Lets Talk Hallmark: The Signed, Sealed, Delivered Series, Episodes 6 to 10

July 2020 – I continue writing about one of my favorite Hallmark series,  the Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Dead Letter Mysteries. The first movie had a very good reception from the viewers. After the first movie aired in 2013, Hallmark then switched the presentation format to 1-hour episodes. The series had 10 1-hour episodes, which aired from April to June of 2014. The network then changed the format back to 2-hour movies.

Those 10 episodes were all packed with emotion, action, mystery and drama. Each episode brings a new lost letter to investigate and deliver to its rightful addressee. But it also brings us to find out more about the POstables team, our efficient group of postal workers, and their personal struggles. Read my first post about the Signed, Sealed, Delivered pilot movie here https://fullofcoffee.blog/2020/05/10/lets-talk-hallmark-introduction-to-signed-sealed-delivered-the-postables-team/.

I also wrote a previous post about the first five episodes of the series, https://fullofcoffee.blog/2020/06/14/lets-talk-hallmark-the-signed-sealed-delivered-series-episodes-1-to-5/. As I write and review each episode, I’m trying not to spoil what happens next -very difficult for me! I really want each viewer to discover the intrigues and emotions of the stories.

Since I’m talking about Hallmark, let me remind all readers that, even though I love the movies, I’m only a fan. I have no rights or access to any production or merchandise. None. But if you’re interested, you may visit the website www.hallmarkchannel.com. I check the Hallmark Channel page every day! All pictures/images used are from Hallmark/Crown Media.

There’s so much to tell you about it, that I divided the information of the series in two posts. Here I tell you about the next five episodes, from 6 to 10 (all descriptions are summarized from information retrieved from the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries web page https://www.hallmarkmoviesandmysteries.com/signed-sealed-delivered/episode-guide/5#listheader):

Episode 6- The Future Me – In this episode we meet a new supervisor, Glynis Rucker (Marilu Henner).  We also meet carrier Kimmi Cooper (Andrea Brooks), who brings in an undeliverable letter. She’s interested in meeting Rita, as they’d be rivals for the title of Miss Special Delivery. The team finds out that the daughter of new supervisor Glynis, Vivinee (Cate Richardson), is also a contestant for the title. Glynis has assured them that her daughter will win the contest at any cost.

Oliver arrived at the office, stating that he had started throwing away things from his past, including eliminating the bin of “lost letters” from Paris. The others are intrigued, but Oliver, trying to dismiss their concerns, assured them that he is fine. They moved on to investigate the letter that Kimmi brought to them. It was found inside a drawer of an old school desk. Norman informed them that the letter was written by a young female, and he went on his first solo investigation to find out where did the desk (where the letter was found) came from.

The team discovers that the letter was from a young lady with Down Syndrome, Ellie (Jessica Kishner Morgan), who works in a flower shop. She wrote a letter to “her future self”. She works with her boyfriend, a young guy named Bobby (Jeremy Raymond), who also has a disability. They want to get married, but her father is opposed to this. Ellie, with Oliver and Shane’s help, tries to convince her family that they are ready to get married.

The team goes with Rita to the pageant’s elimination round. Because Rita starts doubting herself, Norman gave her a message of encouragement. Glynis had said that she could squash the competition like a bug. Norman tells Rita that there’s a bug called a tree lobster, and they have an outside skeleton like a lobster. This makes them “unsquashable”. This gave Rita the courage she needed. Yes, she won the contest for her division, and the right to participate in the state pageant. And yes, Ellie and Bobby got married, why I tell you this? Because Shane and Oliver danced again at the wedding.

Episode 7- Something Good – Rebecca “Becky” Starkwell (Valerie Bertinelli) is visiting the office, assigned to find a special project. She chose to feature Rita in the monthly magazine. She found out that Shane was working here, and they had worked together in Washington, D.C.. They go out to lunch, and Shane told her about Oliver. They didn’t realize that he was there and heard their conversation.

The team works with an item from the small unattached items bin, things that had fallen of their original letter or packaging. They picked a CD that had a note written on it. They ended up listening to the CD and traced it to singer Linda Hawkins (Leah Gibson). Shane contacted Linda, and she directed her to the recording studio were they found Jennifer (Nicole Fraissinet), who is the studio manager. She remembered the CD was from Billy James Antonopoulos (Adam DiMarco), and she also remembered that was the last night she saw him.

The team found Billy by tracing the license of his vintage motorcycle. Billy was in a motorcycle accident and lost his memory, and he was in a rehab center. Shane and Rita realized that the song was written for Jennifer, as Billy was in love with her, and Jennifer is also in love with Billy. They brought Jennifer to see Billy, and they brought him his guitar. The team convinced Billy to play his song. He wasn’t sure he would remember the lyrics, but Oliver says to him “sometimes your heart remembers what your mind forgets”. The song, the guitar (and the girl) managed to help him recover part of who he is.

Episode 8- Dark of Night – This is a very emotional, and controversial episode. The team of actors managed to create such a memorable masterpiece. The episode starts with a lady in a hospital bed, who was in a car accident. She wrote a letter while in the hospital, and later died. The letter was found inside a bible and was sent to the Dead Letter Office.

Becky Starkwell (Valerie Bertinelli) is still in Denver (Colorado). She told Shane that Oliver heard their conversation about him (from the previous episode). Oliver interrupts them, bringing a package. When he shows what’s inside the package, it’s the letter from Melissa (Kimberley Sustad), the lady who died in the hospital. It was dated 10 years ago.

The letter was addressed to Michael Wheeler (Lane Edwards), who turned out to be the District Attorney. His wife died after the car accident, and their daughter, Abby (Stephanie Bennett), survived. In the letter, she revealed the truth about their daughter. The news made Michael very distraught. As they investigate, the team realized that they need more support to go on special assignments or more liberties to investigate letters beyond just delivering them. Becky steps up and sends a letter to Washington, D.C., authorizing the Dead Letter Office to expand their investigation’s powers and be declared a Special Task Force. This is the episode where they officially became the “POstables”, as they’re looking for a name when Rita mentions that they are like “special agents, like super heroes”.

The team discovered that Abby is in a life-death health situation. They helped Michael realize that Abby’s life is more important than revenge. In doing so, they managed to saved two lives. So the team received a Distinguished Service award, but they also received the Dark of Night award.

Episode 9- The Treasure Box – In this episode, a wooden box was found inside a damaged package. Norman thinks it’s a puzzle box and he deciphers the compartment, finding a key. The key turned out to be for a safety deposit box. Oliver and Shane headed to the bank to visit the box in the vault. As they were in, a boy playing around pulled the fire alarm, resulting in Oliver, Shane and Jason, the bank employee (Keenan Tracey), being trapped in the safety vault.

They all thought that they have only a few hours of oxygen. Oliver set to write a letter, and Shane is looking for conversation to stay distracted. She noticed that the letter he is writing is for Holly, his wife. They then decided to check the content of the box, and found out a bunch of letters. They were written by Jonathan and Katherine, from the time they knew each other and continued as their long-distance relationship grew.

Meanwhile, Norman and Rita headed to Rita’s reception and opening night ceremony of the pageant. They suspected something happened to Oliver and Shane, as he’s never late. Rita started the sentence “Oliver is more reliable than…” to which Norman added “than a mule delivering mail bags to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.” Then Norman overheard a lady talking about the emergency evacuation at the bank.

After the big ordeal of being stuck in the vault, Oliver and Shane headed out to visit Jonathan Walker (Richard de Klerk) to give him back the box and the letters. It turned out that the letters were from his great-grandparents. He said that every men in the family had received the box and letters as a wedding gift.

The team accompanied Rita to the pageant, where we find Ramón Rodríguez (Zak Santiago) being the master of ceremonies. Rita won the title of Miss Colorado Special Delivery, and her next step is to participate in the national competition.

My blogger friend Ruth Mayer Hill had the opportunity to interview Zak Santiago in 2017 (still a very good one!). Read here https://mydevotionalthoughts.net/2017/02/interview-with-actor-zak-santiago-signed-sealed-delivered.html.

Episode 10- A Hope and a Future – The episode started with a young lady leaving a baby with a note by the front door of the local church. Back in the office, the team is celebrating Rita’s accomplishment. Oliver let her pick the letter to investigate, picking a letter that was not intended for the system. It was a personal note addressed to Pastor Thomas, from a baby’s mother asking the pastor to find someone to take care of her baby, to give him “a hope and a future”.

The story affected Norman, as he confessed that he was abandoned as a child, had to go into foster care, and eventually was adopted. He also confessed that he had contacted the National Adoption Registry, and he received a letter a year ago, one that he hadn’t opened. He asked Oliver to open it for him. The letter was from Ms. Ardis Parker-Pennington-Paine (Carol Burnett), Norman’s biological grandmother, and she wants to meet him. Norman got in touch with her, and Ardis came to Colorado to meet him. They did spent a day together, and she revealed that Norman’s mom had passed away.

The team visited the church, looking for Pastor Thomas. They found out that the Pastor had passed away, but the pastor in charge is his son (Viv Leacock), and he said he was the one who found the baby. They found Joshua (Adam Korson), the baby who is now a doctor, and he is not interested in meeting his biological mom.

Rita recognized Joshua’s face, and it turned out that he had a twin brother, Matt. Oliver and Shane went to visit him, and found out that the mom (Ingrid Tesch) was living with him. She had never reveal to Matt that she had a twin brother. Norman’s grandmother, Ardis, ended up hospitalized and being attended by Joshua. While in the hospital, she arranged for Matt and his mom to come in. They all met with Joshua and finally made peace.

Oliver had a conversation with Ardis, in which she told him that he could do with a little crazy himself. He said that he wouldn’t know where to begin. Ardis told him “you begin by doing the thing that scares you the most, face up to the scary and the rest is easy”. After this, Shane revealed to him that she was concerned about the letter he wrote for Holly. He was still holding on to it. He finally decided to mail it.

After these episodes aired, the Hallmark network changed the format to 2-hour movies. There are 11 movies and, it was announced that one more movie will be filmed. At this time, when I wrote this, the COVID pandemic has halted production and actors are waiting the okay to go make the movie.

Although the format changes, the story continues. The relationship between these four friends continues growing. And the relationship between both couples, Oliver-Shane and Norman-Rita, also keeps evolving. There’s more drama and mystery as the movies continue. I have more to tell you about it! So, look up for my next posts.

I’ll be writing some more. I have plenty more to add, more to write about, and more movies to watch and love. I love writing, and I love Hallmark movies. It’s time for my tacita de café. Salud!

Para versión en español, vea https://fullofcoffee.blog/2020/07/12/hablemos-hallmark-la-serie-el-misterio-de-las-cartas-perdidas-episodios-6-al-10/.