Don't get me wrong. I've actually loved a lot of Season 17 of Heartland. But they get themselves into trouble, it seems, with their dead characters. This time around, it's Lyndy (Sr.). Granted, even I didn't quite pick up on this one right when it dropped, but on further reflection, I now know why the "Jack has rift with Jess" plot line struck an odd note with me.
SPOILER ALERT. Read no further to avoid stuff.
Jess took the bold move of shooting a candid photo of Jack. She had all this flowery language about the lighting, the vulnerability of this tough cowboy standing at a gravesite, blah, blah, blah... And Jack was justifiably upset to have had an intimate moment caught on film and put on display in a public gallery showing...
The intimate moment at the gravesite in question is where the potential trouble comes in.
Why?
The headstone is apparently Lyndy's (Jack's late wife).
A headstone we've never seen before.
A headstone that should not exist, because Jack told Lisa way back in Season 1 that he spread Lyndy's ashes at the riverbank near the fishing cabin.
Granted, Jack could also have interred some of Lyndy's ashes at the Heartland cemetery, but all this time we never knew of a Lyndy headstone.
The conflict between Jack and Jess was weak, and even unnecessary, in my opinion (apologies to the writer[s] who pitched that idea). In my opinion, it would have worked better had it been June's headstone, or even Marion's headstone, because then there wouldn't have been any ret-conning of events for it to work. But I digress.
