WCTH Episode Review: Don't Go (Part 2)

"Someone got shot!"

"Was it Nathan?"

"It was Nathan!"

"Oh, my goodness he's dead!!!"

"That means Lucas is the only option..."

"Oh, there he is. He's fine."

"Oh no....Elizabeth's going to....yep..."


    Well, that was something like the thoughts that ran through my head as I watched this crazy cliffhanger. (Team Nathan give me a break please, as you got quite the ending for your team. :)


    Welcome back to the second half of my review for the last episode of Season 7. Thanks for being patient and waiting for the second half. (Oh, wait. You didn't have a choice...) This cliffhanger is currently the most talked about topic among the Hearties right now, and for very good reason. It totally deserves its own post so I can cut it all up and stitch it back together, trying to get the full picture. I also found some statements from Erin, Chris, and Kevin that really help us get a better picture of what took place in that scene. I will be linking the sites I found them on so you can read them for yourselves.


    So let's get right into it!

    Where did we leave off last time? Oh, yes...the gun shot. Nathan was convincing Jenny, the crook Elias' sister, to not try and break her brother out of the jail coach. He was so close to stopping her when someone decided it would be a good idea to pull out another rifle. People panicked, Jenny felt threatened, and...BANG! Someone was shot. Now prier to watching this episode I had heard that people thought that Nathan might get shot, but I hadn't seen the preview and so I didn't know anything for sure. And upon watching it afterward I found nobody really did, but it sure looked like Nathan could have been.


    So Bill brings the coach racing back into town, and informs Carson that he's got a gun shot wound for him. Fiona rushes into the infirmary to get the necessary supplies, and Elizabeth finds out that someone has been shot. She's horrified just at the idea of anyone being shot, and asks Fiona who was the victim. Fiona can barely bring herself to tell Elizabeth, no doubt she knows about the love triangle going on, but it didn't matter. Some dude outside shouts, "I think its Nathan!" and Elizabeth is horrified.

    She rushes outside and over to the coach where we see the still boots of a Mountie lying inside. Carson then emerges and says the chilling words, "He's gone."

    Elizabeth is devastated! She goes into shock, and can barely register the ordeal. Meanwhile Lucas has stepped out side and is coming to see what all the commotion is about. It was here that Elizabeth slowly turned, and found a safe and healthy Nathan walking slowly toward her.

    At the sight of him Elizabeth bolts to him and wraps her arms around him as tight as she can, burying her face into his chest. Nathan slowly hugs her back, and Lucas looks on at the whole situation with confusion, and hurt. And the season is over!

    Oh boy! First off the dramatics were great, as was that hug. I may be Team Lucas but I can admit that that hug was good. (If only that had been Lucas she was hugging, right Team Lucas?) However just because I think it was dramatic and romantic doesn't mean that was the way Elizabeth meant it. And this is the question that Hearties have been battling with ever since Sunday.

    So let's try and figure this out. Elizabeth hears that someone has been shot. Her response would have been the same had anyone been shot obviously as she didn't know who it was just yet. She just cares about people that much. However, then she finds out that it might have been Nathan, and that added a whole new level of horror to the situation. She cares a lot about Nathan, knows she has some level of feelings toward him, and the guy just FINALLY asked her out for goodness sake! Now he's been shot.

    Then she hears that he's dead and goes into this dazed level of shock and grief. You know who else she heard died while standing in almost that same spot in the street? Yep, you guessed it. Her beloved husband, Jack. Now I know that people have been really debating why she did what she did, but no matter whether it was romance related or not, surely she had to be having some sort of flash back to the moment she heard Jack was dead. Whether it was the moment or she was feeling the same feelings of loss and grief inside, this hit so close to Jack's death that that had to be going through her mind on some level.

    Then she sees Nathan alive. She was so relieved that he wasn't dead and so she threw herself at him, and held on for dear life. What did that mean? Well, according to this article on After Buzz Tv Erin Krakow went on Hallmark's Bubbly Sesh and said this.

“Hearing that someone has been shot and then hearing from outside that maybe it was Nathan it’s just [sighs] she’s finally gotten to the point where she’s kind of been able to move through her grief about having lost Jack….she just wanted to find out who it was and was sorta praying and hoping it wasn’t Nathan. I should be clear that it’s not that she has necessarily chosen a team. It was in that moment she realized how devastating that would be..she turned around and saw that Nathan was..alive and that was the greatest relief.”


    This sums things up pretty well, and helps explain somethings. After all, why try guessing how Elizabeth is feeling when I can have Erin do it for me? Lol! This also could help answer our burning question..."Is this darn triangle over?!!" According to Erin things still sound indefinite for us. I think Brian Bird said it right during this interview here. He basically said that, "It may or may not be over." And so we all are left to guess. Thanks, Papa Bird!

    But none of this answers the main question. Did Elizabeth hug Nathan because she loves him or was it due to the trauma of losing Jack? My thoughts? It may be a combination of both. We know that Elizabeth cares a lot about Nathan, but again this hit so close to home with Elizabeth thinking that once again she lost a Mountie she cared about. I guess we'll never know exactly until next season, but her face said it all. Total relief. That is what I saw. SO MUCH relief that Nathan wasn't dead.

    Now how did Nathan take it? Here's what Kevin McGarry had to say in an article on ET.


“I think Nathan is overjoyed [that Elizabeth embraced him tightly], but at the same time, just under the circumstances, coming back into town, his mind is clearly on that he lost a partner, another Mountie… The embrace was great and I think what’s proven is there is something between those two characters, Nathan and Elizabeth.”

    All good points. Nathan was probably in such a turmoil of emotions. First off the woman he likes just ran right into his arms and is hugging him incredibly tight! That would put him over the moon! But secondly his Mountie accomplice just died trying to save his life! Also a fellow Heartie pointed out to me that it appeared Nathan's hand slightly moved Jenny's gun before it shot. Poor Nathan! What is he feeling? I mean surely he feels the loss, but does he feel guilty? Like that guy's death is his fault? Is it his fault? Nathan's face showed that he was feeling the pain of losing a Mountie, but it definitely might be more than that. Again we are left to wait until next season.

    And finally...Oooo...we have Lucas' face as he watches the whole thing. Ouch! The poor guy! (Just look at his face!) He just had that date/not date with Elizabeth the previous night! He probably was feeling pretty good about where he and Elizabeth stood. After all he said, "If this were a date, I would take your jacket," and guess what Elizabeth did? She gave him her jacket.


    This is what Chris McNally had to say about how Lucas was feeling...

    (Both Kevin and Chris' comments are from this article at ET.)

“I feel like Lucas felt pretty confident by the end, you know? He thought he'd made pretty great strides [pursuing Elizabeth] and that everything was sort of falling into place the way that he wanted. So, I feel like when he witnesses [Elizabeth and Nathan’s] embrace, it sort of takes his feet up from under him because he didn't realize those ties were that strong. I think he now has to rethink his whole situation.”

    Yep! I can totally see that! He felt pretty confident about his relationship with Elizabeth and how things were progressing. Then he sees her hugging the competition for dear life and he's totally taken back! He looked confused, and hurt. (Poor Lucas.) All this time Elizabeth had never said anything to make him doubt her feelings. She went on that trip out of town with him, and agreed to all the events that went along with it. She accepted his romantic dinner in the library and never tried to refuse any of it. In fact she seemed to be telling him that it was a date or that she'd be interested in a real one.

    Now just as he's hit a highlight in their relationship...BOOM! Elizabeth is hugging Nathan, and Lucas' world is turned on its head. How will this effect him and Elizabeth next season? I'm not sure. Lucas could take a step back, and distance himself. Remember that cliffhanger in Season 2 with Charles? Jack wasn't so happy after that. Yet he came around. But this hug could totally cause some tension between Lucas and Elizabeth, which it appears I and Chris McNally are all for.

    Later in the same ET article Chris also states that...

“I feel like I wouldn't mind having some more conflict, because that’s fun to play with, so I would like for things to get messy before anything gets better.” 

    The article then went on to say...


McNally reflected on his character’s initial arrival in Hope Valley and how he was shrouded in mystery. After two seasons on the show, we now know Lucas has good intentions, which McNally says is a good thing, but he still wants to shake things up! He continued, “Just having that little bit of mystery is really fun to work with, so I'm hoping that if something messy can happen in the future, that it has something to do with Lucas' character and personality and we can kind of dabble in a little darkness or mystery or suspicion or something again.”

    I'm all for some more drama and conflict, especially for Lucas! This could be a good thing for Team Lucas should there be some good drama between Lucas and Elizabeth!

    The final question I'm going to ask in this long post is this. Was that hug Elizabeth realizing Nathan is the one, or is she simply reliving the trauma of losing Jack? Has she realized that she truly loves Nathan, or does Nathan remind her of Jack? And will Elizabeth get scared away from Nathan next season, and end up with him in the end? Or will she be at odds with Lucas, think she loves Nathan, but then realize that Nathan just reminds her of the life she had and lost and realize that Lucas has been here the whole time and that she really loves him, but was too scared to admit it and follow her heart? (Gasps for breath!)

    As always, (say it with me) I. Don't. Know. I will say that the writers have done an incredible job keeping us engaged, excited, and guessing the outcome the whole way through. (They also have done an amazing job of starting the graying process of my hairs. ;)

    My conclusion to this whole thing is that the hug definitely meant something, and it may have been a combination of her caring about Nathan, and absolute sheer relief that he's not dead. But whether or not that means she picked him, and whether she hugged him because she realizes she loves him or it being more due to the trauma of losing Jack, I'm not exactly sure.

    Thank you all so much for reading this long overview! And thank you to the WCTH cast and crew for all the hard work you do bringing me my favorite show year after year! I so appreciate everyone coming back again and again, and I can't wait to find out what happens next! 

    Stay safe and God Bless!