‘When Calls the Heart’: What Did You Think of the Aftermath of Elizabeth’s Choice? (POLL)
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the When Calls the Heart Season 9 premiere “In Like a Lion.”]
As When Calls the Heart begins its ninth season, Elizabeth Thornton (Erin Krakow) and Lucas Bouchard (Chris McNally) are very much together — and making each other a priority — and it seems that all have moved on from the love triangle, with Nathan Grant (Kevin McGarry). But Nathan is very much still part of Elizabeth’s life (and the two are planning to spend time together), so does it all seem just a bit too easy or about what you’d expect from the Hallmark drama?
As the episode begins, Elizabeth returns from bringing her son to visit her family, and Lucas spends the episode balancing time with her and work (he’s meeting with a potential investor for his oil business, only to realize that the other man, Jerome Smith, has a very rocky past with Martin Cummins’ Henry). Elizabeth’s clearly happy with Lucas (who “made us feel as though we hadn’t been away for any time at all,” she notes in her opening voiceover), and he decides to let work wait as he walks her and Jack home upon their arrival to town. And while he has to run off again after bringing her the week’s paper, he does plan for dinner for the two of them.
Meanwhile, things are about as awkward between Elizabeth and Nathan as you’d expect after she told him she loved him but wasn’t in love with him. When he finds out that Mounties are being required to learn to drive a car, he turns to Elizabeth to ask Lucas to teach him how. She offers to do it instead, and he agrees. Then, later in the episode, while Lucas is tied up with business, Nathan sits with Elizabeth in the saloon. “It’s really nice to see you happy,” he remarks. “I’m so glad we could remain friends. I would’ve really regretted it otherwise,” she tells him.
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When Lucas joins them to tell Elizabeth he needs to cancel their plans for the night, the two men are cordial in acknowledging each other — after Nathan interjects with a “great” of his own to echo the couple’s. And Lucas thanks Nathan for helping break up Henry and Jerome Smith’s fight.
The episode ends with Elizabeth and Lucas going up in the hot air balloon that came to town, and he tells her that he’s selling his stake in the oil business instead. “I don’t want work getting in our way. You and Jack, it’s what’s important now,” he explains.
But it seems as though Nathan might not be single for long, after he crosses paths with a rider, later revealed to be Mei (Amanda Wong), when she rushes past him on the way into town. She never outright confirms she was the rider — Jack’s the only one to see her remove her cloak and let down her skirt — but that’s what makes their exchanges so fun already.
The thing is, Mei’s hiding something. She’s come to town as a licensed pharmaceutical chemist to work at the new Yost’s Pharmacy & Soda Fountain … but everyone had been expecting her husband — if he is her husband. That seems to be in question. While Faith (Andrea Brooks) can vouch for her as far as working with her at the hospital, she, too, is hesitant. All Mei will say is she wants to make a new life on her own.
As the episode ends, however, Nathan rides his horse right into the path of a car. And the promo (below) teases that he may suffer memory loss as a result of his injuries. What could that mean for the love triangle and the dynamics established in the premiere?
So what do you think of how When Calls the Heart handled the triangle in the premiere? Vote in the poll below.
When Calls the Heart, Sundays, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
When Calls the Heart (2014) where to stream
