What Makes the Priest in Fleabag So Incredibly Hot? – Editorial

Today, we have a hundred shows too many on television and all the countless streaming platforms put together. To find a show among them which strikes you as perfect to its core is quite rare. Fleabag is one such show which features the marvelous Phoebe Waller-Bridge and luckily for us audience, it has also been written by her. Fleabag is a British dark comedy about an emotionally broken protagonist who hides from herself and her true feelings by often breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience and joke about the difficult and awkward situations she keeps facing. In the first season we get to know the truth about Fleabag’s emotional trauma and how she has been using sex to derive self-worth. In a way the season made complete sense by itself and also made for a great show. However, Waller-Bridge has come out with the second and final season this year, after a three-year break, to give us an exhilarating installment of Fleabag’s life where she starts to fancy a catholic priest. Of course, the Priest is hot! But more on that in a bit.

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I was reeling in the imperfections of the Game of Thrones finale when I started watching this show and it turned out to be a great example of how to time and tailor the perfect end to a show. That said, Waller-Bridge has also managed the near impossible task of creating a second season which far outshines the first. She required a mere two seasons of six short episodes each to leave us in a place of pleasant emotional disarray. Such a satisfying watch! The rest of the article which discusses the title is going to be filled with major spoilers! So, do yourself a favor and watch this show on Amazon Prime if you haven’t already!

There can be no doubt that casting Andrew Scott (of Sherlock fame) is an obvious reason why the Priest is so incredibly hot. Andrew Scott is actually physically hot! But without taking much away from that, it is Waller-Bridge’s genius that makes the Priest so hot! She seems to have a deep understanding of humanity, with all its glory and follies, and like a puppet master she has carefully placed contrasting characters in very unlikely situations and crafted a very humane story.

From the first season and through the second season, we realize that Fleabag’s closest family; her father and elder sister believe in putting up a brave front. They’d rather bottle up their feelings and buck up than deal with it. No different than Fleabag herself. Even her step-mother (who is also her Godmother) and brother-in-law are unsavory characters who manipulate situations to appear better than their true selves. Among this mix of characters in the second season, shows up a good-looking catholic priest who has no qualms about being utterly vulnerable and honest with himself and the world. The very first episode of the second season is a hilarious bottle episode where the Priest is invited to a family dinner at a restaurant, hosted by Fleabag’s father and godmother to announce their wedding which the Priest is going to officiate. Few minutes into the episode, the Priest unabashedly admits, in context, that he is glad to be at the dinner as he was feeling fucking lonely being new to the parish an all. He wears his vulnerability on his sleeve just like that and tries to make the best of a situation in all honesty.

We soon realize that the Priest is unconventional in every sense. He swears like a sailor, loves his drink a tad bit much and doesn’t have a shred of that ‘holier than thou’ attitude a Priest would usually have. Even his approach to his faith reveals that more than the rule of the Holy Bible, he believes in the romance of religion. Beyond all, he seems truly unconventional because he dares to be vulnerable in a world where everyone is trying to be ideal in some way. He seems to have been able to admit his flaws to himself and has made an earnest decision to live a life of peace by committing himself to God – who he believes is the understanding sorts. He is even able to admit that having doubts about choosing God’s way is part of the deal.

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The magic of the second season begins when the Priest is able to see through Fleabag unlike anyone else. Fleabag and the Priest are inexplicably drawn to one another. But while Fleabag resorts to the habit of avoiding her true feelings and starts fancying the Priest sexually; the Priest becomes emotionally available to Fleabag to understand her aching soul and develops a genuine affection and finally finds himself unwittingly and undeniably attracted to her. Their connection starts feeling extremely meta when the Priest is able to call out Fleabag and spot that she keeps briefly zoning out when she is actually breaking the fourth wall mid-conversation, to talk to the audience. Waller-Bridge has tried something really creative here and it worked wonders!

The story peaks to a point where the conflicted Priest wrestles with his emotions and arrives at Fleabag’s doorstep to make her understand why he has chosen the life of a priest and why he cannot get physical with her for he is a celibate man of God. Since at this point it is pretty much about the physical act of sex for Fleabag, she tries to convince him that priests won’t burst into flames if they have sex. The Priest then reveals his most vulnerable self at this point and tells her that he can’t have sex with her because he will fall in love with her and though he might not burst into flames, the life that he has chosen for himself will get destroyed. Those words from a priest, which are otherwise unthinkable and forbidden but said out of pure honesty, surrounds the Priest’s character with intense attraction. The pair yield to the honesty of the moment and end up sleeping together.

The Priest finally lets Fleabag know that he wants to choose God and that his love for God gives him the hope he needs in life. Fleabag accepts his choice without begrudging him and for the first time is finally able to admit to herself and to the Priest that she in fact is in love with the Priest. The pair part ways in a brilliantly emotional scene knowing that they love each other even though they never had a chance at a conventional love story. But this brief whirlwind of an unlikely romance with the Priest who isn’t shy of appearing vulnerable has helped Fleabag take a look at her own flaws and has given her a chance to heal emotionally.

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The charm about the Priest being so unabashedly vulnerable is that he is always in the moment being his actual self, right in front of Fleabag, with nothing to hide. The show goes to the extent of not revealing much about the Priest’s past and why he actually chose to become a Priest, and yet we know so much about him. He is consciously trying to stay true to both his faith and his feelings which are inherently so conflicting. How does one fault such a character? The tragedy in the Priest’s internal conflict is designed in a manner that the audience inevitably end up empathizing with this character. Waller-Bridge gives us no option but to love the Priest because he earnestly tries to do right by his faith and his feelings. Whatever be the Priest’s choice, he will end up losing something.

Waller-Bridge and Scott admire each other’s genius in real life and that translates into some electric onscreen chemistry which feels absolutely natural. Not a single dialogue or expression between the two seems wasted or without reason and makes this show highly re-watchable.In many ways, Fleabag and the Priest are just the same. Both have had some past trauma which has led them to not trust themselves. While the Priest has chosen to place faith in something bigger than himself to guide him, Fleabag has been ignoring her crisis of self-belief. Though the Priest is one step ahead of Fleabag albeit in a different direction, both characters have to be kind enough to forgive themselves to restore their self-belief. Nobody is beyond this act of healing. By pitting an emotionally dysfunctional Fleabag against a flawed Priest who isn’t trying to fit into the idea of being an ideal Priest, Waller-Bridge shows us that vulnerability is a basic human virtue. Vulnerability is the end of all pride or ego and any sort of emotional healing can only begin from being honest with yourself about your flaws. In this sense, the Priest who truly embraces his vulnerability becomes the hottest character of the show and most of all, a symbol of hope.

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