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You’d be hard pressed to find a Fleabag fan who managed to hold back tears as the final episode of series two played out on the small screen. It was electrifying. It was devastating. And it was one of the best depictions of modern love to have graced TV in years as our eponymous heroine and the hot priest verbally exchanged I love yous at a bus stop – then parted ways.

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But it could have been different. During an appearance on Elizabeth Day’s podcast on Wednesday (July 3), How To Fail, Phoebe Waller-Bridge revealed that in her initial script, the priest didn’t say “I love you” back. The writer revealed in the interview why the theme of love was so integral to the show’s second series. “In the first series she [Fleabag] couldn’t love because she’d been so burnt by love... I think that’s what was so moving about the response [from viewers] is that people really do want to love each other, and watch shows about love,” she explained to Day.

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For this reason, the final episode – and the most important scene – proved to be tricky. “There are actual takes of Andrew Scott [Priest] and I when we first filmed that scene and we were both in floods [of tears],” said Waller-Bridge. “There was no building up to the scene... because it was so last minute. The road was so noisy, so we didn’t have much time to shoot. We all knew it was the most important scene. We got there, and I felt like I wasn’t emotionally prepared for the scene. We had two takes that we couldn’t really use because we were crying.”

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But Scott was determined for the show to have one specific ending: to tell Fleabag that he loved her too. “Andrew [Scott] came to set that day determined to say ‘I love you too’ because it was an option. But I wasn’t sure if the character said, ‘I love you too’ at the end,” admitted Waller-Bridge. “It was meant to be ‘I love you’ [Fleabag’s line, with the Priest responding], ‘it will pass’ but I wasn’t sure if he should say it, too.” Thankfully, Scott was determined to make sure the ending was perfect. “Andrew came and he was like ‘I’m saying it’. Basically [he was] like I’m not giving you another option because I have to say it. You know when an actor feels that strongly about something, and they’re right? Especially someone like Andrew, and he had a huge input into the whole thing, but I actually think the clincher of the whole thing is that he says it. He was so right, and we have him to thank for that.”

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