Heavy sigh.

Well, Hearties, When Calls the Heart Season 10 Episode 9 has me quite worked up, and I can imagine I’m not the only one.

Are we really going down this path again? Please, tell me this is a misdirect!

Logic tells me that as her wedding grows closer, Elizabeth is once again conflating the beloved husband she lost and the handsome Mountie who once professed to love her.

It could be that easy, or we could be on the cusp of seeing Lucas’s heart crushed by the woman of his dreams.

This is Elizabeth’s story, and we want her to be happy. But during When Calls the Heart Season 8, a love triangle caused an ugly divide between Team Lucan and Team Nathan factions, and frankly, I’m not eager to revisit it.

Judging by the angry faces and downvotes when even a whiff of it is discussed, I’m already sensing bitterness on the horizon.

Now that Elizabeth is once again struggling with her emotions, no matter what the reason turns out to be in the end, there will be bitter fans once again.

To experience this so soon on the heels of the great divide is aggravating, and it seems unlikely that those creating this show don’t know how the tug of war will begin and end. If we’re given some rope, we’re only too happy to jump into the fray to start pulling.

Let’s speak logically first.

As already noted, Elizabeth is about to marry someone who is not her first love or the father of her child. That’s bound to bring up all kinds of feelings, from guilt to regret and who knows what else.

Little Jack is of the age where he’s asking questions about dads and his father in particular. He looks more like Jack every day. He’s a constant, beautiful reminder of what Elizabeth had and what she lost.

In the wake of whatever it was that happened between Elizabeth and Nathan during Season 8, they’ve found a new rhythm and forged a close friendship.

They rely on each other for parenting advice, among other things, and in growing closer, Nathan has even begun using Elizabeth as a shoulder to lean on about his horrible track record with love.

He can’t seem to get it right, and a part of him has to believe that Elizabeth holds a key, if not the key, to why it’s happening. I don’t think he ever fully understood what transpired between them, and now it seems like Elizabeth doesn’t either.

As Jack grows and asks questions, and with her marriage only six weeks away, Elizabeth doubts her future. It’s natural. People have pre-wedding jitters all the time.

Before When Calls the Heart Season 10 Episode 8, she’d given no indication that she was having doubts about choosing Lucas over Nathan. The way she was behaving when it seemed the Constable might be in jeopardy could suggest otherwise.

It could also suggest that in revisiting her love for Jack, she’s seeing similarities with Nathan that are stirring up the same confused feelings she had two seasons ago.

If you watch When Calls the Heart online, you know that by all accounts, she has been happy with Lucas and the progression of their relationship.

If she’s looking at Nathan and seeing Little Jack enjoying his company and Allie’s, she need only recall how close Jack and his “buddy” Lucas have become to realize that those feelings aren’t specific to Nathan.

Could she be “seeing” Jack playing with Little Jack, a Mountie showing love to her son, just as it was supposed to be?

Who knows? But if that’s the case, it’s really unfair to Nathan. Although thankfully, he remains relatively unaware of what she’s experiencing except to consider she’s acting “shifty.”

Elizabeth was all too eager to offer up her wedding arch for the Governor, and she didn’t seem in the least bit concerned whether her wedding gown arrived on time or not.

She failed to miss Lucas’s disappointment when they had to cancel their wedding dinner tasting. And come to think of it, she’s been so uninvested in the wedding in general that she’s been leaving it in Lucas’s hands.

Has she been stringing him along because she thought it was the right thing to choose him so as not to disrespect Jack’s memory with another Mountie?

Could Elizabeth be so inept with love that she’d hurt two men who absolutely adore her? I shudder to think about it, but I’m only human. Nothing about this development passes the sniff test, and I see no way around disappointment on screen and off.

Even worse, when Henry thinks it’s worth him sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, we need to take note.

That’s too bad because this episode had a lot of the comedic elements we love about WCTH. There was eye-rolling, giggling, secret-keeping, and trying to achieve miracles out of dust.

Rosemary Coulter promised the world to bring the Governor to town, and he accepted — a week too soon for any of their preparations to come to fruition.

Hope Valley is good about these things, and as expected, they banded together to sprinkle pixie dust on actual dust to create magic from thin air.

Of course, the story is much larger now, with yet another miser and his ugly corporation hoping to get their hands on Hope Valley’s plentiful resources.

Montague has already begun ruining Buxton and Rock Creek, and Hope Valley is next on his list.

Did the Pinkertons want a word with the governor when he arrived? It sure looked that way, and that will make pulling the rug out from under Montague quite tricky.

But we never doubt that Hope Valley will pull through. What we don’t know is whether Lucas and Elizabeth will be together to see it flourish.

Press materials for upcoming episodes suggest that Lucas will be instrumental in trying to sway the governor to “their side.” Whatever it was that Mr. Mitchell said to the governor could be enough to give Lucas the upper hand he needs to ensure Hope Valley will continue to thrive.

By When Calls the Heart Season 10 Episode 11, the materials say, “Lucas is the talk of the town. Elizabeth and the whole town rallies around him, but everyone worries it still won’t be enough to stop the Governor."

Lucas has a big story ahead, but I just hope he doesn’t lose focus on the woman he loves in the process, although When Calls the Heart Season 10 Episode 12 mentions an election with Lucas potentially on the ballot, so maybe Chris McNally is leaving, propelling Lucas to Governor in the process.

Not to mention several episodes of Elizabeth looking at Nathan with goo-goo eyes again. The writing may be in the "Starry Nights," Lucas fans.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I thought Lucas and Elizabeth were written in the stars in a way that was not in the cards for her and Nathan, but I’m good either way, really.

My biggest concern is that if the tables turn on Lucas, he and his huge heart make it through unscathed, and more importantly, that we as fans don’t make the water Montague and his hoods are rerouting run blood red.

We’re beyond that now, right?

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.