Post-Apocalypse Observer

It's been so interesting too, to see people so split on whether this ending is a Pratchett ending or not. There is also a divide on whether it is true to the themes of the book and the show* and I have to say........ yes???

It is, at the very least, explicitly engaging with the text of the book and the show--a lot of the dialogue at the end is in the book itself!!--and I can see how you could tease out these ideas in a hypothetical sequel and come to where we ended up. Did we get the only or the best execution of these themes? Assuredly not. We certainly got a truncated, compromised execution of these ideas, and I can almost see the shape of where some of them could've branched out in a full season.

*The problem is that the text *is* so dense, and wide-reaching, and philosophical, and weird, and zany, is that S3 also *ABSOLUTELY* dropped other themes too. And Good Omens isn't just a few ideas!!

We have known for a long time that we were going to get a compromised product, but I'll tell you why S3 still worked for me.

[Side note: I don't think it was wrong of them to drop this whole line of thought from the first season. The ending sequence works well enough without it, and it's not critically load bearing if S1 is a standalone product, and there's enough supernatural meddling to justify underlining it later, as they ended up doing.]

In Season 2 especially (though in S1 as well) we explicitly see *Crowley and Aziraphale* "messing people about, not just Heaven and Hell, but our beloved protagonists.

Crowley and Aziraphale "mess about" with Job and his family. Now they are being told to do it by their head offices, but they are "messing around" with Job. Explicitly for capricious, fickle whims between Satan and God, but messing about nonetheless! It's CRUEL, it's a cruel story in the Bible that has bedeviled scholars for thousands of years in the examining and interpreting thereof. What is the nature of God, does God contain Sin and Evil as part of being all things?? How can cruel things happen in a universe with a caring, loving God? Why does God allow bad things to happen to us? Can we do anything to appease God to end our suffering? It asks a lot of hard, hard questions of us, unfair ones in an unfair universe whether you believe God exists or not.

And the episode beautifully points all this out, and subverts the ending with quick thinking from our heroes. So it does, ultimately, have a happy end, but the misery Job and his family experienced was still real. They were still used for cheap entertainment for higher beings with far more power than they could ever hope to have.

There's also Elspeth and Wee Morag. By waffling on the complexity of human morals, Crowley and Aziraphale inadvertently end up getting Wee Morag killed. Elspeth's suicide attempt is averted by their actions (and presumably she goes and runs a farm and is good, given that Crowley gets dragged down to Hell for punishment) but that's still a high cost to pay, all around. All for 'messing about.' It's true, Crowley and Aziraphale are not perfect beings, they do make mistakes, they are like us, but far more powerful than us.

And of course, in the present day, they are using Maggie and Nina to try and fix a problem of their own making. They disregard the fact that Nina has a partner, and are doing their best matchmaker routine.

Now I say this as someone who enjoys Maggie/Nina and I hope that they went off into the sunset together after an appropriate amount of time for Nina to get herself sorted. Also, it's part of the premise! It's FUN to watch our angel and demon swan about and do ridiculous things and give people things they deserve or want. But...

Nina and Maggie take Crowley to task at the end of the season, right before the final fifteen. I don't see enough people talking about it.

Nina: "Where's the other one? We need to talk to you." Crowley: "He's out. Not a good time." Nina: "I wasn't asking. There are things you need to hear. You and your... partner *have been messing about in our lives*." Maggie: "We're not a game. We're real people. You can't just pair us up for your amusement."

Nina even uses the same phrase! "Messing about!" It's SO important it's in the book 6 or 8 times in that final confrontation scene in some form or another.

And you can see in the book that Crowley takes it to heart quite quickly!!

And he's trying to impress that importance to his angel!

Crowley, the purported architect of Free Will (possibly, let's call it Schrodinger's Free Will for the moment), realizes he's been party to meddling in people's lives, and I don't think he cares for it.

And I think Adam's words to Anathema are critically important here for the final bit of groundwork for this theme. In the book she approaches him and tells him he could do all sorts of good things like saving the whales etc and Adam shuts her down:

I think this is crucial for understanding the ending of season 3. I think it is there in the text and subtext throughout the show to get there as well, though not stated quite so explicitly.

Aziraphale and Crowley are supernatural beings! Even without explicitly using miracles, they are often shown to influence reality around them, just from their expectations alone! A lot of what happens during *The Ball* was as eerie as it was fun, and I don't believe that Aziraphale is playing anyone like a puppeteer, but his hopes and expectations are so strong, they are clearing having a huge influence on the proceedings. We also see it in Season 3. Without its protector, Whickbur Street fell into a terrible state while our angel was gone.

Good Omens starts with the analogy of games of chance (the show borrows this essentially word-for-word):

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players,* to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

This also comes up near the end of the Armageddon that Almost Was, where Gabriel (or the Metatron in the book) tries to claim that God does not play dice with the Universe/His Loyal Servants. ("Where have you been!?")

And returning to Job (briefly), that was framed as a wager, a bet, between God and Satan.

All over the series you have wagers, chess, games of skill and chance, cards, and gambling as a running motif:

Hell wasn’t a major reservoir of evil, any more than Heaven, in Crowley’s opinion, was a fountain of goodness; they were just sides in the great cosmic chess game. Where you found the real McCoy, the real grace and the real heart-stopping evil, was right inside the human mind.

Crowley reminds us of the Three Card Monte analogy used in S1 when he is drunkenly talking to Jesus. And when he tries to win the Bentley back. The thing to remember about the Three Card Monte is that it's a confidence game at its heart. The dealer will always win in a well-executed game. They don't even have to deal in order to win in the best-laid of plans. And we know that God plays some kind of ineffable card game of her own devising, so why not Three Card Monte? "Nobody ever finds the lady unless she wants them to." Does God play sleight of hand tricks with the Universe as well?

The other thing that the Three Card Monte usually employs is a shill to sell the validity of the game. We'll come back to that idea.

Crowley's early triumphant run at blackjack, followed by the inability to "find the lady" is put there specifically to put us in mind of unfairness, stacked decks, and playing in a rigged game. Just as BC's high-pressure ambush on Crowley when he lost the Bentley is.

Crowley even says it, out loud when he and Aziraphale are in the Bentley looking for Jesus:

"It's all rigged! The entire universe! [...] But you're not [the boss] and you never will be! There's always someone above you stacking the deck."

Aziraphale also mentions that the Metatron is missing during this exchange, but of course we can infer that Crowley really means God here when talking about who the real Boss is.

I am not remotely qualified to talk about the myriad of ways people try to reconcile this question (or don't, looking at you, Calvanists), but Good Omens as a whole seems to be mostly operating on a binary of an either/or. Maybe you can make an argument that God lets humans choose the little things or, conversely, maybe she lets us choose the big things, but I don't know that it is fully settled that Free Will is as real as we think it is.

Throughout the show and the novel, at critical junctures Aziraphale and Crowley turn to each other and ask: "Did the Almighty Plan it this way all along?" Now we could make the argument that as beings without Free Will, this may just be their default position. After all, they are much closer to Her than we are, even if humans are made in God’s own image.

But it happens multiple times in the book at the show, and most of these exchanges are nearly identical to the book.

Their meeting in Eden starts with them contemplating God’s plans. Practically page 1 of the book!!

“You’ve got to admit it’s a bit of a pantomime, though,” said Crawly. “I mean, pointing out the Tree and saying ‘Don’t Touch’ in big letters. Not very subtle, is it? I mean, why not put it on top of a high mountain or a long way off? Makes you wonder what He’s really planning.” “Best not to speculate, really,” said Aziraphale.

Or again, later, 11 years before Armageddon:

“I can’t interfere with divine plans,” he croaked. Crowley looked speculatively into his glass, and then filled it again. “What about diabolical ones?” he said. “Pardon?” “Well, it’s got to be a diabolical plan, hasn’t it? We’re doing it. My side.” “Ah, but it’s all part of the overall divine plan,” said Aziraphale. “Your side can’t do anything without it being part of the ineffable divine plan,” he added, with a trace of smugness.

The biggest difference in the book when deciding to become Godfathers, is that Aziraphale throws in a dig that everything that Hell does is part of the overall Ineffable Divine Plan. A sort of smug ‘neener-neener’ that always lets him have the upper hand.

But it cuts both ways, doesn’t it? We see Aziraphale struggle in the book and the show with the idea of ineffability and trying to intuit what God actually wants (see The Flood and Job) and reconcile those wants that with his morals.

And as Aziraphale contemplates in the book: Sometimes you really had to hope that the ineffable plan had been properly thought out.

And then of course, after Adam et al avert the Apocalypse, in the book as in the show, Aziraphale and Crowley ask themselves—again—if God had really planned everything out this way (on the page and onscreen).

The last time they really talk about God’s plans in the book was left out of season 1, but transplanted into season 3. It is adapted, of course, for the screen and to account for different characters being present, but just about everything said on screen for much of that scene is directly from the book:

With the understanding that we can’t really fathom the Ineffable—is God playing Solitaire or Three Card Monte?

Indeed, Crowley asks a fantastic question in his little tirade. Why would God let the rebellion and good and evil happen? What if Satan’s role in the cosmic game is to act as a shill? Whether Satan knows it or not*, he and Hell are there to sell humans on the idea that we have Free Will.

*(I’m not sure he does, but Crowley implies that he might be in on the grift with his assertion “You knew we couldn’t win!”)

Because that’s the problem, with having an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-present deity that is playing some kind of cosmic game with the Universe. It’s that, fundamentally, They could be manipulating everything. They do have the power to exert control or lay out plans within plans. It’s nearly a paradox, isn’t it? If God knows all, and sees all, and has all power, do our choices even matter if we do have Free Will? If God can anticipate our every choice and action and build a game around it, is that still Free Will? Or is that stacking the deck? If we have the Free Will to exert our own choices and thwart Her plans, then wouldn’t that make us more powerful than the all-powerful God? Doesn’t She always have the upper hand on us?

With Satan and the illusion of Free Will the Universe becomes a blind test (it could never be double-blind, with one party all-seeing). With Heaven and Hell being the same sides of one coin (or two floors in the same building) that gives humans an illusion of choice in where we are going, when it is all the same destination. Maybe we all get shuffled back into the deck after everything is said and done.

I will risk a bit of speculation in this part, on how the sequel-that-never-was or what-a-six-season-arc would have looked like, but I will try to minimize this, but I feel like that is equally important to explaining why this worked so well for me, because I feel like you can see the shape of greater things in what we got.

I think, if you take the ideas from the book that did not make it into season 1, and the ideas that were seeded in season 2, you could absolutely find your way to a sequel that asks the question: Is it right or just or fair for humans to live under the yoke of beings so much more powerful than us? For them to use us so cheaply like cards in a deck? And the answer is, of course: no.

And I do believe it when the team says that this was the intended ending all these years, so I do think it’s right and natural that A&C would get elevated roles in a sequel anyways, given that they’d probably be the most major (if not only) repeat characters in the sequel that never was. The Pratchett estate could have let this go. They fought tooth and nail to claw this out of cancellation. Rob is an executive producer on the project. He and Terry’s daughter (and, yes, even certain disgraced other parties) have all insisted that this is where we were going to end up. The ending was the thing that everyone involved in was the most protective of.

But we got an imperfect ending. It would have been nice, and an obvious bookend, for example, to get Jesus facing down his Mother as we got Adam facing down Satan. I think we definitely would have gotten something more there in a full season. But the writing is already so tight, there wasn’t enough time to fully develop both story lines in full, and they absolutely focused on the themes I’ve already talked about up to this point. And because Aziraphale and Crowley are our protagonists now, from Season 2 on, they are the ones to make this choice in the end. And I think that is right and proper in this instance. Because they are ultimately deciding what happens to the supernatural world.

Aziraphale and Crowley get some time to themselves in a garden, and Aziraphale asks Crowley what he wants. (Because he knows he is too selfish in this moment, he just wants Crowley). And Crowley—the demon who thought this whole time (and yet also doubted) that he gave humanity Free Will, wants to do it all over again. Only this time, he wants to do it right. He wants it to be real.

And he and Aziraphale do it. For us.

Because they know, even if they banished the rest of Heaven and Hell, they themselves would always be prone to influence the world around them with their powers. Once you start messing around, you can’t really stop. Even if God put the Universe back how it was, you could never get away from that kind of interference. It’s embedded in the very bones.

Now was this a test from God just to see what they choose? Or does She actually cede control for a change? Or is it another one of Her Plans?

Let us ask ourselves, why is Satan really here? Is Satan there to sell the image of Free Will to Aziraphale and Crowley as he was to humans? His place in the ending seemed strange to me until I thought of his role as the shill in Three Card Monte. (And how quick he is to tell us that The Satan was just a role, a job title!)

Because if Satan is in on the grift, not just an unwitting tool, he seems genuinely shocked by Her acquiescence. He didn’t think they’d get their way, that She would enact whatever Her real plans were.

And I think they did it. I think Aziraphale and Crowley, impossibly, Found the Lady with the decision they made. (Whether or not God wanted them to). They did the impossible and asked for the impossible in return.

It is a difficult ending open to a MULTITUDE of interpretations, but I think they were also able to vouchsafe the universe from any undue interference from Her in that moment.

They asked for a Godless universe. They birthed a Universe with their love (didn’t we see how powerful they are when they work miracles together!?). They asked for our choices to matter. Wouldn’t their choice—having a true, real decision—make them more powerful than God in that moment!?

And if we make choices in this Universe for good or evil, at least it will be us making them. If the Universe is unfair, then it is unfair to everyone in the same way. There is no favoritism or predetermined fate. No special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

This is a bit more of my own interpretation (or at least one of them, I hold multiple readings of the ending at the moment, and I'm still developing some of these ideas), but I think the similarities we see in our history are implied to be the echoes of what happened. The echoes of Aziraphale and Crowley’s memories ripple through our Universe and our Earth.

As Adam says in the book:

Spirited Away has a lovely companion to this idea: Nothing that happens is ever forgotten, even if you can't remember it. || Once you've met someone you never really forget them. It just takes a while for your memories to return.

I like to think that Aziraphale and Crowley quantum entangled themselves in that moment. That they know, underneath, in their souls who they are and everything that happened, even if they don't always remember. But now they get to be just like us, through a multitude of lifetimes, finding each other over and over. Soulmates by choice.

Well @havemyheartaziraphale did. Say hello to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's heroine: Truly Scrumptious.

What Does the only children's story penned by (Crowley's favourite) James Bond author Ian Fleming have to do with our beloved season 3? Well for starters, Truly is a blonde haired blue eyed angelically sweet high status woman often dressed in white who drives a yellow vintage car. She's also the only heiress to a huge candy empire controlled by her father, Lord Scrumptious.

S2 original 2 door Bentley turned yellow & Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Truly Scrumptious' yellow car. Her partner in crime, Caratacus Potts, rebuilds Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (the car) and uses it to sail across the sky to find a kidnapped grandfather Potts.

Good omens s3, Bentley flying through space & Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, (Gen 11) flying through space

Seriously, go read the wikipedia entry, the movie is nuts.

I watched the movie trying to comb for clues, and came up with a few nuggets 1. A story within a story Good Omens is full of movie references, but season 2 took it to a whole new level. Two of the movies I've written about before, as well as three I haven't, fit the same basic premise as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

Brazil

Tales of Hoffmann

The prisoner (TV series)

Wizard of Oz

League of Gentlemen’s apocalypse

They're all stories that present a real world, and then take you one layer deeper into an imaginary world that reuses facsimiles of the real world characters to play different parts. At this point it would be a little silly to think that they're not trying to tell us something about the structure of the story of Good Omens. Operas especially seem to hold most of the main plot elements between Crowley & Aziraphale in the Good Omens Tv series, with S1 closely mirroring Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Season 2 closely mirroring Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann. As Chitty is a musical, could it be the template for Season 3?* 2. We might get a return to Tadfield?

Thanks to @theastrophysicistnextdoor who noticed that while singing the eponymous song, Caratacus & children actually drive through the same village used to film Tadfield in season 1 of Good Omens. That coupled with the Tadfield newspaper in the season 3 promo photo could mean a return to the most perfect village in England this time around?

Good Omens S1 & Chitty Chitty Bang Bang driving the family through Tadfield

3. The Child Catcher goes rogue and kidnaps Caratacus’ children with the help of and lolly and ices truck.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Child Catcher reveals his prison truck & Good Omens S3

This wild contraption used by the Child Catcher seems like the same kind of disguise the Bentley is adopting in the teaser photo. Gaudy, yellow, over the top, and hiding a suspicious amount of caboose room for.... kidnapping? He even promises "delicious ices, lollies and treacle tarts" to the children in order to lure them in. If I had to guess, I would say someone is going Jesus-napping in S3. Could it be Michael or Dagon’s role?

4. The final fifteen might have been a ruse after all?

One thing that I think is fascinating is that the final fifteen is in CCBB, and it’s clearly real emotions inside of a planned ruse. Let me explain. So Caratacus has taken Truly and the children on a seaside picnic in Chitty, and the children ask for a story about pirates. Caratacus imagines an elaborate tale about a Bavarian pirate army come to steal Chitty for it's flying powers. While telling the children this story, we sink seamlessly into his narrative as it takes over the movie. We are now watching the movie on two levels: As his story time inside the car on the seaside with Truly and children listening, but also as they act out the fantasy he's spinning on-screen. This is important, because when we get to the crux of the great plan to fool the king in the story, Caratacus and Truly's characters pretend to be automatons to entertain the king long enough to let a child army come and attack. But watch the clip of their song and dance and see if you don't notice anything weird happening.

The Caratacus (Crowley) confesses his love to Truly (Aziraphale), but she has to refuse him as part of the ruse. But that's not all.

There's this moment where Caratacus looks in the mirror and realizes that he's inserted himself into the story, and he's basically confessing his real love to real Truly sitting with him in the car listening. And Truly's character buffets him in the head because they’re trying desperately to act like dolls to fool the king of the land (aka The Metatron) and overthrow him as he watches them dance. She gives him this look of "what are you DOING!? This is not what we planned."

And it's the same look we get here when Aziraphale looks just so confused about the way Crowley is talking during his confession. Inside of Caratacus' story the whole confession is part of the ruse, but not his and Truly's very real realizations about their feelings that happen in that moment outside the fake dance. We don't have the answers yet. I suspect, as most of you do, that we'll get the keys to understanding this interaction in S3. But this gives me interesting evidence even though the emotions were all real in the FF, maybe the interaction was part of some other plan.

5. Could a demon/human incursion into heaven be in store?

The climax of Caratacus' story comes after this dance, when the plan goes off and the banned children of the land escape the dungeon and absolutely smash the kings birthday reception with all the lords and ladies in attendance getting absolutely wrecked. Could a similar wrecking of heaven be in store, either by demon hordes, or human ones? Or is this just a rehash of the ball invasion from S2. Who knows.

6. A happily ever after is waiting?

As it is a comedy and a children's movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang does end in the most saccharine of ways, with all obstacles being removed, Caratacus announcing that he can finally be with Truly, and the long awaited kiss. But hey, I'm not complaining.

At least they kiss ankle deep in a duck pond. What remains to be revealed is whether we get the same kind of magical reality we do here, where Chitty flies off into the sky, this time without wings. Only time will tell... Thanks again to @havemyheartaziraphale, @theastrophysicistnextdoor, @dunkthebiscuit, @embracing-the-ineffable and all the @ineffable-detective-agency members who helped out. We're all excited to see if this theory pans out or not!

So first off for those that are curious, this is nowhere near the Angelic trial script found in season 2. On closer inspection, the symbols seemed to be some sort of repeating flourish font. So we had to find the fond.

I spent 3 whole US dollars on this terrible decorative filigree. Now all that's left is to type out every single letter by hand one by one, and presto change-o

So what mysteriious secrets have we revealed?

"dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..." 

If that quote looks familiar to you, you're probably a graphic designer. This text is a mixture of standard placeholder Latin, corrupted fragments, and keyboard-mashing, a literal translation is impossible. However, we can translate the source phrases from which these rings were built.

In professional typesetting, Lorem Ipsum text is meant to simulate the "look" of a document without the "distraction" of meaning. If we translate the intended meaning of the recognizable Latin roots, the inscription reads like a fragmented philosophical treatise on pain and duty.

Most of these rings are derived from the same sentence: "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit…"

"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain…"

Ring 1 (outside) elit sed do adipiscin do eius modg elit exe adipiscing elit adipiscing elit rcit- tion ind of orem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing

Ring 2 orem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit sed do eiusmod ugimt sit vo(vd)luptatem nda dbc iueq sunt in culpa qui dolor incia

These rings focus on dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod.

"…pursuing excellence, but also through the work and pain of the moment. [Corrupted gibberish: dugimt, dbc] …they are in fault who [fail in their] duty through a weakness of mind."

Ring 3 ipsum mnnv dnmvn dfgnkda iem io sum dolor sit amet consecti dolor ea mc vemo cillu volu m dolor eenia i voluus m “Heart broken World Broken What’s the point of anything?” di

This ring contains the most corruption Recognizable Roots: veniam, illum, voluptas.

"…[Gibberish]… pain itself… [Gibberish]… that piece of pleasure… [Gibberish]… Heart broken World Broken What’s the point of anything?"

Ring 4 Amet consectetur adipiscing elit sed do eius ____lee dolor in reprmin i fmm ve n iekjd eo ore voluptate sum dolor sit

Ring 5 adipiscing elit sed do eiusmod tempor cu quip ex ea comms ltmn jrew t r t e f nb ai nima veniam esi ea commor

These rings use fragments of the section discussing "the effort required to achieve results." reprehenderit, voluptate, eiusmod tempor, ex ea commodo.

"…to find fault in [reprehenderit] pleasure… [Gibberish]… through the effort of work… [Gibberish]… unless they result in some convenience or advantage."

Ring 6 corporis suscipit laeorios am ev a dkd wr scing elit sed mque laudante totam rem aper iam ullam

This ring pulls from the "laborious" section of the text. corporis suscipit laboriosam, laudantium, rem aperiam, ullam.

"…undertakes laborious physical exercise… [Gibberish]… praising… I will open the whole matter… [Gibberish]… no one."

Ring 7 (left side) Ring 7 (right side) um dolor sit ame i consese __ur adipiscing orem ipsum dolor sit

Ring 8 (left side) Ring 8 (right side) eiusmoddbc iue qwkl Orem ipsum dolor sit

Ring 9 (left side) Ring 9 (right side) mec at sua dolor i dolor ee mn neu

These outer/inner fragments are repetitions of the same opening phrases. "Pain itself… consectetur… eiusmod… their own pain."

Conclusion: Peter Anderson studios are giant trolls and deserve to be put in a corner to think about what they’ve done.

On behalf of everyone in the @ineffable-detective-agency who worked on this rush job:

Apologies for casual Murielbaiting, I didn’t want to make the content of this post too obvious for those trying to avoid any S3 related materials. We will now jump from the lowest (and most beloved) to the highest (and most disliked) position in the Heavenly organisational hierarchy: the Metatron’s tie has been a proverbial bone of contention within the fandom for a good while and the very reason why I originally started to write this meta. You’ve probably heard some echoes of those recurring debates by now: is it a specific flower? Or maybe a dice for God to play with?

If you’re following the Good Omens Prime social media accounts, you probably know that a variation on the same pattern has appeared on Mr Arnold’s new cardigan:

As well as on the shirt and neckerchief of this for now unnamed Whickber Street gentleman (who, based purely by the storefront behind him, could be Walter, the owner of the Italian delicatessen on Whickber Street) played by Mark Addy:

You might be wondering what’s going on around Soho and making people wear growing numbers of this particular pattern. The answer is simple: The Second Coming.

But in order to get to this conclusion, we need to take a good look at this part of the balustrade of the Belém Tower in Lisbon, Portugal. The symbolic point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers (more on that in two shakes of a lamb’s tail).

The design above is a lovely combination of the Order of Christ cross, former Knights Templar order, and a quatrefoil motif.

The Templar cross is a default form of the cross pattée symbol, extremely common in heraldic circles as well as Good Omens sets specifically. We can see it in varying forms literally everywhere from S1 Tadfield Manor through S2 Archers mausoleum to the award-winning posters by the phenomenal Rory Kurtz:

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, better known as the order of the Knights Templar, was founded in early 12th century as a military group securing the safe passage of pilgrims to Jerusalem. You can read the meta pertaining to the Temple of Solomon here. Long story short, the order was annihilated on charges of heresy, homosexuality, and witchcraft only two centuries later, but the assets and fortifications amassed by it during this period were absorbed within the Portuguese order of Templars of Tomar, that, newly rebranded as the Order of Christ, used them to aid the Reconquista.

During the rule of Prince Henry the Navigator, this specific cross came to be associated with the Portuguese discoveries and the Portuguese Empire and is often referred to by the name of the Portuguese cross, highlighting its significance as a national symbol. It’s also widely used in the context of Freemasons and several other religious groups of similar provenance and tradition.

Quatrefoil means literally four-leaf and in Christianity represents the four Gospels or a stylised cross. It’s a generally accepted luckbringer or, one cold say, good omen. In various cultures it symbolizes the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, West) and constitutes a moral compass of sorts, just like Aziraphale’s bookshop. In Mesoamerica, where the symbol appeared as early as 700 BC, the intersection of those four parts of the world was believed to be a portal to the Underworld. You might remember that one of Maggie’s pendants represents a toucan, in the same cultural circle believed to be a psychopomp, messenger of gods able to travel between the worlds and guide human souls. Everything seems to be connected!

Originally, I found it very interesting in the sense that apart from Aziraphale’s penchant for collecting misprinted Bibles and vaguely angelic paraphernalia, we were not accustomed to any angels displaying anything even remotely identifiable in human religious categories. Not in Heaven and not on Earth.

There’s a popular theory assigning Metatron’s black wardrobe some ominous significance and a possibility of him being aligned with Hell that I personally don’t think much of. After all, we did see another angel who’s clearly following God as far as he can wear it occasionally (especially when some magic is involved), and a black suit is the perfect choice for blending in with the London crowd. If anything, it could be a way of showing off as highly educated in human customs and culture as well as in establishing a much needed connection with the angel he came to manipulate/threaten into submission and subsequent promotion that seems more like a punishment.

However, Metatron’s tie choice could be seen as a form of right-wing typical discreet flagging of his approach to Heaven and God in general, one based on violence and ruthless conquest rather than Christ’s teachings of love and sacrifice. The occurrence of multiple humans wearing the same mark could imply that they’re the (titular big cross) ducks with ears Crowley was so concerned about in the past. It begs the question whether it’s really a result of Metatron’s intensified influence over the Earth now that Aziraphale is up in Heaven or maybe a sign that all of them are actually on the same side — one of Christ? Could all three aspects of the Good Omens world — Heaven, Earth, and Hell — be successfully united into one perfect sphere like the S2 poster suggests? And by the very thing that is currently threatening to tear them apart, that is the Second Coming?