“I Love You.”“It'll Pass.”

-"I love you."

-"It'll pass."

The lines from Fleabag might be the most unforgettable for me in recent years.

At the end of the second season of Fleabag, Fleabag and the priest finally express their feelings for each other after a period of tension and ambiguity. We all know that they are both equally lonely, sensitive, and out of place in the external world, yet they understand each other. They are rare soulmates in this absurd world. They fall in love. They finally say "I love you."

Moreover, we also know that this all happens in the last five minutes of the last episode of this season, and possibly the last five minutes of the entire story. For a usual plot development, the two might kiss next and be together.

However, the priest immediately follows with, "It’ll pass."

It is hard to describe my feelings when I saw this scene: a quite complicated mixture of heartbrokenness, sadness, and relief. I seemed to have become Fleabag, watching the priest say "I love you, too" and then slowly walk away, his figure disappearing into the night. I held back tears, took a deep breath, and sighed. Then I packed my bag, stood up, and walked in the opposite direction. The screen darkens, and the whole story of Fleabag ends.

For me, the dialogue drives the entire series to its end and climax. Because of the lines, Fleabag avoids any form of cliché and becomes the series that best embodies my personal mental state (at least at that time watching it).

The story of Fleabag is not complicated: Fleabag, a single woman in London, runs a lousy café and leads a very unsatisfactory life. She is estranged from her family, has a troubled relationship with her boyfriend, and is in great pain over the death of her friend. Extremely depressed, she tries to do something.

Undoubtedly, this is a story about failure. The series doesn’t even reveal the protagonist’s name, just calling her Fleabag. She represents a very common state of disillusionment: she seems normal, and neither her work nor physical state is bad enough to require help or sympathy from others. But in reality, there is nothing truly worth looking forward to for her. She doubts everything and hates all kinds of hypocrisy around her but lacks the ability and willingness to build a meaningful life for herself. Or perhaps, her skeptical attitude towards life traps her in absurdity and nihilism, leaving her unwilling to pursue any meaning.

All the seemingly correct values in the past have failed in Fleabag's life. Work and money are meaningless, yet so essential that they cause pain. If not for livelihood, perhaps no one would want to work. Family ties are hypocritical. Her father hurriedly remarries shortly after her mother’s death, and her sister only cares about her own life. Family ties won’t change people’s selfish and indifferent nature. Friendship seems good, but we always mess it up ourselves. Just like Fleabag: her best friend died in an accident, and she had some responsibility for it. Her sister wanted to hug her, but Fleabag habitually dodged, thinking she was going to hit her.

Worse still, we gradually realize that we ourselves are responsible for such a terrible reality. However, we have the ability to mess everything up, but not the ability to fix it.

Perhaps, love is meaningful. The sexy priest is probably the only hope Fleabag has in the second season. But the priest’s final words, "It'll pass," force Fleabag, and us, to break the final illusion about love. Maybe everything is meaningful, but this doesn’t change the fact that "everything will pass." True love may exist, but like everything else it will eventually fade away. Happiness and joy may occur, but they too cannot last long. If we mistakenly think that all this will never disappear because of some intense emotion, it is probably because we are still quite naive. Perhaps, like the priest, stopping a relationship before it fully blooms and walking away is the best way to avoid heartbreak. But most of us may not be the priest, but rather Fleabag. We may subconsciously know that all this will be lost, yet we can’t help but try, can’t help but actively say "I love you," and then leave alone.

Time never stops flowing, and loss and loneliness are the norm for people. Once you realize all this, you can no longer pretend that it’s not true. Nothing can keep us from facing the nihilism and absurdity of life, be it work, family, or even love and friendship.

The titular dialogue represents a contemporary understanding of love. Love does exist, but everything will eventually disappear. From this line, one can also see what makes Fleabag moving: it reveals the fragility and loss of contemporary people, doubts about meaning, and fear of true love. This is a common state for people living in metropolis in this era. Whether you live in London or New York, or any big city in the world, you may fall into this void.

But it still offers some comforts for people, not by telling you that everything will be fine, but by acknowledging that no difficulty will be easily resolved. The only thing you can do is know that everything will pass, yet still smile wryly and try again. But don’t be too sad, since you are not alone in bearing this unsolvable pressure. Most are just like you, pretending everything is normal and continuing with their lives.

Moreover, as we console ourselves, saying that everything will pass, doesn’t it also mean there are things that make us reluctant to lose them?

Let’s be like Fleabag, dry our tears, smile and wave to the audience through the fourth wall, and then move on to the next day. Even if everything is an illusion that will eventually be lost, so what? For a true nihilist, in the absurd world we perceive, we actually possess nothing. In that case, we have enough courage to face any kind of loss.

So, go and love.

Just like Fleabag and the priest.

-"I love you"

-"it'll pass…And I love you, too."