#*the fourth wall.

[foxfoe]

when fleabag (s2e4) turns up at the church late at night and then walks in on the priest, he’s at first just seemingly surprised and startled. and then, only slightly (but yet so, so significantly) different, he seems surprised and perturbed. saying: “oh my god! i thought you were just in my head then! i mean, you were in my head then. but now you’re-- there!?”. b/c of how genuinely unsettled and anxious and confused he is, it feels like something more is going on.

on a superficial level it seems like such a simple “i was thinking about you” line. but i dont think it is a simple line. b/c it’s kind of a weird line? like, the phrasing is odd.

it’s a bizarre way of saying “oh i was just thinking about you and now youre here--spooky!”. saying “you were in my head” is such an imposing, strong, invasive line. like, she is the perpetrator. she is the one acting (the noun that has a verb), not him. she is an influence. she is inserting herself into him (into his mind (more simply and significantly put: into his existence)). like, he’s not the one who put her in his head, she is the one who put herself in his head (i.e. existence).

like, what im saying is, to me, this reads as a fourth wall breaking moment.

STAY WITH ME HERE.

earlier in the episode, theyre at a quaker meeting and--to us, the fourth wall audience--fleabag wonders “what is he thinking”. she so, so, so achingly wants to know whats going on the priest’s head.

cut back to the church-late-at-night scene.

shes at the church. she was just beginning to pray. we know, earlier, during their quaker prayer-like meeting scene, nearly all she could think about was “what is the priest thinking about”. so i propose, in the church-late-at-night scene, she was thinking/praying about him. and, with her fourth wall breaking abilities, this allowed her to permeate his mind/existence. not in any telepathic sense. but rather, a conjuring sense. not five seconds into her praying, the radio in his office turns on. fleabag, as the main character, willed him into existence, into the scene (he goes to sleep before 9:30pm! it’s later than that! he’s not supposed to be up! but fleabag willed it!). i mean, hes all “but now youre-- there?!”. hes so perplexed how theyre both together in a room right now.

BASICALLY: shes alone. she thinks/prays about him. this conjures him up and lets a scene with him happen. she enters his office with him inside. hes genuinely startled and confused and scared b/c hes only vaguely able to comprehend her fourth wall breaking abilities and whats just happened to him.

[foxfoe]

after iconing ep 4, in the cafe scene, when the priest looks directly into the camera all “whatre you looking at???” you can see throughout that scene, from a different camera angle, he keeps looking to his side--where fleabag’s gaze is going when she looks at us through the fourth wall--trying to figure out whats there.

[foxfoe]

im absolutely LIVING for the fourth wall breaking fleabag does and the priest somewhat picking up on it.

the priest seems omniscient to some degree. or is at least able to detect/be aware of omniscience around him, even if he, himself, cant penetrate it or understand it.

which makes sense, since he’s a man of god. trying to listen to a voice (god) that may or may not be there watching/listening to him. with that, it’s easy to make a parallel of god and the fourth wall audience that fleabag is talking to. the parallel of fourth wall/god makes for such an interesting struggle for the priest and blends in well w/ his confusion about whether his love is for fleabag or for god. (and also, perhaps more down the line, if he becomes more aware, what purpose he is meant to serve! if he’s a character, is he meant to serve the show or serve god or serve fleabag, the main character? what would he make of this?)

since in this show format, fleabag is nearly god-like in her voice/power, the allure of her and her voice is quite powerful.

her being like god makes me think that’s partially why he’s able to see through her fourth wall. that, and, like bobby said, theyre similar ppl.

i think, b/c he’s a priest, b/c he’s there for ppl, as a father, to help and guide, he’s gained some omniscience b/c of that. which we can see by him 1) seeing fleabag’s fourth wall and 2) his wedding speech!!

in his wedding speech, there are a fair amount of words and themes that occurred throughout the season. things done/said/mentioned that he was not privy to but is still aware of on some level. like: love being painful (dad mentioning how love/life is most painful for fleabag), creepy (everyone calls the kiddo creepy oboe kid), obsessed w/ hair (a whole scene where fleabag goes on a monologue about how important hair is), love isnt something weak ppl do (fleabag calls her sister’s husband “weakie” by mistake; he is too weak to love and be a good person), and more.

obv this speech was a way to wrap up the show and hit some moral messages of the show, but with a show that makes a pt to break the fourth wall, details like this can hold purpose!

ive always always ALWAYS loved the concept of the fourth wall and breaking it and i really love fleabag’s dynamic with the fourth wall and im super super interested in the priest’s (possibly growing) awareness of it and understanding of it and how thatll affect him and how he will affect it.