User blog:Eikakou/Anne (CBC series) season 2, episode 5 - The Determining Acts of Her Life review

Okay, I've finally caught up with my reviews (well, at least for the episodes that CBC has aired so far). Phew. I wasn't taking notes, so I keep finding things that I forgot to mention.

It's episode 5 - can you believe that's half-way through the season? I can't. There's so much going on and I can't imagine only 10 episodes worth of stuff to see.

SPOILERS AHEAD

From the books (and the previous series), Anne would not be Anne if she didn't hate her red hair. (I personally think red is a lovely hair colour, but then again, I descend from people that all have dark hair and dark eyes.) Anne explores that it's more that just vanity that upsets Anne when it comes to her appearance, it's the idea that she isn't wanted. Society is very fixated on the idea that for women, their looks are crucial. Ugly girls get no where and get no happiness because nobody (i.e. men) want them. I hate that. If you think I should smile so I'm prettier, no dice, I smile when I want to, not because you don't like me frowning.

Anne (along with Diana, Tilly, Jane, and Ruby) are exploring kissing. Or the idea of it. Which segues into expectations and ideas about love and relationships, and gender roles. It's frustrating to see how all the girls, when the boys flip their skirts, accept it as "boys are just like that," even if they hate it, except Anne - "A skirt is not an invitation!" The boys can disrespect and invade the space others simply because they are girls. Cole also suffers from these expectations - he's one of the few boys at school who doesn't harass the girls, but he's seen as a "freak" because he's different. He's quiet and likes drawing. He respects Anne and asks for her consent before he goes to fix her hair. He's not interested in the nasty spin the bottle game that Josie sets up and not interested in Josie, who has a crush on him. He doesn't want to stand out, but he's the tall kid that everyone stares at and find ways to upset if they can. Mr. Phillips doesn't seem to hesitate to dole out punishments for innocuous things Cole does, apparently just because Cole is different. While Anne tries to encourage Cole, he doesn't seem to take it to heart until she tells everyone that he's not a freak - he's her friend. Being different has made Cole very lonely, Anne sees that, and knows how powerful it is to know that there is someone who appreciates you for who your are.

While the series has brought up Anne's traumatizing experiences at the orphanage, it's repeatedly shown that she's been deeply affected by how she's been told over and over that nobody wants her. She's been hurt and rejected and isolated, endured emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. It's one of the reasons why she ignored her instincts around Nate, because she didn't want to seen as stupid and rejected. The spin the bottle game is another reminder to Anne that nobody will want her - that nasty Billy Andrews doesn't want to end up kissing her and the other boys cruelly agree. During the last attempt at spin the bottle involves some nastiness from Billy Andrews and the other boys because nobody wants to kiss Anne, and when Cole steps up for her, Josie adds her cruelty (upset that Cole rejected her), until Anne turns the whole thing into a joke, tips Cole into her arms and kisses him on the cheek. Kissing seems pretty stupid now to her. But it's not the end of it.

It doesn't help that poor Marilla and Matthew don't have the answers that Anne is hoping for. Neither of them has a lot of experience, or at least enough to explain, what the big deal is about kissing. It's hilarious though. Marilla won't like Matthew run away to the barn when the conversation at dinner gets awkward, oh, no, Matthew Cuthbert, you are not ditching me. And later, when Marilla asks for his advice, he's all "you said don't stick your oar in," she's "well, I'm asking you to stick it in now because I'm rowing in circles," and he gives a thoughtful but abstract answer that he thinks Anne should be raised with more than what they had. Marilla might be missing the point because she's only getting the kissing fixation and Anne worrying about her looks, though maybe Rachel has some good advice? Rachel is all about a firm steady hand, she's raised ten kids that way, and they all turned out all right, she didn't hold back when Tom Jr. tried to burn down the drapes. Right, says Marilla, after he burned down the shed. Sick burn, Marilla, sick burn.

So Marilla tries to offer some helpful advice, that Anne has so much going for her and that it's better to be plain because beauty sets you up with expectations of pursuing only one path, it looks like it winds up being the wrong thing to say. Anne must be aware of her own positive traits - her imagination, her ability to excel at school - but if people think she's weird, she can hide that. Not her red hair though, enough that it seems like a vanity more than anything else. When she runs into her old acquaintance, the Jewish peddler, and gets some black hair dye... well, I thought this was an interesting twist. Anne's hair ends up green, because she tried to bleach out the dye. Because as much as she hates her red hair and thought she'd be beautiful with raven black, it was too unsettling to see herself with black hair. She isn't herself anymore and that was even worse than anything, she'd rather have red hair and never be kissed. Marilla finally gets the right words to say - beauty isn't why someone is going to kiss you, someone will kiss you because they love you (I'm punching away cynicism because this is a sweet and sincere sentiment from a woman who is not sentimental and a girl who really needs to hear those words). There's an excellent visual contrast here - as Anne is dealing with her green hair, Marilla's words about how beauty sets you on one path is reflected at Josie's house, where her hair is all in rollers and her mother wants to her get a good night's sleep to get rid of those bags under her eyes, though those rollers look awfully uncomfortable to sleep in. Her mother tells her exactly what Marilla said, that Josie needs to be beautiful or she's got nothing else, her future depends on it (presumably to get an acceptable husband who can support her). It's a sad thing to see, that there's freedom to choose what you want to pursue in life only because you're not being expected to be beautiful, instead of just having the freedom to pursue a life that you want to live.

Oh, speaking of which, Anne does get Gilbert's letter this episode. It's nothing romantical about it. Nothing at all.

Speaking of Gil, it looks like he and Bash are stuck on latrine duty. But that's because they're not going to be on the steamship for long. Wow, it looks like Anne doesn't need to write back, because Gilbert and Bash are in Avonlea. They're at Gilbert's house. They're home.

Sidebar - one of the recurring... characters in the second season is this beautiful black-tailed red fox that drops by Anne at the Story Club's little hangout. Like Anne, it's a fellow red head that always seems to be on its own. I love it whenever the fox shows up. While it seems to be little more than a curious confidante to Anne (I think I read somewhere that it's a bit of a spirit animal to Anne), I'm hoping it shows up more.

Episode six airs next Sunday on CBC, and it looks like Anne is going to have to go to school with some brutally short hair. Say one word, Billy Andrews, and may a curse befall you! ARGH! Minnie May, kick him in the shin, go for it!

Eikakou (talk) 02:36, October 24, 2018 (UTC)