While at first sight yet another cheesy episode about a cheesy love story surrounding Elisa, it soon turned into a very insightful episode that really showed some different sides of the characters. It forced especially Elisa to really think about the situation she’s in. Thus far, she’s been a bit too similar of a Mary Sue, but this episode removed just about every aspect of that nasty brat in her and turned her into a really flawed character, and a typical teenager.
The episode starts as we see how Bert has finally landed himself a job helping out at a local farm. Anne has been counting the days since it happened (10) and is really happy to see that he stopped drinking and hitting his wife. Elisa meanwhile has been invited to a local party given by the Emerson family, and her classmates fangirl over Roger, and how Elisa is so poor and all. Roger however, looks to be really serious with her, and actually ends up proposing to her for marriage.
It turns out that Roger has to go to London for a job the next year, and he wants to have Elisa next to him, which is why he’s proposing to her so early. At the party, Roger hopes to hear Elisa’s final answer. When she arrives at home, she tells all about it to Anne, who obviously gets all happy about her, though Elisa still is really embarrassed.
It soon becomes clear that Elisa too is in love with Roger, and Anne really encourages her to go along with Roger to London… and that’s the point where Anne gets sad when she realizes that that means that she’ll be separating from Elisa, though Elisa quickly tells her that she can go with the two of them: Roger is a nice guy, so she thinks that he’ll definitely understand the situation and take Anne along… yeah.
That night, the two of them are still fantasizing about how good they’re going to have it in London. Elise never really liked being in her household, and she grew up as someone who just did the right things because it means that she was doing the right things. It turns out that Elisa once had a best friend (Katie Morris), but got separated from her somehow (couldn’t exactly pick up why), and that’s why she’s so burnt on not being separated from Anne.
Things however don’t go as planned when Elisa tells the news to her parents. Surprisingly, Isabella has no problems with letting her daughter go, but she’s not willing to let Anne leave in the hands of two inexperienced teenagers, not to mention that it’s going to really increase her workload. Especially when her new baby comes, nobody is going to be able to take care of her if Anne’s gone. She outright refuses this to Elisa.
The next week, Elisa’s dress arrives and she gets ready to go to the party. Anne still doesn’t know that she can’t go to London, and Elisa is still in lots of doubts over the marriage. Roger in the meantime has his own problems with his parents, because his father doesn’t have much faith in one of Bert’s children. Roger however has made his decision, and has to promise to his father to make the job he’s assigned to do in London succeed no matter what.
When Elisa arrives at the party, a lot of people whisper behind her back, not expecting such a poor girl to show up in a full dress. She dances with Roger for a while, and a while later when they’re alone, Roger asks for Elisa’s answer. Elisa says yes, though then she tells him about how she wanted to take Anne with her, but her mother wouldn’t let her. Roger suddenly gets very surprised when he finds this out, and when Elisa asks him whether he’ll take her with them, he declines: he likes Anne, but she isn’t Elisa’s child. It’s not going to be easy to live in London, so taking a child with them is not going to work. Elisa gets upset and runs away.
When Elisa gets back home, she knocks on Bert’s door (god, I nearly forgot that that guy was supposed to be a father) and wants to talk about what happened. Anne happens to see this, and overhears how Elise tells him that Anne can’t go with them, and the episode ends with Bert, saying the wisest thing that he’s ever said in this series: that she should go to London and leave Anne behind.
So yeah, this series doesn’t have the epic storyline of Les Miserables, the refreshing storytelling of Porfy, the realism of Anne of Green Gables or the atmosphere of Kaze no Shoujo Emily, when compared to these masterpieces it doesn’t have anything that really stands out, but it does have one thing: a great cast of characters. I really wanted to push Elisa in the face when she begged Roger to take Anne with her. Don’t get me wrong: I really like Anne myself, but that unrealistic thinking of her really got me: here she is, she has the chance for a great future, despite being poor she has the chance for a great future and a very nice husband… only to ruin it because she can’t leave her five-year-old friend.
And the thing is that with this type of series, I actually have no idea whether it’s the type of series that likes to keep its lead characters together, or whether it’s going to allow Elisa to move away. It’s definitely going to be interesting to see Elisa gone now, because that’s basically going to remove Anne’s only friend, and that means that she’s only going to retreat into that fantasy world of her even more, and the series is probably going to take a turn for the dark.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
ugh, I so hate it when people say “flawed character”, as if a character needs to be flawed to be good >_
Of course, characters don’t necessarily need to be flawed in order to be good, but for perfect characters there’s always the danger to step into Mary Sue territory, and that’s why I was so glad that Elisa managed to avoid that in this episode.
I sort of don’t agree with the whole ‘marriage = good’, ‘friendship = not so much’ idea.
Then again, in that kind of era, I guess more co-oping kind of relationships and friendships just didn’t make much sense.
Then again, this isn’t the olden days. I don’t see what’s necessarily wrong with that.