{"id":315878,"date":"2021-08-05T18:16:38","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T15:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-flashback-episode-that-transformed-fleabag\/"},"modified":"2021-08-05T18:16:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T15:16:38","slug":"the-flashback-episode-that-transformed-fleabag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-flashback-episode-that-transformed-fleabag\/","title":{"rendered":"#The Flashback Episode That Transformed Fleabag"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#The Flashback Episode That Transformed Fleabag<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

     <span class=\"mx-1\">The fourth episode of Series<\/a> 2 is sexy, sad, and the emotional key to the whole show.<\/span>\n<\/p><div id=\"\"><figure class=\"sf-entry-featured-media<\/a> \"><img width=\"800\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Fleabag-Season-2-Episode-4.jpg\" class=\"articlethumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"Fleabag Season 2 Episode4 Waller-Bridge\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Fleabag-Season-2-Episode-4.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Fleabag-Season-2-Episode-4-768x320.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/><p>\n                    <span class=\"sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline\">Amazon Studios<\/span>\n\n                        <\/figure><!-- START BYLINE --><div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray\">\n        By\u00a0Valerie Ettenhofer\u00a0\u00b7 Published on August 5th, 2021 \n        <\/div>\n    <!-- END BYLINE -->\n\n    <em>This essay is part of our series\u00a0Episodes, a column in which senior contributor\u00a0Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry revisits the fourth episode of Season 2 of the acclaimed comedy Fleabag.<\/em>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n
When Phoebe Waller-Bridge<\/strong>\u2019s Fleabag<\/em><\/strong> protagonist wipes her bloodied nose in a restaurant bathroom, glances at her now-famous black jumpsuit in the mirror, and holds our gaze to promise \u201cthis is a love story,\u201d it is a moment that hits like an earthquake. The opening sequence of Series 2 of the show is powerful, destabilizing, and over as abruptly as it begins. It isn\u2019t until the second season\u2019s fourth episode, though, that her meaning becomes painfully clear.<\/p>\n
It opens with the titular character waiting for The Priest (Andrew Scott<\/strong>) as he tries on new vestments. As with much of Fleabag <\/em>Series 2, it\u2019s a moment that delightfully toes the line between wry humor and blasphemy. She describes his fashion choices as subtle and elegant before peeking shyly over her shoulder at us. Waller-Bridge is an expert at communicating to viewers through her nuanced fourth-wall-breaking looks. Often, her glances boil down to \u201cI know I\u2019m doing something bad,\u201d but this is different. She really likes The Priest. And her smile shows that, for the first time since we\u2019ve known her, she can\u2019t hide her infatuation under a layer of snark.<\/p>\n
The episode moves along quickly in what app<\/a>ears to be a date in all but name. The Priest has already established his boundaries. But he shows interest, too. He playfully interrogates her atheism as they walk down the street. He tells her it\u2019s always better to believe in something wonderful than something awful. \u201cDon\u2019t make me an optimist,\u201d she shoots back. \u201cYou will ruin my life.\u201d The two continue on, first to a silent Quaker meeting that Fleabag describes as \u201cvery, very erotic,\u201d then to the guinea pig cafe that she opened with her late best friend, Boo (Jenny Rainsford<\/strong>).<\/p>\n
All the while, The Priest is attempting to break down our protagonist\u2019s walls. And she, disarmed by his own charm and vulnerability, is showing a bit more of herself than usual. Their friendly tete-a-tete culminates in the cafe, where we learn \u2014 with an electric shock of surprise \u2014 that The Priest is aware of Fleabag\u2019s fourth wall breaks. Intrusive memories of Boo, shown in quick flashes, have already thrown her off. (The show\u2019s editor, Gary Dollner<\/strong>, is an underrated key piece of its success.) Now The Priest is asking her about her stepmother, and about Boo, and we can see Waller-Bridge\u2019s character visibly withdraw as the conversation becomes more therapeutic than flirtatious. \u201cHe\u2019s a bit annoying, actually,\u201d she says to us, over her shoulder.<\/p>\n
Then, another tectonic shift. \u201cWhat is that?\u201d He asks her, indicating her fourth wall break. \u201cWhat?\u201d she answers. \u201cThat thing you\u2019re doing. It\u2019s like you disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looks at us again, and so does he, eyes wide, half-laughing in playful confusion. It\u2019s clear, in this one moment, that he sees her in a way that no one else has in who-knows-how-long. It\u2019s clear, also, that Fleabag<\/em> is so much more than the show we thought it was. The audience isn\u2019t some Ferris Bueller<\/em>-like plot device for her to wink to. It\u2019s another type of wall. A trauma response baked into the very fabric of the show. Exposed only when the protagonist is finally pushed to examine it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a love story.\u201d Fleabag<\/em>, from this moment forward, is about being seen. For someone as guarded and flippant and morally complicated as the lead character, to be truly seen is to be loved. Soon after this moment, she tells The Priest off, uncomfortable with the painful memories he has stirred up. It\u2019s too late, though: they\u2019re already here.<\/p>\n
We see Fleabag at her mother\u2019s funeral, Boo by her side. Her sister, Claire (Sian Clifford<\/strong>) is there too, and everyone is marveling at how Fleabag looks, inexplicably, gorgeous. This, too, highlights a major theme of the series: not only feeling like you\u2019re doing the wrong thing but feeling like you are, somehow, wrong despite yourself. It\u2019s funny that she\u2019s inappropriately beautiful in a moment of great grief, but it\u2019s also distressing. It\u2019s yet another way she can\u2019t seem to be as proper as her loved ones want her to be. Darkly comedic bits punctuate the funeral scene. There\u2019s her ex Harry\u2019s (Hugh Skinner<\/strong>) tiny shrunken pants, and her future stepmother\u2019s (Olivia Colman<\/strong>) creepy hovering.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s so much going on here that it would be easy to miss a few key moments. But these flashbacks are the lynchpin holding together the entire show. After a strained heart-to-heart with her father (Bill Paterson<\/strong>), we briefly see our protagonist in the modern day. She sits in a pew at The Priest\u2019s church, and it\u2019s nighttime. Then, just as quickly, we\u2019re back in the past. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do with it,\u201d she tells Boo, and she\u2019s been crying now. \u201cWith all the love I have for her. I don\u2019t know where to put it now.\u201d Boo answers promptly, with a line that\u2019s breathtakingly lovely: \u201cI\u2019ll take it.\u201d Fleabag laughs, but Boo insists. The love has to go somewhere, so why not share it with a friend?<\/p>\n
Love is, eventually and inevitably, tied up with grief and pain. This is why, two episodes later, The Priest\u2019s wedding speech proclaims that \u201clove is awful.\u201d This is why our protagonist declares her story a love story. The implications of this scene are subtle, but they\u2019re also stunningly clear for anyone who has ever been in Fleabag\u2019s shoes. The show\u2019s fourth wall isn\u2019t a gimmick. It\u2019s a coping mechanism. A way for Fleabag to bottle up all the love she feels and repackage it in the form of scoffs and smirks. Because it doesn\u2019t feel safe for her to give to anyone else. Not to her mother, and certainly not to Boo, who died soon after this conversation.<\/p>\n
Many of the best on-screen stories in recent years, from the earnest sitcom Ted Lasso<\/em> and the sardonic anti-rom-com You\u2019re The Worst<\/em> to this year\u2019s Nicolas Cage-led indie film Pig,<\/em> are part of what I like to call Cinema of Vulnerability<\/strong>. It\u2019s a thematic movement that acknowledges the ways in which we emotionally distance ourselves from one another in a world that\u2019s supposed to be more connected than ever. Eventually, all of these works at least partially claw down the walls that their characters have built. Letting a bit of blinding light shine through. The audience, swept up in it all, does the hard work of self-examination, too. In the end, our hands are bloody, but our hearts are bare.<\/p>\n
Fleabag<\/em> is a crown jewel among these texts. It\u2019s a comedy that\u2019s so subtle in its approach that you wouldn\u2019t be faulted for coming away from it without realizing what it\u2019s done to your heart. This episode\u2019s final scene is the perfect example of this effortless transformative power.<\/p>\n
You might remember it as the \u201cKneel\u201d scene. It\u2019s an ever-shifting, dynamic, hungry encounter between Fleabag and The Priest. One that starts with the couple talking about Pooh Bear and ends with them frantically fumbling for each other. A seemingly divine message interrupts their passionate kiss: a painting, loudly falling off the church wall. This end scene is a lot of things: unbearably sexy, heart-poundingly exciting, perfectly shot and written and choreographed and scored. But in the context of Cinema of Vulnerability, one moment stands out. It\u2019s one I return to again and again.<\/p>\n
The Priest convinces Fleabag to speak to him as if they\u2019re at Confession. She jokes at first but soon finds herself opening up, bolstered by a drink and the literal wall between them. In Waller-Bridge\u2019s finest, most refined performance to date, she tells us, for the first and only time, what Fleabag really wants:<\/p>\n
\u201cI want someone to tell me what to wear in the morning. 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. I just think I want someone to tell me how to live my life, Father, because so far I think I\u2019ve been getting it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
As a series, Fleabag<\/em> is remembered as being sexy and funny. But the protagonist\u2019s moment in the Confessional is also one of the rawest monologues ever committed to the small screen. Grief is exhausting, and so is living through the pain with no easy answers. Our hero is laid bare. Strip<\/a>ped of all her quirks and crutches, she\u2019s just as desperate and broken as each and every one of us. The scene is a revelation on all counts.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget, though, this is still a love story. Despite what the oft-quoted book says, love is not simple. As Fleabag<\/em> artfully shows, it\u2019s tied up in pain and intimacy and shame and desire and power. This is a love story between a woman and her family, a woman and her best friend, and a woman and the man who sees her when she\u2019s tried so hard not to be seen. The show\u2019s end leaves us at once heartbroken and hopeful. By that point, it\u2019s one of the greatest love stories of all time.<\/p>\n
Fleabag<\/em> Series 2 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video<\/a>.<\/p>\n
    Related Topics: Episodes\n    <!-- AUTHOR BOX -->\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
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\n            Valerie Ettenhofer is a California-based freelance writer, Scooby-Doo fan, and nap enthusiast. As a Senior Contributor at Film School Rejects, she covers television through regular reviews and her recurring column, Episodes. She is also a voting member of the Critics Choice Association’s television and documentary branches. @aandeandval<\/a> (She\/her)        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    <!-- START RECOMMENDED READING 1 -->\n                                <section class=\"recommended py-5\"><h3>Recommended Reading<\/h3>\n\n            <div class=\"row\">\n                                                                    <li class=\"recommended-post\">\n\n                                <h4>On the Particular Devastation of the \u2018Chernobyl\u2019 Premiere<\/h4>\n                                <span class=\"small-arc dark-gray\">For our Episodes column, we re-examine \u201c1:23:45\u201d, the bleak, fantastic first installment of HBO\u2019s \u2018Chernobyl\u2019 miniseries.<\/span>\n\n                        <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"recommended-post\">\n\n                                <h4>Revisiting the \u2018Game<\/a> Of Thrones\u2019 Pilot 10 Years Later<\/h4>\n                                <span class=\"small-arc dark-gray\">Before it was a worldwide phenomenon, it was just a new HBO show with a hell of a good hook.<\/span>\n\n                        <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"recommended-post\">\n\n                                <h4>How \u2018Orphan Black\u2019 Hits the Ground Running with \u201cNatural Selection\u201d<\/h4>\n                                <span class=\"small-arc dark-gray\">\u201cNatural Selection\u201d introduces viewers to the series\u2019 fast-paced, thrilling world, as well as to the gift that keeps on giving: Tatiana Maslany\u2019s powerhouse performances.<\/span>\n\n                        <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"recommended-post\">\n\n                                <h4>\u2018Justified\u2019 and the Battle of \u201cBloody Harlan\u201d<\/h4>\n                                <span class=\"small-arc dark-gray\">Justified\u2019s second season finale, \u201cBloody Harlan,\u201d is a master class in acting, directing, writing, and American myth-making.<\/span>\n\n                        <\/li>\n                                                        <\/div>\n        <\/section><!-- END RECOMMENDED READING -->\n\n\n<\/div><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
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“#The Flashback Episode That Transformed Fleabag” <span class=”mx-1″>The fourth episode of Series 2 is sexy, sad, and the emotional key to the whole show.<\/span> <\/p><div id=””><figure class=”sf-entry-featured-media “><img width=”800″ height=”333″ src=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Fleabag-Season-2-Episode-4.jpg” class=”articlethumb wp-post-image” alt=”Fleabag Season 2 Episode4 Waller-Bridge” loading=”lazy” srcset=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Fleabag-Season-2-Episode-4.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Fleabag-Season-2-Episode-4-768×320.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px”\/><p> <span class=”sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline”>Amazon Studios<\/span> <\/figure><!– START BYLINE –><div…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":315879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Fleabag-Season-2-Episode-4.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}