Ever since Lucas Bouchard came to Hope Valley earlier this season, his story has been a mystery. Hearties have speculated if he was a villain or just a troubled soul. I’ve even wondered what his story could be about. Several episodes later, we finally got answers to all of our questions relating to this character. Even though this episode has focused most of its attention on Lucas, the show as a whole has never been about just one character. The creative team behind this show have done a good job at focusing on the town of Hope Valley, giving their characters an equal amount of story-telling opportunities. This aspect helped When Calls the Heart become as successful as it has. Speaking of story-telling, let’s talk about this episode of When Calls the Heart!

Just a reminder: If you did not see this episode of When Calls the Heart, there may be spoilers within this re-cap.

Season: 6

Episode: 8

Name: A Call from the Past

 

Major Stories:

• One day, while at the Mercantile, Lucas receives a personal phone call. During this call, a woman tells him that someone is after them and that this person knows he’s in Hope Valley. Lucas tells her that he’ll figure out what to do. The next day, he decides to close the Queen of Hearts Saloon and leave Hope Valley. When Elizabeth passes by the Saloon, she asks Lucas why he’s closing the Saloon. While Lucas is answering her question, Elizabeth notices that he has a pistol in his possession. After this conversation, she goes straight to the Mountie Office to tell Bill and Nathan everything Lucas told her. Because Lucas is on his way to Cape Fullerton, Nathan chooses to follow him. Before Lucas can reach his destination, Nathan tracks him down. He not only successfully encourages Lucas to come back to Hope Valley, but Lucas reveals what’s really going on. He shares that, in New Orleans, his friend had a struggling business. She borrowed money from a man named Amos Dixon. When she couldn’t pay Amos back, he started threatening to shut down her business and put her in harms way. In an attempt to help his friend, Lucas entered a poker game in order to win her money back. When he discovered that Amos, who was also participating in this game, cheated, Lucas decided to cheat as well. Amos discovered what he had done, causing him to hold a grudge against Lucas. After listening to his story, Nathan promises Lucas that he will contact the Mounties in Cape Fullerton to keep his friend safe. Meanwhile, in Hope Valley, Amos and his accomplice arrive in Hope Valley. They break into the Saloon, waiting for Lucas to arrive. Instead, Elizabeth shows up because she had a feeling that someone was in the Saloon. Amos and his accomplice hold her as their hostage. When Lucas finally arrives, Amos orders him to hand over all the money from his safe. While this is happening, Bill and Nathan figure out that Elizabeth hasn’t come home when she said she would, causing them to suspect that something is wrong. They both go to the Saloon, where Bill ends up catching Amos’s accomplice behind the building. Meanwhile, Nathan had to sneak into the building, due to feeling suspicious about his encounter with Lucas at the Saloon’s front door. Despite a struggle during his encounter with Amos, Nathan successfully arrests him. After the ordeal is over, everyone appears to be uncomfortable around Lucas, including Elizabeth.

 

• Grace, one of the orphanage care-givers from When Calls the Heart: The Greatest Christmas Blessing, arrives in Hope Valley with an orphan named Spencer. This young boy barely speaks, so Grace is doing everything she can to help him. Grace and Spencer stay at Lee and Rosemary’s house during their visit. Rosemary is organizing the Founders Day Festival, which is not only around the corner, but also encourages Grace and Spencer to stay in town a little longer than expected. When Rosemary tells Elizabeth about all of her Founders Day responsibilities. Elizabeth suggests that she split these responsibilities with someone else. While at the Mercantile, Rosemary tells Fiona about the things has to do in order for the Founders Day Festival to be successful. After doing this, Rosemary asks Fiona if she would like to help her plan the Festival, with Fiona agreeing. Meanwhile, Spencer and Grace take a visit to Carson’s office. Carson finds out that Spencer is anemic and that he hasn’t eaten much in recent days. This is the result of Spencer’s trauma and grief that Grace shares with Rosemary later in the episode. She reveals that Spencer’s parents died in a flood a few months prior, leaving Spencer as the only survivor. Since then, Grace, as well as the orphanage where Spencer was previously staying, have to doing anything they could to help him. While Rosemary and Fiona discuss ideas for the Founders Day Festival, Grace comes up with the solution of having pancakes for dinner. This ends up being successful, as Spencer not only eats the pancakes, but also seems to enjoy them.

Minor Story:

• Because of Henry’s new petroleum oil business, Lee has been losing employees at his lumberyard. When Mike Hickam decides to work for Henry instead, Lee is disappointed but respectful toward this decision. One day, Jesse crosses paths with Henry. He is upset that Henry has been “stealing” employees from Lee. Henry, however, tells Jesse that all he wants to do is move on from their feud. The next day, Jesse talks with Mike about his new job. Mike shares with Jesse how much money he’s now making. This causes Jesse to contemplate the idea of working for Henry. Jesse not only shares this idea with Lee, but also with Clara. When Clara asks him why he would want to trade his job, Jesse says that his reason would be to make her happy. Clara tells him that what makes her happy is when he’s happy. Later that evening, Jesse visits Lee at his home. He tells Lee that he has decided to keep his job at the lumberyard. Jesse also shares his reason why, as his loyalty to Lee as well as Lee’s kindness to him were the things that made him keep his job. This moment makes Lee realize that everything is going to be ok.

Some thoughts to consider:

• At the beginning of this episode, it was revealed that Julie would be the Godmother of Elizabeth’s son, Jack. This has led me to believe that Julie might make an appearance in the season finale. While I’m happy to see that Julie could appear on the show again, I do find it concerning that Elizabeth hasn’t reached out to her in-laws. As a fan of Tom Thornton, I feel that he should have, at least, been mentioned in one of the previous episodes. That way, it shows the audience that Jack’s side of family still plays an important part of Elizabeth’s life.

 

• While the cast of When Calls the Heart has been great this season, the actress who stole the show in this episode was Jocelyn Hudon! Her performance was so captivating to watch, helping her character seem as interesting as possible. I also like how her story provided a nice bridge between When Calls the Heart and When Hope Calls. Hopefully, Jocelyn will continue to find good luck on her new show as she has in the When Calls the Heart community!

 

• In the sneak peek commercial for the season finale, it seems like Jesse may propose to Clara! I really hope so because it’s been about two seasons since we last saw a marriage proposal in Hope Valley. Can you imagine if Jesse and Clara’s wedding took place during When Calls the Heart’s Christmas movie? Now that would be a great gift to give to the Hearties!

 

• Even though Lucas’ story was fine, I kind of felt like it was underwhelming. Personally, I was expecting something more intriguing, especially since Lucas himself seems like an interesting character. I also think the conflict between Lucas and Amos was handled a little too quickly. While there was build-up to it, the conflict itself seemed to last for only a few minutes.

What are your thoughts on this episode? Are you excited for the season finale? Please tell me in the comment section!

 

Have fun in Hope Valley!

Sally Silverscreen