Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Channel’s Providence Falls mini-series event concludes with the aptly titled Providence Falls: Thief of Fate as Liam tries desperately to stay with his mission to bring fated lovers Cora and Finn together so she can fulfill her true destiny.
The third chapter picks up where Part 2 left off as Cora returns home from the hospital after Liam saved her from drowning after her fight with Magnus. With her father begging her to drop the case, Cora insists that she is capable of handling herself and she needs to see this through. Her job is made all the more difficult as Liam continues to play hot and cold with her, making her feel both an intense love for him while also completely unsure of how he feels or what he is hiding. Her case against Magnus is also complicated by the presence of his lawyer, Mr. Bael, who seems to know all too much about Cora’s personal life and uses that against her, prompting Chief Brody to pull her out of the interrogation and releasing Magnus because they just don’t have enough evidence against him to show that he stole the bikers’ money (and that it was never reported stolen because Eli doesn’t trust the police, and he won’t report it stolen either). But Liam comes up with a plan to enlist Suzette to grab Magnus’ phone at a bar so he can clone it (Liam got some helpful directions from Dominic) to see who Magnus is talking to, and to see how deeply Merideth is involved in the theft of the money (Magnus only has half of the million).
But Cora is still having odd dreams about Liam, and when the two spend some time together and he relates a story to her that she had just dreamed about, it becomes clear to him that she is remembering their past lives even though the angels assured him that was not possible (and no one knows why she is remembering). As more facts of the case begin to unfold, it becomes clear that someone within the police department is complicit in the theft of the money. Liam reveals what he and Suzette had done with Magnus’ phone, and Cora reveals to Suzette that she now knows the truth about Liam, their past, the angles and his mission. It’s time for Suzette to come clean as well, as she admits that Bael plucked her out of Purgatory (she tied in turn-of-the-century Paris) to interfere in Liam’s mission, making Cora question if she was really her friend for all these years. Suzette assures her that their friendship is real, and that she also is developing feelings for Finn. But a message had already come in to Magnus’ phone to meet someone at a park, and Finn had already headed off since he was closer to the location than the police. So it is odd that they get a new message from Finn saying he decided to pack up his stuff and head to Seattle for a new job he’d told Suzette about. They go to the meeting place and find Magnus, dead, but no Finn. They decide to approach Eli to ask him what he knows, and while he is reluctant to tell them anything, he gives in when they tell him that Finn has gone missing. The first place they check is Magnus’ house where they are surprised to find Merideth, who has actually been held captive by Magnus. Eli reveals that there is an old mine where he’s stashed the other half of the money — since he doesn’t trust banks either — and he takes Liam, Cora and Suzette to the location in the hopes that they will also find Finn.
Hallmark Channel
As the enter the cave, Agon appears from another path and leads Liam away from the group with a mysterious message that he will find what he’s looking for. And he does as he finds Finn tied up in the darkness, but he may have a broken ankle. He leads Finn out to safety, and the others are surprised to find … Chief Brody attempting to make off with the rest of the money. He’s been a key player in both John Brady’s murder and the theft of Eli’s money and he’s not about to go down now without a fight. Confronting everyone outside of the mine, Brody threatens to shoot anyone who gets in his way, taking aim at Finn but Liam jumps in front of the bullet and his shot right near his heart. Finn runs at Brody and in the scuffle, it’s Brody who ends up falling backward off the cliff. Samael and Agon appear to tell Liam he has failed in his mission and it’s time for him to go — to The Bad Place — despite both Agon and Cora telling Samael that Liam has changed. She still believes him to be the selfish person he was in his past life, but Cora questions how someone so selfish would risk his own life to save both hers and Finn’s. Samael says that’s just how destiny works but Agon interrupts her and says that may not be the case. After she showed him the rule book about fate, Agon went over her head and talked to Gabriel himself and now Gabriel has decided to intervene (a surprise cameo from Hallmark regular Brendan Penny) to suggest that perhaps this soul does, in fact, deserve a second chance however he will abide by whatever Samael decides. Will Cora’s words convince her that, just as in the past, she made the choice of Liam over Finn, she’s doing it now and she will do it in any lifetime, or will she send Liam away and try this destiny thing again? Well, it’s a Hallmark production and we just spent six hours watching this story so what do you think?
Hallmark’s Providence Falls event was a major achievement in storytelling, thanks to the source material from Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets. The story skipped nicely between the two time periods, allowing us to see how Liam and Cora connected in the past and the present, and how Cora slowly began to realize that her dreams were feeling more realistic than they should. The crime case that was the driving force of their story was also laid out well with enough twists and turns to make it exciting and enough mystery to keep us guessing as to who was involved (although the minute they suggest someone in the department was an accomplice, it was pretty obvious as to who it was since we didn’t get to know anyone else in the department but Brody). We could also feel Liam’s frustrations at wanting to tell Cora the truth, trying to stay locked in on his task, and finally willing to be sent to Hell so he could have just a fleeting moment with her. It was also a relief when Cora finally knew the truth, and when Suzette unburdened herself, revealing her truth about her own mission to keep Cora and Finn apart while admitting that she is falling for Finn but fearful that Bael will renege on his deal to allow her to continue to live in this world if she isn’t successful. It all makes for an edge-of-your-seat conclusion that becomes extremely emotional even though you know that Hallmark is not going to let Liam die.
The cast has done a consistently wonderful job from start to finish, to the point that we’re going to miss them after spending all this time together. I have to give a major shout out to the actors and their accents as well. I could have totally believed Lachlan Quarmby was Irish, especially since he’s the only character who retains his accent from the past. The guy is Australian, but he nails the accent. Katie Stevens (Cora) is from Connecticut and Evan Roderick (Finn) is Canadian, but they both do excellent work as the 1844 Irish characters, Roderick especially sounding almost exactly like Quarmby in their one scene together in the past as Liam sits in jail following Cora’s death. Whoever the dialect coach was for this project, they did a fantastic job of making the actors sound authentically Irish. The production design for both eras was also top notch, and the direction by Lucy Guest and Siobhan Devine between the three episodes was consistent, balancing the two eras, keeping the performances realistic and laying out a sprawling love story across the ages, with a nice touch of the supernatural added in. The whole mini-series was well worth the time, and now that it’s streaming on Hallmark+, it’s definitely worth a weekend binge to see it all, beginning, middle and end, in one sitting. Cheers to everyone for pulling this off so darned well.
Providence Falls: Thief of Fate has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Providence Falls: Thief of Fate – Conclusion of the 3 Part Special Event
Hallmark Channel