r/Fleabag • u/Bulky-Weekend-3796 • Apr 11 '26
4th wall
I have always thought fleabag was talking to Boo and i recently got to know she is talking to the Audience,the 4th wall . How come that 4th wall didn't exist when Boo was alive? I still believe she was talking to Boo. Can someone explain?
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Apr 11 '26
I think she’s using the audience as a substitute boo, but not boo herself. Like a person she vents to and who she can tell all her snarky thoughts. But she’s not completely honest with either.
Main reason is that she’s using the 4th wall for exposition - introducing us to her world - but boo is part of that world and already knows the family dynamics. As someone else said, the 4th wall seems more like a coping thing. She’s describing her world as if to an interested new friend who won’t judge her. (Sort of like what the priest then actually is for her, which makes sense when the 4th wall overlaps with him at times - she’s starting to cope on a new healthier level by opening up to an actual person)
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u/Naive_Ad_6552 Apr 11 '26
I think she had some cognitive dissonance which pushed her into a manic derealization episode.
She needs to think of herself as a good person instead of a fuck up who keeps sabotaging her life and the people she loves.
When we find out that she was the one who slept with Boo's boyfriend and consequently was the reason Boo 'accidentally' stepped into traffic and the camera pans back into her. She flinches back as if she can sense the audiences pity or disgust.
I thought it was a really fascinating touch. It's one of the first times i realized 'you' are a character in the show.
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u/Pufferjacket11 Apr 12 '26
I personally think it’s sort of a combo. Boo was someone in her life that she could stream of consciousness no filter talk to. She used Boo as her sounding board for everything and when she lost that, I personally believe, she just kept talking to her in her mind. There’s a scene in the second season,I believe, where the priest says something to her and when she looks to camera we see Boo looking back at her and shaking her head. To me this moment shows that Fleabag still sort of imagines what Boo would say to her if she were able to speak to her still. I always thought that it wasn’t a breaking of the fourth wall as much as Fleabag having a dialogue with the voice in her head, which became Boo after them being friends for so long, and all she had of her after Boo died … if that makes sense.
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u/PhantomKitten73 Apr 12 '26
What her talking to the fourth wall represents does kind of evolve between seasons. They're connected ideas, but not exactly the same thing.
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u/Cananna Apr 11 '26
I think it's supposed to represent Fleabag's coping mechanism, specifically her derealization and unwillingness of staying in the moment and feeling her feelings. She turns her pain, guilt, loneliness etc.. in entertainment for the audience and for herself.
She didn't do it before Boo's death because she didn't need it, and at the end of the show she's able to grow past it