When Calls the Heart Season 12 Episode 6: When Autumn Leaves Begin to Fall

Allie comes home from the pond in the woods and tells Nathan that the stream where the salmon spawn is cloudy and dirty, and that the other wildlife living there will suffer for it. Nathan asks whether she wants to talk about it over dinner, and Allie storms off. On Nathan's porch Elizabeth tells him that it is not just about the stream and that Allie's heart is still broken, and that Allie could use a fun distraction; Nathan suggests the hot springs before the weather turns. Elizabeth keeps sneezing, and Nathan tells her he thinks she is coming down with something.

Henry, Emily and Opal clear the hazelnuts out of Lucas's office at the saloon while Edwin yells at them to clean up. In the saloon Fiona helps Rosemary set up for the radio hour, and proposes a radio salon in which people can hear more than one voice and perspective at once. Rosemary agrees, and Fiona supplies the name: “The Daily Dialogue.” Ava plays the piano at the saloon. Rosemary asks Lucas whether he would like to be on the new segment, but Edwin pulls him away.

Allie arrives with a message that Elizabeth is sick and that she is there to get Elizabeth a grilled cheese; Oliver arrives for a grilled cheese too and tells Ava that Constable Grant wants her to stop by the station. Allie tells Oliver she is going to see what is happening with the salmon and asks whether he wants to join.

At the Mountie office Nathan tells Bill that the division has sent in a forensic specialist task force, Inspector Georgie McGill. Georgie and Bill tell Nathan that they know each other from forensics training years ago, and Nathan and Bill bring her up to speed on the gold coin, Toddy Davis and the Garrison connection. Bill and Inspector McGill agree to leave on a train in an hour, leaving Nathan behind to protect his undercover identity.

At the mercantile Minnie finds an envelope from The Schwartzman School for the Blind, and Joseph tells her that he sent for the information so that they can all sit and look at it together, and that he has requested a tour of the school.

Rosemary brings Elizabeth cold medicine and Elizabeth tells her how upset Allie is about the lack of fish spawning in the stream; Rosemary suggests that Lucas talk to the students about it. Allie checks in on Elizabeth, who has made her cupcakes, and takes a couple. Ava visits Nathan at the station as Oliver asked her to, and Nathan tells her that her stolen luggage was found and should arrive tomorrow; Ava thanks him and hurries out. Nathan comes to Elizabeth's house with ingredients for chicken noodle soup, and Elizabeth, groggy from her cough medicine, rants nonsensically at him.

Oliver and Allie observe the water quality at the stream and then trespass onto the McGinty land to explore further. They eat cupcakes and talk about birthday parties, and Oliver tells Allie he has never had one. They find cattle tracks and raise the possibility that the cows are churning dirt into the water and causing the algae blooms that keep the fish from spawning. Men on horses ride up and the two of them hide; Oliver is upset that they trespassed, and in the conversation he tells Allie that his mother is really in jail.

Bill and Inspector McGill ride the train together and discuss their strategy. McGill tells Bill that all the men in training could not forget that she was a woman, but that Bill never seemed to notice; Bill asks whether she thought he really did not notice her, and she tells him it drove her crazy. In the jail they meet Sonny, and McGill reminds him that they met when he and his brothers could not come up with an alibi for the day of the Great Rocky Mountain train robbery. Bill tells Sonny that things might be a little easier for him if he gives them some information.

They ask about Toddy Davis, who is known for moving stolen goods, and Sonny tells them that Toddy has an operation. Inspector McGill asks Sonny to flip a coin for which information he will give them — who else is trafficking in his stolen goods, or where they can find the rest of it — and when they show him a gold coin like theirs he tells them that “Teddy” Davis used to deal in coins like that in Union City, and that he will tell them more if they let him go.

Nathan helps Elizabeth back to the couch after she has eaten the soup. He is expecting Allie home but says he is happy she is keeping busy instead of being upset over Wyatt. Elizabeth tells him that heartbreak is like illness, up and down before it is over, and about her own heartbreak at fifteen and the growing up it took to understand that love is not about imagining who you want someone to be but about knowing who they really are. They tell one another that they are happy to know one another.

Later at Nathan's, over dinner, Allie apologises for being late and asks him not to be mad at Oliver. Nathan says it is fine that she is spending time with friends as long as they are her friends, and asks to discuss Wyatt just this once: he tells her that Wyatt is not worthy of her and that she deserves someone worthy of her regard. On the train back to Hope Valley, Bill and Inspector McGill agree that they both know Sonny was involved in the robbery; they do not have enough evidence, and they still need to find out who sold the coin to Toddy.

They apologise to one another for keeping their cards too close to their chests in the past and agree to do better this time.

Elizabeth has another fever dream, this time at the stables, where she sees Nathan chopping wood and splashing water on her face. At the house Nathan wakes her and feels her forehead; she still has a fever. She says she wanted to go horseback riding and asks whether they can go tomorrow, but he tells her he needs to find someone to teach her class.

Rosemary collects the cards the students made for Mrs. Thornton as she substitutes, and tells them they are going on a field trip to “put civics into action.” At the saloon Fiona sets Lucas up at a table as Rosemary and the students arrive and takes the audio board while Rosemary introduces her segment with Lucas and the students on “The Daily Dialogue.” The students ask Lucas about comic-book delivery delays, hazelnut exports and sales, and the native gray wolf population; Allie pushes him on the last of these, reporting that the cattle crossing has contaminated more than 50% of the stream, and presents her and Oliver's research with the algae marked.

Lucas says he will take it into consideration.

At the salon Joseph visits Fiona as she cleans up ahead of selling the place and raises her “other” big news, but she tells him she has not accepted the marriage proposal yet. Joseph tells her that while her work requires sacrifice, it should not require too much. Allie brings Oliver a cupcake at the stables to thank him, because the map they made may have changed Governor Bouchard's mind, and tells him she knows what it is like not to have parents around: Nathan is her uncle who adopted her, and her real father is in prison, but that does not mean anything about who she is.

Oliver splits the cupcake and shares half with her.

On Elizabeth's porch, Elizabeth, Rosemary and Fiona look at the cards the students made for her and discuss Allie, and Elizabeth describes her new curriculum as led by the students' curiosity. Fiona asks whether she has ever considered writing up what she is doing and trying to get it published, and Rosemary encourages her too; Elizabeth says she feels like she can do anything. At the café Fiona reads The Schwartzman School's brochure and tells Joseph it is impressive.

Minnie tells Joseph she worries about being far from Angela if something were to happen, but Joseph reminds her that Angela will not want to live with them forever; they agree to tell Angela about the school tour, and Joseph suggests that they pray on it.

At the saloon Lee gives Ava the trunk that was delivered and supplies a screwdriver so she can pry it open, because she does not have the keys. The trunk is filled with dark clothes and boots; Ava quickly closes it and says it is hers, and Lee says he will get it upstairs for her. At Nathan's, he looks out of the window and sees Elizabeth among the sheets drying on the clothesline in the wind. He goes out to meet her and, as they kiss, he wakes from the dream to Scout licking his face — and he sneezes.

The episode ends on two beats. The last scene in Hope Valley is Ava's trunk: Lee brings it to her at the saloon and hands her a screwdriver because she does not have the keys, and when she pries it open it is filled with dark clothes and boots. She closes it immediately and says it is hers, and Lee tells her he will carry it upstairs. The episode does not explain what the clothes and boots are for and does not have anyone question her about them — this is left as an open thread rather than a reveal.

The actual final scene is Nathan's. He looks out of his window, sees Elizabeth among the sheets drying on the clothesline, goes out to her, and as they kiss he wakes up: Scout is licking his face and he sneezes. The episode's last movement is therefore a dream, and it deliberately mirrors Elizabeth's two fever dreams earlier in the same episode — neither of them is with the other in the flesh for most of this episode.

What remains unresolved or unconfirmed: Sonny Garrison gives Bill and Inspector McGill a name and a city, not evidence — the episode states that they do not have enough to charge anyone and that they still need to find who sold the coin to Toddy. Toddy's operation is asserted by Sonny and is not independently confirmed. Whether the cattle crossing is the actual cause of the salmon failure is stated as a possibility by Allie and Oliver and is not confirmed within the episode. Allie's anger at Nathan from the opening scene is not addressed. Elizabeth's illness is not resolved, and her curriculum has not yet been seen by anyone outside Hope Valley.