okay so two things about aziraphale when he goes into heaven to be like “Hey what’s up can i kill an eleven-year-old also we’ve been looking after the wrong one for eleven years kthxbye”
firstly, michael doesn’t say a word.
i’m interested in how little dialogue michael has in the scene - when aziraphale is laying out his waffle about maybe the antichrist has gone missing, as a ruse, it’s uriel who takes on the role of interrogator - she basically needles him to demand what he’s talking about and why he’s talking about it. uriel is DIRECT, and EXPECTANT: they have roles to get on with, and she thinks they should be put forward.
sandalphon acts as a chorus, just occasionally parroting things (i think in general when it’s the senior angels with aziraphale, sandalphon is quiet because he knows he’s not an archangel like the other three); and gabriel is…
i mean, honestly, the vibe i get from gabriel is vague concern - he thinks it’s weird and freaky that aziraphale keeps getting caught up on these strange turns of thought instead of The Work and Heaven and Being Good, and he keeps trying to brightly explain things to aziraphale to hammer them back home. the actual subtleties of the situation, or the idea that aziraphale might actually care about earth really don’t seem to occur to him at all (whereas to uriel, they plainly do, and she considers it a point of concern)
michael says two things, in the conversation before.
when aziraphale references crowley, he refers to the other side; she repeats him. The other side?
and her only other line of dialogue, not interrogative, not questioning aziraphale’s statements, but instead just being quietly blunt about it, almost as if she’s reminding herself as much as aziraphale, when he says, but does there have to be another war…?
When your cause is just you do not hesitate to smite the foe, Aziraphale.
but then, after.
it’s just the four senior angels, now.
The senior angels.
GABRIEL: What did you think of that then?
URIEL: That’s an angel who has been down there too long.
SANDALPHON: I don’t trust him.
GABRIEL: Hypotheticals, indeed.
michael doesn’t say a word.
gabriel… doesn’t say anything. he doesn’t voice an opinion. he asks their opinions. this is what he does as the manager of heaven - he gets other people’s opinions and views, and tries to work them together.
but note how he DOESN’T say he doesn’t trust aziraphale. gabriel still has faith in aziraphale, which we note later breaks when he sees the photos of crowley and aziraphale together - gabriel doesn’t want to believe that one of his angels could be betraying them… (and yet michael, miss backchannels, is silent.)
but SANDALPHON, gabriel’s righthand man, says he doesn’t trust him - we know that gabriel values sandalphon’s opinion and his views, and we know that the two of them appear quite close.
URIEL doesn’t say “I don’t trust him”. in fact, she doesn’t actually impart a value judgement on aziraphale at all - she never brings her feelings into it. it’s about The Job, and aziraphale’s efficacy. aziraphale’s been down on earth too long, and is compromised by it, and uriel doesn’t approve.
there’s just… so many subtleties to the different problems each of the four angels have with aziraphale - sandalphon seems to pick up that aziraphale dislikes him personally, but finds him on a personal level untrustworthy because he’s not like th eother angels; uriel isn’t as personal about it and instead comes at it from a work pov, and considers aziraphale to be a security risk and a liability; michael i think has the most sympathy/understanding of aziraphale’s position, and is the most aware of his potential dealings with hell, whilst also knowing that’s A Bad Thing, and yet she doesn’t bring it up right away, doesn’t accuse him; and gabriel… gabriel hopes against hope, until the betrayal is plainly cemented, that aziraphale is still one of them.
arcticflakes
