'Violet Evergarden' Episode 10

This is probably the episode that makes me cry the most. It is told from the perspective of Ann, the child of an ailing woman, Clara, who hired Violet to write a letter for her. Right away we are treated to the innocence of the child, and the love that she shares with her mother. Throughout the episode she expresses how much she wants to spend as much time as she can with her mother. While Clara tries to reassure Ann that she will get well, Ann knows deep down that her mother is dying. We also see how relatives are already hounding her for the wealth that she has, along with the country house. This is something even Ann brings up.

Violet has been hired for a week for the sole purpose of writing the letter that is requested by Clara. During this week Ann and Violet spend a lot of time together while Clara’s condition steadily deteriorates. The more time that Ann spends with Violet, the higher her opinion of Violet becomes, and the more she does the things that she wants to do with her mother, with Violet. Ann is already aware of this as she admits to Violet that that is indeed the case.

There is a build up of emotions within Ann, where she is trying to be the good well behaved little girl that her mother wants her to be in this difficult time; however there is also the part of her that wants to be selfish. These feelings are brought out during a moment when her mother is having a fit, and unable to hold back any more Ann lets loose her emotions, begging her mother to spend what time she has left, being with her, instead of writing letters. It is a brilliant scene as you can truly feel the desperation in the voice of the character being projected from the screen, as such massive props to the voice actor.

Once Clara dies the girl will be alone because her father was killed as a result of the war that he volunteered for, and in finding out about this, we can see Violet start to empathize more with Ann as a result of having taken part in the war herself. At the end of the episode she finally lets herself feel the loneliness that the girl would be going through, and as a result she broke down into tears. This is the first time we see Violet cry for someone else’s pain, and not for the pain that she herself is going through. She is, at this point, a character that feels a lot more empathy, when compared to when we first meet her. Despite the fact that the show is episodic in nature, the character development, and progression that Violet goes through is organic.

The most emotionally satisfying moment in the episode comes before Violet’s breakdown. We are treated to a montage of Ann’s life. From the moment Violet leaves them, 'til Ann is in her twenties, married, and with a child. It is during this montage that we find out who the letters that Clara was writing is for. Over the course of seven days, Clara had written fifty letters, all for each of the fifty birthdays that Ann would have from the moment that Clara would die. While many people say that our loved ones would always be with us, Clara went above and beyond to make sure that a piece of her will always be a part of Ann’s life. To make sure that she knows she was very much loved. This is an incredibly beautiful gesture in which to end the episode on.