Road to Avonlea Guide

Gus Almost Cheated on Felicity and was Engaged to Another Woman

Avonlea Blog

Was Gus caught in scandelous no-good cheating behavior? Read-on and you be the judge!

In the climactic moments of the fifth season episode Otherwise Engaged, Gus gives his prized red ring to Felicity and expresses his devotion to her.  Following this episode, Gus leaves Avonlea for maritime work on the open seas. Although Gus gave this enduring promise of love, Felicity is shocked to her core the next time she sees him.

In the opening episode of the sixth season, The Return of Gus Pike, Felicity and Felix spot Gus frolicking with a mysterious woman in a Halifax market place.  Shockingly Gus is flirtatiously feeding the woman strawberries. To make the scandal worse, the woman is Charlotte Aims-The wife of Gus's boss Captain Aims- who is graciously allowing him to stay at their Brisko street residence.

What a no-good two-timer! Right?  How could there be any reasonable explanation for this scandelous behavior?

Apparently, even the writers had difficulty explaining this away.  Following an off-camera moment, Gus and Felicity comment about having a good talk and resolving this issue, AND YET we never hear his explanation.  This is likely because Marlene Mathews couldn't even give the sorry cheater an excuse.

The origin for this confusing story arc was derived from the original script for this episode where Gus wasn't just flirting with Charlotte, they were actually engaged!

In a September 1994 interview with Jackie Burroughs, Alexandra Heilbron revealed publicity materials to Jackie for the upcoming events of season six. One of the events provided a startling revelation:

There's something here about Gus being with another woman; about him coming back to Avonlea with his new fiancé.

Apparently, 'Return of Gus Pike' was originally going to feature Gus returning to Avonlea engaged to Charlotte Aims, despite giving his ring to Felicity in 'Otherwise Engaged' and pledging his committed devotion.

The story was obviously changed to a misunderstanding, but it's interesting to wonder how this cheating scenario would have been explained.

If Gus did return with a new fiancé, would it have changed your perception or respect for Gus Pike?

rogp7

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Comments (8)

  • Very disappointed to find out Gus was a phony. All these years I thought Gus Pike was an honorable man, a man of his word. He duped us all, sad to say. This might be why he don't want to return in the last episode. It wasn't because he was blind. It was because he was cheating on Felicity, first with suzette then with this married woman, and probably other woman.:(

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  • Gus Pike also bailed on Felicity in Happy Christmas Miss King. Word is Michael Mahonen was holding out for more money. You'd think he wouldn't mind less pay to have a reunion with the cast, not to mention his on-screen wife. Some may point out that Sarah Polley was absent as well. But I'll give her a pass since she surprised me, as well as Felicity, when her character returned for Felicity's wedding with enthusiastic support in the series finale.

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  • I just watched this episode the other day, and I'm sorry, but the acting to me is cutesy flirting. Even when Charlotte brings in her husband, she slyly says "Come along Gus". All I can think is reverse sister wives!
    Gus mentions several times how much he loves Felicity, the plot of him coming back with someone to whom he is engaged does not make any sense for his character. The only way I could see this is if he felt responsible for someone's husband and/or fiance being killed and wanted to take responsibility. Similar to Alec in Evelyn, but with the relationship going further.

    This episode felt jilted regarding it's plot, even as a kid, I remember thinking the cut from Gus and Felicity talking, to Gus saying "Glad we got to talk" was random.

    And if they wrote to each other, wouldn't they know that they would both be in Halifax (aka Toronto's distillery district) at the same time?

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  • That's very true Michael about bailing on Felicity. I think Mahonen said later that he regretted the decision, and it likely hurt Happy Christmas Miss King (ahem, I mean an Avonlea Christmas) because they had to rewrite the script.

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  • I laughed at your mention of Sister Wives and Charlotte saying "Come along Gus." That's too funny. I'm surprised that Captain Aims wasn't suspicious, or maybe he was fine with it? This whole thing gets weirder the more I think about it. Avoiding that pivotal scene where Gus explains it all was really a major cop out by the writers. Felicity looked like she was going to kill him, but somehow they had a "good talk" and all was fine? That might have worked in Return to Me but it doesn't work here.

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  • Allyson Oplinger

    Here are my two issues with this episode:
    1. If they are staying with this woman at Rose cottage, where is Sarah? With her being so inquisitive and romantic and nature I would think she would be totally into this mystery.
    2. Gus’s “talk” with Felicity is too abrupt, he doesn’t make a “move” sexually on her ever, and their goodbye kisses were tepid at best. Innocence is fine and it’s one of the things I love about this show, but they are both young and in good health. Gus is a sailor. I find it hard to believe he wouldn’t try anything with Felicity. Though it begs the question: is Gus a Virgin when he does marry Felicity?

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  • Lucy

    Honestly, this take is absurd. Gus never cheated. Nor even came close. No one did. It was simply a matter of the writers originally having a different story line, and then deciding to change it, (thank goodness!) and therefore, having it come out a bit confused. Charlotte Aims was married to someone else, Gus was staying with them, and that is ALL. There was no 'hanky panky'. Felicity was just meant to think there was, so that she got mad and stormed out, only to find out later that there was nothing to it, because she never met Charlotte's husband, as she left in a huff. I did find the character of Charlotte annoying and a little too friendly, but again, I think that was just due to a change in the story line. Imo, Felicity was the only one that was being a total brat, as she strung Gus along for such a long time, and played Gus against Arthur. That was mean AND disloyal. Yet Gus kept holding on.
    Then she also nearly married someone else, until she discovered Gus was still alive. I always thought that Gus was too nice for her until she finally matured. Gus was never unfaithful in any way, he was completely devoted to Felicity (which is part of the reason so many women had a bad crush on that character, such devotion is rare) and proposed how many times? before she finally realised, only after she thought he was dead mind you, how much he really meant to her! Gus was never involved with Suzette either! She kept making advances on Gus, and he turned her down. That was always very clear. and Suzette caused a rift and helped push Felicity to Arthur. Now, this trope is annoyingly viewed as 'feminist' 'strong female' which this actual feminist calls nonsense on. It's not Ok for women or men to play with people's feelings, be disloyal, or date more than one person at a time. Yes, I'm 'old fashioned' and proud of that. Feminism was never supposed to be about women being as disloyal, shallow and sexist as they complained about men being. Only thing that did annoy me was the actor of Gus apparently bailing on the series, wanting to make it in Hollywood. So I heard anyway. Hopefully he realised what a cesspool Hollyweird actually is. Wholesome series like this should be the norm, not seen as outdated and needing to look for roles that are more 'gritty or edgy' which just translates into - trashy. As for why Gus did not make a move 'sexually' lol, obviously because that was not allowed back then till you were married one, and Gus WAS a gentleman. Unlike Arthur who wanted Felicity to be more 'modern'. And two, these are shows for kids also. Glad it didn't have sexual things in it thank you very much.

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  • Nikki

    really, mseevers, Gus didn't cheat on Felicity with suzette. suzette liked Gus, but Gus didn't like suzette.

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