Of all the no-good rotten things to do after a season that has once again been divisive. Did that really just happen?
Containing myself isn’t going to be easy, but as this is the season finale, this review will open by some positivity.
Unfortunately, you cannot expect it to end in the same manner. Let’s begin.
The writing for When Calls the Heart Season 10, as many of you have rightly pointed out, has been all over the map.
The characters who have suffered the most are arguably the most important, Elizabeth, Lucas, and Nathan. But that doesn’t mean that some others haven’t gotten arcs that were not only in character, but well done.
In my opinion, characters who go through meaningful arcs are the best on TV. Whether they’re good or bad people in context doesn’t matter. What matters is how well they’re written.
Henry Gowen is a character who has run the gamut from outright villain to becoming the godfather to Goldie, daughter of Hope Valley’s most trusted couple, Lee and Rosemary Coulter.
Every season, the character changes. It may not be dramatic, but in some way, Henry grows. Everything he experiences builds, allowing for exploration of the man he is, which isn’t easy in a show with such a sprawling cast.
The constant through Henry’s story has been his inability to forgive himself for his part in the mine disaster.
On “Starry Nights,” Henry shared parts of his past with Elizabeth that fed into his guilt. In some ways, we all try to escape our background, but after years of inflection, Henry now understands how running set him on his path.
The result is that the Henry we know now is a different man than the Henry who was at the core of that disaster.
The people have forgiven him, and with an incredibly insightful and graceful gesture — welcoming him to their family by asking him to be Goldie’s godfather — Rosemary and Lee have freed him from his heavy burden.
It’s not a perfect ending, though, as we once again end a season with Henry heading off to visit Abigail. It happened a few seasons ago, too, although not quite as blatant as arriving at a home with her name on it.
It’s great that this constant in Henry’s life continues, but I think it’s at least the third time in years that we’ve seen him leave Hope Valley at the end, wondering if he would return.
The odds of Lori Loughlin returning as Abigail are slim to none, so it’s not fun to think that he’ll be disappointed once again. Win some, lose some with storytelling.
Although it was Goldie’s christening, Rosemary and Lee’s stories were in support of other characters rather than for the Coulter family.
In addition to Henry’s story, Rosemary was supportive of Elizabeth, and she was also heading up the election browbeating committee to ensure that every member of Hope Valley cast a vote for Lucas Bouchard.
In real life, it’s inadvisable to go to such lengths on Election Day, but for the purposes of this story, doing it saved the day. Lucas won the election for governor by 21 votes, and she rounded up 22. That was a silly way for the election to unfold, but much about this season has been silly.
The synopsis for When Calls the Heart Season 10 Episode 12 literally noted, “with Elizabeth by his side,” when discussing Lucas’s run for governor. Lucas was all alone on the campaign trail. Hope Valley sent him out on his own to save their town.
Elizabeth didn’t stand by her man, and after several seasons of driving home how and why she chose Lucas and what the two meant to each other, she cast him off this season as a dreamer (thank God for that, right Hope Valley), a safe choice, and incapable of landing her whole heart.
Ouch. A million times ouch.
Instead, over the last season and the past three episodes in particular, the writers have systematically dismantled the love story they created.
Elizabeth was forlorn and seemed uncomfortable seeing Lucas’s campaign posters all over the valley, but she also wasn’t clear with everyone in town about what happened between the couple.
Her students outright disliked Lucas because he left her. That really didn’t sit well with me. After everything he has done with Hope Valley, that’s how they sent him on his way. Did I already say ouch?
With one exception, which occurred in When Calls the Heart Season 10 Episode 11, of the original love triangle, only Nathan has been written with consistency. He even apologized for overstepping, and Kevin McGarry sold that moment.
With a change of showrunners, we may never know the original intent for this story and how it would play out, but with a change of showrunners, nothing feels quite the same in Hope Valley.
Conversations have been stilted. Elizabeth has continually shut down Lucas this season, while last season, the googly eyes she now casts toward Nathan were cast toward her fiancé. Everything Lucas shared with Elizabeth about his childhood and adult desires was pulverized.
Their train platform conversation was lacking emotion, as if Erin Krakow and Chris McNally didn’t buy into it any more than we did. Their phone conversation felt as if they were virtual strangers and no amount of speaking words to the effect that Lucas found his calling hit the mark.
Even worse, his campaign speech on the radio he brought to Hope Valley was lacking the passion we know Lucas feels for the town he chose as his home. I didn’t recognize the man behind that voice.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who had never visited Jack’s gravesite on camera, can’t stay away. She had moved on, but suddenly, we’re to believe she can’t shake his memory from invading her everyday thoughts about love and what it means.
At his grave, she once again pointed to Lucas as her safe choice, a bunch of hogwash if there ever was hogwash.
She didn’t mention Nathan, but every time she sees him, she’s fumbling all over herself like a schoolgirl. That’s never been the Elizabeth we know. Well, not since she first fell in love with Jack, at least.
Even while she had two men courting her, she always kept a rather calm demeanor about it all as she remained introspective about what it all meant.
And yes, I’m well aware that the books by Janette Oke, on which the series was based, have Elizabeth with a Mountie. But this still feels like a course correct based on events that didn’t occur in the series we watch, which is now a different entity than those books.
The very worst part of this finale and what landed that opening line of this review is how the episode ended.
After blowing the “safe” smoke at Jack’s grave, Lucas, who we have not seen at all during an episode in which he is intent on saving Hope Valley after having been ditched on a train platform, probably gets shot or something.
Just as Team Nathan fans are prepared for their big moment (a mere three weeks after ending an engagement — very uncouth), Bill rides up with word that they must come now because of something to do with Lucas.
So much for the safe choice. If that’s been the entire basis of Elizabeth’s thinking, what does Lucas in peril do for her line of thinking?
Sure, this is probably the moment the writers used to drive home that the “safe” comments all amount to nothing and that the heart wants what the heart wants, and it never wanted Lucas, but to leave the finale on this ridiculous (likely non) cliffhanger is beyond aggravating, and we deserved much better.
We deserved better than the whole season, whether Team Nathan, Team Lucas, or Team Elizabeth.
All publicity is good publicity, right? When fans are tearing into each other, I respectfully disagree. Regardless of where you stand with the love interests, did this finale feel authentic to the show you’ve come to love?
Does ending a season by once again resurrecting old plots with the old switcheroo between Nathan and Lucas work for you?
If you could rewrite this season, what changes would you make? If you could write the next, where would you begin?
If you watch When Calls the Heart online, you know something has been missing from this season.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please head into the comments below, and let’s get this party started. We have so much to discuss!!
And, as always, thank you so much for taking this journey with me. I am sometimes overly opinionated, and I love it when you are, too.
It feels like a family, and if I can say nothing else about the season right now, that feeling is worth every minute of it.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.