I am fully aware that the first season of a new show is establishing the community as well as the characters. Sometimes you relate and sometimes you don’t. There are moments that you find yourself with regret over what you thought and also moments where you fall deeper in investment towards the show. Hope Valley: 1874 is confusing me.
While I love the relationships in the show, I think that one of the best parts of this show is that we are not only seeing the relationships, but we’re seeing how the frontier is changing. We’re seeing how hard change is for everyone, but also how necessary it is. Change is the only thing that keeps people moving forward.
I have been vocal on the fact I don’t trust Tom Moore. However the more of this show that I watch the more I see that he is just a man that has lived a life that he doesn’t know how to move past the pain that he has felt and has instead made sure that he is guarded and doesn’t have to feel that pain again.
When I am wrong, I can say that I am wrong. It is not hard for me to admit that who I thought that Tom Moore was is something that I was really wrong about. Tom Moore is not a man that is bad or that one should be scared of.
He’s a man filled with heart.
I do love that Tom and Rebecca challenge each other and this is an example of how they do. Rebecca is desperate for lumber. She needs it to finish the boarding house and so she makes a bet with Moore. In a battle of the sexes Rebecca says that she will plow his field if he will give her lumber. It all starts from him and her debating which is harder – repairing a boarding house or plowing a field.
This all starts when Nash is hurt. He’s out doing his job when he’s bucked off his horse due to a snake. God, I hate snakes and apparently his horse does too. Nash tries to be strong and not show his pain, but it is impossible not to show.
One thing I think that we all can admire about Nash is that he doesn’t give up. He’s this pillar of strength and perseverance. He wants to be there for his family, for Tom, but he also doesn’t realize just how severe his issues are.
Rebecca is luckily there and is able to set Nash’s leg. She may have never done it before but this wasn’t going to stop her. Rebecca is one that perseveres.
I have grown to love anything that shows Rebecca and Tom together. I have grown to realize how much I count on these two and how I love seeing them together. The two being around each other.
I think that we can all appreciate an episode that allows us to get to know Rebecca and Tom more. The two have a will they/won’t they chemistry and it means that – at least for us – we have been waiting to see to who and when Rebecca would open up.
And it turns out that the person that she’s needed to open up to is Tom Moore.
But we’ll get there. When Rebecca is plowing the field – she doesn’t want Tom to see her struggle. The two are both insanely stubborn and they both thrive in doing everything that they can to hide that struggle from everyone. They both want to feel strong and in control.
But Tom and Rebecca, as much as they struggle with control, they also know that means sometimes that you have to let walls down.
Moore keeps checking on Rebecca and tried to stop her. He told her she won. But Rebecca refused to give up. She wasn’t about to let up and only would when it was done. Tom and her needed to work together to get it done and it was when they did that she let her walls down a bit.
Tom and Rebecca’s relationship is growing, but more importantly the two are letting their walls down and they are letting others in, little by little.
There is no shortage of struggle on the frontier. Lars, for instance, isn’t getting anything done. He’s not panning out in the gold rush, his work at the boarding house isn’t up to par and he’s down on himself for it.
Lars is a man that wants more, but his pride is getting in the way. He’s got financial issues and rather than be honest about them, he tries to hide them. I love that the person he did choose to talk to is Hattie. She’s a trustworthy, heart felt, stubborn woman. She’s complex and I think that we’re seeing that come out.
Yes, Alexander was featured in this episode, but what I didn’t get or even come close to understanding was why it mattered. To show that he wanted adventure? That’s a given to anyone on the frontier. But what he should be excited about it that he wasn’t overwhelmed with a lot of things.
Though maybe if he was overwhelmed then he would fixate more on that versus on Rebecca and where she’s from.
Though this episode wasn’t bad, it was all over the place, which stopped me from really enjoying the episode.
And I hate an episode that feels that way.
Hope Valley: 1874 airs Thursdays on Hallmark Plus.
