Anne With An E: Season 3, Episode 2 “There Is Something at Work In My Soul Which I Do Not Understand” – Recap, Review (with Spoilers)

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Anne takes the first step to learning about her past, and it is a bit of a traumatic experience. As that happens, Elijah returns and Gilbert gains a crush.

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Network
CBC/ Netflix
Director(s)		Kim Nguyen
Writer(s)		Jane Maggs
Air Date		9/29/2019
Introduced This Episode
Winifred Rose	Ashleigh Stewart
Young Anne	Elizabeth Gnidash

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Recap

Just Throw Until Something Sticks: Rachel, Muriel, Matthew

While Rachel is excited to play matchmaker, Muriel just wants to get a printing press to work. A task she takes up with Matthew who realizes, as I’m sure most viewers have, that Muriel is very much like Anne. Almost to the point of you wondering if she could be distant kin?

But, while Matthew and Muriel bond, including him giving advice on the prospect of Rachel finding her someone, and dealing with a change from her norm, things go awry. Nothing major, however. Just Rachel upset that Muriel was getting dirty and wasn’t being ladylike.

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All Good Things Have To Be Ruined By Somebody: Elijah, Sebastian, Mary, Gilbert, Winifred

Elijah comes to Gilbert and Sebastian’s home and, at first, it is a joyous occasion. One that connects Mary to her new and old family but with the concept of being the old family, Elijah rebels. He drinks, curses at his mom, insults Sebastian and his relationship to Gilbert and makes it clear he can’t deal with Delphine having the life he didn’t. Especially not dealing with the shame and being raised by her father.

So, he decides to steal some of Gilbert’s father’s things and head off. Dampening what was a perfect day for Gilbert. You see, he met a woman. Someone who works at the doctor’s office, and they even go on a date – Gilbert’s first. One which is a bit awkward but that’s because Winifred, Gilbert’s date, is eccentric. Not in an Anne or Muriel sort of way, in terms of being talkative, but she does share their imagination and distaste for the social customs imposed on women.

Oh, and as for whether Gilbert should expect a second date? Well, we’ll see.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. Is Winifred Dr. Ward’s nurse or secretary? If not a niece?

Shifting Through Trauma To Learn The Truth: Cole, Marilla, Matthew, Anne

Anne finds her way back to Saint Albans Orphanage, the place where, from three months to the age of 13, she lived off and on. From what we see, the place hasn’t changed, but Anne has. She has a family now, friends, like Cole who escorts her, and joy in her heart.

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Yet, places hold memories, and even with three years passing, and so many triumphs, it is hard to move past the cruelty she experienced there. Of which she is given more by a callous matron who makes it seem Anne was abandoned. But, luckily, Cole knows just the right things to say so that Anne doesn’t see her imaginations as delusions. The kind made to cover up the truth.

But, while the orphanage has nothing, there is the church. However, with Anne’s article coming out, on the Mi’kmaq, Marilla finds an excuse to end the search for Anne’s birth family. One that Matthew, more than likely, may circumvent so she can continue.

Collected Quote(s) & .Gifs

Nightmares aren’t so scary without the protection of the dark.
— Anne

The best part of knowing the rules is finding acceptable ways of breaking them.
— Miss Rose

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Review

Highlights

Winifred & The Diversity of Women on Anne With An E

Isn’t it wonderful that this is a show filled with women who have personality of various forms? If you want someone eccentric, there is Muriel, Anne, and now Winifred. A person outspoken, forward even? There is Rachel for you to identify with. Then Marilla is all of those people are far too extroverted for you, and you are more someone who keeps to themselves. And that’s not forgetting Josephine, who also is in this episode.

And that’s another thing which makes Anne With An E so wonderful, in nearly every episode we get a diverse group of women, and young adults, who each represent a different take on life and have varied goals. Making Winifred a welcome inclusion for as much as she can be grouped in with Anne and Muriel, she shows there isn’t just one way to be eccentric.

Elijah’s Feelings Of Betrayal

While a bastard for what he did to John’s room, including stealing, a part of you has to understand his reasoning for lashing out. He is the son who is trouble, brought trouble, and was a mark on his mother’s reputation. And even if she was kind, the outside world wasn’t, and he bore as much of the pain as she did. Heck, maybe more for he got it from adults and children while children may not have dared said a word to Mary.

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Yet, there is also the issue of Sebastian. I think him genuinely wanting to include Elijah in this family forced him to recognize he is the problem. For if Sebastian pushed him away or was antagonistic, he could be blamed for the sorry relationship Elijah has with his mother, sister, perhaps the world.

But with being welcomed, even offered a place to stay, work, and experience a taste of what his mother has found, it forces him to reflect on himself. It makes Elijah the person who doesn’t belong, has to change, and after fighting against people looking down on him and rejecting him, the love Sebastian offers is probably repulsive. So all he can do is try to make himself hated so the feelings he has inside match what is given externally.

Anne’s Past Showing Us How Far She Has Come

With seeing a young version of Anne and the bullying, as well as being reminded how she’d isolate herself and use her imagination to escape, there was such devastation. Because, while Anne talks about her trauma nearly every season, and we get a handful of flashbacks, we’re reminded that no matter how good things are, a lot of it is sourced in how bad things were. Take Anne helping Ruby’s family when the fire happened, a major turning point for how people saw her, that came from an incident when she was working for a family. If not her saving Minnie May when she was sick.

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When you really look into it, Anne has tried her best to take all the things from the orphanage, and the places they sent her, and make the best out of it. However, outside of shelter, the orphanage itself is just a building of despair that no family, friends, potential love interest, what have you can fix. For as much as she tries to focus on the good, the bad still lingers in the darkest parts of Anne’s memories and imagination.

Matthew & Muriel’s Time Together

While Marilla has friends in Sebastian and Mary, Rachel, Muriel to a point, and is social with others, the same can’t be said for Matthew. Outside of Jeannie, and his sister, he doesn’t really have any relationships with adults. Jerry is his right hand, Anne is his heart, so he and Muriel spending time together seemed like the start of something sweet.

Plus, being that Muriel is alone, and Matthew can act as both a father figure or much older brother, it gives her someone to speak to. Especially if Rachel is so gung-ho on setting her up.

Gilbert’s First Date

With so much focused on how Gilbert’s growing up, will he or won’t he with Anne, it can be forgotten that he is a child. One who, up until now, seemingly hasn’t had a date. Which seems like a bit of a shock but let’s not forget these are different times and Gilbert is choosy. Based on his interest in Anne, and now Winifred, he doesn’t like the average girl or someone who is googly-eyed for him like Ruby. He wants them a bit weird, challenging, and knows how to make spending time with them a memory rather than something to do.

So while this may derail the Anne x Gilbert train a bit, maybe forever, it is nice to see he isn’t tethered to Anne and can have a life, love life included, outside of her. Also, how Mary gets to play the role of the mother he didn’t have growing up when it comes to talking about Winifred and navigating dating.

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Understanding The Fear Of Things Going So Well For Marilla

Marilla being maternal does seem like the source of her worry for Anne, right? Yet, let’s also take note of how good things were when Michael was alive and how one death irrevocably changed her life. Also, in the last season, when we were introduced to the physical form of her mother, Marilla had a moment to understand her mother and her sickness. So imagine having some empathy for your mother and the closest thing to a child you can have venturing off with boys you know, but aren’t necessarily Billy’s size and can take on grown men?

To me, Marilla fears the worst, beyond Anne finding blood relations, so she was just looking for an excuse that even Matthew couldn’t fight against. For the devastation of losing Anne she saw when her mom lost Michael, and while Marilla and Matthew are older than their mother when she lost a child, the effect might be the same. If not worse since they would have no one to help run things and just the thought of Matthew, with his renewed faith in life, to regress? That might be two deaths for Marilla to deal with rather than one.

For just think about it, since Michael, and pushing away John, do you think she ever loved someone, beyond Matthew, ever again? If not was willing to deal with the vulnerability of loving someone who, would venture out in the world and have options of what they could do and go? Which isn’t to say she isn’t fond of Jerry, Rachel, or Rachel’s children, but there is a boundary when it comes to Jerry and Rachel. One Anne has long crossed despite the high fence Marilla has long had up.

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