‘When Calls the Heart’ Delivers Major Twist for Elizabeth, Nathan & Lucas in Season 10 Finale
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for When Calls the Heart Season 10 finale “Starry Nights.”]
It’s a big day for Elizabeth (Erin Krakow) and Lucas (Chris McNally) in the When Calls the Heart finale, but not the one they’d thought it would be (their wedding). Rather, it’s time for the election, in which Lucas is running against Governor Balfour in order to stop the other man from destroying smaller towns. Plus, we can’t help but question what’s going on between Elizabeth and Nathan (Kevin McGarry).
But while the two may have parted ways three weeks ago on the train platform, and Elizabeth says it was hard for her to say goodbye to Lucas, she’s also invested in the election and, along with Rosemary (Pascale Hutton), making sure every person in Hope Valley casts a vote.
Still, everyone is careful about Lucas around her, whether it’s not wanting to talk about the election (or covering up one of his posters) or even her students who think they should hate him for her. “He’s a good man. I’ve always thought that, and I still do,” she tells them. “Sometimes people realize they aren’t meant to be married. Sometimes they’re just meant to be friends.” Later, Elizabeth insists to Rosemary that while she is sad (and happy for Lucas), “more than that, I just feel at peace about it.” Rosemary suggests that might mean she made the right decision and that the engagement helped her arrive at it.
So if Lucas is in the past, as it seems, might there be a future for Elizabeth and Nathan? He’s been spending a lot of time out of town, after their disagreement. “It was nothing,” Elizabeth tells Rosemary of that. “He was questioning what I wanted and if I was happy.”
Elizabeth and Lucas do connect via a phone call, during which she tells him she’s proud of him and he shares that while he had wanted to stay, he also thinks he’s found his calling.
When it comes time to vote, Elizabeth is one of the last to cast hers, as is Nathan. She calls him out on seemingly avoiding her, and he apologizes for overstepping. “I had no right to question you like that,” he says. She knows he was just trying to help, “and it may have been hard for me to hear, but I appreciate what you said.” It looks like they might share a moment, when he comes around the curtain separating their voting booths, but all they do is say “good night.”
Lucas does win the election, by a margin of 21 votes (just one shy of the number that Rosemary was determined to make sure were cast). But as he’s leaving his office in Capital City, a car pulls up. All we see are the headlights as he asks, “What are you doing here?”
Meanwhile, Elizabeth visits Jack Thornton’s grave. “You were my great love, but when I lost you, something inside me just broke,” she says. “The thought of going through that again — I loved Lucas. I think I was looking for something safe, so I couldn’t get hurt again. Because what if — what if I broke a second time but couldn’t put the pieces back together again? I couldn’t risk it, especially when I have Little Jack to think of. But that wasn’t fair to Lucas. He deserves to have a great love. We both do.”
So might that, as well as her recent interactions and what comes next with Nathan, mean that the other man could be a possibility for that next great love? Nathan does just so happen to come across her in the final scene of the season. Just as they start talking, however, Bill (Jack Wagner) rides over. “It’s Lucas. I need you both now,” he says, and the three quickly set off.
Has Lucas been injured? He can’t be dead, right? We don’t think Bill would’ve reacted like that if that was the case. However, whatever did happen could very well change Elizabeth’s feelings once again, with the love triangle truly reignited or her and Lucas back on track for a wedding in Season 11. We’ll have to wait and see. At least we know that there will be a Season 11 already.
When Calls the Heart, Season 11, TBA, Hallmark Channel