User blog:Eikakou/Anne (CBC series), season 3, episode 10 - The Better Feeling of My Heart review

It's the last episode! One more recap/review. While the season isn't going to air on Netflix until January, it aired the finale episode yesterday on CBC. And sadly, it really is the last episode of the series.

If you haven't heard, CBC and Netflix decided not to continue their partnership for creating content. I'm not sure how what parts of CBC and what parts of Netflix contributed to the show's production, though I think CBC was able to achieve such high production quality on Anne was because of the Netflix money involved. And then today, it was announced that Anne with an E has been cancelled. =O

So, what about my heart? Because I've genuinely enjoyed this series a lot. It's so sad that there won't be another season (at least) to explore more of this version of Anne. I don't really know how effective the social media campaigns are at reviving cancelled shows...

But if they were going to end it here, they hit all the major points, so I think it can be argued it was a mostly fitting ending.

And one last time, SPOILERS JUST DOWN BELOW!

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Throughout the season, I think there was an underlying theme of who do you want to become? This means looking back, but also looking ahead. The season started with Anne's sixteenth birthday, and it's ending as she graduates from school. She has gone on a journey to discover where she comes from, but she's also been working towards the future and made decisions in what she believes in, which have shaped the young adult she is becoming. There are parts of her that haven't changed - she's still prone to instances of impulsive action, but she's developing a sense of awareness and consequence, in part through the guidance of her mentors. And while the story has focused on Anne's journey, many of Anne's family, friends, and acquaintances have also undergone change as they've looked toward the future.

When we last saw Gilbert, he was at the doorstep of the smiling Winifred Rose. But it turns out that he's realized that he doesn't love her and it would be unfair to marry her. Winnie is understandably very upset - she feels like Gilbert has led her on and won't even settle on her in the place of an unrequited love no less - and humiliated because of the social consequences on her. It does little to appease her that it's because Gilbert believes Winnie deserves to marry someone who loves her and he agrees not to disclose that the expected proposal didn't go through for two weeks so that Winifred has time to make travel arrangements to leave town before the gossip hits. (Thinking about it, it makes me wonder if Winifred is actually the Roy Gardner of the story (with Gilbert as Anne) rather than the Christine Stuart...) In any case, Gilbert's got quite a few ends to tie up. With the Sorbonne out of the picture and the Queen's College exam results out, Gilbert approaches Miss Stacy to ask her if she can write to her friend Emily at the University of Toronto. Miss Stacy pulls through for him with an eleventh hour placement, but Gil's going to study medicine at U of T! In his other personal business, he returns Anne's fountain pen with a letter confessing his love to her, and then returns to the farm to help make the last apple harvest with Sebastian.

So Bash and Hazel have been on better terms since they lay out all of their feelings last episode, and it looks they feel they can move forward on the farm. But in what I felt was probably the one of the biggest shocks all episode, Elijah returns to the Blythe-Lacroix homestead. After reading Mary's letter, he's sobered up and quit bootlegging to run odd jobs, and he's bought back a medal that belonged to Gilbert's father. He's genuinely sorry and hoping for a chance to be near Delphine, the last of his family. Out of compassion for Mary, Elijah can pay his respects to his mother and stay in the barn for the night, but that's all a still angry Bash will allow. But in the morning, Elijah comes to help harvest the apples and Hazel asks that Bash maybe reconsider letting Elijah stay, especially since not so long ago, they were given the second chance that Elijah is hoping for now. Bash does have a condition though - Elijah needs to be involved in Delphine's life... well, okay, I cried a little on the inside seeing the look on Elijah's face when he holds his baby sister for the first time.

And speaking of which, Diana passed in entrance exam to Queen's! But she's not at all prepared for how upset her parents are when she finally reveals the truth. Eliza and William upset with her deceitfulness and, according to them, selfishness. William blames Eliza for not raising Diana properly and tells Diana that she doesn't get to choose her future because the lack of a son in the family means that Diana's husband will need to take over the family's business. Diana is absolutely devastated, because it seems while her parents have loved her and said they were acting in her best interests, this is the first time she's been confronted with the idea that they seemingly don't care about her. What they've told her is that they only care about Diana's marriage. It's a bit unusual given their lack of interaction on a regular basis, but it's Marilla who winds up talking to Mrs. Barry after learning about what happened from Anne. Marilla doesn't argue or actively persuade Mrs. Barry, but rather gives a bit of perspective informed from her own experience with Anne. She had to step back and realize that her child was making a mature and informed request, and what was threatened to drive them apart was her own fear. It's enough to get Mrs. Barry thinking...

In the midst of all these events, Anne is excited but also afraid of the changes in the future. Marilla, perhaps wiser after learning to give Anne an opportunity to make her choices, is supportive and planning for all the things Anne will need as she heads off to college (like making new dresses - I think Marilla's really gotten into making some stylish clothes! and ordering blouses from Jeannie, and corsets, which Anne for some reason heard were really uncomfortable), but Matthew is making a lot of practical decisions, like room and board for Jerry to help out at Green Gables and selling one of the cows. Anne's thrown into a lot of emotional tumult - she and Matthew have always shared a close emotional bond, and now he's shutting her out. It's enough to make her impulsively tear up Gilbert's letter without reading it (and then try to reassemble it, but she puts it together wrong and thinks he's too cowardly to let her know in person). When Marilla tells Matthew he needs to tell Anne how he feels, he admits that he doesn't want Anne to be burdened with worrying about them when she has a bright, wonderful future ahead of her. Matthew, being Matthew, doesn't tell Anne before she leaves with Charlottetown.

Anne, Ruby, Jane, Tillie, and Josie (all looking very smart and fashionable young ladies) are going to be boarding with at the house of Mrs. Blackmore and her housekeeper, Lily. Mrs. Blackmore lays out all the rules quite clearly about what it's going to be like at her house and that Lily is deaf-mute, and some guidelines for respectfully communicating with Lily - not to ring for her and that Lily can read lips. (If the series was continuing, I could see Anne enthusiastically learning sign language to communicate with Lily.) In the house, Anne already seems a bit homesick - she is the only one without a roommate when her friends burst in and they note the house rules include when it's appropriate to meet with suitors (Saturdays, in the parlour only, between 2:00 PM and 4:00PM). They're very excited with everything.

Back in Avonlea, Marilla has been ansty - she's still been working on learning more about Anne's birth family. Before Anne left, she got a rather addled letter from Mrs. Thomas, one of the people who took in Anne before she came to Green Gables. But there's another letter from a parish in Scotland - the one she wrote with Anne after Anne learned her parents came from Scotland. Marilla insists that she and Matthew give the letter to Anne in person, at Josephine Barry's house so Anne will have everyone she cares about around her whether she receives good or bad news. It's a happy visit, marred by the fact that everyone (Aunt Jo, Matthew, Marilla, Cole, heck, Rollings, probably) can see that Anne's disappointed the letter from Scotland has no new information, but Matthew is able to tell Anne how he misses her and that she'll always have a home at Green Gables to go back to when she wants. Still, with time to spare, Marilla decides that she and Matthew can take the ferry to Nova Scotia and see Mrs. Thomas themselves. Her memory isn't all there, but the Cuthberts recover a book that Walter Shirley gave to Bertha. Score one for Marilla and Matthew!

Anne's exploring Charlottetown when she runs into Winifred, who is about to leave for Paris. Perhaps in a classic Anne moment, she obliviously says some ambiguous words that make Winifred think that Gilbert told everyone about how he didn't propose and Anne's here to gloat as the unrequited love of Gilbert. Except then Anne congratulates Winifred on her shared future with Gilbert and Winifred realizes oh, Anne doesn't have a clue...

Meanwhile, on a train to Charlottetown, Gilbert runs into Mr. Barry and Diana. Mr. Barry is congratulates Gil on his engagement and Paris, but Gil tells him that he's not marrying anyone and he's actually going to U of T. When Diana finds him, she furiously (like the best bosom friend in the world) lays out all his missteps in not getting together with Anne even though he's a lovesick coward who callously ignores Anne's love letter. And Gilbert is like... wait, Diana, what letter? I'm going to say, we are all Diana in this moment. Diana, if not for good manners, would probably be throttling Gilbert for being so stupid and literally, as someone out there has already described it, all the leg work in Anne and Gilbert's relationship. In this universe, they better name their first child after her.

And yes, Anne (and because my brother and I couldn't resist poking fun at Edwardian, no wait, my brother tells me it's a Bertian time, and Anne clearly doesn't care for propriety at the moment) and Gilbert run into each other just in time at the Blackmore house. I won't spoil this part, even though all of tumblr probably has if your only option is to wait for Netflix. I was shouting to my brother that it was not Saturday between 2:00PM and 4:00PM as I pointed to the screen. It's very romantic, I think everyone cheering for them to get together will love it. Alas, Gilbert really does have to get on a train to Toronto. Fortunately, Diana and Mr. Barry arrive in a carriage with Gilbert's luggage (so he can take their carriage to the station), so Anne and Gil will be pen pals. (Yeah, pen pals with "benefits" my brother adds.)

Yes, while we were all swooning over Anne and Gilbert, Diana has arrived in time to reveal that... she's been allowed to study at Queen's College! Somehow, off-screen, Mrs. Barry probably said something that convinced her husband for them to let Diana go to college. And Marilla and Matthew are back with the best present for Anne - her birthday wish come true! Receiving her mother's book and what she finds inside is the missing piece of herself she's been looking for all along.

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In this last episode, Anne's story comes full circle. She went out to look for where she came from, and through the love and support of the people around her, she is able to find it. This is an episode also of new beginnings - Anne and her peers are moving on to futures outside of the town they grew up in (and if Prissy is any example, the opportunity to open your world view, to grow beyond the small minds who are afraid to be challenged), Marilla and Matthew are preparing to live without Anne as part of their daily lives, and Bash, Hazel, and Elijah are navigating the world of second chances. Oh, and Anne is experience romantic love for the first time.

It feels as though Moira Walley-Beckett wrote this episode so that it could be open to more stories, but also so it could serve as a satisfactory last chance to see their stories on screen. It's unfortunate that there are still threads dangling, the biggest I find is Ka’kwet's story. It would have been impossible to adequately conclude Ka'kwet's story within the scope of the final episode, at least if you want Ka'kwet to have a somewhat happy ending where she's reunited with her family, probably one where they would have to live on the run for the rest of their lives to protect her and her siblings. And in real life, many children exactly like Ka'kwet never did get happy endings because of the residential schools. The consequences and suffering of the survivors continue even today. And there are still other stories to wonder about. - What is going to happen with Miss Stacy - will she stay in Avonlea? Will her relationship with Bash change? Would Diana and Jerry have ever spoken to one another again, as maybe friends? What about the town council, who were the other women besides Marilla that Rachel successfully blackmailed those cigar-chomping misogynists into voting to include? And Billy Andrews never does seem to get his comeuppance (but Josie seems to be doing better, and who knows, maybe Harmon Andrews lets his wife send their daughters to college is a status symbol, but with Jane getting a college education now, maybe it'll let her see Prissy's side of things). Also, it would have been nice to see Jeannie in person again.

While this ending spares us of perhaps the most tragic death in Anne of Green Gables because it simply hadn't gotten to that point in time, it would have been nice to see more. Now that so many of them are in a new environment, where do their stories go? Would Anne and Gilbert's correspondence gone along the lines of Anne of Windy Poplars? And Diana going to college! Because Anne returns to Avonlea in the Sullivan mini-series, she still feels present in the story, but in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: Fire & Dew I literally cannot remember if she appeared (she did, but I have no memory of her role). But here, Diana would have had the opportunity to continue being an active part of Anne's life outside of Avonlea. And it would have been nice to see a live-action version of Priscilla Grant and Stella Maynard (who could guess how they'd be re-imagined), because Anne wouldn't be Anne if she wasn't making new friends wherever she goes. She would have definitely started with Lily.

One of the most beautiful things about this show? I would praise the cinematography, the sweeping landscapes, and the wonderful costuming. Oh, I just loved Diana's outfit when she goes to Charlottetown. She looked very pretty and grown-up with her hair done up, I know it's superficial and it runs counter to the social expectations of what Diana has gone through this episode, but I want to praise the style and costume departments. And the gradual shift in Anne's wardrobe, from one piece dresses and pinafores, to a blouse and skirt. And the casting for the series? Perfect. I don't think there was any actor who felt miscast, because to me, that person I saw on the screen was that character. I wasn't distracted by poor performances or bad chemistry. And even if this version of the character was different from another version, it never felt like I needed to compare them. That girl is Tillie, and that girl is Jane. This is Miss Stacy.

But the most beautiful things were the stories. Anne of Green Gables has always been Anne's story. This is how she came to be Anne of Green Gables. I think we all know that. The book is a series of often funny, touching, maybe sometimes exasperating or irritating, sad, and uplifting episodes of Anne Shirley's life in Avonlea as she comes of age. And the Sullivan mini-series pulls that off, to provide a coherent narrative in interpreting that story, but in a very idyllic world. On other hand, the L.M. Montgomery (Corus Entertainment) always felt... off. It wasn't so much the decision to make it family friendly so even young children could watch it, but it didn't feel like there was cohesion and the way it was told felt... poorly executed. Despite a lovely performance from Ella Ballentine, most of the cast seem miscast (sorry Drew Haytaoglu, but you did not make a very good Gilbert) or underutilized (like Sara Botsford as Marilla). Both these versions focused on the fact that it is Anne's story.

Anne with an E decided that yes, this was Anne's story. But we're also going to tell you about the world Anne lived in, rather than simply showing it was nice and clean. It went to the dark places, but it also showed the world is a lot vaster than anyone else has tried to show. Because if it weren't, we wouldn't be seeing stories of Bash or Cole or Ka'kwet. And if it was just Anne's story, we wouldn't be seeing the stories of Diana or Gilbert, Marilla or Matthew or Miss Stacy or any of Anne's contemporaries beyond when Anne is there. And this is why I found this version of Anne's story to be beautiful.