The post THIS IS A LOVE STORY: ON “FLEABAG” SEASON 2 appeared first on Bea Escolar.
]]>Phoebe Waller-Bridge had said that she didn’t want to do a second season of “Fleabag” because she had already told the story she wanted to tell. “Fleabag” was originally a ten minute sketch that she expanded into a one-woman play of the same name and then developed into a 2 hour plus TV series. That was enough for “Fleabag”. Also, what was the point? “Fleabag” ended perfectly, with her pushing the camera (the audience) away from her. Why would the camera be following her again?
Phoebe stated that in order to write a second season she felt the need to know why we were back in Fleabag’s life. As she said to The Hollywood Reporter, it wasn’t until she had a new idea about how to play with the form again, about what her new relationship with the audience would be, that she decided a second season was possible.
This new season was also inspired by a conversation Phoebe had with her friend, actor Andrew Scott. As he explained to Vulture, they met one day and started to talk about love loss and religion. It was then that she asked him if he would be interested in playing a role in the show. He accepted. She then went home and started writing “Fleabag” Season 2, one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful and ABSOLUTELY PERFECT pieces of Television I have ever seen. Hell, that I have ever experienced.
The first episode of this second (and sadly) last season is incredible. The season starts by establishing itself. The same way the first season started with Fleabag talking to us and letting us in in her life, it was important to start this second season by letting us know why we were hanging out with her again. “This is a love story”, she tells us while wiping her bloody nose in a bathroom inside a fancy restaurant. These are the first words of the season. And just like that: Boom. We’re back.
I’ll mostly be analyzing this love story in this post, however, this season gave us much more than that: Belinda (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her amazing speech on women, pain and menopause. There’s also Fleabag’s counseling session with Fiona Shaw, more Father and Godmother and of course, more Claire and her relationship with Fleabag. In this season Claire really comes to life: she forgives Fleabag, tells her she loves her (“The only person I’d run through an airport for is you.” This means “I love you” in Claire) and she (finally) leaves Martin for her new love interest… Klare. Yes Claire and Klare. Oh and I forgot Claire’s pencil haircut. Not pencil. Chic. French. Klare loves it.
Going back to the first episode of the season, it is simply a masterclass. The writing (“Is that fur?” / “Yes but it’s OK because it had a stroke”), the editing (“His mom is a LESBI-” Hard cut to Fleabag outside smoking) and acting (Fleabag covering for Claire’s miscarriage) are just PERFECTION. We are reunited with Fleabag and her family for a family dinner about a year after the events in season one. Father and Godmother are getting married and they have invited their Priest (who Fleabag and Claire christen as Hot Priest) over for dinner. He’s a cool, sweary Priest”, so of course he quickly establishes a connection with Fleabag. It starts with his flirtatious “Well fuck you then” when Fleabag leaves him hanging after handing him a cigarette. It continues with a couple of fleeting looks and it culminates when Fleabag, clearly bored with this family dinner, turns to us and lets us know “No one has asked me a question in forty-five minu-“ just to be interrupted by the Priest asking: “So what do you do?”. Fleabag’s caught off-guard. So is her family. So are we. Was it just a coincidence? As the season progresses, we realise it probably wasn’t.
Fleabag is quickly interested in Priest. So she makes her way to try and talk to him. They clearly get on well with each other. During their meetings, they talk about religion, sex and God while drinking canned gin & tonics. Priest is an interesting character. We don’t know much about him or his past. What we do know is that he has a pedophile lorry-driver brother, his parents are both alcoholics, he does not get along with his mother and it seems like he has (as Andrew Scott has mentioned in his Vulture interview) a troubled relationship with alcohol. Most notably, he mentions that before joining priesthood he had a lot of sex. We can sense that he too, like Fleabag, has used sex in an unhealthy way. This is why his relationship with God and the celibacy that comes with it is important to him. Just like Fleabag tells us at the beginning of the season how she has been trying to better herself recently: eating avocado toast, exercising and saying no to sex; Hot Priest is also in a path of redemption by committing himself to God.
This is what makes this relationship beautiful and ultimately unattainable. At this moment of his life, celibacy is what is keeping Hot Priest mentally healthy. Meanwhile, Fleabag is lonely and looking for a relationship. In episode four, in the flashback to her mother’s funeral, Fleabag tells Boo that she doesn’t know what to do with all the love she had for her mother. “I’ll take it. […] No I’m serious. It sounds lovely”, Boo tells her. So Fleabag poured her love into Boo who is now gone too. Her Father also talks to Fleabag about love in the finale: “I think you know how to love better than any of us. That’s why you find it all so painful”. Maybe Priest felt the same way. He did not know how to deal with his love and then he found religion. “I believe I am supposed to love people as a father”, he says.
I feel from these moments that Fleabag and Priest have lived through similar troubles with love and relationships. They are both ultimately trying to find the same thing. As Fleabag blurts out in the confession scene: she is looking for someone to tell her what to do. They are both looking for guidance. Priest has found it in God and Fleabag is looking for it in the Priest.
This is why the famous “Kneel” scene is so cathartic, beautiful and intimate. Some people have argued that the Priest kissing her in that vulnerable moment felt predatory. I disagree. The relationship between Fleabag and the Priest has been incredibly flirty throughout the show. Fleabag has not made a big effort in hiding her attraction from him. He knows she likes him and has let her know they are not going to have sex. So when this scene comes, the Priest know something is up with her because she came to pray. This is something out of character for Fleabag who has repeatedly told him she does not believe in God. So he tries to help her get things off her chest as he can see something is clearly up. Throughout the confession scene we do not see his face. When Fleabag has confessed, there’s a moment of silence before he talks. He is clearly processing. “Kneel” is what he usually says, probably followed by what prayers the person is supposed to say. He can’t think of any, though. I think Fleabag’s words have really hit him. He feels the same. Fleabag’s insecurities are the ones he had (probably still has) and what brought him to God. In hearing her, though, he flashes back to this uncertainty. He is vulnerable too. He kisses her because he wants to connect, to help, to let her know it is OK to feel that way, to let her know that he too feels that way.
And in that moment, a picture drops and interrupts them. The same way a picture dropped when Fleabag said she didn’t believe in God. So he stops. Priest has had several of what he considers “signs from God”. When the first picture drops, he says “I love it when he does that!” as in, I’ve seen this happen before. He also gets his help getting that drink he can’t reach from the cupboard (not sure how healthy that is for him, but truth is he asks for God’s help and the drink drops for him). So when this picture interrupts their kiss, he takes it as a warning. He is clearly shaken. He interprets this as: This is something he is not supposed to do. Personally, I believe that the picture probably fell due to a bad screw. But that does not matter. We have seen how Priest has been constructed and set up as a character so we can understand how he sees this is a sign.
If we have any doubts about the important connection Fleabag and the Priest have, Phoebe Waller-Bridge takes it a step forward by delving deeper into that storytelling tool that started it all. The tool she needed to know how to reincorporate in season two in order to write the season: breaking the fourth wall. In a magical moment in episode three, when the Priest tells Fleabag they should be friends, she turns to us and lets us know they will last a week. The Priest looks confused:
Priest: “What was THAT?!”
Fleabag: “What?”
Priest: “Where did… where did you just go?”
Fleabag: “What?”
Priest: “You just went somewhere.”
Fleabag: [looks at the camera again, confused]
Priest: “There! There! Where did you just go?”
Fleabag: “Nowhere.”
Priest: “Ok…”
So the Priest can tell when Fleabag is not all there, when she is not being present or honest. Nobody else in the show is able to notice that. Not Claire, not even her Father. We don’t even know if Boo was able to notice this (maybe Fleabag started breaking the fourth wall after her death, we don’t know for sure). Anyway, what is important here is that Phoebe clearly wanted to let us know that the Priest can read her better than anyone else, that he connects with her at a level that nobody else in the show does. In another occasion, the Priest turns to camera himself, looks at us with a crazy face, trying to see who the hell Fleabag is talking to, granting us with this screen capture which I assure you is going to be my new wallpaper.
In episode five, Priest shows up to Fleabag’s door and after a brief conversation he asks her: “We are going to have sex aren’t we?”. Fleabag, of course, says yes, echoing what the Counsellor had told her: “You already know what you are going to do, everybody does”. They both knew from the minute they met that this was going to happen. Priest had told Fleabag he can’t have sex with her because he’ll fall in love with her. What he probably meant is that he can’t deal with human relationships at this time. Remember he believes he is supposed to love as a father. Fleabag had told her counsellor that she is not having sex anymore because “Sex didn’t bring anything good”. As she is saying that we see Boo stepping into traffic. These two have clearly a troubled relationship with sex. However, Counsellor was right. Both Priest and Fleabag knew what they were going to do from the start. They can’t resist each other and so they both give in. And Fleabag gets to caress his neck. His beautiful neck.
Early on in the season, the Priest jokingly tells Fleabag that she is good for him because she makes him question his faith and he has never been closer to God. And there was probably more truth to that statement than we thought. Having sex with her is, in a way, the ultimate test for him. He is in love with Fleabag, but part of him is scared. He knows what relationships (human relationships at least) have brought him. During the last episode of the season, they can’t keep their hands from each other.
Priest: “I don’t know what this feeling is.”
Fleabag: “Is it God or is it me?”
Priest: “I don’t know.”
It ends up being God, and Fleabag painfully realises this throughout the Priest’s speech at her fathers wedding. The Priest admits this to her. They both confess their love for each other, but Priest lets her know “It shall pass”. Is he saying this as a (incredibly clumsy) way to calm her? Is he saying it from experience? What we do know is that these two shared something really special. As the priest leaves her at the bus station, Fleabag sees a fox and sends him directly to the Priest. Foxes have been following the Priest around which is something that creeps him out as he doesn’t understand what they want from him. It’s similar to how the memory of what Fleabag did to Boo was following her around last season. Are foxes a metaphor for the Priest’s issues? If so, it seems like he still has some emotional baggage. Fleabag told her counsellor the Priest was in an unhealthy relationship: “the kind where one person tells the other what he is supposed to wear”. Funnily enough in the confession scene, she confesses to the priest however that that is what she is looking for: “I want someone to tell me what to wear every morning. I want someone to tell me what to eat. What to like, what to hate, what to rage about, what to listen to, what band to like, what to buy tickets for, what to joke about, what not to joke about. I want someone to tell me what to believe in, who to vote for, who to love and how to tell them.” Maybe this is the way Phoebe tells us this relationship was not healthy. Despite their real and important connection, they both have issues they need to deal with. Maybe it is healthier for them to be apart. Maybe that is also what God wanted to let them know? Or maybe the Priest just missed an opportunity to be with someone he loves and grow together, be better people together, for the first time in his (their) life.
Anyway, we will never know. As we start following Fleabag down the street, she turns to us and shakes her head no. We are not needed at this time. This is something she must deal with on her own. This love story with the priest was nice, but maybe it’s more important to start a love story with herself. We stay there and watch her walk away from us. Once again. This time, for the last time.
Yes, I’m fine. I really am. I actually am.
I AM.
Although right now I feel like a girl with no friends and an empty heart.
You can watch “Fleabag” Seasons 1 & 2 on Amazon Prime Video.
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]]>The post WHY DO THEY PUT RUBBERS AT THE END OF PENCILS?: ON “FLEABAG” SEASON 1 appeared first on Bea Escolar.
]]>I am a bit late to the Phoebe Waller-Bridge train but I am glad I jumped on when I did. A couple of years ago, a friend highly recommended “Fleabag” to me but I just never got around to watching it. More recently I started hearing the name Phoebe Waller-Bridge more and more, mainly linked to the success of “Killing Eve”.
I have to admit I started watching “Fleabag” without knowing what Phoebe Waller-Bridge looked like. Funnily enough, the first thing I remember thinking while watching the pilot was: “this is great casting choice for the character of Fleabag. We have seen the fourth wall being broken before, but this is something different, the timing this actress has, how she is voicing this character… it just feels so fresh”. Then I did my research and realized that the actress was Phoebe Waller-Bridge. So Phoebe had not only created and written the show, she was also playing Fleabag. Silly me, I know. Still, everything made more sense, because Fleabag has a very specific voice.
The first character Fleabag actually talks to in the show is us, the audience. In that sense, the first relationship we are introduced to in the show is Fleabag’s relationship with us. This allows for two things. Firstly, it introduces what will be a recurring storytelling mechanism throughout the show: breaking the fourth wall. Secondly, it allows us as spectators to immediately know what is going on and what we are to her: we are her confidants, her friends, her moral support. And that is what we will be throughout the series. Or will we? As the episodes go on, we will detect that something is wrong, that there is something Fleabag is not telling us. This to me is the most interesting aspect of this show. Because we are her confidants, we hear her tell us what she really thinks about the person she is talking and smiling to. However, no one is ever completely honest. Even with their closest friends. It is the same with Fleabag and us. This is why we can tell that when she is talking to us she is mostly showing off. She is trying to prove to us (and herself) how smart and in control she is and how the rest of the people around her have issues. In a way, it reminds me of social media and how everyone shows us a curated version of their lives, which is funny because social media is not mentioned on the show. I guess that is why Fleabag has us. We see what she wants us to see and she quickly changes subject if something difficult comes up.
The first episode of this series is a masterclass of what a pilot episode should be. We are introduced to the characters, the conflicts between them and it is done so with incredible dialogues, acting and rhythm. I have found many shows take a few episodes to actually find their voice and establish themselves. “Fleabag”, however, knows what it is from the start. We are introduced to the rest of the main characters and her relationships with them. We have her sister, Claire, who is quite the opposite from Fleabag: she is a “type A” person: controlling and quite dubious of her sister’s choices. Her father, with whom she shares a caring yet complicated relationship. Father seems to have a difficult time expressing himself. After the death of Fleabag’s mother, her father has had a hard time communicating with his daughters which he tries to compensate by inviting them to feminist lectures. There’s also Martin, Claire’s drunk and extremely inappropriate husband; Harry, Fleabag’s on again/off again boyfriend (who I personally thought was hilarious) and Boo, Fleabag’s best friend, who accidentally killed herself. That’s right: after finding out her boyfriend slept with someone else, Boo decided to run into a bike lane to get slightly hurt and get his sympathy. She got killed instead. And three others. Funnily enough, Claire, Boo and Martin are the few characters that have names. We also have Godmother, who Father is dating and she is just terrible (but oh-so-fun-to-watch-I-fucking-love-you-Olivia-Colman).
So what is “Fleabag” about? It’s about growth. About how scary it is to “adult”. None of us know what we are doing. We all try to get our shit together but it’s hard. Relationships are hard. Being a good person/friend/sister/daughter/feminist is hard. No matter how many feminist lectures Claire and Fleabag attend, they would still give years of their life for the perfect body. In one of the episodes, Claire and Fleabag attend a female silent retreat for women to gather their thoughts. Or, as the retreat leader puts it: “Trapping the thoughts in your skull. Think of it as a thought prison in your mind.” Funnily enough, a second retreat is going on next door. A retreat for men to become “Better Men”. In this retreat, however, instead of quiet meditation, the men are made to yell insults at dolls in order to deal with their hatred of women. So women are supposed to be better through being quiet and repressed while scrubbing the floor and gardening, while men are allowed to be free and say what they want. Yes, Phoebe Waller-Bridge DID THAT.
Throughout the show we see Fleabag slowly break down because even though she tries to pretend everything is ok, she is clearly lost. As she reveals to her father in the pilot: “I have a horrible feeling I am a greedy, perverted, selfish, apathetic, cynical, depraved, morally bankrupt woman who can’t even call herself a feminist”. It is in these moments that the show gets to us though. The show is clearly a comedy and will really make you laugh out loud. But what is brilliant about it is that in between these moments of laughter, Phoebe really throws a dramatic punch: “Either everyone feels like this a little bit and they’re just not talking about it or I am completely alone?”, she asks in the finale after confessing her pain. She is not. We are with her. She is clearly broken, insecure and often scared but, aren’t we all?
We see Fleabag make some questionable choices throughout the series. She steals the statue from Godmother, lies to her father about having stolen it, sells the statue to Martin so he can sell it and take a commission. She tells in the second episode she is not obsessed with sex. She just can’t stop thinking about it. This totally explains her relationship choices, as we can see the men in her life are all terribly wrong for her. I guess this is why it feels so right to see her befriend the Bank Manager who denied her bank loan for her cafe in the pilot. They meet again during their respective retreats and we see two broken people, more alike than they originally seemed, clearly relating to one another. “I’m just a very disappointing man”, echoing Fleabag’s earlier statement about not being able to call herself a feminist. Bank Manager wants to “move on” and so does Fleabag. Images of a woman’s hands removing a man’s clothing started flashing to us for a few seconds in the last episodes. But she clearly pushes these images away as soon as they come up. They are clearly unsettling to her. And as an audience we are beginning to tie things together. Can it be that she was the one who slept with Boo’s boyfriend? Was she the reason Boo decided to run into traffic? Fleabag just answers Bank Manager with a heartbreaking: “I just want to cry, all the time.”
The main theme this season deals with is redemption or the need for redemption. This is why the character of Fleabag and Bank Manager being able to connect is important. They are both trying to atone, to be better. Bank Manager acknowledges what and who he has done wrong. Fleabag, however, is trying to run away from it. She never does tell us what she did to Boo, it is actually Claire who reveals her secret to us. In the last episode of the season, everything comes crumbling down for Fleabag when she has a falling out with her Godmother and Father at her Godmother’s Sexposition (yes, that “s” is supposed to be there). And Claire ends up mad at Fleabag when she accuses her of kissing Martin. Fleabag insists it was the other way around. “How can I believe you?”, Claire asks. “After what you did to Boo?”. Fleabag looks at us scared. She tries to run from us but wherever she goes, there we are, following her. The music becomes loud and erratic. “I’m sorry, but you just have to see it from my point of view”, Claire says. Fleabag is no longer controlling the narrative. And with that, the flashbacks reveal everything. In the last episode of the season, everyone turns on her: Claire chooses Martin over her while Father chooses Godmother. They can’t trust her. And can we? Scared and embarrassed, Fleabag makes the choice for us as she pushes us away. It is no longer comfortable to have us around.
Fleabag needs to be told that her best friend’s death was not her fault. But at the same time, she has to learn that actions have consequences. And even though some of them are not her fault (Boo getting killed), she did hurt her best friend by doing what she did. As a sex addict, this is hard for her. She clearly uses sex to feel less lonely. The only person she could talk with about her troubles is Boo, but she is gone. Maybe she tried substituting Boo for us, but we are not the same. She knows we are not the same. And until she can bring herself to admit to us what she did to Boo, she will never get the redemption she is looking for.
Fleabag is brought to a point of no return where she seems to want to suffer the same fate as Boo did. Luckily enough, Bank Manager sees her from her car and stops her. They both have a conversation where she confesses everything. When she does, he uncomfortably leaves the cafe, not quite knowing what to say. Has she been abandoned once again? We are left wondering for a few long seconds, but we are relieved to see him come back with a folder in his hand. Unlike Fleabag’s family, Bank Manager is willing to give Fleabag a second chance and interviews her again for her bank loan. Having been through what he has been through and hearing Fleabag’s confession, it seems that he agrees with Boo. “People make mistakes”. (“That is why they put rubbers at the end of pencils.”)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge only wanted to do one season and I completely understand why, as this season works perfectly. It ends with her broken, embarrassed. She pushes us away after we find out the truth about her. She doesn’t want us to follow her anymore. We are not her friends anymore. We know too much. She doesn’t think we can handle it. However, we do have some hope for her as she gets a second chance for a loan and we understand,- this is a chance for her to start over. To have a new friend, to be better. It’s a satisfying ending to a perfect series. Having said that… I am so glad she decided to do write the second season because it is even better than the first.
You can watch “Fleabag” Seasons 1 & 2 on Amazon Prime Video.
The post WHY DO THEY PUT RUBBERS AT THE END OF PENCILS?: ON “FLEABAG” SEASON 1 appeared first on Bea Escolar.
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