Emily of New Moon Episode 7 – Beloved Forest

And so the alarming news that John is going to cut down the forest reaches the Murray household, shocking Elizabeth, Laura, Jimmy, and most especially Emily. Elizabeth, Laura and Jimmy were out of ideas on how to go about convincing John from doing this, knowing how stubborn he is. Emily couldn’t bear the thought of having this forest she love cut down, especially after having heard Jimmy’s words of how this will greatly affect New Moon. According to Jimmy, without this forest, their plants would most likely be unable to grow since it acts as their ‘shield’ against the strong winds coming from the sea.

Emily struggled for ideas on how to persuade John, and tried to put herself in his shoes (if she also became really angry to the point of wanting to cut down the forest herself). She thinks that if Elizabeth were to stop her from doing so, then she’d most likely turn a deaf ear to what she says and would rather make her give her more headaches than listen to her. Laura and Jimmy convincing her would also be ineffective because they would be too ‘soft’, and beg her to think about her actions. If the one who talks to her was to be her father however, she certainly would be convinced and stop what she’s planning to do, and Emily wonders if there is that certain person (like her father) who would be able to convince John as well.

The following day, Perry arrives and informs Emily about their local priest Father Cassidy, who he thinks could most likely be the person to convince John about the matter, and asks her to tell Aunt Elizabeth to talk to this priest (since he’s quite a strict and unfriendly person, much like Elizabeth perhaps). Emily thinks it would be impossible to convince her aunt to do that, and decides to talk to Father Cassidy all by herself. Unknown to Emily, John actually misses her and is anxiously waiting for her return.

Later that night, Jimmy arrives, wondering where Emily is, but Perry didn’t tell him exactly where she went. As Jimmy cleans the furnace(?), he sees the retained traces of Emily’s notebook and realizes that this was the reason behind Emily’s sadness the other day. Meanwhile, Emily reaches White Cross where Father Cassidy resides, who takes notice of Emily’s fairy-like ears. Emily says that she’s able to see Mrs. Wind, but has never before seen a fairy all her life, and shares with him a poem she recently made about Mrs. Wind and the forest in John’s place, much to Cassidy’s amazement. She tells him that the very reason she came to him is to ask his help and persuade John not to continue with his plans to cut it down. Cassidy understands this, and agrees to do what he can to convince him, then tells Emily to continue on writing, seeing the great potential that she has.

The next day, John finishes the ‘Emily doll’ he was making, and then senses the presence of someone in his place. John thought it was Emily, only to find that it was no other than Father Cassidy, who asks him if he really intends to cut down the beautiful forest. Emily’s class ends, and on her way home, she comes across John who is on a carriage. He invites Emily on a ride, and talks about what Father Cassidy told him. He also tells Emily that he didn’t really intend to cut down the forest, and that he thought that having Emily come and plead him would be enough to stop him from doing so. With this, he requests Emily to act as though she’s pleading to him, with which John gives his ‘condition’ on not cutting down the trees - that is, for their relationship to be as it was before, and that she’ll frequently visit and spend time at his house again.

As Emily arrives home, she informs everyone about the great news with all excitement, and Elizabeth actually thanks her for what she did (but mentions that she won’t be thanking her again the next time she does something like this). Laura, Jimmy, and Emily understands that Elizabeth is being ‘dishonest’ about what she said, knowing how she always puts out this ‘facade’ of pride. Later that day, Jimmy gives her a present as a ‘reward’ for what she did (the flowers’ way of showing their gratitude, he says), a new notebook she can use for writing letters to her father once again.

Thoughts

I guess my presumption in the previous episode was wrong, seeing that John’s plan to cut down the forest was simply an ‘impulse’ decision that he wasn’t really intending to do. He just did this to piss Elizabeth more, but he would never want to hurt Emily’s feelings. Seeing how John was able to reflect on what he did, and realized what he did to Emily changed my thoughts about him in the earlier episode (especially because I thought he already cut down the forest >_<). In the end, it seems that her ‘hatred’ for Elizabeth isn’t that deeply rooted for him to lose sight of what he holds dear in his heart (Emily, the forest, his land… :) ).

It seems that Emily didn’t think of herself as the very ‘person’ who can convince John (which she also asked herself), and it’s most likely because she really thought she was the one who drove him into doing that (and that she was the cause of her anger). She ended up asking help from Father Cassidy, which is but great, seeing that he didn’t serve only to help with John’s problem but also uplifted her spirits as he advises her to continue writing. I see him becoming one of Emily’s pillar of support, aside from Jimmy, Perry, Ilse, and Teddy, especially when problems with Elizabeth still arise in the future.

Elizabeth seemed to be ‘opening up’ more to Emily in this episode (just slightly), as she comes to admire what Emily did to stop John’s plans to cut down the trees. She’s a pretty understanding aunt, considering that she seems to have forgiven Emily for what she did to her in the last episode. And as usual, Jimmy was quick to find out what was troubling Emily the other day, and knows just how to cheer her up once again. With the new notebook he gave, she could once again write to her father the same way she did before.

We didn’t see Ilse and Teddy in this episode… and just a teeny bit of Perry. The series is still focusing pretty much on Emily, and in the next episode, we’ll see a glimpse about the past of Emily’s mom (and some revelations about Elizabeth most likely). From what I can see in the preview, Elizabeth had this soft expression on her face when Emily hugged her in her sleep… it’ll be great to know about the even deeper side of Elizabeth’s personality.