AKA Nathan’s over here doing some romantic stuff
Hope Valley. When you think of When Calls The Heart and its many years on the air, I guarantee you that one of the first things that comes to mind is that name. Hope Valley is a small town, but there isn’t a person in this town who doesn’t have big dreams. Well, big dreams for the time. From Elizabeth to Rosemary, from Leland to Lucas, and so many more – Hope Valley is home. Any of them gone feels like a piece of them all is missing.
It is the end of the summer, and Nathan and Elizabeth are ready to return to Hope Valley. Elizabeth is ready to teach, the kids are ready to go back to school, and Nathan to be back out on his horse. They left Hope Valley for a valid reason – getting Little Jack the help he needs for his diabetes. The four of them are such a strong unit, but each one is missing a part of themselves being away from Hope Valley.
There is a big contrast between Elizabeth in season one to Elizabeth now that she’s found her home in Hope Valley. There is this joy in all of their eyes when they are there and an emptiness when they aren’t. Hope Valley has been moving heaven and earth to set up an insulin clinic so that Nathan, Elizabeth, and their children can come home.
STRIKES
Enter a railroad strike. All of the work that the community has done – setting up the clinic, getting a generator, getting a fridge – it is no surprise that everyone feels defeated. The person who needs to clear the clinic can’t get there because of the strike.
It doesn’t mean that the family can’t head home for a bit to see Goldie National Park be christened and celebrate with their family. The people of Hope Valley are so close that I do believe that they are all family of the chosen kind.
There’s a light that returns to each one of them, and I think that’s because of the community, as well as celebrating the wins of that community. What every one of these characters is doing is building a legacy for Hope Valley, as well as themselves. There is not a character in this show that isn’t of the absolute most importance. The people of Hope Valley are making sure that everybody is involved in what is created. They’re making sure that there is an impact on not only the valley but everyone in the region.
The park is due to be christened, the playhouse opening, and the first stoplight. I can’t help but love that there are all of these things that are so big for the time.
DON’T WORK TOO HARD
Elizabeth and Nathan are not the only people who are experiencing change. Lucas is back in town (even got his first driving ticket), and it is quite funny. Edie is prepared to move out of his office, but he tells her they can put in another desk. He seems perplexed that she would want to leave, but that’s a whole other story. She challenges him, and it is in a completely different way than Elizabeth ever did.
It is nice seeing Lucas move forward with his life and open his heart even more. He is crushing hard on Edie. Crushing so hard that he is spiraling over Edie, doing something as simple as telling him, “Don’t work too hard.” I belly laughed when he asked Leland what she could have meant by that. Oh, Lucas, your spiral is getting out of hand.
What does don’t work too hard mean? It’s not saying you’re not working. It’s going to slow down a bit, you maybe you know, don’t work too hard. He needs to think and realize she’s saying that you work really hard and that somebody is proud of that moment.
It’s kind of cute and kind of endearing to see that people, no matter what the day and age, are nervous about falling in love or letting someone in. Showing that they care about anybody – well, it’s a scary thing no matter the time.
Lucas and Edie are going to need to find their way because neither of them seems to know how to communicate with each other, but can with others.
Problems, no matter the time – well, it goes to show that things are universal. I do think that Lucas has been so focused on work that he’s forgotten to feel and allow himself love. It’s a weird line to stand on – he’s so closed off but so open at the same time. I do hope that he finds a way.
WELCOME PAMPHLET
Elizabeth has asked Minnie to take over her teaching responsibilities until she comes back. It feels like Minnie has a lot on her shoulders, but she agrees. She knows that it will be a lot, but Joseph assures her that people will help. Toby and Cooper assure her that they will help.
The kids of Hope Valley are such an important part of the fabric of the town. They are excited for school to start and even more excited for the national park. Some are writing their essays for the welcome pamphlet. For each one of them, this is a very personal thing, and it exhibits the pride that they have in their home.
It’s endearing to see how much of the kids’ lives are built on being active in the community and the terrain. Definitely outside kids. It is a reminder of a long time ago when people didn’t have Internet or electricity. They didn’t spend all their time on their phone, doomscrolling on their phones. Granted, they didn’t have phones, but you know what I mean. The kids are very excited to help and to be there for their families, which nowadays it just seems like that’s so different.
STAY
Elizabeth and Nathan love each other unconditionally. I can’t imagine living in a time when they couldn’t just be unwed and doing their thing. But they can’t. However, it doesn’t mean that they don’t do everything together.
Though after Allie reads Elizabeth her letter for the pamphlet, Elizabeth wants to convince Nathan to stay in Hope Valley with Allie, and let her and Jack be the ones to leave. It isn’t forever, it’s just for now. Nathan hates that Elizabeth has lost the sparkle in her eyes. She’d never say that she was stressed, but she is.
Nathan, though – he lives by the “where you go, we go” state of mind.
Nathan is Elizabeth’s second chance a love so deep and forever. He’s the person that she can feel alive with, and you want that for Elizabeth. But you also want her not to be self-sacrificing. Let him love you, Elizabeth. Just watching Elizabeth, you want her to feel loved deeply and that she can be loved. Her whole life is coming to the moment where, like, she has this opportunity to move to this beautiful future.
There is more than one soulmate in people’s lives. Jack – I feel like he would approve of this and want her to allow Nathan in. She’s gone through a lot of loss, but Nathan is her present and future. I feel like he’s the future that Jack left for her and wants her to see.
THE CLINIC
Nathan wants to make everyone happy – especially Elizabeth and his daughter, Allie. It’s Allie’s last year of school, and he knows that she wants to stay, but also will go. With the railroad strike and the instructor stuck, he doesn’t know what to do.
Until he remembers what to do. He knows someone who knows someone who can pilot. Nathan is on some romantic s*** and makes arrangements to get the inspector to Hope Valley via the air.
I can’t even imagine what that costs.
Nathan is pulling strings for his family. Elizabeth and Little Jack are his family, as well as Allie.
The clinic does get cleared, and the most beautiful thing about that is that the whole town comes together to celebrate. I was excited because Elizabeth, Little Jack, Nathan, and Allie got to stay. Them all getting to stay is like a piece of Hope Valley, like coming back together.
TRAILS
The kids decide that they’re gonna go to the park and they are going to put up some more trail markers. It’s supposed to be this great day, but Oliver ends up not being able to go because he needs to stay and watch at the visitor center. Bill wants to make sure that there’s nothing that disrupts the town that happens there.
The National Park opening needs to go off without a hitch.
There is smoke spotted off in the distance – from the National Park. Nathan and Thomas are definitely going in to get their kids. Oliver, even though instructed to stay, wasn’t going to listen. That was his friends in there. Allie was in there. He needed to make sure they were okay.
I think that’s part of what I love about Oliver – he’s young and naïve – but also fearless. Everyone in Hope Valley has a distinct personality.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Hope Valley is home to all these people. They may all live in different houses, but like they’re all one big family. They would move heaven and earth to make sure that everybody is taken care of. I wanted to crawl through the television and hug everyone – especially Little Jack – and tell them it will be okay. They will all come home. But we don’t know if they will.
After all, it ends with the three riding off into the park.
We don’t know where the fire is, how it will spread.
I think that one of the things that Hallmark does so well with When Calls the Heart, is that they’ve made it part of their legacy. They’ve invested in it. However, even after all these seasons, they still find a way to make it feel brand new. We won’t know what’s gonna happen until the next episode, but what we are guessing is that there will be a mixture of survival and pain.
Hope Valley is kicking off with a lot to think about. We’re glad that Nathan gets to stay. We’re glad Elizabeth gets to stay, and the children get to stay there. There is nothing better than being home.
Now we just have to wait to see where the fire takes us and what happens there.
When Calls The Heart airs Sunday nights on The Hallmark Channel.
