A Moment in Time: The Union City Trip (Part 1)

   

    Welcome to Wednesday Hearties! (I got it right this time! Right?) So I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is I didn't get any work done on my blog despite the extra time I gave myself. (Fan fiction kind of took the driver's seat in this writer's car. Lol!) But the good news is that I finished today's post anyway! Yay!

    Today I am once again tackling another big Lucas and Elizabeth moment. Yes, that's right! I'm talking about that big romantic trip they took to Union City! (How'd you guess? :) Now I was first just going to talk about the main dinner scenes, maybe throwing in the moment Lucas first saw her in her fancy dress. (Or I should say Rosemary's dress. Lol!) But once I got to thinking about it I thought, "I'll just do the whole trip from the invitation to the dinner!" But obviously that would make for quite a long post to do it all at once, and so I've decided to divide their trip into two parts. And so this will be my first two parted "A Moment in Time!" It's the movie, or the double feature version if you will. :D The second part should be out Friday so stay tuned!

    Let's begin, shall we?

    So first off we have Lucas show up at the school house, right after Nathan had made his move toward Elizabeth by giving her the apple. It is obvious that Nathan is surprised and annoyed by his presence. After all how often does Lucas come down that way? It's also apparent that Lucas is annoyed that Nathan is annoyed with him. (If that makes sense.) Nathan then seems to try and deter him by telling him that recess is almost over. Lucas gives his rival a smirk and says, "Then I'd better hurry." And just goes on in anyway, completely ignoring the Mountie's apparent protest. (Go Lucas! Lol!)

    So Lucas gives a knock on the door and walks in to a surprised Elizabeth. He asks does she have any plans for that Saturday, she says no. He then asks has she heard of Virginia Woolf which she happily replies that she has. Then the tickets come out, and he's done it. He's officially made the first offer to take her out. (Other then when he asked her to join him for a bite at the saloon in Season 6 to discuss "library business." Right....) And we're not talking about a quiet dinner at the saloon. No we're talking about an out of town over night trip to a fancy hotel. And Elizabeth is very unsure what to say. She tells him that of course she'd love to go but....

    Well, they actually didn't get any farther as "strict rule follower" Opal comes in to remind Elizabeth that recess should be over. Lol! Lucas then kindly tells Elizabeth that she can think her decision over, and leaves to wait in agony at the saloon. (Or at least I'm assuming he did. :)

    Now I'm going to take a moment to once again address an area of concern for some Hearties. Some people got upset as they felt it was very scandalous for Elizabeth to go on an overnight trip out of town with a man without a chaperone. Now looking at the time period of WCTH they are right. That would have been very scandalous and might have brought Elizabeth's "honor" into question. But I have a few comments about this.

    First off....this is television. We all know that WCTH has almost never followed the time period to a T, and I'm fine with that.

    Secondly, it would have been a bigger deal if she had never been married before, but she has and is now a widow with a son. This makes things a bit different.

    And finally...if we are going to be judgmental about this then may I remind you that Nathan showed up at Elizabeth's house at night after everyone had left, and Elizabeth let him in. And before that Elizabeth went to his house to help with the sleepover and were left ALONE after the girls had gone to bed. And there were all those times Jack came to Elizabeth's house for dinner, and that super scandalous scene where they stayed ALL NIGHT in the church before Jack left for the Northern Territories! AND....there was that incredibly scandalous time they stayed in that cabin ALONE watching those two kids and Elizabeth fell asleep on the couch next to him!!! (Gasp!) And Jack's comment the next morning is deserving of a double gasp and a finger wag.

    All in all I'm not saying that those people don't make a valid point as they do for the time period this show is based in. But if we're going to get picky about the trip with Lucas then don't we have to get picky about all those other scenes too? (Okay, end of rant. ;)

    Boy, did I rabbit trail! Where were we? Oh, yes, yes. So after a pep talk from Rosemary Elizabeth has made her decision and nervously shows up at the saloon. At the sight of her Lucas drops everything he was doing, immediately escorts her to a couch, and offers her a refreshment. (Take a deep breath, man.)

    And then ensues the awkward silence. Lucas is very happy to see her but is also very anxious about what she'll say. Elizabeth already knows her answer but still is very hesitant to say it. Lucas makes the first move to break the tension by stating the obvious, "Here you are." Lol!

     I find it funny as it really just shows even more how nervous he is, and that is an endearing thing about him. He so wants her to say yes, yet at the same time is trying to remain cool and gentlemanly about it. The poor fella.

    But this still doesn't break the awkwardness between them, and so he just comes right out and asks, "What are your thoughts on Virginia Woolf?" Then Elizabeth, stalling for time, tries to make a joke, fails miserably, and throws poor Lucas off even more. But he laughs despite it all and continues to be gracefully tortured. Lol!

    Elizabeth then finally begins to talk and Lucas seems to believe that she might say no.... And then in typical Lucas form he quickly begins to take back his invitation, and starts to tell her that she doesn't have to go. It's cute the way he never ever wants to be on her bad side. If he messes up he's always coming back to quickly make it right and NOT have this woman mad at him. Lol!

    Then Elizabeth just spits it out and says, "Yes." (YAY!) Lucas stops cold, and looks at her with his brows raised like, "Did you just say what I thought you said?" Elizabeth nods saying she would love to go with him to the reading and Lucas is over the moon. I mean, just look at the way his face lit up! He was ecstatic!

    But.....There's always a "but." Elizabeth then tries to clarify that while he was so sweet to ask and that she doesn't mean to presume...but if he thought this might be a....

    He looks at her trying to pull the words out of her mouth. It's so hard for Elizabeth to even say the word "date." But she finally manages to, and Lucas now gets the full picture. And being the gentleman that he is he sweetly reassures her that it would be his pleasure to escort her in whatever way makes her feel comfortable. This is a revealing statement to me. He was willing to label the outing as a "just friends event" yet he totally would have called it a date if he could have. In fact that's pretty much what he had in mind for this whole trip as we'll find out later. He just wanted to spend time with her, no matter the label on the outing.

    And after the "just friends" title has been slapped on the event Elizabeth's whole face just erupts with this huge, sweet smile. Just look at her! She immediately goes into this happy, shy, smiley attitude. (Much like a girl would should she have just accepted the man she had a crush on's offer of a date...Hmmm...) And Lucas is clearly happy too. After Elizabeth learns what a fancy occasion this really is, both of them just go into this happy, love struck sort of mood. You know smiling at each other, not saying much, sort of breathless. And I of course cannot leave out Lucas' sigh as he watches her leave. Aww! His little love sick soul!

    Moving onto the next day Lucas shows up and Elizabeth goes into panic mode. She's leaving her son for the first time, while also accompanying this man who she has some sort of feelings for out of town over night!

    Now I have addressed this before, but I shall do it yet again here. Can we give the poor man a break about looking at his pocket watch? Yes, I'm sure he wanted to make good time so he could have that picnic he planned, but when else were they going to eat? I don't know how long it takes to get there but apparently long enough that they had to stop for lunch. And Elizabeth probably could have stood there all day saying good-bye and listing anything and everything she could think of to Rosemary and Lee. (Reminds me of one of the early episodes of the Dick Van Dyke Show where Rob had to pick his wife up and carry her out the door because she wouldn't stop listing things to the babysitter. Lol!) Anyhow Lucas knew they had a deadline to make, and so he said he didn't mean to rush her, but they needed to get going. Maybe it was because of the picnic, maybe it was so they'd get to Union City on time. Either way I just think we can all chill about him and his pocket watch, that's all. Alright I'm done now.

    So Elizabeth gets in the car, and after reassuring Little Jack that he'd bring his mother home safely (Which definitely earns him some points!) Lucas gets in the car to drive off on their adventure. Two points I want to make here....

    First did anybody think it felt surreal to see Elizabeth and Lucas sitting in that car together? Like something you could only imagine happening? Or is that just me?

    And secondly it seemed to hit Elizabeth once she got in that car that she was really doing this. Her face before and after Lucas sat next to her definitely showed her nervousness. Whether it was the fact she was leaving her baby or that she was going on the trip with Lucas seated right beside her is up to your imagination. :)

    And finally for the cherry on top of this half of the trip, they had that picnic! (Sorry I don't have more pictures of it.) So Lucas pulls the car over so they can eat, and sets up this wonderful picnic complete with macarons and even a vase of flowers! I mean look at his guy! He actually took the time to pack flowers to decorate their picnic with! I'm sorry dude, but you totally are a hopeless romantic. Lol!

     So they're quietly sitting there, and Lucas notices Elizabeth is lost in thought. He has a pretty good idea about what's on her mind, and so he says, "You're thinking about Little Jack, aren't you?" Now I absolutely have to give him a point here as he called Elizabeth's son by his name! When I first went to write the review for this episode I had to go back and see if he had or if he'd just said, "Your son." Calling him by his name breaks down the barrier saying "Your son" creates, and makes things more personal. Sufficed to say I was happy to find that he'd called him, Little Jack.

    Anyhow Elizabeth admits that yes she is thinking about Little Jack, but she's also just wondering about the night in general and what Virginia Wolf is like. She says she hears that Virginia's quite eccentric and Lucas uses the moment to compliment Elizabeth on her talent saying, "Well, that often comes along with great talent. You should know."

    Now I do have to admit that that wasn't his best try at a compliment. I totally get that he meant it in a good way but....it didn't come out the best. I mean I'm a writer and eccentric isn't really what I hope people call me. Lol! Either way, he was relating to her writing abilities and calling her talented so he gets points there. :)

    Then Elizabeth's curiosity perks up and she asks how he managed to get the tickets. Lucas casually replies that he asked around, and that it turns out him and the theatre manager have a mutual acquaintance. It then dawns on Elizabeth just how much trouble Lucas went through to get those tickets. I mean think about it. He heard about the reading and then spent who knows how long calling up the theater or remembering an old friend who could help him get the tickets. And then obviously they had to be sent to him, so who knows how long he had even been planning this.

    He went through a lot of trouble for Elizabeth, and she realized it. As she said earlier during the picnic he really thinks of everything. He goes all out for her, and she truly appreciates the thought he puts into things. And I think Lucas' words really summed things up. "Believe me the pleasure is all mine." He truly thought Elizabeth would enjoy this outing, and just wanted to spend time with her. Whether or not it was dubbed as a "date" he still just wanted to take her out somewhere and make things special for her.

    We then got the sweet smile from Elizabeth, and that look from Lucas before he reached for her hand....I mean the plate of macarons...Yeah....Lol! I personally didn't think he was going to grab her hand (Although, that would have been something to be sure!) but I know that other people did, and I can understand why. After all her hand and that plate were pretty close. He could have slipped up and grabbed her hand instead...or pretended that he had.... ;)

    Well, that's it for the first half for you! I plan on putting out the second half this Friday so stay tuned for that!

    Side note: I'm terrible at keeping up with this stuff but May 25th was actually the one year anniversary of this blog. (Yay! Confetti, balloons, streamers!) I'm so grateful for the ways God has blessed this blog, and has brought such sweet and caring people into my life because of it. Thank you all so so much for all your love and support over the past year! You've been so wonderful, and I truly truly appreciate it!

    Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave your thoughts on Lucas and Elizabeth's big trip below or on my Twitter page! Stay safe and God Bless!

P.S. Feel free to check out my merch store for some fun WCTH inspired merch! https://shop.spreadshirt.com/heart-and-family-mercantile