Line #25 Fridge/GoodOmens2019


1	'''Warning: Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies to this page. Proceed at your own risk.'''
2
3	!!FridgeBrilliance
4
5	* Heaven and Hell being in an office building (the ''same'' office building, no less) puts their interactions with humanity in a new light. Heaven is like a company that has found it profitable to be good to its "customers," but ultimately throws them under the bus in pursuit of their own petty interests. Hell, on the other hand, not only finds it more profitable to screw over its "customers," but encourages the dog-eat-dog employee workplace environment that corporations are infamous for.
6	** The floor that contains the elevators is made of water. Aziraphale simply walks on it and goes Upstairs, while Crowley first walks on it, then sinks to go Downstairs. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Peter walked on the water towards Jesus, but he became afraid and began to sink (lost faith), so Jesus rescued him.
7	* When Crowley hears that Jesus is being crucified for his message of "Be kind to each other," rather than expressing bewilderment or horror, he sadly mutters "Yeah, that'll do it." Why? He regularly works alongside demons who would be violently offended at the mere ''suggestion'' of showing kindness.
8	* The audience is shown that Heaven and Hell's "Great Plan" is not in line with the Ineffable Plan in the first episode. The third-person omniscient narrator identifies herself as God and explains that She doesn't play dice with the universe-- Her game is similar to an incredibly complex game of poker in the dark, where no one else knows the rules. The show then explains the mistake with the baby swap through the visual metaphor of a dealer performing a shuffling trick that puts the card representing the Antichrist where no one expects him to be, accompanied by God's narration. While She never says anything explicitly (which would be pretty out of character), God is giving the audience insight into one of Her card games, showing that no matter what Heaven and Hell believe about the Great Plan, Her ''true'' plan was to cause the baby mix-up so that Heaven and Hell’s attention would be misdirected to attempting to influence the wrong child-- ensuring that the ''true'' Antichrist would be left alone to grow up like any other human, and therefore have a choice in his future.
9	* While both Heaven and Hell have clearly decided what to do with Crowley and Aziraphale long before, it's interesting that Hell at least goes through the motions of giving Crowley a trial, while Heaven does not do the same for Aziraphale. It could suggest that the archangels are so convinced that they can't do wrong that they don't see a reason to second-guess their decision in any way, to the point that nobody even answers when Aziraphale asks if he couldn't persuade them to reconsider. Beelzebub, on the other hand, gives Crowley a chance, however tiny, to change their minds.
10	** Alternately: demons are used to double-dealing and manipulation, while angels are repeatedly shown to be gullible and take things at face value. Of course demons would think that Crowley had more to say or some kind of plan, while angels would assume the worst of Aziraphale without question. “Not questioning" is the reason that they're still angels, after all.
11	** Another interpretation: Hell is a land of chaotic evil demons looking for a spectacle and they never actually intended to give Crowley a chance to make any points, they just wanted to watch him squirm at a trial and then be executed, while Heaven is a land of lawful "good" (aka an authoritarian dystopia) and the angels are just concerned with getting the troublemaker out of the way as fast as possible so they can go back to being orderly. Note that Aziraphale doesn't have a crowd watching him be executed.
12	*** As Terry has said elsewhere: "If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”
13	** Alternatively, the 'Angel not getting a trial' is a subtle [[EvilLawyerJoke "All lawyers go to Hell"]] joke.
14	** Crowley is only getting a trial the same way that Josef K. of ''Film/TheTrial'' is getting a trial, i.e. a KangarooCourt. Notice that instead of a defence counsel, he gets a person making sure that none of his misdeeds are forgotten. It's a farce and a mockery of justice intended to make him squirm - notice how the bathtub for the holy water is already waiting in full view - in front of an audience of other demons behind a protective pane of glass, placed as close as they can possibly get to his execution. There is clearly ''zero'' intention of taking anything that he says into consideration. The demons are just twisting the knife.
15	** Hell is ObviouslyEvil and controls its people through fear, and so they wanted Crowley's execution to be a big public spectacle. The KangarooCourt was just their excuse to have this spectacle. Heaven tries to pretend that they're the good guys, and use that [[TautologicalTemplar appeal to morality]] to control its people. A public execution might damage that image, better to just let Aziraphale 'disappear' discreetly and leave his fate as an implied threat rather than a concrete fact.
16	* The exchange between Adam and his mother in the last episode is a direct parallel to the original events in Eden on a smaller scale. Like God, Deirdre is a loving parental figure choosing to let her child go out into the garden, even though she knows that he's probably going to disobey her one instruction. Sure enough, Adam mimics his namesake, disobeys, and leaves the garden, even stealing an apple on the way. The narration also drives home the parallel, suggesting both acts of disobedience to be WorthIt.
17	* It makes perfect sense for War to be carrying Aziraphale’s flaming sword. It was the first weapon ever wielded by mankind, after all.
18	* Aziraphale and Crowley talk with each other during most of the "To be, or not to be" monologue. They stop and listen when it mentions "the pangs of despised love", and "the insolence of office". Their shared inability to acknowledge their mutual feelings (either [[ShipTease/GoodOmens2019 romantic]] or of [[HeterosexualLifePartners good friendship]]), and the bullying from their respective Head Offices, are the only things keeping them apart.
19	* An early hint that Crowley and Aziraphale switched bodies? When "Crowley" sees his Bentley parked on the sidewalk in perfect condition, he hails a cab instead of taking his prized car - because if he ''did'' take the Bentley, he’d have to [[DrivesLikeCrazy drive like Crowley does]] to maintain his cover - and, as we've seen before, Aziraphale's outright ''terrified'' of how fast Crowley drives. Meanwhile, "Aziraphale"'s reaction to the restored bookshop is extremely subdued; there's mild surprise at Adam's addition of some favorite children's literature, but not the delight at new books that you'd expect from the angelic bibliophile.
20	* There's another reason why Aziraphale and Crowley's body swap trick to escape their executions and con their sides into leaving them alone goes flawlessly-- as described in the book, most angels and demons have no imagination or ability to think creatively, and Crowley's unique among demons for his ability to do so. Creativity and imagination are ''human'' traits-- traits that rubbed off on Crowley and Aziraphale during their six millennia spent among humanity. Heaven and Hell, on the other hand, hardly spend time on Earth at all, preferring to stay sequestered in their own realms when they're not on necessary business. Unable to imagine that they'd come up with the idea of switching their bodies to ''look'' like they were immune to the only known substance capable of destroying them completely, it's no wonder that Heaven and Hell fall for the trick, easily believe that the only explanation for it is that they'd somehow grown more powerful due to their time on Earth, and let them go out of fear!
21	* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' is about a nun named Maria who leaves her convent, finds someone that she shouldn't really bond with that closely, ends up loving him and his children, and ultimately decides to live a secular life, instead of continuing her attempts to be a nun. The nuns at the convent even assist Maria in her flight, both emotionally and physically interceding to delay her Nazi pursuers. God might be playing that show/movie repeatedly because She wants the angels - ''any'' of them, really - to notice that the musical promotes the idea of ''making your own choices'' (a key theme of ''Good Omens'' in general), and that independence is a good thing. Maria and the von Trapps are running from ''Nazis'', a secular regime that promotes conformity (and which Aziraphale and Crowley opposed during [=WW2=]). The angels keep missing Her point because (as mentioned above) they lack imagination and creative thinking, simply believing "Oh, She just really likes this musical about a nun", not looking any deeper.
22	* At the intro of the series, if you look closer at the faces of the characters in the parade, most of them have the faces of Crowley and Aziraphale. That is because, by tempting Eve with the apple of knowledge and giving away his flaming sword, Crowley and Aziraphale helped humanity become what it is today.
23	* Crowley buys time to explain to Adam what he should do by transporting the two of them, plus Aziraphale, to a desert place that looks mightily like the sands outside of the Garden of Eden. The Doylist explanation might be "let's not add a filming location". The Watsonian one is that it ''is'' the desert: the first time, Eve made the choice (on Crowley's information/suggestion) to lead humanity on its path towards the Great Plan, and Aziraphale gave Adam the flaming sword to protect humanity. The second time, Adam made the choice (on Crowley's information/suggestion) to save humanity and avert the Great Plan-mandated apocalypse, and Aziraphale is wielding his flaming sword to protect humanity. (Also, Aziraphale was the one to threaten to never to talk to Crowley again if the demon doesn't come up with something.)
24	* "Someone's killed my best friend! Bastards! All of you!" - The book points out Hastur using "You Bastard" towards Crowley was because "sometimes demonic cursewords were just not enough."
25	* In the end, all three Witchfinders shown on screen found a witch, one way or another. Adultery Pulsifer (committed Witchfinder) found Agnes Nutter (committed, real witch). Shadwell (committed Witchfinder) found Madame Tracy (witch for a living, not actually psychic). Newt (not-really-committed Witchfinder) found Anathema (committed, real witch).
26	* Armageddon ''was'' the end of the world in ''Good Omens'', just not the ''human'' world. It definitely ended Heaven and Hell in the sense that their internal structure fell apart.
27	** Alternatively, the world that lasted for 6000 years really ''did'' end, and the one that exists post-not-Armageddon is another one (an AU?), in which Satan was never Adam's father.
28	* Crowley's ease with following the newest fashions and trends, while Aziraphale stubbornly remains a CreatureOfHabit, makes even ''more'' sense when you remember that he's a ''snake.'' Metaphorically speaking, Crowley's ''shedding his skin,'' explaining why he's better able to adapt to changing times than Aziraphale.
29	* One of the show's many historical bonuses: when Crowley and Aziraphale fight over Crowley's request for holy water in 1862, and don't see each other again for several years, the ''Offences Against the Person Act'' has just been brought into English law, including severe penalties for male homosexuals. This is the law that Oscar Wilde was later prosecuted under. When they reconcile in Soho in 1967, it's the year that homosexuality was legalised.
30	* After Crowley and Aziraphale successfully derail the apocalypse, Heaven and Hell actually work together for once (with Gabriel even calling the demon bringing them Hellfire their "new associate"). Considering that Crowley says that he believes the ''real'' final battle is "All of us (Heaven, Hell, and any other supernatural forces) against all of them (humanity and their allies)", it would make sense that the failure of the apocalypse would actually set the stage for the real ''Big One'' by giving both demons and angels a push to join together.
31	* Agnes's prophecies being perfectly accurate predictions of the future, as stated by God Herself, seem like they go against the free will {{aesop}} the series had. However, when Agnes is to be burned at the stake, she notes that her executioners are 10 minutes late. While she is the most accurate prophet in all of history, to the point where God considers her pretty much 100% accurate, free will is still a disrupting variable.
32	* {{God}} and ArchangelGabriel being played by [[Creator/FrancesMcDormand American]] [[Creator/JonHamm actors]] was a little odd, considering the series is set in England and the rest of Heaven and Hell are played by UK-born actors, but God created ''all'' of humanity, and Gabriel seems to be her closest subordinate alongside {{Metatron}}, so it makes a little sense that the two wouldn't be bound by the nationality of everyone else in the book.
33	* The speed with which Aziraphale attributes the "evil scent" presumably left in his shop by Crowley to the Creator/JeffreyArcher books in the room and the ease with which Gabriel accepts this explanation implies that Aziraphale keeps those books there so he has a ready explanation for any "evil" scents in the room.
34	* The Metatron's offer for Aziraphale to replace Gabriel recalls the temptation in the Garden of Eden. In the background, behind Aziraphale, there are red splotches and lines that resemble apples hanging from branches, the ForbiddenFruit. The cafe they're sitting at is filled with flora, like a garden. Aziraphale is tempted with food, power (knowledge is power after all), and a "choice" between good and evil, like Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
35	* [[TheDitz Muriel]] aside, it seems odd that none of the other angels think to confirm basic things like “how are humans born” and just go along with whatever they’re told, even when they have no reason to trust that person or even have contradictory knowledge… until you realize that anyone who had the capacity or desire to ask questions probably ended up like Crowley.
36	* The demons falling for Crowley's lie that humans must be allowed to evacuate in the case of angel-demon warfare makes sense considering it was stated in the first season that demons lack imagination.
37	* Why is Hell so understaffed? Because they keep zapping anyone who annoys them. However many demons they had to start with, that's gonna add up.
38	** Even if they return after being zapped (after all, the same demon gets zapped twice, once before bookshop battle, once during when it tries to accept Aziraphale's offer and retreat), the fact of the matter is there is no way to create new demons or angels. Even if we go with generous Ars Goetia estimate that there are two thousand legions of demons in Hell, that is still just twelve million demons (one legion normally having six thousand demons). Which makes one demon being responsible for five hundred humans each because there are around six billion humans. All of which makes Crowley's annoyance with other demons legitimate ("14th century minds, all of them!"): in 14th century, there was one demon for 30 humans, about max number for classroom size so a teacher can give each student appropriate attention. You could spend decades trying to corrupt a single person then, but now average demonic workload is nearly 17 times that much (actually, 16,666* times).
39	* Crowley transforming Job's children into animals instead of killing them takes on new meaning when you remember that God is omniscient, and so God ''knew'' that was going to happen all along.
40	* Metatron's decision to appoint Aziraphale as Supreme Archangel was previously shown to have merit to it. When the angels and demons are squabbling after Gabriel and Beelzebub leave, Aziraphale rings a bell to get their attention and sternly orders them to speak one at a time.
41	* Why are the PunchClockHero angels not genuinely good while the PunchClockVillain demons are genuinely evil (with the exception of Crowley)? It's easy to purposefully do good things for other people while having no genuinely good intentions, whereas it's impossible to deliberately make people miserable without any genuinely malicious intent. For example, a person may give money to a homeless person just to ease their guilt or to look good, but stealing money from a homeless person requires genuine evil to do.
42
43	!!FridgeHorror
44	* Crowley's utter heartbreak when he finds Aziraphale's bookshop in flames might seem a little over the top considering angels and demons can't really die by conventional means and their bodies just end up being discorporated, forcing them to wait for a new one to be assigned--until we get to the last episode and see that an angel's fatal weakness is ''hellfire''. Crowley probably thought that Hell found out about his closeness to Aziraphale and used hellfire to burn his shop down, rendering him not just discorporated but ''[[CessationOfExistence dead]]''. And just to twist the knife, the last conversation he had with Aziraphale ended with his intention to ''leave him behind'' and run away to Alpha Centauri to avoid Armageddon, his last words to him being "And while I'm off in the stars, ''I won't even think about you!"'' [[TearJerker No wonder he was so crushed!]]
45	** Especially if you consider that Aziraphale's phone receiver was lying on the floor as if dropped in a panic, and Hastur's previous threat and habit of setting buildings on fire; it's easy enough for Crowley to assume that Aziraphale called Crowley's flat and got the ansaphone, unwittingly freeing Hastur- who ''burned him alive'' with hellfire once he was released, setting the shop alight in the process.
46	** Even if Crowley assumed it was normal fire, normal fire means Aziraphale would be stuck back in Heaven with no body, among angels who are already mad at him, and at the cusp of "the big battle" so to speak-- meaning that Crowley would be seeing Aziraphale on the opposite side of the front line at best, and never at all at worst (Heaven locking Aziraphale up till the battle is over, then whichever side wins killing them both).
47	* Gabriel is traditionally the angel who informed Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus. Just imagine [[JerkAss this version]] of the Archangel Gabriel breaking that news to poor Mary.
48	* Aziraphale and Crowley laugh off their body-swap with an air of AngstWhatAngst, but when you stop and think about it, the risks that they took were ''massive:''
49	** They're completely and utterly alone, among their sworn enemies, trusting the other to pull off their side of the con while having no way to assist them if something goes wrong. If either one slips and reveals the ruse, they're ''both'' doomed. No pressure, then.
50	** If their trick was discovered, each was stranded on the side that had the ''most'' access to his fatal weakness.
51	** Hell being Hell, Aziraphale had no guarantee that they'd do anything quickly. He could easily have been tortured, and keeping up the charade through that would have been extremely difficult.
52	** Meanwhile, Crowley's dragged back up to Heaven. While not as overtly threatening as Hell, that had to be traumatic for a fallen angel.[[note]]Remember, when Crowley had to go into a church, he walked as if on hot coals due to the hallowed ground.[[/note]]
53	** Then add the worry for their friend. These are two beings who've been shown to care ''deeply'' for each other. Aziraphale's flat "That's holy water" and Crowley's reaction to the hellfire have an air of barely restrained horror-- not for themselves, but from the idea that this is the fate that awaited the one they love. We've already seen what holy water can do, and Aziraphale's fear that Crowley would use holy water as a suicide pill-- imagine how it would feel to sit there, wearing your best friend's face, knowing that your worst nightmare was so close to coming true.
54	* And then there's what must have happened after their trials were over. It's unlikely that Aziraphale and Crowley were dropped back on Earth at the exact same time, so it is likely that one of them was stuck waiting on that park bench for a bit, worried sick and hoping that the other made it safely as well, all while still having to stay in-character in case anyone was watching.
55	** There was also no guarantee that Heaven/Hell would be freaked out enough to simply stop after the holy water and hellfire failed to work. Even if they couldn't pull a CessationOfExistence on them, there's still the possibility of inflicting a FateWorseThanDeath. That line that Aziraphale drops about "eternity in the deepest pit"? ''That was a real possibility.''
56	* As horrible as it is, Crowley being on trial -- and even being sentenced to execution -- makes a grim sort of sense. The audience is shown that Crowley is basically a good (and at times, even sweet) person/being-- but he kills Ligur in a particularly horrific way. It's self-defense, yes, but it's one of the few perma-deaths in the show. He must have been exceptionally afraid of the fate that awaited him in Hell if he was prepared to play this particular trump card.
57	* The reason that Hastur, in particular, was so terrified when Aziraphale-as-Crowley was just chilling in the bath of holy water is probably that he was remembering their confrontation in Crowley's flat, when he decided that Crowley was bluffing because he saw the plant mister drip water onto Crowley's hand. Hastur now believes that Crowley is immune to holy water, so in his mind, Crowley might not have been bluffing with the plant mister after all.
58	* Given that Anathema in the show is forced to memorize the prophecies from a young age, did she sleep with Newt because she was attracted to him, [[QuestionableConsent or because she's been groomed to always follow Agnes' prophecies]]?
59	* Crowley and Aziraphale contemplate killing the Antichrist as a last resort to stop the Apocalypse. They contemplate this ''before'' the 11th birthday party where they find out they've got the wrong boy. If they'd killed Warlock, they'd just have murdered an innocent child (even worse: one that was raised by them) for no reason, and it'd have no effect whatsoever.
60	* While averting Armageddon is nice and all, the angels and demons still control the afterlife. Though Crowley and Aziraphale are immortal and have convinced their respective head offices they're invincible, the human characters aren't and will die sooner or later...

Context Fridge / GoodOmens2019