Candy Candy episode 11 review; the bonds of love still hold.

       This episode begins with Candy finding out from the gardener that Mr. Brighton will be visiting the Leagans, and this means that Candy will see Annie again. But, when Mrs. Brighton and Annie arrives at the house,  Annie refuses to acknowledge Kurin’s presence, and when Mrs. Brighton see’s Candy she asks for a private room to speak with Annie. Later, we see Mrs. Brighton telling Candy, in Annie’s presence, that it must not come out that Annie came from an orphanage, so if Candy values Annie she’ll act like she doesn’t know Annie, with much sadness Candy agrees.

 

       When Candy returns to her barn she sees Neil messing around with something, and it turns out that he’s hiding a broken spur. Later, we see Eliza and Neil invite Annie for a horse ride even though she’s frightened of the idea. Outside the barn, Candy drops to her knees and lifts Annie on to the horse. When Annie mounts the horse, Neil scrapes its backside with the broken spur causing the horse to run off in terror with Annie screaming for help. As Neil and Eliza place the blame on Candy she mounts the other horse and gives chase to Annie.

 

        When Candy catches up with Annie they tie the horses up and sit down for a talk, and while Candy talks about Pony Home, Sister Lane, and John, Annie says nothing. Candy tells Annie that they’re alone so she can talk. Annie breaks down in tears telling Candy that she had to/was forced to forget everything; Pony Home, Candy, John, and everyone else, she has to be a Brighton, she has to do this to protect her future happiness. Just as Candy is about to say something to Annie, a car from the Leagan’s shows up and tells Annie they came to her, and that Candy’s in trouble.

 

        When Candy and Annie return to the house, Mrs. Leagan and Eliza blame the whole thing on Candy saying that she was the one who caused the horse to bolt. Candy denies everything and says Neil was the one who did it, Candy rushes into the other room and tells Neil to be a man and tell the truth, and Neil refuses. Candy assaults Neil and tells him if he ever goes near Annie again she’ll make him pay. After the other servants save Neil from Candy, Mrs. Leagan and Eliza try to get Annie to say that this was Candy’s fault. Annie looks from Candy to the others and she begins to cry and tells her mother she can’t take this. Mrs. Brighton defuses the situation by saying that if Candy did this she never meant to hurt Annie, so an apology should do. Candy looks around the room and sees Annie in tears. Candy then apologizes to the group and runs off in tears back to her barn.

 

       While Candy is crying in the barn, the gardener tells Candy that he’s sorry because he saw everything and didn’t have the courage to say anything. Candy tells him that she’s sad not because people tried to blame her, but she’s sad because she lost someone she considered to be her sister. The gardener tells Candy that she didn’t lose Annie, because when Annie screamed in terror, she didn’t call for her mother or father, she called for the person that she loved and trusted the most, Annie called for Candy to save her. When Candy stops crying she sees Mrs. Brighton and Annie leaving, so when Candy rushes from the barn to chase after them she sees that Annie has tied her beautiful hair ribbon to a tree near the barn where Candy is living. Candy takes the ribbon inside and says that this is a token of the friendship that Annie still feels for Candy. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, Candy finally gets to see Annie after about three years have passed since she left Pony Home and Annie refused to acknowledge either Kurin or Candy. Annie left Pony Home to find her happiness and in exchange for a nice house and a “mother” and a father, she’s sold her soul.

       While Annie was at Pony Home she was a quiet and shy girl, but now Annie is not only quiet and shy, she’s now a broken and unhappy child. Sister Lane reminded Candy about the promise of false happiness by telling her that nice dresses and a nice room is not true happiness, but she should have saved the speech of Annie. Sister Lane also told Candy to not let herself be broken, and while Candy suffers at the hands of the Leagan’s, she is still Candy and she still owns her soul. Annie is a broken and unhappy girl, and while she may sleep in peace she has to live the nightmare of renouncing her true self.

       While Annie was forced to renounce Candy and her own self-worth she did manage to leave Candy a small message that she still loves her. Maybe this gesture is a small flicker of hope that Annie can one day come to terms with her identity and her own heart’s desire, but until that day comes, Annie will be just a bird inside a gilded cage.

 

Candy Candy episode 10 review; The barn princess and her court of loving friends.

       This episode begins with all the kids at Pony Home being read a letter from Candy telling them how great of a time she had at the dance, she includes a drawing of her dress, and they think that Candy looks like a princess.

        Meanwhile, back at the Leagan’s house, Candy gets the news that since she’s not a member of the family they’re moving her from the house to the barn. While Eliza and Neil try to depress Candy, she vows to make friends with the horses and not let this action get her down.

        Later, Candy spots Anthony outside the house and when he sees her she goes over and they talk. Candy offer to help him with some lifting, but when she trips and falls, Anthony notices the rough appearance of her hands and he doesn’t seem happy. Later, as Stear is driving his car down the road he almost runs over a little boy who’s walking down the road, and back at the barn, Candy is washing down the horses.

        When Stear arrives at the house, it turns out that the boy is none other than John who’s walked all the way from Pony Home to see Candy in her dress. Just as Candy is about to tell John about the barn, Dorothy comes out of the house and plays along with helping Candy pass off that everything is all right. While Candy isn’t too happy about this, she decides to go along with Dorothy by showing John Eliza’s room and passing it off as her own.

       While the Leagan’s weren’t supposed to be back until late it seems that they’re coming back earlier than expected. As Candy is modeling her dress for John, Eliza walks in the room and begins insulting both Candy and John, but before it can go too far the mother walks in and tells Eliza to cut it out. We then find out that Sister Lane has come to fetch John and the mother says that they need to keep up appearances for the honor of the Leagan household.

       Well, it seems that John felt that if he ran away it would force a meeting between Sister Lane and Candy, so they could check on her. Later, as John is playing with Kurin he finds out that candy is sleeping in the barn but Candy tells him not to tell the sisters. Candy tells him that the only way she’s not a princess is if she gives in to the real princess.

        That evening, Sister Lane, Candy, and John share the same bedroom and Sister Lane tells Candy that now she can be a peace after seeing her. John tries to spill the beans about Candy’s treatment, but Candy stops him from doing it. We can see that Sister Lane knows something is terribly wrong here, but all she does is cry in silence.

       The next morning, Mrs Leagan has Candy ride with Sister Lane and John halfway beck to Pony Home, and as they’re driving down the road Stear and Archie catches up with them in Stear’s car. After Stear and Archie introduce themselves and tell Sister Lane that they’ll look after Candy, Sister lane asks to speak to Candy in private. She tells Candy that she had come to take her back to Pony Home, and that she knew Candy was having a tough time here, but she feels better after knowing that Candy has friends that love her. She tells Candy that putting on a pretty dress and sleeping in a nice room is not happiness, but she also says that now that she knows Candy has so many friends she won’t force her home. She tells Candy that happiness is having a warm heart and good friends, and Candy agrees with her.

       After Sister Lane and John leave, Stear asks if anything happened between her and Anthony the other day, and Candy tells them it was her hands. Later, when Candy’s inside the barn Anthony stops by and gives Candy a rose and tells her that he didn’t know they were working her so hard. He tells Candy that next time they meet he’ll make that her birthday and he’ll give her a even nicer rose. Then, Anthony holds his arms out for Candy and when she takes his arms he promises her that next time they meet it’ll be her birthday. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, every time something nice happens to Candy something equally bad or even worse come along to spoil it, ahhh…….such is life for our poor orphan. What I found very interesting was that even though Candy always sent nice letters to Pony Home Sister Lane knew that something was wrong with Candy. What was equally interesting was that Sister Lane had come to take Candy back  but decides to leave Candy there once she sees that while the Leagans treat her poorly she’s surrounded by other loving people.

       I liked the warning about false happiness that Sister Lane leaves Candy with that “putting on fancy dresses, and living in a beautiful room is not true happiness. Trues happiness is the warm hearts of your friends”.

        The meaner and crueler Eliza treats Candy the more Anthony, Stear, and Archie despises her for her actions, and while Eliza desires Anthony she’ll never have him because his heart belongs to Candy. I really look forward to watching Candy enjoy a moment of sweetness when Anthony gives Candy her birthday present.

 

Candy Candy episode 9 review; Candy, the belle of the ball?

 

        Well, the day of the big party arrives and Candy has no proper dress to wear, and with Dorothy’s encouragement Candy decides to go wearing her normal clothes. On the way to the party, Neil and Eliza make fun of Candy’s lack of proper dress. Eliza prays that Anthony will notice her, and Candy gets warned about grand aunt Elroy, she expects politeness and courtesy. As the car heads up the road, Candy remembers that this road leads to the rose gates where she met her prince.

      As the car approaches the house, Candy marvels that it looks like a castle and how she doesn’t belong here. When the car stops, Stear and Archie greet Candy before greeting anyone else, Eliza runs off trying to find Anthony and they leave Candy behind. As Candy is about to be escorted inside by Stear and Archie, Candy spots her prince and they exchange glances, and Candy’s memories are stirred by the appearance of her prince.

         Just as Candy finds out that her prince is named Anthony, she figures out that he’s the one that Eliza likes, and Anthony formally introduces himself to Candy as Anthony Brown. Eliza calls Candy her servant, Candy says she’s supposed to be her playmate, but Anthony says that since Candy was officially invited she gets treated the same as any other guest. Soon, everyone is called inside for the start of the party and Archie makes Candy laugh getting her in trouble with aunt Elroy, but Archie, Stear, and Anthony bail her out. As dinner begins, the three boys and Candy ditch the party to hangout together, and they tell Candy a ghost story about the house. Later, the three boys leave Candy because they want to talk in private, and we see that Neil and Eliza were spying on Candy.

        Neil and Eliza don’t want Candy to be here but they can’t throw her out because she’s a guest of Stear and Archie so Eliza says she has a plan. In another room, Archie shows off a dress he bought for Candy to Stear and Anthony, he didn’t want Candy to look out of place at the party. Eliza unleashes her plan on Candy, she fakes that she’s feeling ill and asks Candy to ready a bed for her, and Neil tells her that the last room on the third floor will do, Candy rushes off to get the room ready. When Candy goes inside the room, Neil and Eliza lock the door behind Candy and tell her to beware of ghosts. Back with the boys, Stear also shows off a dress that he got for Candy, and just as they’re about to argue about dresses Anthony tells them to put the two dresses together while he tells Candy. Eliza tells Anthony not to worry about Candy but he tells her that Candy might have gotten lost and he has to find her.

       Candy starts to freak out inside the locked room while Anthony searches for her, but soon Anthony heads down towards the dance and gets dragged to the dance floor by Eliza. Candy eventually manages to force the door open, and she runs into Anthony who she thinks is a ghost. After Anthony rescues Candy, he takes her to Archie and Stear who’ve have finished the dress for Candy.

         Candy puts on the nice dress that the guys made for her, and Anthony lets Candy wear some of his mother’s jewelry. When Candy makes her appearance escorted by Archie, Stear, and Anthony it draws shocked stares from the crowd. Anthony grabs the first dance with Candy, then Stear and Archie get their turn dancing with Candy. When Candy and Anthony are dancing she asks him if he knows Pony home, and Anthony says he doesn’t. Eliza and Neil’s mother says that the crowd thinks that they were compassionate for bringing a servant to the party but her husband says that they really disapprove of the idea but Candy’s pure nature wins them over, and she thinks to herself that she can’t let this go on for much longer. Candy thinks to herself that while she enjoys dancing with Archie and Stear her dances with Anthony remind her of that gentle moment with her prince on the hill. Well, that’s all for this episode.

         Well, Candy finally got to meet her prince on the hill or at least she thinks that he might be her prince, but I think that Anthony isn’t her first prince and I think that Candy realizes it too. Anthony does closely resemble Candy’s first prince from Pony home but I think that Anthony is too young to be Candy’s first prince. I think that Neil’s and Eliza’s father has it right about Candy, she’s a pure and honest girl and it shows, and while it might endear some people to her most of the rich older folks still don’t approve of her. I feel that Anthony, Archie, and Stear are attracted to Candy because they can see what girls like Eliza are all about and they just can’t compare to a girl like Candy. While Candy might think that things are looking up we can see the storm clouds gathering in the distance; Candy is too much of a threat to the natural order of the Leagan household and the mother will soon take action. What I don’t like is that the father knows what’s going on and he fails to take action, he knows that Neil and Eliza are spoiled brats and he knows that having Candy around should be good for them but he really lends her no support.