After the finale aired, confirming hearties' worst fears, I wasn't angry at Daniel Lissing for making a career decision. I wasn't even mad that they killed off Jack. Was I annoyed that it took us 5 seasons to finally see Elizabeth and Jack get married? Of course, especially since we went from a wedding to a funeral in like 5 episodes. It sucked. Nobody was happy. Hearties took to Twitter to express their anger and frustration. I remember even having a moment of schadenfreude the next season when Lori Laughlin got fired because after season 5, she called out hearties for having a "bad" reaction. She went on and on about how many people would have lost their jobs if they canceled the show after the wedding. Someone pushed back and told her to "let us grieve" and she finally shut up. But I never forgot the way she reacted to the backlash and when the story came out about the investigation into her part of the college scandal, a part of me felt vindicated because her own actions could have put the show in jeopardy. I honestly wasn't sure if the show could survive after losing two prominent characters in Jack and Abigail.
No, what angered me at the time was being lied to, for an entire season, by someone who proudly calls himself a "pot stirrer." Well, Brian, sometimes over stirring the pot causes the contents to boil over, leaving a big, burnt mess. And that's what happened after season 5. I'm not saying they should have had spoilers. I get it, the shock value of losing a major character was "good for ratings." But telling us everything was going to be okay when it clearly was not pissed me off. For someone who preaches his "Christian values", constantly on social media, I didn't expect to be so blatantly lied to.
So, it pains me to acknowledge how much my aggravation at the show is my own fault. I, once again, made the mistake to trust someone who had already lied to me once. Brian Bird not only stated the triangle was resolved, he defended the decision to go with Lucas. He didn't back down from the backlash from Team Nathan. In the face of so much vitriol for not only the characters, but the actors, the writers, the showrunner, and Brian Bird himself, he stood firm.
But now, I'm hearing interviews where the new showrunner decided to break Elizabeth and Lucas up at the end of the season and worked backwards from that action. Where the man who defended choosing Lucas as a way to tell more stories and "breathe life" into the show, is now acting like this was "always Casablanca." I'm sorry, when was Elizabeth running from Nazis? WWII hasn't even started yet in the timeline of the show and WWI is over, though you'd never know it had happened in the quiet town of Hope Valley. And if we're going with the Casablanca angle, is Daniel Lissing coming back to reprise his dead character? Because that's the only way any of these claims are plausible.
What's ironic to me is that I've seen claims from Mr. Bird that if Elizabeth and Lucas got married, they wouldn't have new stories to tell. Well, that's weird. If Jack hadn't died, would that have been the end of the story? Rosemary and Lee got married, and the story continued. Other couples have gotten married on the show and the story continued. Why is this relationship the one that would end the story?
Still, that's not even what I'm mad about. As I've said before, I was team "tell a better story" and honestly would have been just as happy if Elizabeth chose neither man at the end of season 8 and stayed single. But since we were told that she would be making a choice and ending the triangle, I was hoping for Lucas simply because I didn't want to revisit the Mountie storyline again. Even a blended family didn't feel like enough of a change to the love story we'd already seen between Elizabeth and Jack.
I'm angry because I'm being gaslit. I was married to a narcissist and I got out of that relationship because of gaslighting, among other reasons. The last thing I need is to be gaslit by a television show. WCTH is supposed to be about hope. It's supposed to be an escape. Instead, I'm feeling like I'm once again in an abusive relationship, questioning what I thought was true and watching a complete revision of history. From a television show. I suppose my one consolation is that this is a much easier "relationship" to leave, but it doesn't change the fact that the behavior is triggering.
If they wanted to kowtow to Team Nathan, then fine. It's not the direction I would have chosen, but it's not my show. They could be upfront and say they thought they made a mistake choosing Lucas and needed to course correct. I doubt I'd continue on with the show for the reasons I stated above, but I could at least respect their honesty.
But that's just it. They're not being honest. We're being told it was "always Casablanca." They're painting this revisionist history where Elizabeth never actually loved Lucas, despite all the receipts I've seen from Team Lucas demonstrating the contrary. The worst is, they literally pulled lines directly from Team Nathan in the last episode, which is making this all sound like some awful fan fiction. If I had known that WCTH was going to be a clean version of 50 Shades of Gray (which, if anyone wasn't aware, started out as fan fiction of Twilight) I would have stopped watching after season 5.
I recently saw a TL fan who is holding onto hope that this is all a ruse. Again, I haven't watched season 10, but I've read enough spoilers to have an idea of the plot/overarching storyline. This fan is hoping that Elizabeth and Lucas are playacting a break-up because of a threat to protect one or both of them. The idea is the ruse will be revealed in the finale and all will be well, but honestly, I think that's even worse. For one, jerking TN around like that is just cruel. But at this point, bringing up the triangle again at all was stupid. It's splitting the fanbase yet again and causing a lot of poor behavior on both sides. Several hearties, including ones who weren't on a team like me, are over it and walking away. Though Mr. Bird apparently says only "drips and drabs" of fans will leave the show, and for his and the actors' sake, I hope he's right.
But he also said that the teams were something the fans did, and not something WCTH cast and crew created or encouraged. That is the biggest load of horse manure I've seen from him yet. There is literally a tweet from him in the middle of season 6 on May 6th, 2019 that says "Too early for #TeamNate and #TeamLucas, #Hearties?" So, don't give me the bs that the "fans" created the teams. And let's be real, any time there is a love triangle in any form of media whether book (see Edward vs Jacob), television show (see Stefan vs Damon, Max vs Simon), or movie (see Mark Darcy vs Daniel Cleaver), there are bound to be teams rooting for each character.
I'm not buying what he's desperately trying to sell. You can't create a monster and then, when you inevitably lose control of said monster, wave your hands and proclaim your innocence. There are literally dozens of tweets from him fanning the flames of the teams, including the one I mentioned above. I've honestly never seen a show creator be as involved in promoting the show on social media as that man, and after this experience, I can see why others stay out of it.
He's also said that fans are leaving because they didn't get their guy. That's rich since the only reason several TN fans have returned is because the script was flipped and now their guy is the choice. And while I cannot speak for the TL fans, for me, it has very little to do with not having a specific character as the love interest. Going back to the Vampire Diaries from my earlier entry, I was very much team Stefan. But I watched even when Elena started dating Damon all the way to the nonsensical ending of the series and the continuous revolving door of death (they really ruined that show). So, no, I'm not leaving because of one storyline or one character, I'm leaving because I'm not going to allow myself to be gaslit by revisionist history and the assassination of a character I've loved for 9 years.
And if I wanted to read bad fanfiction, there are plenty of places I can find that. I don't need to see it on my TV screen.
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