The Intentional Gift of the Finale
I loved the finale. It wasn't perfect. It couldn't be. The side stories that got left in the 6 episode script will always be a rather wistful "What if?" But as far as Aziraphale and Crowley's core story? I thought it was beautifully done.
I understand those who are frustrated. I'm just not.
A few thoughts with a few minor spoilers:
First, what everyone is talking about, I just can't be angry about the lack of a kiss. I can't help but wonder how many of those who are so angry about it are in relationships that span decades?
I can't think of a single high emotion situation in my life, with the exception of perhaps my wedding, where the thing to do has been kiss. My husband and I are very sexual, but we frankly don't kiss often outside of that context. We hug. We hold hands. We put hands on each other's backs as we pass by. We lean into one another. We do silly dances for one another. We flirt in ridiculous ways. We express casual, persistent physical affection as an afterthought. Something our Angel and Demon have been doing for quite some time.
If we knew the world was ending in minutes, and we only had a few moments together, we'd spend it gazing into each other's eyes. Or holding hands. Or —most likely— talking. As that's how we've written our love over decades. Not through the kisses, through the meeting of our minds, which is something that's frankly harder to do when we're kissing.
I'm not saying that's how everyone expresses love. I'm just saying that the relationship the finale portrayed felt very familiar to me.
I would perhaps feel differently if the acting wasn't so perfectly spot on. But it was. And reading the interview with the director where they talked about how much input and say Tennant and Sheen had into the characters and the choices they made, makes it feel even more right.
I agree it was perhaps bittersweet that they, as they had been for 6,000 years, didn't get their full happy ending. But it was the ending they needed, and the ending that let them stay true to themselves.
There is an acting choice that will forever be burned in my mind. The moment in the bookshop, where Aziraphale asks what Crowley wants, and Crowley acknowledges that they are both working from the same motivation: love for humanity. And that they couldn't truly be happy otherwise. Even as Aziraphale has finally acknowledged that what he really really wants for himself is Crowley. They BOTH are coming to an understanding that they both want nothing more than to treasure the world AND each other.
Michael Sheen turns away, and you watch Tennant in the background ask if he'd said the wrong thing. Sheen's face so perfectly shows his heartache, but also his realization that this is what Az loves about Crowley. What they love about each other. And even though it's unfair, this was always, always the only answer either of them could have given.
Give that man an Oscar (emmy? Does this count as TV or Movie? I don't even know anymore).
And then... the story resets. And I love that too. I love that it acknowledges the broader problems with the show. The questions of creator versus creations. I love that it essentially resets them away from The Man Who Ruined It, and brings them back to a version Pratchett so clearly would have loved (And whose friends and family seem to have fought for).
At first, I was irritated that the god in S3 was so much less playful and fun than the God of S1. But I realized that it made perfect sense. We've learned the Writer God of the story is much more careless with their creations than we believed. Just as Aziraphale and Crowley's world learned the same. The Book of Life was also the Book of Good Omens.
The story was always about the dichotomy of god. Of good and evil and how blurred which is which can be. Of the loving god versus the wrathful one. The writers always told us they were the main characters. That turned out to be more truthful than we knew.
By removing the creator from the story, in a very real way, this ending set all the creations free.
Given how many times we had to hear the Wrathful God Writer sidestep the sexuality question, the "Gay's the word" sticker in the back of the final bookstore scene felt very very intentional and very very hilarious.
I am of the belief that the Time after Time music choice was an explicit nod to the idea that this all happens over and over. They find each other over and over. And I think it was more than a little bit saying that fanfiction writers are the ones who get to carry that on.
Adam + Jesus. Muriel & Eric. AHHH these are the sweet side stories I wish we had had.
The finger kiss, the rescue, the puzzle, the three cards, there were so many, many, many callbacks that intentionally flipped the script. I'm sure I missed more.
It started in a garden, and it ended in a garden, In their South Down's cottage. Under an apple tree under the falling stars of the galaxy they love so much, in two chairs that formed a heart like two sets of wings once did. Screaming.
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