that, Muriel has a bookend scene to at least part of every Threshold Trick.

There are 6, but there is a special 7th move that Aziraphale gets to do at the end: The Door Catch.

The Threshold Tricks go 1+5 by episode completion. They have a chiastic structure when lined up with the ball invitations: 5+1 (Crowley is the sixth special invitation).

So, I can't tell you what game God is playing, but I can tell you the game Crowley and Aziraphale are playing is Earthly Objects. That game then turns in to a game for people in the audience to play if they find it. Then you can find the Threshold Tricks and start looking for hidden messages in the story.

Trying to find out Crowley's sideburns is a good place to start for finding both Earthly Objects and the Threshold Tricks.

Here are the Tricks:

The Perfect Entrance Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Bigger Thresholds Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Pocket Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Sunglasses Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Door Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Window Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

It is, in my opinion, a very difficult game, especially once you find The Pocket Trick. It was the last one I found. I have solved these things in a broad sense, but I don't fully understand the finer, more detailed mechanics. The Pocket Trick is the hardest one, but then it makes understanding The Door Trick more difficult because they are linked with each other through the Pocket Chain and Rainbow Connection.

As much as I struggled, I'm really glad I got far enough to find The Door Catch and found a hidden message when trying to understand the Rainbow Connection mechanics: "The Metatron makes mistakes".

The Pocket Trick uses word play, so you really have to "think outside the pocket" to solve the puzzles.

The ball invitations are a mini-game. The Sideburns Scheme is a game. There is a Bookend Buddies game with Crowley and Muriel! Good Omens 2 has multiple hidden games, but Earthly Objects is like huge because its mechanics are required in facets of these other games.

This is a partly formed thought, so bear with me here.

God is shown as playing a game of cards with the universe.

Is God playing euchre?

Something about playing with opposing teams and people having to trust their partners because they can't share their cards.

And Agnes Nutter referring to Aziraphale and Crowley as "the Two Powers" and euchre has two bowers, which are two Jacks.

And there being a situation where a Jack of Clubs is actually a Jack of Spades (hidden in plain sight sort of stuff).

And the two Joker cards were invented because of the game euchre.

And each play being called a trick. Euchre is a game of tricks.

And in British rules there is a play called Playing Policemen. Muriel comes to mind.

There is also a play called Going Alone, the ultimate flex in a euchre game. It’s a high-risk, high-reward move in euchre where a player is confident they can play and win all five tricks in a hand without the help of their partner. Sort of like Aziraphale going it alone in Heaven to stop the Second Coming.

And the game being described as sort of chaotic and hard to understand.

I don't entirely understand this game, but enough details seem to relate to the show that I wonder. Maybe someone with more experience with euchre could add to this.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

If angels and demons walk among us, as they do in Good Omens, how are we to tell them apart from us mere mortals? The longer they live on Earth, the more human they can appear, which is usually a good giveaway. The thing is, "more human," doesn't necessarily mean "more fashionable," as the Amazon series' costume designer explains.

Aziraphale doesn't care quite as much about fashion as his archangel boss, Gabriel. In the original script, author Neil Gaiman noted that Aziraphale is a "kind-looking gentleman whose sartorial style runs to bow-ties. He thinks a little tartan is nifty, and would use the word 'nifty' with pride."

With that being her primary direction, costume designer Claire Anderson tells SYFY WIRE that she decided Aziraphale would have a more traditional look and would wear clothes that look like he's worn them for hundreds of years. She decided on Victorian-era clothing, and added gold threads to his bow-tie — a look that actor Michael Sheen approves of.

"I wanted him to look like a comfortable sofa," Sheen says. "He likes quality and craftsmanship, so he's elegant, but he's also a bit threadbare."

Gabriel, however, would never tolerate looking a bit rundown. As played by Jon Hamm, the archangel wears bespoke suits and coats when he pops down to Earth (thanks to a Zegna tailor on Bond Street), and cashmere is his primary fabric, even for his running clothes. "Cashmere just floats around you," Anderson says. "It sits where it touches. It's delicious to wear. It feels sensational. And it just drips off of him."

"The celestial heavenly creatures were festooned with the best of everything," Hamm explains, "but they don't get any joy out of it."

"Gabriel thinks of his luxury clothes as more disposable, and would just wear it for a season and be done with it," Anderson noted. "That's not very angelic, is it?"

Gabriel's clothes have a lilac color scheme – silvery pearl-gray and blue-gray – to give him a bit of iridescence and match his otherworldly eyes. "To make Jon Hamm the most beautiful man in the world, what more can they do?" Anderson says. "He's already tall and handsome and he looks great in everything. So it's tiny, but we gave him Elizabeth Taylor eyes."

Not Elizabeth Taylor-like eyes, but her actual eyes. "Gabriel went and stole Liz Taylor's eyes and put them in his head," Hamm says. "He thought, 'Those are beautiful and unique and perfect, so I'll take those.'"

The effect is done, of course, with colored contacts, as are the various reptilian eyes of our respective demons. Hastur and Ligur, who don't come to Earth as often, aren't as skilled at hiding their true selves, and don't seem to realize what they look like they've just emerged up through the ground.

"I love the demons," Anderson says. "When I did my first drawings of them, I thought about the fires of Hell, and thought they should have burned feet and shoes that could be boiled and greased and given scorch marks. The bottoms of their coats are scorched. Their clothing is blackened and shredded at the hems. Everything is muddy and broken down and distressed."

Hastur, Ligur, and other Dukes of Hell wear what they died in, but Crowley (played by David Tennant) has been on Earth the longest and has had 6,000 years to acquire a good wardrobe. Like Gabriel, Crowley also appreciates human style, but only so it can make him look like the coolest guy in the room.

"He's sort of like Christian Bale in American Psycho," Tennant says. "He's kind of what yuppies were 30 years ago, so whatever version of that exists now. What currency does that give you? Crowley thinks he's really cool, and he wants to adapt his coolness to the time period, and so he's very profligate with his looks, his version of what's on trend."

Unlike Gabriel, Crowley is not too tailored — his clothes have an undone quality about them, although with sharp lines, to feel more modern. He's rather like a snake who sheds his skin, constantly updating his wardrobe (even if he remains a bit behind), wearing a few things that are a bit too tight so they're wrapped around him, and shirts that tumble open. And most of his look — from the serpentine eyes well-hidden by sunglasses, the serpent tattoo sideburn, a belt with a snakehead with gleaming eyes to the snakeskin shoes with red soles — harkens back to his origins as a snake with a red underbelly.

"He has slicks of red around his collars, and red embroidery in his fabrics," Anderson says.

Most of Crowley's clothing was made for the production, but there is at least one designer piece — a cropped Balenciaga jacket worn in an Episode 1 flashback ‚ that adds to his rock-star swagger. "Aziraphale looks at Crowley and thinks, 'I could never get away with that,'" Sheen says. "He would never dare."

[egg2k16]

“You Go Too Fast For Me” – an analysis by Onion Sprout

ok so, here are my thoughts about Aziraphale’s line of, “You go too fast for me,” and Crowley and Aziraphale’s lovestory up to the quote, with pictures, bulletpoints, and under the cut bcus this is gonna get Long:

[Image 1: A screenshot of Crowley from Good Omens. He has long curly red hair, wears a black robe, is smiling, and is standing in front of greenery. His black wings are closed behind him.]

[Image 2: A screenshot of Aziraphale from Good Omens. He has short white hair, wears a white robe, is smiling, and is also standing in front of the same greenery. His white wings are closed behind him.]

This is when they first start liking each other. They have a pretty good rapport, and both realize that the other could be a very good friend, despite their obvious differences

Aziraphale can feel love, so he can feel the spark of friendship in Crowley. He himself must be aware of his own budding platonic feelings for Crowley, but since he, as an angel, was made to love all of God’s creations, this includes demons, and so doesn’t think too much about it

[Image 1: Aziraphale in a white toga, holding a cup, sitting in an ancient Roman tavern. Crowley is sat to his left. Aziraphale is smiling at Crowley.]

[Image 2: A shot of Crowley’s reaction. He is wearing a black toga, a golden laurel, and glasses. He looks surprised.]

When Aziraphale tempts Crowley to lunch for the first time, he literally uses the term, “tempt,” a word that’s got a more demonic connotation, so for an angel to say this to a demon, said demon becomes very interested in what the angel has to offer, no matter if it’s just oysters

This is the spark of Crowley’s deeper affection for Aziraphale. This moment shows him that Aziraphale can “get on his level”, so to speak, and so he decides to get on his level by accepting the temptation

They continuously become each other’s equals

Temptation itself has a romantic connotation as well, so this moment is also Crowley’s careful foray into considering Aziraphale as a potential romantic partner

Aziraphale, despite being able to feel love, can’t seem to sense this sudden change. Why?

Well it’s because he thinks that this is just a moment of closer friendship, solidifying their bond

[Image 1: Aziraphale is wearing knightly armor. His face is surrounded by his helmet and chainmail. His shoulders have fur, from his unseen cape. He is yelling.]

[Image 2: Crowley is wearing knightly armor as well, although his is black. His helmet covers a lot more of his face. He still looks surprised. He doesn’t have a cool cape.]

At this point in time, they’ve been separated for A While now, and even though Crowley’s supposed to be hostile towards Aziraphale – seeing as how they’re On Opposite Sides – he isn’t. He pretty calm when explaining what he’s been up to

Even though they’ve been apart for so long, he tells his men to leave Aziraphale alone, because “I know him.” His affection is still there, and it just flares up again, enough for him to suddenly pop in at a certain theater that he seemingly knows a certain angel likes to go to

[Image: Aziraphale and Crowley are standing next to each other, in Shakespearian-era clothing, Aziraphale in white and Crowley in black. Crowley has long hair and a really weird goatee thing going on. Aziraphale looks insulted while Crowley is smugly smiling.]

Here, Crowley is now openly flirting with Aziraphale, using poetic language and even inspiring Shakespeare with a one-liner. It’s a bit jocular, as well, perhaps to cover up somewhat his more romantic intentions

Crowley here is already slowly descending into love-love for Aziraphale, and said angel doesn’t notice because he still thinks that they’re just good friends, great friends even, who make miracles for each other so that their favorite scriptwriters can be successful even though the other doesn’t like him all too much

[Image: Crowley is sitting on a chair, wearing 1790′s French clothing. It’s in dark colors, of course. This picture is very dark, Jesus Christ. He looks somewhat judgmental.]

We know Crowley to be a Very Dramatique Individual™, so for him to swoop in to save the day and free Aziraphale from literal chains is a very romantic gesture from him. He’s very much in love now, and Aziraphale is still p dense

Perhaps Aziraphale can’t really tell whether Crowley feels friendship or love for him because it’s Crowley. He’s dramatic, loud, has a go-to personality – he does things in a big way

Maybe their friendship is a big way, Aziraphale thinks to himself

But here’s the thing: Aziraphale is starting to feel very strongly about Crowley, too. Look at the face he has when he realizes Crowley has come to rescue him:

[Image: A close-up of Aziraphale. He is also dressed in fancy 1790′s French clothes in his typical pastel color scheme. He looks excited and absolutely elated.]

He’s smiling! He’s overjoyed! And the fact that’s it’s Crowley he’s so excited to realize is telling of how he’s starting to feel about him: he’s come to count on him on being there when it matters, and even when it doesn’t matter

They did encounter each other again back in Mesopotamia, it was a coincidence that they met again in 537, it was just a theater that Crowley sauntered in to see him. They’re connected to important moments in history, that’s for sure, but they’re special for each other because they’re there together

Aziraphale, here, has unknowingly taken the first step into love-love

[Image: Aziraphale and Crowley standing next to each other. They’re in a park in the 1880′s. Aziraphale has some real bitchin’ sideburns going on, and he’s wearing an off-white coat with a tartan scarf. Crowley has a top hat on, and a black coat.]

When Crowley asks for the holy water, Aziraphale is horrified at the mere thought of him having it. He knows what holy water does to demons, and he very profusely refuses to give it to him, obviously

He storms away! He breaks up w Crowley! They don’t see each other again until WW2! And during the meantime, he learned how to dance the gavotte where he’s gotta kiss everyone in the room! He’s literally trying not to actively think of Crowley’s request bcus he can’t deal with the heartbreak that that brings

He’s a lot more in love than we even realize, than even he realizes

He can’t imagine not having Crowley by his side

[Image 1: Crowley is handing Aziraphale several books tied up with rope. He’s smiling at Aziraphale, while Aziraphale looks at him in utter shock.]

[Image 2: Aziraphale is standing by himself. He looks at an off-screen Crowley with tenderness and wonderment.]

And then we have the rescued books scene. “A little miracle of my own,” Crowley says after surprising Aziraphale and saving him from some half-wit Nazis. He knows how important books in general are to Aziraphale (as we can see in the deleted scene from 1800 from the scripts), so he makes it a miracle that they’re saved

He’s still in love after all this time. He’s not going to save Aziraphale without also saving Aziraphale. The books are just as much a part of him as him being an angel

This is also when Aziraphale realizes that he’s been in love with Crowley since the French Revolution, a good 150-odd years now

Not to mention, this is also the moment where he realizes he’s been sensing Crowley’s love for him as well. He’s realizing that they’re in love

[Image 1: Crowley and Aziraphale are in Crowley’s car. Aziraphale is passing him a thermos with holy water in it. Crowley is carefully reaching for it, focused on it.]

[Image 2: Aziraphale is looking at Crowley with longing and sadness. He is illuminated by a neon pink glow. My heart is breaking in twain.]

The ‘60s. Crowley’s hair. The neon everywhere. Crowley is going to hit a church to steal holy water, but Aziraphale beat him to the punch and got him some from Heaven. Once Crowley has the thermos, Aziraphale tells him, “You go too fast for me.” Let me...compose myself for a bit

Even though this causes him all the heartbreak in the world, Aziraphale wouldn’t let Crowley go ahead with his harebrained plan because he can get rid of the chase and excitement by just. Giving him what he wants

He doesn’t want him to die, though, which is part of his heartbreak

“You go too fast for me.”

From 1880 to 1940, there’s a 60 year gap. From 1940 to 1960, there’s only a 20 year gap. This meeting is a lot quicker than their last because ever since they reunited back in the ‘40s, Aziraphale has been aware of his love for Crowley, and he’s had to ruminate on Crowley’s request

He heard that Crowley was going to make a hit, and he had the holy water ready for him. He acted a lot faster than Crowley did

Aziraphale took longer to fall in love with Crowley, while Crowley has been acting on his love for Aziraphale since 537. Crowley has been acting faster on their love for each other than Aziraphale has, and now that he’s given him the potential weapon of his death, he has no time left to act on their love

Crowley’s been loving him for all this time, but Aziraphale never had a chance

Aziraphale’s line of, “You go too fast for me,” is in reference to how much time Crowley’s been in love with him vs. how much time Aziraphale’s been in love with him. On top of that, Aziraphale, at the time of this quote, believes that Crowley is going to possibly kill himself, so when he said, “You go too fast for me,” he really believed that Crowley had had all the time in the world to love him, only for Aziraphale to barely have any time left to finally reciprocate.

“You go too fast for me” is about lost time and the regret of not having enough time to make up for it.

[sonkitty]

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme (Good Omens 2)

(Previous version: The Sideburns Scheme v1)

This post will likely be regularly updated as I process my thoughts.

Last Updated: 07/08/2024

This is short:

This is long:

There is more to to it than above, and we are going to work through that.

Crowley's sideburns change in length in season 2. I have worked out some of how and have some theory on why.

...

Games

Good Omens 2 has two significant findable games. One of those games is this one that I'm choosing to name here as The Sideburns Scheme. The other game is almost certainly called Earthly Objects.

...

Space

The absolute most crucial thing to understand for my theory is space. Character presence, movement, and likely memory all impact the space, but the space decides the length based on those things. The space is practically a character reading the story with us and making decisions on what length to give Crowley in response.

If you walk away from my post with only one thing and one thing only, I want it to be this:

The Bentley is Crowley's own demon space, and the driver's door to that space is its primary threshold.

...

Effect

When I refer to the effect, I will specifically mean the changing of the length.

But what is the effect from that?

On its most basic level, short trends human, and long trends supernatural with that length increasing depending on the supernatural elements within the space.

Crowley takes actions to change the length as he sees fit since the lengths have their own benefits. They help him manage his personal space. He probably did this sideburns thing to himself. If it was done to him, it's something ridiculous like a delayed after-effect of Crowley driving through fire on the M25 in season 1. That freeway was his work as a demon and very effective work at that. Get it? Side BURNS. The outside of his car that is now functioning as his home was burned. The bookshop was burned too, and he was briefly in it while it was on fire.

Even though the length is what I focus on, the sideburns even change on how full of hair they are, and sometimes aren't even...well, even.

...

Earthly Objects

So far as my own theories go, Earthly Objects is a large, difficult, hidden game that has findable solvable puzzles in Good Omens 2. It is a layered type of game. The characters themselves are playing it, some with a higher awareness than others. An audience member can play it by trying to figure out how the game itself works. I've played it in my attempts at understanding the sideburns. It is amazingly and infuriatingly complex.

The Earthly Objects game is somehow related to this Sideburns Scheme game. Both deal with thresholds so encounter each other.

...

The Tutorial (Storming Out)

In episode 1, there is a sequence that looks like Crowley storming out of the bookshop. That sequence is a dual tutorial of both Earthly Objects and The Sideburns Scheme.

The story is trying to make it obvious that it is lying to you about what happened because of the prominently featured earthly objects that were left untouched. They are the cardboard box and the plate of Eccles cakes. The cardboard box was left unquestioned by a fake Crowley. The being leaving the private room was Gabriel pretending to be Crowley. The being passing by an untouched and unquestioned cardboard box was Aziraphale pretending to be Crowley.

In trying to analyze the sideburns, an audience player might, and should, ask the question, "How else am I supposed to figure out how the sideburns work if I know the story is obviously lying to me here?"

The answer is in the question. You can't. You won't. Or, if you do, you're going to have a very hard time of it with a refusal to recognize what just happened. I did not recognize the fakes when I asked the question. I mainly recognized that those earthly objects were featured in a suspicious way, and Crowley himself looked off.

Even though the sequence is a blatantly obvious lie, there is a hidden message within it that is true. That message is a tutorial of how the sideburns work. The story is tricky like that.

As such, a lot of my analysis is still going to be on what is presented nonetheless. I'll note if and when I have a guess at its deceptive nature.

...

Another important component in my theorizing is that Good Omens 2, through Earthly Objects, is especially interested in these three things: doors, windows, and pockets—especially pockets. We'll be seeing these things a lot within the spaces when studying the sideburns.

...

The Past

The Season 2 present day storyline is broadly solvable for the sideburns without examining the minisodes.

If anything, the minisodes can get in the way of analysis until the present day mechanics are better understood.

The minisodes offer other things to examine more closely regarding the spaces themselves, but these things don't really seem to tell you how the sideburns work in the present day. One can look for parallels regarding the hair in the first two minisodes for what styles read more as "human" or "supernatural".

The 1941 minisode really puts an audience player to the test because it reverses how the sideburns work with short trending supernatural, and long trending human. I don't know why the test is there, but from my own play, that's what it seems to be.

The Job minisode offers a clue to pay attention to when a roof is around, which then actually gives a clue about the roof of Crowley's car in the ending credits.

Generally, the minisodes suggest to keep an eye out for fire and hats or head gear too.

This post focuses on the present day, but you can find links to my notes on the minisodes at the end.

...

Home Base Concept - The Bookshop

Aziraphale's bookshop is where a lot of the present day season 2 story takes place, and it is nearly a second home to Crowley. Aziraphale himself is an angel, or a former angel.

The bookshop's default reading on Crowley being with just Aziraphale is medium-long. The sideburns shorten closer to a proper human-space short when the two are in a private room together.

These readings recognize Crowley as a supernatural entity but still giving something shorter than a longer reading around other angels. Most likely, that's because Crowley and Aziraphale are supernatural friends whose relationship is very similar to human partners.

When other angels are around, the bookshop's reading on Crowley increases the length. It's most noticeable from Gabriel, but that's likely because Gabriel is the angel who is around in the bookshop for most of the story.

Muriel shows up later, and Muriel is an angel, yet the sideburns are short. What gives?

The bookshop takes Muriel literally when Muriel claims to be human. It probably helps that Aziraphale literally accepts this claim even if he is fully aware that Muriel is an angel. As such, the reading on Crowley is that being a demon who tends to be around humans and pretend to be human often enough, the sideburns should still be the proper short length for this "human" encounter.

Later in the story, Muriel admits to not being human. Crowley acknowledges a full awareness that they are an angel. The next time they are in the bookshop together, both with other angels and alone, the bookshop then gives the longest type of sideburns to Crowley.

After that, the bookshop's not really going to tell us about other specific angels, such as Michael.

The main thing we're told is that other angels who are not Aziraphale are going to make that length longer, with at least Gabriel and Muriel being among those angels. Lying by claiming to be "human" will make them shorter nonetheless.

So, what does longer mean among the other angels? My general guess based on character behavior and story events when it's on, is that it's also a mark of rank from Crowley's time as an angel before his fall. The reading comes from a latent memory within the angels themselves. The story has repeated implications he was a high rank, seeming to be most specific at "First-Order Archangel" among those implications.

Crowley seems to be in charge among angels. He becomes a decision-maker and ends up directing the action.

When he is with only himself and Gabriel, he is in charge.

When he is with only himself and Muriel, he is in charge.

When he is with only himself, Aziraphale, and Gabriel, Aziraphale might make suggestions but otherwise follows along with Crowley's direction of what to do.

When Crowley is in the bookshop scene with both the powers of Heaven and Hell, he is in charge right up until he says to Aziraphale, "You got this?" Before that, he is quick to deflect a war, and they basically just let him with him yelling, getting the cardboard box, and recovering Gabriel's memories.

There is a moment where it looks like Michael is taking charge by commanding mortals be turned into salt. Crowley quickly steps in to volunteer to take care of it. Saraqael looked ready to do what Michael ordered. They abide and let Crowley escort the mortals out.

Do longest length sideburns do more than mark rank? I suspect they are related to memory, and they are always present during three access points of memory with Gabriel, who has amnesia. Each one is brief, and it's hard to say how much the information given is actually used. One access point is a mix of Gabriel's and God's voice. Another is a mix of Gabriel's and someone else's voice who sounds like a woman. The third access point is that Gabriel took his memory out of a matchbox, no, wait, he took it out first. In the first two access points, Gabriel's eyes turn purple, which seem to be a mark of rank on him as the Supreme Archangel.

When Crowley has longer sideburns in two specific human spaces, the speaking human within the space relays a longer-term memory about a meeting.

...

Home Base Concept - The Bentley

Did you ever notice how abruptly the encounters with Shax and Beelzebub ended when Crowley was in or near his car? That was weird, right? Here is what I believe happened.

The Bentley has special rules as a space, and each of those encounters ended with Crowley kicking out the other demon, possibly on accident in two of those instances.

The threshold to the Bentley is mainly the driver's door, but the driver's seat acted as one when Crowley was summoned to Hell.

Of note, the sideburns are long in these instances though not at their longest-length that happens in the bookshop. Based on Crowley himself, Shax, and Beelzebub, that altogether suggests a default demon reading from the car. It can change, but it has to be managed through Crowley in the season's ending.

Back to the topic of the encounters, let's move on.

...

Shax at the Door

Crowley placed himself on the threshold and possibly made Shax wait a full hour before answering his phone. When answering, some of his body is touching the roof of the car, which makes it so that he's not touching that door panel exclusively. Then he turns around when he would presumably not be touching his car but at least fully intending to touch it, which seems to suffice for the story. Shortly after, he is leaning against the roof again.

By taking this action, he is allowing Shax closer to the space around the car, so that she can talk to him.

For the shots we are allowed to see him from the front, he is touching the roof, door panel, and sometimes we see the window pane is included the lean as well.

Before he asks, "Is that all?", he stops touching those parts of the car entirely and cannot be seen touching any other part.

Shax disappears from the scene.

By removing the touch from the car, the home base kicked her out. The forced exit seems unintentional.

...

Summoned by Beelzebub to Hell

Beelzebub uses a fly already inside the car. Crowley did not invite Beelzebub in, but the fly is enough to get their metaphorical foot in the door.

After Beelzebub says, "Hello, Traitor," Crowley makes a hit against his driver's seat, then says, "Oh."

Beelzebub then does not fully manifest in corporal form into the car and summons Crowley into Hell.

Crowley very deliberately leans back and while we can't see his back constantly against the throne during the entire scene, it is implied, bare minimum, he is not leaning forward while on that throne for most of it. He's gathering intel despite his evident reluctance to be in Hell during the scene.

The throne he sits in represents his driver's seat. Even when Crowley seems to want to lean forward, he'll try to not lean too much or he will lean to the side. Until the end of the conversation, he only leans forward off the back of the seat when he asks something he does not answer himself ("Is that a new face?" "How?"). As in, he is inviting that part of the conversation into his space. He'll lean most toward Beelzebub's throne, even making sure to place his hand on the seat. The seat is to Crowley's own left, which is akin to the passenger seat in his car.

Crowley never stands up from the throne and only leans too far forward possibly at the end and possibly on accident. Beelzebub's "So if you hear anything, you come to me first, yeah?" is good enough to end the conversation, and that was a conversation where they were not invited. Crowley himself has no further questions and no further interest in actually being in Hell. The intel gathering is done. As such, the space reads that business is done and sends him back to the car instantly, whether Crowley intended for that exact thing to happen or not.

...

Shax in the Car

Crowley allowed Shax in by not verbally denying her entry and looking at where she would manifest. He kicked her out by non-verbally revving up his car even more after doing it once and giving her a second look. The home base understood it was about to de-activate and kicked her out.

...

Activation Points for longer sideburns:

-The bookshop under the right conditions

-The Bentley under the right conditions

-The pub (dependent on its threshold)

-The music shop (dependent on its threshold)

-Hell (notably shared with the Bentley)

-Heaven (assumed, notably shared with the pub)

-The park (only slightly longer because of a newspaper door, find out more here)

...

What are the right conditions for the bookshop to make Crowley's sideburns longer?

Within the season 2 present day storyline, longer seems to be a default reading actually. It's more like certain exceptions must not be met.

-No individual angel claiming to be human

AND

-Not in the private room with Aziraphale after encountering Gabriel

AND

-Not alone before an angel activates the effect.

...

The sideburns will be at their longest-length in any significant angel encounter that has an angel who is not Aziraphale and not pretending to be human. Those scenes are:

Scenes with only Crowley and Gabriel

Scenes with only Crowley, Gabriel, and Aziraphale

The overall general scene with angels, demons, and two humans, where Crowley is actively trying to undo a declaration of war.

The scene with Muriel after everyone else has left.

...

There's a small chance they lengthened slightly after first encountering Muriel, then going to talk to Aziraphale in the private room, but I can't really tell.

The sideburns are long during the ball, some parts being very hard to tell the right sideburn has reached the longest-length when there is a stronger focus on Gabriel's presence at the ball.

...

What are the right conditions for the Bentley to make Crowley's sideburns longer?

These conclusions are based on clues from the story itself:

-Staying parked for a long enough time with Crowley inside

-Approaching the car itself being isolated in a familiar area at night

-Standing at the threshold with utmost precision in the season's ending

The sideburns are at their longest-length in the season's ending up to the final cut right before the credits start.

I currently think it is because of a combination of stillness and his left arm's exclusive touch on the threshold. There is plenty more going on with such a touch, but I think those two factors are what are mainly increasing the length.

..

Activation Points for shorter sideburns:

-Driving the Bentley for a long enough time after de-activating it as a home base. His plants are ensured to be behind him as well, and he drives alone.

-Exiting far enough away from the bookshop, assuming the bookshop already activated longer sideburns. This distance expands during the story, explained further below.

-Being present in human spaces. Thresholds can both force and counter this effect, dependent on their design.

-Entering a private room with Aziraphale within the bookshop shortened them from the bookshop's main first floor after encountering Gabriel.

...

Connecting the Two Home Bases

During the specific season 2 story, Crowley regularly parks his car across the street from the bookshop. He himself parks it by the coffee shop in episode 1 twice and in episode 5 once. During episodes 5 and 6, the car remains parked by the coffee shop. Aziraphale chooses to park the car by the coffee shop near the end of episode 4. Otherwise, Crowley parks the car across the street from the pub in episode 2 and right by the pub in episode 3.

In episode 1, once Crowley reaches the middle of the street and starts to count to ten, the sideburns are a shorter length that better matches before he entered the bookshop.

In episode 2, we see Crowley with longer sideburns right before he crosses the threshold whereas episode 1 showed them still short. At some point, he leaves and is seen with short sideburns again, across the street.

In episode 3, Crowley exits the bookshop to interact with Shax. He never crosses the street and remains mostly along the sidewalk. Still, it might be considered further in distance and is longer for the sideburns than seen in episodes 1 and 2.

In episode 4, when Crowley exits the bookshop, his sideburns are again longer than the usual shortness around humans up to that point of the story. Episode 1 is structured to tell us that the sideburns get shorter from the bookshop threshold to the center of the street. Episode 4 shows us the sideburns did not get shorter from the bookshop threshold to the center of the street. They stayed longer.

Why?

Crowley and Aziraphale connected their home bases for when the Bentley is parked across the street, intentionally or not. I think it is intentional, but I have a very loose grasp on a possible reason.

...

So, how did they connect their home bases?

Aziraphale borrowed Crowley's car. Crowley borrowed Aziraphale's bookshop.

Put another way, Aziraphale inhabited Crowley's home base without Crowley for a certain amount of time and over some distance between the two of them. Crowley inhabited Aziraphale's home base without Aziraphale for a certain amount of time over some distance between the two of them. Both time and distance contribute to changing the length from each of these homes.

Crowley and Aziraphale remotely contact each other once during this borrowing phase. Assuming this effect is memory-related, those spaces now share those memories.

When Crowley and Aziraphale take Crowley's plants, living things that inhabited one home base, then another, during this process, they are finalizing this connection.

The plants will now have memories of being in each space, and each space will now have memories of the plants inhabiting them.

I suspect these plants are a key part of the connection that is better covered in my Earthly Objects theorizing, specifically here:

The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection Part 4 - The Door Trick and The Door Catch

Yes, despite Crowley's seeming reluctance and discomfort with loaning his car, I think forming this connection was intentional from both of them. I go over the specifics of how I interpret the scene here: Post #31 (technically).

All the same, back to my main stuff. My theory is the home base border along the center of the street has disappeared. It is actually more like a radius around the bookshop expanded, but that's the main place the border was understood to exist.

Onto my loose grasp of a possible reason.

This connection—this disappearance of that border—does not protect the rest of the street from the incoming demon invasion when it starts. The demons enter the area without invitation.

After Crowley enters the bookshop for the ball, as best I can tell, no humans are on the street. There is a bunch of fog, and it's dark, and there are demons. Eventually, there will be an angel there, but there are no humans.

Crowley escorts some humans to safety to exit the bookshop. However, when he dismisses them, we don't really see where they go. The story cuts away, and when we are back to Crowley's location, they are gone.

There are other times we've seen Crowley in or near his car with longer sideburns and no humans.

The basic idea is that the space surrounding Crowley's car, that we've been seeing, has split itself into two different spaces at once. One is the Earth where humans do what they do, as usual, but are now not disturbing Crowley while he is in his car. The other is the Earth where Crowley does what he does, not disturbing humans. The spaces then re-merge when the driving time deems it to happen. The "no humans" space is a supernatural-exclusive zone when it comes to angels, demons, and humans.

For whatever it's worth, the only living natural beings I can find in the area are plants, inside and out of the car, and that one fly before Beelzebub shows up inside the car (assuming that fly is indeed natural).

Instead of a person, such as Crowley, being two places at once, one place becomes two places at once. The car being Hell, and the pub being Heaven further support this idea. Each of those spaces are accessed by Crowley when Crowley has the longer sideburns and in that zone to begin with.

The mechanics are confusing with the flies. I don't fully get it, but it probably relates to the car having thresholds in a wider supernatural space.

In the case of the ball, the split didn't just happen by accident or through time alone. Crowley's car is near the bookshop, but he wasn't in it. It wasn't in its usual isolated area. The window is open before the invitations start but closed when he talks to Nina, so we're never shown when it's being switched from open or closed.

There is a very specific point where things start to change, but before that, there are also some specific things that happen. Namely, during each ball invitation shown on camera, Crowley accompanies Aziraphale. He does not say anything during the actual inviting and makes various touches during each scene. These touches generally include earthly objects, self-clothing touches, self-skin-contact touches, and...pockets. Pockets are a big, little thing in GO2 that I have a limited ability to understand and explain.

I'm sorry. It sucks. It really, really sucks that I cannot do better. I've picked up enough to know they're important so am telling you at least that much. Touches and pockets or not, there are still ball invitations, and things still change. Crowley gets his own special invitation that's to the bookshop instead of the meeting.

Once he accepts this invitation, he goes to the bookshop and approaches Gabriel in basically Demon Mode. I go into it more here: Post #73 (furniture).

I think Crowley was drawing out his own demonic energy to start the split, a shift from one zone to the other.

The shift is not instant. It's happening while Crowley is out in the street to make sure Maggie and Nina are on their way. The street is growing increasingly foggy as it is getting darker. Fewer and fewer humans are around as time passes.

It doesn't really seem to be completed until Maggie is walking toward the bookshop with Nina not long before her as next-to-last. Maggie herself is a human, but she seems to be a special type of human not explained in the story as to how or why she is different. Nina could be too, even if it's not as obvious. She is next-to-last.

If one excludes Maggie because she is human in some capacity, then it's probably done when Crowley himself enters the bookshop as a means to complete the matter, further confirmed with Shax arriving through the supernatural elevator in the pub instead of wherever the rest of the demons came from. The story referred to such a place as "stairs" when Shax was planning the invasion. An elevator is decidedly not stairs. It definitely raises questions about Shax with that kind of timing and wording.

Another thing about this special zone is that the Bentley is the only car around once the shift is done.

Speaking of the car, Crowley won't just drive away to re-merge these spaces. Not only that, he's not going back into that bookshop despite the indications in the dialogue he would.

Nope.

Instead, he goes to Heaven and spends time there until the war declaration goes off. Upon returning the following day, the merge has happened, either through the time itself or just the reset of the day. Sure, it could be the halo blowing up, but the people aren't shown as being in the street until Crowley himself is visibly there. As the games tend to work, it's probably a combination of these factors.

So, if Crowley and Aziraphale wanted to protect the street overall from the incoming invasion but somehow still needed this ball to happen with some humans, that's what they did to protect everyone as best they could.

It might even be a trial run for needing to protect Earth on a much bigger scale later.

Now, admittedly, Crowley did seem alarmed by the demons arriving, but both he and Aziraphale have been acting in certain ways to throw off whoever or whatever is reading them throughout this story. There is something about layering and switches they seem to have in the games they play that I don't fully understand.

By making the border expand, short sideburns are barely seen from that point onward for the rest of the season. Crowley's left sideburn is briefly shown as short when Maggie and Nina are leaving after talking to him alone in the bookshop. He is blurry and at some distance, easy to miss in the cut. The sideburns are in the shortening process for driving just before and during the ending credits.

I suspect the sideburns do more than all of that since they seem connected to memory in some way.

...

The Bigger Thresholds Trick

This part of The Sideburns Scheme is a significant crossover with the Earthly Objects Game as one of the Threshold Tricks Crowley does during Good Omens 2.

There are three special locations that have thresholds bigger than Crowley, but we'll talk about a certain two first.

Those locations are the pub and the music shop. They are human-specific spaces that make it quite difficult to develop theories like the one about the connection and the other about the existence of a supernatural zone. In these two places, Crowley's sideburns are longer.

During the story, both locations have one thing in common that seems to have nothing to do with Crowley. Both locations have an encounter with a human who remembers a meeting from some years ago and say as much to Aziraphale. Each encounter mentions lights of a similar nature.

And then...there's Heaven. This time, the sideburns are long, shorten, but they do not shorten to what is understood as the expected human space shortness. Regardless, one is left to guess the Heaven threshold is still relevant given the past two locations and noticing the threshold is bigger than Crowley.

I have covered these places more in-depth over time, but you can still look to my previous post about the sideburns for reference: The Sideburns Scheme

The past post lacks many things about Heaven in particular, but the main one I want to note is Muriel's relevance. As far as my own theorizing is concerned now compared to then, Muriel is someone Crowley trusts deeply. You can find out more on that theory in these two links: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2)

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The below is one of my favorite pieces of writing along the way of playing this game, and I have added it back into this main post for that reason and thinking it generally has value. I have updated it a few parts of it to match with my current understanding of things.

During Crowley's time in Heaven, the story puts a lot of effort into teaching us something about Crowley if we haven't figured it out by now. Well, sort of. The something is more evident to anyone willing and wanting to look for this type of information frame by frame. Crowley, for the most part, does not see people with his eyes. That is likely true of most other things as well.

His entire body language constantly tells us otherwise. He snakes his way about among pillars when talking to Muriel about bees. He glances back after passing Michael and Uriel. He turns his head in the direction of voices when he hears multiple angels discussing things on different screens. He taps Muriel on the shoulder directly. He knows to look downward to Saraqael's position. He even glances Saraqael's way without hearing them speak first at one point. He knows where to look toward Muriel when telling them, "You too." Everything about Crowley's movement tells us Crowley sees the angels.

One thing and one thing only informs us Crowley is not seeing the angels but is sensing them with his eyes instead.

Check his sunglasses.

His sunglasses will reflect panels of light, sometimes blurred panels of light, but they never ever reflect an angel in this tremendously well lit space with Muriel dressed in their all white Inspector Constable attire.

Most especially, check when Crowley turns to Muriel after they said, "That's pretty good, actually." He turns his head. They are literally on screen together. There is part of a more solid-looking white pane that's a light or something on the desk. We can see his eyelid. Move to the next frame, and we still see panels of light.

We do not see Muriel.

There are other times in the story where you can actually catch a reflection of a character in Crowley's sunglasses that threw me off. I saw it once when he was talking to Aziraphale by the car in episode 2 and again when talking to Muriel in episode 3. In episode 5, it happens during the ball with both the humans in the ball or addressing Shax. He tilts his head back a little for the reflections to appear.

Later on, close to the end of season, the sunglasses have reflections of people and movement, and that movement is a contrast to the reflections shown in earlier episodes. It's a truly special case involving windows and thresholds though long sideburns are there too. Much of this Heaven visit with the lights, light reflections, and lacking other reflections, are to help us understand how special that part of the ending is. For a more in-depth explanation, please see my post on The Window Trick.

That ends what has been added back into this main post for Heaven, Crowley's special sight, and reflections.

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Before I move on from The Bigger Thresholds Trick, here is my understanding of how this part of Earthly Objects works. The sideburns being longer in the pub and music shop is a clue about this particular Threshold Trick.

A threshold being bigger than Crowley is not enough on its own to credit Crowley as having tricked that type of threshold.

Each one has a simple explanation but is done in a more complex way for an audience member playing to try and figure out in a puzzle.

My own conclusions are as follows:

In the pub, he "switched lanes".

In the music shop, he "never let go of the door".

In Heaven, he "pretended to be arrested by an angel".

The trick for Heaven is far more involved since there are two other valuable answers in the process, and for me, I could not find that answer until Round 2 of the Threshold Tricks.

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The Season 2 Ending (The Door Trick)

Just like with the bigger thresholds, this part of the Sideburns Scheme actually crosses over with the Earthly Objects game (Threshold Tricks)

I am cutting a lot of content on it in this newer post though, again, you can look to the older one for reference to find more: The Sideburns Scheme

Near the end of episode 6 during season 2, Crowley is seen standing at the door to his car with longest-length sideburns.

For anyone trying to figure out how the sideburns work, that's noteworthy.

Despite how much we've seen Crowley, the car, and humans throughout the story, we've never seen them all combined into this particular context.

Other angels and demons are gone. Muriel is supposedly around but not on screen. Aziraphale and the Metatron have some distance between themselves and Crowley. Meanwhile, Crowley himself is surrounded by humans.

So, a question arises. Why are the sideburns this long in this setting?

Well, I already mentioned my answer before, but I'll go over what he's doing because it's rather specific despite how simple it looks.

This character is precise in his choices, whatever this scheme really is.

He is standing incredibly still. He has his legs crossed. The scene is structured to alert us that even though we can't see his feet, they are not touching the edge of the sidewalk. In Earthly Objects, the edge of the sidewalk is a threshold. Crowley has his right hand fingers in his pants pocket and his thumb outside the pocket. The camera work ensures we know that he is not touching the window frame despite the incoming angle where we, otherwise, could not know. His left arm is touching the door panel. It's the casing surrounding the door on the car, but I prefer to call it the "door panel". The door panel is the threshold. It is not an earthly object. He is touching his own space in his own way while watching Aziraphale's departure.

I think the length is due specifically to the stillness and touch on the door of the car.

There is a lot to be said for that pocket touch, which I go over more thoroughly here: Post #102 (The Door Trick).

My own personal interpretation from a combination of the games and story goes as the following:

Crowley is giving everything he has in himself to see Aziraphale off without truly giving his full self up in the process. Aziraphale is going to a place Crowley will not follow. Even so, the demon of the pair has put pieces in place to help Aziraphale from the distance they will have between each other in the foreseeable future. They both contributed to creating and maintaining a connection with each other during Good Omens 2. They also had to work together separately. They both love Earth, and they are going to work to protect Earth in Good Omens 3.

In my view, there's a hidden "Separately Together" theme in Good Omens 2 that one cannot find—or will very much struggle to find—unless you figure out at least some of the pocket puzzles.

Linked to The Door Trick is something truly magical called The Door Catch.

I found it on accident through never fully solving The Pocket Trick.

These are generally the posts I have on The Door Trick itself for now:

Post #102 (The Door Trick).

The Sideburns Scheme (skip ahead to The Season 2 Ending (The Door Trick)

The Door Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection Part 4 - The Door Trick and The Door Catch

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Here is a basic log:

Basic Sideburns Log

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Here is the full list for posts of this series, going scene by scene for Crowley:

The Sideburns Scheme Posts

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Here are links to posts that cover parts of Good Omens 2 more in-depth, separated by episode.

Episode 1: The Arrival (Links List)

Episode 2: The Clue (Links List)

Episode 3: I Know Where I'm Going (Links List)

Episode 4: The Hitchhiker (Links List)

Episode 5: The Ball (Links List)

Episode 6: Every Day (Links List)

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This project is inspired by these posts:

Crowley’s Sideburns & what do they mean?

Ok, I love this theory that it could be some sort ...

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #4 v2

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 1, The Arrival, The Perfect Entrance Trick

The entrance is part of the coffee shop scene, but it is so special, I am giving it its own post.

Sideburns Check

This show has treated us to something. Crowley does a full spin so that we can get a really good look at the hair from multiple angles. It's not that close up but still good. Thank you show and Crowley!

The sideburns are short. They are the intended shortness after driving. In turn, they are the shortest they have been up to this point in the present day storyline.

Short sideburns happen around human spaces most of the time, at this point in the story.

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Brighter Red Streak Check

It's easy to think the brighter red streak is not there because of its position. The above image is brightened and more saturated with white rectangles to indicate where I see the streak.

I often find the streak above the center of his left eye and going up from his forehead. Here, the streak actually starts from his part on the top.

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Hairstyle Changes

In both the Bentley and here, the top hair flared upward. Just outside the coffee shop, the flare has shifted further to his right instead of straight upward and lining up with his nose as it did in the Bentley. There is no extra saturation streak on the right side of his forehead.

Earthly Objects: The Perfect Entrance Trick

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

We have arrived at our first Threshold Trick!

This part is going to be very detailed because of pockets and thresholds.

Here are some GIFs to start us off:

This sequence is The Perfect Entrance Trick. Way, way back before I thought there might be an Earthly Objects game and was just exploring the sideburns, trying to figure them out, I remarked on my appreciation for the camera work and music for this segment. I always compliment those parts because they are so good. They contribute beautifully to the idea here.

While setting aside the Sideburns Scheme and trying to figure out Earthly Objects, I made a "Bonus Round" part of my main post because this sequence had me so amazed. It looked like threshold-only touches and avoiding earthly object touches, but I couldn't be sure due to some specific questionable things I will explore further down eventually. Nonetheless, it sure seemed to me like Crowley knows how to play the game as an expert, so if he is aiming for threshold-only touches, there must be something to his methods that gets the job done. These Threshold Tricks might even be special supernatural bonus points he's earning in the game.

My understanding of the game at this point in time is like so: In this sequence, they are threshold-only touches, but how are they threshold-only touches with this game's mechanics? That's what an audience player is supposed to figure out in the puzzle.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is actually the third Threshold Trick I found without realizing it because I did not have the words, "Threshold Tricks" for myself then. It felt like the first one I found when I was trying to understand Earthly Objects. I had already found The Bigger Thresholds Trick and The Door Trick without realizing they were Threshold Tricks too. I didn't have names for them then. I just knew there was something special about sideburns and thresholds so caught onto those parts. It took something more than weeks to put these ideas together because I spent a lot of time just thinking and making pictures while readying myself for making posts about sideburns.

Before we go over this particular sequence in more detail, here's something I think the game is putting forth as a challenge. The Pocket Trick is a hidden giant with a giant impact on many things. While I am at a point that I do not think I will ever solve The Pocket Trick to my satisfaction, I believe a significant one of its hidden messages is, "Pay attention to the pockets."

As stated in my main post for The Sideburns Scheme, pockets are a big, little thing in GO2. They are easy to miss and to dismiss. One should also pay attention to doors and windows, but because the pockets are so easy to overlook—even more than windows, it's a good idea to mind that message on pockets specifically all the same. Between doors, windows, and pockets, pockets are the hardest to see and to understand.

In Earthly Objects, a pocket can be a hole created by a character's body between their own self, part of the screen, part of an earthly object, or even part of a threshold. A pocket can be two or more characters surrounding something or someone on the screen in the framing. A pocket can be a character surrounded by things in the framing. A pocket can be the actual literal pockets characters can have on their clothing. That includes the ones we understand are actual pockets and even little holes the clothing can make on itself. Pockets are everywhere, but making sense of them for how they count, when they count, and what they count for, is another story. It is overwhelming—as if "think outside the pocket" wasn't hard enough in The Pocket Trick to begin with!

I think chances are good that pockets are somehow related to every Threshold Trick, and a big part of this challenge I do not expect to pass is to figure out how. That means I won't ever fully solve every Threshold Trick. So, I will pay attention to the pockets, tell you about the pockets, and admit freely, once again, my understanding of them is limited.

Okay, so here's the sequence in more detailed text form with paying attention to the pockets. It is very quick and heavily based on movement. Parts are also blurry. I won't swear everything below is correct because to play, I mainly have to guess based on clues.

With the car on screen before it is parked, I can find multiple different humans using pockets. However, one in particular catches my interest because he put his left hand in a pocket near where Crowley will park, and I recognize this human:

That guy shows up three different times in episode 6 during The Door Trick and The Door Catch. He is responsible or the Purple in the Rainbow Connection on Aziraphale's part.

Nonetheless, Crowley parks the car. The camera work is doing amazing things by going under the car, then around a wheel, focusing in on the shoes of the nearby humans before Crowley himself starts.

The door to the car opens, and Crowley touches the edge of the sidewalk with only one shoe. The heel is touching nothing behind it. The front tip is avoiding the rest of the sidewalk. That is the Single. The edge of the sidewalk is one threshold, and it was touched by only one shoe.

The camera pans up.

Crowley touches two different thresholds with his right hand. They are the window frame and the door panel for the door to his car. The fingertips avoid the window pane. That is the Double.

One of the tie strands becomes visible, including a clasp and a tassel. That's a thumb and thumb joint of one of the Tied Hands. Crowley's left hand moves forward such that the tie strand is visually in front of that hand. The left hand is important because it's the one that's going to do the Triple part of this Threshold Trick. I don't know the watch's role in pocket mechanics. It generally likes to be seen and seems to also watch things, like it's some kind of "lookout," but something more too.

Getting back to the left hand's movement with the tie strand, at the exact frame that thing happened, I can find a human visually behind Crowley's right elbow using a pants pocket with their left hand. They are wearing a white shirt over a darker one.

This part is a clue that this tie strand is going to be tied to the left hand and that it is the longer tie strand when both are seen together shortly.

Instead of moving ahead to get to what is going to be the Triple, Crowley has his back to the camera. He takes some steps and moves his arms around. I don't have it in me to log every pocket they make and close and what they might frame, but they do such things.

A light briefly pops out in one of the trees trying to communicate something, and I'm going with saying it's a little overhead light for Crowley since it's above his ear and to the left of his head.

There is a nearby car with red rear lights. These types of lights are often used to alert about a color switch in the Rainbow Connection when they light up a bit more. So, the main thing I see it to be an alert for is that pocket user already mentioned and knowing what we'll see soon for switching without an active Rainbow Connection. The pocket user is even pocketed briefly between these red lights. In fact, that overhead light mentioned above lights up at the start of when this human starts to pass the first of the two red rear lights. If those red lights mean anything else, I don't know what it would be.

When that human pocket user that was visually behind Crowley is finally completely off-screen, Crowley's left hand and the watch also go off-screen.

Crowley spins.

As he spins, both tie strands become visible. The longer tie strand is on Crowley's right. That means it is mirrored for now. The left hand becomes visible again too. During the spin, the tie strands switch. The longer tie strand becomes aligned with Crowley's left side. Generally, these things have a special mirror that flips through a Rainbow Connection Reflection, or whatever that Connection allows, in the Pocket Chain of The Pocket Trick. However, The Pocket Trick hasn't started yet, and this Trick is not linked to the Pocket Chain.

Well, without the initiating power of The Pocket Trick or a Rainbow Connection, it looks like a little spin switch is allowed this time.

The belt—which is Crowley's Belt Head—also became visible, and Crowley has his mouth open during this spin. The vest tips are surrounding the Belt Head to have it pocketed between them. Additionally, the longer tassel tip just so happens to brush along the belt during the switch. There is even another self-made pocket of hair like there was for the newspaper door. With the movement, the vest tips and their pocket over the belt shift further towards Crowley's left as well.

The left hand and the watch hide behind Crowley's jacket. This action is part of closing pockets between Crowley's torso and both arms.

Crowley finally starts moving toward the door.

The right arm opens a pocket between his torso again, this time by itself instead of with the left arm.

The left arm forms a pocket between Crowley and the main part of the jacket.

The pocket between the right arm and jacket closes.

Soon after, the pocket between the left and jacket closes.

Then the left arm hides behind Crowley. In the blurred movement, that longer tie strand connected to the left hand pushes off the vest temporarily and becomes visible in the air. This action creates yet another temporary pocket.

In motion, all of these pockets amount to looking like pocket-to-pocket passes in the animated GIF shown further below.

Once the tie strand has presumably returned to where it belongs, the left arm is finally ready to make its move on the incoming threshold.

Crowley's left arm reaches out for the door panel. There is a lock that is extremely hard to see in the blurred movement, but it is there above the push plate. Crowley's palm of his left hand covers it completely. He pushes the door on the lock instead of the push plate.

Some video frames reach a nice, stronger clarity. Here is the one that strikes my own interest most:

There are three digits touching the door panel. That's what makes this part the Triple. The index finger and middle finger are touching the front. Most of the thumb is touching the side. However, the ever so vital and important thumb tip is on the edge of where the door panel meets the window pane. Edges are thresholds, and pocket trickery loves edges.

The reflection of Crowley's left hand has pocketed the lock on the other side within the palm that is covering the covered lock. In other words, the palm has the locks covered.

The Tied Hands are making this acceptable because of their link to reflections. Plus, all those words I just had to write out because word play is a key mechanic for pocket trickery.

And there's more!

With the palm being busy with the locks, the thumb tip touches its own reflection while doing its edge touching. All of the digits, the real ones and the reflected ones are pocketing the door panel and its reflection because of their framing. Any issues with that window pane have been neutralized. There is a small bit of Crowley's right sunglasses lens past the door frame but not much.

The watch takes over in the next video frame to keep everything in order because that real covered lock becomes slightly visible. The watch's reflective surface lights up to say that everything's still as it should be. Parts of Crowley's face—and more of the sunglasses themselves—visually passed through the door frame at the same time that real lock became slightly visible, so this threshold has been effectively tricked. We must recall the Belt Head had a role to play in the matter.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is the easy one! But the pockets have increased its difficulty immensely.

Something that is missing in this first Threshold Trick is a rainbow. Four of the others have one. The Sunglasses Trick does not, but it does have a notable white light reflected on the watch in its last touch. Rainbows can take shape through refraction in white light. The lighting on the watch here is not as white as what appears in The Sunglasses Trick. It has a tinge of yellow.

Well, Earthly Objects is a game with puzzles—and some silly puzzles at that, so I'm going to say that this Threshold Trick is excused because the Rainbow Connection within The Pocket Trick has not started yet. The Rainbow Connection starts in episode 2. In fact, the way it goes is that The Pocket Trick gets its official rainbow first. It and the other Threshold Tricks finish in episode 6. In episode 6 is where all of the other rainbows appear for the other Threshold Tricks.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is the only one that both starts and finishes in the first episode. It is the first of three Simple tricks. The Simple tricks are the ones that start and finish in the same episode.

Another way I like to play this game is that these Threshold Tricks are based on simple ideas even though they get so complicated—especially once pockets are known to be so important. I call these simple ideas "core concepts" because these things are indeed conceptual. While I don't like word play as much as The Pocket Trick does, I do like it some. So, let's toss some alliteration in here too.

My best guess for this one's core concept is, "Make a Perfect Entrance while making an entrance." The idea is also to introduce the Threshold Tricks. Each one is required to have a primary Single, a primary Double, and a primary Triple. A single is 1. A double is 2. A triple is 3. Add up 1, 2, and 3, and you get the number 6. That equation of 1 + 2 + 3 is what makes the number 6 a perfect number.

A standard set in Earthly Objects is 3 points. A Threshold Trick has a minimum of 6 points for its theoretical bonus rewards and must be done in this special format.

I had to look that up that part on "perfect" because that was the word I wanted to use to describe The Sunglasses Trick when I put those pieces together. I am familiar with the Tekken franchise due to a past stronger obsession with Devil Jin. In Tekken, a PERFECT is when a player wins a round without taking any damage.

So, once I grasped that 6 is a perfect number, for me, it was like "Oh! That's what the first one is! It has a name! It's a Perfect Entrance!" I had described it as a "beautiful entrance" in my Bonus Round section. Again, that took something more than weeks to figure out.

Also, David Tennant is perfect for the role of Crowley. I love this actor-character combination so much.

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When Crowley enters and sits down, Aziraphale is sitting down, but there is no actual visible back of a chair for Aziraphale. I am reminded of Crowley's remark in episode 5 of "Looking where the furniture isn't." In one of my posts on Earthly Objects, I note this type of thing as a mysterious vendetta Aziraphale has with chairs. A lot of times, the back of one cannot be seen for Aziraphale. When he's in the bookshop and a back of a chair can be seen, his back will still not touch the back of the chair.

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Story Commentary

Setting aside the threshold trickery at play in Earthly Objects, Crowley's open mouth could also be interpreted as him using his snake demon senses to find Aziraphale's precise location.

After the Threshold Trick itself is done, Crowley's body is briefly fully obscured, and suddenly the door's moving for him without his hands doing anything. The left hand that was on it is gone. He may as well be using telekinesis on the thing.

Crowley continues onward until he passes Aziraphale on Aziraphale's right. Aziraphale himself glances to his own left first, as that's generally where Crowley is expected for him. This movement also allows Crowley's body to be obscured briefly. He could even mouth something to Aziraphale without us seeing it.

The red on the back of the collar on Crowley's jacket is briefly visible before Crowley himself finally sits down and says, "Right, what's the problem?"

The car transformed a little. There's an extra part of a window frame on the window pane that wasn't there before.

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Muriel

(For reference: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2))

Muriel's first scene preceded this one. That makes their first scene the front bookend to the first Threshold Trick. Their last scene will act as the back bookend to the last Threshold Trick (The Window Trick).

In turn, Crowley's first Threshold Trick is the back bookend to Muriel's first scene.

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That's it for this post. Way back when I started to track these things, I did have a tendency to update even these posts, so that could happen again, just FYI.

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Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

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Past version of this post:

Post #4 (entering the coffee shop)

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #66

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 5, The Ball, depending

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Sideburns Check

The sideburns are short. The Single of The Bigger Thresholds Trick is done. The rest of the ball invitations still have to be done, so the sideburns will remain short until Crowley confronts Gabriel later.

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Brighter Red Streak Check

The streak is difficult to find, but I think I found it here, just before Aziraphale crosses past Crowley as they approach the sidewalk in front of Maggie's shop.

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Hairstyle Changes

The sideburns have shortened. The hair is more red in the sunlight. More curls in the top hair have returned.

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Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects | The Ball Invitations Checklist)

Aziraphale has the clipboard and pen. Crowley has a question with, "You just did what I think you did?"

Both of them cross the street together, including crossing over the threshold that is the edge of the sidewalk. Aziraphale crosses first with Crowley hurrying behind, briefly passing him before they reach the likely next edge of a sidewalk.

Aziraphale says the names, "Maggie" and "Nina."

For paying attention to the pockets...

The Tied Hands are retied...and then, I don't know what's going on. They could be doing something more or showing how they stay tied because of Crowley being understood to cross the street, which includes crossing over the threshold that is the edge of the sidewalk.

Copied and pasted from my recent post on the Double of The Pocket Trick.

Below is a log of what that entails, for reference.

Crowley has his right index finger extended. His left index finger is probably also extended, but it's blurred. The left hand brushes up against Crowley's jacket. At the same time, the back of Crowley's right shoe is blurry but also visible.

While the watch is visible, the face of the watch is not as clear as what usually happens during retying.

Crowley rushes to pass Aziraphale, placing himself on the "wrong" side.

Then the tie strands swing such that the strand closest to Crowley's left hits his lapel, but it's not a clasp. It's actually an upper part of the strand below the knot.

The strands swing to Crowley's right, and there is an implied strike that could be happening on a lapel edge that the camera cannot see.

After that, the tassel, or thumb, of the right-most strand shifts up enough to be seen.

The tie strands spread apart with the left-most one then indeed having a clasp touching a lapel edge. However, it's only the upper part of the clasp that's visible.

Then this strand swings to Crowley's right, showing a little of that clasp yet again with another implied or very-difficult-to-confirm strike on a lapel edge.

The tie strands spread yet again...and then cross just before Aziraphale and Crowley would finish crossing the street. The camera cuts away and does not confirm that their shoes reached the next sidewalk.

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This part could be a word puzzle since we've seen a few, but I don't know the phrase I'm looking for. I've mainly noticed they are "crossing the street," and the strands "cross" at the end.

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Crowley's Overhead Light from earlier is visually pocketed between him and Aziraphale as the scene starts. That light ends up on Crowley's left, and Aziraphale's right, above ears. Interestingly, that happens as they start the scene on their "wrong" sides. Soon after, it does end up on Aziraphale's left.

They switch to being on their "correct" sides as they start to cross the street, and Crowley has his index fingers extended.

Then he passes Aziraphale, so there's a switch back to the "wrong" sides.

As the scene ends, Aziraphale passes up Crowley. If that's the "wrong" or "correct" side depends on how technical one wishes to get about what qualifies, and I don't have the energy for it. Aziraphale switched on purpose, probably, so I'll go with thinking he has the technicalities considered if he is aiming for the "correct" side by the end of the cut.

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Various humans are using pockets in the background.

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Story Commentary

If the Tied Hands have personalities, they are excited here. They are so cute. They confuse me, but I still think they are cute and amusing.

I keep forgetting to note the times I do find the red on the back collar area of Crowley's jacket, but I'm remembering this time. It can be found if one takes the time to look.

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One of the locations on the list is, "Lucky Snake." Crowley's a snake demon. As for how "lucky" he is, that's debatable.

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This scene takes the time to show the Bentley and that the Bentley has the plants in the car.

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This part is more for an assumption on what's about to happen between this scene and the next.

Once upon a time, I saw a post somewhere mentioning that Maggie could enter the bookshop without an invitation. I didn't bookmark it, just sort of filed it away in my head that such a comment was made.

In case you truly do not know, Maggie does get an invitation.

Not every invitation is shown on camera, but the story actually gives us clues for when Maggie was invited, even if we didn't see it on camera.

The name of Maggie's shop is The Small Back Room.

The second location on Aziraphale's list is "Backroom," though there is some noticeable space between "c" and "k," then "r" and the first "o".

Still, the "Backroom" is referring to Maggie's shop.

We can figure that out because in this scene here, Maggie's shop is visible in the background while Crowley and Aziraphale talk about what Aziraphale just did with giving away the book.

Then they cross the street toward Maggie's shop.

The camera stops shy of showing the record shop again after they've passed the car.

The episode cuts away to another Shax scene as she talks with Furfur.

The third location on Aziraphale's list is "Goldstone's," which is the location he and Crowley will visit after that Shax scene.

Aziraphale is going down the list.

So, Maggie was invited second, and the invitation was not shown on camera.

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That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

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Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #2 v3

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 1, The Arrival, meeting with Shax in the street

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Sideburns Check

The sideburns are longer than they were at the park.

Initially, the scene starts with Crowley parked in his car, suggesting he had been it for some time. Additionally, the street looks isolated. There are no humans around, even if it otherwise looks like it would be a human space, based on the nearby windows. We don't see him look in the mirror in the car, but we can see it quite early in the scene as available to him, if need be.

Once Crowley gets out of the car, we can only see him from a distance. One could take a decent guess the sideburns are longer and then save a screenshot and zoom in to be sure. Let's do that:

Eventually, Shax shows up, and we get a closer view to confirm the sideburns are longer.

Though the sideburns are longer than they were at the park, they are not as long as we will later see when he encounters Gabriel.

The right sideburn matches a length more commonly found with longest-length overall, and we don't see much of the right sideburn during the scene. When it is shown closest to the camera, it is cast in shadow and soon covered by the phone. Meanwhile, the left sideburn is not as full in hair than the right. It also appears to be shorter. The left sideburn is the main sideburn visible throughout the scene, especially once Crowley turns around to speak to Shax.

~Start excerpt with slight edits from main post~

After Crowley answers the phone, he turns around when he would presumably not be touching his car but at least fully intending to touch it, which seems to suffice for the story. Shortly after, he is leaning against the roof again.

By taking this action, he is allowing Shax closer to the space around the car, so that she can talk to him.

For the shots we are allowed to see him from the front, he is touching the roof, door panel, and sometimes we see the window pane is included the lean as well.

Before he asks, "Is that all?", he stops touching those parts of the car entirely and cannot be seen touching any other part.

Shax disappears from the scene.

By removing the touch from the car, the home base kicked her out. The forced exit seems unintentional.

~End excerpt with slight edits from main post~

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

(For reference: Crowley's Red Streak of Hair)

From the more distant view of the car, I can't find the red streak.

Once Crowley turns around to address Shax, it can be seen. It is above Crowley's left eye again. I have placed white rectangles around where I see the streak in the image above. I also slightly brightened the part of the image that shows his right sideburn.

When Crowley says, "His royal smugness is in trouble? That's so sad," the streak is visible, but it's not as easy to tell as the cut progresses.

...

Hairstyle Changes

Even though I can't keep track of every style and subtle change, here's a comparison shot between the previous scene and this one:

Crowley has more visibly separated curls pushing inward at the top instead of a dip that pushes slightly outward above his right eye.

His hair looks darker too. That tends to happen when he is near or in his car and isolated. I like to think of that as an effect from him being a demon in his own demon space. I refer to the effect as "demon darkness."

...

Red Collar

I found the red on the collar of the jacket this time.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

I can't figure out the full standard sets, so below are things I suspect are basic points for the standard sets, without committing to which points go with which set.

Crowley touches the mail to sort it.

Crowley uses the litter bin to throw away mail. He is using an earthly object for its intended use.

Crowley touches his pants pocket to bring out his phone.

Shax's name appears on the phone.

Crowley has five digits shown to be holding the phone with his face reflection helping to confirm his touch on the phone.

Crowley uses his left arm to touch the roof of his car.

Crowley's right hand is touching the phone differently as he answers.

Crowley has the question, "Yeah?"

Shax is shown touching her phone.

Shax has a question with, "Why not?"

Crowley leans onto his car, making sure to include the roof and sometimes window pane of his touch.

Shax says the name, "Gabriel."

Shax has a self-touch with her gloved hands. Her purse is also partly visible as being held.

Shax has the question set, "Is it? Why?"

Crowley has a question with, "Is that all?"

Crowley's shoes shuffle a bit on the step into his car before he closes the door.

...

Crowley says "junk" three times, so a Rule of Three is met.

...

My understanding of door touches is that earthly objects on doors can be touched, such as window panes, mirrors, doorknobs, push plates, and so forth. For Crowley's car, that would include a handle. However, frames and panels are different and harder to tell what they count for, if anything. Touching a frame or panel might be a null touch most of the time since Crowley puts extra care in his Threshold Tricks for when he touches doors with those.

That's why I'm not sure about certain hand touches on the door for this scene, such as the right thumb touching the interior just beneath the frame but not the rest of the hand and then the right thumb touching the side interior frame. These touches might not be earthly object touches but null door touches still being used to help manage the Tied Hands and Belt Head.

...

Crowley uses a pants pocket to get his phone, so I'm on alert to look all the more closely at the details happening on screen.

When preparing to answer the phone, I noticed he positioned his shoes perpendicular to each other. That's an interesting choice. He positioned his arm along the side of the car, and it's not going to match the reflection in his phone or the cut after that of him actually being by the car.

Pockets use lighting as clues, and the lighting here wants it known that the Bentley has a reflective surface. I suspect part of that is for the Tied Hands and how they are managed during the scene. Another part of it is that this scene has clues about The Door Trick by showing how Crowley manages his space and movement by contrast.

When Crowley is about to answer the phone, the reflection has his shoulder visibly touching the car instead of his left arm aligned by it. The reflected touch is at least on the door panel and window frame—two thresholds, then I'm not sure if it's on the window pane too. Window panes are earthly objects.

On the cut of actually answering the phone, his left arm is spread over the roof, so his posture has changed yet again. The left jacket sleeve is open enough for a black hole that is yet another pocket, with his shirt sleeve having another black hole for another pocket, so I'm on alert yet again. The window is now slightly open at the top.

When Crowley turns around, the window does not look open at the top anymore.

I can actually see Crowley's reflection in the reflective surface of the car at times if I look closely enough. Even though I can find Crowley's reflection in the car, I can't find Shax's. The car itself will transform during the story. It's not very obvious that Crowley's plants are in his car, but they are there. From the initial more distant view of the scene as Crowley throws away mail, the sunlight is hitting the upper area to the camera's left.

We can check his watch to see he made Shax wait for an hour before answering his phone. There are other possible explanations. The phone could be wrong, or the watch could be wrong. He might have left for an hour and come back. It could be a different draft or timeline of the story. It could be that his supernatural zone has a warped time zone of its own. The game doesn't much care since it's more concerned with touch continuity than clock continuity. The sun doesn't look like it's gone down all the way into night, then up yet. The clothes are similar enough. He's in the same area, touching the same general thing with slight differences.

The index finger touches its reflection when he answers the phone.

Still, since it's a game and I'm playing it with a theory about him managing his space with sideburns, I like to think he made Shax wait for an hour, especially since he's going to kick her out, intentionally or not. The amount of sunlight on the camera's left, for the more distant view, increases by the time he leaves. I don't know enough about sunlight and angles to be sure, but my unsteady guess would be that the amount of sunlight should increase over the span of the hour he made Shax wait.

I'm intrigued by whatever his left hand is up to on the window pane here as he prepares to turn around:

Admittedly, based on what happens, it could be a simple as him telling the car to close the window or how he himself closes the window since he's a demon with supernatural powers.

...

Tied Hands

It's time to move onto the Tied Hands.

I have been studying retying, and it's a little beyond me for in-depth explanation to others, especially since I'm uncertain about my progress. The below is really iffy, but I'll still share it. If it feels over your head or too much detail, definitely skip. The below is more for me in my attempt at processing things in a way I can understand on the small chance I'll find more hidden messages or figure something out over time and letting it sink in. That is what I eventually did with the sideburns and Threshold Tricks.

If I am on the right track, crossing a threshold automatically, or at least frequently, unties the Tied Hands, so they start retying for the next instance of use. Thresholds are way more common than you might think.

In the first cut of this scene, the Tied Hands possibly retie three times.

They tie during the process of exiting the car and finish just after the car door is closed. That's for after exiting the car and before crossing the edge of the sidewalk threshold to throw away the mail. The strands themselves align by the right hand, possibly to indicate this process in motion.

They retie for after crossing the edge of the sidewalk and preparing to use a pants pocket to grab the phone

A pocket is a threshold since it's a little door for a little space to hold things. However, it is a very special little door due to the game's advanced pocket mechanics. They possibly retie after using the pocket and before answering the phone.

This retying is the most questionable one because Crowley's watch is specifically hidden when most other retying instances would ensure it is visible. Time-tellers seem to be a rather significant requirement for retying. If Crowley is allowed leniency from other clues and how he is doing things, the watch gets to be the time-teller after the pocket is used because he is still holding the earthly object that was in the pocket, the phone, even as the next retying starts for answering that phone. Another contributing factor could be the Overhead Light discussed further below.

The retying for answering the phone does not finish as the phone gets its own special time-teller in the next cut.

When Crowley turns to lean onto his car, the Tied Hands retie and switch, such that they are not in their mirrored status that is the more common default after tying is done. He is maintaining touch on the car with a visible reflection of his head in the car. The imaginary mirror of the Tied Hands flips again, and they switch back when Shax says, "Is it? Why?"

They untie when Crowley says his line about sarcasm and removes his touch on the door. After that cut, a supernatural sound is indicated for Shax's forced exit.

The Tied Hands retie and switch yet again as Crowley enters the car. In the process, one of the clasps of the strands strikes its own reflection on the car.

...

Belt Head

There is an unlit light near the top of the middle of the screen. It is further to the camera's left and not quite in the middle, so it's off-center. I had long assumed Overhead Lights were supposed to be lit to count as use of being Overhead Lights.

And maybe they are, under the proper circumstances.

But not this circumstance.

The camera work is quite deliberately making sure that light is included in the framing almost the entire cut. It is briefly obscured as Crowley opens the door to the car to exit. For most of the cut, this light's position relative to Crowley would not qualify as an Overhead Light with my guess being that qualification is generally above and to the left of Crowley's left ear, or at least left side of his head and above his left ear.

However, after Crowley throws away the mail and before he uses his pocket to answer the phone, when the phone starts to ring, this unlit light is above and to the left of Crowley's left ear. That's a trait found with the more prominent Overhead Lights used in other scenes, especially the touches for The Pocket Trick.

Additionally, a tassel is at the edge of the Belt Head itself just before this moment happens. A tassel brushing along the belt is something I instinctively take to mean the Belt Head is being activated.

That would also make the Overhead Light in use just before a pocket is specifically used and the most questionable retying instance.

...

Timeline Theory

(For reference: Timestamp Notes and Theory)

My theory goes that this scene took place before the Whickber street scenes with Aziraphale and Gabriel but not Michael on the phone in Heaven. This scene is the morning after Crowley met with Shax on Sunday when she gave him his mail. The mail is supposed to connect the scenes as close to each other in the sequence of the story.

I would rather think such is the order of things than that Crowley's supernatural time zone is off from bookshop time by something close to 5-6 hours. I acknowledge it's possible that's what the story means instead though.

...

Story Commentary

I'm intrigued at the extra breeze given with Shax's arrival. While no humans or animals are visibly around, plants are. The plants are shown to be affected by the breeze. The lacking humans and animals are part of my theory that this area is a special supernatural zone that Crowley himself manages.

During the dialogue, Crowley says, "Trust me."

Shax replies, "Righto."

Back in season 1, Ligur made a comment about a "funny old world" it would be if demons went around trusting each other. This part is mentioned in the actual Good Omens book, but as a reflected thought instead of stated dialogue.

Still, this part here in GO2 has a "funny old world" bit happening with Shax easily agreeing to just plain trust Crowley, at least for this bit of information. She's rather cute and almost innocent here compared to how antagonistic she gets later.

When first trying to figure out how the sideburns worked, this scene was one of the biggest challenges for me because of the chronology. The sideburns look short in the park and long here with a significant difference being Gabriel is on Earth and in the bookshop now, at least as in the implied order.

But it doesn't add up with other things later when it becomes more evident they respond to character presence within a given space when Crowley is actually in that space. Shax was in the park. Shax is in the street. They changed around the same character with a difference in that presented chronology of the distant arrival of another character.

That's how it seems at first.

However, another difference was the space itself. The park is not Crowley's home. The car is. The car is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle because it is a home that can move. It can leave a static space and switch from being an occupied home to being a car.

Crowley didn't drive away by the end of the scene, but we'll see him driving soon enough.

Attending to mail is part of maintaining one's home, so that could be yet another factor to Crowley managing his own space while having longer sideburns.

The mail itself might be important due to it being more obvious in the framing when the camera pans up toward the end of the scene. I don't have any guesses I would be comfortable with making on what important mail Crowley could have received though, myself.

...

Previous versions of this post:

Post #2 v2 (meeting with Shax in the street)

Post #2 v1 (meeting with Shax in the street)

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme - Episode 6 Links List

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Good Omens 2, Episode 6: Every Day

This post is to help avoid worrying about putting 100+ links in the main post linked above.

...

Post #85 (bees)

Post #86 (office)

Post #87 (Universe)

Post #88 (collaborating)

Post #89 (removed)

Post #90 (find)

Post #91 (declared)

Post #92 (message)

Post #93 (forgot)

Post #94 (pretend)

Post #95 (enough)

Post #96 (leave)

Post #97 (know)

Post #98 (go)

Post #99 (tidying)

Post #100 (partner)

Post #101 (spend)

Post #102 (The Door Trick)

Post #103 (The Window Trick)

Post #104 (Ending Credits)

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #69

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 5, The Ball, Mrs. Cheng invitation

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are short. This invitation takes place in the street, which is an open human space. They will stay short until Crowley confronts Gabriel later.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

The more saturated red streak of hair is above the center of Crowley's left eye but easier to see when he starts to turn around since it goes up behind some hair in his front.

...

Hairstyle Changes

For hairstyle changes, the front hair goes up but does not as clearly curve to Crowley's right. Instead, it sweeps back a little as it curves to the right. The three tendrils that curved the other way have somewhat converged closer together from a front view and no longer curve the other way.

...

Red on Jacket

I found the red on Crowley's jacket this time.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects | The Ball Invitations Checklist)

Now we have reached the third ball invitation to be done on camera.

Let's check in with the checklist.

This invitation is the first of two conducted in a foreign language. This one has a higher level of fluency compared to the next. It's informing us that speaking in a foreign language is an earthly object touch.

It is also very strange because it's based on accomplishing things for Crowley through transfers by extension and visual touches.

Aziraphale does all of the talking, of him and Crowley.

Aziraphale does not talk to Crowley.

Aziraphale does not look at Crowley, at least not obviously. But do you know what he does do? He has his left eye visually on Crowley's hair when Aziraphale tells Mrs. Cheng when the meeting starts.

So far as looking for Aziraphale with a possible illusionary touch over Crowley, his bow-tie is visually over the back of Crowley's right shoulder.

Aziraphale's lines are translated with subtitles, if one has subtitles turned on. The subtitles include a Hello and Mrs. Cheng's name.

...

Crowley does not talk to anyone.

Crowley looks at Aziraphale when Aziraphale turns around to leave the area.

The earthly object touch is probably a shared transfer through Aziraphale speaking a foreign language because Crowley is touching Aziraphale by leaning against him.

The self-skin-contact touch is Crowley placing his right index finger on his forehead. If it's from an earthly object, it's, I'm guessing, some trickery with shadows, his touch on Aziraphale, and a human wearing a shirt that has pineapples on it.

The self-clothing touch is Crowley folding his arms. Aziraphale's bow-tie is probably allowed to be the earthly object, given its placement. Crowley's left hand does show 3 of its 5 digit tips as he starts to move his right arm to unfold the arms.

For the self-mouth touch, Crowley is blurred and making one when Aziraphale gives Mrs. Cheng the time. He briefly opens and closes his mouth. As a possible extra something, he has a left-side dimple later when he is more clear and preparing to turn around.

Crowley makes a pocket with Aziraphale and the bottom of the screen as he leans on Aziraphale. Another pocket forms between them in a shot where the camera is more to his and Aziraphale's right. Crowley makes pockets with his arms when he moves to put his index finger on his forehead.

The cross is presumably the folded arms.

There is no reflection of Crowley. Instead, I am left to guess there is some high-level trickery through extension. This part is ridiculous and a bit long to explain so skip ahead to "Crowley's shadow" if you like.

In the first cut, behind Aziraphale and to Aziraphale's right there are two blurred humans looking at or through a window pane with one of them having their reflection in that window pane.

Passing by the two humans is the same human puppet from The Pocket Trick, Triple Part 2, whose shirt has some notable white. White keeps. He also wears brown pants. Brown borrows. This human is very likely using one or both pants pockets. He is walking away from where Aziraphale and Crowley are. Aziraphale has a visual touch on him first.

Yet another human is walking toward where Aziraphale and Crowley are. This human is wearing a blue shirt. Blue is the current color in the Rainbow Connection that The Pocket Trick uses. Aziraphale has a visual touch on this human in a blue shirt as he appears over the human puppet momentarily.

As both these humans continue at their paces, the human with the window pane reflection moves their left arm up and then down, further confirming that their reflection is there and clarifying whose reflection it is.

With the human with the blue shirt out of the way, Aziraphale has another visual touch on the previous human puppet, then the human next to the one with the reflection. The human next to the one with the reflection has a visual touch with the human puppet by the end of the cut. Both humans are conceivably using pants pockets though it's hard to be sure. Of the two of them, the human puppet is more likely to be using pants pockets.

To Crowley's left is a building with blue and a human carrying an orange bag.

In the next cut, Mrs. Cheng has little blue lights visually around and actually behind her as she replies and asks when the meeting will start.

With another cut, Crowley is shown with a visual touch to the blue of the building to his left and its window panes.

A pocket exists between him and Aziraphale again, this time more with their shoulders and heads.

When Mrs. Cheng waves to say she will be at the meeting, the blue lights are no longer behind her. They are to her right, and her hand manages to not visually touch them.

As stated, I am left to guess all of that stuff is supposed to build up to a reflection by extension. It's all very silly, but I don't think things like that human puppet being where he is was a mere coincidence. The same goes for finding the blue where it was.

Crowley's shadow is on Aziraphale's coat when Aziraphale turns around.

Light can be found in Crowley's sunglasses as he turns around.

...

Aziraphale and Crowley do not talk to each other.

Aziraphale doesn't look directly at Crowley. Instead, he "has his eye on Crowley" or one can imagine him looking at Crowley with peripheral vision. Crowley does look at Aziraphale when Aziraphale turns around.

They have a "correct" sides view for most of the interaction. They are visible from the front with Crowley to Aziraphale's left.

So far as their play is concerned, Aziraphale fully turning around before Crowley follows is sufficient to get a "wrong" sides view. That puts Crowley to Aziraphale's right instead of Aziraphale's left.

...

This ball invitation is a match to The Bigger Thresholds Trick. The three thresholds are behind Aziraphale and Crowley though Heaven's is not active yet. There are traces of hints to the touches involved for the tricks.

For example, Crowley is touching Aziraphale, but he does not let go of the touch. Aziraphale does. In the Single for The Bigger Thresholds Trick, the simple explanation is that Crowley never lets go of the door.

Shadows are relevant to the Triple, and Crowley's shadow is on Aziraphale.

I can't find anyone switching lanes, but I can find Aziraphale switching their sides by his turning around. He did switch their sides on exit from the pub in the Double of The Bigger Thresholds Trick.

...

Story Commentary

Mrs. Cheng has no visible physical touch on an earthly object. That's part of the clues that speaking in a foreign language counts as an earthly object touch. She'll have a fan with her during the ball where she speaks in English.

Aziraphale's physical touch on the clipboard does not appear until after Mrs. Cheng has accepted the invitation, and he is walking away. The pen is never visible during the scene.

Crowley has no visible physical touch to an earthly object either.

Unlike Mr. Arnold and Mutt, Mrs. Cheng is plenty willing to go and requires no persuasion to get her to the meeting that will be a ball.

This invitation takes place outside. There is no door involved. They are not on the sidewalk or an area like the one for Justine's upcoming invitation with a concrete ground between buildings.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

[sonkitty]

Timestamp Notes and Theory for Episode 1: The Arrival

This post was last updated 08/27/2024.

I am heavily referencing this wonderfully helpful post: timeline rundown. I am also referencing this post, The Main Bookshop Clock's Hands are BACKWARDS and Other Revelations!

Below are my notes for an overall forming theory and then getting into the specifics of episode 1. I have a few different notes of what I think the time is from the referenced link above, will be naming the days, and guessing some order.

Reminder that I'm growing more confident in my theory that Crowley earns his red streak from a Big Miracle performed the first time Gabriel arrived with a cardboard box.

...

This theory is very tentative.

Episode 1 is an out-of-order mix of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Most of it is Monday.

Maggie and Nina might not have "existed" until Monday. In Before the Beginning, we are informed of the concept of "pre-aged" stars, so these characters might be like that. They are "pre-aged" humans, whether that's from the Big Miracle Crowley did or was part of or the Metatron messing with the book that holds most or all of this story or Adam creating a pocket reality or whatever.

The clothing for Maggie and Nina is the story's main clue that most of episode 1 is Monday. Their clothing also gives clues for the other days.

In that timeline rundown link, my interpretation of events is that before Crowley enters Heaven in the present day, the clock by Aziraphale's desk works such that the ornate hand is the minute, and the other hand is the hour.

This functionality reverses no later than Maggie and Nina being shown using fire extinguishers on the demons in the bookshop. From that point onward, the ornate hand will be the hour, and the other hand will be the minute. I took some extra time and effort to check the 1941 minisode and season 1 out of curiosity. The clock hands match the meaning for after Crowley returns from Heaven in episode 6, where the ornate hand is the hour, and the other hand is the minute. If my conclusions are correct, the main bookshop clock hands are actually reverting, in episode 6, to how they operated before Season 2, Episode 1 started.

...

Extra ideas:

Something of significance happened 8 months ago because that's how long Maggie has not paid her rent. My main best guess is that is when Hell kicked Crowley out of his flat.

The week that Season 2 covers reset at least once or the overall story is a time loop of different timelines stitched together, including season 1.

With at least two significant games happening in Good Omens 2, the humans are game pieces, and the setting is the game board. Hence, these elements are allowed to shift as part of the games. The games are The Sideburns Scheme and Earthly Objects.

...

Episode 1: The Arrival

The present day part of episode 1 starts on Monday sometime before 4:20PM.

When Aziraphale receives Maggie's note, it's difficult to find the clock, but it is there. The time is, conceivably, 3:58PM. If the hands are not reversed yet, the time is possibly 11:20AM. Based on the season overall and maybe the bookshop closing at 3:30PM, I do think 3:58PM is the correct time.

In t he record shop, Maggie's watch is visible when Aziraphale visits, but I find it very difficult to read since it seems to fluctuate during the scene itself. Based on what I can read of it, I hesitantly think it goes 12:25PM, 12:32PM, 12:00PM, 11:25AM, 11:57AM. With such fluctuation, I don't trust it. But still, I'll acknowledge that I tried to check it. Again, based on how the whole series goes, Aziraphale's bookshop clock looks to have the more likely correct time.

Aziraphale receives Maggie's note.

Aziraphale goes to the record shop and talks to Maggie.

...

Crowley in St. James' Park. According to the referenced timeline rundown post, chimes indicate 5:00PM. I could not find all 5 but will trust that person's judgment better than mine since it's not the type of thing I even knew to check for at all. I think this day is Sunday, not Monday, and happened before the past two scenes of Aziraphale receiving Maggie's letter and their conversation in the record shop. Crowley has earned his red streak, receives his mail, and will throw the mail away later.

Back to Monday...

Maggie enters the coffee shop, talks to Nina.

Nina reacts to the events happening outside.

For now, my guess is Gabriel's naked arrival sequence is actually still Monday, possibly two different versions of Monday due to how the extras shift in the background. It could be both Saturday and Monday instead, but I haven't been able to figure it out. I lean more toward two different versions of Monday.

...

Aziraphale getting up from chair to answer door, 4:20PM.

Maggie and Nina comment on what they saw.

Michael on phone in Heaven. My current speculation thinks this phone call is also Monday but actually more like 10:04AM, rather than between 4:20PM and 4:26PM. My reasoning is admittedly very biased in trying to fit the pieces where I want them to be. Such a time would allow Shax to receive news that events in Heaven are related to Gabriel, then pass that along. She has not been given the specifics of the threat on the Book of Life. I would rather think such is the order of things than that Crowley's supernatural time zone is off from bookshop time by something close to 5-6 hours.

...

Gabriel receives hot chocolate in bookshop, 4:26PM.

...

Crowley throwing mail away, then looking at phone by his car in isolated street, 10:35AM. This day is Monday morning. This scene took place before the Whickber street scenes but not Michael on the phone in Heaven. This scene is the morning after Crowley met with Shax on Sunday when she gave him his mail. The mail is supposed to connect the scenes as close to each other in the sequence of the story.

...

Crowley answering phone, his watch shows 11:35AM. I think this one is Crowley making Shax wait for an hour to manage his personal space with his sideburns. So, still Monday morning before most other scenes.

...

Aziraphale looks in the cardboard box. When he asks what was brought, the clock says 4:30PM. The fly was in the box.

Aziraphale calls Crowley. Gabriel still has hot chocolate to indicate not a lot of time has passed.

Heaven, Matchbox Muriel Scene #1, Muriel finding the matchbox. At this point, Heaven seems to line up with the time that is happening in London on Earth. Muriel finding this matchbox at something like 5:00PM. This speculation is, again, me being biased on trying to fit things where I want them to go. It is based on a basic work day of Earth ending at 5PM for many. Since Heaven doesn't seem to sleep and always has daylight, Muriel could have been between shifts of what they were working on to somewhat mimic an Earth office environment. Also, this part would fit the time between the last time-stamp shown and the next potential time-stamp shown.

Crowley enters the coffee shop, presumed Monday due to Nina's employee and Nina's clothing.

Crowley sits down, and there is a sign that isn't behind him yet. In the next cut of him sitting, there is a "TODAY'S SPECIALS HONOLULU ROAST" sign. That sign has Nina's handwriting. The other sign above it doesn't. The shift could be a sign of the differing timelines. That is the more plausible and easy idea in play.

Due to my retying studies, knowing that Crowley performed The Perfect Entrance Trick on the way in, and knowing that the spaces read Crowley due to his sideburn lengths, I'm starting to suspect those silly Tied Hands can perform tricks. In this case, this event is like a little trick he and the space perform with each other to make something appear.

Plus, the sign seems to be acting as an assist while Crowley's Tied Hands manage a Table Connection Reflection (best guess for the name from me). The full text of the sign is visible when Crowley says, "Charmed." It's the last cut with his hand touching its reflection on the table before he leans forward in the next cut.

A previous draft of this post considered that the sign was a hint to a potential Saturday visit, but I have since changed my mind. I think it's Monday during the whole scene. It could be two different versions of Monday, or it could be trickery because Crowley's a demon playing around with the space, or it could be both of those things, but I'm still guessing it is Monday.

Crowley and Aziraphale exit the coffee shop and encounter Maggie with the record. They then finish crossing the street.

Maggie gives Nina the record. Nina says "Back again?" to indicate the day is the same one as shown earlier. Maggie's dialogue mentions getting a "...final something. End of the day."

...

In the bookshop, Crowley removes his sunglasses and starts the scene with, "I wasn't gonna say this out there..." The main bookshop clock is not visible during this scene. The other one that occasionally shows up is visible and blurry when Gabriel brings out the yellow feather duster. I have it at questionably 5:25PM. For almost all of this scene, the framing is making it clear that Crowley's red streak is there.

...

Bookshop, private room scene #1 of the season. I'm not sure which day most of this scene is when considering both Saturday and Monday. There is a clue about Monday with just dumping Gabriel and the Something Terrible in the dialogue. There is a clue about Saturday due to Crowley's mostly lacking red streak. So, it seems to be a mix of both days, playing out the same way, and then something happened after Crowley's exit to change things.

Crowley has a subtle demonic hiss and says, "You're on your own with this one." That's Saturday because the timing and framing is showing that he hasn't earned his red streak yet.

The first cut after the door is shown as opened is Gabriel pretending to be Crowley. I theorize that the day there is also Saturday, or at least represents Saturday.

Then in the next cut is Aziraphale pretending to be Crowley. By then, the day is Sunday, or the cut at least represents Sunday. He passes by the cardboard box, leaving it untouched and unquestioned. While Aziraphale does not have a more saturated streak of red hair, red that is more red, he does have a brighter streak of hair where the more saturated streak tends to appear above Crowley's left eye.

Additionally, the clothing is more blue, much like Crowley's clothing in the park scene earlier this episode where I speculated the day was Sunday.

These characters are editing the story to indicate Crowley will storm out on Monday.

They also cut what was found out about the box and actions taken that involved putting the Book of Life into the matchbox without setting off the alarms in Heaven yet. They make themselves forget, leaving themselves clues to solve their own puzzle.

Crowley would have earned his red streak through a Big Miracle that happened at midnight on Sunday with a full moon.

...

Once Crowley has three visible fingers touching his sunglasses, the storyline has returned to Monday, as it then joins with the Monday clothing Maggie and Nina are wearing. They watch Crowley from the window.

Crowley shouts "Ten!" and the lightning shoots out from him.

Maggie and Nina end up locked in the coffee shop.

In Heaven, Michael and Uriel talk. Eventually, Saraqael and Muriel arrive for Matchbox Muriel Scene #2.

Back on Earth, Crowley arrives at his car in the isolated street at night.

Beelzebub summons Crowley to Hell.

Having exited Hell, Crowley starts driving to return to the bookshop.

In the coffee shop, Maggie and Nina run to hold out their signs. A passerby does not stop to help them.

Crowley driving, changes three traffic lights.

Maggie and Nina talk about the record shop's history.

...

Crowley arrives and restores power to the coffee shop. The time is 21:02 (9:02PM) on Nina's phone.

...

The story wants it known that the apology dance happened at 9:06PM. The clock by Aziraphale's desk is as clear as it will ever be on that point.

...

When Crowley finishes the dance, the other clock behind him is visible, and that time looks more like 9:00PM.

...

After Gabriel says, "Where did you come back from?" the bookshop clock looks a little burred but now more like 8:01PM. We've gone back an hour. There are too many other indications this day is still Monday for me to think we've reverted to Saturday. Crowley's hair being charged with so much red is the main one. The scene is also too cohesive for me to think that the events within it are out of order.

As Gabriel is saying, "Is it big on the outside?" still seems to be 8:01PM.

Crowley telling Gabriel no, still seems to be 8:01PM.

Aziraphale suggesting half a miracle, seems more blurry but 8:01PM.

The clock is intentionally too blurry just as Crowley is describing how small they have to make the miracle.

...

With the camera panning down during the miracle, the time seems to be 9:01PM or 9:02PM.

...

The clock is intentionally too blurry with Crowley saying, "I don't know. Probably."

As Gabriel gets up from the chair, the clock has switched back to just after 8PM.

Crowley, preparing to stand on chair, still just after 8PM.

Crowley, jumping down, still just after 8PM.

In Heaven, the alarms go off.

...

So, the way I read it, after Crowley returns at night, the clock can only ever be trusted on the point that Crowley danced at 9:06PM. The characters telling us this story aren't concerned about the clock consistency or clarity for a lot of the scene, but they definitely want us to know that Crowley danced at that specific time. That's why they are making it as clear as possible and not so much the other times.

If you want to get more specific, Crowley is telling us the time was 9:06PM, and he is more certain of that than the other characters because of the clock being so clear. He's the one in the best position to sense-with-his-eyes that clock at that time. His layered play in the games probably wanted that time too.

From here on out, the story is actually more honest about the order of present day events. Background humans will act or be positioned oddly. Sometimes the clocks will have questionable times and continuity errors, but the story will flow forward, naming or hinting to previous events affecting those being experienced in the present. Aziraphale will tell us that the scene between him and the Metatron happened already when things are shown out of order in episode 6.

...

That's all for this post.

...

More: Timestamp Notes for Episodes 2-5

[sonkitty]

Crowley's Red Streak of Hair

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

During Good Omens 2, Crowley's hair is more red than compared to Good Omens season 1. In addition to that, he has an even more saturated red streak of hair that appears frequently.

Sometimes this streak splits.

...

Here is Crowley's red streak when telling Nina to go to the ball:

That scene is possibly when the streak is at its most vibrant.

There is another scene where it's rather strong as well, and that's after Gabriel has returned from trying to give himself up to the demons:

...

My theory is that the streak is an after-effect of a Big Miracle Crowley performed, or was part of, in an earlier draft of the story. I have a currently developing, very uncertain theory that Episode 1 is actually an out-of-order mix of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. If that theory has any merit, then Crowley earns the streak on Saturday, or midnight on Sunday since midnight is regarded as a special time for a demon. The moon might have been full during that time as well.

...

Here are some things I consider as signs about this Big Miracle and its after-effect.

When Crowley tells Aziraphale, "You're on your own with this one," the streak is clearly not there. Due to when this scene happens, what follows it, and the overall framing for when and how it's best to find the streak, I think it isn't there because that's the first draft or first time Gabriel arrived.

...

During episodes 1 and 2, if Crowley is in the presence of Gabriel, the streak is ensured to be visible. Of these scenes, it's most obvious the first time Crowley encounters Gabriel.

...

I have long noted certain things don't really add up for that theory. I haven't dropped it completely and found one of the reasons I was looking for on when the streak seems to disappear.

Good Omens 2 has "angel light" and "demon darkness." You can see these things most strongly with the demons entering the bookshop and how strong Muriel radiates light when the Metatron makes the mistake of calling them "the dim one".

...

The streak fades or even disappears with demon darkness. That's when I find it gone or harder to find at all.

For example, in episode 1, I can see the streak in Crowley's hair before he turns around and talks to Shax. Once he's actually facing Shax, I can't see or it's too faint to be sure it's there.

While it was on him while talking to Shax in the park, the space around Crowley's car is different. The car is his home. He uses his sideburns to manage his personal space, so there's a supernatural zone surrounding the car itself.

Later, with Beelzebub summoning him, Crowley's hair is theoretically already darkened from him shooting out lightning. It looks more brown than red. Once he has exited the summon, his hair has darkened even more to almost all black. When he is actually in Hell, it's hard to tell if that's a prominent streak or just his left-side hair being more red, as it generally is during the present day storyline.

In episode 2, it's more easily seen with Shax's second visit to the car in the street but still harder to find than it usually is overall.

In episode 5, the streak is hard to find or gone when Crowley sees and confronts the demons in the street, before Maggie enters the bookshop.

Later, after Crowley has exited the ball, his hair has reached its darkest point before he sees Muriel. As he approaches Muriel, the streak becomes more evident.

...

In episode 3, the streak is also acting strange. It seems to be gone with Muriel's presence. Muriel lying about being human could be why since the lie is why the sideburns are short.

Just as Muriel glows, Crowley is keeping parts of his own body cast in shadow.

Later, when Crowley's talking to Aziraphale in the private room during Muriel's visit, the streak seems gone but makes itself known specifically when Crowley is talking about the measured power of the miracle. That's then another hint that yes, it is related to a Big Miracle.

...

The 1941 minisode also has Crowley with a red streak, but there are various reasons it could be there, and I have no certainty on any of them.

One potential reason is that it's a result of any of the miracles, or all of the miracles, involved with the church bombing. Crowley's having a demonic intervention to land the bomb there. Aziraphale's performing a miracle to protect himself and Crowley. Crowley's performing a miracle to protect the books.

Another is that the present is affecting the past, especially the past closer in memory. My main example is that the bookshop clock near Aziraphale's desk is frowning, like it does during season 2 present day and not season 1 present day. It's like a "bleed-through" effect.

Yet another possible reason is that it's joined with the longer sideburns as part of the "human" reading. In season 2 present day, short sideburns trend human, and long sideburns trend supernatural. For whatever reason, the 1941 minisode swaps those readings such that long trends human, and short trends supernatural.

...

So, yeah, after all that, I think the streak is a result of a Big Miracle Crowley did, or played a big part in, with getting the Book of Life into the matchbox (or whatever the miracle really was). That happened in a part of the story we didn't see during the season 2 present day storyline. Those involved made themselves forget many of the specifics but left clues for themselves to solve their own puzzle, among other parts of a bigger plan.

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #98

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 6, Every Day, go

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are long, specifically longest-length.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

The more saturated red streak of hair can be found.

...

Hairstyle Changes

The curve of the top hair is not as obvious with its tilt to the right. The extra split that was in his hair at the top is gone. With the lighting, the top hair on Crowley's right looks darker. His hair doesn't look as smooth, possibly to indicate his underlying stress at having to let Aziraphale go with the Metatron.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects | Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2) )

Crowley ends up touching a pillar again.

The main earthly object touch otherwise is that Crowley throws a book at Muriel. The book in question is The Crow Road.

The dialogue includes names.

Muriel has a question about being able to take a book with them and says the number, "one".

...

Time to pay attention to the pockets.

If the Tied Hands retie, most of it is done with Crowley getting up from the chair. The lighting makes it hard to be sure if a clasp strikes a lapel edge. The watch is visible. The left thumb joint aligns with a jacket edge as he gets up though it's a little blurry. It also lines up over the jacket edge more clearly. Crowley creates pockets with his body.

He doesn't seem to have an extended index finger, but its absence might be handled by his back being visible and/or what Muriel ends up doing during the scene.

For most of the scene, Muriel's pocket chain is visible. The two times it isn't visible, Muriel has an extended index finger. The first such instance is when Muriel says they can explore the bookshop. The second such instance is Muriel touching the book Crowley just threw at them.

The Belt Head is visible when Crowley gets up form the chair.

After Aziraphale and the Metatron exit, the Belt Head is off screen and stays off screen. The clasps and tassels that are the thumb joints and thumbs of the Tied Hands also go and stay off screen.

After Crowley is touching the pillar, his tie strands stay aligned next to each other but make sure to spread once Crowley moves to throw the book at Muriel.

...

Crowley might receive Overhead Lights when three appear to his left while touching a pillar. Since there are three, one might be because of Muriel's assistance in the scene.

...

Story Commentary

While Muriel at first indicates they plan on staying because the Metatron told them to wait, Crowley does eventually kick Muriel out of the bookshop.

I theorize that Crowley and Muriel have a deep trust in each other, possibly even a friendship or a mentor and student type relationship. Because of that, I like to think that when Crowley says Muriel will like the book he throws, he means it. He knows the book and Muriel well enough for the recommendation to be genuine.

Since the book thrown has characters engage in significant non-verbal interaction, according to other sources I've read on Tumblr, him choosing the book could also be Crowley trusting and informing Muriel about how he communicates with Aziraphale.

I think it's sweet that Muriel considers both Aziraphale and Crowley friends who they would like to spend time with for breakfast.

...

Crowley has the longest-length sideburns, if they weren't already longest-length. He is the one who ends up directing Muriel out, but he allows Muriel to take a book with them before they leave.

This scene is one of the clues that the sideburns have that potential rank meaning with angels.

...

Maggie and Nina

Neither Maggie nor Nina show any interest in talking to "them" until after the Metatron has ordered his coffee.

Given what we see unfold for the rest of the episode, that suggests Maggie and Nina either had a conversation with the Metatron, or he has some power of influence just being in their presence, like he seemed to have with Crowley resurrecting Mr. Brown.

Nina eventually concedes, and not only does she concede, she willingly drops everything she is doing at that exact instant to leave the coffee shop so that she and Maggie can supposedly talk to "them."

The whole thing irks me.

But at least the scene helped me with my Earthly Objects play. It's part of how I figured out talking in a foreign language is an earthly object touch, and numbers are dialogue points.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

[sonkitty]

Good Omens 2 Compendium

I am making so many posts. I need a reference list for my own sake.

Trickery

Certain Theories

Intro

The Sideburns Scheme

Crowley's Red Streak of Hair

Earthly Objects (1, 2, 3)

Earthly Objects Study - Windows Part 1

Earthly Objects Study - Windows Part 2

Earthly Objects Study - Crowley's Sunglasses

Threshold Tricks

~~~***Threshold Tricks***~~~

The Perfect Entrance Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Bigger Thresholds Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Pocket Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Sunglasses Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Door Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Window Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Perfect Entrance Trick

The Bigger Thresholds Trick

The Pocket Trick - Basics (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , Rainbows, C)

The Pocket Trick - Tied Hands

The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection (1, 2, 3, 4)

The Sunglasses Trick

The Door Trick

The Window Trick

More

The Ball Invitations Checklist (Links)

Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2)

Timestamp Notes and Theory

Compendium Extended Edition

The Earthly Objects Game (v1)

The Sideburns Scheme (v1)

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #102

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 6, Every Day, The Door Trick

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are longest-length.

My theory goes that it is mainly from a combination of stillness and Crowley's left arm being so focused on touching the threshold of his car that is his home.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

For the first cut, I can't really confirm that the streak is a streak since Crowley's left-side hair tends to be more saturated anyway.

In the other two front-facing cuts, there does seem to be a thinner, findable streak.

...

Hairstyle Changes

Instead of the top hair above Crowley's left eye going more straight and upward, his overall top hair tilts to Crowley's right and curves upward. The streak is not as clearly defined for where it is.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects | The Door Trick Visual Representation | The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection Part 4: The Door Trick and The Door Catch)

Well, this is it.

Finally.

I am going to go over The Door Trick in detail after a lot more thorough play in trying to grasp the more advanced pocket mechanics of this game.

I'll start by saying I believe quite firmly that the core Trick of The Door Trick here is as follows:

Single accessory touch with the watch.

Double clothing touch with the jacket and pants. Double multiplier because the legs are crossed.

Triple skin-contact touch with the left hand. Triple multiplier because three fingers are touching each other.

These touches are considered simultaneous in the last video frame of the third cut of Crowley from the front.

There's a Rainbow Connection and imaginary Tied Hands doing more because of The Door Trick linking to The Door Catch, but that's the core nonetheless.

This Threshold Trick was the first one I found and when I started to grasp that the sideburns respond to thresholds.

...

Because of that pocket touch, Crowley is using the Pocket Chain found within The Pocket Trick.

The pocket touch itself resembles most of the touches within The Pocket Trick. It has the right hand fingers pocketed but keeping the thumb outside the pocket.

Since there are a million things happening, let's try starting from the bottom and working our way through where things take us in the first video frame.

There is a mirror on the lower left side of the screen. That means Crowley can see that his sideburns are the length they should be for this Threshold Trick. They are longest-length.

The mirror is also part of his Pocket Frame of Car Mirrors. This mirror is to his right. The rear view mirror inside the Bentley is to Crowley's left. The hood ornament of the car is drawing attention to itself and that mirror.

There are four humans to Crowley's right.

The one closest to Crowley just so happens to have their heel aligned against some lighting on Crowley's own shoes. The lighting is a hint that something is happening or being allowed. At a guess, there is a mirrored touch between the lower legs and one foot between this pair of characters.

This mirrored touch is captured into the wide open pocket Crowley has constructed between himself and his car.

The human's other foot then creates another pocket between it and Crowley's shoes.

Since Crowley is aiming for a double-clothing touch and the episode does not show his shoes again after this camera shot, my play and imagination goes with saying this human is taking Crowley's shoes to get them out of the way for the touch. Unlike Crowley's upper apparel with the jacket, the shoes are outside the pants.

There's a shoe locker idea I have, but let's put that idea on hold for now.

One of these four humans is carrying an orange bag. Orange is the current color in the Rainbow Connection. For this Threshold Trick, my play guesses that there are Bullet Catch magic word references. I think this one is "Fish" because the pattern on the skirt reminds me of fish scales, and I can't find any other visual references that I think are better.

Of note, the magic words are supposed to go, "banana, fish, gorilla, shoelace with dash of nutmeg," so they are out of order though the last will be ensured to be "dash of nutmeg".

The car door handles are visible on either side of the car, and I assume these door handles are the car's equivalent of doorknobs, which will be the Pocket Frame for the Metatron.

I think Crowley's crossed legs are reflected in the Bentley.

On Crowley's right, due to the design of the coffee shop, there are flames represented on that nearby structure.

Inside the car, his plants are visible. Due to the lighting, their green does not actually look all that green yet.

Over to Crowley's left are more humans. Eventually, we'll see some hats.

Crowley's left hand fingers look to be claiming Yellow, Green, and Black for use. The index finger is visually over a Green and Yellow sign. Zoomed in, I can't actually tell if the index fingertip is on one more than the other. His other fingers are visually over a human's Black attire.

Because of how things work out, my guess is that's to help Crowley's use of Black do things other than block and what he wants from his own imagination.

The face of his watch is visible.

His right hand CMC thumb joint is lined up with a jacket edge and Crowley's belt.

He has a self-made pocket of hair, and his left vest tip is near his Belt Head, probably to alert us that the Belt Head is active and playing its role in this Threshold Trick.

The sun can be found in the upper right corner of the screen and is to Crowley's left, above his left ear.

I have noted many times that I am left with the impression the sun here is supposed to be significant and acting as Crowley's Overhead Light for this Threshold Trick.

The sun is the most powerful source of light on Earth without actually technically being on Earth.

As the camera pans up and zooms closer, some things change.

In an earlier video frame, I suspect that the imaginary mirror of the Tied Hands has a Rainbow Connection Reflection and flips. A flip does not usually mean a switch to a new color, so I assume the Rainbow Connection is still on Orange.

Shoes on humans are shown as walking away in the car window pane behind Crowley.

There is an actual rainbow found between the left side of Crowley's torso and his left forearm. That's the official rainbow for this Threshold Trick. The rainbow places itself over the closed rear car window, the open front car window and well past the edge of the left forearm, questionably all the way to the other edge. This rainbow helps emphasize those shoes that are walking away in the window pane.

Time to play with some words for the shoe locker theory.

The word "locket" rhymes with "pocket". The word "locket" is associated with hair. Taking note of the "r" in "hair" and "rainbow," I'm going to change that "locket" word to "locker," so that the people on the sidewalk for this side of the street and passing by Crowley have a place where they can put their shoes until later.

It becomes evident that the Bentley's driver window is open. In The Pocket Trick Triple Part 2, my guess for a Rainbow Connection Reflection with Yellow happened with a human pocket user near an open window. Since Crowley is going to be stuck standing still and receive a lot of human assistance, including from pocket users, that is theoretically the reason that window is open, besides being useful for The Window Trick later.

For the rainbow mentioned earlier, that looks to be the game's cue that this rainbow is either what allows the incoming flips or is telling an audience player that the over-the-rainbow touches are due to how Crowley's apparel-to-car pocket is structured.

According to this post, the rainbow "doubles up," and there are two of them. Honestly, that's not what I see. The second seeming-rainbow is almost certainly contributing for whatever it is because great care is taken with the lighting overall, but I personally would not fully qualify it as an "official" rainbow because I can't distinguish its color set well enough, even with some tweaks in trying to edit the screenshot with brightness or saturation. Still, there is going to be a link to the Pocket Chain, and two characters are going "up" later.

Another thing that happens as the camera pans up and zooms in as that a car with headlights shows up on screen. That looks to be at least a general callback to The Pocket Trick Triple Part 2 and giving the Belt Head an Overhead Light, before the belt is fully obscured from view with the zoom.

Crowley's left thumb and its thumb joints are cast in shadow, but they are there. He's going to be relying on a different human for the usual hinge touch that his own actual thumb joint manages.

This cut is front-facing view of Crowley #1 out of 3. He will get 3 shots for his part of this double act with Aziraphale.

...

Up next is a back view of Crowley as we see the Metatron and Aziraphale walking.

This cut has both Aziraphale and the Metatron with their feet visibly on the ground as they walk toward the pub.

There is a human wearing all black. She has a black bag and a black hat. As she hurries along, she is slightly hunched over. She passes along the sidewalk near the pub before Aziraphale and the Metatron reach that area.

As she passes, yet another human visually passes in front of her.

The one in black is my guess for the "Gorilla" of the magic words.

The other is wearing a striped shirt and has some brown. She'll be swinging her arm as a visual representation for the Tied Hands since they'll be aiming to use Rainbow Connection Reflections twice for Yellow.

Through basic word association of Gorilla, Tarzan, Jane, I name this human, "Jane."

Another notable human rides along a scooter. I don't know if they're doing anything really important besides the general clue about the shoes and Ground Zero or helping to handle the Rainbow Connection, but they do stick out as someone with a self-made pocket using their legs.

Eventually, another human appears in front of Crowley. She is wearing a mostly black hat and black jacket or sweater. I call her "Nutmeg" since she will eventually be the "dash of nutmeg" to link Aziraphale into the Pocket Chain.

When she appears is when a red alert seems to happen, but like I said, I'm hoping something somewhere is stalling the switch because of other things found in the upcoming cut.

Oh, I have an idea, given what happens frame-by-frame. The red alert can hold out and be stalled because when it appears, that's also when the Metatron's and Aziraphale's shoes are obscured from the camera by the car with that alert.

...

Now it's time for shot #2.

We are back to Crowley. His watch and left hand fingers are obscured by the car.

A lot is happening for the Rainbow Connection here.

Nutmeg has moved from being on the street to being on the sidewalk. She has some of her boots in the cut but not the actual bottom of those boots. She has her right hand aligned specifically with its thumb joints along a red line that's part of her attire. My guess is that's something hinge-related to pass along to Aziraphale. Her Black is blocking out anyone or anything from taking it until that "dash of nutmeg" later.

Behind her is another human with an orange jacket. This one is my guess for "Shoelace."

The type of shoes she wears are what we U.S. English speakers call....sneakers.

Why would the scene hide everyone's shoes but let that one lady show her sneakers? Oh...oh...it's because the sneakers sneaked by the shoe locker. Haha.

Because the shoes are sneakers, her shoelaces are visible.

Based on what I've read, British English is more likely to call them trainers, so they could alternatively be trained enough to sneak by.

Speaking of silly puns that appear here, I can finally share this one that I've been sitting on for months.

Take a look at this image with the red lines:

Do you know what those are?

Can you guess?

Do you know how I "know" that Crowley's the one who's going to summon the elevator?

Those are...Holey Crowley pockets to help Aziraphale get into Heaven.

Ba dum tss.

This game is so ridiculous. How dare they make such a joke with all this ~drama~ happening.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes, the Rainbow Connection.

A lot of it is covered here, The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection Part 4: The Door Trick and The Door Catch, so I'll be simplifying things some.

Shoelace has her left thumb joint aligned with a lapel edge of the jacket. Crowley will be using that hinge touch instead of having his actual left thumb joint do it.

After Shoelace shows off her shoelace, reflection trickery takes in her hinge touch and switches the Rainbow Connection to Yellow #1 while also flipping the mirror for the Tied Hands. Yawning Yellow and Banana contribute to making it happen.

Shortly after that, more reflection trickery causes a skip to Purple and back so that Yellow can be hit twice. As such, the Connection reaches Yellow #2 and another mirror flip. There's something akin to a color wheel involved with humans and their bags fully pocket-framing the "Life begins after coffee" sign.

Part of such trickery involves the human most directly behind Crowley. That human is wearing a hat. He has a brown jacket and an excellent alignment of his arm with Crowley's existing pocket between himself and his car. That human's elbow is like the other side of a diamond from what can be seen of Crowley's left hand. I think of him as "Diamondback". He's also a pocket user himself.

Yet another significant human to the reflection trickery is one wearing a yellow shirt and dark gray vest. He has his left hand pocketed and his left arm making a pocket with his body. He is my guess for "Banana" with the magic words. His reflection appears in the two different window panes of the coffee shop during this cut. I assume he's helping out Yawning Yellow, Crowley, and ensuring there is a reflection involving the color yellow for the Rainbow Connection switches.

Because of the color skip, that means the Rainbow Connection is going up instead of down.

The goal for Crowley and Aziraphale is to actually switch to Green next, not Orange again.

So, along comes inadvertent assistance from the Metatron.

...

The next cut has Nutmeg link Aziraphale into the pocket chain due to how her bag strap aligns with another human pocket user near Aziraphale.

As this action happens, humans and Aziraphale pass by his ears in particular ways. Aziraphale places the something Crowley gave him back in his mouth.

...

Aziraphale stalls the Rainbow Connection by talking to the Metatron and asking a question.

Due to the mistakes in the Metatron's play, he enacts deflection, redirection, and disconnection. He's also lacking any Overhead Lights.

In the process, a miracle sound is heard for the elevator, but it's not clear who summoned it. The Metatron gave no indication he did it. Most of the miracle sound is similar to Aziraphale's though a little different. There's an extra hiss at the end that's more like something one would hear from Crowley.

Aziraphale himself seems surprised by it and turns his head in Crowley's direction.

I suspect Crowley due to his supernatural zone work that's been happening with the sideburns game and that silly pun mentioned earlier. Back in The Pocket Trick Triple Part 2, Crowley asked, "Do you need a lift somewhere?" Aziraphale declined.

But now, Aziraphale does need a lift somewhere, and Crowley has one ready by using the double meaning of "lift" for elevator.

Aziraphale looks over to Crowley.

Thanks to the word play with the advanced pocket mechanics, that look is Ground Zero of The Door Catch. There is zero ground in it. No one's shoes are on screen. We can't see the sidewalk, the road, or the floor of the elevator. Green is on screen with him, and the nearby humans are, I assume, assisting with getting that Green.

I've already mentioned the hidden message many times by this point, but nonetheless, there is one.

Aziraphale's thinking or saying, "Here goes nothing," because here we are at Ground Zero.

...

Now it's time for Crowley's shot #3 to finish The Door Trick.

A lot of the humans have cleared out of the way.

During this cut, Crowley's Green is ready.

One human is walking from behind Crowley and toward him. She will not pass him in this cut.

Instead, the cut will finish when Crowley's index finger is between the edges of of a black strap on her bag.

That's the Touch Point of The Door Trick. Most Touch Points in The Pocket Trick happen before the last video frame of the cut, but this touch is different since Crowley is working with Aziraphale.

His Pocket Chain reference of Door Windows from the Single of The Pocket Trick is actually all the way across the street with Aziraphale.

The watch is visibly touching the door.

Mainly through my own imagination and guessing at how games generally work, that's when the index finger and thumb are considered to touch his pants together.

Crowley's skin is visibly touching the door. Thanks to a pocket, the skin contact touch is separated into three parts.

It's the front edge of the door for the accessory skin contact touches, but still, he's touching the threshold of his own car door and avoiding the earthly object parts of it in the process.

Thus, he earns his Single, Double, and Triple at the same time here.

Because his legs are crossed, he earns a Double multiplier with the Double.

Because he has his pinky, middle, and ring fingers touching each other as they touch the door, he earns a Triple multiplier with the Triple.

This Threshold Trick was done by Crowley for Aziraphale.

...

I may as well cover The Door Catch since the two Tricks are linked.

Aziraphale's shot #1.

Aziraphale's shoes are shown on the sidewalk now that we're no longer at Ground Zero.

Before Aziraphale enters the elevator, his Green is ready.

Due to a pocket of light and two humans reaching it together at the same time, the Rainbow Connection switches to Blue and Purple at the same time.

...

Aziraphale's shot #2.

Aziraphale takes a breath. His bow tie touches his skin. He has his own Tied Hand(s) now. There's a little shine in the lower middle area of his teeth, that I assume is what Crowley passed to him through the kiss.

I don't know what happens to Blue for going back up, such as being nullified or accounted for through the Metatron's play or what, but the Rainbow Connection is starting to go up again.

...

Aziraphale's shot #3.

As Aziraphale walks forward, the shadows of the green leaves on his coat are visible.

Somehow, he's able use the shadows to stretch back, or something, to use them and switch to Green again.

A contributing factor is likely that Door Windows were the previous link in Crowley's Pocket Chain from The Pocket Trick Single. Aziraphale's collar is visually at the corner of one of the pub door windows in the first video frame of the cut.

In the last video frame of the cut, he has precise alignment with edges that are very reminiscent of what happens with touches in The Pocket Trick.

This last video frame is the Touch Point for The Door Catch.

For Aziraphale, he has a Pocket Frame of Elevator Edges.

As he moved forward, due to his play, the Metatron's reflection switched from having the Metatron's head reflected in both window panes to instead be in the window pane closest to Aziraphale and on Aziraphale's left.

This reflection is caught in a Magic Trick named The Door Catch, so that's supposed to matter even though I don't have better words or ideas besides this basic one. Clues are likely found in the 1941 minisode with the three-rope trick, but my play isn't good enough to put the pieces together.

My play is good enough to see that this video frame has Aziraphale with vertex touches involving his right arm and the Metatron's right arm. While no thumb joint is aligned with an edge, Nutmeg had one, and Aziraphale has that thing in his teeth. Somehow, those things are supposed to assist for what he needs of a hinge touch, while managing to not pass it to the Metatron, I am guessing.

Meanwhile, the Metatron has no such hinge involving his own thumb joints or anything I can find from human assistance or Aziraphale.

Because I'm familiar with the framing and types of things to look for, something else that I take note of is that his coat does not have its edges meet and avoids creating a pocket of itself.

For the Metatron, he has a Pocket Frame of Doorknobs.

He is pocketed between the doorknobs of the pub doors. However, in the elevator, its buttons are the equivalent of doorknobs so still considered his Pocket Frame. Possibly related, we never saw him cross the threshold from the street into the elevator. Crowley and Muriel both showed themselves to cross for entry. Aziraphale did here for his own entry.

The Metatron's index finger is touching his Pocket Frame.

Crowley has touched his Pocket Frames as well but usually avoids skin contact. His turtleneck made sure skin contact was avoided with Cars in The Pocket Trick Triple Part 2. His tie tassels were what touched the window pane of the Door Windows in The Pocket Trick Single. He did have some fingers touch door frames in the Double, but the index finger was not among them. Additionally, that was a rather different touch since it involved soon pocketing only his thumbs.

The Metatron doesn't care about his thumbs with his pocket touches. The whole hand goes in with his play.

...

Aziraphale's three shots are done, but there's one more thing to close out the whole Trick.

The Metatron uses a close-up touch of his index finger touching the button.

I am reasonably sure that Crowley has never used a close-up touch for his hand touches in The Pocket Trick.

Because of assorted clues about non-rainbow colors, my play interprets this overall move as the Metatron making a mistake.

Here's a findable poem about the non-rainbow shades.

Black blocks.

Brown borrows.

Gray shades.

White keeps.

The "H" of the Heaven button is gold, so it is not considered a proper Yellow by itself.

The gray in the elevator could shade it to Yellow, if the Metatron could do something like use his Brown to borrow it.

Crowley and Aziraphale want their Rainbow Connection to stay at Green and not switch to Yellow.

The design of the button itself is such that Black blocks out the Gray, and White keeps the gold as gold.

Thus, the gold is disqualified to allow a switch up to Yellow.

The really big mistake, I think, is supposed to be that the Metatron's left thumb CMC joint is not visible.

There might be other mistakes, such as using a close-up touch at all or the index finger touching the gold and the white at the same time so being over edges of a disqualified color.

But the main mistake I'm sure of is the left thumb CMC joint.

Only a little bit of his skin near his MCP joint is visible, so I suspect that that thumb joint is disqualified too.

The Door Catch is done.

The Rainbow Connection ends at Green thanks to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

There are two more cuts before we get back to Crowley.

The Metatron breathes a sigh of relief, so that suggests he either doesn't know the game is happening or didn't pick up on the advanced pocket mechanics in play, if he does know the game is happening.

Aziraphale also takes a breath and possibly swallows that something that Crowley passed to him.

...

Story Commentary

The first time I watched Good Omens 2, this scene confused me so much, especially with the Metatron entering the elevator.

I didn't know who summoned it. I didn't know if I was supposed to know.

Things were happening too fast, and I had a lot of questions.

I had too many questions and too much confusion for the drama to hit me.

What's with the Metatron touching that button anyway? What is he, human? I see clues of both demon and human with him so am not really sure either way.

...

After months of play, I'm glad for the confusion and questions because I have a deep appreciation for the Threshold Tricks through playing The Sideburns Scheme and Earthly Objects.

I'm not sure season 3 will explain things to anyone's satisfaction, but I've found the games worthwhile enough to play nonetheless.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

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Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme