Heartland Season 17 Episode 10: A New Family Is Born!

Heartland Season 17 Episode 10 Recap

And so another season of Heartland has concluded with a beautiful episode full of uncertainty and angst but also happiness and love.

From Shane and Chloe’s wedding and Heartland Beef’s future to Amy and Nathan’s budding relationship amidst helping Nathan’s horse, Powder, and Katie taking a risk to find another side of herself, a lot of big things happened in the Heartland season 17 finale.

So, without further ado, here’s my recap of Heartland season 17 episode 10.

Making it official

We’ll start off this recap with one of the main things that happened in this episode – Shane and Chloe’s wedding.

As I mentioned in my recap for episode 1709, the wedding was already on a bit of shaky ground after Miranda and Tim interfered in Shane and Chloe’s relationship and tried to talk Shane out of going to London with Chloe.

And the accident that happened at the start of this episode didn’t help.

What accident, you ask?

Well, at the start of the episode, we saw Amy training Chloe on how to ride sidesaddle on Nathan’s horse, Powder, while Shane was hooking up a ton of lights and a sound system at the gazebo. But as Amy and Chloe were taking a break, something must have gone wrong with all the lights because the next thing we know – the gazebo is on fire.

Luckily, no one got hurt, and the only thing that burned down was the gazebo. But Powder was traumatized and took off since he was tied to a gazebo post, and Amy couldn’t calm the horse down when she cut him free. And Chloe and Shane got into a fight.

I mean, the bride and groom were tense even before the fire since Chloe found out that Shane hadn’t put in his notice at work yet, even though they leave for London in a few weeks. And the fire just made everything worse.

After Amy, Nathan, Miranda, Shane, and Chloe put out the fire, Chloe started talking about Shane possibly overloading the extension chord, with Shane shooting back that he did that only because Chloe wanted so many lights and a sound system. And then, when Tim got back from Calgary (more on that later) and told them that they couldn’t rebuild the gazebo in time for the wedding, and Amy also delivered the bad news about Chloe not being able to ride Powder down the aisle, Chloe blew up.

She started saying that Shane hadn’t been paying attention because he had taken a work call with the partners and that the fire was his fault, which morphed into a fight about the fact that Shane hadn’t quit his job yet, even though they had decided that they were moving to London. One thing led to another, and pretty soon, Chloe was telling Shane that they should call off the wedding altogether.

Fortunately, Tim and Miranda were there for their son. And Tim helped Shane realize that, although things change, you can’t let those changes ruin your relationship.

And that talk seemed to really help because the next day, Shane and Chloe finally talked.

Chloe apologized for going all Bridezilla on Shane, while Shane apologized for changing his mind about London after the partners at his law firm offered him a promotion.

So, Chloe told Shane to take the promotion and revealed that there was a really good job offer for her waiting in Philly, which meant that they could both stay in the States without taking a step back in their careers. They made up, and the wedding was back on.

Amy offered Chloe and Shane to have the wedding at the spot where she and Ty were going to build their house since it was one of the most beautiful places on the Heartland Ranch. Nathan even managed to get Powder ready in time.

And we witnessed a beautiful wedding ceremony where Jack married Shane and Chloe with all their loved ones by their sides.

It ended up being such a beautiful wedding ceremony. And although we only saw moments before it and the ceremony itself, it was still great to see Shane get married with his dad and sisters by his side.

Should we get more seasons, I hope we will see the happy couple visit Heartland since they are not moving to London and will be just a short flight away.

Healing horses and hearts

But Shane and Chloe’s relationship wasn’t the only one that experienced ups and downs and ended on a high in Heartland season 17, episode 10; by the end of the episode, Amy and Nathan’s relationship was in great place as well.

If you remember from last week, at the end of the previous episode, Nathan said some things to Amy that really upset her.

We found out that Nathan’s wife had cheated on him, which led to a divorce and left Nathan jaded on love. And now he thinks that every relationship ends in heartbreak, which is why he ended up implying that that includes Amy’s relationship with Ty.

When he realized what he had said, Nathan tried to apologize to Amy, but the damage was done. So, in this episode, we saw Nathan trying to make amends. Fortunately for him, he had a lot of time with Amy to do it since Powder was left traumatized after the gazebo fire, and Amy and Nathan were working with the horse in the hopes that they could get him back to normal in time for Shane and Chloe’s wedding.

Nathan’s first attempt at apologizing came when he arrived at the dude ranch to pick up Powder at the start of the episode, but they were interrupted by the gazebo fire.

Then, when the two of them went out looking for Powder, who took off after getting spooked by the fire, Nathan tried again. And at first, Amy wasn’t really having Nathan’s apology. But he managed to explain that although he didn’t think that all relationships are doomed, it’s more complicated than that, he also can’t see himself ever getting married again.

Amy was still baffled by Nathan’s stance on love; however, our girl also realized that despite what Nathan was telling her, that was not the whole story. As she said, he is, in fact, quite a complicated guy, so him saying that he’s written off love for good isn’t quite true. And it definitely goes against Nathan asking Amy on rides and actively creating ways to spend time with Amy.

We saw a confirmation of this later when Amy and Nathan talked at the stable while Nathan was checking on Powder. He not only made sure that Amy knew that just because his marriage ended badly doesn’t mean he wants that to happen to anybody else but also asked Amy if she would still have a relationship with Ty if she knew all the pain and loss that was coming down the road.

Amy’s reply that she would, indeed, do it again in a heartbeat seemed to change something in Nathan because, after that, he seemed more determined than ever to have Powder ready for Chloe and Shane’s wedding.

He even encouraged Amy to keep going when Amy doubted that they could get Powder back on track in time, and then was up early working with Powder the next day, managing to have Powder trust him again.

But Amy still wasn’t comfortable with Chloe riding Powder down the aisle if Nathan wasn’t the one leading the horse since Nathan is the one Powder trusts.

And to Amy’s surprise, Nathan agreed to do it even after everything he had said before about love and marriage.

So, Nathan led Chloe down the aisle on Powder and stood nearby with the horse all throughout the ceremony, stealing glances at Amy (with Chloe’s bouquet in hand, no less, that Chloe forgot to retrieve from Nathan after getting off the horse).

And then, at the end of the episode, Nathan and Amy met up again while Amy and Lyndy were out riding.

Amy thanked Nathan for all his help with Powder, and when Lyndy invited Nathan to come cloud gazing with them, Nathan accepted because the episode ended with a shot of Lyndy, Amy, and Nathan peacefully looking up at the sky with Nathan’s dog, Molly, lying beside them.

After this episode and how it ended, I have a couple of questions about Amy and Nathan…

First, was that bouquet thing intentional?

I mean, at one point, it looked like Nathan wanted to give it back to Chloe, but she didn’t notice, so he ended up standing there all ceremony long with Powder’s lead in one hand and the boutique in the other. And since usually, at weddings, catching the bouquet means that that person is next in line for marriage, could the writers have Nathan hold the bouquet intentionally, signaling that his stance on marriage might have changed because of Amy?

And secondly, the cloud gazing thing.

Lyndy was the one who invited Nathan to come with them. Amy even gave Nathan an out by telling her daughter that Nathan probably has a lot of work to do. But he agreed anyway and didn’t look in a hurry to leave. Could this mean that his stance on kids is changing, too?

Or am I just reading way too much into this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

No matter what, I’m just happy that Amy seemed happy and serene while they were lying side by side, looking up at the sky. And if Nathan is the one to bring that kind of happiness back into Amy’s life, I’m all for it!

Never give up

Another storyline that Heartland season 17 episode 10 kind of wrapped up is the one concerning Heartland Beef and Garland Foods.

In the last episode, we saw Lou, Tim, and Jack pitch Fred a great idea on how to boost sales so Garland Foods would be inclined to keep the exclusivity deal they had with Heartland Beef. Yet, Fred seemed distracted at best and shifty at worst during both their meetings, and the episode ended with Lou receiving an email that Garland Foods was dropping Heartland Beef. No explanation, nothing.

So, in this episode, Jack, Tim and Lou decided to go talk to Fred face to face to find out what’s happening once and for all and convince Fred to reconsider his company dropping Heartland Beef.

However, when they arrived at the Garland Foods headquarters in Calgary, they were in for a big surprise.

After the receptionist didn’t let them see Fred, Tim decided to take matters into his own hands and speed-walked to Fred’s office. But Fred was not the one who met them when Tim barged into Fred’s office.

Apparently, Fred had been fired by the Garland Foods board that morning, and the company now has a new CEO – Iris McClane.

That alone left Lou, Jack, and Tim confused and a little angry; after all, Fred always went on and on about how Garland Foods is a family-owned company, but it looks like that isn’t the case anymore. And it didn’t help that they were led out of the GF building by security.

So, all they could do was go home because it didn’t look like Garland Foods was an option for Heartland Beef anymore.

The next day, Jack even confronted Nathan about how he thought that Nathan’s goal was to run Heartland Beef out of business. Nathan, of course, tried explaining that that was never his intention; he wanted them to be friendly competitors, not enemies and tried telling Jack not to give up. But Jack was not having it.

Luckily, Lisa, whose birthday they celebrated that evening, requested that they do a family cattle drive the next morning since they needed to move the herd anyway.

And that’s when things started to look up for Heartland Beef.

Tim, Jessica, Jack, Lisa, Lou, Amy, Katie and Lyndy did a successful cattle drive without having to hire any outside help because, after all, Heartland Beef is a family business, and with as big of a family as they have, they can easily move cattle without having to hire anyone.

And the cattle drive also seemed to invigorate Jack’s spirit.

At the end of the drive, he thanked the family for helping and reassured everyone that he was ready to fight and that Heartland Beef is going to be fine with or without Garland Foods.

On top of that, Jessica took some photos of the women of Heartland after the drive, and the photos sparked something in Lou – an idea for a new direction for Heartland.

So, Lou, Tim, and Jack went back to Calgary to Garland Foods HQ (this time setting up an actual appointment with the board) to pitch a fresh new idea – that the women of Heartland are the future of Heartland Beef.

It was all in the proposal Lou had created – the marketing strategy, plan to increase sales, the works.

But when the new CEO interrupted Lou before she could tell the board more about their new strategy, basically dismissing Lou, Tim and Jack, Lou realized that the new Garland Foods isn’t a company they want to work with if they treat them this way. Which is why Lou told Iris and the board that Heartland Beef doesn’t need Garland Foods to survive, it’s the other way around, and walked out of the room with her head held high.

It looks like Heartland Beef and Garland Food’s collaboration might be over. However, I don’t think it’s time for Heartland Beef to give up quite yet. Jack, Lou and Tim seemed determined to fight and figure out a different path for their future. And I have no doubt they will.

It might not be easy, but it’s definitely possible, especially now that Lou is on board and working her ass off for the survival and future of Heartland Beef. I just hope we get more seasons of Heartland to see how that plays out.

High risk, high reward

While the adults were worrying about weddings and horses and businesses, Katie was out trying out the dirt bike that Lou gave her at the end of the previous episode.

While out riding with Ellie, Katie asked her what it’s like to go over jumps. And when Ellie explained how big of an adrenalin rush it is to jump, Katie decided that she wanted to try after all. Even though she had previously told her friends that she is not a risk-taker.

So, Ellie instructed Katie to start slow and work her way up.

Yet, it was easier said than done. Katie was not good at jumping at all, and Ellie even suggested that Katie might just not be the type to do jumps (very friendly, I might add; the friendship between the two had really blossomed). But Katie wanted to do it, so she kept going. She didn’t give up even when she fell after one attempt. And Ellie even started saying that maybe Katie is a risk-taker after all.

But it wasn’t until the end of the episode that we saw Katie finally succeed.

She asked her mom to come to the course they had built with Brandon and Ellie and told Lou that she’s going to go over the jump.

Lou, of course, freaked out a little, but Katie explained that although, yes, it was a little dangerous, she still wanted to do the jump and wanted to do it with Lou by her side to know that her mom is always in her corner.

So, off she went and finally did a perfect jump. And instead of freaking out, Lou was ecstatic for her daughter. They high-fived and jumped around happily.

It really showed how far Lou and Katie have come in their relationship this season. It’s definitely been a rocky road for the two of them. However, as Katie is growing up and Lou is starting to trust Katie’s decisions more, it really shows how similar Katie and Lou really are and how great their relationship can be.

Last thoughts on Heartland season 17 episode 10

Lastly, I wanted to mention how cool it was to see the little conversations between Miranda and Jessica and Miranda and Tim.

When I first heard that Shane’s mom, Miranda, would be making an appearance, I was a bit worried about how that will go. Tim and Miranda did not part on good terms and probably haven’t spoken since.

However, as we already saw in the previous episode, both Miranda and Tim have done a lot of growing since they were together. They are also both in new, happy relationships, so there really was no need to worry. And the conversations Miranda had with Jessica and Tim in this episode proved that.

First, we saw Miranda and Jessica talk in the loft when Miranda was looking for Tim after the gazebo burned down.

It felt like the two women really came to an understanding – Tim’s past and present coexisting peacefully.

And Miranda also seemed to finally accept the fact that it’s okay that her relationship with Tim didn’t work out. It isn’t a failure; they just weren’t right for each other.

And then, before the wedding ceremony, Tim and Miranda also talked and came to the same conclusion – their relationship didn’t work out, but it’s okay because it gave them Shane.

These little conversations really felt like they were not only acknowledging Tim’s past and the mistakes he’s made but also healing them. Everybody could move on, knowing that their lives turned out the way they were supposed to.

The future of Heartland

Sadly, we don’t yet know if there will be an 18th season of Heartland.

Usually, these decisions are made in the spring or early summer, so most likely, we will have to wait quite a few months until we know anything.

Last year, for example, the renewal was announced on May 8th, and the announcement came on June 1st in 2022.

But I am hopeful. Heartland has a large, strong, and faithful fan base that has only grown in the last few years due to the show’s success on Netflix (in 2021, Heartland was the 5th-most streamed TV show in the US).

So, don’t lose hope, I definitely won’t. And as soon as I know anything, I will be sure to share it right here on this blog.

Finally, I wanted to say a big thank you for reading these recaps, commenting, sharing, liking, everything. I’m so lucky I get to do this, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.

And hopefully, until next season!