At last one of my favourite encounters between Gilbert and Anne played out this episode- though it does end on a rather bitter note considering Anne’s screw up of letting her pride get the better of her. Gosh dang it Anne!
What started off as a playful idea to dramatize the part of Elaine in King Arthur with Diana’s family boat, turned into a relatively romantic encounter, only to end tragically. Ironic really, because there’s nothing quite like, having Elaine’s unrequited love Lancelot find her dead body in a boat at the end of the river. So freaking romantic, right?
Of course it was Anne’s idea, but funny enough she wasn’t actually planning to volunteer to play the part as Elaine. But since the other girls weren’t interested either, instead they egged her on to do it, so she did.
At first, she thought ‘kay this is pretty romantic and actually wonders what it’d feel like to die on a peaceful boat– and as if the universe heard her call, sure enough her boat had a leak and was sinking! Unfortunately Anne doesn’t know how to swim– which may be the reason why she didn’t think of volunteering in the first place, but now she was in a pickle. Luckily for her however, she was close enough to the pier so she was able to leap onto one of the pillars, and cling to it for dear life and was actually about to fall in.
Though the funniest part was the empty boat continuing towards her friends, and then spectacularly capsizes, leading the three to think she had drowned, which you can imagine how they reacted to that. Add onto that, was the impeccable timing of Gilbert rowing by wondering how the heck did she get herself into this situation. Thankfully he was able to get her into his boat before she did actually fall in.
One of the reasons why I really liked the scene between Anne and Gilbert is because not only was it really the first moment Anne had momentarily sucked up her pride and graciously accepted his help. Unfortunately it was short-lived, and this is where the tragic part comes into play. Gilbert really tried to start fresh again with her, first earnestly apologizing for the mistake of making fun of her hair, and then asked if they could be friends, because he really wanted to be.
Unfortunately his ‘carrot’ comment still stung (it’s like the most offensive word to her after-all because of how long she’s had her hair complex), and Anne’s pride just couldn’t allow to let that slide, so she refused, claiming she never wants to be friends with him. However the second Gilbert accepted that, we saw Anne immediately regret her words. It was at that moment she realized she really messed up, especially after her friends thought this would mean she’d be on good terms with Gilbert after he had saved her.
On the other-hand, this did free Gilbert from the whole walking on egg-shells around her. When she refused to his earnest offer to become friends, he decided he wasn’t going to push any further. It was a ‘fine, do as you like’ moment. But it also served to teach Anne to realize that bearing grudges against someone it’s just not worth it, especially when they own up to their mistakes and actively seek to reset the start of their relationship on a better note.
Interestingly this incident made Anne kind of come to dislike ‘romantic’, because due to her mistakes, it was far from it. But it was Matthew tells her not to give up all her romance, assuring her a little of it is a good thing.
The other half of the episode followed Anne participating in Miss Stacy’s advance class for students meant to study for the entrance examination into Queen’s. Among their group of friends, only Diana is left out because her parents don’t plan to send her there.
Most of them have a general idea what they wish to pursue, but Anne surprisingly was the one who was stumped the most. Seeing her other friends talk about their dreams made her feel like she needed to hurry to figure out her path. But when the news came up about Miss Stacy recieving an offer to work at another school, and the announcement from the teacher herself that she had in-fact turned down the offer because she wanted to see things through with her current group of students, it helped Anne set her goals on getting a first-class teaching license to become a teacher too.
But as uplifting as that realization of the newfound goal, it was interrupted with Matthew collapsing– which was being foreshadowed a bit with how there’s been talk about the doctor’s check-ups and him clutching to his chest. Needless to say, god damn it, regardless how many times I’ve read this series, I’m never ready for it!
