Go Season 2 - Tumblr Posts

I mean... they aren't wrong

Sometimes I just sit there and remember that the only time Good Omens twitter account has ever interacted with my post was when they told me:

Well, this made me grin from ear to ear.

Thank you very much ^^

Practice self love and affirmation with these helpful mantras! (Crowley edition)

Trying to kill yourself??? I mean... it's- it's NOT ON.

Look at you, you're gorgeous

You're just a human, following along with the world as best as you can

You're far too pure of heart to be anybody's bit on the side

Writing a GO one-shot and I just had the realization.

I don't think Crowley tempts as a demon. I don't think he has a temptatious bone in his human-but-snake-like body. As much as he wants to believe it, I don't think he can tempt at all. I can't think of a single moment he actually does tempt someone, honestly.

I think Crowley merely suggests. He just brings up the idea that theres another option. Think about it:

"Dont want wine? Okay. Try an ox rib. You might like it."

"Don't agree with head office's rules? Okay. How about an arrangement then? Two birds, one stone."

"Don't want Armageddon to happen? Okay. Me neither. We can try to raise him on a neutral upbringing, kill him, or run away together. Which is best?"

He is not a demon. Demons tempt. And what he does? Not even remarkably close.

What he is, is a walking, talking suggestion box. And I'm so here for it.

holy shit what the fuck oh my god

AAAHHHHHH

i am in tears. watch good omens season 2

Idk I always thought Barty Crouch Jr. was attractive but never brought it up as a kid bc he was always sweaty and licking his lips all weird, found out a week ago he was played by David Tennant… it all adds up now

I noticed this guy a little while back but all I saw was how easy his orange sweater and white pants, and being on the phone, made him easy to recognize. But now your post about all the orange makes it feel even more important.

E1, ~24:31, Crowley and Azi have left the coffee shop and Maggie stops him to thank him. Mr Orange Sweater walks by behind them.

Then, ~25:07, we're back with Maggie in the coffee shop where she's going to gift the album to Nina. Behind Maggie, out the window, there's Mr Orange Sweater, white pants and on the phone and everything.

But the weirdest part about this is... Azi and Crowley were supposed to be there too, based on the earlier scene.

So there is definitely something going on. Time shenanigans, reality shenanigans. Something else. I just don't know yet.

Hi, I’ve only read one meta by you yet, but you seem to be just the right person to ask this: did you notice how many people in the scenes outside the bookshop are wearing orange, in series 2?

Any idea what that’s all about? Is it just esthetics, an echo of the bookshop‘s columns, or does it have a filmographical significance? Everytime I watch the show there seem to be more orange clothes, once you start seeing that, it’s crazy how many there are!

Hey thanks for the ask! I mean, you have until 2026 to read more of my drivel so; pace yourself! Orange clothing is definitely an *interesting* choice for extras in film. You almost never see it in background actors clothing because... it draws the eye! The fact that they included so much orange, yellow, and loud patterning in the extras in season 2 is a real decision to throw film tradition and S1 cannon out the window.

I would like to submit my own theory that the choice was made as a deliberate nod to time travel. But first, a little background.

Compare two crowd scenes on Whickeber street from each season: It's kind of nuts that even at microscopic resolution we get such a HUGE difference.

That's not to say orange is missing. Here are the only two extras wearing orange in S1, and they happen to be in the same scene in episode 2, when Newt and Shadwell meet for the first time, discussing occult beings "hiding in plain sight". (witches in this case)

We also get some pretty obvious bright orange in main characters in S1: Madame Tracy and Beelzebub. We meet Tracy in orange as she immediately reveals to Newt multiple hidden identities, see her again wearing orange hair when she communes with spirits, and finally all decked out in orange when she is being possessed by an angel (a person hiding inside a person). Beelzebub wears an orange sash and medal as a high ranking Duke of Hell, so orange is maybe their house colour, or a prestigious colour for hell in general, but after season 2 we know Beelzebub doesn't always have the same face, and is hiding intentions of their own.

Orange doesn't have much biblical significance, mostly because the colour orange was mostly seen as "fire" or "bright" coloured until way after the bible was transcribed, and orange dye wasn't really a thing in the European world until significant trade with east Asia developed. Here's the only other bright orange thing to appear all season, (in a deleted scene): Crowley hiding in plain sight, posing as a maintenance worker.

I think we might be able to draw the conclusion from season 1 that orange is a colour associated with the "Hidden Occult/Power". Not necessarily only hell, but more as something otherworldly, that's hidden in plain sight. (Interestingly, we never ever see Anathema or Agnes Nutter in orange. So I wouldn't say it's related to witches at all.)

In season 2 however, orange is everywhere. More specifically on extras' clothing and the outside of Maggie's record shop.

Maggie seems to be the only main character to wear bright orange herself (E2).

But this is by far my favourite one: in the back of the crowd of demons getting a Shax pep talk in S2E5, there's a regular human extra wearing bright orange sitting amongst the army, completely unnoticed by both demons and audience, observing the plan.

This really set off alarm bells for me, because there's a very Terry Pratchett precedent for powerful and unnoticed orange-wearing characters in the discworld series : the time monks.

Terry's character Sweeper seen here on the original cover of Night Watch. The time monks' clothing and general philosophy is based on Thai buddhist monks, who (like in many buddhists sects) wear donated, saffron-dyed robes in orange and yellow/red to symbolize flames of purity, and to separate them from the world of gross matter, like a fallen leaf from a tree.

In the discworld novel Night Watch, the time monks are responsible for monitoring and cleaning up the timeline, pruning it like a bonzai tree. They are everywhere and yet unnoticed, inside the flow of time yet not of it. And they are the ones who guide the main character through the process of being stuck after falling back through his own timeline, into his own past.

(Excerpt from the book where Sweeper is explaning time travel to Vimes).

Extras circling in the background are called "background actors" because they exist to not be noticed. Put in extras wearing orange/yellow and bright red, and suddenly you can track them, and notice how they are part of the crowd, but stand apart from it. You can notice when they go missing from one cut to the next, or appear to circle or jump between frames. Many extras, including the demon army watcher, also seem to be circling, and monitoring the goings-on in the world of Good Omens. Based on the meaning of orange from S1, it would seem these mere background actors are more than they appear to be. Could they even be checking up on unwarranted time distortions or timeline ruptures happening around a certain Bookshop...?

I know someone who looks like you.

Good Omens Faces & Names, Labels & Identities

One theme that I see running fairly strongly through S2 is the idea of identity.

I'll start with Nina and Maggie precisely because they chose to use the actresses' real names as their characters' names. I'm sure the actresses are back because they are respected and liked, but it also works to serve a purpose. That of emphasizing identity. Who someone is beneath the outward appearance. And maybe to get us to slow down and question our assumptions about someone when we see their face.

It's Nina Sosanya, the actress. But also Nina, the coffee shop owner. And, Satanic Sister Mary Loquacious and Mary Hodges, Tadfield Manor owner.

It's Maggie Service, the actress. But also, Maggie, the record shop owner. And "Skinny Latte". And Satanic Sister Mary Garrulous.

Is it Madame Tracy or Shax? Is it Shakespeare or Furfur?

With Gabriel we have Jim, James, and of course "Supreme Archangel".

Aziraphale is "Angel", Mr Fell, Mr McFell, Mr Wherever-He-Is and your partner. Even "Hey you!" from Gabriel.

Crowley is Crawley, Anthony J Crowley, [Mr] Six Shots of Espresso, [Mr] Struck By Lightning, Mr Crowley. And, from the Metatron, Demon.

Did I miss any other nicknames for our characters? Let me know in the comments.

By comparison, we have Beezelbub, same name and same being inside, but with a different face. Interestingly, Crowley knew it was Beez and simply noticed the different outward appearance. But Gabriel did not immediately recognize the new face as being the someone he knew.

Some of this may seem a bit so what? It's a show, so of course the actors are not the same as the characters. But how many viewers, upon realizing that Nina and Maggie were also in S1, upon recognizing that Shax looked like Madame Tracy from S1, thought that maybe they were still the characters they were from S1, even if only for just a moment? Because they had the same face. Because they looked like someone we knew.

Returning to Gabriel. Or Jim. But he's actually both, at least in my opinion. I think Jim was always in there, but smothered by Gabriel The Supreme Archangel. And by setting aside the memories of how he behaved as the Supreme Archangel, we get to see the nice angel that he used to be, or could be.

I take all this as a warning to be careful with my assumptions about who's who based only on seeing their face.

Now this is the part where I veer off into my own theory-land with all of this. I currently still hold the shared-soul theory because I haven't seen anything to outright debunk it. The theory that a part of Crowley has gone up to heaven within Aziraphale. This is where I think the edges have been blurred and the face we see in the elevator, riding up to heaven with The Metatron, looks like Aziraphale, but there's more inside than just Aziraphale.

My Musings

2 AziraCrow Theory - The theme of 2 and a possible interpretation of its prevalence.

Blurring the Edges - Blurring the edges of the end credits. What it might mean.

Michael's E1 Scenes - One scene shown split apart?

I know someone who looks like you - On names, labels, and identities.

Cranking up the stars and nebula - A few observations on Crowley's constellation schematic.

Job flashback and foreshadowing? - An obscure theory about the destruction of Job's property and the unused apocalyptic story concept art.

Thoughts on Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen and the books

Arrivals - Compare and Contrast - Looking at Gabriel's arrival and Muriel's arrival to the bookshop.

Weird Coffee Shop Guy - There's something odd about this guy.

Unable to Reconcile - Confusion over cause and effect with the half-miracle vs blowing up the halo. Might not be anything.

Haven't seen you since - Unpopular opinion piece on why I don't think Azi and Crowley were seeing each other between the Garden Wall and Job.

"Look at you, you're gorgeous."

I binged the whole second season and my hand slipped: this was meant to be a sketch and it got out of hand, so ignore the wonky things ;v

(warning for the future: I'll be probably sharing lots of good omens 2 fanart, so beware)

Everything is fun and games until you fall in love with a cute blond

The puns are never ending : Aziraphale's miraculous "visable" bullet.

Aside from this closeup diagram of how to perform the bullet catch being objectively hilarious, it's also got a pretty fascinating *spelling mistake*.

If you look closely at the part of the pamphlet in red, you'll see that the bullet should be hidden in the mouth where it won't be visable. Not "not visible". Not visable. Seems innocuous enough right? But of course, the layers are never ending.

"Visable" is actually a Middle English word, *not* a modern English one. The last time it was used was before the printing press was invented, so pretty old. Here's a little background :

What's really fascinating though, is that just like the expression "dark horse", the word has two meanings : one is "Capable of good judgement, prudent" the other is "Tractable and docile".

There are also only two examples of the word in context that I can find, and they really should be sending you into orbit :

The first one is actually from Henry Lovelich's translation of the French epic poem "The Romance of Merlin" also known as the first English treatment of the Arthurian legends. It's modernized as "He was a worthy knight, valiant and visable in every fight." Which uses the "good judgment" meaning and sounds... a lot like Aziraphale in his role of guardian and protector.

Why do we care? They are standing literally in front of Excalibur, Arthur's sword.

The other one is from "Ipomadon", another middle English epic poem about a hidden identity romance between a beautiful but proud heiress, and her dark knight in disguise. "She was... visable and virtuous, meak and mild, and marvellous." Which clearly uses the "tractable and docile" meaning, but also... kinda sounds like Aziraphale in his damsel in his distress mode, which:

Ahahahah fuck off. But wait, there's more!

I originally twigged to this error because if you, like me, also happen to speak the language of la plume de ma tante, you know there's a reason why the uses happen in epic poems that originated in France: it's a loan word from old French, and still exists today in modern French, but it doesn't mean tractable and docile...

For the non-french speaking among you, it's a derivation of the verb "viser" :

Verb 1 To aim 1.To aim, to carefully direct one's gaze or a weapon towards a goal to throw something at it.

And so, if you happen to be, oh I don't know, a demon and have been alive for thousands of years and can definitely speak all the languages on earth and happen to have participated in the Arthurian age in England, when you read that pamphlet really carefully because someone is making you do a crazy stunt and there's a miracle blocker on, you could *conceivably* have read the instructions as:

"IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT YOU LOVE, DO NOT SHOOT AZIRAPHALE IN THE FACE." ________________________________________________________ Thanks to @thebluestgreen and @embracing-the-ineffable as always.

I FINISHED SEASON 2 I AM NOT OKAY

Just a reminder that 'Request a Title On Netflix' still exists.....so maybe go ask for Dead Boy Detectives season 2 three times https://help.netflix.com/en/titlerequest

(I don't tend to ask people to reblog things, but please reblog this instead of liking it. please SPREAD this knowledge. we want them to be bombarded by requests, and that only happens if people know this link exists. It worked for the Sense8 finale, we need it to work now)

This scene was absolutely beautiful BUT it’s also the crux of the issue. You guys this is where the problems start. Because—because Crowley’s already cast out, he finds COMFORT in the idea that they are lonely together. “As far as he can” becoming “as far as they can” is an END to his complete “otherness” and something to appreciate, to covet, and to find solace in. He’s finally not alone.

But—and this is important.

Aziraphale does NOT feel that. He can’t.

This moment is completely and utterly devastating for Zira. He finds out he’s not damned and sure, he’s relieved. But he’s no longer “an Angel” in the way that he’s learned is right. He’s now unchangeably and forever; less holy—a concept that is dearly important to his identity. “[Going] along with heaven as far as he can” is a FAILING on his part. Not heaven’s(at least to him). There is no solace or comfort—he finds existence like that—just the two of them—achingly LONELY. And that’s just how his perspective demands to be taken. It’s the only perspective he is capable of in that moment AND after it, too.

Take into account Crowley has went from having no one AT ALL to having SOMEONE. And he puts EVERYTHING he has into it. This is not good. It’s unfair to Aziraphale. And it’s unfair to himself. On the opposite side, you have Aziraphale. Who has just went from having the ENTIRE HEAVENLY HOST, to having this SINGLE demon— who, one minute ago, Aziraphale thought would be dragging him off to hell.

And the part that aches is that this perspective hasn’t changed. Aziraphale feels like his existence is lacking because he wants so badly to be GOOD. And good is Holy. Good is heavenly. He’s the problem for having morals that are misaligned.

Spoilers for the last episode:

Aziraphale has just been given the validation that he is not only GOOD but the most HEAVENLY Angel there is, the Supreme Archangel, even. And if heavens morals are now HIS morals, then that’s EVERY PROBLEM SOLVED. With a bow even, because Crowley’s basically on heavens side anyway, he’s GOOD, isn’t he? He’s been good this whole time, so why wouldn’t heaven want him back? Reinstating him as Angel would fix everything. They can be together, and they can be good, and they can be HOLY. All Aziraphale’s conflicting emotions about loving Crowley can be packed away because Crowley will be perfect again—and surely Crowley wants to be perfect—wants to be forgiven.(sorry everyone, that hurt me too, oof) Aziraphale is SHOCKED by Crowley’s refusal. He’s devastated that his version of perfect is treated as something naive and distasteful.

Crowley’s devastated too. He’s just lost “their side”. A concept that for 5000+ years has been THE ONLY THING he puts love into besides his car and perhaps his plants(And humanity, but he’ll never admit to that—I’m looking at the “No more dying” scene). Crowley is constantly being devastated by Aziraphale. He’s “too fast”, he’s too evil, he’s too good sometimes. Crowley has always been TOO MUCH. But this is different because for four years, he’s had “them”(on their own side) without the hiding, and without the denial and without Aziraphale constantly putting former jobs between them. PLUS he has a mountain of trauma centered around the concept of “forgiveness”, so that’s not great considering Aziraphale’s last words to him(THAT HE HASNT SAID ALL SEASON EVEN WHEN HE MADE CROWLEY APOLOGIZE IN THE FIRST EPISODE, AHHHHH). He’s losing everything and he’s desperate: Why isn’t he enough, hasn’t he been enough these last 4 years? Hasn’t HE been enough the last 6000?

Aziraphale has always been enough for Crowley. But being enough for Crowley doesn’t fix how Aziraphale has never been enough for himself, not since Job. He looks at this offer as a chance for HIM to be enough, and for Crowley to be FORGIVEN. Crowley looks at it as a betrayal because it’s Aziraphale saying Crowley ISNT enough, and he NEVER has been.

But that’s not what Aziraphale is saying. He’s saying, “Let me fix it for you”. Crowley is hearing, “Let me fix you for it.” Two completely different and completely horrifying concepts.

And then Crowley needs to say HIS piece(oh my gosh, btw, this was heartbreaking).

“Let’s be together on our terms” is basically what I’ve distilled it down to. But Aziraphale hears, “Let’s run away from our problems”

Aziraphale doesn’t want to run away, and Crowley doesn’t want to change who he is.

They both want to be together so badly but they don’t understand why they each want it so differently. And Aziraphale can’t compromise because he’s brainwashed and LOATHES himself. And Crowley can’t compromise because he’s traumatized and LOVES Aziraphale just as he is. Crowley doesn’t want to be good on heavens terms. He can see Heaven for what it is; “toxic”. He hates heaven not only for what the Host did to him, but for HOW THEY TREATED Aziraphale.

They both don’t understand each other because for all the pleading and presenting and monologuing, they never once in that whole conversation, actually talked.

Okay. One last thing and then I will go to bed

Crowley and Aziraphale are BOTH wrong

Hear me out

I see people dogpiling on Aziraphale for abandoning Crowley and I get it. My heart is broken too. But, Crowley’s solution isn’t the “correct” way either

Because regardless, Heaven and Hell will always be a threat. They can run off like Beez and Gabriel did but then they are just ignoring the problem. Eventually, Heaven or Hell will come back and have to be dealt with. Running is not the correct choice

Aziraphale knows that and believes genuinely that he is sacrificing for the greater good. He isn’t going to put out god’s will he’s going to put out his will, THEIR will

But he’s not taking a step back to see the true problem is all of it, not just heaven, but hell too. He cannot make a difference from within without perpetuating that harm even indirectly. But Crowley’s solution of inaction also means nothing will change and they are just delaying the inevitable

Neither are the “solution.” What is the solution? I don’t know! That’s what season 3 is for

Now I’m going to go cry into my fishbowl again

💯. And the ending WASN'T FUCKING HOMOPHOBIC, HOW did some of y'all even have that thought process?? I swear people will watch a queer couple deal with real relationship struggles, and have realistic character arcs, and be like omg, it's HOMOPHOBIC that their relationship isn't PERFECT smh. Stop calling every little thing homophobia, jesus

Also remember guys that the last 15 mins of episode 6 doesn't, like, negate the ENTIRETY of the rest of the show? Remember everything we got in the first 5 episodes? There was SO MUCH to be ecstatic about, y'all can't deal with a little beautifully written angst ffs

some of u r so entitled and it’s lowkey a part of what makes current fandom environment so much worse than it used to be. crowley and aziraphale are non-binary heavenly entities who are canonically in love with each other. we had queer ao3 subplot this season between a coffee shop owner and a record shop owner. crowley and aziraphale KISSED. and it’s still not enough just because it was angsty? because the writers chose for aziraphale to be in character (aka weighed down by 6000 + years of religious trauma and his own personal issues)? aziraphale isn’t strong enough to run away from everything and everyone with crowley. not yet. but he’s a character who is growing. some of you have been threatening for months that you would harass neil & others involved if there wasn’t a kiss, and they gave us one. an incredibly painful but incredibly believable kiss. and intent for a continuation of the story where aziraphale will finally choose humanity/crowley for good. but nooooooooooo that’s not good enough? k.

Aziraphale's got 6000 years of indoctrination to overcome, he's not just suddenly going to get over it! And Crowley isn't in the right either- they can't run away forever, heaven and hell will still be after them and they can't ignore that completely, but aziraphale thinks that he can /fix/ it, can make it better, so they don't have to worry about heaven and hell and can be free, he's doing this for THEM, you see? He doesn't see himself as betraying Crowley, he sees Crowley as betraying him. And if Crowley came with him, then they could be together AND they could work to fix things, and he's just devastated when Crowley can't see it his way.

And- Crowley can't be an angel again, he doesn't WANT to be an angel again, because he's CHANGED and he's not that person anymore. And aziraphale doesn't realize that. Aziraphale has good intentions, fixing the system from the inside, and he sacrificed love for the greater good, but he doesn't realize that he's being manipulated because the indoctrination is still too strong

i’m obsessed with aziraphale’s ending. how can someone as clever as you be so stupid. because the clutches of good are so much more dangerous than the clutches of evil. being too attached to a good ideology can so easily push you to do evil to uphold it. belief in your own goodness can so easily blind you to the evil you’re doing. aziraphale wasn’t drugged and he doesn’t love heaven more than crowley, he simply values goodness over evil and believes his idealistic view of goodness to be innocent. he’s been indoctrinated by heaven into this black and white view of it. he thinks goodness is this perfect ideal that can be fought for and achieved. he will turn into fucking robespierre. he will become so obsessed with his goodness and so convinced that he’s right that he will guillotine anyone who tries to stop him. he already is robespierre. he guillotined crowley. not because he didn’t love him but because he’s blinded by an obsession to goodness that isn’t goodness. he can’t bare to see someone he loves go against what he believes is the point of the universe. it’s a mercy killing. and he doubted it so strongly. because subconsciously he knows it all. but he believes he’s good and he wants to be so he will do anything to prove it. it’s so difficult for him to abandon the primary principle of his universe. and i think only when he realises that goodness as he believes it does not exist that he’ll realise. at the guillotine himself he’ll understand. goodness can be just as evil as evil. if heaven destroys the earth it will be just as dead as if hell did it. i highly doubt the moral nuance of this will be continued into season three but boy would i love to see it

🙏🙏🙏season 3 !!!!!!🙏🙏🙏

I know I'm gonna be replaying it every morning for the next month

PLEASE EVERYBODY REPLAY IT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN WE NEED SEASON 3

People were asking me what counts to help get Season 3 made. And the answer is, 1) people watching S2 and watching it to the end, 2) people who haven't watched Good Omens before watching Good Omens, which very much includes Season 1.

So if you know people who haven't seen Season 1, get them to watch it. And if you are at the homes of people with Prime Video who have never seen Good Omens, this is your chance to introduce them to the world of Good Omens while helping make a statistic that the algorithm people are following.

No but like listen to me, the ENTIRE REASON that Gabriel could throw away everything he had for a happy ending with his demon love when Aziraphale couldn't is that Gabriel never actually cared. Abandoning heaven is easy if you don't believe in anything it stands for and were only ever in it for the power. But Aziraphale? Aziraphale is an idealist. Fundamentally, when he goes against the letter of heaven's law, it's because he believes that he's fulfilling a deeper obligation to heaven's true purpose.

Aziraphale's values and goals are good in the real sense of the word and not merely Good in the visible and performative way that most of heaven operates, but he still believes that heaven can and should epitomise that goodness. Conversely, Crowley (the one being Aziraphale has ever met who actually understands and shares Aziraphale's values) has given up on institutional salvation. He's seen both heaven and hell up close and knows they're functionally identical, except that heaven has nicer views. They want the same things, but they can't agree on how to get them.

Gabriel and Beelzebub don't have this conflict. Neither of them cared about anything enough to put it above their own self interest - it's just that their feelings for each other transformed that self interest into something softer, something that maybe grew into real empathy. This is why the path to their happy ending came easier for them, and Crowley and Aziraphale have to walk a more winding road.

I’m emotionally ruined by the fact that Aziraphale hasn’t broken out of his heavenly conditioning. He still loves doing good. He gets happy when people tell him he’s an angel and says “it’s nice to tell people about the good things you’ve done now that I’m not reporting to Heaven”. He will literally put himself in harm’s way to make sure he does the Good and Right thing.

It can’t be understated how much Heaven’s influence still impacts on him. Aziraphale has been created, ordained and conditioned to believe it and he can’t just switch it off or walk away. Crowley didn’t get the choice. He was Fallen. He was kicked out and - as per the rules of toxic and terrifying cults - Aziraphale was always told for centuries and millennia, Falling was the worst thing that could happen. If you’re bad, you’ll be forced out. If you’re bad, you’re not one of Us. You’re one of Them.

When he did something he perceived as Right (ie. saving innocent children from death), but knew it wasn’t what Heaven intended, he broke down. Crowley found him a crying, shaking wreck afterwards because he was so convinced he was Evil. He was so convinced he was going to be dragged to Hell and that he was now a demon because he did one thing that saved some children but because it wasn’t a specific directive, it was Bad.

It shapes so much about him and it’s why the whole series looks like he’s having so much fun doing silly human things, but there’s this brittleness to it. He’s happy and excited and he’s doing his human-life things and having a lovely time, but he’s also constantly stressed because of the Need To Do Good. From the moment Gabriel turns up, he’s a nervous wreck and is trying to hide it by Doing Good, by Solving the Problem, by Fixing Things, by being so active and reactive rather than letting himself think about it. It’s a sign of exactly how frantic he is that he starts giving away his books and letting humans touch them.

Watch his face when the Archangels show up unexpectedly: that isn’t joy. That’s blind terror. He’s so afraid of doing the wrong thing in Heaven’s eyes, even though he made the active choice to do so because it was the Right thing to do. He’s a Guardian and he will protect, but he is so very afraid of the repercussions, even now. 

At the end of S1, Crowley said “they’re gearing up for the big one” so Aziraphale’s not oblivious. He knows a big one is coming. He knows something worse than the Antichrist will be on its way. And he’s trying so hard to pretend that everything is normal and fine and if he ignores all the looming bad stuff, it won’t happen. If we don’t say anything about it, nothing has to change.

But then the changes come knocking at his door holding a box and the choice is gone. He can keep trying to blinker himself to it, but then there are angels and demons in the bookshop and he’s had to use his halo and everything is falling apart.

So when he realises that he can get himself into a position where he can guarantee those repercussions won’t happen to Crowley? He will absolutely take it. He says himself “I don’t want to go back to Heaven”, but the instant the Metatron offers him a free pass for Crowley, to take Crowley out of both Heaven and Hell’s sightlines, to keep him safe (Another bee inside the hive, if you will), no wonder he grabs it with both hands.

The tragedy is that Crowley thinks that when they saved the world together, that was the end of Heaven’s influence in Aziraphale. When he was cast out the split between him and Heaven was sharp and clean. He doesn’t - he can’t - understand how deeply it has tangled around Aziraphale. It’s built into Aziraphale’s entire being and unravelling it isn’t that simple. Aziraphale’s trauma is a horrible, terrible Gordian knot and Crowley can’t understand that he couldn’t simply cut through it, because that’s just not how Aziraphale works.