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sonkitty · 22 hours

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Crowley S2 Hair Post #18 Redone

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 2, The Clue, meeting with Shax in the car

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Sideburns Check

The sideburns are long and are what I've generally gone with calling the default demon reading from the car. Once Shax is inside the car, the lighting favors Crowley's right. So, the left sideburn looks more full in hair than his previous demon encounters and the preceding night's miracle.

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Brighter Red Streak Check

For the most part, there are two more saturated red streaks that can be found above Crowley's left eye. They are close together and spread a little between each other.

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Hairstyle Changes

The hair is darker and not as saturated compared to when it was last seen charged up with so much red for the miracle in episode 1. Based on my own observations, the darkness can be attributed to Crowley being in his demon space with the car. One could guess he's been in the car for awhile since he's asleep at the start of the scene.

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Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

This scene is quite unusual because so little is shown of Crowley's hands and him making pockets with his own body using a limb or fingers or hands. I think the scene is designed to offer clues to The Window Trick, which is the last Threshold Trick of the season at the end of episode 6. It concludes right before Muriel's last scene.

Crowley starts with his arms folded in the car, presumably with his back to the seat. Due to the camera's movement, the nearby buildings cast a darkness that looms over the front window, allowing part of Crowley to be seen more clearly, such as the longer sideburns. Still, due to where the camera stops, it's not as clear with the window pane's glare that Crowley's right shoulder is touching the back of the seat. It's a good guess, just not easily seen. Meanwhile, his left shoulder could be in the space between seats.

Due to this position, he is covering the thumb joints and thumbs of his Tied Hands.

Shax knocks on the window. Her hand's reflection can be found in the window pane this time.

When Crowley opens the window, it's more clearly confirmed that yes, he has his right shoulder on the back of the seat.

Shax is not reflected in his sunglasses. For The Window Trick, there will be humans walking to Crowley's right that will have parts of their bodies reflected in his sunglasses to indicate what he sees.

Generally, I've interpreted that to mean that Crowley doesn't see the way humans see by choice because it works to his advantage to sense with his eyes instead. The sense operates in a very similar manner to seeing while not actually seeing the way most humans understand it. His special sight is what allows him to perform The Window Trick at all because he can show what the windows of his sunglasses see, and that it changes when he moves enough for the reflections to disappear.

Such things also help communicate that the ending trickery is not an appearance swap because only Crowley could even do it with how he uses the sunglasses as his own double door set with lenses for windows. Well, at least I would hope so given all the effort put into the whole thing.

For Shax's "Hello," she greets Crowley with, "You're in trouble."

Once inside the car, Shax is shown with her right arm against the back of the seat. Crowley is also shown with his back to the seat.

Otherwise, the scene shifts to focusing on their head shots as they talk. Shax's reflection can at least be found in the window pane to her left.

The scene itself never shows Crowley closing the window but based on how things are structured, I would think the window by Crowley closed once Shax entered. Crowley's reflection is never found in it to be sure. Part of The Window Trick is indeed to leave the window open while blurring it and making it harder to confirm it's open while the reflections are happening. That blur is a pass or share with the sunglasses. However, The Window Trick ensures an open window with its full window frame is shown at its end. That's not what happens here.

There are white window frames of the nearby buildings, and these things repeatedly appear as reflected in Crowley's sunglasses throughout this scene. That's another clue to what Crowley sees and chooses to see with his special sight. Light is the most common reflection I've found in his sunglasses, but here, it's not light. It's something lighter in color and specific to the space of the supernatural zone outside his own domain of the car.

Plus, window frames themselves are important thresholds for figuring out the game's mechanics, both for looks and physical touches.

For paying attention to the pockets, the Tied Hands never show their thumbs or thumb joints. Or rather, the tie never shows its clasps and tassels. Only the knot is partly revealed early on before Shax knocked and then before the scene itself shifts to being outside the car as Crowley starts driving.

With the window open and addressing Shax, Crowley makes a pocket with is own ear, neck, and shoulder to the passenger seat of the car. Some of the plants and the cardboard box they are in is in that pocket. He is visually pocketed briefly between the greenery of the plants.

The plants are important to The Window Trick because it is their Green that represents the maintained Rainbow Connection between Crowley and Aziraphale after Aziraphale has completed The Door Catch. They represent Earth and a shared love for Earth. With my latest studies in these posts, they also contribute to how Crowley's sideburns shorten during the drives of the present day.

When Shax starts talking about the miracle, a self-made pocket of hair can be more clearly be seen on Crowley as he listens to what she says. This pocket contains some of the roof of the car.

The main pocket Crowley makes with a limb is when he uses his right arm to start the car before fully kicking Shax out of his space. The pocket is between his arm and the lower part of the screen. It visually contains the window pane, frame between the window pane and the door, and the door. As the camera zooms out, some of the steering wheel ends up included in the pocket before Crowley fully lowers his hand.

Once the closer head shots start for the conversation, the plants end up pocketed between Crowley and the right side of the screen. Such pockets keep happening. Meanwhile, they keep not happening with Shax. There is extremely little of the plants that can be found in the cut where her right arm is shown touching the seat. After that, she is framed without the plants in the car, even when they start shuddering.

Not only that, before Shax entered, she had a pocket between herself and her giant bow. Once she's in the car, she's not making that pocket anymore. I don't think she's avoiding that pocket on purpose. I think her play isn't advanced enough to consider that option. She does seem to be one of the more aware players in the game because she has one of the more notable play styles. She's very intentional about when she is willing to make skin contact touches, for instance.

She seems to continually "dress down" over the course of the season, when it comes to her head and not taking on the appearance of a specific human. Once the hat and gloves are gone from her earlier encounters with Crowley, she has a headband and earrings when she talks to Aziraphale in the car. Once the headband is gone, she has no hat or headband and smaller earrings in Hell, both in 1941 and the present day before she addresses the gathered group of demons. Once the earrings are gone to address that gathered group of demons, she has red highlights in her longer hair that last from that point onward.

If I'm remembering the overall series properly, she is allowed to say Crowley's name the most of anyone who isn't Aziraphale.

Back to this scene, when Crowley's right hand is finally seen after first opening the window, it's blurry. I can't make out the fingers and can only reasonably guess there's a thumb joint of relevance near the steering wheel.

For my tangential reading progress of a desperate attempt to improve my play, I have finished Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett and The Sandman Volume 2 by Neil Gaiman.

Guards! Guards! has at least two familiar passages that certainly resemble what can already be found in the Good Omens book and season 1. In Good Omens the book, the narration describes things as follows:

This proves two things: Firstly, that God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players,* to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

Note the game and "smiles all the time". Season 1 switches things so that God is a She, and She describes the game in much the same manner. I can assure you, the word "ineffable" has occurred to me in trying to describe and figure out the rules of Earthly Objects...the funny thing is, some rules can actually be found. You gotta look really hard and really think about it though. Still, they are there.

Now here's another "smiles all the time" in Guards! Guards!

Nobby looked up from the table in the corner where he was continually failing to learn that it is almost impossible to play a game of skill and bluff against an opponent who smiles all the time. The Librarian took advantage of the diversion to help himself to a couple of cards off the bottom of the pack.

Did Terry Pratchett have some challenging poker opponent who smiled all the time? Or is this some reference I don't get because the next batch is definitely a pop culture reference done many times over outside these two books? A quick Google search attributes some variation of the Good Omens quote to Neil Gaiman and the actual quote to the Good Omens book, so...it might be a joke they shared and he re-used.

Time for "feeling lucky", which a frequent pop culture reference to the Clint Eastwood movie, Dirty Harry. This reference is made in plenty of other places besides these books.

Here's how it goes down in the Good Omens book:

“Maybe I am,” said Crowley, in a tone of voice which he hoped made it quite clear that bluffing was the last thing on his mind. “And maybe I’m not. Do you feel lucky?”

And here's how it is in Good Omens Season 1:

"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. Ask yourself: do you feel lucky?"

Now I doubt you were asking yourself if Crowley was making pockets for that scene in the TV series, but yeah, he was. There's a pocket between his right arm, chest, watch, left arm, and the bottom of the screen. There's yet another between the plant mister, back of the right hand, watch, and bottom of the screen. That then effectively puts his watch and some of his left arm in a pocket between the plant mister and chest. He's got all 5 digits of the right hand visible and his 1 right thumb for a *gasp* 6 digits total. As I've said before, 6 is a number strongly associated with Crowley himself in season 2. Also, when two hands are involved, that ensures over half of the 10 available digits are in use.

Anyway, so here's the "feeling lucky" bit in Guards! Guards!

“Now I know what you’re thinking,” Vimes went on, softly. “You’re wondering, after all this excitement, has it got enough flame left? And, y’know, I ain’t so sure myself . . .” He leaned forward, sighting between the dragon’s ears, and his voice buzzed like a knife blade: “What you’ve got to ask yourself is: Am I feeling lucky?” They swayed backward as he advanced. “Well?” he said. “Are you feeling lucky?”

Meanwhile in The Sandman Volume 2, guess who makes an appearance there and in Good Omens season 1? William Shakespeare.

Anyway, time to move on...

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Story Commentary

It's Tactical Turtleneck Tuesday!

Well, the implied Tuesday anyway.

In season 1, Crowley wore a turtleneck while plotting to steal holy waiter in 1967.

It's got something to do with him enjoying James Bond movies and James Bond wearing a turtleneck at some point. So I've heard.

So, what's Crowley's scheme? What's so important that he chooses this day of the implied days to wear a tactical turtleneck? Well, this demon has been scheming quite a bit already with the sideburns, the Earthly Objects game, and in that game....pockets. Indeed, there is going to be some big-time pocket-scheming later because The Pocket Trick starts in this episode. Dun dun dun.

But not yet.

This scene with Shax is the last of the three demon visits to Crowley's own demon space where he kicks out the visiting demon from that space.

We aren't going to see Crowley in this special supernatural zone for the rest of the season. These are the clues we get and have to use them with the other pieces of the puzzle found elsewhere.

Studying this scene all the more, I still can't find any humans or animals. There are no flies this time around either. There are still plants inside and outside the car. In fact, the plants outside the car move as if in a breeze behind Shax to make me look all the more closely just in case I still somehow missed a human presence because of the movement. But no, it's still just plants as best I can tell.

As the scene starts, the car mirror from within can be seen positioned as if to face Crowley. That is to say, Crowley presumably made sure those sideburns were long before falling asleep.

In the Good Omens book, Crowley sleeps because he likes it. He doesn't need sleep, but he's found it to be one of the pleasures of the world. So, here, I generally assume the same. It's probably also what allows Shax into the supernatural zone compared to her earlier phone call in episode 1. For that visit, I believe Shax had to wait up to an hour for Crowley to answer the phone.

When Shax brings up the "miracle of enormous power", Crowley looks like he's nervous and trying to hide it. She specifies the power as something "only the mightiest of archangels could have performed".

Crowley says, "How'd you know I didn't do it?" It sounds boastful, but there are a lot of signs in season 2 he's not just saying that. Shax herself doesn't deny the possibility.

That is one of several clues about Crowley's past rank as an angel.

Even so, Shax doesn't question further for if he did it and what it was.

An interesting technicality in the dialogue is that Shax says the miracle was "somewhere very close" to the bookshop—not in the bookshop or from the bookshop, like the angels will say to Aziraphale in an upcoming different scene. No, Shax said, "somewhere very close". The actual lightning Crowley shot out was very close to the bookshop, but it wasn't at night and happened before Beelzebub summoned him—well, according to the deceptive presented story that is. He did recall that power with less dramatic flair very close to the bookshop after the summon that night, I'll admit.

I mentioned earlier in the Earthly Objects section above about the window frame reflections and will add a little more here. I was recently going over season 1 after noticing certain things in the minisodes, and I did find one place where Crowley does have a person, Aziraphale, reflected in his sunglasses and moving. That's been a big factor in why I've considered The Window Trick reflections so important and special. Such reflections generally do not appear in Crowley's sunglasses. Even when people are seen reflected on the sunglasses at least three different times in Good Omens 2 that are not The Window Trick, they are not shown to be moving.

In season 1, this found moment I refer to is not when Aziraphale is discorporated, which is also a special case on its own. Still, this found moment is when they are entering the car after leaving the tent for the birthday party, and Crowley's about to contact Hell to ask about the hell-hound. Crowley has already opened the door to his car and not closed it yet. Aziraphale is entering. Then I can find Aziraphale moving and reflected in the sunglasses. Wow. I always keep an eye out for such things, afraid I've somehow missed it and still have missed that one. When Crowley opens the door to the car during The Window Trick and crosses the threshold, that's when the people reflections first show up. Said reflections do not show the faces of the bodies walking by. This found moment in season 1 does have Aziraphale's face.

~Start excerpt from my main post~

Crowley allowed Shax in by not verbally denying her entry and looking at where she would manifest. He kicked her out by non-verbally revving up his car even more after doing it once and giving her a second look. The home base understood it was about to de-activate and kicked her out.

~End excerpt from my main post~

I prefer to head-canon that the plants are scared because they sense Crowley's anger, not fear. He did easily kick out Shax, and even if his space did not have the special rules it does now, the last demon who didn't leave his car was discorporated by Crowley driving through a wall of fire in season 1.

While studying the minisodes, it looks like even hats affect how a space reads Crowley, so I'll at least acknowledge Shax is wearing a hat here, as she was in her last two encounters with him. Crowley isn't wearing a hat though he has altered his clothing enough to have a turtleneck for his shirt.

I haven't quite figured out how the hats make things go one way or the other because it's more like they change things when combined with factors like if there is fire around and what Aziraphale himself is doing with his hat, such as wearing it, removing it, plain touching it, or has a hat at all.

Focusing on this particular scene of season 2's present day, the sideburns stayed long whether Shax was inside or outside the car while she kept her hat on for both. The space is stationary and acting as a home when Shax enters. There's no visible fire though it's established the street is wet enough for visible water on Shax's arrival. The roof is visible for Shax and Crowley once she's in, though it stops being visible with her after the initial shot with her arm against the seat.

So, whatever is happening with hats doesn't force the sideburns to change here. The longer sideburns usually associated with supernatural readings for the present day—in the earlier episodes—stays on Crowley.

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That's it for this post. Up next is a special one! We're going to the pub! The visit to the pub is the first touch of The Bigger Thresholds Trick.

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That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

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Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

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Past version of this post:

Post #17 (meeting with Shax in the car)

The numbering between older and newer posts no longer matches because I went ahead and covered the first minisode scene with Crowley this time around. I'm almost caught up to where I left off before I put this project mostly on hold to study Earthly Objects.

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