The blonde girl, who introduces herself as Ilse Burnley, teases Emily and comments on how childish her dress looks like. Emily gets mad at this and runs after her, but her skirt gets caught up on the fence. The teacher sees Emily and her dress gets torn as she steps back in surprise. In class, Emily introduces herself, and some of her classmates talk gossip about her being a member of the stuck-up Murray family. Her classmates ask her what she likes to do, and so Emily shares her interest in reading books and poetry. After some discussions with regards to Emily’s comments on being able to see and feel the wind, and other beauty of nature, she was made to sit in front of Ilse. Classes start and Emily asks her seatmate to share her book, but was ignored. Ilse offers her book, but Emily refuses and ignores her instead.

After class, Rhoda Stewart befriends Emily and tells her that she’s interested in reading her works. She gives Emily what seems to be a biscuit box for a present. She opens the box and was startled to see a snake inside. Rhoda deeply apologizes for this, and says that it must be some prank by their other classmates. They walk home together, and Rhoda tells her that Ilse is the one who told the girls to be mean to her, since she bears a grudge against the Murrays. She adds that Ilse’s father is a sorcerer who uses magic to curse people, so no one can go against her. Rhoda tells her the way to Ilse’s house, and advises her to bring a rose the next day as her protection against Ilse. Emily decides to go to Ilse’s house, and Jimmy sees her. As Emily takes a peek at Ilse’s house, she sees Ilse’s father experimenting on something. This makes her believe that what Rhoda said about him being a sorcerer was indeed true. As she was about to leave, Ilse catches her and comments on how she’s like a thief with what she’s doing. Emily could not accept this, and calls her a coward (because of doing things behind her back). With the headstrong personality that these two girls have, they end up having a “fight in the mud”. Ilse’s father sees them and they stop their fight.

Emily carefully goes inside the house to avoid being noticed by her aunt Elizabeth, who actually noticed her return and was already waiting for her by the stairs. Emily was out of words to explain to her about what happened. Perry helps her explain and tells Elizabeth that the reason why Emily looked like that was because she fell down Jimmy’s carriage (since Jimmy was supposed to pick her up in school). Jimmy comes in just in time and supports Perry’s statement by adding that a cow suddenly appeared and scared the horse. Elizabeth just tells her to change her clothes before washing herself up. Emily tells Jimmy about her fight with Ilse, and told it with such excitement and happiness because it was the first “big” fight of her life. Emily wonders how her father would react if she tells him about it, and decides to write a letter to his father about this experience.

Emily looks for Saucy Sal, who she found by the window of what she called a “secret library”. Emily was in awe of the scenery she saw through the window, and decides to spend each day writing in that place. She writes her letter from her father, saying “…Even if Ilse is indeed capable of using magic, I definitely won’t lose to her!”

The next day, Ilse acts as though nothing happened. She notices Emily looking at her and grins at her, but Emily just ignores her. After class, Emily confronts Ilse regarding her casual attitude despite their “fight” the other day, and Ilse simply tells her she didn’t feel like fighting anymore. Just when Emily was about to say that she’s still not finished dealing with her (because of what she thought Ilse plotted), they overhear Rhoda’s conversation with the girls about how stupid Emily is for actually believing her. Emily could not forgive Rhoda for deceiving her, and gives her a good slap. She reprimands Rhoda for what she did and tells her that she shouldn’t be doing this to her simply because she holds a grudge against the Murrays. “I am me, Emily!”, she says. The girls could not let her go for what she did to Rhoda, and takes her notebook from her. They start reading Emily’s letter to her father, but Ilse confiscates the notebook from them and scolds them for reading something that’s not theirs. Emily and Ilse runs away and the girls run after them. Ilse rides her carriage and Emily catches up with her and tags along. The girls have already lost their strength to go on chasing after them, infuriating Rhoda even more.

Emily apologizes to Ilse for calling her a coward, Ilse also apologizes for calling her “young lady” because she should’ve called her “shrewd stone head” instead (due to their “head butt” incident), and they just laughed at their own silliness. Ilse’s father, who’s been sleeping at the back of the carriage, wakes up and sees Emily. Ilse introduces Emily to her father, who she finds out was actually a physician. Ilse laughs at Emily for believing that her father was a sorcerer who makes potions, and Emily says she’s relieved that it wasn’t true. Ilse’s father is headed towards the house of Teddy, a sickly young boy, who he visits once every week. Ilse and Emily gets some flowers to give Teddy, who was spending his time drawing outside the house. Ilse greets Teddy, and Emily blushes upon seeing his face. Both of them seemed to be in “awe” at the sight of each other, and spent quite some time simply staring at each other… then exchanged smiles as the wind blows…

Thoughts:

I just love seeing Emily being headstrong as ever, getting herself into fights and not backing down a single inch Ilse who I thought would really be a bully (based from the first impression I got from the previous episode), turned out to be an Emily-like character, though I found Ilse more fun because of her mischievous and playful side. She didn’t turn out to be out-of-character from the Ilse in the novel after all (or so I think, based on what people said). I was just a little disappointed that Emily wasn’t quite perceptive enough (and somewhat judgmental) and trusted Rhoda easily… I mean, it’s quite clear that Ilse was just teasing her at the start… but oh well, we can’t really blame her because she’s still naive, and Rhoda’s like the first person to have shown her “kindness” (or so she thought). Judgmental as I thought she was, her forgiving quality makes up for this. I just think she has to learn from this experience and be able to discern the “bad” people in the future

Emily once again mentions something she said in episode 1, about seeing her as herself, and not in comparison to others. Emily is indeed a unique character, and she knows just what she’s worth by telling Rhoda to see her as herself, as “Emily”. Rhoda was pretty much infuriated because of what happened… and I wonder if she’s still going to continue bugging Emily in the next episodes, and be the “Lavina” of this show o_o Not that it bothers me that much, since I know Emily (and Ilse) will just kick her a*s in the end XDD

I like how the problems and misunderstandings were quickly resolved in this episode, unlike some melodramas which can drag these kind of “plot” till who knows how many episodes… x__x Ilse and Emily are great friends in the end~ yay! Though, do I sense a love triangle with Teddy, Ilse, and Emily…? Hmm… this can be interesting… but from what I can see in this episode, it’s like Teddy is simply a friend to Ilse, but the “mood” is different with Teddy and Emily :3 Now that I think about it, Ilse would be a better pair for the bratty Perry! hehe