Fleabag – Episode #2.4

By: Ellie Dolan-Yates

It seems as if Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and her new crush The Priest (Andrew Scott) are managing to get along as “just friends” after he told her that they won’t be having sex. We now see Fleabag helping The Priest to choose his new clerical clothing. In chick-flick “what shall I wear to prom” style The Priest emerges from behind the changing room curtain in his new clothes. He asks Fleabag what she thinks and after deciding his previous choice was best, Fleabag gives her trademark look to the camera insinuating, “I’m going to get him to change his mind about me.”

As The Priest and Fleabag are walking down the street he starts flexing his muscles as he talks about his garments not fitting his arms. He changes the subject to whether or not they prefer weddings to funerals, but Fleabag can’t help but look at us and say “his arms.”  He asks her, “Why would you believe in something awful when you can believe in something wonderful?” She tells him not to turn her into an optimist as it will ruin her life… Funeral talk continues, but Fleabag turns her attention to The Priest’s neck. In what is clearly an embarrassing moment for Fleabag, she forgets to look at us when saying “his beautiful neck,” instead gazing at The Priest. Cringe. Fleabag is of course taken aback and as she tries to think of an explanation The Priest passes her behavior off as weird and leads her into a Quaker meeting.

Fleabag explains to us how the meeting works- you’re not allowed to speak unless the spirit moves you. Because that went so well last time… As with a lot of unexceptional things, Fleabag kindly lets us know that she finds the experience erotic. She looks at The Priest and they both smirk. An out-of-focus man with white hair and beard across from Fleabag stands up, clearly moved by the spirit. The man announces he thinks he’s going to go home in November. He thinks. Fleabag looks to us and smirks as if to give a sarcastic “well done” to the old man. We then see The Priest looking very deep in thought. He looks up towards the ceiling and then back across the room where he seems very removed from the room itself. Tough at that moment Fleabag wonders what he is thinking about and despite telling us it is something that is not affecting her one bit she stands up! After panicking with us about what she is going to say, she takes a deep breath and in true Fleabag style declares, “I sometimes worry that I wouldn’t be such a feminist if I had bigger tits!” The room remains silent until The Priest lets out a brief chuckle. He hangs his head trying not to laugh any more. They exit the meeting laughing about Fleabag’s revelation and go to awkwardly part ways. However, The Priest asks if he can see Fleabag’s café.

We find ourselves in Fleabag’s café where The Priest is playing with Fleabag’s guinea pig. I mean Hilary! Fleabag looks at us to let us know that she is very much enjoying watching The Priest bond with Hilary. The Priest, of course, can’t help but ask why the café is basically a shrine to guinea pigs which causes a brief flashback of Boo (Jenny Rainsford), something which Fleabag has alluded to no longer having. Unlike during Series 1, Fleabag decides to mention her dead best friend and passes it off as a “unique selling point.” The conversation diverts to Fleabag’s dad (Bill Paterson) and Godmother’s (Olivia Colman) wedding. The Priest asks Fleabag to tell him more about her godmother/soon to be step-mother to which Fleabag replies, “She’s from Exeter.” Fleabag clearly doesn’t want to get involved in the whole why she hates her godmother thing all over again, highlighting her change from Season 1. Fleabag tries to changes the subject when The Priest brings up the awkward question of how her dad and godmother met. The Priest asks Fleabag who she runs the café with. Fleabag tries to explain, but we see Boo sat at a table in the café shaking her head. Fleabag looks to us for help on what should she tell The Priest. The Priest notices straight away that Fleabag has “disappeared” again. He says that he just wants to know her, but Fleabag says she doesn’t want that. Cue awkward silence. Fleabag clearly doesn’t appreciate it when The Priest says that he’s just trying to help her as she asks him to leave and takes Hilary from him. He leaves the café looking disheartened.

We see Fleabag walking down the street smoking. There are a few quick flashbacks which appear to be her mother’s funeral before Fleabag enters her home. As she dries off her rinsed face in the mirror we see a flashback of Fleabag and Boo trying to figure out a way of making Fleabag look worse. Yes, although this episode is a bit on the dark side, the ironic humor of the show hasn’t been lost and it turns out Fleabag looks too good for her mother’s funeral. Her sister Claire (Sian Clifford) appears to tell her she looks incredible to which Boo replies, “We’re trying to mess her up.” As Fleabag is telling her sister how she too looks perfect, their godmother appears, but not in a fairy-tale puff of smoke kind of way. Godmother wants to let them know that people have started arriving to the funeral and as she is telling them there is no pressure to greet the guests she stops in her tracks and tells Fleabag she looks gorgeous. This is carried through the scene as even their fellow mourners are in awe of Fleabag’s looks, making it known as Claire and Fleabag greet them. Claire asks Fleabag if she’s spoken to their dad, who is sat alone at the front of the church. But Fleabag explains that he is avoiding her. As yet more mourners congratulate Fleabag on her look, Claire explains that their dad is being distant towards her, too. We then see the moment in which the tension between the sisters and their godmother may have stemmed from when their godmother rubs their father’s shoulder to comfort him. Fleabag calls her shameless only for Claire to disagree and take a dig at Fleabag telling her that not everyone is after sex (I may have changed a word). Fleabag and Boo step outside for a cigarette when Fleabag’s boyfriend at the time, Harry (Hugh Skinner), turns up and greets Fleabag with a kiss. Fleabag asks him if his trousers are okay and as we see him in full length it appears that he his wearing skinny jeans. He explains that he left them in the dryer and then, as he does at most things, starts to break down. However, his grief doesn’t last long as he too comments on Fleabag’s looks. The only time everyone compliments you and it’s at a funeral- typical!

Cut to Fleabag and Claire’s godmother trying to give them both advice on grieving, but with her usual undertone of spitefulness. She tells them that it will get harder when people stop sending flowers and cards and that their partners probably won’t be able to cope. She brings it back around to say that she will always be there for them. Does she know she will eventually marry their dad at this point? It seems to be the case as she makes a point of saying “always” multiple times to Claire and Fleabag and then to Fleabag one more time for good measure. Only because she knows that Fleabag will hate her always being around, not to be nice of course. After Claire makes her feel guilty for eating at the funeral and tells her to do something, Fleabag goes to find her dad. She finds him sat on his bed and as she sits beside him, he tells her how he found her mother difficult. He loved her very much, but he didn’t like how fun and kind she always was as it made him jealous. Of course, evil godmother interrupts them and after she finally leaves Fleabag’s dad admits, “She’s a bit annoying isn’t she?” Does this mean that she somehow won him over or did she manipulate him into being in a relationship with her? I’m going for the latter judging how on edge he’s been with her in the past. After her godmother has left they go on to joke how Claire didn’t get the fun gene from her and Fleabag’s mum, but Fleabag soon begins to cry. Her dad tells her to, “Buck up. Smile. Charm.” This may explain her behavior when it comes to letting people in on her emotions. The moment she shows she’s upset, she gets told not to be.

We’re back in the present and Fleabag is sat in the dark, empty church alone, but we soon get another flashback. This time it is of Fleabag telling Boo that she doesn’t know what to do with the love she has for her mum now that she has died. Boo tells her that the love has to go somewhere and we are back in the church with Fleabag. She tentatively lowers herself onto her knees, links her hands, looks at the alter and begins to pray. Now, I’ve been to enough services to know that it’s not custom for “Jenny From The Block” to start playing as you pray, but sure enough it does and Fleabag breaks her prayer. She heads towards the music and finds The Priest trying to reach something from his cupboard. As she turns the music off and makes him jump, he starts to curse in classic vicar-comedy style. After being freaked out that she was just in his head and now she is here he offers her a drink. He’s clearly drunk as he tells Fleabag that he can’t read a Winnie the Pooh quote without crying. Fleabag mimics him as he slaps his hand on his heart and emotionally says “Piglet.” He asks Fleabag why she is at the church and laughs when she says she was there praying. The Priest tries to reach into his cupboard again and as he jumps his bottle of whiskey finally drops into his hands. He raises a toast to “peace and those who get in the way of it” prompting Fleabag to apologize for what happened at the café. He tells her to forget about it and after waffling about his first ever vicar attire he bought from Rome he asks her what she was praying about. Fleabag remains silent and The Priest asks her to follow him.

We see them standing outside the confession boxes in the church. Fleabag isn’t sure that she wants to confess all to The Priest and tries to get out of it. However, after taking a big swig of her whiskey she reluctantly agrees to make her confessions. The Priest tries to make her feel at ease by explaining what would normally happen and she takes another swig of whiskey before confessing that she has lied. To him. About the miscarriage. In the first episode of this series Claire suffers a miscarriage but doesn’t want anyone to know. Under pressure from everyone at the table to tell them what happened in the toilets Fleabag panicked and said that she had a miscarriage, which she explains to The Priest. He tells her it’s okay and asks her to keep going. She confesses a long list of the rest of her sins to him at which he chuckles and says “and?” causing her to have a couple of flashbacks of Boo. She decides that she doesn’t want to confess to inadvertently causing Boo’s death and goes on to confess that she is frightened of forgetting people. She also admits that she wants someone to tell her how to live her life. Through tears she tells him that she’s been getting it all wrong and she wants him to tell her what to do with her life. She’s scared. Her request is met with silence. After a while The Priest softly tells her to kneel. It takes her a while but she eventually gives in and kneels on the ground in her confession box. The Priest rips the curtain open, kneels in front of her, strokes her face and then kisses her; though this is not the kind of kiss we have seen between Fleabag and her male pursuits before. This is a passionate, meaningful kiss. He wants to be there for her. However, this is Fleabag. As they passionately fumble around, trying to undress each other, a painting falls off the wall just as one did in Episode 1 when Fleabag said she didn’t believe in God. The vicar steps back, looking upset and ashamed. As he walks away Fleabag gives us an angry look- she couldn’t be more angry at God if she tried.