Anne with an E: Episode 7 (S1E7) / Season 1 Finale
Financial ruin threatens the Cuthbert farm causing Matthew to take his life into his own hands with potentially dire consequences and a Paul Young song (not THAT one!) is our song-show connection
S1E7 is titled "Wherever You Are is My Home" / Alt Title: Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)
Per usual, this episode’s title is borrowed from Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.”
The finale’s title is self-explanatory. It’s about how the people you choose—your person, your found family—are what truly make a place feel like home, less so the physical place. Like Robert Frost put it, “Home is the place that, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” At the end of the day, “home” isn’t just a place—it’s your anchor, your point of reference in the world.
The financial and emotional uncertainty anchoring this episode ultimately solidifies the idea of home for Anne and her adopted family, the Cuthberts, as Marilla and Anne race against the clock to keep their physical home, Green Gables farm. The Season 1 finale is packed with plot-driven action. It’s Christmas in Avonlea, and Anne and her classmates are practicing “Gloria” (yes, thatone—not that one, thisone), presumably for a concert or caroling activity.
The episode opens on a worrying note, delivered undiplomatically by the ever-uncharitable Josie Pye, who breaks the bad news by way of gossip to Anne’s peers during choir practice that the Cuthbert’s farm has been mortagaged, planting the fear in Anne’s mind that Marilla and Matthew might send her back to the asylum because they can’t afford her: “Are they going to keep you?” she asks, toying with Anne’s emotions without a hint of mercy, like a cat savouring its unraveling of a ball of yarn. It’s a fear very much rooted in Anne’s orphan past and not-so-distant reality surfacing her shame around her identity as someone who is “too much” (too talkative, too much money/another mouth to feed) and therefore punished cruelly or sent away.
Anne in S1E7 thinks about how she can contribute to save the farm, her home.
What the show does so well is remind us that, as emotionally secure and confident as Anne has become in her healing journey with the support of Marilla and Matthew, the threat of uncertainty, risk, and instability—whether it’s food, family, or otherwise—is always lingering just beneath the surface.
“Love isn’t charity. Sometimes you just have to let people love you, Marilla.” - Anne
Josie’s comment compels Anne to set off on her quest to help Marilla and Matthew keep the only home she’s ever known intact. With Matthew’s physical and mental health on the decline in this jaw-dropping season finale, and him confined to his bed, it’s pretty much Anne and Marilla left to deal with the less-than-great decisions Matthew made without consulting his sister or informing her. That said, Matthew didn’t have very many options after his crops were destroyed in a boat accident. Matthew isn’t experienced or particularly equipped for direct conflict [See here], so it’s not surprising that the heated interaction he has with his sister as a result of the farm being leveraged causes him to suffer a heart attack, but it sets off a bunch of events that keep this episode dynamic and expose the family to even greater personal risk.
“You mortgaged the farm? Are you out of your mind?” - Marilla to Matthew
Read on for this episode’s show-song connection, cultural interpretations of “charity” and why they matter, other major subplots, and the people behind the show.
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THEMES: Financial insecurity, resourcefulness, resilience, exposure to risk and vulnerability, and charting your own path are big themes in this episode.
Did you earn money as a tween? If so, how?
I babysat - for many years, and even was a nanny in my 20s.
