Sunset Over Hope Valley: Good Ripples Out

On February 3, 2026 By 18cinemalaneLeave a comment

During a community project in this episode of When Calls the Heart, Joseph tells Cooper when good ripples out, it touches the lives of everybody. The more I thought about Joseph’s quote, the more I realized how true that quote is when it comes to the show. When Calls the Heart emphasizes characters doing good things within Hope Valley and beyond. Just in season thirteen alone, Hearties have seen their favorite characters giving back to those from Benson Hills who had lost so much. But even before the fire at Goldie National Park happened, good things were taking place in Hope Valley. Multiple weddings have mended broken hearts. New life renewed the spirit of the town. The little things, like Lucas teaching Allie how to play cards, built confidence and bridges between new characters and familiar faces. When Calls the Heart has always been a show that makes its audience feel good about the program they are watching. Having the characters consistently try to make their world a better place than how they found it has definitely influenced that belief.

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

*When Calls the Heart* season thirteen poster created by Hallmark Media, Crown Media Family Networks and Hallmark Channel

Season: 13

Episode: 5

Name: Growing Pains

Major stories:

Nathan and Bill continue their investigation over how the fire started. When they visit the site of Toby and Cooper’s cooking fire, Bill and Nathan discover unrecognizable pieces of concrete. They question Henry over the pieces of concrete, but he doesn’t recognize them either. At the saloon, Henry learns Christopher has earned a regional assistant promotion. This promotion allows Christopher and Rachel’s engagement to move forward. Later in the episode, Henry and his son go birdwatching. During their expedition, they discover Elizabeth’s class planting trees in the forest. Henry offers to donate mulch from his and Joseph’s hazelnut business in order to help Elizabeth’s students plant more trees. Toward the end of the episode, Christopher hurriedly leaves Hope Valley. But before his son drives away, Henry helps Christopher pack up his vehicle. As he places Christopher’s luggage in the trunk, Henry finds pieces of concrete similar to the ones found by Nathan and Bill.

One day, Cooper and Toby arrive late to class. When Elizabeth asks them about their book report, Toby and Cooper claim they forget about the assignment. Recognizing how tired her students appear, Elizabeth gives Cooper and Toby extra time to complete their book report. Concerned about their wellbeing, Elizabeth follows Toby and Cooper into the forest. She then learns her students have been replanting trees to make up for their cooking fire potentially starting the fire that destroyed Benson Hills. Wanting to lend a helping hand, Elizabeth turns Cooper and Toby’s act of kindness into a class project. At first, some of the Benson Hills students are frustrated because the newly planted trees won’t bring back their lost homes. Elizabeth reminds them how the trees could, one day, build the home of someone’s dreams. As more people learn about Elizabeth and her class replanting trees, they want to help. Not only does Henry donate mulch from his and Joseph’s hazelnut business, Lee donates some trees from his construction business as well.

Lee is preparing a presentation in order for his construction company to be granted approval to rebuild Benson Hills. This presentation consists of illustrations of what new buildings and homes would look like. When it’s time for Lee to make his presentation, he presents his building plans to a building committee (which includes Maisie, Lucas, and Christopher). Because he made such a good argument to the building committee, Lee and his construction company were granted approval to move forward with their rebuilding project. Amidst the celebration, Gwen asks Lee to rebuild her family’s house, even drawing a picture of what the house looked like. She makes a special request to crack one of the windows, as her father claimed the crack in their window looked like a spider web. As Lee is showing Rosemary the building plans one day, he experiences what he believes is a heart attack. But when Rosemary and Lee go to the Infirmary, Faith confirms Lee actually had an anxiety attack likely caused by all the responsibilities he has been trying to balance. While he’s attempting to take things easy, Gwen tells Lee and Rosemary about her class replanting trees in the forest. Lee volunteers his family to join in the replanting efforts. He also donates some trees from his construction business.

Spiderweb image created by Freepik at freepik.com. <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/pattern”>Pattern vector created by freepik – http://www.freepik.com</a>. Image found at freepik.com.

Minor stories:

At the saloon, Lucas sees Edie trying to carry multiple crates at once. Edie confesses how she wants to use the crates to build a desk. This desk will be placed in her new living quarters, which is a room at The Café. Lucas not only offers a spare desk he already owns, he also offers to help Edie carry the desk to her place. As they transfer the desk to The Café, Edie tells Lucas why she stayed in Hope Valley. At first, it was to look after her uncle’s ranch. But when Edie lost it in the fire, she says she actually likes the town. When Lucas and Edie try to carry the desk up the stairs at The Café, Lucas falls backwards and receives a minor head injury. Later in the episode, when Edie apologizes for the desk-related mishap, Lucas apologizes for missing the insurance claim meeting. During their conversation, they both admit they like spending time with each other. Lucas even encourages Edie to share her office with him again.

While Bill and Nathan investigate around the site of Toby and Cooper’s cooking fire, Oliver finds a tooth fossil belonging to a prehistoric sea creature called a Mosasaur. This discovery sparks Oliver to share his interest in dinosaurs with Allie, even telling her how he used to own a book about dinosaurs when he was younger. One day, Oliver, Allie, and Bill go to the forest to find more dinosaur fossils. But because their adventure lasted longer than expected, Allie arrived home late for dinner. Nathan is concerned for Allie’s wellbeing, especially since she’s been spending more time with Oliver. Allie feels Nathan is losing trust in her, even though she didn’t do anything wrong. Nathan shares his concerns about Allie with Elizabeth during one of their conversations. Elizabeth reminds him how things can’t go back to the way they used to be. The next day, Nathan apologizes to Allie for not trusting her. He also reminds his daughter how, even though she is open-minded and kind-hearted, she is still young. Therefore, Allie should take her time exploring the world.

Colorful dinosaur image created by Rawpixel.com at freepik.com. <a href=’https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/various-animal-toy-figures-in-a-colorful-background_3011200.htm’>Designed by Rawpixel.com</a>. <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background”>Background image created by Rawpixel.com – Freepik.com</a>. Image found at freepik.com.

Some thoughts to consider:

Back in season twelve of When Calls the Heart, it was revealed Lee’s father died of an unnamed medical condition. Lee expressed his concerns with Faith about developing this medical condition, to the point where he created a will and was worried about leaving a legacy behind for Goldie. With Lee’s anxiety attack being the first time his health has been addressed since the twelfth season, it makes me wonder if this situation is connected in any way to that medical condition brought up a season ago?
As I said in this re-cap, pieces of concrete looking similar to those found by Nathan and Bill were discovered by Henry in the trunk of Christopher’s vehicle. Though this makes Christopher look suspicious, I hope he’s not guilty of starting the fire. Henry put so much effort into reconnecting with his son, as well as rebuilding that familial relationship. If Christopher caused the fire, that would break Henry’s heart, which I don’t want to see happen.
After this episode of When Calls the Heart aired, there was a commercial advertising the next episode. This commercial revealed the episode would premiere on February 7^th at 10 p.m./9 p.m. From episode seven and beyond, When Calls the Heart will go back to its regularly scheduled day and time. I wanted to let my readers know about this temporary change in case they missed the commercial.

Sunset image created by Photoangel at freepik.com. <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background”>Background image created by Photoangel – Freepik.com</a>.<a href=’https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/red-sunset-clouds-over-trees_1254327.htm’>Designed by Freepik</a>. Image found at freepik.com.

What are your thoughts on this episode of When Calls the Heart? Do you think Edie will go back to sharing an office with Lucas? Let me know in the comment section!

Have fun in Hope Valley!

Sally Silverscreen

Take 3: Jurassic World Review + 105 Follower Thank You

On June 28, 2019July 3, 2019 By 18cinemalane2 Comments

Last month, I received 105 followers on 18 Cinema Lane! Because I took two out-of-town trips and had several blog related projects on my plate, I wasn’t able to create this post as soon as I had hoped to. Since I wanted to publish this review before the end of the month, I put aside some time to finally share this post with all of my followers. Before I received 100 followers, I had a system for choosing which movies I would review. Now that I have more than 100 followers, I found a new way of picking out movies to write about, especially since it’s difficult to find movies that are older than 100 years old. Whenever I reach a milestone number of followers, I will pick a movie that was released in the same month as when I received this milestone. To determine which year this movie will be from, I will flip a two-sided coin. If the coin lands on the heads side, the movie will be from a year that starts with the number “1”. If the coin lands on the tail side, the movie will be from a year that starts with the number “2”. When this happens, I will flip the coin again. If it lands on the heads side, the year’s last two digits will start with the number “0”. If it lands on the tail side, the year’s last two digits will start with the number “1”. After this step, I will roll a piece of dice. For a year starting with a “1”, I will roll the dice twice, in order to determine the year’s last two digits. For a year starting with a “2”, I will only roll the dice once. I apologize if this process sounds more confusing than it actually is. I tried to explain it the best that I could. Anyways, after I completed this new process for the first time, the movie that I was to review for this post ended up being from May of 2015. Since I saw Jurassic Park last year, I decided to watch its continuation, Jurassic World. How did this four-year-old film compare to a twenty-six year old classic? The only way to find out to by reading my review!

Jurassic World poster — *Jurassic World* poster created by Universal Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and The Kennedy/Marshall Company. Image found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jurassic_World_poster.jpg.

Things I liked about the film:

The acting: For the most part, the acting in Jurassic World was good! Prior to watching this film, I had seen Chris Pratt’s acting performance in Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. While there are dramatic moments within these films, Chris has partaken in comedic acting more than dramatic acting. In Jurassic World, Chris’ performance was more dramatic, with only a few comedic moments. It was great to see a different side of Chris’ acting talents, especially when he was able to pull off a really good performance! Another performance that I was impressed with came from Ty Simpkins. Before seeing Jurassic World, I had remembered his performance in Iron Man 3. What I liked about this performance was that Ty was given more acting material to work with than in the aforementioned Marvel film. This allowed him to explore more emotions as well as the character’s backstory. What Ty brought to the role, acting wise, was interesting and entertaining!

The special effects: While watching Jurassic World, I found myself being impressed with the special effects! One of the most memorable parts of Jurassic Park was the quality of the CGI. This was also a highlight of the 2015 continuation. The dinosaurs and other creatures looked very life-like, even when they were next to the human characters. The level of detail in the designs were beautiful, especially when it came to the eyes of these creatures! What was interesting about the dinosaurs in this movie was how they seemed to have their own personalities. This was a unique difference from Jurassic Park.

The scenery: I loved the scenery in this movie! The island landscape was not only great to look at, but it also fit the type of setting that the creative team behind this film was going for. The natural beauty of the foliage was a consistent aspect of the backdrop, just like in Jurassic Park. Jurassic World‘s theme park looked really cool! With all of the different attractions, this place appeared to be a lot of fun (when you take away the imminent danger, of course). Every aspect of the island was captured well on film!

Various animal toy figures in a colorful background — Colorful dinosaur image created by Rawpixel.com at freepik.com. <a href=’https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/various-animal-toy-figures-in-a-colorful-background_3011200.htm’>Designed by Rawpixel.com</a>. <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background”>Background image created by Rawpixel.com – Freepik.com</a>. Image found at freepik.com.

What I didn’t like about the film:

Thrills that weren’t consistent: In Jurassic Park, the story is thrilling from beginning to end. Almost immediately, the audience goes on an emotional roller-coaster ride. This is one of the factors that made this movie as enjoyable as it was. With Jurassic World, however, I never got that same feeling of a continuous thrill ride. Sure, there were several thrilling moments within the movie. But the build-up to the first, big, thrilling moment lasted for about 40 minutes. Because of this, it took me a while to get fully invested in the film.

Young characters who don’t have a strong significance: Similar to Jurassic Park, two young family members of one of the protagonists visit the island in Jurassic World. Unlike Jurassic Park, these family members didn’t have anywhere near as big of a significance as the children did in the predecessor. Tim and Lex, from Jurassic Park, were not just featured in the story for the sake of bringing more characters on the adventure. At one point in the film, Lex uses her computer skills in order to save the day. Zach and Gray, Claire’s nephews in Jurassic World, don’t really do anything to solve the film’s conflict. In fact, it felt like Zach and Gray were included in this story just because there were young characters in the first movie.

Moments of randomness: There were a few moments in Jurassic World that didn’t really make sense within the overall context of the story. For example, one of Claire’s nephews brings up the possibility of his parents getting a divorce. This leads the brothers to have a conversation about what would happen if their parents got a divorce. I found the inclusion of this conversation to be very random. This is because there were no explicit references to the idea prior to this moment. Had moments like these been eliminated from the film, I think the script would’ve been tighter.

OJB2CA0 — Tropical island image created by Brgfx at freepik.com. <a href=’https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/island-background-design_1020626.htm’>Designed by Freepik</a>. <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background”>Background vector created by Brgfx – Freepik.com</a>. Image found at freepik.com.

My overall impression:

Before I share my thoughts on this movie, I wanted to say thank you to all of my followers! Without you, 18 Cinema Lane would have never come as far as it has! Now, on to my overall impression of Jurassic World. Personally, I thought it was decent, at best. Even though it stood solidly on its own merits, I still think that Jurassic Park was the more superior film among the two movies. Throughout Jurassic World, there were references to the first movie that I thought were well done. They didn’t distract the audience’s focus on the story, but complimented the plot instead. I also thought this was a nice touch to the film, as a way of commemorating what came before it, while also adding something new to the narrative. It just goes to show that, when it’s done with the best quality possible, new chapters to a franchise can work.

Overall score: 7.3 out of 10

What are your thoughts on my new system of choosing movies for these reviews? Are you looking forward to my next review? Share your thoughts in the comment section!

Have fun at the movies!

Sally Silverscreen

Take 3: Jurassic Park Review + 25 Follower Thank You

On September 19, 2018 By 18cinemalane10 Comments

Two weeks ago, I received 25 followers on 18 Cinema Lane! Like I’ve done with my other blog follower dedication reviews, it’s time for me to review a film that was released 25 years ago (in 1993). Because Fathom Events coordinated a special 25^th anniversary screening of Jurassic Park, I decided to pick this movie for my 25-follower dedication post! This was my first time attending a Fathom Events screening, so I was pretty excited to partake in a new cinematic experience. However, the actual event itself was not as special as I had expected. Before attending this screening of Jurassic Park, I thought it was going to be more of an event than it ended up being; from announcers getting the audience excited about the film they were about to watch to contests with cool prizes and giveaways (such as Jurassic Park themed gifts, movie theater gift cards, etc.). This entire experience was just a typical weeknight screening of a well-known film. As thankful as I am that Fathom Events gives movie-goers these unique theater experiences, my experience left more to be desired. So, what about the movie itself? Did the film make me feel the same way my theater-going experience did? Keep reading my review of Jurassic Park to find out!

Jurassic Park poster — A special poster for a special screening. Picture taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.

Things I liked about the film:

The acting: The acting from all of the cast members was great! Everyone’s reactions and emotions appeared and felt so genuine as well as believable. I liked how this cast was multi-generational, as it allowed for various perspectives to be incorporated into this narrative. Each character has such a unique personality and a set of characteristics that made them interesting. Each actor’s portrayal of their character brought these personalities and characteristics to life, which helped to establish a likability to their character. This allowed for memorable character interactions that added to the intrigue of the story.

The special effects: The special effects in Jurassic Park are like a fine wine: it ages well with time. All of the dinosaurs in this movie looked so realistic, like they actually co-existed alongside the human characters. Sometimes, an action/adventure movie can either rely too much on special effects or put too much focus on the human characters. In Jurassic Park, however, there was a nice balance between featuring both the human characters and the dinosaurs enough to satisfy the audience.

The cinematography: This movie has really good cinematography! One of my favorite shots in Jurassic Park was when DNA codes from one of the computers were projected on a dinosaur. This not only looked cool on screen, but it provided context and significance to the film’s narrative. Shots like this make me, as an audience member, feel like the creative team behind this movie put a good amount of effort and care into the project they were creating.

The soundtrack: The music that was found throughout this film was fantastic! Though most of it is instrumental, the music effectively conveyed a particular scene’s tone and added to the atmosphere of the film. The musical talents of John Williams help Jurassic Park and the dinosaurs within it feel larger-than-life. These pieces of music definitely fit in the overall context of the film.

The suspense: There are several suspenseful and intriguing moments throughout this film. It definitely left me on the edge of my seat and kept me invested in the story. Sometimes, Jurassic Park feels like a horror film, with the movie relying on atmosphere, tone, and a few jump-scares to get a reaction from the audience. This movie also has the right amount of excitement that is usually expected in an action/adventure film. I think the combination of thrills and excitement worked really well in this film.

What I didn’t like about the film:

A delayed introduction to the dinosaurs: In Jurassic Park, it takes about 20 minutes for the movie to give its audience a good look at any of the dinosaurs. While this time was used to introduce the characters and provide the film’s exposition, it made the movie feel like it had a slow start.

The under-utilization of some of the characters: While Jurassic Park has several likable characters, there were some of them that seemed to be under-utilized. Two examples are Malcolm and Tim. At the beginning of the film, Malcolm was introduced as a rock-star-esque mathematician. Because of this introduction, I found Malcolm to be an interesting character. Unfortunately, he was never given an opportunity to use those math skills to resolve some of the conflicts within this film’s narrative. Tim’s interest and enthusiasm about dinosaurs was such a great component to his character. However, Tim was never really given a chance to apply this knowledge about dinosaurs to help the characters around him.

205649-OZBGT0-509 — Dinosaur birthday image created by Freepik at freepik.com. <a href=’https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/birthday-background-with-elements_1718067.htm’>Designed by Freepik</a>. <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background”>Background vector created by Freepik</a>. Image found at freepik.com.

My overall impression:

The Jurassic Park logo. Without even trying, this logo has become a cinematic symbol of the possibilities of film-making, hope for the future of cinema, and the wonder that can come from the magic of the movies. I never knew how much I would love this movie until I saw it for the first time (yes, you read that right). While there were a few things I didn’t like about the film, there was far more to love about it. After watching Jurassic Park, I can now fully understand the success of Jurassic World. However, I don’t understand how Jurassic Park, a movie with a definitive and well-executed ending, could have been the basis for sequel films. Since I haven’t seen these films, maybe there is a way to continue this story that I’m not familiar with. Thank you so much to all of my 25 followers as well as my readers! Like always, this review and 18 Cinema Lane would not be possible without you!

Overall score: 9 out of 10

Have you seen any of the Jurassic Park movies? What do you think is the best movie from 1993? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section!

Have fun at the movies!

Sally Silverscreen