#plot speculation

Okay, so, let me explain my reasoning. This isn’t going in chronological order, because I feel like I have to line the facts up a certain way to make the most sense.

Let’s start with what Uriel and Michael say while discussing Gabriel’s disappearance, and with the subtext being about how Michael wants to take over. We’re treated to this set of lines between them:

Uriel: Right now, as of this moment, Heaven does not have a Supreme Archangel.

Michael: There is always a Supreme Archangel.

If there is always a Supreme Archangel, who at the time is the Supreme Archangel? Because Gabriel does not seem to have his usual level of power anymore. When Crowley and Aziraphale push him to remember, it causes him pain. He even tells them:

Gabriel: I can’t remember those things. My, my head isn’t big enough. Not anymore.

If this is a simple case of removed memories, shouldn’t his powers be intact? While the punishment was demoting him to a low level angel, which I assume would come with a deduction in his power, the actual punishment was never enacted. Gabriel superseded it. We know when he removed his memories and where he put them, but what about his power?

Gabriel tells Beezlebub he was coming to her. So the stop at Azirahrale’s bookshop was clearly not meant to be a permanent stay. Gabriel even tells him why he came there.

Gabriel: That so long as I came here something terrible might not happen to me.

We could assume the terrible thing is being found by the other angels. But the rest of the conversation doesn’t quite align.

Aziraphale: Please tell me about The Something Terrible

Gabriel: I just know it’s incredibly awful and that’s why I had to come here and give you the thing.

Aziraphale can’t help him regain his memories. Even if Gabriel still had the matchbox, and the fly was still in it, giving it to Aziraphale wouldn't accomplish anything. Only Beezlebub can control the fly, and the fly itself spends the whole time following Gabriel around anyway - it's never once given to anyone else. Plus, regaining his memories isn't going to stop Something Terrible from happening. Heaven will still be after him, and the Second Coming will still be on the plate.

Once we get all the information, we learn that Gabriel’s and Beezlebub’s relationship all started by planning to avoid Apocalypse 2.0. His refusal is what led to his trial, and proposed punishment. So it’s understandable that the two things are intertwined in the bits of information we glean from Jim. Consider the exchange with Crowely after the rainstorm fiasco:

Gabriel: There will come a tempest, and darkness, and great storms. And the dead will leave their graves and walk the earth once more. And there will be great lamentations.

Crowley: Go On

Gabriel Every day it’s getting closer

The first set of lines is a quote about Judgement Day. The song lyric is a reference to his and Beezlebub’s romance - though in this eerie context could be attributed to both.

And let’s not forget Metatron’s words to Aziraphale:

Metatron: You’re a leader, you’re honest, you don’t just tell people what they want to hear. It’s why Gabriel came to you in the first place, I imagine.

But Gabriel wanted to stop the Apocalypse. And Metatron knows this. If Gabriel sought out Aziraphale in regards to the Second Coming, it was with the intention of preventing it. If his powers and position are handed off to one of the other Archangels, it will do nothing in regards to that goal. But giving them to the angel he knows will do anything to protect the world and stop the Second Coming? That would throw quite a wrench in Heaven’s plans.

But this theory isn’t based just on conversation. So let’s consider two specific times Aziraphale uses his powers, after Gabriel shows up.

The first instance is, of course, hiding Gabriel. Before they do the miracle, they say that by working together it should balance things out so it’s untraceable. To quote:

Aziraphale: If we each did half a miracle. I could hide him from your former people, and you could hide him from mine. It would barely move the dials.

Of course, that isn’t what happens. Instead we get the 25 Lazarii plume of miraculous activity. If Aziraphale had recently been given a power boost by receiving a large chunk of Gabriel’s powers without his knowledge, possibly when he opened The Box, he would have no idea how far he now needed to scale down his miracles.

And the spell they cast is powerful. It doesn’t just exist inside the bookshop. It exists outside of it. Shax and the other demons can’t see Gabriel is Gabriel, even when he steps outside. The Archangels not only fail to realize who he is while inside the bookshop, when they start to discuss the disconnect of Aziraphale having an assistant while in Heaven, the miracle prevents them from realizing something is wrong even there. That is far beyond the original intent.

And there is one other time where Aziraphale’s powers seem to be doing things above and beyond the original intent.

The Ball.

There are a handful of previous times our Ineffable Duo controlled people in small ways. Consider the bus at the end of Season One. Crowley says it will drive them to London, the driver just won't know why. There's also Sister Mary, and Aziraphale telling her she just dreamt about whatever she likes best. Crowley said at The Globe that they have both done blessings and temptations for the Arrangement. But what is happening at The Ball is so far beyond all of that. Aziraphale seems to be controlling a whole room full of people. What they think; how they talk. Nina even admits it’s affecting her very ability to feel the emotions she knows she is feeling:

Nina: I know I’m really upset, why don’t I feel upset?

Something she says to Aziraphale the moment she enters the bookshop, even though he couldn’t have known she was upset yet. So why would he have been using his powers on her at that moment? And let's not forget that he was sharing Madame Tracy’s body and still wasn't able to fully control her. But now he can control multiple people at once?

And there’s one final note on why his powers shouldn’t be working this way. While he informs that Archangels that he performed a miracle for Nina and Maggie to fall in love, he admits to Crowlety it isn’t possible:

Crowley: Great. Do a little miracle, wiggle your fingers about. Nina falls for Maggie, problem solved.

Aziraphale: Ah, miracles don’t work like that.

If making people fall in love isn’t even in Aziraphale’s usual wheelhouse, then how is anything happening at The Ball? Unless most of what’s happening isn’t being done consciously, but rather subconsciously, using powers he didn’t originally have. But that Gabriel may have had. Y'know, “Be Not Afraid” Gabriel?

I suppose it could be argued Gabriel is the one who is subconsciously using his powers, both during the 25 Lazarii miracle, and The Ball. He is present both times. But he has no concept of what they're doing when they cast the protection, and what's happening at The Ball is meant to be based off of Jane Austen’s novels - which Gabriel has never read.

And it still doesn't explain Gabriel’s claim that he has to give Aziraphale something to prevent Something Terrible.

Or Metatron’s bulldozing Aziraphale into taking the position of Supreme Archangel. The dude came prepared with counters for every objection Aziraphale makes. Down to having Muriel stick around to give the bookshop to. Something he tells them to do before even talking to Aziraphale. This was not someone who had any intention of accepting the answer No.

But if he was just afraid of Aziraphale and Crowley interfering with the Second Coming, if that's the reason, why not just erase them from the Book of Life like Michael suggested? Problem solved. He didn't step in to stop Aziraphale's original execution in Season One. So what's changed?

But, given Michael's insistence that there is always a Supreme Archangel, erasing the current said Supreme Archangel sounds like it could be a big issue for Heaven. After all, if that had always been an option, why bother to look for Gabriel at all? Why not just get rid of him the easy way? Nobody would think Heaven had an institutional problem if nobody remembered Gabriel period. But if they couldn't afford to lose Gabriel’s powers, that would explain why that wasn't an option. And if Gabriel had given them away to Aziraphale, that would explain why Metatron stepped in to prevent anything from happening to him.

Having a loose cannon running around with the powers of a Supreme Archangel? Doesn't sound like something that works well with The Great Plan Metatron and the Archangels are so determined to still follow.

Now, taking a look at the concept art:

We can see in the portal behind Elio are tents and a flagpole, and judging by his clothes (minus the cape), he was sent to a summer camp, possibly as a way to help him connect with other kids and form friendships. (Also, a few of these alien designs survived to the teaser lol)

But in the teaser trailer, we see that Elio is alone outside, next to some body of water, which could suggest that he ran out there to be alone or he was chased through the woods by bullies (which could come about as a combination of his quiet nature and his eyepatch. I assumed it was a bandage after he got bit by mosquitos and his eye swelled up, but people have speculated that it's a lazy eye correction. Either way, it furthers the illusion that he's a leader of a world, like he lost an eye in a battle or something). So he calls his mom to tell her the situation, but unfortunately, that was The Worst Possible Time, and is promptly abducted. And, as we all know, is mistaken for Earth's ambassador and has to keep up the facade to avoid brutal memory wipe and possible destruction of Earth.

This will force Elio to interact with not only other people, but people of a vast range of species, and cause him to develop the proper skills in communication and socialization. (There are better ways to develop those skills, but aliens work too). That doesn't even cover how the trial of Earth will appear-- could be a battle royale, could be Elio answering questions beauty pageant style.

Not only that, but I've seen talk of Elio being a metaphor for neurodivergent kids navigating social interaction and/or having to mask while in neurotypical areas. I find that to be a fantastic metaphor and hope that it's true, because it does feel like that. Elio could see himself as the only "normal" one and has to learn how to understand these people and how to talk to them. By the end of the teaser, you see an example of this when Ambassador Grigon tells Elio that he ate his mom at birth. Elio is understandably taken aback but further engages by asking if that's normal for Grigon's species. (It's not, Grigon just did that for some reason, but hey, knowing is half the battle).

(I hope that Grigon remains a friend. A scary friend, yes, but friend nonetheless.)

My major fear for this movie, however, is that the plot is in danger of becoming a "liar revealed" thing, which few people like. I'm hoping that Elio will continue the facade of him being Earth's leader throughout the entire movie and end with him returning to Earth, forever recognized as Earth's ambassador. Which is really funny to think about like if he's a teenager about to go to prom and is abducted again for some emergency counsel haha. But, who knows, maybe the movie will be able to pull off the liar revealed plot. We'll have to see.