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

A mild one.

It'll pass.

I like that frankie analysis. Perhaps makes it not as hopeful as we'd thought, though?

I could be wrong but I don't remember seeing Boo in the final episode where as she has featured very heavily previously. FB was racked with guilt and the pain of her loss.

Could it be that the hope in love HP refers to has now meant FB can move on from the pain of loosing Boo? FB loved Boo so much and suffered pain as a result of that pure love as also talked about in HP's sermon. I don't think for one second he was addressing dad and unkind godmother in his sermon-to me, it was clearly directed more at FB.

The fox to me signifies that FB is free from her fears now she has hope but that HP still has to carry them because he believes in God and won't betray his faith (you could go so far as to link this to Christianity even further). It's almost like he has freed her by letting her go.

HP at the bus stop also refers to the passing of feelings with time or similar words?

The statue of mum shows that even though she has passed away she is always with her-her dad referred to this earlier on in the ep too.

So when FB waves at "us" at the end of the ep she is waving goodbye to things that have been stopping her from moving on. HP could see "us" when nobody else could and referred on numerous occasions to FB zoning out when "we" were there. Just like FB encouraged her sister to let go of the past in order to find true happiness, I think that's was FB now has the freedom to do also.

So true, Northern. I wish more films and tv shows were that honest about love.

The last film in that trilogy wasn't great in many ways, but then again there was so much boredom and animosity between the characters.

The weird thing was, soon after that, not only did my marriage end but three other ltrs of friends and family members also ended in the months after watching the film. It was like "if Celine and Jesse can face up to the fact it's over then anyone can". Sorry if TMI.

Ella this is exactly what I think too. The closest thing anyone has said about "us".

Wow, i can't believe Frankie Boyle is so thoughtful.

I always tend to turn him off on tv because his 'jokes' make me feel uncomfortable at best. Perhaps he also puts armour of his own to avoid showing us his sensitive side?

That's a completely different take on it but he's right - whenever one of them is about to be truly intimate the other cuts them off or life interrupts them. And perhaps if hp had wanted true intimacy with fb he would have simply listened and tried to understand her '4th wall' confessions rather than laughing or trying to shut her up.

Frankie Boyle is a really, really thoughtful guy - check out his journalism. He beats the pants off most professional journalists.

I do think he's right about this being about sex addiction/intimacy avoidance after grief. I am not sure I agree with his reading of the ending, though. I see it as a bit more optimistic. The most significant thing for me about the entire series is the narrative strategy - the 'breaking of the fourth wall'. It's not just a clever way for a flawed character to establish a rapport with the audience - it's indicating something psychological that Fleabag actually does to herself (which is why the HP can see it). It's like she's living at two levels, in the present and somewhere above the present, looking down and observing herself. It means that she's constantly detached from what she's doing, constantly at one self-critical, self-loathing, but also hedonistic and irresponsible remove. It's like she's never fully in touch with her feelings, but always beside herself, looking back at herself.

The final scene - the looking back, the shake of the head, and the goodbye wave - is her abandoning this narrative strategy, abandoning this distance. She's been able to feel - to truly feel something for another human being, to really connect - and while that particular relationship hasn't worked out (and could never work out, that's kind of the point of her choice in a way), it's put her on a path to reconnecting with herself, to the point that she can move forward. She's not healed, but she's taken a significant step on the way and that also means the end of the story for us (which had me sobbing, I felt literally bereft).

Wow, i can't believe Frankie Boyle is so thoughtful.

Yes he is, as you would expect from someone who has worked in mental health and teaching. I sometimes think the reason people find his jokes uncomfortable is because they access the type of fleeting thoughts that we all have at times, a sort of brutally honest look at ourselves.

I've always thought he was very intelligent even though he says some dickish things sometimes

I love the way chewing this over is making me see different layers and ambiguity in this season. Lovely.

I like really Boyle’s analysis on intimacy issues. I agree with downcasteyes though, in that I think the 4th wall was about disassociation, not intimacy, and the priest continuously drawing her back into the world when she did it WAS the intimacy.

I am noticing now that she is actually the person who pushed him to choose between her and God, though. You can see it on her face when she wakes him the morning after, and when he snogs her against the wall later that morning and tried to express the strength of his feeling she is the one who brings him back to earth and reminds him he has to choose.

Which is why am think I still find the ending more sad than hopeful. She knows he will not choose her because good things happen for other people (like Claire, and the Bank Manager, and Harry, and even her fucking Godmother), but she’s finally had her big emotional breakthrough with him after all her grieving and their little bubble of intimacy lasts for less than 12 hours. That’s bloody tragic.

I found the ending bittersweet, but ultimately hopeful. I think, despite the fact that Priest Charming did not sweep her off her feet, there was still very much a sense that she will be fine. I loved how the 'love story' in the end was mainly about love within her own family and about FB's own capacity to give and receive love. I thought it was perfect.

I’m not sure he needed to sweep her off her feet, just not turn his back on her a mere 12 hours after very deliberately deciding to break his vows over her!

(Yes, I realise it was as much a format constraint as an actual character thing.)

I'm surprised others aren't more surprised at Frankie Boyle being sensitive.

I will always remember the way he misogynistically tore into Rebecca Adlington's appearance right when she was at the height of her success.

"She looks like a reflection of herself in the back of a spoon"

"You can tell she's really dirty because her boyfriend is so much hotter than she is".

Horrible.

Brilliant analysis downcasteyes.

I didn't agree with Frankie Boyle's interpretation at all

seen through the lens of "commitment phobe".

I read a great book about therapists seeing through their own lens (Stephen Grosz - The Examined Life) and in one case, he admitted he found the patient a challenge because he saw them as a commitment phobe and therefore a person who needed that "fixed".

some people just aren't interested in commitment and it doesn't make them bad or wrong.

speaking of which, I cannot imagine Fleabag being committed to the priest in a relationship.

I watched it a second time. The first time my tears were happiness; the second time I could see the sadness of lost love a bit more. I suppose for me, the sisters, and the fact that Fleabag has reached that point of going into the world knowing it will be all right, is just so much more important. I didn't hit that point till 40 - but I do still have my mum.

re filming, I thought it was Dulwich, apart from the obvious central London scenes. I suppose anywhere nice enough can look like Dulwich

I didn't have any ideas for a further episode, but then I wondered....what if she gets a new bestie?

or just a brand new friend, as the song says? I've gathered a couple of those in recent years and it's so brilliant. And we don't have enough shows about friendship IMO!

Even Hilary found her Stephanie...

Knight exactly! They shared cucumber!

Computer, your paragraph about nice things happening to other people is my life. I just cried reading it because I swear that's me. People think I cope well with it because I smile and nod and move on in their eyes. The reality is a lot less secure and a lot more tearful.

Is it dragging the tone down to observe that there is some disgustingly hot good Fleabag fanfic on AO3?

Beautifully put downcast

Awww, thanks guys .

I just wanted to add how much I admire PW-B for this piece of writing. She's still in her 30s and she's produced some of the best TV I have ever seen. I'm a writer and editor myself and I can honestly say that I am so awestruck that I don't even feel jealous. She throughly deserves her success. And - what a wonderful thing - we have decades of her output still to enjoy.

Part two of FB seemed to be her accepting in the end that it is better to have loved and lost...In the confessional she described a desire for what her father and HP have; a numbed, simpler existence led by a more a powerful force. As if they had both lost love and replaced it with a kind of substitute. It was that confession that pushed HP to risk his relationship with God for her. The women finally broke free from this inclination. Claire didn’t fall for Martin’s persuasive call back to their longstanding dysfunctional relationship and FB learnt to make her own way in life (as well as home, rather than sit and wait 46 minutes for the bus) without leaning on inferior connections, recklessness and rebellion to feel something.

Was the statue revelation hinting ESM and the mother were lovers? She spoke so admiringly of the source of its inspiration in the first episode.

Obviously ESM is vile but the flashback to the funeral where the dad doesn’t like her could suggest she has redeeming qualities behind the scenes when they’re alone. He had to come around to liking her. It was comforting that ESM was so committed to her future as his carer rather than any implication she was going to divorce him for money.

I'd recorded the whole series and refused to watch any of them til it was complete, binge watched the lot in one go last night. Don't think I've processed my thoughts enough to add much yet, other than to say I loved it. Claire's airport comment did for me, wish I'd had a sister instead of my useless arsehole of a brother. Will come back when I've recovered from the rollercoaster, with hindsight I'm not sure it was wise watching all 6 at once but waiting a week between episodes would have been pure torture, don't know how you've all coped!