S1E13: Coming Together (2007)
Having won the right to advance as far as the Fall Finale, the championship show of the local season, thanks to a second-place finish in the Hudson Equestrian Jumping Event, the show that immediately preceded it, Amy has qualified for the last show of the season. Stunned and disappointed by her daughter’s poor performance (only third place, behind Amy and another rider), Val threatens Ashley with much less financial support if her jumping does not improve.
Lou, having been fired from Strickland and Cooke (we’ll hear more about the latter of those partners much, much later, so don’t forget about her), has tried to return to New York, having gone there for an interview.
We can assume from the other characters’ reactions that Jack indeed knew Lisa was about to arrive, and yet his choice had been to hide that from them. It is clear that Lou’s Type-A personality has rubbed off on Mallory, and in Lou’s absence, Mallory becomes Amy’s hypercompetitive peer foil.
Yet again, we see a theme of the early seasons in the deliberate juxtaposition of equivalent items at Heartland versus at Briar Ridge: the jumping course. The Briar Ridge jumps look like they were made from better wood, were painted more recently, and just, in general, look more expensive. But, of course, the Stantons are absurdly rich, so they can afford all that—and more.
Val—who was a very successful showjumper herself long ago—complains of Apollo’s inconsistency and threatens an imminent sale. Horrified as though she may be of the thought of asking a competitor to help her, Ben and Val both insist that Amy is Ashley’s best hope.
Meanwhile, Ty, still an inexperienced coach, copies down a course layout from a booklet. We are told that Clint Riley is coming soon. Recall that Ty is on probation and rehabilitation at Heartland, per an agreement originally signed by Marion to keep Ty out of jail, which was then handed to Jack when Marion passed away. Ty’s birthday is coming up, which means he will no longer be a minor, so this visit is bureaucratically necessary. Clint has already come once before when Ty was gone for most of the visit, since he needed to go retrieve the necklace from Kerry-Anne.
The whole family faces uncertainty as Lou reports that her interviewers were “suitably impressed” in New York. Now, everyone must wait to find out whether Lou stays in Hudson for good or returns once again to New York City.
Mallory is more than a friend to the Flemings, as this next scene clearly shows us—Mallory is seen more as family than as a friend, and, importantly, that’s how she sees herself. Unaware of the pressure from Val or Ben, Amy is therefore surprised when Ashley turns up at her door asking for help with Apollo. Ashley’s nonchalant statement that “[her coaches] were useless, so [she] fired them” will be repeated nearly verbatim about a different set of trainers by a new character to be introduced in several seasons’ time.
In what is far more likely a deliberate and antagonistic misrepresentation of Amy’s character—rather than an honest misunderstanding of Amy’s projected image—Ashley believes Amy projects herself as being an all-knowing horsewoman with some kind of supernatural gift. This time it was Mallory, but time and time again, at least one character is seen in direct opposition to Amy’s unchanging ways: Amy cares much less (I would say, not at all) about her net financial gain from helping damaged horses, devoting all her energy to healing horses, and none of it whatsoever to worrying about profit margins.
Ashley has learned hardball tactics from the way her own mother plays hardball with her, and decides to deploy them against Amy, who has just refused to help Ashley, not because they’re competitors, but because she sees no issues with Apollo. That Amy turns down a horse at all will become an extremely rare event in the series, because such a choice contradicts Amy’s most deeply held conviction: that no horse or rider is ever beyond help. If Amy continues to refuse to help Ashley and Apollo, Ashley will arrange that Ben brings his jumps back to Briar Ridge, since he now lives and trains there, rather than at Heartland as originally planned.
Playing out Ashley’s hardball tactics in a discussion with Ty, Amy and Ty’s collective mood sours, and the two fight just days before an important show. However, realizing the ramifications of not helping Ashley, Amy gives in despite Ty and Mallory’s objections. Amy’s initial conclusions that there would not be anything worth changing about Apollo are supported when she arrives at Briar Ridge—until Val arrives, having caught wind of the fact that AM has arrived. Now with Val watching from just outside the arena, Ashley and Apollo’s performance deteriorates dramatically. I find it interesting how quickly—within the space of a season—Val has gone from accusing Amy of drugging problem horses to advocating that her own daughter should ask her for help. Amy’s theory, which will turn out to be correct, is that Ashley feels pressured when she rides around her mother because Val’s expectations are so high, so Ashley tenses up, and Apollo reacts to that tension, but that his performance doesn’t degrade if Ashley doesn’t tense up if Val isn’t present.
When Amy returns from Briar Ridge, we find her stumbling upon, Ty, who is writing an e-mail to his father, Brad. Brad has not heard from his son since his son moved into Heartland, and now that his son is about, big changes are about to occur in his life. This next moment, downstairs in the barn, rather than upstairs in the loft, almost turns into the moment we've been waiting for all season: Ty in Amy's first kiss. In any case, the romantic tension between these two characters only increases, and soon to be away from a kiss, but it will not happen.
Lou arrives back in Hudson from New York, having completed her set of interviews. Tim unexpectedly comes to visit Amy in the barn, and he gives her a charm that he had previously given to Marion so that Amy can wear the charm during the Fall Finale. News that Lou has been given the job in New York is not as well-received as Lou had anticipated would have been. whereas in the earlier episodes of the first season, the two sisters had been constantly at each other throats, by now, their unending love for each other and their presentation as a single united front one in support of the other is beyond clear. From a purely practical standpoint, of course, Amy benefits from Lou's presence at the ranch because that increases the number of people who need to do the same amount of work, so each person needs to do less work on a daily basis. Lou herself is blind to the fact that spot is in love with her, despite both of their romantic advances toward the other, which in any case, the recipient has never registered as an actual romantic advance in spite of the history that the two characters have together.
Clint Riley, the county probation officer handling Ty's case, arrives at Heartland to finalize the paperwork formally releasing Ty from the probation program now that he is no longer a minor. In his truck, Ty brings Amy out to the old jumping course which he constructed himself or her before Ben's jumps arrived. Yet again, this moment at the jumping course could have been the moment of the kiss, but we must wait still longer.
Amy has made her way all the way into the final jump-off round which will decide the winner. As is the case in real shows, there's a break between any other rounds and the final jump-off round. During this break, Amy and Spartan find themselves confronted with an enemy whom they assumed they had vindicated in the premiere, Mr. Mallen, Spartan's original owner before the rescue mission and the accident.
Mallen cleans that he has legitimate ownership papers legally proving his ownership of Spartan, but none of the Fleming clan believes him, especially not Amy, for whom Spartan is more than a horse: for her, he is a link to her mother, a link which can never be broken.
Business savvy as she is, Lou realizes that if Mallen intends to sell Spartan, or otherwise views him as an investment, then it would be in his financial interest to allow Amy to compete in the final round of the show because if he does well, then his value will increase. Not understanding that this is merely a diversion tactic, Mallen allows the last round of the show to proceed, assuming that by the end of the round, he will have Spartan back in his possession. However, by now, Amy and Lou's relationship has considerably improved, and the sisters present a much more unified front than they did in the early episodes of the season. Again, relying on her ivy league business education and on the knowledge of how her mother conducted her business, Lou refuses to return Spartan unless Mallen agrees to pay for all of his rehabilitation, feeding, boarding, training, and other expenses Heartland has incurred since he arrived in the premiere. The exact amount owed is never disclosed, and the finances of the ranch are never discussed explicitly but given the number of strokes of the pencil on the paper on which Lou wrote the number she was owed, the costs could have easily exceeded $10,000, an amount at least an order of magnitude grater than Mallen believes Spartan is worth.
Refusing to pay this amount, Mallen implicitly though never officially relinquishes ownership of Spartan to Heartland. Bear this episode in mind to compare against later seasons; a very similar narrative will develop between another girl and her horse, who also arrived at Heartland by accident.
This episode sees the introduction of a new character, Jake, a young cowboy Mallory’s age who is with her from the beginning. the Jake Mallory saga on heartland will be a long and involved one, but I am sure that all of you will enjoy how it ends in several seasons.
Now that they have a mutual reason to celebrate, Amy's success, Tim and Jack find a way to bury the hatchet, reconciling for Amy and Lou's sake after more than a decade apart.
Having won the final show of the competitive season that year, Amy celebrates with her coach who knows substantially more about pool than he does about horses. This is yet another episode in which a night check occurs which is important for plot development. Anyone who has watched the show understands the reference "talking is overrated." These three simple words bring Ty and Amy's relationship to a place it has never gone before and represent the single largest increase in romantic tension between any two characters in the series up to this point and for quite a while thereafter. I have no doubt whatsoever that I would place this kiss as one of the top 10 most iconic moments of the entire series, if not the top five.
As we know from Clint's visit, Ty's probation is over, so he technically is no longer bound to stay at Heartland, and he may stay or go as he chooses. Already having broken rules against coming any closer than 10 feet of Lou or Amy, lest any of those body parts be removed, Jack understands that a bond much deeper than friendship has already developed between Ty and Amy farmer though he amends his counsel simply not to “kiss and run,” effectively warning Ty against leaving Heartland immediately. Extremely conflicted about what to do next, we can see Ty in the next scene bracing himself against a stall door, and in the scene that immediately follows that one, we learn Ty has not heeded Jack's advice and has in fact run away, returning the black hat that Jack had given him before they set off on the cattle drive with only a note to explain where he is gone and why breaking Amy's heart to end the season.
Lou, having been fired from Strickland and Cooke (we’ll hear more about the latter of those partners much, much later, so don’t forget about her), has tried to return to New York, having gone there for an interview.
We can assume from the other characters’ reactions that Jack indeed knew Lisa was about to arrive, and yet his choice had been to hide that from them. It is clear that Lou’s Type-A personality has rubbed off on Mallory, and in Lou’s absence, Mallory becomes Amy’s hypercompetitive peer foil.
Yet again, we see a theme of the early seasons in the deliberate juxtaposition of equivalent items at Heartland versus at Briar Ridge: the jumping course. The Briar Ridge jumps look like they were made from better wood, were painted more recently, and just, in general, look more expensive. But, of course, the Stantons are absurdly rich, so they can afford all that—and more.
Val—who was a very successful showjumper herself long ago—complains of Apollo’s inconsistency and threatens an imminent sale. Horrified as though she may be of the thought of asking a competitor to help her, Ben and Val both insist that Amy is Ashley’s best hope.
Meanwhile, Ty, still an inexperienced coach, copies down a course layout from a booklet. We are told that Clint Riley is coming soon. Recall that Ty is on probation and rehabilitation at Heartland, per an agreement originally signed by Marion to keep Ty out of jail, which was then handed to Jack when Marion passed away. Ty’s birthday is coming up, which means he will no longer be a minor, so this visit is bureaucratically necessary. Clint has already come once before when Ty was gone for most of the visit, since he needed to go retrieve the necklace from Kerry-Anne.
The whole family faces uncertainty as Lou reports that her interviewers were “suitably impressed” in New York. Now, everyone must wait to find out whether Lou stays in Hudson for good or returns once again to New York City.
Mallory is more than a friend to the Flemings, as this next scene clearly shows us—Mallory is seen more as family than as a friend, and, importantly, that’s how she sees herself. Unaware of the pressure from Val or Ben, Amy is therefore surprised when Ashley turns up at her door asking for help with Apollo. Ashley’s nonchalant statement that “[her coaches] were useless, so [she] fired them” will be repeated nearly verbatim about a different set of trainers by a new character to be introduced in several seasons’ time.
In what is far more likely a deliberate and antagonistic misrepresentation of Amy’s character—rather than an honest misunderstanding of Amy’s projected image—Ashley believes Amy projects herself as being an all-knowing horsewoman with some kind of supernatural gift. This time it was Mallory, but time and time again, at least one character is seen in direct opposition to Amy’s unchanging ways: Amy cares much less (I would say, not at all) about her net financial gain from helping damaged horses, devoting all her energy to healing horses, and none of it whatsoever to worrying about profit margins.
Ashley has learned hardball tactics from the way her own mother plays hardball with her, and decides to deploy them against Amy, who has just refused to help Ashley, not because they’re competitors, but because she sees no issues with Apollo. That Amy turns down a horse at all will become an extremely rare event in the series, because such a choice contradicts Amy’s most deeply held conviction: that no horse or rider is ever beyond help. If Amy continues to refuse to help Ashley and Apollo, Ashley will arrange that Ben brings his jumps back to Briar Ridge, since he now lives and trains there, rather than at Heartland as originally planned.
Playing out Ashley’s hardball tactics in a discussion with Ty, Amy and Ty’s collective mood sours, and the two fight just days before an important show. However, realizing the ramifications of not helping Ashley, Amy gives in despite Ty and Mallory’s objections. Amy’s initial conclusions that there would not be anything worth changing about Apollo are supported when she arrives at Briar Ridge—until Val arrives, having caught wind of the fact that AM has arrived. Now with Val watching from just outside the arena, Ashley and Apollo’s performance deteriorates dramatically. I find it interesting how quickly—within the space of a season—Val has gone from accusing Amy of drugging problem horses to advocating that her own daughter should ask her for help. Amy’s theory, which will turn out to be correct, is that Ashley feels pressured when she rides around her mother because Val’s expectations are so high, so Ashley tenses up, and Apollo reacts to that tension, but that his performance doesn’t degrade if Ashley doesn’t tense up if Val isn’t present.
When Amy returns from Briar Ridge, we find her stumbling upon, Ty, who is writing an e-mail to his father, Brad. Brad has not heard from his son since his son moved into Heartland, and now that his son is about, big changes are about to occur in his life. This next moment, downstairs in the barn, rather than upstairs in the loft, almost turns into the moment we've been waiting for all season: Ty in Amy's first kiss. In any case, the romantic tension between these two characters only increases, and soon to be away from a kiss, but it will not happen.
Lou arrives back in Hudson from New York, having completed her set of interviews. Tim unexpectedly comes to visit Amy in the barn, and he gives her a charm that he had previously given to Marion so that Amy can wear the charm during the Fall Finale. News that Lou has been given the job in New York is not as well-received as Lou had anticipated would have been. whereas in the earlier episodes of the first season, the two sisters had been constantly at each other throats, by now, their unending love for each other and their presentation as a single united front one in support of the other is beyond clear. From a purely practical standpoint, of course, Amy benefits from Lou's presence at the ranch because that increases the number of people who need to do the same amount of work, so each person needs to do less work on a daily basis. Lou herself is blind to the fact that spot is in love with her, despite both of their romantic advances toward the other, which in any case, the recipient has never registered as an actual romantic advance in spite of the history that the two characters have together.
Clint Riley, the county probation officer handling Ty's case, arrives at Heartland to finalize the paperwork formally releasing Ty from the probation program now that he is no longer a minor. In his truck, Ty brings Amy out to the old jumping course which he constructed himself or her before Ben's jumps arrived. Yet again, this moment at the jumping course could have been the moment of the kiss, but we must wait still longer.
Amy has made her way all the way into the final jump-off round which will decide the winner. As is the case in real shows, there's a break between any other rounds and the final jump-off round. During this break, Amy and Spartan find themselves confronted with an enemy whom they assumed they had vindicated in the premiere, Mr. Mallen, Spartan's original owner before the rescue mission and the accident.
Mallen cleans that he has legitimate ownership papers legally proving his ownership of Spartan, but none of the Fleming clan believes him, especially not Amy, for whom Spartan is more than a horse: for her, he is a link to her mother, a link which can never be broken.
Business savvy as she is, Lou realizes that if Mallen intends to sell Spartan, or otherwise views him as an investment, then it would be in his financial interest to allow Amy to compete in the final round of the show because if he does well, then his value will increase. Not understanding that this is merely a diversion tactic, Mallen allows the last round of the show to proceed, assuming that by the end of the round, he will have Spartan back in his possession. However, by now, Amy and Lou's relationship has considerably improved, and the sisters present a much more unified front than they did in the early episodes of the season. Again, relying on her ivy league business education and on the knowledge of how her mother conducted her business, Lou refuses to return Spartan unless Mallen agrees to pay for all of his rehabilitation, feeding, boarding, training, and other expenses Heartland has incurred since he arrived in the premiere. The exact amount owed is never disclosed, and the finances of the ranch are never discussed explicitly but given the number of strokes of the pencil on the paper on which Lou wrote the number she was owed, the costs could have easily exceeded $10,000, an amount at least an order of magnitude grater than Mallen believes Spartan is worth.
Refusing to pay this amount, Mallen implicitly though never officially relinquishes ownership of Spartan to Heartland. Bear this episode in mind to compare against later seasons; a very similar narrative will develop between another girl and her horse, who also arrived at Heartland by accident.
This episode sees the introduction of a new character, Jake, a young cowboy Mallory’s age who is with her from the beginning. the Jake Mallory saga on heartland will be a long and involved one, but I am sure that all of you will enjoy how it ends in several seasons.
Now that they have a mutual reason to celebrate, Amy's success, Tim and Jack find a way to bury the hatchet, reconciling for Amy and Lou's sake after more than a decade apart.
Having won the final show of the competitive season that year, Amy celebrates with her coach who knows substantially more about pool than he does about horses. This is yet another episode in which a night check occurs which is important for plot development. Anyone who has watched the show understands the reference "talking is overrated." These three simple words bring Ty and Amy's relationship to a place it has never gone before and represent the single largest increase in romantic tension between any two characters in the series up to this point and for quite a while thereafter. I have no doubt whatsoever that I would place this kiss as one of the top 10 most iconic moments of the entire series, if not the top five.
As we know from Clint's visit, Ty's probation is over, so he technically is no longer bound to stay at Heartland, and he may stay or go as he chooses. Already having broken rules against coming any closer than 10 feet of Lou or Amy, lest any of those body parts be removed, Jack understands that a bond much deeper than friendship has already developed between Ty and Amy farmer though he amends his counsel simply not to “kiss and run,” effectively warning Ty against leaving Heartland immediately. Extremely conflicted about what to do next, we can see Ty in the next scene bracing himself against a stall door, and in the scene that immediately follows that one, we learn Ty has not heeded Jack's advice and has in fact run away, returning the black hat that Jack had given him before they set off on the cattle drive with only a note to explain where he is gone and why breaking Amy's heart to end the season.
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