Anne with an E: Episode 5 (S1E5)
It's the RED SCARE episode where womanhood is ushered in, prematurely in Anne's estimation and Matthew bolts because sometimes it's just too painful.
S1E5 is titled "Tighly Knotted to a Similar String" / Alt Title: RED SCARE
Per usual [see E3], the episode’s title is borrowed from Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” clearly an inspiration for showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett:
“I have a strange feeling with regard to you. As if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly knotted to a similar string in you. And if you were to leave I'm afraid that cord of communion would snap. And I have a notion that I'd take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, you'd forget me.”
Anne’s journey to integrate into Avonlea, her new adoptive community, and to build trust and acceptance with Marilla and Matthew, her chosen guardians, is a central theme of this episode. I interpret the episode’s title as a metaphorical guide for this process of belonging and mutual understanding.
The relationship between Marilla and Anne deepens through the shared experience of Anne getting her first period, which serves as a poignant moment of connection between them. Marilla displays vulnerability, uncharacteristically for her, embracing Anne and tenderly touching her in moments throughout. Matthew, though shooed away by Marilla at the mere mention of “the monthly visitor,” finds a path to celebrate Anne and honor her milestone, even going as far as engaging in his own form of discomfort (seeing a former childhood crush) to buy Anne a custom dress with “puffy sleeves,” which is something she’s been pining for since she came to Green Gables.
Jeannie, Matthew’s former sweetheart, reminisces about his thoughtful nature, telling him, “You always found a way to make yourself known.” She recalls how, in their youth, he quietly gifted her a button after a conversation about her collection, expressing his affection through a subtle yet meaningful act rather than drawing attention to himself. Similarly, here, he shows Anne that he sees her through a thoughtful gift.
Marilla: “It’s God’s plan.”
Anne: “Wait. It must be some mistake. There’s no way that God thinks it’s time for me to be a woman.”
Read on for this episode’s show-song connection, avoidant attachment theory, the chronology of the episode, and the people behind the show.
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The reminiscence bump is a phenomenon where adults over 30 tend to have more memories from adolescence and early adulthood (roughly 10-30 years old) than from any other period of their lives.
Can you describe a salient coming-of-age memory?