The newest Heartland episode was a second act of sorts to the previous one since it continued many of the storylines that began in last week’s episode.

From Amy finally heading to the working cowhorse competition with Blue, which came with new friendships and unexpected confessions, to Jack and Lisa going to Dan’s funeral and Katie learning to stand up for herself, which earned her a new friendship in the process, this was definitely an interesting and eventful episode.

Want to know more about what exactly happened? Then keep on reading this recap of Heartland season 17 episode 6.

The competition

If you remember, episode 1705 ended with Amy preparing to head to Braeburn to take part in a working cowhorse competition after Jack had to pull out due to Dan’s funeral and asked Amy to step in.

By the end of that episode, Amy and Blue had become a pretty good team, and this episode only confirmed that. But it wasn’t without its hurdles since everything seemed to go wrong for Amy this weekend.

At the start of the episode, we saw Amy put in one last practice session and then pack up the horse trailer.

She was a bit reluctant to head out because she not only didn’t want to leave Lyndy for the whole weekend, but she also was a bit anxious about not knowing anyone at the competition.

When she voiced this to Caleb, who had come to Heartland to wish Amy good luck, he told her that she should call or text him if she got bored in Braeburn since he didn’t have Carson that weekend and could come hand out with her. Caleb’s gesture seemed to make her feel a bit better about the whole thing, and with that offer in mind, she got on the road.

But it wasn’t long before one of the tires on her truck blew, and she was stranded on the side of the road because she didn’t have all the tools to change it.

Luckily, Nathan Pryce happened to drive by on his way to the same competition and stopped to offer Amy a ride. So, they loaded Blue into Nathan’s trailer and endured an awkward ride to Braeburn.

That evening, there was a reception at the arena for the competitors, and at first, Amy was not going to go, especially after Nathan told Amy that his company, Pryce Family Beef, is sponsoring the event. But then the TV didn’t work in her room at the Ranchland Inn, and Amy was left bored and missing her daughter. So, when Caleb called and encouraged her to go to the party, she decided to do just that.

However, that ended up not being the best idea.

Once Amy got to the party felt utterly alone. And the only person she knew there, Nathan Pryce, was flirting with a group of women. So, she got a water at the bar and tried to figure out her next move. Nathan came to talk to her for a bit, but even that was short and awkward.

And then, once Amy was turning around to go mingle, she collided with the waiter carrying glasses of red wine and got the wine spilled all over her.

Having made enough of a spectacle of herself, she decided to leave. But when she was leaving, she ran into Caleb, who was coming to the party to keep Amy company.

Caleb drove her back to the hotel, shimmied through her hotel room window because Amy had also forgotten the keys to the room inside the actual room, and went inside to hang out since Amy’s whole day had been pretty awful.

They had pizza and talked, and then Caleb kissed Amy (more on the how and the why in the next section!).

It was clear that Caleb caught Amy by surprise, so he apologized and left. And it was made all the more awkward by Nathan showing up at Amy’s door right after the kiss to check on Amy, only to see Caleb in her room.

The whole situation was weird and unsettling, to say the least, especially for Amy. And it showed the next day at the competition.

The first part of the competition was reinwork, and Amy ended up scoring below average. She wasn’t in sync with Blue even before the competition even started and almost fell out of her saddle during the reining event.

After reining, Amy still seemed a little frantic, especially since Caleb was trying to get in touch with her. But interestingly enough, Nathan was the one to help Amy snap out of it.

He stooped by to talk to Amy before the cow work part of the competition and actually gave her good advice.

So, Amy listened to Nathan’s advice about tiring the cow out, and it worked.

She did an amazing job at the cow work event and ended up scoring 76 points, a point higher than Nathan’s, which ended up putting her in first place in the cow work division.

And even though Jack was more interested in how well Blue did in the competition than Amy when she got home, he was proud of both of them, especially after hearing that Amy beat Nathan Pryce.

It was interesting to see this tentative friendship emerge between Amy and Nathan on Heartland season 17 episode 6.

Although it was awkward at first, on their drive home, it seemed that they had really hit it off and definitely understood each other better. So, it will be interesting to see where this goes.

Matters of the heart

Okay, so in the previous section, I mentioned how Caleb offered to keep Amy company in Braeburn since she didn’t know anyone there. Then he showed up at the party for the competition and drove her back to the hotel after she got red wine spilled all over her. And then, when they got to the hotel, Caleb ended up kissing Amy.

Well, you could clearly see why because this was the conversation they had right before the kiss.

It sounded quite flirty. But I guess Amy was just being honest with Caleb. After all, he is one of her best friends, and she meant those words in a friendly, non-romantic way.

Caleb, of course, was mortified about the kiss, especially since Amy rejected his advances.

So they had an awkward goodbye, and Caleb quickly left. And they both were out of sorts the next day.

When Nathan dropped Amy back at her truck on the way home, Caleb was there changing the tire. And when Amy walked up, he seemed really nervous about how Amy will react to him being there since Amy had been ignoring his calls all day.

Amy told Caleb that she didn’t pick up because she’s been processing what happened between them, trying to figure out what to say. But Caleb cut in, saying that there isn’t really anything that needs to be said, and claimed that the kiss had been a mistake.

However, that whole conversation felt rushed and forced. It was clear that Caleb just wanted to reassure Amy that her rejecting him was okay and that they were still friends.

Yet, it had the opposite effect on Amy. For her, nothing was settled, and she still wasn’t sure where they stood with each other.

Fortunately, Caleb also seemed to realize that their last conversation didn’t quite put everything right between them. So, he asked Amy to meet him at the pond, and he finally was honest with Amy about what he felt, why the kiss happened, and where do they go from here.

I loved that Amy admitted her part in it, too, since I think that she was sending Caleb mixed signals at times both in this episode and in previous ones. And I’m glad that their friendship is safe because it has been so lovely to watch it grow in the last few seasons.

Although I am also a bit sad that it looks like this thing between Amy and Caleb will never go past deep friendship.

I mean, I get it, Amy doesn’t feel the same way. And, as Amy said, Caleb had been going through so much as of late that his feelings for Amy might have developed just because Amy was there for him through the worst of it.

But I still think that they would have made a great couple if their feelings were the same. A girl can dream, right?

What do you think about this turn of events? Are you happy or sad about Amy and Caleb remaining just friends? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I love reading them! Especially on this topic.

Excitement and adventure

Another storyline that carried over from the previous episode is that of the death of Lisa’s ex-husband, Dan Hartfield.

While in the last episode, Lisa was figuring out how she feels about the whole thing and if she wants to attend the funeral, this week, it seemed that Lisa was all about remembering that life is short and that you need to live it to the fullest.

But it wasn’t just the funeral and Dan’s passing that brought this on.

At the beginning of the episode, we saw Lisa write something in her notebook, and it turned out that Dan’s family had asked her to speak at the funeral. After all, Lisa was a big part of Dan’s life for a long time, and she has a lot of good memories to share about Dan.

What story did Lisa choose to share at the funeral?

One about the first time Dan and Lisa went skiing and how Dan had talked Lisa into going off trail, which ended with them getting totally lost. Luckily, the rescue patrol showed up and saved them before it got dark, or they could freeze to death.

Although, at the time, Lisa wanted to bite Dan’s head off for getting them in that situation, now, looking back on it, she saw it as a fun, carefree time in their lives, one full of adventure. Something that Lisa and Jack don’t really have that much time for nowadays, what with running their businesses and being there for their family.

So, after the funeral, Lisa decided to remedy that and invite a bit of adventure back into their lives.

She started by talking Jack into going out for lunch instead of eating leftovers at home. And then, once a song they both love started playing during their meal at the pub, Lisa pulled a reluctant Jack onto the dance floor.

But something interesting happened while they were dancing – Jack noticed an all-around cowboy buckle in the display case near the dance floor – a buckle he had won at the Ponoka Stampede in 1967.

When Lisa asked why it was there, Jack admitted that he had to sell it a long time ago because he and Lyndy had been short on money. And he’s regretted it ever since.

So, they found the manager of the place, who also turned out to be the owner of the pub, and asked if they could buy back the buckle for a fair market value price.

However, the owner, Devon, informed them that it wasn’t for sale because, to quote him, “a buckle from Ponoka, can’t get any kitschier than that.”

That’s when Lisa had an idea.

Seeing how Devon was playing pool when Jack and Lisa approached him, Lisa decided to ask if he would play Jack for it. The wager was: if Devon won, then Lisa and Jack would give him 500 dollars, which is how much the buckle is worth, yet if Jack won, then Devon would give them the buckle.

Both men reluctantly agreed to Lisa’s little bet, and the game was off.

Unfortunately, Jack ended up losing the game at the last moment.

Jack, being the honest man that he is, handed Devon his 500 dollars and was about to leave when Lisa cut in and asked to play the winner. She even upped the stakes by putting 1000 dollars on the line.

Jack, of course, protested, but Lisa seemed determined to make this wager happen. And Devon couldn’t say no to a thousand bucks, especially since he was under the impression that Lisa had played pool only a handful of times.

Not wanting to be a complete asshole and make things a bit easier for Lisa, he even let Lisa break first. But it seemed that that was a mistake. Because once Lisa started hitting balls, she didn’t stop until she had won.

Devon realized that he had been hustled by Lisa, but fair is fair, so Jack and Lisa left the pub with Jack’s buckle in hand.

And when Jack, who was as surprised about Lisa’s prowess in pool as Devon was, asked where Lisa learned to shoot pool like that, she admitted that Dan had taught her.

It turns out that when Lisa and Dan were starting out, they had used pool to blow off steam after their horse lost a race. And their horse lost a lot back in the early days; therefore, Lisa had become quite the pool shark.

So, the two returned home in high spirits.

It was so nice to see Jack and Lisa enjoy life to the fullest, even though Lisa had to push a little to make Jack step out of his comfort zone. But once he did, he and Lisa both had a great time and really seemed reinvigorated and ready for more adventures.

I can’t wait to see where this new zest for life will take the older couple in the future!

Making a new friend

Finally, Katie also had a pretty big story in this episode, one that showed just what she’s made of.

Heartland season 17 episode 6 started with Katie revving up her dirt bike and riding to meet her friends, Brandon and Ellie. Well, Ellie being her friend was debatable because all throughout the episode, she seemed to antagonize Katie.

First, Ellie commented on how old Katie’s bike is when Brandon was excited to see Katie and told her that she did a good job cleaning it up. Then, the next day, when the three of them were out riding their dirt bikes again, Ellie called Katie a coward when she didn’t want to jump over a small creek in the woods.

Brandon had jumped and cleared it just before without any problem, but Katie, being a new rider, wasn’t so sure about her skills. However, when Ellie egged Katie on to do it to prove that Katie is not scared, she decided to try it after all.

Luckily, Katie seemed to come to her senses just before the edge of the jump, barely stopping her bike before going over. But she was still embarrassed that she didn’t do it, and it didn’t help that Ellie called Katie’s attempt pathetic. So, Katie rode off without a word.

To Katie’s surprise, Brandon and Ellie showed up at Heartland later that day to check on her. And Ellie basically invited herself and Brandon in, even after Katie told them that she didn’t ask permission to have people over.

And they even managed to have a decent time. Ellie made lunch, and they sat down to eat. But then Ellie went and ruined it by taking a bottle of whiskey from Jack’s bar cupboard and saying that they should have a taste of it.

That was Katie’s last straw, and before Ellie could pour any of the whiskey into a glass, Katie stood up and told her to stop and leave.

It was so great seeing Katie standing up for herself. And even though she thought that she had ruined her friendship with Brandon by telling them to leave, especially since Ellie called Katie lame as they were walking out, Brandon surprised Katie by coming back and apologizing for Ellie’s actions.

All Katie wanted was to make some new friends after her friendship with Parker sizzled out. And by the looks of it, she did manage to make at least one new friend in Brandon. Especially since he told Katie that she’s cool just the way she is after explaining that he didn’t stand up for Katie to Ellie earlier because he thought that he had an image of a risk-taker to uphold, which included illegal drinking when Ellie wanted to open that whiskey bottle.

I hope we will see Katie and Brandon’s friendship develop without Ellie being there to ruin it before it even starts. But it would also be cool to see Katie and Ellie become friends, too. However, I’m not sure if that can really happen since, in this episode, Katie did try to be nice and friendly to Ellie, but the other girl just stayed hostile.

However, I have a feeling that there might be some developments on that front in the next episode.

The description for the next episode says that Amy will be working with a new client who has a surprising connection to Katie. And the promo (see it below) for the next episode confirmed that it will, indeed, be Ellie, whose horse Amy will be working with! Can’t wait to see how that plays out!

Last thoughts on Heartland season 17 episode 6

It was interesting to hear Nathan’s opinion on the feud between Heartland Beef and Pryce Family Beef.

During the car ride to the competition, Nathan told Amy that it really wasn’t personal for him, it was just business. And then, on their way back, he elaborated that he didn’t really see Jack and Tim as competition, factory farms were the competition. And that he thinks that his and other family-run ranches who do things the right way should actually stick together if they wanted a chance to compete with the big dogs.

Nathan also admitted that he had spent a ton of money on those billboards that we saw in episode 1701 and that all he could do was hope that they paid off and helped get his company out there since the marketing campaign just about ended up bankrupting his business.

These conversations kind of helped de-vilify Nathan and see that he really didn’t buy that bull or Sam’s land out of spite, he just did it to expand his business.

Now I’m wondering if we will get Jack’s and, more importantly, Tim’s opinion on what Nathan said. I would love to hear what they have to say about the whole sticking-together thing. Would they be interested in really working together with Nathan and helping each other’s businesses grow?

I guess they are doing that a little already, what with Nathan leasing them the land in return for Tim and Jack allowing his cattle to get to the water more easily. But it would be cool to see them really pitch in when it comes to each other’s business and make an effort to do everything they can to stand up to those factory farms.

Promo for Heartland season 17 episode 7

And here is the promo for Heartland episode 1707:

The episode will be called “Unknown Caller” and will see Lou finally face the reason for her insomnia, Jack will win over a prickly dude ranch guest. While Amy will be working with a new client who has a surprising connection to Katie.