User blog:Eikakou/Anne (CBC series) season 2, episode 7 - Memory Has as Many Moods as The Temper review

I've kind of had an emotional roller coaster of a day at work. Like, frenetically trying to get stuff done, then too many big shocks, and just... apparently freaking out enough that my supervisor was wondering if I was emotionally okay. (Well, I was freaking out, but usually it doesn't show on the outside like that.) It's just one of those days. O_o

Thank goodness for Anne of Green Gables.

'''ALERT. ALERT. THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW'''

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After last week's fuzzy feeling episode, this week returns with a lot more seriousness. Memory Has as Many Moods as The Temper has two big plots running through it - Anne, Diana, and Cole go to Aunt Josephine's lavish party, while Marilla's health takes a bad turn while the kids are away, leaving Matthew to take care of her.

I'm wondering if Josephine's party is the equivalent of the Christmas party that Marilla refuses to let Anne go to in the book (which led to the first meeting with Josephine, instead of Minnie May's illness in the series, and also the reason why Matthew gets Anne the dress with puffed sleeves). In any case, Marilla refuses. Diana doesn't get to go either because there will be no male chaperone now that her father has gotten sick... until Anne decides that a little... duplicity is warranted. The girls rope Cole into the scheme, with Anne persuading him that he could use a fresh perspective - he's frustrated that he can't draw like he used to, even though his wrist has healed. Speaking of Cole, it's nice to see that Anne is letting him hang out at the secret hideout. Marilla winds up being the only holdout until a series of recurring headaches and vision problems drives her to just leave the decision up to Matthew, who lets them go. From what I can see, it isn't Matthew just being more indulgent to Anne's wishes for something exciting, but also because he figures that Marilla doesn't want Anne to know about her health problems just yet.

Josephine's party is a fantastic event, full of many different people from all over, with reflecting very worldly and open-minded lifestyles. Cole is a stick-in the mud, but when an artist catches him admiring a sculpture that she made, she gives him some much needed advice. He can't draw now, but that doesn't mean he's not an artist anymore, maybe he needs to try something new. The time he spends with Josephine also has a positive affect on him, because he recognizes that she once hid what he's hiding now, but she eventually found the person who loved her back and gave her the courage to be herself. Anne worries about how she's never been to a fancy party and that she'll just end up embarrassing herself, but Josephine assures her that she just needs to be herself. There's a lovely moment between them where Josephine reflects on the things her beloved Gertrude loved, including Anne's favourite novel, Jane Eyre. At Josephine's request, makes a recitation from Jane Eyre, which guests toast to in memory of "Gertie and Jo".

Anne absolutely enjoys the party, but Diana does not. When she meets the famous pianist that Josephine has invited, she's incredibly excited until the pianist, Cecile, and Josephine begin asking what sort of career Diana wants to follow. Diana is unsettled with Cecile and Josephine's comments about having her own career. Diana needs to consult her husband if she's going to travel, right? She can keep up piano on a recreational basis, after she married, couldn't she, because music isn't a job? Why is Aunt Jo talking about how she doesn't need to get married like her parents, unless she loves the man? When Diana hears the toast to "Gertie and Jo," and Josephine's words about Gertrude, she looks around Josephine's room and finds a picture of her Aunt Gertrude and Aunt Josephine as young women. Suddenly, she can't unsee it - that Josephine and Gertrude loved each other, that they were beloved to one another. This is something completely outside of the world that Diana has always been certain of - that she is being raised as a proper young lady, who will marry a man acceptable to her family, and she'll be a wife and mother someday. Isn't that what happens to all proper women? Why would a woman love another woman - they certainly can't have children together, Diana says. And if Josephine kept it a secret from her own family that she loved a woman, it must be because it's wrong. Despite Anne and Cole's words that that if Josephine and Gertrude loved each so sincerely and gave each other the courage to be themselves, that it can't possibly be wrong, Diana is not convinced.

Back at Green Gables, Marilla's faltering health brings back old memories for both herself and Matthew. When their brother Michael died, their mother suffered from such severe depression that Marilla spent all her time caring for her mother and raising Matthew. Matthew spends the night sleeping outside of Marilla's door and cobbles together breakfast - something his sister has always done - before he lets out that he doesn't want her to feel as though she needs to do everything and keep everything together. Matthew rarely gets angry, but this time he does, and he reveals that he resents that their mother gave up on everything after Michael died and that Marilla gave up so many opportunities, and that she did everything without any help. Marilla, on the other hand, recognizes that what overtook their mother was an illness, not because she didn't care about them anymore, and that she made the chose to shouldering the entire household on her own, even as stretched her thin and hardened her heart. And while Matthew tries to assure her that the headaches have gone away once she rests, Marilla says its different this time because she's worried about Anne's future. They manage to reassure one another that they'll be able to work things out as a family; it's lovely seeing them clear out issues that they never could before. Marilla is just so incredibly sweet when Anne comes back, because she missed her girl (even with the portrait by Cole hanging on her wall) and wants to hear about the party (quietly) and even wears the flower crown.

The episode is neatly book-ended with Gilbert, who has decided to become a doctor. Mr. Phillips derisively refuses Gilbert's request for some extra help to catch up with the schoolwork he missed (and makes a thoughtless comment about how Gilbert's dad wouldn't give away crops, completely forgetting that Gil's dad is dead). So Gilbert works to catch up on his studies on on his own when Mr. Phillips' mockingly asks the "good doctor" to give him the answer, Gilbert knows without extra help. Oh, that sass.

While Gilbert's decision to become a doctor has Anne thinking about what she'll become (maybe a writer, Cole suggests), this episode really does focus on the thoughts on what a person would like to become. Marilla and Matthew's storyline reflects on the idea of lost possibility - Matthew thinks that Marilla was deprived of the chance of becoming someone else (maybe marrying someone she loved and travelling away from Avonlea), but they both see raising Anne as a chance to maybe try to become a little bit more like they would have liked (Marilla being a little softer and Matthew being more confident). Cole receives some sound advice from Josephine now that he knows what sort of person he is, that he's got a difficult path, but once he finds people he can really trust, he shouldn't ever let them go. Meanwhile, Diana has gotten an abrupt awakening outside of the conventional lifestyle that she sees in her parents, and suddenly she doesn't feel so sure of herself or how could anything but the world she was raised in be the only path. It's hard to say if Diana will regard the party and the thoughts of pursuing something for herself outside of a husband and children as just an anomaly or something that will really change her future.

Next week, Cole vs. Mr. Phillips. Place your bets, people! (Adults as bullies need to go down!)

Eikakou (talk) 03:30, November 6, 2018 (UTC)