Spoiler-Alert!
This post contains spoilers for the first season of Good Omens.
One cannot really let a story begin earlier than at the beginning. It is therefore fair to say that the connection between Aziraphale and Crowley has lasted longer than anything known to us. Especially when there was supposed to be no “connection” between the two of them at all! They should be arch-enemies, for after all Crowley is a demon and Erziraphael an angel. But an actual biblical matter brought them together, a matter that has to do with nothing less than a very specific apple and a flaming sword.
As it happens, Crowley is the very demon who was sent up to the Garden of Eden barely seven days after the creation of the world to cause some chaos. And what better way to do that than to offer Eve an apple from a tree that God himself had forbidden her to eat from? After the banishment of Adam and Eve, Aziraphale, the angel of the eastern gate at that time, made a gift to the two of them without God’s knowledge (?): he gave them his flaming sword so that they would not be defenseless in the world out there.
Barely outside the garden, the two are watched by the angel as they make their way through the desert, while the world’s first thunderstorm threatens to roll in. But Aziraphale is not alone for long at his spot on the walls of Eden, as Crowley joins him. They watch the first humans depart – and they also see Adam raise his sword against a fierce lion barely five minutes later. The sight is a little… disturbing in terms of the way humans will evolve in the world out there. It makes Crowley consider what the two of them have unleashed:
“Funny if we both got it wrong, eh? Funny if I did the good thing and you did the bad one, eh?”
Crowley and Aziraphale at the beginning in the Garden of Eden.
Both Crowley and Aziraphale acted according to their gut. Crowley felt it was the right thing to do (in terms of his nature as a demon) to give people the apple. Immanuel Kant interpreted the eating of the apple from the tree of knowledge as the origin of reason. This undoubtedly goes hand in hand with free will; Crowley explicitly confirms this in the second episode at the least. Of course, Crowley has caused a not inconsiderable amount of chaos with this apple, but what if the ultimate result of his action was good?
His superiors would certainly not like it at all. Perhaps it was just an “unfortunate coincidence” that Crowley’s action was not marked by dire consequences (well, perhaps that too is in the eye of the beholder). Or maybe it’s just not in Crowley’s nature to be evil. After all, he says himself that he never wanted to become a fallen angel, but rather had dealings with the wrong people. This is certainly supported by the fact that throughout Earth’s history he has done little more horrific than cripple mobile phone networks. His demonic colleagues, on the other hand, clearly prefer to amuse themselves with real murders or seductions to evil.
Aziraphale’s impulse to hand over his sword to the humans is also ambivalent at best. Did the angel thereby bring about the beginning of war? This is certainly supported by the fact that this very sword will wield the apocalyptic horsewoman of war when it almost comes to the end of the world. Nevertheless, Aziraphale acted according to his knowledge and conscience, he wanted to protect the humans who had already grown close to his heart. But would God have put his creation in mortal danger at all? Aziraphale must have believed that.
As a matter of fact, Aziraphale is quick to refer to God’s ineffable plan as the “solution” to all things that have to do with difficult questions and situations – just as he did at the beginning of creation. Well, leaving aside whether it is or not, it is more of an excuse than a solution. If it is God’s plan for all this to happen, one can of course dismiss responsibility. It also questions the free will of all other creatures, including Aziraphale’s and Crowley’s. While the thought may seem tempting, a world in which we can do nothing of consequence seems less than desirable.
Ultimately, this may be why the angel and the demon end up working together to save the world. They ignore what was actually understood to be God’s plan in heaven and hell – the destruction of the world in the year of the Lord 2018 – and save the earth they love and consider worth protecting, thus choosing their own side, apart from heaven and hell.