When Calls the Heart - S10E10 - All Dressed Up ft. Jacklyn Collier

[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Brandon. I'm loving When Calls the Heart. Hi, I'm Jax and I like When Calls the Heart. I'm Dan. Make it stop. And this is the Deck The Hallmark Podcast. Deck The Hallmark, it's this podcast. And friends host this podcast. We hope you like this jolly podcast.

[00:00:34] Well, hello everybody. It's great to be here today. Another Thursday. Another Win Calls the Heart. We only got a couple more episodes left. Can you believe that? That's unbelievable. Man, I feel like we just started Win Calls the Heart. Yeah, it does. It does feel like that. For those of you that are watching on philo.tv slash dth. Hello, it's great to see you. Jax, I can't help.

[00:00:57] Is that your necklace? I am not somebody who typically notices things. I think Dan and I are both pretty, we kind of mess up. We're not great. I'm only good in comparison to brand. There's like a slight difference. If you're watching on philo. Yeah. What's going on?

[00:01:18] Well, I visited Fiona's hair salon and I got a new do. It's short. It's blonde. And I think it looks just about as good as the hairdos that Fiona does in her hair salon. That was the nicest way to be mean I've ever heard in my life. I'm going to do it to myself. I got to be honest, Jax. Pulling it off. Yeah. Really? You look like the sisters from the original parent trap were in a storm. Oh my gosh, that is actually so accurate.

[00:01:49] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go look that up, somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody go look that up. Yeah. Oh, they were inspirational to me. When they cut their hair. Well, one of them. I mean, that's one person. But she gets her hair. Wait, what? When one of them cuts their hair? No, there are two Lindsay Lohans in the new one. Come on, guys. Two Lindsay Lohans. Keep up. Keep up. We're talking about One Calls to Heart. Season 10, episode 10. Very excited to break it down. Why wait? Because we all know this episode is still going to be an hour.

[00:02:18] Season 10, episode 10. All dressed up. And I'm all dressed up. Originally aired on October 1st, 2023. As October came, so did. Here we go. And it went a little something like this. Elizabeth is... Stop. Elizabeth is writing in her journal about her fears of losing Nathan. A Mountie she cares about a lot.

[00:02:46] Just like she lost Jack. So she's doing very well. Lucas is telling Elizabeth and crew that he is going to talk to the governor about having the water stolen from him. Remember last week? The raw water. When Elizabeth finds out that the governor wants to meet with Lucas about his future, she's very surprised. He didn't think to mention that to her from when we knew about it to now, which is an unknown amount of time.

[00:03:16] But I'm still mad about it. Elizabeth literally bumps into Nathan. And she congratulates him on the medal that he's going to get for the hostage situation. Elizabeth gets word that her wedding dress has arrived. She says it feels silly with everything else that's going on. That's because it is. When they open it up, it's the wrong dress. Oh, no. Rosemary says, luckily for you, I'm a seamstress. I'll fix it.

[00:03:45] But Elizabeth thinks that it could be a bad omen. When Rosemary presses her to see if she's having doubt, she says no. Very fast. Too fast? Who can say? Lucas and the governor got on a buggy. A horse and buggy. Yes, a carriage. Sure. Stagecoach. Maybe? I don't know, man. Anyway, they're on it. They're on the ride. And they're going to tour. But then the bad, bad Bernie asked to tag along. What's that about?

[00:04:14] When they get to the springs, the springs are full of water. Somebody pulled a fast one. So Lucas has a plan. Pull Bernie aside to talk to him while Nathan and Lee keep the tour moving with the governor. And they tell him the truth. Lucas begs Bernie to reconsider all the water stealing that he's planning on doing. But Bernie says, listen, I'm a big city boy. I see the big picture.

[00:04:42] You people, you small town people, you don't get it. You don't get it. But he is still impressed when he realizes that Lucas swindled him. So, I mean, maybe small town people aren't as dumb as he thought. Bill goes to try to talk to Madeline Albright. What's her name? It's not Madeline Albright. Okay. It's Rebecca St. James. Got it. Rebecca St. James. And he does. They, she says that the governor actually, I'm sorry.

[00:05:11] They tell the governor about the plot to steal the water. And he's like, I won't stand for it. That sounds criminal. Rebecca St. James comes clean and tells Bill that Bernie was her late husband's business partner. Her late husband was a gambler and left her with quite a bit of debt that is owed to Bernie. But she never thought that Hope Valley would get hurt. She kept the deed to kind of have like leverage against Bernie.

[00:05:40] So she says, I can't give it back to you. I'm sorry. I need it for the leverage. And he's like a totes gets it. Elizabeth tries on the dress and she doesn't think it looks very good. But you know who does think it looks good? Nathan thinks it looks good. Knocked on the door. Saw her. Auga. The hot thief is still in town. You guys remember him from earlier in the season? The hot thief. The hot thief asks May out to the ball.

[00:06:08] And she says, yes, just before frickin was going to ask. Ah, dang it. It's time for the ball. Elizabeth sees Nathan stressing about the speech. She says to just imagine you're talking to one friendly face. So he gets on stage and he literally looks at one friendly face. Which face? Take a guess. Take a guess which face. May soon. No, it's Elizabeth.

[00:06:33] Rebecca St. James Madeline Albright comes to Hope Valley and gives Bill the deed back and tells him that Bernie and the governor are friends and not to trust him and that she wants to do what she can to help Hope Valley. So Bill tells Elizabeth, who tells Lucas, and they decide to confront the governor who says that the whole thing is for the greater good of all citizens. And that sometimes you got to take out the little guys to make the bigger guys bigger.

[00:07:01] And he's going to invoke eminent domain. Uh-oh. Those are two big words. When the governor asked Lucas for his thoughts on the matter as a man of vision, he tells Elizabeth and Bill to get lost. I got to talk to the grownups now. So he's talking to the governor and he's like, Governor, you're right. The big cities, they're the future. But we need a little bit of time. I need to convince the people of Hope Valley. So how about you just divert half the water until after the election?

[00:07:30] I'll be your man on the ground. But I need to be a partner. And they shake hands. And he says, you have my support. It's time for the radio speech. And it's going to go through the world. And Lucas goes up to introduce him. But instead of introducing him, he outs them. He says, the governor here doesn't care about small towns. He says, we have an election coming up. And it's time to make the little guy makes himself heard. And that I guess he's running against him.

[00:07:58] We have the opportunity to make the little guy heard. By the next day, the press have all arrived in Hope Valley. And Lucas is surrounded answering questions while Elizabeth looks on concerned. And that, my friends, was when goes to heart season 10, episode 10, all dressed up. We did it, everybody. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll break this episode down here on Deck the Hallmark.

[00:08:26] Are you okay? It was a little sticky button. No, I pressed it and nothing happened. I got you. It's the second time today it's happened. It's the second time it's happened today, this little sticky button. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to One Calls a Hard Time about sticky buttons. We're excited to break this episode down. Season 10, episode 10. Big episode. Big wait what's.

[00:08:56] Big all the feels. Big all the things. Can I say this? I know that this may not be as intense as our previous two weeks discussions. I have the most wait what's I think I've ever had for a win calls the hard episode. And they have nothing to do with Elizabeth, Nathan, and Lucas. Fair. Because the rest of this is just like, oh, let the interns do it. Yeah. But in order to get to all those big things, we have to start with the hot take. It is where we share exactly how we felt about this episode. We do not hold back.

[00:09:25] As demonstrated over the past few weeks, we have had lively discussions. Jax, what did you think of episode 10 of season 10, all dressed up? This was exhilarating and it was controversial and it gets people talking. As evidenced by on Hallmark Channel's social media when they were posting previews for next week, there are maybe about, I would say, 20 times more comments on their preview for

[00:09:53] next week than there are on their other posts for like the last two months. So they're activating people and I am here for it. I think that this is a good episode for Lucas. I thought we got to see him shine. I thought it was an excellent episode for the sex appeal. But am I allowed to say that? Sure, yeah. The flirty, flirty flirt between Nathan and Elizabeth. The children don't seem to exist in this episode and that's okay too.

[00:10:23] I thought it was interesting to see Bill Avery and Madeline St. John. Who's not Madeline Allwright. Who's that? Or Rebecca St. James. God! Sheila was just noting that. I got it. Our girl Sheila keeping us honest over here. I like that Sheila's still correcting that like we're not doing it on purpose. Sheila, come on! You're one of the smartest people I know, Sheila. It's a bit!

[00:10:52] I hadn't heard Madeline Allwright before that. Yeah, that was a new one. Madeline Allwright was new. She kind of came to me. That was a good one. I love that Fiona is an independent woman that we're getting to see here. You know, when they ask about why do people want to pair up? She's like, I have no societal pressures. I'm like, you go girl. I want to delve into that. And I love her hair salon and it inspired me to get a new do. So all in all for me this episode, I felt activated. I felt excited. I was ready to watch it in real time.

[00:11:21] And I'm just anxiously anticipating what the last two episodes are going to offer us. If you went to a salon and you walked out with that haircut, would you say that you love that salon? Would you say you feel activated? I would say I feel activated. Activated. I would say you need to petition what they do to get salon licenses around here.

[00:11:46] I think we're going to do a live watch party for the final episode. Are you down for that? Sunday night, 9 p.m. Eastern? Live stream our live reaction if somebody out there wants to try to sync all that up. Have fun. And then we'll do the episode live. It'll be a lot of fun. It'll be a fun time. I like this episode.

[00:12:14] I think they did a good job of setting up the governor race and Lucas trying to throw his hat in the ring. I just like wish they would have let us in on the conversation. Like I like it's not.

[00:12:34] I'm annoyed at Elizabeth's reactions to the governor thing because we weren't really privy to the conversation of them making the plan of, hey, here's what I'm going to do. And I guess I'm going to like try to run for governor, which I guess is what's happening, even though he never explicitly says that he's running for governor. He says it's time to for the little. He doesn't say it. Not once. But they kind of with the with the newspaper, it kind of makes it seem as if he is.

[00:13:04] But he never. I don't know. Oh, see, I I took it as he was never planning on running. He was just kind of exposing him. And then it was like, but you should run. Yeah. But I've never he never said I'm running for governor or even considering now in the preview for next week. I haven't seen the preview for next week and I don't want any information. I make it clear. It makes it clear that he's right. OK, so, yeah, I I don't know how we were supposed to feel about it, though.

[00:13:30] Like, I don't are we supposed to know that he's running like how are we supposed to take everything that happened in this episode? Like, did they have like a it's definitely going to be ambiguous. And then like by the end, he's just going to get thrown into it. Like, is that how it's supposed to be or was supposed to be clear all the way? They're trying to make up for the fact that they did nothing for eight episodes with this. That's that's what we're supposed to feel. But I have they could have laid the groundwork for this for weeks and weeks and they didn't. Could have. Yes.

[00:14:01] But I will say this. We I mentioned last week about how we haven't seen Lucas all but four scenes in the past few episodes. This was a Lucas heavy episode. And I remembered why I liked him. Like he is a guy who's like, hey, let's do the thing. Let's rally the troops. I've got plans and stuff like that. And so I did find Lucas quite likable in this episode for a season that's been very heavy on me falling back in love with Nathan and not knowing what to do with myself.

[00:14:31] So, yeah, I thought this was a fine episode. I'm intrigued still to see what they do. I think they're obviously making it easy for Elizabeth to be like, hey, let's press pause without it being about her feelings for Nathan, even though I think we all know that's why. So I don't know. I'm intrigued to see what happens. Dano. Yeah, I think we you know, we have a lot of fun here. We sure do.

[00:14:56] And I think for the first nine episodes, there were varying amounts of that fun because of like how coy and weird this show is playing with this relationship and how, you know, or Nathan is dating Faith at the or trying to at the beginning of this season. And Elizabeth and Lucas are very much in love. Now, as we've they've done nothing and now they've awakened and it's the morning of the performance and they have to do something.

[00:15:24] Now, this episode, unfortunately, spotlights a lot of what when calls a heart does so poorly. Number one, you know, if you keep drawing something with a pencil and then you erase it and then you draw something else to the top and erase it and it becomes just a mess of just like this weird gray area and you don't know what to do with it. That's the character of Elizabeth. Elizabeth, they have redrawn her and that is not the fault of the actor who is an excellent actor.

[00:15:46] They have redrawn remade like read like directed her character so many times that it's a mess. It's an absolute mess because we're two episodes away from the end of this season where inevitably Lucas is leaving town. Elizabeth is staying in town. Now, inevitably, that's what's happening right now. That is that is what's going to happen. And with two episodes left, those two are betrothed to each other. There is no wedge between them at all.

[00:16:16] And they still have really good chemistry together. They do. Now, has Lucas been featured before this episode? No, he is not. Have we focused on Nathan and Elizabeth chemistry? Yes, we have. Is there a clearly a connection there? Yes. Is that who they're going to make her end up with for the fifth season of this love triangle? Sure. Absolutely. But we're two episodes away from that inevitability.

[00:16:42] And instead of us being to the point where it's obvious she shouldn't be with Lucas anymore because they're not alike or they're fighting or they just don't see eye to eye. We're 10 episodes in. She they still have great chemistry. He is still an upstanding dude. And so is she. And there is no real reason that they're still betrothed to each other, which is a big deal in Hope Valley. Uh huh. It may not be a big deal now. It's a big deal in the Jeanette Oakey world of Hope Valley. It is. So that's bad showmaking.

[00:17:11] That's bad. That's bad writing. That's bad structure. It just is. Having said that, Chris McNally, I think he's leaving of his own volition. I don't have any information on that. That is just my speculation. I think Chris McNally is leaving this show. I think he's done five seasons. He's leaving. Isn't it ironic if that's the case that he's leaving with Daniel Listing left? It's like the Madden curse. Yeah, it's like all of a sudden whoever Elizabeth is supposed to marry is out of here. I think Chris McNally is leaving.

[00:17:39] And I think he said, hey, I just have one request before I leave. Could you guys let me act? Let me just like actually show that I can act one like one time, not pull a quarter out from behind baby Jack's ear. Not say stuff in a monotone voice. Actually act. And you know what? It's as good as he's ever been. This episode makes zero sense. The show is embarrassingly bad.

[00:18:07] Him double crossing the governor and then giving that speech is as good a performance as I've seen on this show in 10 years. So it's a mess. This show has no credibility left. They had 10 episodes to lay the tracks for this. Instead, they didn't. And so they should be embarrassed for that. But Chris McNally is crushing it. He has two episodes left of which to do so.

[00:18:35] And then I think inevitably we'll see him leave and Elizabeth stay. And then Nathan will get next season. And maybe they'll put us out of our misery after 11 seasons and we can move on with our lives. The double diggers are saying that he's in next season, though. That he's filming. No, no, no. They've done a great. I actually. This is how you know it's a problem. First time I've ever looked up anything about when. Ever looked up anything about when calls the heart. I look to see if he was in the next season. They are filming next season. Aaron Craiko is in it.

[00:19:06] Nathan is. McGarry is in it. Anyone else that's American, they announced. I have not seen. And I could be wrong. I'm sure Sheila's done the research. I could be wrong. But I've seen nothing that confirms Chris McNally as a season regular. A series regular in season 11. So is he there one day to throw you off the scent? Maybe. But I've seen nothing that confirms him as a regular filming week to week. For season 11. So I like I think we've had our fun.

[00:19:36] That's the sad part is I think we've had our fun. I don't know how much more fun we have left to have. You'd be surprised how much fun. Oh, I mean, we're going to have fun regardless. But I think the foot like, you know, I think we're now to the point where it's. I mean, look at Jax. She's having a blast. Jax is having a blast. But this episode is just kind of a mess. And they don't like we're still not do like they should have done this bit where he's like foiling the governor's plan. And like episode five. And then you can have like an unraveling of character.

[00:20:05] But, you know, that's absurd. It's time for all the feels. Jax. So I actually had some angry feels. Oh, she's angry everyone. Okay, Elizabeth. I have empathy for what she's going through. But. At the end, when Lucas is talking to reporters and some people said he pushed her out of the way. No, he did not. Right. He did. No.

[00:20:35] She does this thing where she like acts like she got pushed out of the way. And I'm like, girl. What? I'm not even. Not even a little bit. You clocked it. Yes. Like he didn't push her out of the way. No, not even a little bit. I didn't even know this was a discussion and I watched it. So I need to go back. I need to take this to the table. I was honestly outraged at this moment. So there are people online saying that she got pushed. Yeah. When I was watching, I was watching the woman, the women from Susenters Unbuttoned, Julie and Sarah last night. I love them.

[00:21:04] And in the comments when they were talking about the episode, people were saying how Lucas pushed her out of the way. And not like they weren't saying it in a way like it was violent, but they were saying like. He cares more about himself than her. Exactly. And for me, I was just like, no, she's just trying to make a show of it. I was so angry. And also, I was feeling very protective of Lucas in the sense that Nathan is incredible. And what he's doing is incredible. And the pride that Elizabeth.

[00:21:34] Oh, that's interesting. That's interesting. I see what they're talking about. That's interesting. It's an interesting move. I don't think that he pushed her out of the way. I think it was a hey, like I'm turning now. But I. It's interesting. Nathan's great. Go ahead. Oh, Nathan's great. So Elizabeth is clearly very proud of Nathan. And I am not someone who's trying to compare what a politician does to what someone in law enforcement does. But here's the thing.

[00:22:04] She should be just as proud of Lucas. Yes. Because that is her partner. And she's not. Yeah, that's true. To me, that really honestly kind of makes me sick. Like he like it really gets me. It really gets my goat. So and then I was having some all the feels for poor my kick him who Alex. Wait, is someone do. Did someone just say something scandalous about the push? No, I'm just. I keep watching it. It's not even a push. It's so stupid.

[00:22:34] No, but you know what I'm talking about. It is one of the more absurd takes that I mean, like I can see how they got there. Oh, my gosh. I can see how they got there, too, because it was like Elizabeth wanted us to get there. And yeah, no, 100 percent because they cut. They do is in two different shots. So it's clearly it was clearly something. It wasn't a let's fumble through this scene and not fix it. It was they had to shoot that multiple times for the sake of the cut.

[00:23:02] And it's interesting that they would do that if it is nothing. That's all I'm saying. Intentional. It was very much intentional. And oh, so my final all the feels is that I was watching this with Alex who doesn't listen to our podcast. It doesn't know how much I talk about Hickam. It's so frustrating that he doesn't because I feel like we are buds. Yeah. And he just and you guys and we love and we love him. And clearly you love him.

[00:23:29] And yet I just even like a little bit of effort, I think just to listen to like this particular day of the week. This I've said that and our therapist has told him that. He doesn't listen to podcasts. Well, what does he know? That's the final thing before the date is finalized. It's him listening to this on a regular basis. It's him listening to this. But it was so funny because we were watching the episode together and we we watch a lot of this stuff together. But he kept referring. I didn't.

[00:23:58] He kept saying, oh, I love the lovable buffoon. And I didn't know who he was referring to. And you didn't know the lovable buffoon was frickin? It was Hickam. I don't think he's lovable, but I don't think he's a buffoon. And I was just thinking of Alex listens to this and be like, my fiance is really got it going on. But I really had, you know, all the feels for him when he was trying to work up the courage to ask me out. I thought that whole thing was absolutely adorable.

[00:24:27] The matchmaking was adorable that Fiona and Faith and Lucas were trying to do. So that had me all in my feels. It was so cute. Man, I'm just still thinking about that push. There was no push. Yeah. I'm not. There's was not a push. There is a move and a hey scram over there. She. No, I don't. I actually thought he was like he was going to put his arm around her and she walks off. Yeah.

[00:24:57] She reacted as if she had been pushed. Yeah. It's so fun. I love I didn't even know that was a thing. I need to go track down like comments now. I'm so that's my feels are this moment. I'm very happy. My feels are pretty angry that somehow this whole episode doesn't have baby Jack or Henry Gowen in it. Yeah, man. Like, well, OK. Doesn't have Henry Gowen in it. What? Baby Jack, I don't need you. Man, you're a big turd.

[00:25:27] I'm a big turd. You're a big turd. Those are some strong words. That's what they call you in your yearbook. From a four. Big old damn big turd. In my yearbook. You know how adults have yearbooks too? My adult yearbook? Yeah, your adult yearbook. How old are you? How old am I? How old are you? 40. Right. Adult yearbook. OK, thank you. Thanks, baby Jack. You're a big turd. Great. Awesome. My mom got pushed. OK. Oh, wow. Interesting.

[00:25:56] By his buddy. No Gowen in this episode. No Gowen after the way episode nine ended stinks. It was. That's real bad. It's like he was told off by Elizabeth and he said, I can't show up. Like, she can't show up this week. To your point. Elizabeth's mad at me. We have to infer. We have to do a lot of work on our end to imagine the strife in the Lucas-Elizabeth relationship. We have to do a lot of work to go to do things like what Jack's doing, which is very intuitive

[00:26:26] to go. She's not as proud of Lucas as she is of Nathan. It isn't. That is interesting. We have to do a lot of work to get there. Do you know why we do a lot of work together? Because the show is doing none of the work to get there. As far as we are given, Elizabeth and Lucas are doing great. I just like we're not you're not getting like any strife from them. There's a quick thing where he wants to move her like build a big house. And she's like, no. And he's like, OK, understood.

[00:26:56] Done. Yeah, that's it. There's no there's no friction there. There's nothing that would suggest these two people who have been together in love and engaged for the better part of, I don't know, two years or are on on the outs are close to being done with each other. And so that's frustrating. But no Henry Gowen and no baby Jack also frustrating. And I that I just OK, just real quick.

[00:27:23] I did just go back and watch the speech because I was like, does does she do anything like how is she responding to that? And when she says it's time for us to go make our voices heard, she does seem proud in the way in which she's not only that, but like I do think that there are several moments in this episode where Elizabeth does reiterate her love and loyalty to Lucas. Yes. And I think that's very dangerous at this point.

[00:27:50] If you're having her leave or she's just suppressing her love of Nathan. But she's a special love of Nathan. Nathan, the way her words will be chosen very carefully. But what she does in this episode, a lot of it is very like unequivocal, like in how she supports Lucas and like not second guess when they do when they dance. And he's like, do you like when they're setting up this big con and she's like, yeah, of course I trust you. Let's work on this con together. Like all of that stuff, the way she looks when he's talking like, are you having second time? And she says no immediately.

[00:28:20] Like all of these things you fast aren't aren't like they don't give you any pause at all. It doesn't. We're not getting enough information here to do the thing that they're going to do. I love how early in the season when there was like nothing, you were first to be like, she's going to be with Nathan. And now you're like, mister, there's nothing there. No, she is going to be with Nathan. The show is not doing a good job with this transition. They're not. And then that's my problem. I, I, I'm the, Hey, I called it.

[00:28:49] Go back to the first episode, guys. I feel like, no, listen, we know, listen, I feel like I did, did, did the Lord's work there. I'm just saying there's, they've not earned this. They did a great job putting Nathan and Elizabeth and scenes together. They've not earned the transition or the character changing her mind again and holding the town hostage even longer as all the other men wait. Like, it's like all these basketball teams waiting for the first round pick to sign.

[00:29:17] It's like all these dudes are like, I can't really, you know, suit, you know, find someone to be with until I know it's not Elizabeth. What? That is hilarious. Like, Oh, the first round pick is signed. Great. We can start, start the rest of the draft now. I just, it, it, oh my gosh. It's, it's, it's so, it's so terrible. It's so, so bad. It's a great segue to letting everybody know that falling for basketball is coming back for a second season. Oh, we got renewed. We got renewed. Second season. It's back.

[00:29:47] Um, thank you. Uh, we're back. I think we're back like this week. Wow. Training camp and all that stuff we're talking about. Um, uh, let's get to hopes and values. That's where we're talking about the things that are, that was all we're going to wait. What? We got to go. Oh my gosh. Really? Wait, what you, you are not well today. I'm not Papa John's pizza. No. And I, and I know all of it was tough. I was bad to begin with. You know that I came in and I said, I'm not on my game today. I'm not feeling great. That's right. But I'm at this is power three.

[00:30:17] It's your flu game. It is my flu game. My flu game sucks. We'll be right back here. I know. I'm like, man, this is a fast episode. I do love how unabashedly like, that's just like, as soon as you mentioned the push, that's all brands thought of. Oh yeah. Brand watched the video. He's not heard a word we've said. Either one of us, you and I are having a conversation. He's just there. He's just pushing buttons over there now. He's we've lost.

[00:30:47] Honestly, I kind of love to see it though, because it was taking up a lot of space and my brain ran free. And now I feel like I've passed that on to you. No, and that means a lot. That means a lot. Yeah. I mean, the rest of my day is cooked, but no worries. It's time for the wait. Why? The segment I know hadn't happened yet. And we're here now. Jax, what'd you wait to what you want? I only have two. I feel like you guys love a lot more. I want to start off with like the sisterhood of the traveling, sharing dress situation we have.

[00:31:17] You know, either they're all the same size, fine, or they're not. But I do want to say when calls the heart, even whether they're the same size or not to have us believe that they are. We need to have more body diversity in Hope Valley and not just have extremely slender women on the show. So please rectify that at some point. Thank you very much. And this one, I think I need you guys to maybe explain to me because maybe there's something I've missed, but I'm still wait, waiting it.

[00:31:44] So, so our lovely Madeline Albright. Yes. Rebecca St. James. Yeah. She, okay. She has the deed to Bill's property. Yes. Theoretically, she paid for that. She did. Okay. So when she is giving the deed back to Bill, how come he doesn't give her money? Didn't she say, don't worry about it?

[00:32:14] Didn't she basically say, I don't want the money back? She's, she didn't want it back or, or maybe she has, I don't know because she didn't have any money. She didn't have any money. So he just gave to her for free. I think that the payment was probably like, just like if you buy any sort of land, the payment comes after you sign it. And maybe she's just like, I'm signing this back over to you and you've not received payment yet. Like maybe it's something like that. Okay. Cause I think you're right. That doesn't make any sense. I mean, there's a chance they didn't think about it. No.

[00:32:42] I was thinking with that, okay, this woman doesn't have a lot of money. So what she's doing is like the, the big baddies give her the money to like buy the house or put a down payment on the house, whatever, but that they could have like, you know, gone behind their back. And when she's like, I don't have any money for me and my son. And Bill's like, I think you have more than you think. I was like, good Lord in heaven. Like how many single moms are we going to say this to? Yeah. Please. Yeah. So yeah, I was waiting and I was wanting.

[00:33:12] I love it. I've got a few. Two, uh, one there, um, you know, the boys are hanging out and they're, they're talking, they're having a good time. And I believe it's Frickham says, um, the ball it's happening in a couple hours and Lee and Nathan look at each other and go, we got to go get ready. And they run out. What? Couple out, like two hours, fellas. Like no, relax.

[00:33:38] You're telling me, you're telling me that Nathan's going to take two full hours to get the same thing. To wear the same thing. To wear the same thing. Right. At the time of that scene. Come on. Come on. Come on. Yeah. Um, I don't know. I thought the wedding dress was nice. I thought it was a nice wedding dress. I feel like if they're going to do this bit where it's like the wrong dress and it's ugly, it needs to be really ugly. When she puts the wedding dress on, I had the exact same thought. I actually think it looks really good. It looks like a nice wedding dress. It looks like a nice wedding dress. Jax? Here's the thing.

[00:34:08] I thought what they should have done absolutely was go way further with the comedy. I don't think that's a wedding dress. I actually think she does look pretty in it. I think it looks a little like juvenile prom dress, kind of like grown, like she's a grown woman doll type person. But I, you know. Are you like pitching a horror movie right now? Um, and what's wild is, is that they have, they got, make it a point to have Nathan see

[00:34:37] her in the dress and just be taken aback by her beauty. And I think the real answer is somewhere in the middle. First of all, it's not so hideous that you wouldn't get married in it. Worse comes to worse. And it also isn't Nathan Grant at the threshold of the door acting like he's never seen a woman before. Like it's one of, it gets somewhere in between those two foul points. It was confusing. Yeah. Um, so Lee's having this whole like moping party, um, about like, oh, did I do the right thing?

[00:35:06] I knew something was fishy, but I didn't anyway. And then he, you know, Rosemary talks him out of it. And then he comes to and he looks at her and he's amazed at how pretty she is. My guy eyes her down top to bottom, no less than five times, which, you know, for this show is pornographic. I, I, this was a lot of eyeballing, uh, going on there. Uh, so much so that I wrote it down and, uh, last but not least.

[00:35:35] So we, how long have we known that the governor's coming to town? Uh, 48 hours, 48 hours. Is that accurate? Yes. Sheesh. So 48 hours ago, we found the, the governor was coming to town and the governor, uh, one of the things that was promised was a speech on the radio and it was, Hey, we don't really know how to do that. Fiona's going to figure it out. Not only did Fiona figure it out, Fiona figured out how to broadcast onto the radio to quote

[00:36:01] be heard anywhere that has a radio massive. That's right. Anywhere. Not those towns anywhere, anywhere. It is just constant being sent out from tower to tower, just being sent around the world. They're getting updates from the governor's speech in Hope Valley. Anywhere that has a radio. Fiona is amazing. Amazing.

[00:36:28] Just an absolute like engineer, uh, like just an expert. Unbelievable. Convinced everyone else to turn their broadcast off. They turn it off. Yes. We're taking over. That's right. If you wanted to hear anywhere that has a radio England, in England, where they're still wondering about the aftermath of world war one, they got to hear Lucas talk about how shady the governor is. So good. What's going on in Hope Valley?

[00:36:57] Prime minister Neville, like Woodrow Wilson is trying to pass the treaty of Versailles and he's like, I wonder what Lucas is up to right now. You'll hear someone on radio last night talking about Hope Valley talking about how he's going to the governor over there and he was just like, take over everything. You hear about that? Where was that? Does that involve me? Am I? Is this for me? I felt like I shouldn't have been hearing this. But I'm somewhere. I've got radio.

[00:37:25] Brian, I just want to compliment your dialect work until the very last sentence. Yeah, I was about to say it went down. But he was so good up until then. Still better than a Venice romance. So let's start off with the biggie. Does the governor carry with him his medals to give out to Mounties? Because I hate to break this to you, but Nathan was in this hostage situation as the governor was pulling into town.

[00:37:53] So the governor decides to give Nathan a medal for his bravery long after he's left the governor's town and house. What? Does the governor carry around these medals? The way I took it, the way the governor introduces the award is I think he was honoring a person in the community at every tour stop he was making. And this happened to Nathan. He said he's giving out the medal of bravery.

[00:38:21] But he says he's honoring a person in every town on his stop. But they say he's getting the medal of bravery because of the hostage situation. He found out about it. That's why he was nominated for this award. So he's bringing medals to every town. Medals to every town, yes. Medal of bravery to Nathan for the hostage situation, impossible. I think the medal of bravery doesn't look any different than the medal for the singing flyer. They legitimately say out loud, because of what he did in the hostage situation, he's getting a medal.

[00:38:51] Yeah, that's why he's getting the one for Hope Valley. He was nominated because of this situation. So the governor comes to town and no one, they don't know who's getting the medal. They don't know. They have no idea. They don't know. But the governor's brought a medal. And then they get to town and they're like, we should give it to Nathan because of the hostages. Probably would have gone to Rosemary. So Rosemary's going to pin that medal not on her mounting uniform, but on her dress? Yes. That is absurd. That is a, that's a hot take right now. I got to be honest with you. That is not what's happening here.

[00:39:20] Even with the hostage situation, the medal belongs to Fiona because the feet of anyone who has a radio. Yeah. The two big ones were radio everywhere and the governor's decided to give a medal even though he doesn't know about it yet. Those two are crazy. Um, this criminal that now works at the mercantile that's going on a date with, uh, a hot thief. Yeah. Uh, a hot thief. How old is he? He supposed to be anything. You brought that up. Cause I thought he was like 17 and then he asked May Sue on a date and I was like, what?

[00:39:49] So I'm very curious about this as well because the way, um, the way faith was treating him, it seemed like he was definitely a teenager. Like definitely. Yeah. So, and I feel like May Sue and Fiona and faith are all supposed to be around the same age. So something is not right. It doesn't make sense. And that doesn't make it any more right though, that Fiona and faith are trying to match make May with Hickam while she's on a date with this guy. That's wrong. Unless the kid is 17 and they're trying to save her from.

[00:40:18] But if he's 17, why did she say yes to begin with? A different time. It's a different time. Yeah. Yeah. That's brutal. Um, anywhere there's a radio. It doesn't matter. Anywhere. Talking to you. That's it. In the roaring twenties, they're having parties with champagne. Are they listening to music on that radio? Are they doing the Charleston? Heck no. Listen to Lucas. So they're listening to Jim Bobby, I get in here, man. You got to get in here. You hear what's going on radio. Who play a whole Valley?

[00:40:45] Do, uh, do all the men in Hope Valley have tailored tuxedos? What in the world? They find out there's a black tie event in 24 hours and they all have tuxedos that were made just for them. That fit them perfectly. Dan, I can attest. You just, you're not getting that from us. You're not, but we're going to hope for the best. Okay. The pastor has one. Makes sense. Lee kind of high class. Makes sense. Bill Avery. Okay. He was a Mountie.

[00:41:15] Those three, I would give you, even though I shouldn't give you. The reality is, is no one at that economic state has a tailored tux that they own. The rest of these folks, are you joking me right now? Three piece suits and tuxedos fit perfectly to them. No world. I don't know, man. We buy our suits off Amazon and they always do. They always fit perfectly. Go back and look at the deckies. There's never been one that hasn't. Right. Never ever.

[00:41:42] Hey, you remember last week when I couldn't believe that the guy who was a tourist for the hot springs was working for the governor? Right. Now, he's secretly working against the governor. He is now. He's going over going, people have been wanting to say this for a long time. Who are you, dude? Who are you? You were mad about the hot springs, happy about the calisthenics, back in town for the governor, and now you're working to get him?

[00:42:09] I think when he realized that the governor was responsible for the hot springs fiasco, that's when he said, you know what? Enough is enough. I had a hot springs deal with children and the hot springs were gone. It's my boss's fault. Screw that guy. I'm moving here. I want to see it as my life's mission to make sure the hot springs never disappear again. This guy's character is as erratic as Elizabeth.

[00:42:38] But it's just like, what do we need him to be this week? Write it in there. He only cares about the hot springs. And then lastly, Fiona's doing all the ladies' hair at the salon on the house, which means they can't complain if it's not good. But also, I've seen her do three people's hair in the entirety of this show, and I think they've always gone wrong. And I feel like there should maybe be another option. Maybe some sort of competition here to help.

[00:43:07] Especially since she's busy rigging everyone's radio. That's right. She's so good at so many things. Because she's bad at hair doesn't mean we shouldn't love her. Right. Right? But let's be honest about it. If she's given away that many free hairstyles, it's probably not great. Yeah. It's time for Ropes and Valleys, right? Yeah, it is. Correct. I was wrong once. I could be wrong again. It's where we talk about things that are giving us hope for the future or maybe bumming us out. Jax?

[00:43:36] Am I allowed to talk about the preview since you haven't seen it, Bran? I'll allow it. Yeah. We also... I watched it live, too, Jax. I watched it live on Sunday night. Yes, I did. You get to see... You bust... I love to tell you it's because I was all in. It's because I had to watch it before we started work on Monday because of our recording schedule and I wanted to go to bed. So the earliest I could go to bed was 10 and that allowed me to do that. So, yes. Because you need to have it as quickly as possible.

[00:44:04] You and I will live tweet it next week. Yeah, we'll live... Oh, my gosh. We must live tweet it next week. No. I am hopeful and so excited for that scene where Nathan is walking towards Elizabeth in the schoolhouse, wearing an outfit that he wore, I think, in season seven. You know, bigger fans of Nathan have pointed it out and he's like, but what do you want? And it looks like her corset's about to explode.

[00:44:32] Like, everything she does is wild. So I cannot wait for that. And what's wild is she doesn't give you... I didn't mean to interrupt you, Jack. She didn't give you all the backstory here. Before that, it says... Like, Lucas says something like, I'd have to move to Capital City or whatever. And then she says... And then the narrator says, Elizabeth makes a decision that could change everything.

[00:44:58] And then Elizabeth says, this is bigger than me, Nathan. And then the scene she describes happens. Nathan walks in and goes, but what do you want? She wants to risk it all is what she wants. A lot of people were comparing it to the scene in the notebook with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams when he's like, but what do you want? And sure, I'm willing to say it's close to the same thing. They're both great. They're both great.

[00:45:27] I enjoyed it. It's very, very steamy. I think what's bumming me out is that I really don't want this. I don't need another love triangle that's with Hickam and the hot bandit who might be underage. And Maysue. I actually saw Hickam and the hot bandit who might be underage live. Really long band name. Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Fall Out Boy was actually going to name a song that, but then this band already existed. And they're like, what can we do? Yeah.

[00:45:57] So we'll see. Yeah. We will see. Wow. Man, I'm taking so much in today. Between the push, that was definitely a push. Oh my gosh, Bran. To this preview that I haven't seen, but I feel like I have. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just, you know, my, my hope is that the rest of my day I can just sit and just think about it. Just kind of sit with my thoughts. My hope is to be as far away from brain as possible. What's the last thing we're doing today?

[00:46:24] So your wishes, your whatever you want to do, man. I'm having a good time. Man, that's wild. They're going to have a notebook scene. Yeah. I don't know if we're going to scoop her up. I mean, there's no kissing in the rain. I don't think yet. Who knows that? Scoop her up. Scoop her right on up. Are you okay? I like the word. Somebody check on Bran. Scoop. It's my flu game.

[00:46:53] Bran is high? I've just had Flonase. That's all I've had. That's right. Just Flonase. Let's get to the, what's calling my hardest, where the people email stuff about. I did. Mine was to be as far away from Bran as possible. Oh, that was actually your hope. I don't have another one. That's his, that's always his hope. I see what's happening here and it's not earned and that's unfortunate. And so. It's not earned. It's good. It's good stuff.

[00:47:22] I just think Jack said that you're pulling it off is all I'm saying. Let's put on a, let's put out a poll this week. Jack the Homer dot com slash vovovo. Jack's. I love you and I'm willing to be honest with you. You are not pulling it off. It's not great. It's not great. It's not great. What if she actually did that though? And then you told her.

[00:47:53] That happened in high school. I was doing a production of Annie. I went into school with my hair radically cut, dyed and permed. And a bunch of my friends saw me in the hallway and they were like, oh my God. And I was like, don't worry. It's a wig. And they said, thank God. And then I was like, no, I was kidding. Oh no. No. That's a little bit your fault though. Yeah. That's probably my fault. I don't know. I knew it looked bad and I was wishing it was a wig, but I was very bad. Now part of me thinks that this is not a wig. This is a whole thing. And Jack really did that.

[00:48:23] By high school she means right now. And she's going to just slam the laptop shut because Lord knows she doesn't know how to exit Skype and she's just going to cry herself, cry herself to sleep. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to have to hear it because she thinks she's exiting Skype and she hasn't. Oh no. My new haircut bombed with Dan. He made a parent trap joke and not the Lindsay Lohan one.

[00:48:51] Do we have a what's calling my heart? We always have a what's calling my heart. You can email us what's calling your heart. Wow. Hello at deckthehallmark.com. We'll get to it by next season. This is from August. Oh wow. So we're finally caught up. We did it. We skipped all of April, May, June, and July. That's interesting. Pop. Here we go. This is from Meredith Levanovich. She sent us an email before. Yeah. This is not first time, long time. Not time, first time.

[00:49:21] Second time, long time. Hey, hearties, hurties, haties, and farties. Brad, hey. No, Meredith. You need to take that laugh with a grain of salt. He has popped up on cold medicine and Lord knows what else. Have you heard him today? You know what? Lord knows what else. Come on. Lord knows what else. You heard me. Lord knows what else. Spicy garlic sauce from Papa John's. Although, there's still some left in me that's a miracle. It's been a tough afternoon, y'all.

[00:49:52] Oh, I'm doing great. You're going to listen back to this and be thrilled with how you composed yourself. All right. Wait, did you do the thing where you pooped and you didn't poop your pants this time and then leave it when the file was coming? Oh, no. He asked Bran. All right, this is the third poop story. Bran, clearly Papa John's has made it a tough afternoon. He pooped his pants and then left the underwear in the trash can as we rented out the studio.

[00:50:23] And you were pooping with the door open as you thought I walked into the office, but it was a delivery person and you yelled, I'm pooping. I'm pooping. And if you're listening in the car with your children and they're snickering uncontrollably. They're loving this. This one's for you out there. This episode is crushing with the kids. Eight-year-old boys. That's who this one's for. They're going to think this is a riot. Which is honestly just our sweet spot. It's a demographic thing. Hey, Hardys, Hardys, Hades, and Fartys.

[00:50:55] You have a problem. Go. You have a problem. Don't read it again. That was a deep cough laugh. Go. Hey, Hardys, Hardys, Hades, and Fartys. We were doing so all the time. Brand can't get through the word fart. It's unbelievable. Hey, Hardys, Hardys, Hades, and Fartys. Go. Read it.

[00:51:25] What's calling my heart is moderation. I'm not talking about alcohol, but yes, drink responsibly or not at all, everybody. This has been a year of reflection for me. After lovingly heckling Dan about his dearth of laugh emoji usage. She did do that, guys. That's true. I've come to realize something. I'm a laugh emoji abuser. Oh, wow. In the DTH Facebook group, at work, in text, it's laugh emojis all the time. There's nothing wrong with being a jovial person.

[00:51:54] But if everything is funny, is anything funny? See, I've been saying this for years. If you highlight the whole page, nothing's highlighted. Right? This is why. But this is why I don't. Like, let's call it the bubbly sesh. And they gave every movie a positive review. How would you know which movies to check out at that point? Stick up for yourself. Stick up for yourself. Stick up for me. It wasn't my best one. But this is why I don't say, this is why I don't text LOL.

[00:52:21] Because rarely do I laugh at loud, unless you're doing fart jokes, and then I'm there for it. Yeah. I don't want to lie. Dan's thoughtful usage of the laugh emoji has garnered my respect. And I'm declaring a ceasefire or cease heckle. Dan, laugh when you want. I respect your laughs when I see them, because you don't recklessly toss them out everywhere. And in parentheses, she says, toss it. Which I believe. Toss it. Toss it. I think that's what we were looking for there.

[00:52:47] Thanks for playing along and being game for all the laugh emoji silliness from last year, Dan. P.S. I'm not responsible for other people's heckling of you over laugh emoji usage. Your blood is on their hands. Oh my gosh. Love, like, and laugh. Meredith Levanovich. Well, thank you, Meredith. Meredith. Amazing. Amazing. What a fun time. We'll be back next week. I guess we already kind of know the whole episode because of the preview. But I'm still excited about it because I haven't seen it. Until then, let's first wish you a Merry Christmas. Yes.

[00:53:18] Deck the Hallmark is a Bramble Jam podcast. It's produced by Aaron Shea. What? For more information on Deck the Hallmark, you can go to DeckTheHallmark.com. For more information on the Deck the Hallmark family, you can go to BrambleJamPlus.com. Deck the Hallmark is presented by Philo TV. For a free trial of Philo, go to philo.tv slash DTH. You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio. Thanks for listening or don't listen.

[00:53:48] It's really up to you at this point. It's at the end of the show. I mean, you're listening to me. Hi. But here they come. I promise they're coming. Yep. Here they are. Happy day. Happy day. Happy day. Happy day. Happy day.