When Calls the Heart Season 12 Episode 5: Mom's the Word

Rosemary and Bill question Jed at the newspaper office about why he did not come forward sooner about spending the rare gold coin at the mercantile. Jed tells them he won it from a man named Toddy Davis, an estates dealer, at a poker game in Union City. At the Mountie office, Nathan tells Rosemary and Bill that headquarters has confirmed the coin came from the Great Rocky Mountain train robbery, and shows them his investigation board on the coins and Toddy Davis.

Bill says that if they can find Toddy and the gold they can also catch the Garrison gang, and Nathan asks Rosemary to keep the investigation out of the press for now. They discuss going undercover at the poker game at the Union Club, and Nathan says he should be the one to do it.

Elizabeth tells Nathan about her new project-based learning plan and then tells the students that they will be spending more time outdoors; the class is excited. At the schoolhouse Little Jack tells Elizabeth that he felt embarrassed when everyone laughed at him calling her “Mama” at school, and says he will call her “Mrs. Thornton” at school from now on. Oliver stops by to drop off his math homework and finds Allie looking at maps; he offers to help because he has Mountie map training.

Fiona Miller comes across a distraught woman on the side of the road and brings her into town. At the saloon she introduces Ava, an heiress who says all of her trunks were stolen from the train station when she arrived. Elizabeth notes that the same thing happened to her when she first came to Hope Valley, and Ava tells her that she read her book and that it inspired her to come from Baltimore to pursue teaching. Ava says her money was in the stolen bag, and the group agrees to cover her meal.

Rosemary and Bill dress Nathan for his undercover mission and encourage him to adopt a persona; they land on “Danny DeMarco,” a rare coin dealer. Lucas brings Rosemary a press release about shared use of the land that he would like printed, and Rosemary tells him he should speak with Lee directly rather than through the paper, so Lucas takes it back. Lee is dismayed to find the release on the saloon counter declaring Lucas's intent to agree to shared use.

Hickam tells Fiona that Lee and Lucas have been icy with each other for weeks, and Joseph says it is about their pride; Fiona suggests the two of them meddle.

Ava orders food at the saloon and promises to pay Elizabeth back when her parents arrive, and Elizabeth invites her to shadow the classroom. Nathan encourages Ava to file a report about the luggage theft and asks Elizabeth to have Allie stay with her while he is away undercover. Fiona tells Faith and Mei that the salon's owner has offered to split the sale proceeds if she sells the salon for him, that she wants to use the money to continue her suffragette work in San Francisco, and that she intends to marry a man who has proposed twice before; Faith and Mei congratulate her.

Wyatt appears to flirt with Ava at the saloon while Elizabeth watches, and when Elizabeth raises how much Allie enjoyed dancing with him he brushes it off. Hickam and Joseph ride to the stream with Lucas and Lee, then take both men's horses and leave the two of them in the woods without transportation. On the outdoor lesson Elizabeth tells the students about the Greek “golden ratio” and asks them to look for patterns in nature; Ava tells the teenagers that she could only ever focus on boys when she was in school, and then steps in poison oak, so Emily walks her back to the doctor's office.

Elizabeth checks on her there and tells her that Hope Valley is a good place to start over. At the schoolhouse Elizabeth tells Allie that she and Wyatt may like each other in different ways; Allie says she does not know what her dad or Elizabeth have against Wyatt.

Before Nathan leaves, Elizabeth tells him he looks handsome in his suit and to be safe. Undercover, he watches men playing poker and joins a game, loses a hand to a suited man on his left, and tells the man he is not there to make friends. In the woods Lucas and Lee finally talk: Lee says he was hurt when Edwin pushed him out and shrank the park, and both agree they could be better friends to one another.

At the saloon Hickam asks Ava how long she plans to stay as rooms are booking up, and she offers to work for her room and board, which Mike accepts; Mike tells Fiona that Ava's tab is stacking up. Rosemary arrives looking for Lee, who comes in with Lucas, and the two men hug while Mike and Joseph admit to Fiona that they did a little meddling.

As Rosemary and Elizabeth watch the little ones, Rosemary says she cannot believe she has not yet met the new heiress. Elizabeth says Ava is sweet but seems lost, and that she sees herself in her. She tells Rosemary she worries she botched things with Allie over Wyatt, and Rosemary encourages her to take her cues from Allie to work out how much of a mother figure she needs. Outside the saloon Allie asks Wyatt to a picnic; he says he is not much of a picnic man, then tells her she is sweet but not exactly his speed.

At the poker game Nathan speaks with the suited man — Toddy Davis — and they trade notes on collecting coins, stamps, pins and watches; Toddy gives Nathan his card and tells him to look him up, and Nathan says he just might.

Elizabeth joins Allie on the porch that night and apologises for overstepping about Wyatt, but Allie says she was right, because he turned her down. Elizabeth tells her that people sometimes do not know what they want, that she will get over it in time, and that not forgetting it is a good thing, because she will know the difference when the right one comes along.

She says her mother taught her that and that they had a saying — “this too shall pass.” Allie tells Elizabeth that if she were Little Jack she would call her “Mom” all the time, and Elizabeth says Allie can think of her any way she wants. She asks whether Allie would like to call her “Elizabeth” at home, and they both agree they like the sound of that.

The episode ends on the porch at Elizabeth's house, and the beat it lands on is the naming question rather than the romance. Elizabeth apologises to Allie for overstepping about Wyatt; Allie tells her she was right, because Wyatt turned her down. Elizabeth tells her that people sometimes do not know what they want, that she will get over it, and that not forgetting it is a good thing — when the right one comes along she will know the difference. She attributes the lesson to her mother and the saying “this too shall pass.” Allie says that if she were Little Jack she would call Elizabeth “Mom” all the time; Elizabeth says Allie can think of her any way she wants, asks whether she would like to call her “Elizabeth” at home, and they agree they like the sound of that.

The episode's other two threads are left open rather than resolved. Nathan's undercover work produces a contact, not a result: Toddy Davis gives him a card and an invitation to do business, and the episode does not say where the rest of the Garrison gang's gold is. Elizabeth's attempt to speak to Allie on Nathan's behalf is shown to have been the wrong move, and the episode does not have Nathan acknowledge it.

What remains unresolved or unconfirmed: the episode does not state how Jed Campbell came to be at a poker game with Toddy Davis beyond his own account, and it does not confirm any connection between Jed and the Garrison gang. Ava's trunk is opened on screen and found to contain dark clothes and boots, and the episode gives no explanation of what they are for — this is left as an open thread, not a stated reveal. Lucas and Lee's personal reconciliation does not resolve the shared-use dispute over the park land, which remains where Episode 4 left it. Elizabeth and Nathan's relationship is not advanced by any decision in this episode.