Aahana Swrup
Season 12 of ‘When Calls the Heart‘ brings a bounty of new adventures for the residents of Hope Valley to embark upon. As Elizabeth and Nathan embark on the early days of their courtships, they both find themselves with the opportunity to mentor young minds toward finding their passions. Meanwhile, Lee and Rosemary are preparing to undertake new professional advancements with differing levels of success. As such, episode 2, titled ‘You Get What You Give,’ sees these characters as they set about on these undertakings, sowing down the early seeds of their intriguing storylines for the season. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Rosemary Goes Live on the Radio
In the last episode, Rosemary has the brilliant idea to start her own news segment on the radio, increasing the reach of the Valley Voice. However, as the day nears for the first airing, the pressure begins to set in, especially since the host is still lacking a headlining story to cover. As such, the day before the program’s premiere, Rosemary finds herself scrambling around town in search of a story. Nonetheless, save for pigs winning ribbons and hazelnut harvests, nothing big seems to be unfolding around town. However, in the end, the latter ends up bringing her what she’s looking for.
Henry’s bountiful hazelnut harvest compels Pastor Joseph to suggest the idea of starting a business. Even though Henry is hesitant at the idea, he decides to get some help with reaping the harvest once he realizes the enthusiasm the local kids have for a particular comic book series. Therefore, he ends up offering comic books/magazines to teenagers in exchange for de-shelving and packaging hazelnuts. As Rosemary catches wind of the same, she realizes that comic books—a fairly new concept in Hope Valley—have slowly but surely taken over the town. As a result, she decides to cover the same topic on her first radio show.
On the day of the program, several townsfolk gathered at the local hotel to watch the episode’s live airing. Even though Rosemary’s nerves run high, she manages to get in the groove of things easily enough. Still, halfway through, she grows frustrated with the linear conversation around the topic as no one—not even parents and pastors—has anything controversial or contrarian to say about comic books. Fortunately, Elizabeth saves the day by proposing the inclusion of Florence, who has been patently annoyed with the kids’ obsession with the new series. With Florence’s participation, things pick up, and the program is livened up. Thus, Rosemary’s venture proves to be successful, inspiring her to cover more of Hope Valley’s regular life in her radio show.
Lee and Lucas’ National Park Hits a Roadblock
While Rosemary thrives in Hope Valley, her other half, Lee, faces some unfortunate issues with his own passion project, the construction of the National Park. This mostly stems from Lucas’ decision to entertain Edwin’s bid to win a place back into his good graces. Edwin used to be a part of Lucas’ team when he was fighting the issue of the Resort’s construction. However, he ditched the Governor once his popularity began to diminish. Yet, when he offers his services again, the latter can’t deny his skills and ends up welcoming him on board. Lee, who is less kind towards Edwin after his betrayal, isn’t amused by the turn of events, especially when the other man starts trying to push him out of important conversations.
One such instance includes Lucas’ conversation with Miss Martel from the cattleman association, who brings up the issues that his national park will pose to local ranchers. Currently, the ranchers have a shared land right over the pastures they rely on for cattle grazing. However, this will become impossible once the park has been constructed. While this proposes a more general problem for the ranchers, it will also diminish Lucas’ chances of winning the rural vote during his governance. He has already sacrificed the corporate vote by refusing to name the park after wealthy families.
Therefore, the Governor believes he can’t move forward with his plans. Predictably, this doesn’t go well with Lee, who is sacrificing time with his family to be by Lucas’ side and see the project through. For the same reason, he begins to believe the other man is getting cold feet due to his incessant need to please everyone—a trait that Lee believes will be his downfall. As such, he decides to cut professional ties with Lucas and returns to Hope Valley. Whether this drastic step will compel Lucas to rethink his strategy or push Lee toward a new storyline is yet to be seen.
Elizabeth and Nathan Become Guiding Lights
Much like the Coulters, Elizabeth and Nathan also face new challenges in their work. Coincidentally, these challenges put both of them in a mentoring role. For Elizabeth, the resident school teacher, this is a more predictable problem. One of her students, Ally, has been feeling unmoored about the fact that she has no set aspirations for her future, unlike her older friends. On the other hand, Nathan—who has recently become the mentor to a Mountie Cadet—finds himself in a similar position to helping Young Oliver find his confidence.
Elizabeth suggests that the solution to Oliver’s confidence issues may be to deliver a small win to him. As such, Nathan decides to put him on case comparison duty. In turn, Oliver surprises him by conducting a thorough evaluation that is full of extensive research and pattern recognition. Thus, the Mountie realizes the young man has a knack for this kind of police work. Meanwhile, Elizabeth takes her class out on a field trip to nature to offer them a more engaging way to learn about the topic of civics.
During this time, the kids observe a pawprint in the mud, inciting Ally’s curiosity to identify the animal. By the end of the day, she manages to accomplish her task and even learns about the breed of wolf that the pawprint belongs to. Eventually, a group of people meets up at Elizabeth’s place for a potluck dinner—including Oliver, who receives an invitation from Nathan. Over dinner, it becomes evident that the couple’s efforts to guide the two young individuals had been successful.
Read More: Is Kavan Smith’s Lee Coulter Leaving When Calls the Heart?
