Interview with David Tennant, 15 Feb 2024 :)
Q: What was it like kissing Michael Sheen [in season two of Good Omens]? And who enjoyed it more?
David: Who enjoyed it the most? Presumably Michael was thrilled. How could he not be? But it was another day at work. The most difficult bit was other people’s awkwardness. We thought it was quite fun, so it was fine. He’d brushed his teeth.
Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship dynamic fascinates me and what fascinates me even more is how people perceive them, partly because I seem to have a much more optimistic view of their dynamic than a lot of what I read suggests they do.
With that in mind I started trying to unpick how I see their dynamic and why and what I ended up with was a series of rambles on various aspects, including confidence, trust, silliness and what they ask of each other. This one is about what they ask of each other and why their relationship isn't some weird one-sided thing where Crowley gives Aziraphale everything he could possibly want or ask for.
Excellent meta. There’s fair too much nonsense about Aziraphale and Crowley having an unhealthy relationship dynamic, when it is a miraculously healthy dynamic in the circumstances in which they live. Does that mean they are both perfect and faultless? No! It means they know, respect and love each other and navigate each other’s faults with warmth and humour. Their problems are not in any way internal to their relationship. All their problems are external to them— Heaven, Hell and an apocalypse that keeps coming back. Of course, this puts pressure on their faults, and pulls at the ways in which they are different, yes. But wave away Heaven and Hell etc etc and Aziraphale and Crowley would be as blissfully happy as the happiest of old married couples, navigating any faults and differences with kindness and at times a laugh.
I'm still working out what the significance of this is, but I'm now surer than ever:
In season 2, Aziraphale's bookshop is the Garden of Eden.
What first tipped me off was the end of 2x01, when Gabriel asks about Outside, and Crowley urgently warns him that he needs to stay inside the bookshop. It reverberated against the themes of season 1, where choosing freedom over safety is symbolised by Leaving the Garden. Supporting this connection, one of the songs on the season 2 soundtrack is called Leaving the Bookshop; it plays in 2x06 when Crowley escorts Nina and Maggie outside.
There's an even clearer indicator of the symbolism, though, and I am so fascinated by the implications. When Gabriel first arrives at the bookshop in a state of undress, one of the things he says to Aziraphale is:
"Who told you I was naked?"
It's a funny line but it's also surprisingly biblically significant. In Genesis, Adam and Eve's loss of innocence after eating the fruit of knowledge is shown by their realisation they are naked. In this scene, Gabriel is like them before this transgression, innocent and unconscious of his own nakedness.
But it's even more on the nose than that, because in Genesis, when God appears to Adam after he eats the fruit, Adam hides, and then admits he's afraid because he's naked. And I quote directly, Genesis 3:11 (New International Version):
And [God] said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
I'm sure this reference is intended. It's too similar to be a coincidence. So Gabriel's memory loss is comparable to the innocence that preceded the Fall of Man, and that's fascinating in its own right. This also makes the bookshop, where he is protected so long as he stays inside its walls, a clear parallel to Eden.
In relation to Gabriel, I think Beelzebub is Eve, offering Adam the knowledge of good and evil in the form of a fly holding his hidden memories. An argument could be made that they are the serpent to his Eve, but I think the partnered dynamic makes this a more fitting interpretation.
I'm still thinking on the roles that Crowley and Aziraphale play in this analogy. I keep coming back to Gabriel's line, "I don't go outside, and now I have two friends." If this is Eden, who are his friends? Are Crowley and Aziraphale reprising their roles as the serpent and the guardian? Are they God and Satan playing games with their own little universe, perhaps? Or are they Adam and Eve?
Obviously, if the bookshop is Eden, this has major implications for Crowley and Aziraphale too in the context of their break up. With this framing, Crowley telling Aziraphale, "You can't leave this bookshop" becomes a fascinating twist on his traditional role. He's asking Aziraphale to stay with him in blissful ignorance, rather than confront the truth of their world. I'm not arguing that this is the only level at which this line should be read, but it's one that's worth considering.
You may also notice that in light of this biblical reference, "Who told you I was naked" becomes the first time amnesiac Gabriel echoes the words of God. I'm really not sure what these echoes mean, but they sure do intrigue me.
Crowley also gave something away to protect Gabriel and Beelzebub when they left the bookshop.
Shut the fuck up I'm OBSESSED with this.
i love this, especially considering the way the walls of Eden mirror the architecture of Aziraphale's bookshop. those architectural parallels are more than a clever easter egg -- they are thematically essential to the story.
Just thinking about the @guardian Tumblr. Untouched since 2019, like the tomb of the pharaohs. Did the person with the password leave? Did the person at the Guardian who knew that the Guardian had a Tumblr get sent off on a journalistic mission from which they never returned? In years to come will people on Tumblr examine the @Guardian site to try and reconstruct how mainstream media outlets existed on social media in the trump years?
- ‘I’m clean. I don’t even smoke.’ tells Sherlock in ASIP. The message is clear: Sherlock is clean at the moment, but once he had been a junkie … addicted to drugs and there are still ‘danger nights’ when the risk of a relapse threatens.
- ‘Once, in the early days, Sherlock had been an emotional child’ … Mycroft tells in TFP. But then Sherlock changed and became very different.
Erus got locked up behind elephant glass, Jim chained to the wall of a padded cell like a hound from hell and a mask, a facade, a guardian created and married to the (traditional) friendship … to guard the ‘one fixed point in a changing age’ … because otherwise …. ‘mE and Jim will get on like a house on fire’ ...
September, 2019
This is great, @ebaeschnbliah. Suppressing, abstaining from, chaining your unwanted feelings, hiding them in deep water, in a well for example … And another thought: this image reminds me of Sherlock and Jim in the adjoining cells in TRF, but here Eurus and Jim are even closer, facing each other. Another progression, I would say.
And it also reminds me of the things that should not be hidden behind glass but used, just as Sherlock’s feelings do.
Wonderful addition, @gosherlocked Here’s the scene in question. You are right, one can easily assume that there isn’t a stone wall but elephant glass between them. :)
yes!
