Isabella and Phineas's relationship

Isabella Garcia-Shapiro has a huge crush on her neighbor and best friend Phineas Flynn. She has romantic daydreams about him and believes she will one day marry him ("Comet Kermillian", "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo", "Isabella and the Temple of Sap"). However, Phineas's feelings for Isabella are somewhat unclear, although his feelings seem to be going from oblivious to warm as days pass.

Isabella's Opinion of Phineas
Isabella has a huge crush on Phineas. She uses her position as Fireside Girls troop leader to stay near him and assist with his Big Ideas, under the guise of earning the "Help Thy Neighbor" patch among other more specific patches ("Isabella and the Temple of Sap"). Although she usually just speaks to him as a friend, she occasionally attempts to flirt with him ("The Fast and the Phineas", "The Beak" "Phineas and Ferb: Summer Belongs To You!") and cutely greets him with the phrase "Whatcha doin'?" nearly every time they first see each other. Sometimes she gets carried away with her feelings and daydreams, resulting in accidental confessions of her affection. She has even directly referred to Phineas as "The very thing she lives for." ("Comet Kermillian", "Run Away Runway", "Isabella and the Temple of Sap", "Phineas and Ferb: Summer Belongs To You!"). One of her fantasies involving Phineas becoming a flying centaur and them riding off together. She is a little annoyed that Phineas is focuses so much on his projects instead of noticing how she feels about him ("Isabella and the Temple of Sap"). Isabella also jumps to Phineas's defense when he is in danger or insulted ("Raging Bully", "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!", "Gaming the System", "Thaddeus and Thor"). When Isabella suggest sharing their feelings, she looked at him, and Phineas's eyes turn to Isabella ("Hide and Seek"). She is probably planning their wedding day, similar to Candace planning Tiana's wedding ("Candace's Big Day"). She also doesn't seem to care when Phineas uses her catch phrase, ("I Scream, You Scream", "At the Car Wash", "That Sinking Feeling") though she gets upset whenever someone else does ("Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation!, "Out of Toon", "Suddenly Suzy"). She sometimes saddened or crying because Phineas doesn't notice her and doubts his feeling for her ("The Beak, Phineas and Ferb: Summer Belongs To You!"). However, Phineas may not know Isabella has a crush on him.

During the events in The Beak


One of the moments that Isabella feels neglected and doubts her feelings for Phineas is when he and Ferb build the Beak suit.

When Isabella tries to get a cool story from Phineas and Ferb, they disappear. She writes a substitute story after the boys save Baljeet in their high-tech suit, and names it "The Beak". Isabella has no idea that it is Phineas and Ferb, while she gives them a call saying that he let her down for not giving her a story for the paper. Phineas then decides to tell her about he and Ferb being "The Beak", but never does because Khaka Peü Peü says that he will get him through whats most important to him. Because Phineas never told Isabella until Khaka Peü Peü was defeated (in order to protect her) it could be believed that Phineas really cares about Isabella. Isabella swoons for "The Beak" many times during "The Beak's Theme Song". Isabella is upset and confused as to why Phineas keeps rejecting her and disappearing when she needs him. When Isabella climbs atop City Hall taking pictures, "The Beak" slams into the building, knocking her over the edge. Isabella clings to the side of the building, slowly losing her grip, until Phineas jumps out of the costume and grabs her hand before she falls. Later, Phineas then reveals that he was the Beak and says he is sorry for not telling her. She understands and realizes that Phineas was just trying to protect her, and apologizes for doubting him. She flirts with Phineas in the end saying he's really brave, and Phineas responds by saying she was brave too ("The Beak").

During the events in Summer Belongs to You
Isabella and all of her Fireside Girls, along with Buford, Baljeet, and a couple other of the neighborhood kids, are gathered at Phineas and Ferb's house as they unveil their latest Big Idea: they plan on flying around the world on the same path as the sun does to make it the longest, funnest summer day of all time. They map out their route, stopping in Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France for fuel, and then head back for Danville. Isabella hears about Paris, and is thrilled when Phineas invites her along to the City of Love, but double checks to make sure his meaning was clear. He ensures her that it'll be fun, showing only innocent eagerness for the journey to begin. Candace, Baljeet, and Buford accompany them, and later Vanessa joins them in Tokyo.



When the Sun-Beater 3000 arrives in Paris, the gang splits and Phineas invites Isabella to go with him to look for some parts for the plane, which was suffering serious neglect from the previous harsh landings. Isabella enthusiastically agrees. Throughout their walk she tries to have a romantic moment with Phineas while sings City of Love, that includes smelling flowers under the Eiffel Tower, eating fancy cheese, and having a portrait of themselves as lovers, but to no avail. She was painted sitting alone with broken hearts around her while Phineas is staring off in the background at the city around him. She tries to gain his attention, but his only concern was finding parts to his plane This leaves Isabella sadly trailing along behind him. He finds his parts, two large baguettes, and heads back to the plane. As Ferb arrives, he tells Phineas what happened, and Phineas feels sorry for his stepbrother, saying he thought the two of them, Ferb and Vanessa, a boy and a girl, alone in the City of Love, romance was a forgone conclusion. Isabella responds angrily to this, and snaps the pencil in her hand in half. Phineas, suddenly aware of Isabella's strange behavior, asks her what's wrong. She covers up, and asks for a new pencil flatly, which Ferb hands her. Candace shows up after her encounter with Jeremy. Phineas asks her how things went, and she confesses she didn't have the nerve to go up and talk to him with all of the French girls around him. Phineas' response to this is the same things again. In her vision, Isabella's face twists with such fury that her head explodes, causing Phineas to turn and scream her name. Her head then reappears, and Phineas asks again if she's okay. She replies with a very curt and strained "Peachy."



On their way back to Danville, the plane falls completely apart, and they crash land on a deserted island with only a big fat ox for company. Desperate for a way off the island, all the while losing his cool, Phineas digs a huge hole in the sand in search for something useful. Buford's taunts don't help him. Isabella goes off alone and cries. Ferb walks up to her and hands her a handkerchief. Then she pours out her heart to Ferb, sobbing that she and Phineas were together in Paris and he didn't even notice her. She feels like giving up, and complains he won't even enjoy the beautiful sunset with her. At this moment Phineas runs up to her and suggests that they could build a tunnel under the ocean. But as he gives up, sits to the ground and says they can at least enjoy the beautiful sunset. Isabella sees that Phineas' spirit is broken, and something clicks in her head. She realizes that this wasn't the spectacular,confident boy she fell in love with and tells him angrily that he can't enjoy the sunset, because giving up wasn't part of his plan. Isabella reminds him of everything he did in his life, and then mentions Ferb's map, inspired, he cuts her off and hugs her. Isabella goes into a sort of trance when he leaves her to get to work on their way to get off the island.

Back in Danville, with only a second to spare, they make it just in time to beat the sun, and the other Fireside Girls have a welcome home party ready for them. Isabella hugs Phineas from behind, saying ''"You guys are amazing!". ''In response to this, Phineas holds her hands, looks back and smiles. A musical number breaks out, and Isabella and Phineas dance and sing a duet, Summer Belongs to You. Phineas often reaches over to hold her hand throughout the song. It seems he becomes even more comfortable touching her, however, this could just be a friendly gesture ("Phineas and Ferb: Summer Belongs To You").

Phineas's Opinion of Isabella
Phineas usually seems oblivious to Isabella's feelings. He enjoys being around her as a friend, and makes several hints that he likes her as more than a friend, much like she does for him, but he sees love from a formulaic point of view, trying to recreate it like one of his projects ("That Sinking Feeling"). Whenever she hints at her crush to him, he either misinterprets the comment as platonic or gets confused ("The Fast and the Phineas", "Run Away Runway", "Comet Kermillian", "Candace's Big Day"). When Isabella invites him to the Night of the Falling Stars Girl's Choice Dance as her date, Phineas brings Ferb to the event as well, possibly assuming she meant all three of them would go ("Out to Launch"). However, Phineas compliments Isabella sometimes, like when she said her super hero, he said, "Wow, that's great." ("Out of Toon"), also when she throws a needle and hooks Doofenshmirz's bug by the leg, causing it to fall. After he says "Great shot, Isabella!" ("Hide and Seek"), and the day Candace plans Tiana's wedding, when he and Ferb were planning the grand entrance, he had Isabella and the Fireside Girls jump out of helicopters. Before they jumped he yelled to Isabella "Looking good, Isabella" ("Candace's Big Day"). However, Phineas has directly told Isabella that she is the cutest thing/person he has ever seen ("The Chronicles of Meap"). Phineas has also shown concern for Isabella's safety and rescued her on occasion ("Gaming the System", "Hide and Seek", "The Beak"). Phineas also seems to have trouble lying to Isabella; when trying to lie, he rubs/scratches his ear and speaks nervously when he does and he seems to get upset when he lets her down, yet he casually lies with ease to both Linda and Candace ("The Beak"). This shows that Phineas has very strong feelings for Isabella; however, this does not necessarily mean that he has any romantic feelings.

Another possibility is that Phineas literally cannot feel anything more than simple friendship towards Isabella if he had still not entered his adolescence (which is usually experienced by males at the age of 9-10; and he is ten years old). It should be noted that Phineas, unlike such characters of his age as Ferb or Baljeet, has never shown any sign of physical attraction to girls in general, not just Isabella. So, as the show goes on, it is possible that he will some day return her feelings.

During the search for Meap


One of the moments Phineas clearly showed more-than-platonic feelings for Isabella occurred when the alien Meap arrived.

When Meap crash-landed in the Flynn-Fletcher backyard, Phineas proclaimed him to be cute and immediately decided that he and Ferb would help fix his spaceship. However, he and Ferb lost track of Meap when he followed Candace to the Bango-Ru convention (with Meap thinking that Candace was also a security agent). In order to find him, Phineas created a "Cute Tracker" that used to be Ferb's old GPS device. Seeing this as an opportunity, Isabella tried to convince Phineas that she's cute, too. Unfortunately, it constantly received a "cute interference" and Phineas inadvertently upset her for saying that she wasn't the cause of the cute interference. Isabella immediately saw this as Phineas thinking that she wasn't cute, and was intimidated every time Phineas said that she wasn't causing the cute interference. Isabella finally told Phineas that she was the cause of the cute interference when he was having a hard time picking up Meap's cute signal inside Mitch's ship, but he assured her that was completely impossible and he explained that he knew her cuteness would disrupt Meap's signal and programmed the tracker to ignore her. To prove it to her, he reversed the system that prevented the Cute Tracker from recognizing Isabella. The machine then overloaded due to an excessively strong cute signal. This shows that Phineas thinks Isabella is cute. ("The Chronicles of Meap").

Phineas's Big Ideas for Isabella
Many of Phineas's Big Ideas are actually wild projects for Isabella, which suggests that he may return her crush. For instance:


 * Phineas went to great lengths to make a giant ice cream sundae for her after she had her tonsils removed ("I Scream, You Scream").


 * When Isabella's dog Pinky swallowed her sash, he and Ferb built a shrinking submarine to retrieve it ("Journey to the Center of Candace").


 * On the day Isabella got hiccups, Phineas convinced Ferb and his friends to build a haunted house to scare them out of her, and he dedicated the whole day to her, he also held her hand all the time going through the haunted house alone.("One Good Scare Ought to Do It!").


 * Phineas built a "Rainbow-inator" for Isabella when he thought she expressed a desire to see a rainbow, having never seen one before. When she clarified that she wanted to see a unicorn, Phineas decided that he and Ferb would find her one the next day ("Hail Doofania").


 * Phineas held a game show so Isabella and the Fireside girls could get their broadcasting patches ("Let's Take a Quiz").


 * Phineas and Ferb assisted Isabella and the Fireside Girls in building the world's most elaborate automated car wash when they needed to save the Star-nose mole through means of fund-raising ("At the Car Wash").


 * Phineas asked Isabella what patch she and the Fireside Girls haven't earned yet. She tells him it was a Rodeo Clown Patch that he and Ferb held a robot rodeo for them to earn it ("Robot Rodeo").

Romantic Moments


Phineas and Isabella have had a few romantic moments. Phineas held Isabella's hand as they went through Phineas and Ferb's haunted house designed to scare away her worst case of hiccups ever ("One Good Scare Ought to Do It!"). When Isabella was put into danger, Phineas was quick to come over and save her, carrying her in his arms he brought her to safety. Also for a brief second, Phineas took Isabella's hand and helped her in the paper airplane ("Hide and Seek"). Also Phineas invited Isabella on the romantic cruise, he took her hand multiple times, causing her to blush once, plus they shared a "fun preserver" after the ship sank ("That Sinking Feeling").

When Phineas worries about him being the reason for Santa Claus not coming to Danville, Isabella does her best to cheer him up. In the song Danville for Niceness, Phineas looks at Isabella endearingly as she sings a duet with him ("Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation!").

Isabella sings City of Love to Phineas about what they could do in Paris, but Phineas was too busy thinking about how to repair their plane, hurting Isabella's feelings. When stranded on the island, Isabella felt ignored by Phineas because he was trying to find a way to get off the island, but soon he gives up hope and sits with Isabella to watch the sunset, something she wanted but she realizes that they shouldn't give up and gives him a pep talk to follow through with the idea, almost saying "That's not the Phineas Flynn I fell in love with" but corrected herself right away covering it with "Fell into this situation with". After Isabella mentioned Ferb's map, Phineas was so inspired and excited that he hugged her saying, "Isabella, you're the best!" which leaves Isabella in a trance. Later, after everyone returned to Danville, Isabella ran up behind Phineas and hugged him, saying, "You guys are amazing!" While she is hugging him, Phineas looks over at her and smiles while holding both of her hands. They sang Summer Belongs To You, They both held hands through a lot of the song, and they even danced together ("Phineas and Ferb: Summer Belongs To You!").

Potential Marriage
When Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, and Candace time-traveled to the future, Candace's future daughter Amanda noted that Isabella looks like "Aunt Isabella". Thrilled, Isabella realized that she had married into the Flynn-Fletcher family and exclaimed to Candace that she must have married Phineas. However, Candace reminded her that she could have married Ferb, which sent Isabella into speechless shock ("Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo"). When Candace was planning her Aunt Tiana's wedding, Phineas said, "I got to have her plan my wedding. Ferb, make a note of it," Isabella interrupts with, "I got it," indicating that she intends to one day marry Phineas ("Candace's Big Day").