The Fleabag Fan Theory That Changes Everything

What do the appearances of these sly little creatures mean? Are they really following the Priest? It's possible they are, and if you read into the motif of the fox as an objective correlative of the Priest's emotional state, they mean a lot more than you think. Given that the Priest is, by nature, forced to hide many of his emotions and forbidden (sexual) desires, it makes sense that the foxes would emerge as a symbol of prurient vices he can't escape. 

At New York Magazine, Ellen O'Connell Whittet suggests that "The fox is a stand-in for the Priest's conflicted feelings about his celibacy and his budding love for Fleabag." If you trace the instances that the foxes appear, Whittet says, they all relate to moments when the Priest is at risk of disclosing moments related to the Priest's sexuality — like when the two are spending time in the church garden drinking gin and tonics, and Fleabag mentions how she could never be celibate. Or when, after sleeping together, Fleabag accidentally surprises the Priest before her father's wedding ceremony and he tells her that he thought she was a fox.

If this theory holds, then perhaps the fox's appearance in the final scene of the series may hold even more meaning. As the Priest and Fleabag part ways, a fox appears. "He went that way," she says. Could the fox be following the Priest in order to bring him back to her? We may never know, but it's nice to think that maybe, just maybe, the two end up together.