The Garden of Earthly Delights ft. some familiar faces.
The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch
from the book:
Crowley had got a commendation for the Spanish Inquisition. He had been in Spain then, mainly hanging around cantinas in the nicer parts, and hadn't even known about it until the commendation arrived. He'd gone to have a look, and had come back and got drunk for a week.
That Hieronymous Bosch. What a weirdo.
In ep 6, right after Aziraphale asks if the Great Plan is also the Ineffable Plan, Crowley seems to realize something and says “You don’t know.” Maybe I’m missing something obvious, but…wtf does this mean?? I’ve watched the show twice through and I still don’t know lmao. Thanks!! :)
Hiya! :) Crowley realizes that they don't actually know what God's plan is, so they can with Aziraphale bullshit them to go away :D (like... oh you thought that the Great Plan about War is the thing? oh no, actually the Ineffable Plan is and it means something different...), in the book there is:
"Excuse me," said the angel.
The trio looked at him.
"This Great Plan," he said, "this would be the ineffable Plan, would it?"
There was a moment's silence.
"It's the Great Plan," said the Metatron flatly. "You are well aware. There shall be a world lasting six thousand years and it will conclude with—"
"Yes, yes, that's the Great Plan all right," said Aziraphale. He spoke politely and respectfully, but with the air of one who has just asked an unwelcome question at a political meeting and won't go away until he gets an answer. "I was just asking if it's ineffable as well. I just want to be clear on this point."
"It doesn't matter!" snapped the Metatron. "It's the same thing, surely!"
Surely? thought Crowley. They don't actually know. He started to grin like an idiot.
"So you're not one hundred percent clear on this?" said Aziraphale.
"It's not given to us to understand the ineffable Plan," said the Metatron, "but of course the Great Plan—"
"But the Great Plan can only be a tiny part of the overall ineffability," said Crowley. "You can't be certain that what's happening right now isn't exactly right, from an ineffable point of view."
"It izz written!" bellowed Beelzebub.
"But it might be written differently somewhere else," said Crowley.
"Where you can't read it."
"In bigger letters," said Aziraphale.
"Underlined," Crowley added.
"Twice," suggested Aziraphale.
"Perhaps this isn't just a test of the world," said Crowley. "It might be a test of you people, too. Hmm?"
"God does not play games with His loyal servants," said the Metatron, but in a worried tone of voice.
"Whoop-eee," said Crowley. "Where have you been?"
I might not have been paying attention but what happened to the third baby during the switch?
Hiya! :) It is explained in the book (which I very much recommend! :)). If you want to read the book and find out then stop reading now ❤.
...
In the book there is more about The Them and we find out that Tadfield as another gang lead by the boy 'Greasy Johnson', the gang is called the Johnsonites. We find out that Greasy Johnson is actually the third baby :). And there are some greats passages about the metaphors for The Them vs the Johnsonites / Hell vs. Heaven :):
"I dunno," said Pepper. "I mean, it wouldn't be so interesting without ole Greasy Johnson and his gang. When you think about it. We've had a lot of fun with ole Greasy Johnson and the Johnsonites. We'd probably have to find some other gang or something."
"Seems to me," said Wensleydale, "that if you asked people in Lower Tadfield, they'd say they'd be better off without the Johnsonites or the Them."
Even Adam looked shocked at this. Wensleydale went on stoically: "The old folks' club would. An' Picky. An'—"
"But we're the good ones . . ." Brian began. He hesitated. "Well, all right," he said, "but I bet they'd think it'd be a jolly sight less interestin' if we all weren't here."
"Yes," said Wensleydale. "That's what I mean."
"People round here don't want us or the Johnsonites," he went on morosely, "the way they're always goin' on about us just riding our bikes or skateboarding on their pavements and making too much noise and stuff. It's like the man said in the history books. A plaque on both your houses."
This met with silence.
"One of those blue ones," said Brian, eventually, "saying 'Adam Young Lived Here,' or somethin'?"
Normally an opening like this could lead to five minutes' rambling discussion when the Them were in the mood, but Adam felt that this was not the time.
"What you're all sayin'," he summed up, in his best chairman tones, "is that it wouldn't be any good at all if the Greasy Johnsonites beat the Them or the other way round?"
"That's right," said Pepper. "Because," she added, "if we beat them, we'd have to be our own deadly enemies. It'd be me an' Adam against Brian an' Wensley," She sat back. "Everyone needs a Greasy Johnson," she said.
"Yeah," said Adam. "That's what I thought. It's no good anyone winning. That's what I thought." He stared at Dog, or through Dog.
"Seems simple enough to me," said Wensleydale, sitting back. "I don't see why it's taken thousands of years to sort out."
And then on the airfield :):
"I just don't see why everyone and everything has to be burned up and everything," Adam said. "Millions of fish an' whales an' trees an', an' sheep and stuff. An' not even for anything important. Jus' to see who's got the best gang. It's like us an' the Johnsonites. But even if you win, you can't really beat the other side, because you don't really want to. I mean, not for good. You'll just start all over again. You'll just keep on sending people like these two," he pointed to Crowley and Aziraphale, "to mess people around. It's hard enough bein' people as it is, without other people coming and messin' you around."
Crowley turned to Aziraphale.
"Johnsonites?" he whispered.
The angel shrugged. "Early breakaway sect, I think," he said. "Sort of Gnostics. Like the Ophites." His forehead wrinkled. "Or were they the Sethites? No, I'm thinking of the Collyridians. Oh dear. I'm sorry, there were hundreds of them, it's so hard to keep track."
You know when Crowley is heading to the airbase he seems happy? You think he was so relieved about Aziraphale being alive? Oh could be that he’s also anxious to get there cause of Adam. But I just couldn’t help but think he was also in a hurry about getting to his angel.
Hiya! :) It seems to me that he was in the fuck-it-all-I'm-going-to-get-there-and-fuck-shit-up mood :D. Like he was waiting in the pub waiting for Armageddon and then Aziraphale visited and suddenly there's a chance so damn it all, he's going to go there and do his best, all be damned.
Also, there's this part from the book: :)
Because, underneath it all, Crowley was an optimist. If there was one rock-hard certainty that had sustained him through the bad times—he thought briefly of the fourteenth century—then it was utter surety that he would come out on top; that the universe would look after him.
Okay, so Hell was down on him. So the world was ending. So the Cold War was over and the Great War was starting for real. So the odds against him were higher than a vanload of hippies on a blotterful of Owlsley's Old Original. There was still a chance.
It was all a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Hey Neil! My friend and I are rewatching good omens and we got in a spat about whether or not the coin in the shakespeare scene that Aziraphale gives the man was miracled into existence or was just corny slight of hand on Aziraphale's part. Please prove me right :))
I’m afraid Aziraphale didn’t discover his love of sleight of hand until he encountered John Nevile Maskelyne in Victorian times.
John Maskelyne in the Good Omens book:
Everyone has his little hobby. Despite Crowley’s urgent advice, Aziraphale was intending to turn his to good use.
Aziraphale was particularly proud of his magical skills. He had attended a class in the 1870s run by John Maskelyne, and had spent almost a year practicing sleight of hand, palming coins, and taking rabbits out of hats. He had got, he had felt at the time, quite good at it. The point was that although Aziraphale was capable of doing things that could make the entire Magic Circle hand in their wands, he never applied what might be called his intrinsic powers to the practice of sleight-of-hand conjuring. Which was a major drawback. He was beginning to wish that he’d continued practicing.
Still, he mused, it was like riding a velocipede. You never forgot how. His magician’s coat had been a little dusty, but it felt good once it was on. Even his old patter began to come back to him.
The children watched him in blank, disdainful incomprehension. Behind the buffet Crowley, in his white waiter’s coat, cringed with contact embarrassment.
