NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Season 11, Episode 5 of When Calls the Heart.
Hello, Hearties! Tonight I’m recapping May 5th’s episode of When Calls the Heart, titled “Stronger Together”. In tonight’s episode, Hope Valley got a new mayor, there was a new development in the mystery of who shot Lucas, and an agreement was finally reached with Maisie to save the resort. Let’s get into it!
A Merging of Two Towns
The Mayor of Benson Hills (a.k.a. Mike Hickam’s sister, Maisie) is still being unreasonable during negotiations related to access to the new resort. Maisie clearly feels that she can walk all over Mike, so he resigns from his position as Mayor and Lucas appoints Lee as Hope Valley’s Mayor Pro Tem.
After an unproductive meeting, Maisie stops at the salon for some spa treatments from Mei (because making unreasonable requests and treating your brother poorly requires some serious pampering). There, she admits that she is being difficult on purpose because she does not support the resort and wants Mike and Lucas to give up on the idea entirely. Her constituents do support the resort, however, so she feels she cannot just say no to Hope Valley outright.
Mei, of course, tells Mike all of this. He then works with Lucas, Lee, and Henry to come up with a plan to “win” against Maisie. The four meet with Maisie yet again, this time proposing that the two towns merge. She and the Mayor of Hope Valley will serve as co-Mayors, and one of them needs to support the resort for plans to move forward. Maisie thinks she can push Mike to take a stance against the resort as his co-Mayor, so she agrees to the merger. Only then is she informed that Lee is actually the new Mayor of Hope Valley.
Maisie may have agreed to merge the towns, but the Hope Valley town council also needs to agree to it in order for the plan to move forward. At the town council meeting Lucas raises one of the only downsides of merging with Benson Hills- the Hope Valley school will fall under the jurisdiction of the Valley School District and will lose its independence.
Elizabeth admits that there have been issues with the school board before, but becoming part of the district could also offer new opportunities and more resources for Hope Valley’s students. When Lucas assures her that he really believes in this plan, she says that she is in favor of it too.
With the town council on board, Lucas, Henry, Lee, and Mike meet with Maisie again. Maisie says that she didn’t have all the information before she agreed to merge the two towns. Lucas replies that they will work hard to compromise on her demands in good faith but that the merger is complete. Gotcha, Maisie!
Lucas Remembers...
Rosemary and Bill visit Nathan’s office to let him know that they found an inconsistency in the case of Lucas’ shooting. Pike said in his confession that he shot Lucas from a distance but that doesn’t make any sense considering the angle of the bullet. The shooter had to be inches away from Lucas, which means Lucas saw the shooter’s face.
Later on, Bill and Rosemary visit Lucas to give him this update. Initially, Lucas says that he still doesn’t remember anything, but then he catches a glimpse of a photograph in the file. That seems to jog his memory a little, and he tells Rosemary and Bill that he remembers grabbing the gun right before it went off. However, he still doesn’t remember the shooter’s face.
Was Lucas Really Engaged?
Last week, Jeanette Aucoin dropped by Hope Valley and informed Elizabeth that she was also previously engaged to Lucas. Elizabeth gets a chance to talk with Lucas about this during tonight’s episode, and he denies that the two were ever engaged. They (mostly she) had talked about a potential engagement, yes, but there was never a ring. Lucas realized that his heart wasn’t in the relationship with Jeanette, moved to Hope Valley, and then met Elizabeth.
Elizabeth doesn’t really seem fazed by the whole Jeanette Aucoin topic. She assures Lucas that they will always be friends, grabbing his arm as she laughs with him in the middle of the street. That, of course, is when Mountie Nathan happens to look over at them.
Later on in the episode, Elizabeth visits Lucas’ office to deliver a drawing Opal had made of the new resort. He asks Elizabeth to promise that she will take any chance she has at being truly happy because she deserves it. Elizabeth says that she will.
"Just Friends"
At the beginning of the episode, Allie asks Nathan about what’s going on with him and Mrs. Thornton. He denies that anything is going on and insists that they’re “just friends”. Allie, like the rest of us, doesn’t buy it and tells him that she doesn’t want him to get hurt like last time. Nathan assures that it was a long time ago and a lot has changed since then.
After Nathan sees Lucas and Elizabeth talking he proceeds to be short and cold with Elizabeth for the rest of the day, which Elizabeth seems confused by. (Somebody’s jealous!)
Eventually, Nathan talks with Lucas in the saloon over a game of darts, and Lucas tells him that Elizabeth does not seem bothered by Jeanette at all. Lucas believes she has truly moved on, but he is glad to have her as a friend rather than not have her in his life at all.
Later on, Nathan pulls Elizabeth aside to apologize for acting coldly toward her the previous day, explaining that he had seen her with Lucas. Elizabeth assures him that she and Lucas are just friends. This prompts Nathan to ask what he and Elizabeth are then- are they just friends?
And… that’s when Henry interrupts them to tell them about the town council meeting.
Don’t worry, Hearties! There is an answer to that “what are we?” question, but not until the very end of the episode. Nathan is sitting on his front porch after dinner when Elizabeth comes up to him. To answer his question she says “friends don’t look at friends this way”. Then, with a little smile, she walks away.
Around the Valley
As always, a lot is going on around Hope Valley. Here are some more highlights from this episode:
- Anna, a past student of Elizabeth’s, visits Hope Valley and helps Elizabeth in the classroom as part of her teaching education.
- I’m happy to report that Toby, who was previously struggling with math, finally masters fractions in this episode.
- A letter arrives for Joseph from his estranged brother Jacob, in which he asks Joseph to apologize. This makes Joseph angry and he’s confused as to why Jacob mentioned a letter he had sent him previously. Eventually, Angela and Cooper admit to their dad that they were the ones who sent the letter to their uncle. Joseph understands why they did it and realizes that their hearts are in the right place.
That's it for this episode!
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Let me know down below. It looks like next week’s episode will feature a visit from the school board superintendent who nearly cost Elizabeth her job a couple years ago. Join me next week to recap!
