Fleabag finale episode SPOILERS thread

[HotPriest]

Crack open a can of and join your fellow iPlayer stalkers here for discussion of the final episode of Fleabag. Spoilers totally allowed so no peaking if you haven't see the episode.

Hoping it's as good as we all want it to be. Should be live on iPlayer tomorrow about 9.30am

She could.do better than Hugh Laurie. I'm so glad she didn't end up with the priest.

Maybe FB’s mum was one of GM’s “interesting” friends?

PP feel she’ll be fine because the writing makes it very clear that she’ll be fine. Look at the lyrics of the Alabama Shakes song that played over that final scene:

“I just kept hoping, I just kept hoping
The way would become clear
I spent all this time tryna play now
I found my way here

See, I've been having me a real hard time
But it feels so nice to know I'm gonna be alright”

Fleabag told HP that Godmother was one of her mum’s students.

Although I love HP I agree with RomCom and Thirty that his apparent eventual choice of God does make it seem as though he used her.

I just think that if he were really suited to the priesthood, he would have been able to maintain a distance from FB from the start.

I can accept him as a flawed character who made the wrong decision to become a priest, but it's much more difficult to accept a priest who 'chose God,' but can't maintain boundaries.

This is why I am choosing to believe that this is the beginning of the process of him leaving the priesthood.

I think the saddest thing is her friendship with HP is now ended and they really ‘got’ each other. She is quite alone now, albeit in a better place.

Thank you so much for the link to The Betrayal, Great Andrew Scott Fix

She hasn't even got us any more (the wave goodbye)

Thirtyrock39 Yes, you are the only person

I thought maybe the various foxes were God. The pictures falling down thing was not god. That would be typical that God wouldn’t be ‘showing himself’ in the way that HP expected. The paintings falling are kind of a guilt metaphor, reminding HP of his first loyalty being to God. Though there is the great scene where the HP says ‘god help me’ and the whiskey magically falls from the high shelf to HP’s hand. I think that is God, binding the two of them together.

The way in the finale end scene that the Fox kind of checks in on FB then trots off to the Priest to gather him in, or round him up or be with him, or just scare him again (scary because the priest can’t really accept or understand God in lots of ways when he gets a reveal of God) makes me think the fox is God. The way foxes are beautiful but feared and hated by some humans and they scavenge food to survive off human’s rubbish (in towns) - all a bit metaphorically ‘Christlike’.maybe too?

Also I don’t think FB is choosing God by the end. With her female/mother/human body statuette that she reclaims as hers in the finale, she’s choosing ‘other people’ (like Kristen Scott Thomas said we’re all that matters), she’s choosing a human life of relationships rough and smooth, choosing her mum as her protection, moving past looking to her useless self-absorbed and cowed dad, or the terrible stepmother who is an absolutely monstrous narcissist to help her. At the end she’s choosing her sister, choosing to live more comfortably and pleasurably or authentically in her own female body (whereas the priest is choosing to ignore his body). Early in the story everyone is demeaning the statuette’s body and big tits but now you get the feeling FB finds it beautiful and strong.

You get the feeling FB has almost forgiven her stepmother in some ways (not that she deserves it) but were it not for her ludicrous tokenism in collecting people- she’d never have met the priest and that relationship is so meaningful for FB and ultimately healing in its healthy/unhealthy tensions and ironic summiting of the pursuit of emotionally unavailable men (he is an alcoholic, a catholic priest and a ‘father’ with a flock to look after and Pam at home to look after already.)

So many complex layers to this. It is a love story on so many levels but I particularly love the truths around bereavement. PWB is such a phenomenal writer and actor. I would love to see more of her work. Or even if she never wrote another word for tv again I hope she feels she can relax because she has made a flawless piece of art with this.

ESM was her mum's student,
though of course she must have been her friend to be the Godmother

I know ThanksItHasPockets the words to the song sound broadly positive but the song itself - his voice and the way it's sung - made me burst into to tears.

Arf, I'm genuinely tempted to jump on a train to London and pop to the cafe to check if she's ok! I'm like one of those crazy fans who thinks Harrison Ford really is Han Solo or something

Even though I know Fleabag is a fictional character with no name and PWB is in America and Olivia Colman is apparently a genuinely lovely woman and Andrew Scott isn't a priest and isn't into women.

Must. Get. Life. Or set up some kind of support group.

Completely agree, merrymouse. I came away thinking she might be newly okay in her aloneness, but he is a bit of a white-knuckle priest in his.

I felt the priest was far more fucked than she was at the end. Fleabag had a way forward, a way past her grief and self loathing, she had learnt that she was loveable. The priest was left to be lonely and alone forever, always wondering what if.

her voice - I mean

RuffleCrow - support group definitely needed

The priest was left to be lonely and alone forever, always wondering what if.

Or just change his job.

It's ending reminded me a bit of the end of the film 'la la land ' : the only bit of the film I liked as it didn't go down the obvious route! It makes a change to have some realism and things not always going to plan as that is life.
Still sad though.
It said on the red button that the last episode has been well received by critics.

I think that the priest will absolutely be ok and will def stay in the priesthood. He’s always seemed a
Bit unsure of his role as a priest and many of us felt he was ripe to leave the job. However I think his speech at the wedding and his choice shows his newly renewed faith in himself as a priest and with god. He was tested and he “passed” the test by choosing god, I don’t think he will be tempted in this way again, I saw him walking off far more confident in his choice than the previous time he left that bus stop

I have already envisioned 18 months later: the awful stepmum insisting on the family getting together to attend the very chic baptism of her surrogate baby at the HP church (with tea at the house after), leading to all sorts of awkward moments and asides to camera.

YES. Perfect! Absolutely this, I can see it now all the Stepmother’s narcissism and exploitation and tokenisation of other people and all the hilarious dark awkwardness and the useless Dad just trailing along in the wake. (Computer you are PWB and I claim my £5.)

I really want there to be more written so we can see what happens next with Claire, the stepson, Fleabag, so we can find out more about the mum, Boo, maybe even where Martin goes next, why the Dad is so shit, see what happens next with everyone really. HP won’t be a big part of FB’s future but that’s fine. He’ll be in a bad way I think. He has too many issues and there will be parts of his life that are very empty and infillable if he stays in the church. Maybe there will be an arc about him leaving. Hopefully at the end of the series there will be some kind of dark comeuppance- stepmother will be arrested for taking a naked photo of the baby every year and displaying it as part of her art shows or something. I loved all the peace and forgiveness and hope at the end of the finale but the thing is, it can only be a temporary plot device- people that awful do carry on being awful..

I agree about the ex bank manager being a good match, but he was married I think?
He was so kind to her in the last series and made her realise to stop beating herself up about Boo.

I am on holiday, found the last 15-20 minutes and watched that, can anyone tell me how it started and what I missed please??!

Yes the bank manager is married, he mentioned his wife in the café scene.

I thought the ending was perfect... it also reminded me of the time in my late 20s/early 30s when the most emotional moments of my life all seemed to happen at bus stops (it's a London thing)

He was tested and he “passed” the test by choosing god, I don’t think he will be tempted in this way again

It’s selfish to view other people as a test of faith.

She didn’t ‘tempt’ him. He made a choice.

(To be fair he does explicitly tell her that he is using her to test his faith - I still think that makes him a rubbish priest).

No sure I'm going to recover from the heartbreak. listening to This Feeling tormenting myself

A perfect ending, not idealistic but thats what made it ideal. Those that think it predictable; obvioysly the most unpredicted predictable ending ever then.

Thankfully Killing Eve S2 starts (here) Wednesday so at least there's still a brilliant written drama in my future.