I Just Realized Something.

Everything Is Meant (long S2 analysis, part 3)

Part one

Part two

There's SO MUCH excellent meta out there right now, and I'm going to try not to reinvent the wheel too much, but I want to keep going with tying the episodes/ elements up together because on first watch it wasn't entirely clear how everything fit. I also strongly recommend a rewatch, no matter what you felt about the ending... if you need to stop it 10 minutes early, do that, but you pick up so much more the second time around.

So: Maggie and Nina. I spent most of my first watch wondering why we were bothering with them, honestly. Later in the season Nina, and then Maggie and Nina, gave Crowley some insightful advice, but their actual relationship didn't progress despite all the meddling, and the amount of emotional investment BOTH Aziraphale and Crowley had in making them get together was frankly strange.

I started thinking in terms of mirror couples, since that was such a big deal in S1 and that's clearly what they were set up to be, but I made the mistake that all of us made on first watch: that Nina was Crowley and Maggie was Aziraphale. It still wasn't really coming together.

Then I put the psych hat back on and started to think about displacement. Displacement is a defense mechanism, and it consists of satisfying an impulse (usually an unconscious one) with a substitute object. At the beginning of the season, Aziraphale and Crowley aren't really in a good place, and I think on some level they know that. Aziraphale is trying to SHOW Crowley that he wants to take the next step through all the casual touches and phone calls and inviting him in, and feeling frustrated because Crowley doesn't seem to be taking the bait. (I absolutely think that Aziraphale tried to get Crowley to stay with him at the bookshop instead of living in his CAR, and Crowley said no. That's a whole other meta.) Meanwhile, Crowley, I think, is waiting for a Grand Gesture. Where did he go, as soon as Aziraphale brought up trying to get two humans to fall in love? Romantic tropes. Getting caught in the rain under an awning. A dramatic kiss that opens someone's eyes. That's the sort of thing he's always done, right? Big rescues, impassioned pleas on the street, fancy dinners, "give you a lift anywhere you want to go". He's defensive and guarded and unlikely to let someone in unless he's CERTAIN he won't be rejected, and Aziraphale's approaches are just too... quiet. No one's fault, they just don't speak the same language.

Then, they're handed the opportunity to make two humans fall in love, and they're both All In immediately. Look at Crowley's face when he summons the rainstorm. This is HUGE for him. Why? Because of displacement. Look at Aziraphale arranging the ball and being borderline deranged about it. They're both desperate to demonstrate what they think it takes for two people to move past their misunderstandings and fall in love. They can't do it for each other because the stakes are too high, and if either of them shows their cards unequivocally the vulnerability feels life-shattering. They're codependent and terrified of rejection and also, importantly, have no idea what they're doing when it comes to love. "Saw it in a film", Crowley says. Aziraphale's read about it in books. But they have zero practical experience.

Instead of learning to communicate, they try to say what they want to say through the medium of Maggie and Nina, up to and including the questionable moral decision to exert control over people's actions and thoughts during the ball. If I can just make this come out right, they both think, then things between us will be alright too. It HAS to come out right. They're attempting to gain some control over their own lives, over something that feels so overwhelming and shattering they can't look directly at it.

It doesn't come out right. Nina's relationship falls apart, but that doesn't mean she's in love with Maggie. While Crowley's stress-cleaning the bookshop to the music that played when Aziraphale got his books back in 1941 (just fuck me up David Arnold), they come in and tell him so. "I don't understand", says Crowley. Because it should have worked. Why didn't it work?

They tell him, of course. "You need to talk to each other. Say what you're really thinking." But here's the thing about communication: you have to learn it. You need to get the hang of expressing your feelings without blaming your partner, and separating intent from impact, and staying away from getting defensive and lashing out. No one has ever taught Aziraphale and Crowley how to do this. It's like Maggie and Nina put Crowley in front of a loom and asked him to recreate the Bayeux Tapestry. He doesn't have the skills; he's always going to get it wrong, even if he tries his hardest.

And he does try. But that's where Maggie and Nina the mirror couple, rather than Maggie and Nina the displacement relationship or Maggie and Nina the Greek chorus, come in. Aziraphale, as Nina, has just ended an incredibly toxic, invasive relationship with Heaven. A relationship that invaded every facet of his life, isolated him, and prevented him from being close to anyone else. "Rebound mess," Nina says. Aziraphale is a rebound mess. He's transferred the responsibility for his emotional wellness to Crowley. Crowley is the person he calls when he's in trouble, or (and this is key) when he wants to report a clever/ good thing he's done, or when he's bored. (At no point did Crowley reference Aziraphale calling him for a solicitous reason-- another problem.) Crowley is meant to take care of him. He forgets, I think, that Crowley is a person with his own wants and needs, just like Maggie and Nina are people with their own wants and needs who don't appreciate being messed with. (I think things would have been much different had Aziraphale BEEN THERE for Maggie and Nina's talk with Crowley, but he wasn't.)

And Maggie-as-Crowley? Lonely. Behind on rent, at risk of being evicted (it's important to note that Aziraphale saves Maggie from losing her record shop, as he couldn't save Crowley from losing his flat). Pining. Awkward. Revolving around Nina like a planet, to the extent that we don't get much of an impression of her otherwise. They realize, there at the end, that they both need to round themselves out before jumping into a relationship. Aziraphale and Crowley need that too. They need to take time apart and learn to be healthy on their own. Unfortunately they don't have the skills to get to that conclusion in a healthy way, so it all explodes in their faces and everything falls apart.

Aziraphale tries to teach Nina and Maggie to dance as a substitute for communication. Nina and Maggie try to teach Crowley communication as a substitute for the dance they've been doing around each other. That's the reason they're a part of the plot: they exist to demonstrate the way Aziraphale and Crowley might have succeeded in forging a better dynamic. Sadly, the boys' dance is too practiced and they got sucked right back into it.

It's okay, I think, that Nina and Maggie's storyline never really went anywhere. It wasn't supposed to. It's an allegory, not something that needs to stand alone.

For Halloween in their South Downs Cottage, Aziraphale gives out full size candy bars and Crowley gives out potatoes.

I just cried - “he doesn’t know how to do this!”.

……well if no one else is going to say it there’s no way that wasn’t crowley and aziraphale’s respective first kisses. the hands. the non moving faces. just pressing their lips together. sorry to all u “they slept around” headcanoners but those r lovesick virgins

The cottage will be Crowley’s “stars” because he will learn how to do everything himself there and he will be fixing stuff because he likes to know how and besides it’s fun. He’s an engineer after all.

He will be hanging stars again, when he will be hanging lights around the house for Christmas with Aziraphale gazing adoringly at him and taking too many pictures. And he will put the star on top of the Christmas Tree.

That childish happiness? Back on his face from the simple joy of freedom. Of building again - their home.

Aziraphale will still need to be rescued - or his appliances will, after all, Crowley I can’t finish baking if the mixer won’t start working again! Oh to have a husband who fixes the connection in moments and rescues the cake. Crowley will quickly realise that Aziraphale actually enjoys some of those appliances breaking once in a while.

Aziraphale will pretend he cares about fixing cars but mostly he will just learn names of the things so he knows what to give Crowley when he says “pass me the screwdriver” as he works underneath The Bentley. Aziraphale is there for the sweat, dirt and Crowley without a T-shirt, really.

Aziraphale will look at Crowley’s happy face and be so happy that he finally knows exactly how to bring that joy he had as an Angel back on his face.

Freedom. And them.

Don't get me wrong, but Spies Of Warsaw was THE handsomest DT ever looked (before the 60th specials, that is). And un-fucking-believably dashing, too. And a healthy dose of whump never hurts (as opposed to clumsy puns). Rewatch is due.

This DT edit is my Roman empire

Can you tell me why aziraphel said ‘I forgive you’ ?

I wish I could tell you, anon 😔 I've seen a few speculations on it, all of which I found interesting and valid.

I guess my opinion is that Aziraphale defaults to a forgiveness response whenever Crowley offers (tempts him with) something that competes with his duty to Heaven - or the Goodness he still thinks Heaven is capable of, maybe.

Off the top of my head, Aziraphale 'forgives' Crowley at the bandstand the first time he says fuck the ineffable plan actually, let's just go. Then again during their argument in the street the second time Crowley suggests (begs) going off together, just the two of them. And now we have this third time, when yet again Crowley has placed himself as a mutually exclusive option to Heaven.

I think there's something to it being a personal temptation. As in, a selfish one. In the Job flashback we saw Aziraphale let Crowley 'tempt' him into lying to Heaven. He was utterly convinced he'd fall as consequence, but he accepted that because his actions had been for the sake of Job and his family.

Whereas these choices Crowley is asking him to make aren't selfless at all, they're very personal. It's asking that Aziraphale choose Crowley himself over Heaven. Ultimately, Aziraphale lets Crowley tempt him on all sorts of inconsequential matters like food and other indulgences - but not this. Not once. And whenever he feels Crowley is trying (whether Crowley intends it that way or not) it's the only thing he regards as a real trespass or offence. So he forgives him, which is the only possible option if he wants to keep his most precious friendship.

Except this time Crowley says don't bother, because Aziraphale has chosen Heaven over him one too many times 😕

I hope that's a coherent response, I mostly worked out my feelings on the subject as I was writing!

when simm says ‘I don’t know what I’d be without that noise’ and ten says ‘I wonder what I’d be without you’ it makes me so insane because like

they’re both naming something that actively hurts them, that has fundamentally changed who they are and that has made them a darker, less controlled version of themselves. it has caused them so much pain and yet they’re terrified to be without it

for the master, there’s the drums and for the doctor, there’s the master

[It defo looks like a hotel room, so the headband collection must be all his.]

I quite forgot about the Staged S3, so it's actually not a hotel.

But still.

Headband collection

I don't want to be the person that zooms in on photos but did people already notice the headbands hanging on the lamp? Why is that adorable? That family has a lot of hair going on so totally makes sense!

sadboy