Preface: There has been a ton of improvement in the second season compared to the first season. The show seems to finally establish its identity while keeping true to the spirit of Anne of Green Gables’ world. In addition, the cast of new characters: Cole, Bash, Mary, and Ms. Stacey leave a memorable impact upon their first appearance. I will cover Season 3 in a future review.
Pros:
#1 The relationship between Anne, Marilla, and Matthew as a family.
This season highlights the growing familial relationship between Anne and the Cuthberts. Matthew and Marilla take Anne to the beach for a family outing where the three of them enjoy each other’s company. Anne has become an inseparable member of the Cuthbert household that Matthew deems her “next of kin” to inherit Green Gables upon their death.
#2 Matthew and Marilla’s sibling relationship
Later on in the season, Viewers are given a glimpse into Marilla’s childhood. Their mother is heartbroken and in deep grief a year out from Michael’s death. As a result, Marilla had to step up taking on the role of caretaker for her mother and Matthew during their childhood. In the present, Matthew takes care of Marilla during one of her headaches. It’s his turn to return the favor and look after her. He recognizes that Marilla had to sacrifice her life and potential future with John Blythe to stay home with their mother and him. To Matthew, Marilla was more of a mother to him than their mother was. This scene exchange between Matthew and Marilla showcases their strong sibling bond. This aspect was definitely missing from the 1985 Anne of Green Gables film since Matthew’s character was killed off early in the movie series like in first book. I wish the Matthew and Marilla from movies had more scenes together.
#3 Gilbert’s life on a steamboat liner
On the steam boat liner from Charlottetown, Gilbert has been shovling coal in the boiler room as a steamship trimmer for the past few months. There he meets Bash, A Trinidadian black man who has worked on the liner for a decade. During a stop over at Trinidad, Bash and Gilbert strike up a friendship as well as a partnership: Bash will work with Gilbert on Blythe Farm instead of returning to the steamship as a coal trimmer. After helping Ruth deliver her baby, this event gives Gilbert perspect on his life. His experience from birthing farm animals came in handy with Ruth’s pregnancy. This sequence of Ruth’s baby delivery was a perfect segue into Gilbert discovering his calling for the medical field. This newfound zest for life brings Gilbert back to Avonlea.
3.1 Return trip to Avonlea
Gilbert’s return to Avonlea isn’t without its challenges. He doesn’t have a supportive teacher behind him until Ms. Stacy arrives. Ms. Stacy is willing to help Gilbert prep for med school but only before class time. This addtional instruction ontop of his regular school work leaves Gilbert no time for tending the farm with Bash. As a result, Bash leaves feeling neglected. Sensing Bash’s absence, Gilbert realizes that Bash has become family to him and doesn’t want to run Blythe farm without him. He goes to the bank to change the title deed to include Bash. Toward the end of the season, Gilbert reconsiders early entry to med school since he wants to spend time with his new family and enjoy their company.
#4. New characters: Sebastian& Mary, Ms. Stacy
The new characters introduced this season are memorable standouts. I’ll be analyzing each individually.
Sebastian “Bash” La Croix is Gilbert’s business partner and later becomes part of his family. Bash is originally from Trinidad and was raised by his mother Hazel, a cook for a wealthy white family. According to Bash, Hazel and him were close during his childhood since she took him to the market for fresh ingredients and allowed him a taste of her cooking. Nowadays, She and Bash have a strained relationship since Hazel ignores him and acts distant in front of her employer’s kid as opposed to the motherly attention she gives him when they’re alone.
Bash relocates to Avonlea with Gilbert to help run Blythe farm. Bash’s arrival is met with initial hostility but is later welcomed with open arms by the Cuthberts and Mrs. Lynde. Being an outsider in Avonlea, Bash feels “out of place” since he’s the minority among the Avonlea community so he ventures to “the Bog” which is the “slum” area of Charlottetown. In “the Bog”, He meets Mary, a laundromat worker who offers to put him up for the night at her house. Over time, A relationship blossoms between the pair as Bash helps out Mary with housework. One night, Bash decides to ask Mary for her hand in marriage but leaves in despair upon seeing Mary embrace another man, her son Elijiah. Mary clears up the misunderstanding to Bash and two get married.
Bash and Mary aren’t in the original books however the inclusion of these characters is integrated seamlessly into the story and have roles just as important as the main cast. They remind Gilbert what it is to be part of a family again after being on his own for so long.
Ms. Stacy-
Ms. Stacy is the replacement teacher for Avonlea school after Mr. Philips leaves. Her teaching style is more hands-on interactive rather than the rote memorization used by Mr. Philips. In addition, She displays an active interest in her student’s learning as opposed to Mr. Philips who cared only about Prissy in particular. Ms. Stacy brings a fresh new perspective both inside the classroom and to the Avonlea community. She is a widow who wears pants and no corset. Also she drives a motorbike to school.
Ms. Stacy almost leaves Avonlea due to “reckless endangerment” of a student during a science experiment (i.e Moody licks the potato generator). This incident leaves a bad impression of Ms. Stacy to the school board so they fire her. Anne and the rest of her classmates rally together to vouch on Ms. Stacy’s behalf to keep her as their teacher. All of them present their case with a demonstration of the potato generator before the board and Ms. Stacy. The board is finds their demonstration illuminating and rehire Ms. Stacy as the teacher after seeing the impact her teaching has had on the kids.
#5 Christmas episode
The Christmas episode was quite eventful. Marilla invites Gilbert and Bash over for Christmas dinner leading to some heartwarming moments between Anne and Gilbert.
My favorite scenes with them would be them blowing out the candles together and Gilbert giving Anne the thumb dictionary. Gilbert bought that present for Anne so she could “beat him fair and square” during their class spelling bee. This pocket dictionary is a nice callback to their last interaction in the first season where Gilbert and Anne spell out the word “truce” and shake hands sealing their new friendship before parting ways.
The second highlight would be the Christmas panto where the Avonlea folks put on a play showcasing Avonlea’s backstory. Seeing such serious characters as Mr. Lynde and Mr. Philips in silly costumes showed that they weren’t afraid to make fools of themselves in front of their fellow neighbors and friends. Mr. Philips’s role was a king while Mr. Lydne’s role was a lobster and a dame in makeup. Matthew’s line which reads “And they lived happily ever after!” is a great character moment for him since he conquers his childhood fear of stage fright through his small participation in the Christmas pantomine.
Another small moment, I’d like to include is Jerry’s Christmas card to Anne. It was a such a heartfelt moment between the two. Jerry walked all the way to Green Gables on his day off to hand Anne his Christmas card to her. The fact that he was able to form a short sentence shows that Anne’s teaching sesssions are paying off since Jerry is becoming literate. I like to think Jerry is the brother Anne wishes she had since she grew up without any siblings. They definitely bicker and get on each other’s nerves like brother and sister.
#6 Prissy foregoing marriage to attend college
Both in the book and the 1985 film by Kevin Sullivan, Prissy Andrews and Mr. Philips are engaged and later married (off screen) such was the norm in olden times. In the Anne with an E series, Prissy and Mr. Philips are more fleshed out characters. Similiar to the book and 1985 film, Prissy and Mr. Philips are engaged but Prissy foregoes the marriage in favor of attending college to continue her education. I appreciate that the series took time to display both Prissy and Mr. Philip’s perspective on the marriage. Mr. Philips demands that his wife stays at home and tends to him while Prissy decides to break free from tradition choosing her education over marriage.
Prissy leaving Mr. Philips at the altar signifies that despite being “marrying age”, Prissy is still a teenager who has her whole life ahead of her. She isn’t ready to settle down yet. She wants to expand her horizons at college first. The aftermath of this scene is further explained in Season 3.
Cons:
#1 “Fake gold subplot” with robbers
The fake gold subplot has been done in another period drama series: Little House on the Prairie. The episode is called ” At the End of the Rainbow”. The storyline is that Laura and her friend Jonah find a shiny mound of gold while playing in the creek. They dig up the gold for examination and bring it into the bank assuming that it will make them rich. Upon a closer look, the gold turns out to be fool’s gold (pyrite) and they dump it back into the creek due to its worthlessness.
In Anne with an e, the fool’s gold is part of a grift to steal money from Avonlea residents A more sinister purpose. Nate and Dunlop were the two boarders staying at Green Gables who swindle the Avonlea residents out of their money pretending that gold lies in the town’s land plots. The situation could’ve been avoided if the adults had listened to Anne and Diana about the fool’s gold scheme. In this way, they could’ve caught Nate and Dunlop sooner in the act instead of wasting time and allowing Nate to escape with their “harvest money”.
#2 Ruby’s overt crush on Gilbert
Ruby’s obsessive crush on Gilbert is a nusiance at times. Ruby is the reason that Anne and Gilbert’s friendship was off to a rocky start since it was an spoken rule that Anne couldn’t associate with Gilbert because of Ruby’s crush on him. She fails to notice Gilbert’s body language and facial expressions. Gilbert doesn’t reciprocate Ruby’s feelings because he likes Anne. Ruby is infatuated with the ideal of Gilbert not the actual person.
She grows out of it by the third season and transfers her affections to someone else. This ending for Ruby is a better alternative than the book version because she lives on and accompanies Anne to Queen’s College whereas in the latter, she has aspirations of becoming a teacher and marrying Herb Spencer her boyfriend but dies of a terminal illness.
#3 Cole being bullied by Billy and Mr. Philips.
Cole Mckenzie is a sensitive soul that is drawn to the arts rather than sports or farm work. This difference in interests sets him apart from the male set of Avonlea Youth leading him to be builled both by Mr. Phillips and Billy Andrews.
Mr. Philips picks on Cole for the sole reason of “being different” sentencing him to clap chalkboard erasers as punishment. Billy views Cole as a target since Cole stands out from the rest and becomes the center of attention stealing the limelight from him: He spills ink on Cole’s Camelot drawing ruining it to divert attention away and later pulls the ladder away from Cole allowing him to fall and break his drawing wrist.
#4 Anne’s meddling
Anne meddles into Matthew’s love life thinking herself to be an “agent of romance”. She takes it upon herself to answer Matthew’s love letters from Jeannie and send them to her giving her false hope of Matthew’s feelings. Jeannie is Matthew’s old flame who runs a shop in Carmondy. She’s the one who sold Matthew Anne’s puff sleeve dress in the first season. This endeavor ends in disaster when Matthew finds out and is outraged by the whole affair. Anne had no business writing those letters to Jeannie encouraging her affections. He is disappointed in Anne’s poor judgment and lack of consideration for Jeannie and his feelings.
Matthew and Jeannie meet up to clear up this misunderstanding. She realizes that Anne was the person behind the letters who compared her beauty to a calla lily. Not Matthew. Matthew goes on to explain that he doesn’t have time for a romantic relationship since he wants to spend the rest of his life caring for Anne and presumbly Marilla. Jeannie understands his decision and continues their friendship grateful for their close bond.
Jeannie accepts Anne’s apology and forgiving her in this situation. Despite, Anne’s well-intentioned gesture, Anne wrote those letters to Jeannie not for Matthew but for herself since she wanted to play matchmaker between them. She probably got the idea from classic lit such as Emma or Cyrano de Bergerac. Anne got too wrapped up in being a matchmaker that she didn’t see how her stunt hurt Matthew and Jeannie. Matthew’s anger is reasonable.
Anne made the right decision telling Ms. Stacy about Cole even though it lead to a brief rift in their friendship. Ms. Stacy and Cole’s parents would’ve found out about it eventually. Cole was just delaying that inevitable conversation. If this series took place in modern day, Cole’s parents would have to pay a fine for his truancy. Any continued attempts of skipping school, Cole would be placed on probation and forced to attend school.
Personal Musings: 
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