Jack’s been getting a lot of screen time over the past few weeks of Heartland and I, for one, am loving it. Sunday’s new instalment, “Here and Now,” written by Ken Craw and directed by Chris Potter (that’s two in a row), served to celebrate Jack’s accomplishments in the rodeo with old pal Will Vernon extolling his buddies’ virtues and welcoming him into the Rodeo Hall of Fame.

The whole rodeo dinner scene was enjoyable, from Tim realizing Jack was being given the award, to Will’s talk and Jack’s heartfelt thank you speech. It also caused me to wonder if Heartland could do a spinoff of Jack and Will’s adventures in their early days? A Heartland prequel series where they travelled the circuit, racking up wins and breaking hearts. I’d watch that, wouldn’t you? Anyway, back to the episode, and Tim setting Jade straight about her latest actions.

Social media once again wormed its way into a Heartland story, as Jade had her sponsorship pulled after she was captured one-upping Clay in a beer funnel contest. I think Jade was dead-on to suspect Clay plotted to unseat Jade as the face of Chuck Wagon soup and I’m glad there was enough feedback about Jade from Chuck Wagon fans that she was reinstated. I’m not sure about you, but the whole Clay-Jade dynamic is starting to grate on my nerves. It’s obvious they both like each other, so what not put them together already?

Meanwhile, Georgie and Olivia have found themselves as the co-backups on the Extreme Team. I had expected the Heartland writers to automatically award top spot of Georgie—she’s one of the main characters after all—to I tip of the cowboy hat to them for giving the captainship to Sam, who is the better rider, and giving Olivia and Georgie spots as her supporter. And kudos to Georgie—and the rest of the team—for standing up to Natalie over the dangerousness of the single-rider tail drag.

Heartland airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.