S03.E03: What Can Stop the Determined Heart

[OtterMommy]

Canadian Air Date: 10/06/2019

US Netflix Drop Date: January 3, 2020

[tkc]

So much dust in the living room air tonight. *sniffle*

This was an emotional but beautiful episode. I imagine it must have been difficult for the actors to film.

The music brought back memories too — I was asked to sing It is Well with My Soul for a close friend’s memorial service a number of years ago. Such a beautiful hymn.

[Harvey]

Moody hitting on Ruby was just adorable. 💞

It would be nice if her fixation on Gilbert somehow stopped.  

[dubstepford wife]

Well that was sad. 

Did they ever explain how Mary got sick in the first place?  It seems like it's too late for it to be childbirth related, Delphine seems like she's at least a few months old.  I always thought childbed fever made you sick pretty much immediately.

[Thundercatmary]

1 hour ago, dubstepford wife said:

Well that was sad. 

Did they ever explain how Mary got sick in the first place?  It seems like it's too late for it to be childbirth related, Delphine seems like she's at least a few months old.  I always thought childbed fever made you sick pretty much immediately.

I believe it was caused by the cut on her hand, it was still in a bandage in this episode.

[Pepper the Cat]

That was so sad. I really liked Mary

[Camera One]

This was a very beautifully filmed episode, especially the Easter celebration at the end.  

I hope it isn't a setup for Mary's son to cause all sorts of problems.  He was the reason why Mary got that cut on her hand in the first place.  I thought the ladies at the laundry would know her son was still in the community.

It took me a long time to get into this episode.  I didn't feel we knew Mary enough to justify an episode to affect our emotions in this way.  I think the episode started to feel a little more genuine at the halfway mark when Mary asked Anne how it felt to be an orphan.  

I also liked seeing Mary's friends come to see her and take care of her, though was it realistic for them to be allowed to be away from the laundry?  On the one hand, this show claims to be gritty (and they do show the danger of disease back in the day).  Yet the community coming together with the Easter celebration in the Barry lawn was a tad Pollyanna-ish and very sentimental.

I saw some of the chemistry between Anne and Gilbert that wasn't present last week.  They had a nice talk about Gilbert handling telling the bad news to Mary.  I also liked Bash's conversation with Gilbert in the barn about his father's death.

It looks like they put the Anne and Marilla argument on hold.

It's also quite forboding that the indigenous girl might go to residential school in Halifax.  If Rachel was so worried about her education, why didn't she invite her to the Avonlea schoolhouse?  I guess she wouldn't be allowed, but Anne or Miss Stacey could tutor her, much like Jerry is trying to learn on his own, especially since her father doesn't want her leaving her community.  I don't want to see her experience the horrors of residential school, and if they do a romanticized escape with the help of Anne and her friends, that would be a little insulting as well.  With this show, I can imagine they might have the Avonlea residents (eg. Rachel Lynde) eventually seeing the light of the 21st century on this issue, which would not be very realistic. 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Camera One

[ruby24]

Poor Mary. She was a good actress too.

There were some nice Anne/Gilbert scenes in this one. Honestly, the sooner they get together, the better in my opinion. I feel like it would give the show a little bit of a stronger focus to have them navigating college/Queens/their careers & engagement together, since they've given Gilbert such a heavy focus as a character already (aside from Anne he feels like the second main character).

Or even at least committed friends (in the books they were good friends for a long time, but the show's almost nothing like the books), instead of this running hot/cold stuff. With Gilbert getting his own separate storylines it feels like he and Anne should be more connected to each other.

Edited October 8, 2019 by ruby24

[Kostgard]

On 10/7/2019 at 7:59 PM, Camera One said:

It's also quite forboding that the indigenous girl might go to residential school in Halifax.

Yes, very much so. There's a reason why they were boarding schools - they basically erased the kids' cultural identities and made them as "white" as possible and often these kids never saw their families again. When that dude came around with the flyer for Rachel I was all, "Oh, shiiiiiii..." That happened to a family member of mine back in the day in British Columbia.  She was officially an "orphan" but most likely had a family and was just sent to one of these schools when she was very young and her past/family ties were essentially erased.

I was really hoping that Mary's crappy son had gone off to America, but...no such luck. We're definitely seeing him again. 

So terribly sad about Mary. I liked her. Life truly sucked before the advent of antibiotics. I mean, sepsis can still kill you today, but we've at least gotten a lot better at treating it.

Matthew and Marilla are so cute with that very cute baby. I liked Matthew taking her around the farm and showing her everything.

[paramitch]

I binged the season this weekend, and this episode absolutely broke my heart. How horrible that Mary's own horrible son was even the inadvertent cause of her death.

The final Easter celebration was a little too sweet and kind for realism, maybe, but I admit that it really moved me. 

One thing I liked about this episode and Mary's story, however, was the way big things push the small ones aside. Once Mary's illness and death were imminent, I could believe that people would see how stupid their prejudices were, especially with this sweet beautiful woman right there in front of them. The writing and acting did a great job of conveying the ways in which death moved, scared, and ennobled the townspeople, and I really liked that.

I love Anne's friendship with her friend from the native village, and find it very very Anne-like.

Also, I would have watched an entire episode of Matthew just walking around with the baby. And I'm not even, like, a person who likes babies. But I swear to God, my shriveled heart grew three sizes when he was introducing her to the farm and the animals.

Last but not least, the episode ending with that soft metaphorical bittersweetness, with Mary's face looking up into the sunlit sky above, was really stunning, and moved me to tears.

[Bizabra]

The pathos was real, but . . . . . . For a woman dying of sepsis, she sure was coherent and lively. Pretty sure a death from sepsis and the resulting organ failure would be a LOT more feverish, incoherent, painful, and lethargy inducing.  Other than that, it was a real heart tugger!

[Harvey]

3 hours ago, Bizabra said:

The pathos was real, but . . . . . . For a woman dying of sepsis, she sure was coherent and lively. Pretty sure a death from sepsis and the resulting organ failure would be a LOT more feverish, incoherent, painful, and lethargy inducing.  Other than that, it was a real heart tugger!

They don't want to show that in a show primarily made for children.

[CrazyDog]

On 1/12/2020 at 5:39 AM, paramitch said:

I binged the season this weekend, and this episode absolutely broke my heart. How horrible that Mary's own horrible son was even the inadvertent cause of her death.

The final Easter celebration was a little too sweet and kind for realism, maybe, but I admit that it really moved me. 

One thing I liked about this episode and Mary's story, however, was the way big things push the small ones aside. Once Mary's illness and death were imminent, I could believe that people would see how stupid their prejudices were, especially with this sweet beautiful woman right there in front of them. The writing and acting did a great job of conveying the ways in which death moved, scared, and ennobled the townspeople, and I really liked that.

I love Anne's friendship with her friend from the native village, and find it very very Anne-like.

Also, I would have watched an entire episode of Matthew just walking around with the baby. And I'm not even, like, a person who likes babies. But I swear to God, my shriveled heart grew three sizes when he was introducing her to the farm and the animals.

Last but not least, the episode ending with that soft metaphorical bittersweetness, with Mary's face looking up into the sunlit sky above, was really stunning, and moved me to tears.

All of this. Matthew playing peekaboo with Delphine was absolutely adorable too. And I just love Jerry.

Such a heartbreaking episode. I was worried they would actually show the end for Mary, so I was so glad they ended it on such a (relatively) uplifting note. 

That being said....WHY? I really liked her and Bash, and I wish the writers had let them keep their happy family. I did love Anne's suggestion that Mary write her daughter a letter, and the book of Mary's recipes. It was a little surprising that Anne wasn't more broken up over Mary though - but the show is all about how strong and resilient Anne is. 

I wasn't expecting Diana's parents to be so accepting of Bash and Mary, but the Easter celebration was just lovely.

I really do love the family that Bash and Gilbert have created. The rest of the season will be harder to watch, but at least Bash has that community now.

[Cherry Cola]

Beautifully made episode. 

Whomever played Mary is so gorgeous! I knew she was going to die, and I was so sad.  I liked the family her and Bash created. Delphine is adorable! 

 

[CountryGirl]

That was an absolutely gorgeous episode and I lost it when they were all singing.

This season is the strongest yet IMO. Because of episodes like this one.