right so i started good omens last week and since then i’ve seen it at least four times and i have some THOUGHTS about season 1 episode 6
forgive me if they’ve been said in better ways before (spoilers obviously)
the ineffable body swap is, i believe, the moment that is most revealing of aziraphale and crowley’s relationship dynamic, and, more importantly, their true thoughts about one another.
zira-as-crowley is self assured, suave, and cheeky as anything. he never falters and takes every opportunity to be a smug bastard without actually being mean-spirited. (he also looks fairly pleased with himself, as I imagine it’s the most directly aziraphale has been able to rebel in front of people that aren’t crowley - living vicariously through the freedom he perceives crowley to have… but i’ll get to that later). It’s obvious how many of the little details about Crowley he has memorised: the slight pout, his pensive eyebrows, the way his eyes go full yellow when he’s stressed or excited… he even attempts the walk for a bit, though I think Crowley may have been practicing that for millennia. This in itself shows how much love he has for crowley, the hours he’s dedicated to being with, seeing, absorbing this person he’s found kinship with. The thing that’s most devastating about this, though, is that he is clearly imitating what crowley is like around HIM. when they’re THEM. Crowley interacting with the other demons is snarky and a little smug, yes, but there’s a tension that hangs on him whenever he’s near hell or his coworkers that clearly is never present when he’s with Aziraphale. Zira gets to see him at his most relaxed, his most assured, because Aziraphale makes Crowley relax, and this is the version of Crowley he’s actually spent time with. Of course, there’s also a hazy layer of heart eyes in making Crowley a little cooler, a little softer around the edges, because that’s how Aziraphale sees him.
And, of course, as I said earlier, he sees Crowley as free. Damned, sure, but to Zira, Crowley gets to do what he likes when he likes, without the constant fear of heaven’s wrath on his back. This is a flattening of Crowley’s actual experiences and trauma with heaven AND hell - fallen doesn’t mean you don’t mind that you fell, of course, and we as the audience know this - but we have to remember that Aziraphale is currently in the grips of religious conditioning stronger than any, and he still has the threat of potentially falling. I don’t believe he registered that threat further than his subconscious until Agnes’s prophecy, but regardless, he is a little afraid, always. He sees crowley as fearless, and doesn’t understand the constant stress his dearest demon is under. So, for him, he’s using Crowley’s freedom as a shield for himself - calling michael dude, making them miracle him a towel, splashing holy water at the demons - all things he wouldn’t do as Aziraphale because he is terrified of not fulfilling his duties as “the good guys”. As crowley, the weight of his obligations seem no object.
Now, Crowley-As-Aziraphale…
David Tennant’s performance throughout the entire season and PARTICULARLY in the above described scene has been phenomenal, but this is where I truly realised the talent oozing from Michael Sheen, because this performance’s nuances gave me chills. Crowley-as-aziraphale has a face set like granite. Zira’s usual softness has left his cheeks almost entirely, and while Crowley does have his mannerisms down, as we see just before he steps into the fire, his own protectiveness over his angel makes it near impossible for him to mask his disdain and keep up the constant nervous beaming that Aziraphale tends to adopt around the angels. A tension has entered his brow, and while he flashes those cherubic smiles intermittently, it’s clear that the way Zira is treated in heaven utterly incenses crowley. He is also likely reliving the trauma of his own trial-without-a-trial, and so it’s Very likely that the only thing keeping him from expressing his true feelings is the thought of protecting Aziraphale from the fate that Gabriel was all too eager to send him to. We see how angry he is about this interaction in season 2, but it is also communicated in the micro expressions that Michael Sheen knocked out of the fucking park. Every time one of them says something unkind, his face takes on a new shade of quiet rage hidden beneath his attempts to maintain the optimistic serenity and unrelenting kindness of the person he knows and loves the most. The angels morally outrage Crowley, and if he’d had a word with them as Crowley he’d likely have tried something stupid. But the soft veneer of his friend, his love, keeps him grounded enough to limit his chastisements to things Aziraphale had already shared with him, in private.
The scene just underscores how well they know each other, how much they love each other, and how much they’re willing to risk for one another. It also reveals personal wounds; ways their experiences and traumas and fears fragment the image of the one in front of them. This is where we lead in to season 2, the season of the WORLD’S WORST COMMUNICATORS. But for season 1, they have each other, and they laugh, and the comfort that can only come with the trust they have for each other settles over them from the minute they’re reunited.
two angels dining at the ritz.
