‘When Calls the Heart’ Season 11 Premiere: What Happened to Lucas?
Welcome back to Hope Valley. When Calls the Heart returned for its 11th season on April 7 with a premiere episode that answered some of the questions left open at the end of season 10 while also introducing new mysteries.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for When Calls the Heart Season 11 Episode 1.]
‘When Calls the Heart’ Season 11 premiere reveals Lucas’s fate
At the end of When Calls the Heart Season 10, newly-elected governor Lucas Bouchard was shot by an unseen assailant. The season 11 premiere picks up immediately after that event, with Lucas’s former fiancée Elizabeth, Mountie Nathan, and Bill Avery bursting into the Valley Voice office to find out what happened.
Details are sketchy, but Lucas has been shot twice and is in surgery. Elizabeth rushes to his side in the hospital in Capital City, though she’s just there as a friend. (Don’t get your hopes up, Team Lucas.) Fortunately, Lucas pulls through, though he has a long recovery ahead of him. This isn’t a huge surprise. After his and Elizabeth’s big breakup in season 10, those involved in the show made it clear that McNally wasn’t leaving When Calls the Heart. But at the moment, he’s still not back in Hope Valley.
Although Lucas is away from his home, the town is still very much on his mind. Once he’s able to get back to work (after a four-month time jump), the newly installed governor announces an economic plan involving a public-private partnership to encourage tourism and boost local economies. The first site? Hope Valley, of course. Lee has generously donated land that will be used to build a hotel/resort. Chances are, once he’s well enough to travel, Lucas will be back in town to check in on the project.
Lucas is also putting together the team that will work with him as governor. He extends a job offer to Henry Gowen, much to the consternation of his advisor, Edwin Mitchell. Henry declines, pointing out that he’s a convicted felon. But Lucas hints that he won’t take no for an answer. As for what Henry has been up to in between seasons, he says that he’s spent the past few months traveling around. There’s no mention of his visit to Abigail in the season 10 finale. Perhaps we’ll get details on that later.
Nathan and Bill question the official story about the shooting
Lucas survived the assassination attempt, but who pulled the trigger is still a mystery. A man named Clayton Pike has confessed to the crime. But he has no clear motive, and Nathan – who’s spent the past few months on a special task force investigating the shooting – suspects he’s just the fall guy. Unfortunately, there’s no solid evidence to support his theory. Bill is equally suspicious. He confesses to Nathan that Madeleine warned him that crooked businessman Bernard Montague would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
Unfortunately, the official investigation into the shooting has been closed. As a mountie, Nathan’s hands are tied. He can’t dig any deeper without crossing his superiors. But if a retired mountie like Bill happened to request the case file, the powers that be might share it as a professional courtesy, allowing Bill to keep investigating on his own. Meanwhile, determined reporter Rosemary can also sense there’s more to the story and she’s committed to finding out what it is, even if that means incessantly badgering Nathan and Bill.
Complicating matters is that Lucas has been unable to provide any details about his attacker. “No, I still can’t recall anything about that night,” he tells Rosemary. But is Lucas being totally honest? We know from season 10 he recognized the person who shot him. Is his selective amnesia real, or does he have some reason for concealing the truth about who shot him?
Faith struggles to find her purpose
One familiar face is noticeably absent in this episode of When Calls the Heart. Fiona is in Nashville, fighting for women’s rights. And based on her telegram to Faith, she won’t be coming back to Hope Valley. (It’s not clear if Kayla Wallace has left the show for good, or if we’ll eventually get to see Fiona the suffragette.)
Faith is understandably bummed about her friend’s absence, especially because her other friend Mei is absorbed in her romance with Mike. She’s happy with her life but can’t help feeling lonely and left behind, she confesses to Minnie. But she’s still keeping busy with her work at the clinic. One of her patients is an elderly woman who only visits at the urging of her precocious young granddaughter. When the woman has a heart attack in the mercantile, Faith acts fast and arranges transport to the hospital in Buxton. But who will take care of Lily, who has no other living relatives? Enter Faith, who quickly bonds with the little girl. Then the grandmother sends a telegram requesting that Faith take care of Lily while she recovers. But is Faith ready for this huge responsibility?
Elizabeth makes a change
After the shock of Lucas’s brush with death, Elizabeth realizes that she needs to “find all the joy” she can in life. However, that does not mean rushing straight into the arms of Nathan. While the mountie and the schoolteacher seemed to be on the verge of declaring their feelings for each other in the season 10 finale, Nathan’s out-of-town assignment put any chance at romance on hold. (It also puts some much-needed distance between the two and makes it look less like Elizabeth dumped Lucas for Nathan.)
But now, Nathan is back in town. The two are clearly happy to see each other, though their initial encounters are a bit awkward. Elizabeth is also “feeling restless for something new,” as she tells Rosemary. When she says she’s considering a new hairstyle, Rosemary is thrilled. A makeover is right up her alley, and, with Fiona out of town, she steps in to give Elizabeth a new cut. The shoulder-grazing bob is cute, and it definitely catches Nathan’s attention when he sees her new looks. That’s certainly OK with Elizabeth, who makes a revealing comment to Rosemary.
“Ready to take the plunge?” Rosemary asks as she prepares to cut off her friend’s locks. But Elizabeth’s mind is still on Nathan, who they’ve just been talking about.
“Nathan just got home. I don’t even know if he still has feelings for me anymore,” she says. Considering that Nathan has spent years mooning over Elizabeth, this comment seems a little disingenuous. She has to know that if she made a move, he’d reciprocate.
But this is When Calls the Heart, which tends to take things slow in the romance department. Elizabeth and Nathan finally have a moment together at the end of the episode, when he sits down next to her to watch the planets align.
“It’s so beautiful,” Elizabeth says as she looks at the sky.
“Yeah, it is,” Nathan replies, as he gazes at Elizabeth.
New episodes of When Calls the Heart Season 11 air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.
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