User blog:Eikakou/Anne (CBC series) season 2, episode 6 - I Protest Against Any Absolute Conclusion review

I hope everyone had a nice Halloween! (I did not, because let's just say I was going through the biological effects of episode 5, season 1, and stayed in bed all night and woke only to hear obnoxious people setting off fireworks.)

But onward to episode 6!

SPOILERS IN THE FATHOMS BELOW

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Seems like this was the Christmas episode! So there's a lovely Christmas dinner at Green Gables and everyone in town is preparing the Christmas pantomine. Also, Bash is discovering that winter in Avonlea is terrible because the air is so cold because it wants to kill him and the sun is a lie because it shines but there is no warmth. He wants to stay inside until spring. He finds Mr. Blythe's sweater wonderful though, thank you, Mr. Blythe, he says.

Anne's hair was cut brutally short last episode and despite her vow to basically suck it up and give up on her vanity, she's very conscientious about her appearance and she loathes what knowing that she's going to be getting a lot of negative attention. There's a nice callback to the previous episode (Anne trying to make her hair prettier and wishing she were like a tree, but changing her mind at the thought of being as bald as a tree in winter) as she sympathizes with the leafless tree outside her window. I like the opening for the episode quite a bit - it's very careful not to show Anne's appearance at all until she gets to school. Diana's a true friend - she can't do anything about Anne's hair, but she ties her own hair ribbon around Anne's shorn head and reminds her that they promised to stick by each other no matter what. And unless I've recalled the sequence incorrectly, we're seeing Anne's new, um, look from the point of view of Gilbert, who is back at school! Poor Anne, she's shell-shocked, and Gil is all... wow, I didn't expect that. But while Diana and Gilbert and Cole have no remarks, Mr. Philips rather cruelly mocks Anne as being the "new boy" in class and Josie did too apparently. I liked that when Anne vents at home, Marilla asks Anne to give more details so she'll know if she needs to have some very strong words with Mrs. Pye ("Words it is then," Marilla decides when Anne does spill.)

More surprises for Marilla though - when Anne reveals that Gilbert's back, Marilla drops by the Blythe place to check up on Gil and is a "very surprised lady" upon seeing Bash. Points for recovering quickly enough to invite both of them to Christmas dinner at Green Gables. When Matthew meets Bash, he's too stunned to say anything, but I suppose Marilla figured his reaction would have been the same even if she did tell him. Anne on the other hand, despite Marilla's attempt to try to tell her not to make a big deal about Bash being a Trinidadian, jumps right in to point out he's Black with lots of compliments because she's so excited to meet someone from a place she's never been. Bash is pretty surprised at how... exuberantly direct Anne is and graciously accepts her well-intentioned words. The Christmas is very lovely - Gilbert gives Anne a mini-dictionary as a gift, they accidentally wind up blowing out the last candle on the tree together, and everyone has a wonderful dinner together. It is full of warm of fuzzy feelings.

The other part of the episode focuses on the Christmas pantomine - the whole town is helping out, with Rachel directing, Marilla making costumes, Cole painting the set (until that little... [insert very bad words] Billy Andrews knocks him off the ladder in an "accident"), Gilbert and Bash helping with the stage equipment, and the Avonlea students (plus the minister and Mr. Philips) acting in the play. Most of the sequence centres on Anne discovering her new look offers perspectives opportunities and Matthew remembering and maybe regretting not taking similar opportunities in the past. It turns out that as a little kid, Matthew was so shy that he avoided being part of the choir to sing in the pantomine, even though it seems he really wanted to. Matthew's memories introduce his deceased older brother Michael, who tried to help Matthew by giving him marbles to encourage other kids to play with him but never pressured Matthew into doing something that would have been extremely upsetting, which would have been forcing Matthew to go and sing.

Anne has reluctantly accepted that she looks like a boy and is going to be a tree (or part of a magical tree) in the panto. But when Marilla tells her to go with Jerry to Carmody get supplies, Anne finds it unbearable that two towns are going to see what she's done to her hair. When Matthew tells her he can relate to not wanting attention, he reminds her that she's a lot braver than he is and she gets the idea to dress up like a boy, since everyone says she looks like one anyway. And it's illuminating - a man pays her to move some barrels and she gets to play marbles with other boys. Even Miss Jeanie is fooled for a moment, but she's an open-minded woman and thinks it's a great idea. But Anne still wants to be a girl and maybe it's a Christmas present (or a loan), but Jeanie decides to give Anne the puffed sleeved dress she sold back in order to help with the debts Green Gables incurred at the end of season 1.

Maybe that experience with being a boy paid off or maybe bad things come back to bite you because during the rather hilarious play, Josie gets sick and Anne is given the part of the Boy (the main character) and a set piece accidentally drops on Billy, who is too concussed to continue as the narrating Owl after his mother sweeps him away (and throws some racist-laden blame onto Bash for the accident that he didn't cause). Anne is splendid as the Boy while Matthew finds himself saving the day in more ways than one. When he sets off to find a shovel for Anne (who needs it in the final scene), Matthew ends up bringing an elderly man (who owns the shovel Matthew is borrowing) to see the pantomine and then when Matthew delivers the shovel, Rachel decides that Matthew is going to be the new Owl. He's trapped on stage and kinda freaking out, remembering how he couldn't even do this as a kid. But he also thinks of Marilla and Anne and Rachel telling him that Anne rose to the occasion, so now it's his turn. He just makes it up ("And they all lived. Happily ever. After!") and the audience goes crazy. They love it. And Matthew can see everyone, Marilla and Anne, is thrilled. When they get home, Matthew gives his marbles to Anne for Christmas and it's more warm and fuzzy feelings.

There were so many little things that made this episode so great. Like Mr. Barry being very into watching the pantomine - he's trying to warn the Boy when danger approaches, and him and Mrs. Barry being delighted to see their daughters on stage. Marilla seeing Cole (dressed as a girl) and Anne (wearing Cole's hat) and just going, nope, I have no words for this. Thomas Lynde flirting with Rachel (the friskiest couple in Avonlea it seems, teehee). And also more serious details, because while Bash probably has encountered it all his life, it's still a disconcerting feeling to have Mrs. Andrews throw malicious comments blaming him for Billy's injury based on the fact that he's black or how Rachel immediately calls him "hired help" when she noticing him helping Gilbert, especially after he found such welcoming friends in Gilbert and the Green Gables folk. This is something I'm guessing will be explored further in the remaining half of the series.

Overall, probably my favourite episode so far! =D