I can’t believe it’s been seven months since Heartland signed off. And yet here we are, discussing the Season 10 return episode, “There Will be Changes.”
When we last left the folks at Heartland ranch, Lou had rebuffed Peter’s desire to get back together, Adam and Georgie were officially a couple, and Casey and Tim were on a break.
Sunday’s episode began with Amy having a bad dream and Ty waking her up. Amy turned away from the camera as she sat up, effectively hiding her belly and holding off on how much time has passed since the Season 9 finale. We also discovered Georgie had bought a horse, Tim was in a mood (and has been for some time) and Lou refused to wave to Jack and Mitch as she drove by the paddock.
What the heck has been going on at Heartland? It wasn’t until Adam announced it was he and Georgie’s anniversary—over five minutes in—that it was revealed three months had gone by between the Season 9 finale and Sunday night. The episode title didn’t lie: there have been a lot of changes since then. The biggest? Minnie the horse was having twins. In a brilliant bit of a head fake by showrunner Heather Conkie, it was the newest addition to the dude ranch that’s having two babies and not Amy. I admit, I totally fell for it, though I did wonder why Ty and Amy would rely on a DVD to find out what was going on with their baby.
To Tim that meant a worst-case scenario—the loss of one or both foals—but Ty had a more confident outlook. Amy, meanwhile, took the news hard and ran off to the barn. Clearly, it’s finally dawning on her how the coming human addition is going to affect everyone’s lives forever. That revelation went a long way to explaining why Amy was having those dreams about Spartan. Being pregnant means she can’t ride client horses or her favourite equine buddy; she worries she’ll “lose” the connection she has with Spartan. By episode end, the birth of Minnie’s foals had brightened Amy’s outlook and that only improved when Jack and Tim presented she and Ty with the cradle that’s been in the Bartlett family since … well, forever.
Meanwhile, Lou got some pretty amazing news; some New York City investors want to open a Maggie’s in Brooklyn. However, the one-off restaurant could very well cause her to choose between life on the ranch or in The Big Apple.
Heartland airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBC.
Images courtesy of CBC.
