The Path Less Traveled is the first episode in the seventeenth season of the CBC drama Heartland. It originally aired October 1, 2023.
Synopsis[]
Amy is surprised when a very pregnant Mallory shows up at the ranch with a wild horse; Jack and Tim face new competition, and Lou grapples with a familiar opponent in her campaign to be reelected.
Plot[]
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Amber Marshall as Amy Fleming
- Michelle Morgan as Lou Fleming
- Chris Potter as Tim Fleming
- Shaun Johnston as Jack Bartlett
Guest Starring[]
- Jessica Amlee as Mallory Wells Anderson
- Jake Church as Jake Anderson
- Gabriel Hogan as Peter Morris
- Drew Davis as Logan
- Aidan Moreno as Rick Adderly
Co-Starring[]
- Baye McPherson as Katie Fleming-Morris
- Ruby & Emmanuella Spencer as Lyndy Borden
Animals[]
- Ransom
- Caz
Music[]
Trivia[]
- Aside from the recap, Soroya, Georgie, and Lisa do not appear in this episode.
- The theme song gets modified for the fifth time, now showing a new clip of Amy Fleming.
- An acoustic version of "Dreamer" is heard in the beginning of the episode before the theme song itself plays.
- This is the first time where Mallory appears in a season's premiere since "Finding Freedom" from the fifth season.
- Peter is shown to be assisting Katie at Maggie's, with the daughter not showing annoyance until the father's idea on modifying tardiness.
- Not wanting to reveal why she wants to move to Hudson, Mallory uses the urge to get Ransom with the wild horses as an excuse.
- The hormones cause Mallory to get emotional, but she tries her best to hide it, but lets it all out during her mini baby shower.
- Mallory finally knows about Sam as the neighbor of the Flemings.
- Ransom is revealed to be a ranch horse, which is what Logan and Amy figure out when the horse walks towards the cattle instead of the wild herd.
- Lou found out sometime after the season 16 finale on Rick running against her for mayor, and nearly goes with her plan to bad mouth him during an interview, but decides not to after Katie's point on politics and will be okay with the results, even if she doesn't win.
- Sully Jack Anderson is the second baby boy to be borne after Carson Odell, but we actually get to see Mallory and Jake's baby be borne as Caleb and Cassandra's was done offscreen.
- Carson's birth is what already broke the tradition of baby girls being borne.
- During Sully's birth, Jake brings up the event from when Mallory pushed him at the horse show, a scene that was actually shown in the recap.
- Sully is also the name of Mike Wazowski's sidekick in Monsters Inc.
- Realizing Ransom's newfound personality, Mallory decides to keep the horse and stay at Colorado.
- This episode begins and ends with Amy cloud gazing.
- She does with Lyndy in the opening and Lou in the closing.
- With Lyndy, they see an elephant and Remi, who later shows up.
- With Lou, they see a sundae with a cherry on top.
- Per her talk with Mallory earlier in the episode, Amy says she might need someone by her corner.
- She does with Lyndy in the opening and Lou in the closing.
- The loft of the barn does not appear in this episode.