It’s like the miniseries knew that involving more setup with the other characters in episode 2 would be a bit of a letdown, because episode 3 comes in like, “Oh, we’re just gonna give you all the Crowley-Aziraphale content!” Probably the most famous episode in the miniseries, as well as the most beloved, and for good reason.
As the end of the world draws ever nearer, Aziraphale and Crowley continue their search for the Antichrist, albeit through slightly ridiculous means. For Aziraphale, it’s not just a question of how do they find the Antichrist child—it’s what do they do when they find him? (Crowley’s theories on the matter don’t encourage him.) As for Crowley, he has one foot in this desperate gambit of a mission while the other tries to think up contingencies for himself and Aziraphale in case it all goes south. Meanwhile, the forces of Heaven, Hell, and the Earth all continue to amass, rallying and/or being nudged toward the positions they’ll need to assume when the end comes, and the Antichrist begins to bring about some unexpected upheaval on Earth.
Re: the non-Aziraphale/Crowley parts of the episode, I’ll only say that everyone is very good, the plot is whimsical and inventive, and the dialogue is clever. These scenes serve more as short detours today, which allows them to both amuse and move the plot forward without making you wonder when our favorite angel-demon duo is going to show up again. This is much appreciated.
Because this episode is all about Crowley and Aziraphale.Certainly, there are their slightly-to-moderately panicked exploits in the present day, their frantic attempts to thwart the end of the world without quite knowing how exactly they plan on doing that. Once again we get those little exchanges between the two of them where the roles and functions of their respective sides get a bit jumbled up. Crowley intimates that the Antichrist child can’t bring about Armageddon if there’s no Antichrist child to do so (hint, hint,) and Aziraphale immediately cries that he, as an angel, couldn’t possibly kill a child—but at this point, we’ve already seen a flashback to Noah’s arc.
And that’s the real headline here. The entire first half of the episode is devoted to the story of Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship across all of human history, from the Garden up to the present day. We see Michael Sheen and David Tennant playing the characters in a plethora of time periods and locales, which offers up ample opportunity for a variety of costumes, wigs, and history jokes (the Shakespeare stuff makes me giggle.) It also shows the twists and turns of the relationship between the angel and the demon over the centuries, adding heft to their interactions later in the episode. There’s a history here, very literally, and when they argue, the clash has the weight of the ages behind it.
Tennant is just splendid. In this episode, Crowley gets to be all kinds of funny. When Aziraphale runs into him and conversationally asks, “Still a demon then?”, Crowley awesomely replies, “What else would I be, an aardvark?”, and there’s a fun scene that features him physically struggling to walk on consecrated ground. He also further pushes that intriguing mix of being both indolently slipshod and intensely earnest. He regularly shirks his demon duties and encourages Aziraphale to do the same on the heavenly side, and he at times makes a show of not caring that much about Aziraphale. And yet, every time Aziraphale is in trouble, Crowley is there, and even when Crowley wants to run and protect himself, he’s vehement about only leaving once Aziraphale is at his side.
Honestly, I know they never come out and say the words or anything, but you will never convince me that the miniseries isn’t written to show that Crowley and Aziraphale are in love, or that Tennant and Sheen don’t play it that way. I mean, just… the dialogue! The lingering beats! The looks! I know I’ve seen that exact same blissful smile on Tennant’s face before, and it was when the Tenth Doctor would look at Rose Tyler. People can quibble about what kind of love the two share if they’d like, but for me, there isn’t any question of the love itself. I adore it.
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