[8.7/10] Another really sweet one. I love the juxtaposition of how, for most of Northern Ireland, this is a momentous day of peace that resonates across the country. But for our young heroes, it’s an equally momentous day -- their high school prom. It speaks to one of the core themes of the show, how there was all this dramatic stuff taking place on a national scale, and which was even present in the lives of young people at the time (see also: the bomb squad blowing up Michelle’s suitcase), but that for the teenagers at the time, this was just their lives, with the same ups and downs other folks had.
This one is definitely sweeter than some other Derry Girls episodes, without skimping on the humor. It’s very cute when Orla decides to take Granda to prom because “he’s the guy I like best,” and the two of them dance together to the 1950s throwbacks. It’s touching when Erin and Clare reconcile, admit they were jealous/miffed and that they’re best friends. And the most wholesome, heartwarming scene in the whole show may very well be James giving up his Dr. Who convention to escort Erin to prom after she’s been stood up and Erin coming down in her Easter dress, because she’d rather be herself with her friends. This show doesn’t often go for the sap, but when it does, they hit hard.
The humor’s top notch too! The girls buying prom dresses on Michelle’s mom’s credit card with the intent of returning them the next day, only for them to get splattered with pigs blood a la Carrie is a great setup and payoff. Mae’s a cool instigator, with the girls’ trying to be friends with her for surface level reasons and getting way more than they bargained for. Everyone freaking out about the television breaking, and Gerry’s harried attempts to fix it are a big laugh, and a nice way to deliver the peace accord news just when the show needs it to happen. Just the girls fretting over how prom will go, and whether Erin’s ex is dating a model or just a girl who’s “done some modeling” brings the same crackerjack dialogue and comical line-reads the show always delivers.
Overall, this is a high water mark for the show, mixing sentiment and humor in a way where both land like gangbusters.
[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.
[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.
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.
What a finale. Watching everyone come together and use what they have learned and prove to themselves and each other how capable they are felt so good, while on the flip side of that we see devastation in Carmy. The restaurant recovers and runs smoothly without him as he sits alone, cold, and while falling victim to his insecure self-worth and ultimately inadvertently ruining one of the best things to ever happen to him in Claire. I knew the fridge issue would come into play in the finale, but didn’t expect it to happen like this. The rich complexity is that Carmy isn’t necessarily wrong. His focus given to Claire took him away from the restaurant, but Claire is also so incredibly good for him otherwise. She made him a better person, but in some regards also a worse leader during a critical time in his professional life. I hope that he can eventually find the right balance, repair things with Ritchie, and find happiness in his personal and professional lives. I think he needs to learn to relinquish some of the control he holds over the restaurant and lean on others around him who have proven themselves capable. His presence in their lives and pushing/challenging them has helped all those around him grow, and he just needs to give himself credit for that while also not putting so much pressure on himself. He’s shaping up to be a fantastic character and I can’t wait for more. Season 3 better be announced soon.
Loved, loved the whole season - but it's bra-cho-lay, not bra-jaool or brajão or however they're trying to pronounce it. It was painful to hear it lol
Anyway, about the episode. So many little but meaningful moments.
This series grasps that feeling of lacking air that anxiety gives you in a way I've rarely seen: that sitcom beginning was tough.
Also, Carmy's speech at AA, how he briefly looks rightly at you into the camera who slowly gets closer (checking back, probably it's an impression but you get the feeling of being sucked in and in by the story he's telling).
When he says he wanted to hear "good job" from his brother: lately I've been starting to think that lack of validation and approval are some of the biggest sources of many of people's cascade problem, that many come from that in several forms and displays.
Very insightful, very sharing and bonding episode - love it.
I also love that there was no cheap romance involved in the series. You know, it's part of life but it doesn't mean you have to put every part of life in every series. Sometimes there's death, sometimes love, sometimes happiness, sometimes they take different forms and are not all coexisting at the same time.
There's a lot of throat clearing.
The cleaning of The Beef is one of the first quiet moments kitchen side, when the rhythm slows.
Talking to the videogame and getting comfort was actually lovely. Makes you think that there are so many places people seeks peace to. Loved finally seeing Carmy smile and the exchange with his brother
Great series
Well its done... it turned out the best way it could with the time we had.... It was not a train wreck, but it was certainly rushed. The writing never waivered and that made it much more palatable. The characters were strong till the end as well. It was emotional and charming as always. Overall it didn't ruin the series, and I'm overall happy with it.
--BUT--
My main issue is the narrative feels SEVERELY incomplete, and I'm beginning to wonder if that was done on purpose.
I might just be an optimist as much as Holden here, but it truly does not feel like its done. ESPICALLY with the protomolecule ship coming thru the ring at the VERY END. IDK they'd include that if there was not something up their sleeve. I really hope and pray there is more story to be told from the roci and this amazing universe.
The one thing I am disappointed in is Marco. His end was just so unsatisfying and overall he was severely underwritten and ended up being one of the most underwhelming villains ever. He had no characterization and they never really fleshed him out, nor really did anything with his and Phillips relationship. Their whole arc was just a nothingburger and that is really a shame
If this is truly the end though, I thank everyone in this show involved for the joy its brought me. It was truly something special we had here and I am so happy I got to experience it.
Till next time folks.
