User blog:Eikakou/Anne (CBC series), season 3, episode 3 - What Can Stop the Determined Heart review

Hi, it's been awhile since the last review/recap! It's been a rough few weeks, at least for me - there was a Federal election in Canada and it was the most anxiety-inducing one that I've had a chance to vote in. Is this how other people feel in other countries? Yikes... in any case, that's why I haven't written in a while if anyone is curious.

But I did keep watching the new episodes each week. I'm going my memory with these episodes, so hopefully I'm not too off with the details.

'''SPOILERS AHOY. ACTUALLY, REALLY BIG SPOILERS BELOW'''

I mean it, something pretty big happens. Last chance!

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This episode was really sad. It broke my heart, honestly. Unsourced articles by Business Insider (or something) kept saying that a major character would die and to my great irritation, they kept speculating Ruby because she dies in Anne of the Island. That made no sense to me, because the source material chronology would indicate that Matthew is more likely to go before Ruby, especially given his passing in the first book and Ruby's death is in the third. I love Matthew, really, but just cause the writers spared him at the end of the first season doesn't mean his eventual fate will diverge from the original Anne of Green Gables, particularly given the tone of the series.

The episode is set around Easter and Mary hasn't been feeling well for quite a bit of time, despite Bash trying to cheer her up. It seems to be related to the cut on her hand, but she also admits to feeling lonely since she's moved to Avonlea - she felt a huge sense of community in the Bog, but in Avonlea, she still doesn't feel welcome. All of it turns for the worse when Gilbert finds he has to go to Charlottetown to summon Dr. Ward, who leaves Gilbert to deliver the bad news: Mary has sepsis and doesn't have more than a week or two to live.

The devastating news affects all of her family and friends. Bash is overcome with the thought of a future without Mary. Gilbert feels as though he's losing a sister and he's having severe second thoughts about being a doctor - he was too upset to deliver the news to Mary because he cared about her too much. Anne and Marilla, despite still being upset with one another after the events of the There Is Something at Work in My Soul Which I Do Not Understand previous episode, mobilize to help out at the Blythe-Lecroix household. Even Matthew gets roped in - he winds up babysitting Delphine Lecroix Delly. It was a nice moment of levity in such a heavy episode, with Matthew not knowing what to do, so he just takes the baby outside to show her things on the farm ("That's a horse. Horrrrse!") and then Jerry letting him to he can teach Matthew how to change Delly's diaper.

All of this has Anne thinking about legacies. She doesn't know her past, but she wants Delphine to be able to know as much as she can know about Mary. Anne encourages Mary to leave a letter to Delphine so her daughter will know without a doubt that Mary loved her. And Anne puts together a project of her own - a little recipe book of all of Mary's recipes so Delphine will have that part of her mother. Meanwhile, Gilbert goes to the Bog in hopes of finding Mary's son Elijah Hanford Elijah, only to be told Elijah has taken off to New York. He doesn't know, but Elijah is still in town and thinks Gilbert is just trying to get him arrested for stealing the belongings of Gilbert's late father. Gil does run into Mary's friends Constance and Jocelyn and brings them back to Avonlea. Without her son, Mary is resigned to leaving her last words to him in a letter as well, but she's cheered to see her old friends.

Knowing what Mary would like more than anything is to be around friends and family, Anne and everyone who cares about Mary decide to hold a surprise Easter party for Mary. The Barrys, having turned down all of Mary's invitations to dinner in the past, agree to let them use their estate to hold the party. It's a wonderful moment for Mary, where the community has come together for her, just as she's hoped, for her last days.

I didn't mentions this above, but there another thread introduced. A government agent arrives and wants indigenous children to be taken away to schools to be "civilized" and educated. Rachel thinks it's a great idea, so when she sees Ka'kwet and her family deliver the hockey stick that Gilbert commissioned, Rachel timidly convinces them to consider it after Anne tells Ka'kwet that school is great. Ka'kwet's parents don't agree if it's a good idea or not at the moment.

I don't feel like I should be this delicately, what the consequences of what is being introduced in this moment. The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network funded by the Canadian government and run by Christian churches. The idea was to tear apart children from their families and destroy the culture and heritage - children were forbidden from speaking their native language and they were abused physically, emotionally, psychologically, and sexually. There are people in Canada who are still ignorant of the extent the abuse that occurred and some still try to defend the purpose of these schools. I will admit that while I learned of the negative impact of these schools in secondary school, it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how much abuse occurred; even now, I won't claim to fully understand how horrible these schools were. In Canada, truth and reconciliation is an ongoing process. I remember seeing that this strange romanticized appropriation of Native Americans in German popular culture and thinking would it still be so popular if they realized how horribly many of these people were treated? Would it still be justified as fun? Would they do the same if it were another culture? Not everyone thinks this way, and perhaps it's a matter of learning why, but there are still some people who will dismiss this depiction as not offensive because it's "just for fun."

I didn't cry, but it was still probably one of the saddest episode I've watched in the series so far. There were a few moments that weren't so heavy - like Matthew and Delphine - but there were others which had me go through a wide range of emotions. Gilbert gets in a lot of hugs this episode. In a reverse mirror of how she couldn't comfort him when his father died, Anne hugs him after telling him that it's never wrong to care too much when he questions if he's even capable of being a doctor if he can't face what's happening to Mary. Gil pays it forward with the hugs when he finds Bash, still struggling to accept that Mary is dying, asks how Gilbert dealt with his own father's illness. And I was outraged to see Elijah's selfishness; as someone mentioned in their own reactions, it would be well-deserved that he not see his mother one last time because he didn't want to accept responsibility for doing something wrong. But the episode concludes on that beautiful moment of Mary expressing her love and gratitude to all her family and friends.