Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s writing for a cast of characters that are each complex and interesting, even when they only appear for moments at a time. The story and the exchanges those characters share often gets right at the heart of what today’s twenty- and thirty-somethings are dealing with.
So it’s hardly surprising that Fleabag was just nominated for eleven Emmys. Here are ten of our favorite quotes from everyone’s new favorite show on Amazon Prime.
Updated on December 23rd, 2020 by Kristen Palamara: Fleabag is an engaging and witty show with a great cast of characters who are written in a brilliant way from their character arcs to their smart dialogue. Even though there have only been two seasons of the show and there might not be anymore, Fleabag is still in the minds of all the fans, especially its dialogue, and anyone lucky enough to choose to start the fantastic show.
Belinda: Women are born with pain built in. We carry it within ourselves. Men have to seek it out.
Fleabag begins this episode by ruining her sister Claire's work event by accidentally shattering the Women in Business award meant to be presented to Belinda so Fleabag uses Godmother's statue as an award and tries to get it back from Belinda after the ceremony.
Belinda and Fleabag go out for drinks and have a deep conversation about women and life and this quote fits right in with the feminist conversation the show has been having since its pilot.
Fleabag: Being proper and sweet and nice and pleasing is a f***ing nightmare. It’s exhausting.
Fleabag is one of the most complicated female characters in modern television and she's a complete person who doesn't always want to play the part of a sweet and nice woman.
From the first scene of the show, it's clear that Fleabag does not fit the mold she's describing here, even though she tries to turn her life around and make healthier lifestyle choices instead of the self-destructive ones of the past. She's a complicated character, and that's what makes her so real and engaging.
Fleabag: Maybe happiness isn’t what you believe, but who you believe.
Fleabag seems like a different person in the first episode of season 2 and she's truly trying to move on from the mistakes of her past and make a better life with her family.
Fleabag and her sister Claire have an intimate moment during a family dinner and they're still trying to reckon with Claire's obviously unhealthy relationship with her husband and Fleabag telling her that Martin tried to kiss her at a party, which Claire chose to believe Martin over her sister.
Harry: Don’t make me hate you. Loving you’s painful enough.
Fleabag is stuck in an on-again-off-again relationship with her partner Harry when the show first begins and it's clear that she thinks that he'll always come back to her and depends on him coming back. Harry does come back, one final time, just before having another explosive argument that causes him to release he needs to leave for good.
He says this line while breaking up with Fleabag, and she hilariously puts a time out on the fight to tell him to write it down as a lyric because it's actually really good.
Priest: Love isn’t something that weak people do. Being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope.
Fleabag and Priest (Andrew Scott) started a tumultuous relationship in the second season of the show and although they seemed like a perfect pair and had an immediate connection, he wasn't able to fully be in the relationship because of his Priesthood and chose to stay instead of leaving for Fleabag.
The Priest has a lot of great quotes throughout the series and his love story with Fleabag is heartbreaking.
Fleabag: "Chic" means boring. Don't tell the French.
In season 2 episode 1, Fleabag helps her brother-in-law Martin shop for a birthday present for her sister Claire. They go to a shoe store, where an increasingly distressed Martin tries to figure out which pair of shoes Claire “is.”
This little dig at the French is an amusing aside that alludes to the ongoing English/French rivalry that has lasted centuries. This line is made funnier when Fleabag tries to comfort Claire after a bad haircut in episode 5. She tries telling Claire it’s edgy and cool, before saying, “It’s chic!” Before finally resorting to, “Claire, it’s French.” Obviously, the two English women have a more complicated relationship with ideas of feminism, fashion, and the French, than this hilarious quip first implies.
Fleabag: I sometimes worry I’d be less of a feminist if I had [a] bigger [chest].
Fleabag says this in season 2 episode 4, during a Quaker meeting (because she feels compelled by the Spirit to). It’s an interesting confession, one that harkens back to season one when Fleabag and her sister Claire realized that they are “bad” feminists. Then, Fleabag and Claire both it that they would be willing to trade five years of their lives for the “perfect” body.
As hilarious as this line is, it’s also secretly extremely relatable. A lot of women have this doubt. Dealing with a culture that so prizes a woman’s appearance means that self-aware women spend a lot of time questioning their relationship with their appearance. The meat of the question really asks: Would I be less of an advocate for change if I was benefitting from the status quo?
Martin: I'm not a bad guy, I just have a bad personality!
When just the appearance of a character makes you groan out loud, the show has made an incredible villain. And the truth is: We all hate Martin.
Fleabag has never had a good relationship with her brother-in-law. But it only continues to disintegrate into absolute hatred as season 2 continues. Godmother wasn't already the worst.
Belinda: People are all we’ve got. So grab the night by its nipples and go flirt with someone.
Just when you think Fleabag has devolved into absolute cynicism, a character like Belinda appears in the middle of season two to set you back on the right course. She is a veritable font of wisdom for Fleabag, appearing in just exactly the right moment to remind Fleabag that the world hasn’t gone completely bad. There are still good things left in the world.
The idea that everyone and everything is terrible is an idea that Fleabag’s generation, and the generation just younger, has seen hammered home through everything from memes on the internet to news sources. Seeing that rebuked is powerful.
Fleabag: You know, either everyone feels like this a little bit, and they're just not talking about it, or I'm completely f***ing alone.
One of the central questions of the first season of Fleabag was: how normal is anyone’s experience? Fleabag seems to struggle with the things that we all struggle with, but she also feels incredibly alone during it.
After the death of her best friend and mother, she doesn’t have anyone to really turn to about anything she’s feeling. This quote—said so forcefully to Bank Manager—encapsulates exactly that quandary. It’s so hard to know what other people are experiencing from our own perspectives, and yet it seems likely that everyone goes through the same things. We’re all human, after all.
