Just when Anne thought she’d never meet her Prince Charming, lo and behold, the very painting of her imagination shows up before her. Meet Royal Gardner– (yes, I know, even his name is laughably on point), a young man who’s a fellow student at Redmond who had been away at Europe for the past two years. His family is one of the wealthiest households, and certainly takes the part of everything Anne has ever imagined her Prince Charming to be. The two have a “fateful encounter” by being caught up in the rain together, and both Roy and Anne had immediately become smitten with each other.
Or at least, that’s what you’d think had happened.
On Roy side of things, he has certainly presented himself to be the very definition of a romantic gentleman. But beyond that? We don’t actually see much of anything of Roy’s and Anne’s relationship, it does make it harder to grasp the fact a year had already flown by since they’ve met. So Roy to us, is as much as a stranger as he was in the beginning of the episode by the end of it. For that reason, it’s hard to judge whether there’s really any depth to their relationship, which in turn would make one doubt how long this is even going to last considering we know absolutely nothing about him.
And it’s not just him. It’s Anne too. We don’t really see her talk about how much she likes him or anything of the sort beyond blushing early on when it sinks in her dream guy actually exists, or when he’s courting her with flowers.
In fact, the first time we get any sort of hint in regards to the nature of their relationship, it’s anything but convincing. Both Anne and Phil agree orchids don’t really suit her. Heck even Anne herself says she’s not really fond of them because she feels they don’t relate to her. But she insisted on wearing it because it’s a special occasion.
Then following that: When Roy Gardner declares his love and proposes to Anne, it’s only at that moment she really comes to terms that something is off. Everything, from the confession, to the proposal and her first kiss, none of it panned out the way she imagined it would. There were no blushing, nor were there any tears– heck, it didn’t even draw an emotional response from her. It was the most lukewarm response you could get from a proposal, and yet incredulously, she still accepted it.
This was the first instance that really showed us despite it having been a year since Roy and Anne met, it showed us their relationship seems to be superficial at best– at least on Anne’s side of things. Is Anne truly in love, or is she merely fixated to the fact Royal Gardner simply checks off all the boxes of what she had always believed to be her ideal: A wealthy, romantic gentleman, who looks the very part of ‘Prince Charming’ she had always dreamed of?
So what’s the deal?
Well I find it’s very apparent that she has been trying to convince herself this is what she has always longed for. After-all, Roy shows up at the very moment Anne is desperately trying to take her mind off Gilbert after another guy tried to confess his love to her. The timing couldn’t have be more perfect to escape from all of that into the arms of her lifelong Prince Charming of her dreams.
And of course, the moment she comes face to face with Gilbert with another woman (Christine Stuart), she has a more intense reaction than she had when receiving the proposal. Talk about awkwardddddd!
Like a slow time bomb going off, Anne’s now force to confront the feelings she has long denied and buried deep within her. When she first hears about Gilbert is crazy for another girl, she tries to brush it off. When she finally sees the woman he’s with, she begins to panic and becomes flustered to the point she needs to run to the dressing room to gather herself. Anne doesn’t understand why she’s reacting this way, especially following accepting Roy’s proposal. The only thing she knows is that something doesn’t sit right with her.
No shit Sherlock!
While Anne can deny all she wants why she feels that way, we the audience most certainly can easily identify what’s disturbing her is seeing a woman that isn’t her by Gilbert’s side. Oh, and as if to add insult to injury: Christine Stuart looks the very part of everything Anne had always dreamed of since she was a child.
Oh and the awkwardness doesn’t end there guys! To Gilbert’s credit, he could tell that Anne was feeling uncomfortable, so he tried to smooth things out the best he could by trying to keep the conversations flowing. Unfortunately when Roy innocently asked Anne and Gilbert to show him around Avonlea sometime, and then Christine quickly followed up how she’d like Gilbert and Anne to show her around too. Like oof, yeah... that’s a really rough position for the two of them to be in.
Apart from the awkward situation Anne has found herself in, Phil has fell in love with a minister she’s met at Prospect Point. This came as a surprise to Anne considering Phil had long been trying to decide between two guys who’s been vying her for her back in her hometown. The man whom had won her heart is named Jonas Blake, a theological student from St. Columba. She pretty much (to her own shock) fell for him at first sight. Anne initially thought letter Phil was going to be marrying him, but as we go through the episode, we’ve come to learn that Phil feels quite insecure whether her feelings are requited. He hasn’t actually proposed to her yet, though he has shown her signs of affections. Anne believes he may be just afraid to ask her to marry him because he’s poor compared to her wealthy household, so he can’t offer everything she has always had. That said, this prompted Phil to decide, perhaps she’ll just propose to him instead haha, but Anne does give her a heads up to be mindful of how Jonas might take it. We’ll have to see whether that’ll pan out or not.
Next week Diana’s finally getting married!
