(Source: Gloria Obianyo Instagram)
My mind keeps coming back to this draft as I think over Good Omens 3, so here we go.
I am finding a lot of merit to @/vidavalor's Aziraphale's Nightmare idea.
It fits better than my own theories, but the finale still offered up a few clues that link to my theories. I will document them here since some readers may be curious. I have already done so on my newer versions of old posts.
Let's start with The Sideburns Scheme. I am not as invested in going scene to scene to compare Crowley's sideburns or general hairstyle, as I did in Good Omens 2. They look Medium most of the time. I can see traces of what I know to look for. Crowley's right sideburn is lengthening while driving and talking to Aziraphale after Crowley gets the Bentley back. His left sideburn is shorter, or at least seems shorter, when he passes the chip to Mrs. Sandwich.
As the clues go, the supernatural zone I have referenced many times is re-worded into being a supernatural plane. The first Heaven scene references materializing a plane in mid-flight, spelled as "materialising" instead of "materializing" in the official subtitles. I have read others point out that this dialogue references the first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic. I have referenced that novel in my posts a few times as well. There, Rincewind and Twoflower are temporarily moved into an alternate universe before eventually returning back to their own.
The starting idea to play with would then go that use of this plane happens during Good Omens 3.
In my Trickery 2 series, I brought up the clue and phrase "when goats fly." I said I considered Crowley the GOAT of Earthly Objects in Good Omens 2. This same idea showed up in poetry I decoded much later. Here in Good Omens 3, this GOAT, and his partner who is also good at Earthly Objects, get to fly off into space all the way to the center of the universe with the intent to save that universe.
In GO2, Crowley's supernatural plane phases out humans. The finale presents a scenario where we actually see it happen this time because the humans disappear on screen in a way that demons and angels don't. Viewers would assume that's just Michael burning their pages, given the context with the imagery, music, acting, and so on. The "decision" does that too, and the main thing I have figured it out, for my own reading, is that the "decision" scene is hardcore lying.
That means I get to pretend that these characters are being phased into the supernatural plane to play with the idea.
Aside from Jesus, none of these humans had pages displayed on social media leading up to the release of Good Omens 3. While Jesus did have a page, he is last to disappear. Jesus is known to have a supernatural connection despite having a mortal body. Right before these things start to happen, Mr. Arnold asks where everyone is and remarks that his phone is dead. Maggie's and Nina's phones died after Crowley shot lightning toward the coffee shop in S2E1.
In GO2, that's a scene communicating where the border was at the time of S2E1. I have called it "Storming Out" many, many times on this blog. There is something like a storm happening here as well. There is wind, there is thunder, and there is lightning. It doesn't look like a lightning bolt or strike, but there are reddish hues involved.
As my theories went, for this supernatural plane, one place becomes two places at once. In Good Omens 2, there was Hell and there was the car still on Earth when Crowley was summoned into Hell. Both places still existed with Crowley in them. We saw Crowley in Hell while he was still in his car although we could only see one of the places at any given time on screen.
Crowley and Aziraphale connected their homes through the shared loan during Good Omens 2, expanding a border surrounding the bookshop. I said maybe it was a trial run for something on a much bigger scale involving Earth. Now we have an entire universe seeming to be in danger, so the scale would actually go bigger than what I had in mind.
But what about seeing the universe restored and everyone being phased back in to the proper reality and universe? We, the audience, are denied that. We are left to figure it out or imagine it on our own.
The @/GoodOmensPrime Twitter account has stopped posting about Good Omens 3, but the last post given does reference the car. I have tried looking at Good Omens 3 to see if we ever saw the car disappear, and I haven't been able to find it, just where we would typically assume it disappeared. Crowley has no reaction, as one would expect of him, when we know how strongly he feels connected to that car.
With Vida's nightmare idea, you can see when Aziraphale wakes up. It is the last shot. You have to work at it with what is on screen and assume it is him, but I can see what she means well enough.
The main thing in that shot that supports the supernatural plane idea is that the very last frame of that shot has some substantial darkness compared to the preceding frames. The Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, uses the word "darkness" among others when Rincewind is shifted back to his reality. Another clue is that shortly before this shot, the Aziraphale parallel character makes a wish. The Rincewind parallel character did the same in The Color of Magic, wishing to be somewhere else. Then he is put back in his proper universe.
Vida's nightmare idea still has more support because of how the Book of Life is handled. Michael took out The Metatron first instead of Aziraphale. She told Uriel she planned to get rid of Aziraphale as not existing anymore, then proceeded to not do that. We are given the ridiculous explanation that she used the book to travel to the center of the universe, throwing pages into the Eternal Flame. From there, she started destroying everything that isn't Aziraphale,...or Crowley.
Not only that, the Book of Life never even came up until season 2 to begin with and has an obvious plothole of how Crowley responds to its name. Other people have pointed out that if this thing is such a big threat, why was it simply not used after the first season? That all fits with the nightmare idea. It's a threat of Aziraphale's own making in his nightmare.
While I do have my extensive documentation on the Book Forces (Book of Life and Book of Lie), that was part of the game and playing with ideas. It was a rather long and involved process. That process led to poetry. The poetry had a Secret Ending as the last poem. The Secret Ending uses the word "nightmare" and references the Ritz as the very last word. It actually then matches up with Vida's idea in the same place with a much longer path to get there.
So, there are clues for both the supernatural plane and the nightmare, but the clues are much stronger in support of the nightmare.
A mildly interesting thing that happened is that I had remarked a couple of times that the matchbox in season 2 might have the Book of Life in it, and that it gave off an ominous vibe toward Crowley, as if wanting to return to its master.
Within this nightmare that is season 3, that actually happens. The opening scene defies all comprehension to me of what Good Omens, the TV series, even is, but it does at least remind me of Lord of the Rings. Later, Crowley grabs the Whickber Street page, touching the Eternal Flame in the process. The imaginary link did get back to its master!
One of my own posts the Good Omens team seemed to want me to notice was one where I went on about Crowley's rank and Discworld novel connections to rank. I also mentioned The Lady being Lady Luck in the Discworld novels with the commitment to never outright explicitly say so throughout all 41 Discworld novels.
I wasn't aiming to do anything close to making a prediction. God is not The Lady of Discworld. She is not Lady Luck. She is a bit like that, I remarked, but that's not who she is. Crowley references her as if she is in Good Omens 3, and Crowley lies. Before season 3, Aziraphale is the one who thinks of God with a she/her pronoun. Crowley refers to God as God or the Almighty or "your boss" toward Aziraphale.
I don't think the God in the bookshop is the God of Good Omens. I can buy in to the idea that she is Aziraphale's Concept of God during this nightmare far more easily.
I can find the phrase "find the lady" 12 times in my transcript of the show. Crowley says "finds the lady" rather than "find the lady." That then missed the mark of an exact match on reaching 13. That at least matches his Good Omens 2 tendency to work toward oddly specific technicalities. His behavior here fits better as an imagined nightmare maliciously contradicting the book and season 1 theme on free will compared to some sneaky snake who is blatantly lying to get us to notice he wants us to stop and think about what he's saying in contradicting the book and season 1 theme on free will.
For Vida's nightmare theory, Crowley is The Lady, as in, Aziraphale's lady. I can see that. I can even see it through my desperately searching for the sneaky snake I fell in love with in S2. I can't find that Lady unless she wants me to. And right now, I can barely see her at all.
The anagram for "Grand Duke of Hell Crowley" is findable in the transcript 68 times when abiding by a certain technicality for the drive into space. I might have mistakes, but that's where that search is after checking it a few times.
I keep finding mistakes, but my latest attempt at anagram searching for the Book Forces have them even out at 84 by the end of the finale.
In Good Omens 2, the findable anagram for "Book of Lie" pockets the dialogue. It is found first and last when compared to a "Book of Life" anagram.
In Good Omens 3, the findable anagram for "Book of Life" is first in the dialogue. While it is also last in the dialogue, making another pocket, there is a lie from the official subtitles involved.
A very interesting find happens during the South Downs cottage bit. Not a single line has an anagram for either Book Force.
The entire scene itself with all the lines combined? It has Book of Life 3 times, and Book of Lie...6 times. The number 6 is Crowley's clue connection number along with the number of documented Threshold Tricks I have from season 2. That is a notably precise result too.
If I watch the "decision" scene with Vida's nightmare idea in mind, that works best. Crowley's speech is one of the worst things he could ever say to Aziraphale, and Aziraphale's reaction to it is one of the worst things Aziraphale himself could do. A clue to just how bad this speech is, once you look more closely at it, is that Crowley suggests offing angels first.
Since this post is about connecting my own theories and curiosity, I can point out a few details.
For my interpretation of these characters, these are not things that Crowley and Aziraphale would say to each other sincerely, ever. They are way out of character.
The acting is trying really hard to not give it away and let the intentionally bad writing do all the work. I can at least see a little bit of it at the end of the scene as both characters are trying to contain their laughter at the sheer absurdity of what they just said in their exchange.
Crowley, in general as a character, is a really good actor. I have remarked before that if Crowley has a tell, it's his hands, especially the thumbs.
Crowley pockets his right hand, using his jacket to cover up whether or not his thumb is pocketed at the start of the decision scene. After he says, "ever again," he is shown in profile view where probably part of his right thumb is showing. He is carefully managing his thumb joint positions, which matches S2 Crowley's play at least. He keeps his left arm hidden.
Aziraphale is not usually this on point in his acting, but there is an entire universe at stake here. He does give at least one Aziraphale tell I have seen from Aziraphale fans when discussing the Good Omens TV show. Aziraphale raises his eyebrows right before he says he believes they've come to a decision. Another thing I've said I notice he does when he lies is that his voice is higher in pitch, and yeah, it is a little bit in part of that line.
Why would these characters lie to such an extent here and now of all times to the audience? Well, obviously because yes, the actual writers of this story did indeed make them do it. But still, if the characters could not use that reason, then in the story, why?
I haven't come up with any reason I find satisfactory, but here are some speculative guesses.
Maybe they are trying to wake up and escape the nightmare. Maybe they are trying to trick their imagined versions of God and Satan out of the system, that way their universe really will end with a Heat Death, or something else, much later. Maybe Crowley needs the universe to be temporarily destroyed while he uses his supernatural plane to slot things back into place the way they should be. The Discworld novel Thief of Time references the idea of the universe being destroyed in the past and rebuilt in the future, and this has actually happened millions of times while the characters have been talking about the idea at all when the subject is brought up. That novel is briefly referenced in the Magic Lies in Secret poetry I think I decoded for Good Omens 2.
Maybe Crowley and Aziraphale are writing an absurd fanfic about themselves for a laugh, and things got out of hand at this point.
My favored characterization of Crowley would have him working to restore and protect his own universe even if it looks like the opposite of that within the face value story given. Aziraphale would have a role in it too.
We have seen Crowley sacrifice himself before but under the specific circumstances of preventing someone else's suicide. He paid, but it was a risk he took with the understanding that even if he paid, he would come back, and he did. When he did come back, he resorted to looking for something, holy water, that could be used a weapon to protect himself.
This scene takes place near where the "forsaken dud" I referenced months ago while going over decoding the poem Reason Season.
There were two trees in Eden, a Tree of Life and a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The idea, back then in my play, went that the Book of Lie would be linked to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is the tree linked to Crowley as the Serpent of Eden. He is the character seen touching the tree with his left hand in the scene.
I've called it the Tree of Life in passing on this blog, and I am sure that is what most of the audience is supposed to think and see and will. But hey, if the games are going to give me the tools, and the finale is going to suck this much, that can be a Tree of Lie instead. Well-done, guys.
While the nightmare theory is better, I can mix it with my plane theory. Nightmare-like entities took on corporal form in season 1. Reality had exertions on its fallout.
I spent roughly a couple of years studying this idea. David Tennant, among others, did go through the trouble of having the sideburns affected this way.
My S2 head canon version of these two characters had them working together in subtle ways you would miss if you weren't looking. They connected.
I want their efforts and my efforts to count for something, so in my mind, the plane was used.
The "new universe" is a pocket reality, a placeholder, as things re-align while the nightmare finishes. Once the nightmare is done and Aziraphale is waking up, or Aziraphale and Crowley are waking up, the plane completes its work, symbolized by the extra darkness in the last frame. Reality is restored. The clues go all the way back to S1E6. I could head canon differently if I want since I love S2 so much.
Another head canon I like to use outside of both of these ideas is from my other guesses earlier. Crowley and Aziraphale wrote a fanfic about themselves that got way out of hand for the ending. I mean, I am mad at them for that, but it works better than what was given at face value.
