Good Witch: Tale of Two Hearts

It’s Halloween in Middleton and that means another grand celebration in the beautiful little town that has been competing with neighboring rivals Blairsville for many, many, many, many years.

The Good Witch special opened with Cassie (series lead Catherine Bell) telling a story from October 31, 1818 that focused on her ancestor Patience Merriwick – a member of one of the most prominent families in Middleton – and Rodrick Davenport – a member of one of the most prominent families in Blairsville. As the centuries old story goes, Patience was promised in marriage to Rodrick in the hopes that their marriage would formally bind the two neighboring towns. But, Patience was actually in love with William Spry, a local miner, who presented her with a beautiful red ruby – found in the mine – that was shaped just like a heart: a priceless gem that became known as The Heart of Middleton.

Unfortunately, the young lovers were discovered by their families with William being forced into the war by the Davenports and Patience being forced to confinement at Grey House by her disapproving father. The distance did not stop the lovebirds, though, as they corresponded with each other and on the eve of her wedding to Rodrick – one year later – Patience disappeared. However, it was never known for sure if she and William ever found each other, but Patience did leave behind the ruby and as the legend goes, the ruby brought much love and happiness to everyone in Middleton ever since.

The latest Good Witch story quickly moved into how Middleton was celebrating its 200th Anniversary with a huge black and white masquerade gala at the local museum as well as the Halloween Festival where Middleton and Blairsville compete in various Halloween-themed events like pumpkin tossing, face painting, pumpkin carving, scarecrow building and a pumpkin pie grand finale event.

As viewers of the long-running franchise know from the season four finale episode that aired in July [you can see our recap of that episode here], Cassie and Sam (series lead James Denton) were to be married on Halloween Day, but their long-awaited union came to a crashing halt when it was learned that the location of their wedding was the victim of a flood that would put yet another hold on their nuptials.

Not to be undone by the disappointing news, Cassie and Sam as well as Nick and Grace (series lead Bailee Madison) dove into participating in the Halloween Festival, as well as the mystery of the disappearance of The Heart of Middleton, which was discovered missing just as grand preparations were being finalized at the town museum for the bicentennial gala.

Who could have taken The Heart of Middleton? And why? What’s more is how did the culprit get out of the museum with the red ruby without being seen? Mystery abounded as did the continued rivalry between Middleton and Blairsville during the various Halloween Festival competitions not to mention the rivalry between newly appointed Middleton mayor Abigail, Cassie’s cousin, and former, recently dethroned mayor Martha Tinsdale – who lost her long-running political position when it was discovered her long-time home was actually within the borders of Blairsville not Middleton.

It was quite comical watching Martha as she decided to work with the leaders of Blairsville to insure a victory for new “home” while Abigail struggled to prove herself as the new town leader. As the competitions played out, both towns won 2 of the 5 events, leaving the pumpkin pie competition as the deciding factor.

Naturally, since it is the Hallmark Channel after all, Martha realized that she didn’t feel right siding with Blairsville, relinquishing her secret recipe for her award-winning pumpkin pie to Steph, the local café owner who was tasked with creating a pumpkin pie to beat all other pumpkin pies. It was Martha’s secret recipe that garnered Middleton the overall win as judged on by a visiting celebrity chef.

During the grand finale event, The Heart of Middleton was also returned – which was surprisingly taken by Karen, the newly appointed curator of the museum and current guest at Grey House, as she hoped that the ruby would bring back a love that she had lost in Paris – only to discover that that man, Edward, was also a current guest at Grey House. Of course, Cassie knew all along that Karen had taken the ruby, but Cassie also knew that Karen would do the right thing in returning the gem to the museum; and Cassie also helped reunite Karen and her true love Edward.

But back to that mystery of how Patience disappeared from Grey House two centuries prior and whether she and William lived happily ever together. Well, that mystery was solved by Sam and Cassie who found a mining tunnel located directly under Grey House that lead to a secret exit at the museum – which obviously allowed Patience to escape her domineering father – and the discovery of a long-lost letter written by Patience to her family, telling the story that she did find William and got their happy ending.

Now, we just need to give Cassie and Sam their long-awaited happy ending when season five of Good Witch returns.

What are your thoughts on this newest Halloween special? Please share them below.

[Photo Credit: Crown Media United States LLC/Photographers Shane Mahood and Caitlin Cronenberg]

Season 5 of Good Witch, which has yet to receive an official airdate by the Hallmark Channel, is expected to be back in 2019.