Anne Shirley Episode 22

Following Roy’s proposal, though Anne been trying to convince herself everything is fine, it’s very apparent that in her heart, she knows it’s not. She does not love him the way he loves her, and every time someone mentions how in love the two are, we can see how uneasy she gets.

And as though that wasn’t bad enough! Much to Anne’s dismay, despite the fact the event of rejecting Gilbert didn’t happen at Avonlea, unfortunately the word has gotten out and everyone in town of course knows about it. Anne initially thought it might’ve been Fred who spilled the beans, but as it turns out, it seems it was more likely leaked by Diana in amidst of gossip after hearing it from Fred, whom is close friends with Gilbert.

Naturally, the news made it to Marilla, and as one would expect, she was quite frustrated with Anne. Remember, she had once shared with Anne of her regrets of refusing to marry her best-friend over her stubbornness at the time. She knows just how close Anne and Gilbert are, which is why she’s so worried that Anne’s repeating the same mistakes. Though it probably doesn’t help that she has never met Roy, nor seen him and Anne interact with each other. If she ever had, she’d be the first to call Anne out for accepting the proposal despite fact she’s clearly not in love as one would expect one to be!

Fortunately for both Anne and Gilbert, things aren’t as awkward as it could’ve been. Arguably the most tense moment between them was when they had to lock arms to go down the stairs as part of the formality for being Diana’s bridesmaid and Fred’s best-man. Being so intimately close to each other after so long in that regard was difficult, and you could see it on Gilbert’s face when he emphasized “as per tradition” so Anne wouldn’t get the wrong idea for his gesture.

But man, freaking Josie and her big mouth (though admittedly she did appear to be drunk, but I feel like she would’ve said it anyways had she been sober), to make a quip about Anne rejecting Gilbert. Thank god not only for Gilbert for laughing it off and their friends rallying to quickly quell any further awkwardness by making a cheers to ‘Poor Gilbert’. Needless to say, the guy was probably internally dying inside.

Now that Gilbert is dating Christine, to some extent this is a comfort Anne since it allows them to hang out together. But we see her to be quite mournful of their separation, and has been increasingly pining for him in her heart. She admitted to Matthew at his grave that she did in-fact reject Gilbert in effort to preserve their friendship. We saw more of this with the disappointment in the letter she had received from him being just a copy of the college society report, and — we see her heart breaking inside when she’s reminded yet again when Gilbert tells her ‘so wags the world away‘ to reassure her that she’ll find somewhere new.

Unfortunately being told that is not really comforting for Anne to hear. She just expressed she feels like she has become something of a stranger of Avonlea. So much has changed over the past three years, with more children in the community, her pupils growing up and their friends getting married… it makes her long for the days when she and the others were still children. That’s why she enjoyed the wedding gathering so much, because it reminded her of those blissful times together. So hearing Gilbert tell her that just further reinforces her fear that even between them, they can never go back to what they used to be, no matter how badly she wants it…