When Calls the Heart Season 12 Episode 3: All That Glitters

The children have gone into business: Toby hosts the “Kid's Minute” radio hour and reports that the Hope Valley Hazelnut Company is selling nuts the whole town loves, while Jed and Molly watch from their own rival nut business with dismay. Allie tells Nathan that for her seventeenth birthday she wants a party with just the kids, and suggests that he and Mrs. Thornton go on a real date alone. At the Mountie office, Nathan and Elizabeth read Oliver's written report on a case file and find it full of spelling and grammar errors — Nathan calls it a flunk.

Elizabeth offers to help and asks Oliver to come by the school.

Oliver tells Elizabeth he attended Briarcliff School in Hamilton. Elizabeth calls a friend from teacher's college who used to work there and learns the school has been closed for years. At the library, she tells Oliver what she has found; he admits he never went to school anywhere, and says he has never had an adult or teacher he could trust. She tells him they can figure it out together. Oliver then hands Nathan a note resigning, saying he will finish his duties that day and leave in the morning.

Nathan takes the problem to Bill, who tells him he only needs to tell his superior what is necessary, and that if he believes Oliver does good work and deserves to be there, he should say so and then go and talk to the young man. At the stables, Oliver explains that his last foster family would not let him attend school because he was a farmhand, and that when he aged out they offered to keep him on but he wanted something more — so he lied on the Mounties' application. Nathan tells him he is dismissed but not discharged.

Lee is keeping secrets. Bill lets slip that the new will Lee asked him to draw up is ready; Dr. Carter asks Rosemary to tell Lee he can come in for screening; and Lee keeps vanishing with Hickam. Rosemary and Elizabeth hide in the back of the mercantile and watch Ned hand Lee bear bells for a trip up north to do some trailblazing, then follow the two men into the woods. Hickam, hearing leaves rustle, thinks it is a bear and rings the bells; the women run out screaming.

Hickam blurts out that Lee wanted to find and name a trail after Goldie since Lucas ruined the park plan, and Lee produces a sign reading “Goldie Trail.” Lee explains that he had hoped Lucas would change his mind before Rosemary found out. He also assures her that the will and the doctor's appointments were routine.

In Capital City, Edwin tells Lucas that Edie Martell has locked up his votes and cut the park down, and that the Aucoin trial has been moved up and reporters are gathering outside. Lucas is mobbed and escapes out the back. On the train he finds himself seated beside Martell, who apologises for unintended consequences and suggests a compromise; Lucas laughs it off and tells her to stay away from him, and she replies that will not be possible because she is going to her Uncle Ernie's ranch in Hope Valley.

In town, she later joins him at the café and reveals she is looking for office space to open her own law firm. Earl Wyatt returns to town looking for work, and Allie's birthday dance plans take shape around him. At the doctor's, Lee tells Faith that his father died when he was Lee's age and that it has been on his mind what he is leaving behind; he asks her to tell Rosemary his back was acting up, and she agrees to keep it between them.

Superintendent Hargraves arrives to inspect the cadet programme. Nathan reports that Oliver can recite the rulebook by heart and performs his tasks promptly and diligently, that the written portion is now complete, and that despite room for improvement his gumption and loyalty mean he will one day make a fine Mountie. Hargraves asks Oliver for his own account; Oliver says he would like to prove himself worthy of Constable Grant's respect. Hargraves says they will see where things stand in a month.

At the saloon, Bill brings Rosemary the unsolved case file — it contains a photograph of a gold coin like the one Ned found at the register, and he tells her that not all of the coins were recovered. Solve this, he says, and they will have solved the Great Rocky Mountain Train Robbery of 1907. Nathan tells Elizabeth the cadet passed inspection, takes her riding on Newton, and they kiss in the fields.

The episode resolves its two main threads and closes on a quiet, happy beat. Nathan tells Elizabeth that their cadet passed inspection, says he has an idea for their date, and the two of them ride his horse Newton into the fields and kiss. Oliver's immediate crisis is settled by Nathan's report and Hargraves's decision to reassess in a month — he is dismissed but not discharged.

What the episode leaves open is the coin. Bill brings Rosemary an unsolved case file containing a photograph of a gold coin like the one Ned found at the register, and tells her that not all of the coins were recovered; if they can solve this, they will have solved the Great Rocky Mountain Train Robbery of 1907. The episode does not say who spent the coin, and does not name anyone in connection with the robbery. Lee's new will and physical are explained within the episode as routine, and Rosemary is told about the trail.

The episode does not establish whether the coin at the mercantile came from the 1907 robbery, and it does not identify the person who spent it. Lucas's park remains shelved, and no outcome is shown for his vote problem or the Aucoin trial.