User blog:Eikakou/Anne (CBC series), season 3, episode 8 - Great and Sudden Change review

Interesting fact alert! The first season's episode titles are quotes taken from Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte). Given Anne's attachment to the book and its recurrence (like at Josephine's party) in the second season, I made the assumption that the second season's titles were also taken from the same book. It turns out the second season episode title quotes are from Middlemarch (by George Eliot)! And the third season's episode titles are quotations from Frankenstein (by Mary Shelley), which Jerry is seen reading. All three books are by female writers, so I wonder if the fourth season will also take episode title quotes from another female writer?

Also, I watched Frankie Drake Mysteries on Monday, and the actress who plays Josephine appears as another spitfire of an elderly lady. It was hilarious.

Preamble over, it's time for another (maybe exciting) review/recap!

Spoilers below!

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I think this episode focuses on how we come to make decisions about the future. Certainly it's seen with Anne, Gilbert, Diana because they're young and at the threshold of adulthood. But there's also decisions and changes in the lives of older individuals, like Bash and Miss Stacy and Rachel, and younger people, like Ka'kwet.

So now let's start with the cliffhanger at the end of A Strong Effort of the Spirit of Good. Anne, Miss Stacey, and all their classmates discover the school has been burned except for the metal objects, of which the printing press is suspiciously absent. Despite being shaken, Miss Stacy tells them that while this is upsetting, they should consider it a sign that their words and action had an impact and those who opposed it were cowardly. It's not enough to pacify Anne, who runs to confront Rachel. Rachel is shocked to tears at the revelation and Anne realizes that Rachel had no part in the incident. It's a good moment afterward, seeing Rachel sit down with Anne and admit that what Anne and the other student brought up was not just a debacle, but something serious. She can see how the men on the board think of women now and she's going to be an ally to Anne's cause now. Men are often dismissive of gossip, thinking it of it as women's chatter, but as Rachel proves, it's dangerous and she knows how to use it to spread information. At the next meeting, Marilla removes the minister (probably the most sexist and immovable due to his social position and moralizing using religion) and Rachel just throws down the blackmail. She knows the male trustees will just deny being involved with the theft of the printing press and the burning of the school, but Rachel knows exactly how to ruin their reputations convincingly and relentlessly for the next 10 years or so. Or when they're dead. They reluctantly vote in favour of her motion to include three additional women on the board. Marilla is the first of the three.

At the Blythe-Lacroix household, Bash's mother Hazel has arrived. It's a very different environment than she's used to, because she doesn't know what to make of Rachel and Marilla frantically trying to clean the place up for Hazel's arrival (Hazel wants to know how Bash ended up in a weird place with white maids) and then immediately situating herself as a domestic worker, subservient to Gilbert because he's the white man in the house. She's not comfortable with how Bash interacts with Gilbert as an equal, because she's certain from her own experience that Bash and Delphine will be kicked out subject to Gilbert's whims. This probably what irritated me a lot - Gilbert, coming from a position of privilege, doesn't recognize Hazel is acting like a servant to him, despite his rather mild attempts to get her now to address him as "Mr Blythe" or "Mr Gilbert". And Bash is still struggling with own resentment to his mother (a la Mary and Elijah's relationship) to want to deal with it directly. On the other hand, Miss Stacy, feeling unwelcome for being the unconventional female teacher in town whose school as burned down, seems to be more in a position to relate to Bash.

With the school burned down, Miss Stacy has the students prepare for their exams to Queen's at her house. Gilbert is very heart-eyes over Anne's passionate and intellectual response to the destruction of their school, but then everyone's distracted by how they all saw Gilbert with Winifred at the county fair. It's been awhile since I've had to study for exams (and where I live in Canada, there are no exams specifically to enter a university; the closest were the provincial exams for the final year of secondary school, which were to be part of your final grades; not every course had them, so the number of provincial exams a student took varied; however, most post-secondary institutions would look at your final grades before accepting students). In any case, it was relatable in a funny way to see everyone stressing and cramming right before the invigilator arrived. Also, Anne doesn't have a pen because she lent hers to Gilbert. But there is much rejoicing when the exams are finished!

Diana's working out some of her own issues. She and Anne are still awkward about their huge fight. And Diana breaks off her relationship with Jerry, because she tells him that it just can't be due to class differences. He's convinced she thinks he's not good enough for her, but Diana sticks to her reasons. When Aunt Josephine arrives, she tries to convince Diana in private to go take the exams to Queen's to give herself more options and decide her own future. Diana feels convinced that she has no choice but to accept her parents' plans for her future, but she takes Josephine's words to heart about how Diana is probably satisfied with being a boring person for not taking a risk. Diana lies her way to where the exams are being held and goes for it, and she winds up celebrating with everyone else. But she discovers that she needs to start being braver about wanting to be who she is when she finds Minnie May in tears. Minnie May calls her sister out on how Diana is supposed to be a role model and how their parents expect Minnie May to become like Diana. But if Diana hates being herself and needs to lie about what she wants to do, does that mean Minnie May has to hate herself to? It's enough to convince Diana to reconcile with Anne and acknowledging that she needs to be braver about what she wants.

Gilbert is at a crossroads with his own life. His dream is to go into medicine to save lives, but he doesn't want to be a country doctor. Winifred's father offers everything to him: the financial means and connections to study at the Sorbonne and permission to propose to Winifred. Winifred is lovely, good-humoured, and intelligent, and she and her family are open and welcoming to Gilbert's found family. But as he tells Anne, there's one thing holding him back from just seizing the opportunity. When Anne realizes what that one thing is, she's flustered and confused and she's kind of tipsy from moonshine and the high from finishing her exams and when did Gilbert ever like her like that? (Those were heart eyes, Anne, heart eyes.)  Gilbert interprets Anne's reaction as her not having feelings for him and prepares to propose to Winnie. Anne consults Josephine for love advice, and with her thoughts all cleared from not having exams, scandals, and reconciling with Diana... abruptly realizes she's in love with Gilbert. Dun dun duuuunnnn!

The episode also returns to Ka'kwet. We last saw her being abused by nuns and priests at the residential school. This is a place, we see, where escapees are treated like animals to be hunted down. The nun summons two men armed with guns to capture "Hannah" when she disappears with the help of a younger boy breaking milk bottles as a distraction. She hides in a barrel filled with water and then escapes on the underside of the milk man's cart. And Ka'kwet makes it onto a boat and across unfamiliar territory through perseverance and luck to get back home. At one point, my brother was worried that as she ran along train tracks, that Ka'kwet's story would end like Chanie Wenjack. It is with great fortune that she does not. Ka'kwet is left sobbing in her mother's arms as her family and everyone in her community surround her, stunned at her return and the condition that she is in.

So there was a lot happening this episode, and I enjoyed it (even if it was an emotional roller coaster at times).

When Gil tells Bash about confessing to Anne, I'm sure we were all delighted like Bash (Bash: "Yes, yes, I win! I knew it, I called it.  It was all about Anne, you love her, I win, I win!) and then deflated when Gil says "Nope, Anne doesn't have feelings for me, I've got to move on."  Oh, Gil, you have the worst timing.  It's easy to forget that he's two years older and looking a bit further ahead than Anne or any of their peers, but Anne admittedly is so new to actually being in love with someone, she just figured out her feelings.  But also, as someone pointed out, nobody is really ready to be married.  Gilbert's moving pretty fast here, even if he's travelled more widely than his peers and has taken charge of his own household.  And another note - will he remember Mary's words to marry for love?  He genuinely likes Winifred and they get along well, but fondness isn't the same as love. While Anne and Gilbert are destined to be together eventually, it looks like maybe there's going to be a lot more bends in the road here than we've seen in other versions. I'm hoping that they'll resolve at least Gilbert and Winifred before the end of the season; it would seem unfair to Winifred if he dragged it out and I think there's part of him that doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of marrying her so he'll have the means to study at the Sorbonne.

Speaking of the other characters, I loved Rachel (with Marilla for the assist) vs. the trustees. Rachel's words and influence have been used for bad (even if she means well), but it's good to see the shift she making to use it to help, particularly as she's shown that she's open to gradually changing. Meanwhile, someone brought up the hint that maybe the writers were finding a way to set up Bash and Miss Stacy. This episode does bring them together, at least in feeling like outsiders, but I'm hesitant to see them potentially become romantic. Miss Stacy also is contemplating that maybe she should stay stuck in a small town unwelcoming towards new ideas and change. It would be a shame for her to leave, considering how she's encouraged so many people to think critically and how she's been so aware of the context of the environment in which she's supported youth like Anne in trying to change the world. I know that the trustees were already looking for a new teacher at the end of Anne of Green Gables, but why did Miss Stacy leave?

Perhaps not quite as connected as the rest of the happenings of everyone else, Ka'kwet's dangerous journey home was threaded through the entire episode. With her apparently successful escape and return home, she was lucky compared to most indigenous children (think about how the boy who helped her is probably going to be punished). And before you say she's safe now, the summary for the next episode suggests that the government might be out to try and track Ka'kwet down and forcibly take her back.

There's a lot to think about after this episode, but there's still three episodes left this season and a lot could happen!