Anna Pigeon Season 1 Episode 9 “Nature vs. Nurture” lets us see a side of Anna we’ve never seen before. Because we’ve seen investigator Anna, ranger Anna, lover Anna, friend Anna, grumpy cat lady Anna, leader Anna, etc. But we’ve never seen Anna as a little sister.
Now, we’ve seen interactions between Anna and Molly throughout the series. But there’s always been this buffer between them because of the distance. In “Nature vs. Nurture,” the distance is gone. And while we still see shades of the Anna we have come to know and love, there’s a lightness to her that we’ve never seen before.
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Molly is someone who knows Anna down to her very bones. And it almost feels like when an adult who is more adult than you enters the room and you can relax a little bit. That’s what I saw with Anna when Molly arrived at the park. Anna was playful and almost a little goofy with her sister. And it spoke to how comfortable Anna feels being herself around her sister.
In a way, I feel like we saw who Anna is for the very first time in the entirety of Season 1 of Anna Pigeon. And that doesn’t take away from everything that we’ve learned so far. But it goes to show you another layer to Anna that many women on TV aren’t allowed to have. Because oftentimes when we get a tough and broody woman like Anna on TV, we don’t get to see the playful, gentle, or teasing side of her. We saw these sides in “Nature vs. Nurture.”
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I also really liked how this episode helped contextualize Molly and her experience with Anna, but also outside of Anna.
As an older sister, I get where Molly’s coming from. I don’t want babies because I already raised my babies, aka my siblings. And that parentification does create a dynamic that was unfair to me and is unfair to Molly and Anna. But like Molly, if I had to do it all over again, I would. And I got to learn that about Molly in “Nature vs. Nurture” while experiencing her pain over having to raise her sibling, the anxiety that she has over Anna’s well-being, but also the things that Molly carries on the daily because she had to grow up fast.
On the romance side of things, I’m so glad Jesse isn’t dead. Because I was very very concerned that he wasn’t going to make it, and this was the final stop for him as a character on this show. I’m glad I was wrong. I’m also glad I was wrong in any of the past judgments that I held for Jesse. Because I thought he was going to be a one-note character, because that’s what happens when you’re a romantic interest. But Anna Pigeon made sure he has a past, things he regrets, and things he hopes for the future.
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When it comes to the relationship between Anna and Jesse, I’m over the moon that Anna Pigeon didn’t go the stereotypical way and try to make his shooting a catalyst for Anna moving in with Jesse. It wasn’t the right time. Maybe it’ll never be the right time. But that doesn’t take away from the care that they feel for each other and the time that they have spent with each other. Sometimes people are just a stop along the way until your next big love or adventure. And it’s okay to admit that.
Then there’s the murder of Anna’s husband. I feel like I turned around and boom, we’re close to figuring out who murdered him. And also, the river is being poisoned because of Jeremiah?? And I understand that the show focuses a lot on Anna herself and what’s going on in her journey. But I think there is a little imbalance in how the murder and the mystery of the river are being dealt with. Because it feels a little sudden and like we’re switching gears in a big way without it feeling totally earned.
If Anna Pigeon gets a season 2, I definitely hope that they find a better balance between Anna, the cases of the week, and the overall mystery of the season. But for a short Season 1, Anna Pigeon is doing a phenomenal job of building a woman character that feels like someone I would know. Or maybe just someone I feel like I am sometimes. Because I don’t have to fit myself into a box. And we shouldn’t force the women on our screens to do the same thing.
Anna Pigeon airs new episodes Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on USA Network.
