I'm in pieces. :broken_heart:
Michael Sheen & David Tennant's acting in this episode especially at the final scene was absolutely phenomenal. So heartbreakingly wonderful, truly such talented people. The way they delivered the lines, the way they were speaking with just their facial expressions, ugh just EVERYTHING - absolutely incredible. I swear to god, we need a Season 3 and we need it ASAP! Neil Gaiman, we need to talk. You're paying for my therapy.
"We could've been us." :sob:
ABSOLUTELY ACHING FOR SEASON THREE.
loved this so so much, it's for sure going in my rewatch rotation now
Wow, how adorable these two gentlemen are. If you enjoy Good Omens, you should definitely watch this show! Also, there are some big stars as guests in the show. Goddammit, I really love British TV shows.
The romcom episode of the season!!
That was the most awkward and most delightful ball, ever! Everyone was so charming and lovely. I can hardly believe they do not have any more source material to go on with, as this season is just as fun and entertaining as the first. My favourite episode of this second outing, so far. David Tennant and Jon Hamm are absolutely wonderful in this.
Aziraphale's idea is extra funny (lovely??) to me right now because I'm literally in the middle of re-reading Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen.
Also Shax is hilarious here — hilarious, of course, being spelled T-O-S-T-E.
this season hasn't left my mind once since it came out weeks ago and frankly i don't want it to
ooh we're back! in today's episode, aziraphale even more overtly trusts crowley
new entry to now live in my mind rent-free: "mmmmichael"
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME ?!!??!?!?! I'M IN PIECES
last 15 mins I was having the most emotional full body reaction. I was sweating n crying n breathing heavy. I'M STILL CRYING NOW??
The book didn't have this level of detail for their relationship, I am so glad we are getting a continuation on the source material. The growth of these characters is great, everyone loves a gay dad progression - here's to the shared car.
i thought the scene in the attic between fleabag and her dad was so touching, my heart clenched
“I think you know how to love better than any of us. That's why you find it all so painful.”
this phrase is simply heartbreaking!
[7.8/10] There’s two things that I keep coming back to in this one. The first is the idea that Fleabag is a living version of her mother’s legacy, with all the good and hardship that brings with it. And the second is the idea of this as a love story, but one of different types of love than the traditional romance admits of.
I like the idea of the first one a lot. It comes through in what is, for my money, the best scene in the episode, where Fleabag and her dad have a sort of heart-to-heart in the attic. There’s a lot of subtext to the scene, and full disclosure, I’m not sure I picked up on all of it. But a major part of it is Fleabag’s dad suggesting that she carries a great deal of her mother in her and telling her to cling to that. Maybe that’s part of why he has trouble talking to his girls, not just because of his social awkwardness, but because they remind him of that profound loss.
And yet, in the episode’s sweetest moment, he insists that Fleabag walk him down the aisle and more precisely, help him down the aisle. It is a sweet vindication of their relationship. (One that gets a gritted teeth smile from the Godmother, who apparently doesn't even know her betrothed’s name in something of a metagag on the show’s naming conventions.) But it also a vindication of the Dad’s relationship with his wife. Him not wanting to let go of Fleabag as he arrives at the altar symbolizes him not wanting to let go of her. And there’s something just as sweet and meaningful of her telling him to “buck up, smile, charm” in the same way he did at the funeral. It validates an intimacy and understanding between them that belies their strained relationship since her mother’s death.
That’s just one of the many potent echoes in this one. We see Fleabag wake up next to the Priest in the manner of multiple prior shots in the series. The Priest’s speech talks about where to put love. And of course, we have that statuette, a gift whose offering represents a simultaneous apology and fuck you. The Godmother, as always, is a piece of work and issues her veiled threats and putdowns. But she says something particularly interesting about the statuette -- that it represented her mother.
It’s meaningful then, at the end of the episode, when Fleabag rests her head on it, representing a sort of continuation of her mom, or maybe even just seeking solace from someone who’s absent. That small piece of art is a talisman for this show, one given extra depth from the reveal that whether she knew it or not, Fleabag was drawn to this piece that called to her mom.
The other major throughline in the episode is the idea of love, where it pulls us, and where it leaves us. The most obvious, and somewhat traditional part here, is Claire leaving Martin for...Claire. Martin gets one last self-justifying monologue, trying to make excuses and put up barriers for why she can’t leave, only for her to be willing to supplicate herself in order to shut down his toxicity and, at Fleabag’s urging, go after the man she truly loves. It’s a nice thing for the show to tie up, and there’s a catharsis in it, particularly when the oft-prickly Claire tells Fleabag that she’s the only person Claire would race through an airport for.
Then there’s the “love” if you can call it that, between Dad and The Godmother. I don’t think I’ve come any closer to understanding it necessarily, but I like the acknowledgment from him that she’s “not everyone’s cup of tea.” There’s a sense that maybe he’s not ready for it because he’s still holding on to what came before. And yet he does it, maybe out of that same sense, of needing to fill that void in his life, the same sort of void that Fleabag told her psychiatrist about.
Then, of course, there’s Fleabag and the Priest. It’s a love story, between two people, but also between a man and his god. There is something heartbreaking about their ending here, where the two get a taste of the glory of their love which could upend the Priest’s life, the joy and happiness of it, only for it to end in this. There’s a boldness to that, to making such a perfectly calibrated, root-worthy relationship between two characters with absurd chemistry, and then pull away from it at the end.
Granted, I don’t know that this is the end. Supposedly this is a series finale not a season finale, and the show clearly communicates that it wants this to be the final word on the pairing. But (1.) I wouldn’t past a BBC show to bust out an Xmas special down the road that revisits this, and (2.) the Priest has turned Fleabag down on multiple occasions only to come back for more. What makes this time any different?
I suppose the answer is his speech at the wedding. It’s a well-written monologue, one that speaks to the hardships when loving someone means upsetting the apple cart you’ve constructed your life around, makes you rethink your plans, and move things in an entirely different direction. It works as a reckoning, as something extra to cement this choice.
But it’s a sad choice. It’s one I understand and even like from the perspective of story. It is, in many ways, the right thing to do. But at the same time, it’s hard not to have your heart go out to Fleabag, someone who has been trying to find some place to “put that love” for a long time. She lost her mom; she lost Boo, and now she’d found a place to put it with the Priest (keep your mind out of the gutter), only to lose him to God like she lost those two important women in her life to God. This is a love story, but a sad one.
And yet, it also suggests one of growth. As she says goodbye, Fleabag waves us off, maybe, hopefully, turning off that coping mechanism that proved her friend when she thought she had none. The presence of that fox suggests an absurdity to this life, to this world, where anything can happen. Maybe she’s in a better position now than when she started, knowing she has her sister and her father’s love and appreciation in a way she didn’t before, having freed one of them from the clutches of a toxic relationship, and having discovered that despite her old self-destructive habits threatening to reemerge, she can love again and love just as well. It’s not as bold as that love in and of itself, but we can hope.
A fitting conclusion to the show and a very 'real' way to end things. It wouldn't have felt right for the hot priest to give up his calling for love. And leaving it this way, having them both experienced it somehow makes it do much better. Fleabag left us behind at the end there too. She doesn't need us anymore.
P.s. Yes Claire. She deserves all the happiness
Fleabag: I love you.
The Priest: (long pause) It'll pass.
Me: looks at the camera with tears in my eyes
Heartbreaking, but perfect ending to this wonderful show.
"Women are born with pain built in." Wow, what a beautiful line (that whole scene was wonderful, too). Such a well-written episode.
I know Fleabag isn’t flawless herself, but in these last couple of episodes Claire (along w the others) has really gotten on my nerves. It’s like everyone around Fleabag are okay with being assholes as long as they think they aren’t being as horrible as her (since she’s the chaotic black sheep). I love the new addition of the priest, I really enjoy the contrast between him and Fleabag, they really compliment each other and their relationship so far has been very interesting. Him noticing Fleabag breaking the 4th wall was amazing.
[8.2/10] I don’t know why this triggered it for me, but the second we saw Boo’s crying face, I knew that it was Fleabag who Boo’s boyfriend cheated on her with. I can’t explain it, but it triggered it for me, which just makes everything that leads up to the show explicitly acknowledging that feel like a slow, despondent slide.
It’s a slide where the show systematically removes every bit of support and connection from Fleabag. It starts at the “sexposition” where her stepmom’s passive aggressive power move leaves Fleabag serving drinks and humiliated. It continues with her weird, pseudo-philosophical lover guy effectively dumping her, while revealing that she was his mistress the whole time. It continues with an appearance from Harry, who has a new girlfriend that seems to know the stepmom, and who rejects Fleabag’s advances. (By the way, holy hell it seems like the stepmom really upped her revenge efforts here -- she’s not a fighter, she’s a plotter and she’s frighteningly good at it.)
But then the hits really come. Claire is still with Martin, who lied and said that Fleabag tried to kiss him not the other way around, something that Claire believes given what happened between Fleabag and Boo.
Holy hell is that a bomb. It hurts because not only does it sever what is arguably the most important connection in Fleabag’s life, but it’s a reminder that Fleabag herself ruined the other most important connection in her life and that it led to her friend’s death. That’s a harrowing thing to deal with.
Before the show fully and finally pulls the rug out from under her though, it gives one little moment of solace with her dad. I love their little conversation, one that reveals despite the emotional distance between the two, they’re actually very much alike. (And I like the little synchronous nose-wipe as a key to that.) Both of them are smarting from the loss of a woman in their lives who meant the world to them, and both grasped at some kind of happiness and intimacy and ability to move on. As big as the Boo cheating reveal here is, the dad reveal is in some way more significant, showing that they’re both making bad or unhelpful or at least impacted decisions given how much the person they lost is still on their mind.
But even that bit of solace is temporary, as the stepmom rears her ugly (smiling) head and to preserve that happiness, dad tells Fleabag she should go. Her family has taken sides against her and in favor of their significant others, leaving her with nothing and no one.
Or so she thinks. It would be bold for a show like this to end with Fleabag trying to end her life the same way Boo inadvertently ended her, trying to give herself the karmic punishment for the harm she caused to someone who was nothing but a force for good in her life. There’s the suggestion of that with her speech about why she’s so promiscuous -- she feels like her body is the only thing she has, and so she seeks out the contact to get validation for the one thing that she thinks gives her any value or any chance at connection.
Instead, the guy who denied her a loan in the pilot shows up again randomly to prevent her walk into the bike lane. He doesn't have any grand speeches, but he gives her the same kind of message that Boo once did -- that everyone makes mistakes, that people who act out in this way aren’t happy, and that it’s why pencils have erasers. Fleabag did wrong, but she is allowed to be happy, just as her father is. The bank officer redoing her interview is a wonderful dose of sweetness to end things on, with the right bit of humor and an incredible performance from Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Overall, it’s a great finale that pays off so much so well, and an excellent season of television which brings laughs, drama, and well-observed struggles to life in engaging and occasionally heartbreaking ways.
Raise your hand if you replayed the "I was wrong" dance.
Well it's a lovely queer movie. If I compare it with the book there are many moments and characters missing. I think it would have been better to make a (mini) series to have more time to tell the story. It often felt rushed. But there are still not enough happy queer movies and I still enjoyed it.
One thing that bugged me was that the book was so hopeful when they were out because of the support they got from the (queer) public. Taking one step back from the personal level would have made much more of an impact.
(I still need a shirt with "History, huh?" on it.)
THEY'RE IN LOVE AHHHHHHHH GO CRAZY AHHHHHHHHH GO STUPID
crowley's reaction to thinking aziraphale is dead.... dramatic and gay
will poulter, the man you are
will poulter's character is probably the best mentor marcus could have. he's so calm, patient and open. I'm curious to see the growth that the Copenhagen trip will bring to Marcus (in his culinary skills and in general).
Only after the episode ended did I have time to stop and have the realization that there were no cuts once you were in the restaurant.
I usually love Elle, but I really don’t understand what her problem was this episode. The way she treated Tao was completely uncalled for… I mean, it’s obvious he was nervous and just trying to impress her; what’s wrong with that? She knows what he’s like normally, and she supposedly “loves” him, so is his nervousness during the date really enough reason to throw it all away? It’s so mean, and I feel so bad for Tao.
I wish this show was a weekly release. I wanted to sit with some of these episodes for a few days but I couldn't get on anything without seeing spoilers.
This entire season was great. I saw it more as two seasons, separated by episode 6. The first half was the characters getting broken down, more character development, as they tried to stumble their way to the restaurant. Second half you started seeing it come together, stressful as it was, but there was a light. Good story, even though it lags at times. Some minor over/under acting in spots, but overall good performances. I loved the parallel in season 1 and 2's finales where something goes wrong in the kitchen and it's suddenly all hands on deck. Really hoping the show gets renewed for season 3 and the quality is as great as the first two seasons.
So many great character moments. I like how this show simply refuses to let every character be winning or losing at the same time. I personally enjoyed how there were episodes dedicated to fleshing out a specific character and growing as individuals.
Carm's symbolism of him being a "bear" stuck in a "cage" was interesting and a call back to season 1. I like that visual of someone/something breaking Carmy out of his ice box.
The scene with Pete and Donna was just gut wrenching. Her leaving was truly a great moment. She realized she was toxic and could not express her feelings without coming in like a wrecking ball, so that self reflection was touching.
I didn't mind the Claire storyline as much as others but I do think she was more plot device to get Carmy out of the kitchen and into a relationship than character, which was annoying. People keep saying scenes like that were irrelevant or boring when in all actuality it paid off dividends to see Carm in a new environment like that. People also said Claire was boring or flat, but that’s the point. I thought that she intentionally felt out of place because she was supposed to be a “distraction” of sorts from the restaurant. I think the writers could’ve handled the breakup better.
For the love of God, please do not let this show have Carmen and Sydney have any kind of romantic relationship. Why does every male+female relationship on television have to be romantic? I think their storyline as working partners and friends feels enough and complete to me. I'm really 'shipping' a healthy, non-sexual, platonic, supportive friendship between the two.
What the hell happened with Ebra’s story? We barely saw him this season.
All in all, the season had its ups and downs.