Michael the Watchful
Updated 11 Nov 2023
I'm going to be upfront - I don't like Michael. But I am intrigued by some of their actions in GO.
The above screen shot highlighting their angel ring came across my dash last week, and there was a comment that the ring looked like "Ophanim rings with pearls for eyes." I have to admit that for all that I am fairly widely read in mythology I hadn't heard of these before, and had to go look them up. I realize its probably because I'm not up to speed with all the religious references yet. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a complete newbie in that dept, its just a muscle I haven't flexed in a while and its a kind of "use it or lose it" kind of thing, you know? Happens when you've been around for a bit.
Ophanim: "The many-eyed ones." Oh. Right. That's tv series Archangel Michael to a T, actually.
(There are probably some parallels to the greek monster Argus here, but not sure if I should digress. The hero Perseus, winged sandals, Medusa's snek-locks, the 1000 eyes that never sleep, rescuing a maiden, the goddess queen's grief over the slain monster...)
Michael was the one that presented the incriminating photos of Aziraphale and Crowley meeting over time to Gabriel in S1, then followed it up with a phone call to Hell on the back-stairwell to Heaven.
And Michael is the Duty Officer during S2, they are "on watch" so to speak.
Michael is also the one that maintains the back channel connection to Hell, "the grapevine that obviously doesn't exist" that Beelzebub mentions to Crowley in S2E1, and that Gabriel also officially denies exists in S1E4.
The fact that in S1 they were seen talking to Ligur originally, who was destroyed by the holy water Crowley obtained from Aziraphale, and then in S2 they are talking to somebody else again (Beelzebub) in S2 via their angel phone again, says that they have to have established a new connection in between seasons. I commented elsewhere it seems to be implied the contact is Dagon, due to the little flirtation the tried to send to the angel that Michael quickly shuts down in S2E6,
but the fact the back channel is still working is still something to be concerned about. I mean, weren't you just a little suspicious when it was Michael who turned up with the holy water for the bath during the body-swap punishment scenes, when Hell only bothered to send a disposable Eric clone with the hellfire to Heaven?
Wondering how this angle is going to play out in S3.
Edit:
Found some information about the golden collars in the Job minisode in S2E2 and the detail on Michael's costume adds to this meta.
Around their neck they have row upon row of eyes, and around their sleeves they have wheels.
