Once more, Anne has arrived to the point in her life where she’s at the fork of the road. It’s been two years since she’s given up her scholarship and began teaching, and now due to time and circumstances, she has once again been given the opportunity to finally go to college.
Marilla has always felt guilty that Anne had chosen to give up her scholarship for her, so she’s worked hard to save up money and keep her eyes peeled for the next best chance for her to go. As circumstances had it, there were two things that fell into place. One, Gilbert would be going to college as of the Fall, and two, Rachel’s husband Thomas has just passed. The woman is terribly lonely without him, so Marilla had (with Anne’s permission first) suggested perhaps it’d be a good idea to move in with her. By doing so, this would solve two problems: Rachel’s loneliness, and free Anne from worrying about Marilla’s ailing eye-sight and the children. That’s why she didn’t want this opportunity to finally move forward to slip through Anne’s fingers.
That said, it’s understandable why Anne still had reservations about going to college, but it soon became very crystal clear to her that if she doesn’t take it, she’s going to be left behind in the dust. The departures were not limited to Thomas’ passing and Gilbert finally moving forward in his education, but also saying farewell to their youthful days and stepping into adulthood. The catalyst of what really pushed her to accept this reality was when she happened to accidentally witness Diana and her her crush Fred accept their feelings for each other. But she’d soon learn it’s not just that, but he had also asked for her hand in marriage! So now Diana’s engaged! At that point Anne realized she had to make a choice for her future, and ultimately decided to take the path to college that had been postponed for the past two years.
Now that she has chosen to pursue further education again, that means Anne’s chapter of teaching is coming to a close. The kids were in denial at first, but I thought it was quite endearing how her own pupils, including the once-troublemakers, were all bawling when she announced she’d be leaving. It was the perfect parallel of how Anne and her own classmates reacted when Ms. Stacey was rumoured to teach at another school. While she did eventually leave after their graduation, the difference this time is Anne won’t be waiting till this little ones do.
Among the other things of departure this week, was also Paul and Lavendar. Stephan and Stephan finally got married, and after their honeymoon, Lavandar and Paul will leave Avonlea to live in Boston to start the next chapter of their lives. So yeah there’s a lot of things changing around Anne, and it would’ve been quite difficult for her to stay put and not do something to move forward herself. That said, we ought to give the good-boy Paul some credit for giving Anne that extra nudge that she shouldn’t give up her dreams when she was still in doubt. She did near to hear it, and particularly coming from her own student to assure her the rest of them will be fine.
As for Gilbert~, unfortunately he was mostly a no-show this week, but we did finally get to see him at the end of the episode. He and Anne were walking back from the wedding together when Anne was gushing how beautiful it how everything tuned out after years of separation and misunderstanding. But considering their own similar path of how many years it took for Anne to finally reconcile with him after burning bridges when they were younger, Gilbert made a good point that wouldn’t it have been more beautiful if Stephan and Lavander had never separated and only had memories that only belonged to each other. And he’s absolutely right about that.
Thankfully, Anne’s starting to clue in that she actually likes Gilbert. And while she hasn’t fully accepted or processed it properly just yet, she’s at least starting to become a lot more conscious of him. She was completely caught off-guard during her conversation with Diana, when she envisioned what her dream home would be like— only to unexpectedly find Gilbert waiting inside. HAHAHAHA! The fact she had to convince herself that she walked into someone else house just goes to show just how much she’s in denial about her own feelings!!!
Next week we start a new arc of Anne really stepping into college!
Related
