A humble recommendation
To all the afflicted ducks that have been left heartbroken after that Finale, be it because of how inconsistent and plot-hole ridden it felt or the narrative itself, please allow me to earnestly recommend you vidavalor.tumblr.com's metas and analysis.
Big brain city, this whale 😁.
She has been studying the language and symbolism of Good Omens for years now and has reached some fascinating conclusions with great potential for the fandom going forward.
Reblogging to tag some of you guys that I know for a fact are struggling after the finale. Some of you are big fandom names, to others I've been talking to the last few days, seeking mutual comfort. A few I'm lucky enought to call my friends. If, by mistake, I happen to tag someone who is happy with their own interpretation of the ending, my most honest apology and feel free to blatantly ignore this. All the other, I believe all of you could benefit from diving into these metas and completely rediscovering Good Omens. I know for a fact it did wonder for me.
@fuckyeahgoodomens, @iforgiveyouprime, @crowleysgirl56, @tweedfeather, @thedeepmiracleperfection, @aureliusssss, @cesiscribbles, @gleafer, @eggseverywhere, @jotun-philosopher, @lancrewizzard, @itsineffhazbinle, @reasonably-tattered, @abaddonhope, @rainbowhyperfixation, @hey-must-be-a-devilbetween-us, @snogfairy, @lonicera-caprifolium, @wistfulnightingale, @child-of-ineffable-divorce, @awake, @binbogummy, @etaleah, @youryurigoddessdess, @dalliancekay, @ultra-penith, @copperbadge, @armageddint, @depraveddame, @klikandtuna, @starkidsupremacy, @snogfairy, @sapierror, @embirush-art, @fellshish, @baggvinshield, @extremelyalcoholicbreakfast, @glumdelay, @cliopadra, @darklinaforever, @theonevoice, @hellogoodomens, @greywaren141022, @possibilityleft, @ineffable-stability, @very-normal-abt-this, @tired-beatle, @rocksandboulders, @gingiekittycat
To all of you, I only hope that this can assuage some of the heartbreak we are all carrying.
To our world!
#i generally can’t read long metas ever since going through bbc sherlock
Ey, completely understandable! I'll be the first one to one admit that some of her metas look rather daunting, dense and extensive, and that on my first read I was just scanning through them. Especially the first ones. Yet, as I worked through all the references and connections she makes I started going "holy shit, this not only makes LOTS of sense but is making me fall in love with Good Omens all over again!" And I've been hooked ever since.
For all those who might be reluctant to commit to such extensive reading just on the word of a stranger, allow me to summarize some of her most compelling points. Then, if you find them interesting enough and want the full recipes, with a plethora of within canon and meta evidence, you can go and delve for yourselves:
Both the novel and the show are choking full of narrative devices that tell us to look deep into the language. Such exploration reveals a complex system of coded speech based in A and C prolonged experience on Earth that is, mostly, beyond the habilities of any other angel/demon. It is what we have come to call "ineffable husbands speech" and "Nightingales Cant". This cant becomes intewoven in the narrative on a metatextual level, to such extend as to be fundamental to decode some of the most cryptic or ambiguous moments of the show and greatly enhances the meaning of what meets the eye.
In the original show, the Nightingales Cant and the contex clues hidden in the design of the bookshop demonstrate that the Ineffables have been friends from the very beginning, that they got over the "hereditary enemies" BS in the early biblical era (and playfully incorporated it into their language) and had been collaborating with and supporting each other since long before the Arrangement was spoken outloud. Pretty much every time we see them making a big step forward in their relationship, it is something that had been brewing for a long time, and we just witness the moment when they feel save enough to manifest it in public.
Their "fights" and any accusations/teasing of doing good/evil are carefully constructed acts they put in place to make the other notice Heaven/Hell are on the watch, or when one needs to keep the other away for the while it takes to solve an issue with their respective "office".
They started making mutual romantic romantic gestures in the biblical era. They have been lovers for millennia, and living as a settled couple for, at least, five centuries (I understand this might not everyone's cupperty, but for me it greatly enhanced the vitalism and humanism of the whole narrative, and trust me when I say Vida will provide a helluva evidence for it). They plan their life together, care for and protect each other. They collaborate not only through occasional actions as per the Arrangement, they they also write their reports together and amuse themselves by openly mocking Hell and Heaven.
Except for certain rules they have imposed themselves to avoid detection, they do, in fact, live together in the bookshop. It was build with the explicit purpose in mind of being their safe space. It was supposed to be the only space were they could speak openly, whereas their interactions outdoors always needed to be more guarded and heavily coded.
For the longest time, Aziraphale carried the burden of being the protector for the both of them, providing them with settlement and stability. The Bentley is Crowley's contribution to their shared life, and an attempt at reassuring Aziraphale that he will always have a B plan, hence Aziraphale's bafflement in 1941.
The second series delves into more complex aspects of their dynamics with their offices, on one side, and humanity, on the other. The main point being a new depth in Beelzebub and Gabriel's characters that situates them as valuable allies. There are evidences of Aziraphale and Crowley striving to recruit other angels and demons to their side, so they can be persuade NOT to fight for H&H when the moment comes.
The Ineffable Bureaucrats have known about A&C relationship for quite some time. They started reluctantly covering for them out of individual sympathy, then grew closer as they had to cover the whole affair from their respective bosses (Satan and the Metatron).
Gabriel is the largest responsible for the protector complex that burdens Aziraphale, a burden so heavy it brings them both to a mental collapse (Gabriel at the begging of the season, Aziraphale at the end). Gabriel instilled in Aziraphale the notion the only way for them to protect their beloved demons was to go with the Plan and figth through Armaggedon like good little angels, liberating the demons from the abuse of Hell and Satan. On the other hand, Gabriel was the closest thing Aziraphale had to a kindred mind in Heaven, so their relationship is a lot deeper than what met the eye in s1.
The Ineffable Bureaucrats have been actively protecting Aziraphale and Crowley's life on Earth, largely facilitating their relationship, and they have mostly succeeded, minus for the execution attempt, were they had their wings twisted by their superiors, much to Gabriel's fury, who saw Aziraphale actions as a threat to the delicate balance that kept all four of them save. Satan taking his fury on Crowley out on Beelzebub is a potential in-universe explanation for their change of face.
Shax and the other demons invading the ball is a metaphor for Aziraphale reaching his mental breaking point, having his home and life invaded by his proverbial demons of his self-doubt and sense of ineptitude, of not being good enough to protect everything he loves, something he now feels he will only achive through a major sacrifice of "burning his books (memories)" and leaving the bookshop behind.
Crowley offering Alpha Centaury as a hidespot for the Bureaucrats is his way of extending an olive branch and inviting collaboration, more than the recommendation of an actual physical place.
The Final Fifteen are riddled with hints that it is a shared project between the Metatron and Satan. The entity with Derek Jackoby's face is, more than likely, Satan borrowing the Metatron's appearance, which would explain why he could only be identified by Crowley, someone whose mind we know Satan has control over.
That clusterfuck of a love confession is a mutually desperate attempt to communicate to one another the danger they are in and the fact that they are being observed by all sides. They part with the heart heavy with fear and pain but with the mutual understanding that they are forced apart by circumstances beyond their control. Aziraphale ascends to Heaven in what could be interpreted as a metaphorical death. Crowley drives away, possibly to go reunite with the Bureaucrats and start planning together.
AS per the finale: we see pretty much every single fear of Aziraphale coming to fruition. He cannot keep staving the Second Comming, cannot use his power to direct it to a kinder solution and now everything is falling to pieces. Crowley never understood any of his motivations, despite former evidence of the opposite, and was left on Earth, alone and vulnerable to be have his life (his Bentley) taken by the Satan mirror that is Brian Cameron. Aziraphale manages a temporary victory defeating and disarming the Camerons, precisely through cryptic crossword (coded communication)
Despite this, as the finale moves forward, it becomes clearer and clearer that we are just delving into the chaos of Aziraphale's psyche, which allow us to explain the flagrant inconsistencies, how cruel the narrative is to Aziraphale and the highlighting of Crowley's character. Pretty much every single character is a reflection of the angel's troubled psyche: Michael represents his fury against the system, Muriel his self-perception of naivety and ineptitude, Jesus his struggle with his need to be "good" and comforting even to his detriment, etc.
The ending feels so wrong and unreal on purpose, precisely because this is the situation they reach when they get dragged by their psychological struggles, when they don't believe in themselves, their loved ones and everybody's hability to choose. This is, very much, not the lady, not the final they strive for.
Then, at the very end of that uncanny-as-all-living-fuck Human AU epilogue: we get the final clue that ties everything together. With the very last shot, the night sky appears to form an opening eye and we hear a whooshing sound, mirroring the moment when Jimbriel recovered his memories at the end of s2.
Therefore, everything we saw in s2 and the finale was a dream or a vision Aziraphale is having, product of the stress derivated from his attempts to finally find a solution to the Heaven-Hell issue. Now he is plenty aware that the solution will never come from trying to seize power within the system and that his answers are all here on Earth, in the Whichber Street that is his life and his world, along with Crowley and his neighbours.
The Second Coming won't by disarmed through war or power control, but by feeding peas (peace) to the ducks (people, and by extension angels and demons) and giving a cheese sarny by to a hungry stranger. You can't have war without war, battles can't be fought without soldier, and the way to take away those soldier from the power that controls them is by offering them something to live for, by "caring about their quality of life and coffee (freedom)". They already managed it with Gabriel and Beelzebub without even intending to, and it caused a major power vacuum in the system. The next step are to keep reaching out, to Michael and Dagon and Uriel and Shax, until the ranges of Heaven and Hell are depleted and the abusive duo of the Metatron and Satan loose all their power for lack of anyone to carry their orders.
Aziraphale is bound to wake up any moment now, on his bed by Crowley's side, and they will have a long talk and devise the Plan that will make it happen, make it real, and save everybody from Hell and Heaven once and for all.
Look, is it a perfect explanation, or they way I would have wanted the story to be told? No. But at the very least it gave me the peace of mind that my favourite show hadn't been mutilated out of sheer malice and ignorance, and it helped explain why so many different people who manifested themselves as fans really thought they were doing something enjoyable and fitting with the narrative, trusting the fandom to be our crazy regular selves and decode the whole thing. Above everything else, I find it to the way of interpreting the canon material that keeps it closer to its original spirit and opens a whole new potential to explore the story on our own.
