Anne with an E season 3 is full of heart, love and drama

Growing pains, loss, heartbreak, injustice and love tests friendships, family and community ties in Anne with an E season 3.

Being a huge fan of Sullivan Entertainment’s Anne of Green Gables series with Megan Follows, I’ve had to adjust my expectations of what each season of Anne with an E will deliver. As a series overall, Anne with an E takes liberties with the Anne of Green Gables series of books it’s inspired by.

It still presents Anne as the wild, willful and intelligent girl all Anne fans like, but seasons 1 and 2 presented an edgier, darker and more modern take on Anne, Marilla and Matthew’s life and times on Prince Edward Island.

Season 3 is no different. It once again ventures into territory the beloved original never went.

For one thing, because previous incarnations pretty much just followed Anne’s story. Anne with an E uses some of the other characters to explore additional plotlines and issues.

It also once again introduced modern-day themes and subject matter. Among them: censorship, bullying, sexual harassment and attempted sexual assault, women’s rights (or lack thereof), racial prejudice and the persecution of indigenous people.

Season 3 starts with Anne celebrating her 16th birthday, and it ends with her getting her first kiss. In between, there’s friction galore, like between Anne and Marilla when Anne decides she wants to know what happened to her parents. Anne’s found a home and kinship with Marilla and Matthew, but not knowing what happened to her family haunts her. Did they really die, or did they discard her as the unwanted result of a doomed liaison?

Marilla’s afraid of what Anne might find, and that it might make Anne love her less. However, eventually, with a little help from Matthew, Marilla realizes that no matter what Anne finds, she’s not going to lose her girl.

And with help from Marilla, Anne learns the truth. Her parents did want her. She also ends up with a precious heirloom that once belonged to her parents that she never knew existed.

To an extent, other renditions addressed Anne’s feelings about being an orphan, but this version addressed the complexity of those feelings. Not just from Anne’s perspective but also from her adoptive parents’ too.

It was also interesting and infuriating to see the modern parallels of this decade’s Me Too movement mirrored in a situation Josie Pye finds herself in at the county fair.

Granted, because she’s one of Anne’s biggest enemies, Josie isn’t the most likable character. But watching Billy Andrews try to take advantage of her, and think he had a right to, found me feeling sorry for Anne’s nemesis, especially when she had to deal with the fallout of unfortunate gossip that ensued afterward. I never thought I’d view Josie Pye as a sympathetic character, but this season I did!

Another character who was super likable and used to shed light on a very ugly portion of Canadian history was Anne’s new friend, Ka’kwet, who’s family is Mi’kmaq.

You’d think we as people have come a long way since 1900. In some respects, we have. While watching Ka’kwet’s situation, I couldn’t help but think of modern-day immigration issues and prejudice causing strife worldwide.

Anne, of course, sees the good in the Mi’kmaq people and their culture, but the rest of the town sees them as dangerous and those who must be shown the light, as in being converted to Christianity.

Rachel Lynde can always be counted on to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong. She’s part of the reason Ka’kwet’s parents are approached about sending her to a special school.

Ka’kwet wants to go and be like Anne, who makes school sounds like so much fun. But the school Ka’kwet’s sent to shows the insensitive treatment native people were subjected to, which is heartbreaking. There’s actually a lot of heartbreak packed into this season, as well as an examination of the differences between social classes.

Besides Ka’kwet’s forced removal from her family (twice), the more heart-wrenching moments from season 3 included when Bash’s wife, Mary, dies. That was bad enough, but she wasn’t able to reconcile with her estranged, alcoholic son, Elijah.

Anne’s bestie Diana Barry is also full of surprises this season. She falls for Jerry, the Cuthbert’s hired hand and embarks upon a secret courtship with him until she realizes the differences between them are too great. Meaning, she comes from a rich family, and he doesn’t.

Her superior attitude breaks not only Jerry’s heart but Anne’s as well, which threatens to destroy Anne and Diana’s friendship forever.

Diana isn’t the only one with love and romance on her mind. Because Anne and her schoolmates are now of an age where “courting” is on everyone’s minds, everyone is eager to pair up, including Anne.

It was funny to see that as much as she spent her youth dreaming about love and romance, she’s not prepared for when she encounters it in real life. And she’s certainly not prepared to find that of all the people hers could long for, her heart beats for Gilbert Blythe.

It appears it will be more like one of her unrequited love “tragical romances” from the stories she’d dream up in her youth. Gilbert is smitten with the beautiful Winifred Rose.

And why not? Winifred is charming, sophisticated, witty and beautiful, and she comes from a wealthy family. How can Anne compete with that?

Of course, it turns out she can. Anne with an E diverts from its roots a lot, but it thankfully didn’t mess with the great Gilbert and Anne romance storyline. I had my doubts there through several episodes, though.

Even for all the drama, there’s always some comedy to balance the tragedy, and above all, there’s a lot of heart.

I’m still adjusting to this treatment of the Anne of Green Gables books. It’s much more intense and puts Anne and the others in more uncomfortable situations than any other rendition before it, but that’s what makes it work.

Whether it’s 1900 or 2020, people are essentially the same. We face the same issues, personality types and troubles like war, disease and natural disasters.

We also live in communities, some of which are more tight-knit than others. If, like me, you don’t live in an Avonlea or have a family and support network like Marilla and Matthew, the Barrys, Gilbert, Bash, Ms. Stacey and even Rachel Lynde, Anne with an E fills that void.

Overall, it felt like a lot happened this season. Probably because it did. It was a bit exhausting, to be honest. Yet, it was still perfectly binge-able.

Unfortunately, Anne with an E will not be back for season 4 unless Netflix decides to pick up the series for a fourth season.