Pop Culture Principle

On Friday, July 12th, fans of Signed, Sealed, Delivered, known as POstables, had their collective wish come true! The beloved franchise returned after several years with a brand new movie, Signed, Sealed, Deliverd: A Tale of Three Letters.

Today, we bring you a recap & review of Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters from Amanda Pezet. Many fans in the Hallmark universe will know Amanda as the administrator of the POstables Hallmark’s Signed Sealed Delivered Fan Group Facebook page. You can read her recap & review below.

**SPOILER ALERT** If you have not seen Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters yet, DO NOT read this recap and review until you do!

They’re back! After a whole lot of trusting the timing- Martha Williamson, the cast, and crew delivered something beautiful with Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters. Kristin Booth, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Eric Mabius, and Geoff Gustafson slipped right back into the roles of Shane, Rita, Oliver, and Norman seamlessly. Like old friends that you haven’t seen for a while, but comfort and conversation pick up like it was just yesterday. In true Martha Williamson fashion this installment is filled with love, laughter, and gentle lessons. We are reminded to hold dear to what we love most in the world, and to forgive and let go of the things that just hold us back from being all we are meant to be.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters opens shortly after The Vows We Have Made concluded. Oliver (Eric Mabius) and Shane (Kristin Booth) are in full wedded bliss on their honeymoon. The newlyweds share romantic moments and choose from a myriad of things to do, including visiting the British Museum of Postal History. While Shane sleeps, Oliver looks on lovingly at his new wife and almost trips on her shoes on the floor. He smiles, in love with all of the adorable little quirks that his new wife possesses.

On the flight home, while Shane sleeps nuzzled into his shoulder, Oliver gushes to his abundantly patient and trapped seat companion about his honeymoon and his love for Shane. He dares to say that they might be “one of the great Postal love stories.” Just as Oliver finally inquires about his new friend, it’s time for the plane to land. Time had flown by for slumbering Shane and blissfully in love Oliver, but not so much for his captive comrade that spent the flight from London learning every detail of how Shane and Oliver got to this moment. Shane awakens as the plane lands and the newlyweds declare that this moment is when their new life together begins.

The next morning, Shane and Oliver awaken at their newly shared home, the Historic Home of Joseph Lindley O’Toole. Oliver, ready for the day, comes downstairs to wind his beloved family clock, which has ticked continuously for over 100 years. Shane, still in her robe, slinks down the stairs to find her husband taking care of his morning obligations. Oliver explains the importance of making sure the clock never stops on his watch and asks his wife when she’ll be ready to leave for their first day back at work. Shane does her best to distract him with her feminine wiles. Newlywed infatuation wins out and the two retreat to their bedroom, but not before Oliver notices Shane’s wedding dress hanging on the coat rack. He offers to bring it upstairs and she explains that she plans to bring it to the cleaners to be “heirloomized.”

Norman (Geoff Gustafson) and Rita (Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe) excitedly await their friends’ return to the DLO. They reminisce about their own honeymoon while they wonder about Shane and Oliver’s tardiness. Just as Norman begins to worry that his friends caught the wrong train or ate the wrong cheese, Shane and Oliver burst through the doors and enthusiastically greet their friends. Oliver tells them all about the cheese, the wine, and the British Museum of Postal History, which inspired him to want to explore the possibility of a Postal Museum in Denver. Shane says he couldn’t even stop talking about it as they floated over Stockholm in a hot air balloon.

After the POstables catch up, Rita and Norman show the newlyweds their welcome home present! A board covered in letters from the “Great Mailbox Breach of 2017.” Every damaged letter that had been mailed from Garfield High School during the breach 7 years prior was on the board, except for one that was severely damaged. But, not to fear, Norman explains that he created a “Four Step Desiccation Revelation Process” that will break down mold in flakes to recover the final letter, but it will take at least 5 to 6 months. Oliver, recognizing that they have plenty to keep them busy in the meantime, looks to the remaining letters on the board and asks “Ms. McInerney,” an odd name choice for his new wife, but I guess old habits die hard, to do the honors of choosing the first letter that will be addressed. Shane closes her eyes, waves her hand around, and points to a letter in the center of the board. The address is not immediately legible so Oliver and Norman set off to figure it out.

When given a moment to catch up, Rita tells Shane that they have the entire day planned for them, including lunch at Ramon’s restaurant with Papa O’Toole (Gregory Harrison) and a visit with Charley (Rhiannon Fish) and baby Eleanor. Shane asks Rita if it’s strange living with a new mom and her baby, to which Rita shows no concern given that she grew up in a commune environment. Rita explains that having a new baby around is a lot for everyone, but all hands are on deck, including Norman who seems to be a little overly helpful.

Norman and Oliver get the letter open and return to their wives to share its contents. The letter reads, “ Dear Maria, I am shocked, dismayed, and quite hurt by your actions. I feel utterly betrayed by someone I considered to be a stellar student, with great potential, and I was proud to be your mentor and I thought your friend. When the police arrived today it broke my heart, but you broke the law. I’m sorry to say that I will press charges. Life has consequences, Maria, and you must learn to face them or this path of anger you continue to choose will become a way of life and all you have worked for will be overtaken by self-entitlement and bitterness. If you want to play ball for a living, you need to learn how to play ball in life. This is a difficult letter to write, but not all teaching happens in the classroom and this is one lesson I feel I need to impart to you. As your theater teacher, I often emphasize that drama belongs on the stage not….” Unfortunately, the rest of the letter is missing.

The foursome recount the clues they gathered from the letter, and note that it was written by a theater teacher from Garfield High School 7 years prior, to a student named Maria, and that it’s a harshly written letter that no one would want to send or receive. Shane questions if they even need to deliver it at all after all of these years, to which Oliver pretends to not hear her disregard toward the obligation that they have to deliver all letters regardless of their opinions.

At lunch, Shane and Oliver share gifts with Norman, Rita and Joe. When Charley arrives Shane and Oliver quickly greet her and baby Eleanor and ask how she’s doing. Norman chimes in with an update about the baby instead of letting Charley answer for herself. Joe asks Charley when she’s planning on heading back to work at the DLO, to which she answers that she’s lonely and would like to return to work sooner rather than later. Shane offers to let her and the baby hang out at the DLO with all of them, which ruffles Oliver’s rule following feathers. Shane attempts to flirt with Oliver to get him to bend the rules a little, but before he can say anything, Rita makes an excellently time segue and points out that Charley graduated from Garfield High 7 years ago. She asks Charley questions about Maria and the theater teacher. Charley doesn’t remember Maria, but she does remember Mrs. Philpott, the drama teacher. She tells them that the teacher left Garfield High during her senior year, but no one knows why. When everyone leaves the table to enjoy the salad bar, Oliver tells Shane that she can’t assume he’ll always bend the rules just because they- Shane finishes his sentence “Share the same mailbox?” and she walks away leaving him grinning.

When Oliver finally composes himself and steps up from the table, he is greeted by, the ever enlightening, Ramon! He thanks Oliver for the gift that they brought him back from the Postal Museum and asks him how married life is going. Oliver replies that it’s going splendidly, and Ramon takes that opportunity to impart wisdom that only Ramon could share- “Marriage is like a salad bar, Ovileer, a great one brings you back again and again to appreciate all it has to offer.”

At the salad bar, Joe asks Rita how the adoption process is coming along. She expresses her concerns that Norman is spending a lot of time taking care of Eleanor and that it may be getting in the way of them continuing on their own adoption journey.

As Joe and Rita return to their seats, Shane and Charley approach the salad bar. Charley brings up the letter that they found addressed to Maria, and Shane tells her that they found it in the mail that came from the Great Mailbox Breach of 2017 that ended in a mailbox being blown up. Charley looks obviously nervous and bothered by Shane’s explanation.

On the walk back to the DLO, Oliver asks Norman if he’s ever had anything heirloomized, while Rita tells Shane about “Cherry Creek Professional Fabric Preservation”- the only place that she’d trust to heirloomize her wedding dress. The conversation turns to potential future children, to which Shane says “maybe someday” and Rita says they’re still trying, but they also want to adopt. She just needs Norman to focus on his application essay. Shane thinks that Norman may already feel like a dad, since he’s so attached to baby Eleanor. This statement of truth, obviously frustrates Rita and she exclaims that even when you think you know your soulmate and all of their quirks- they can still surprise you. Shane proclaims that she knows Oliver and all of his quirks so well that he could never surprise her.

When they arrive back at the DLO Shane decides to run a search for Maria. She goes to retrieve the letter from the wall and remembers that she put it in the pending box, unfortunately, she actually put it in the outgoing box and Rita emptied that onto the conveyor belt before they left for lunch, so it went back into the system. She apologizes profusely and blames exhaustion and jet lag. Oliver calmly tells her that it’s okay, it was a dead letter and it will make its way back to them. He points out all of the other letters they can deal with in the meantime.

At the O’Toole residence the clock ticks loudly, as Shane and Oliver settle in for the night. Shane asks Oliver about expanding the closet as she unpacks her things into her new home. He tells her that the house is protected by the State Historical Society and they can’t make any changes without prior approval. Oliver, not bothered at all by the limitations of the committee, changes the subject to ramble on about the state of Colorado’s lack of Postal Museums. Shane starts getting a little heated, both literally and figuratively, and goes to open a window. When she realizes it won’t open, she learns that the crank is broken and the Historical Committee won’t allow them to get new windows. This is obviously a point of irritation for her, and Oliver offers to get it on the board agenda for next spring. Oliver asks Shane if she’s okay and she says she’s just stewing over losing Maria’s letter. Oliver tells her to “trust the timing”, because he has faith that it will return at the perfect time. Full of hope- they kiss and go to bed.

Time hop! SIX MONTHS LATER- Oliver comes downstairs to find Shane’s wedding dress still hanging on the coat rack, dust now gathering on it. Shane’s shoes are piled at the bottom of the stairs, as the clock ticks on heavily. Shane tries again, unsuccessfully, to open the window upstairs, as Oliver winds the family clock in the foyer. Shane races downstairs proclaiming that she can’t find her other shoe, which Oliver points out is not upstairs because they are all piled before him. The mood is far less flirty than just 6 months prior.

When they arrive at the DLO they find Charley. Shane tells her that there are only two letters left until they’ve delivered all of the mail from the Great Mailbox Breach. Charley looks uneasy. She tells them that Maria’s letter has returned, so there are actually three letters left to deliver. She confesses to Shane and Oliver that the Great Mailbox Breach of 2017 was her fault. She and her friends, Barry and Marlon, liked to play pranks in highschool. One day, during their senior year, they noticed that the mail carrier showed up to the school mailbox at the exact same time every single day. They thought it looked like such a boring and monotonous existence so they wanted to do something that would shake up his world a little. Charley had the idea to put something in the mailbox to surprise him, maybe a voice recorder or a cat. They decided on an alarm clock. They tossed it in and it ticked away. When the mail carrier arrived, he heard the ticking and assumed it was a bomb. He ran away and called the authorities. The bomb squad arrived and detonated the mailbox. Oliver gets very upset at Charley for disrespecting the U.S. Mail service and tries to suspend her. Shane steps in and reminds him that she was 17 at the time and we all make mistakes. He has a change of heart, and decides to send her home for the afternoon to meditate on her choices. On her way out Charley remembers that she did know of a girl named Maria in highschool. She’s pretty certain the girl didn’t graduate because she was arrested for something.

Over lunch, Shane and Oliver tell Rita and Norman about Charley’s involvement in the mail scandal. They share their new intel on Maria, including the discovery of her last name. A plan is made to track down her new address and deliver the letter as soon as possible. The conversation turns to Rita and Norman’s adoption process. Rita tells Shane that they were asked to find a family therapist to clear them for adoption. Rita tells Norman that she hopes a therapist will also be able to guide him on how to raise his own children while other people raise theirs- his over involvement with Eleanor is obviously still a point of contention. With that suggestion, Norman remembers that he has a cousin, Calliope, who is a family therapist. Shane asks if they think that a family member is a good idea, but Oliver cuts her off with his own opinion before she can finish her statement. She gulps down her water to avoid saying anything back.

Back at the DLO Oliver apologizes for cutting Shane off at lunch. She assures him that it’s fine and that she’s used to him cutting her off to weigh in with his own opinion before she can finish her own. He cuts her off to assure her that’s not true. To which she points out he just did it again. She calls him “Darling” in a far less charmed tone than 6 months prior, and tells him that she’s okay with his little quirk. She walks away from a puzzled Oliver.

Shane updates the group on her plight to find Maria. She narrowed it down to one Maria, but then lost the trail. Due to the fact that she was a minor when she committed her crime, all of her records were sealed. The group decides to try to follow a trail to someone who may still know her instead.

In a quiet moment in the DLO Oliver goes to Norman for advice. After many years of being Norman’s mentor, Oliver is in the position of needing advice about being newly married. He asks Norman how to adjust to being married and living together. Norman wisely tells him that they just need to work through the little stuff as a team, compromise, and choose to do things every single day to make his wife happy.

After a long morning, Shane and Oliver return home for a midday nap. As an exhausted Shane climbs the stairs to her bedroom, Oliver thoughtfully grabs her seemingly abandoned wedding dress from the coat rack and delivers it to the cleaners to be heirloomized. Unfortunately, Shane can’t fall asleep because of the warmth in the house, so she decides to try to open the window yet again. When she fails, she goes downstairs and borrows Oliver’s treasured clock crank to try to crank the window open. Sadly, as she turns the crank, the handle snaps. After a whole bunch of classic Shane, “no, no, no, no no” she runs downstairs to see if she can still crank the clock with it. While making her attempt Oliver returns home and tells her that, as a kind gesture, he dropped her wedding dress off at Fred’s Swifty Cleaners- which obviously irks Shane, but she treads lightly knowing that she just broke Oliver’s crank. She tells him that she wishes that he would have asked first- and he pointed out all of the decisions at home that are still waiting on her- like her pile of shoes and gifts. She sends him on to work without her so she can stop by the restoration shop to covertly get his crank fixed. The restorer tells her that it will take way more time than she’d like and she just hopes she can get it back to its box before Oliver has to crank the clock.

Rita and Norman have an appointment with the family therapist and then head to the DLO to tell Shane and Oliver that they were given a high recommendation for adoption. While celebrating that news, Rita figures out the address for the second letter from 2017. That leads them to Charley.

They all go to Rita and Norman’s house and give Charley the newly recovered letter. As she reads it she learns that her friend from highschool had feelings for her. The signature is destroyed, but Charley recognizes her friend Barry’s handwriting. She’s surprised that Barry had feelings for her and admits that they all lost touch after highschool. Shane offers to help Charley reunite with Barry, but Oliver quickly cuts her off and tells her that it is not in their job description to locate lost crushes. Tensions are high when Shane interjects with why can’t we do both? As if the mood couldn’t get any heavier, Eleanor starts to cry and Charley goes off to get her. Norman stays behind and explains that their therapist helped him see that he needed to focus a little more on his own family. Rita invites Shane and Oliver to stay for dinner, but Oliver quickly declines for both of them saying that they have plans and a lot of gifts on the counter, and the table, and the floor, and the closet, that still need to be dealt with. His snarky tone was not lost on anyone.

On their walk home Shane and Oliver smell smoke coming from the direction of Fred’s Swifty Cleaners. Shane realizes her dress is gone. The couple arrive at their home and Shane accuses Oliver of having her dress cremated. Oliver suggests they cool down before continuing their discussion and he walks to his clock to wind it. Shane freaks out knowing that he’s about to discover his missing crank. She admits that she broke it and that it’s with a repairman. Shane offers to make him clams and a cabernet and he declines, stating that he’s not hungry- and I’m pretty sure not hungry is even more angry than his clams and red wine go-to. They go to bed still angry and the clock ticks and chimes in the background only reminding them of their irritation with one another.

In the morning, at the DLO, Shane spews her frustrations to Rita about the window, the clock, and her dead wedding dress. Meanwhile, Oliver talks to Norman about how his thoughtful act of having her dress taken care of ended in disaster. He also admits that he doesn’t know what he’ll do if the clock stops ticking. Norman points out that it’s not the end of the world if it does.

When Shane decides to go meet with the public defender that potentially worked with Maria, Oliver offers for him and Norman to go on her behalf since it may be a sensitive meeting. Shane takes great offense to this suggestion. The conversation only digresses as it takes a turn to Charley and Barry. Oliver reminds Shane to not meddle in Charley’s affairs and then he really pushes some buttons when he corrects her grammar during the already heated discussion. And of course, the argument uncomfortably circles back to his upset about his crank being broken. Poor Norman and Rita look on as their friends bicker about personal lives in the office and “Ms. McInerney” and “Mr. O’Toole” all over the conversation. Tensions continue to bubble and Shane storms out.

Norman finds a very distraught Oliver in the hallway. Oliver fears that Shane has left him, and Norman assures him that she just needs some fresh air. Norman tells Oliver to go find Shane and Oliver admits that he doesn’t know where to look. Norman wisely asks him where he goes when he needs to feel like himself and that puts Oliver in mind of home. Norman sends him on his way with a card for his cousin’s therapy office and asks him to think about reaching out for some help.

Oliver finds Shane crying in front of her home, it has a sold sign in front of it. She admits that they are both unhappy and they need to find a way to fix it. She wants to feel like they did when they were swinging on her front porch, back when they were going the same direction. Oliver offers her a hanky and suggests that maybe they need some professional help to get their footing.

Norman and Rita meet with the public defender to get information about Maria. He refuses to help them, so they decide to go a different route, Mrs. Philpott. They take Charley to the flower shop where Mrs. Philpott now works. She explains to them that she’d rather them not deliver the letter to Maria. She tells them that she regrets sending it. She explains that Maria earned a failing grade on her final and that it kept her from playing in a baseball game on a day that a scout was there to watch. Maria got so angry that she smashed her bat into her car, unfortunately on what also happened to be Mrs. Philpott’s first day of chemotherapy. Maria was arrested and expelled. Mrs. Philpott left teaching to recover from cancer. She begs them to not deliver the letter, but when they say they have to they offer to let her write a second letter to go with it. She gives them a new letter, and the lead that Maria dated a boy named Toby Seccombe.

Shane and Oliver meet with Dr. Calliope. The doctor explains to them that they’ve lived alone for a long time, and they just need to adjust to doing day-to-day things together. Shane and Oliver have different ideas on how things should be handled, and they both need to learn to compromise. She sends them home with homework- don’t start any fires.

Hopeful that Maria ended up marrying Toby Seccombe, Shane searches for Maria Seccombe, and she finds her. Shane and Oliver go to Maria’s office to deliver the letters. They explain the situation and tell her about both letters. Maria chooses to read the new letter, and is obviously moved by Ms. Philpott’s change of heart towards her. The letter explained her difficulties at the time and how she took her anger out on Maria that day. Maria is grateful for the absolution, but has to rush off because she works in adoptions and she is trying to find a family for a soon-to-be born baby girl.

On the walk to the DLO, Shane tells Oliver that she sees this as an opportunity for Norman and Rita! They bicker back and forth not realizing that they’re both saying the same thing. In fact they are not arguing at all, instead they are having a “violent agreement,” as Oliver calls it.

Charley meets with Barry to tell him that she got the letter that he sent her in highschool. She finds out that he’s married and has a kid and things immediately get a little awkward. She asks him about Marlon and then tells him she has to leave. She accidentally drops the letter on her way out and he sees it. She brings up the mailbox prank and shows him the letter. He tells her that he wrote it as a joke, and actually signed it from Marlon because HE had feelings for her.

Back at the DLO, Charley tells Norman and Rita about her conversation with Barry. Rita pokes at the fact that Charley should find out if Marlon still has feelings for her. Shane and Oliver arrive and interrupt the conversation to tell everyone that Charley’s prank in highschool may have led them to a miracle- a possible baby for Norman and Rita.

At therapy, Dr. Calliope asks Shane and Oliver to reflect on which moment in their relationship that they knew that they would be together forever. Shane says, for her, it was the moment that Oliver built her the porch swing. Oliver explains that he gave it to her to remind her of a happy time in her life. Shane complains that the swing is still in the garage at her new home. They argue and she admits that his house is not her home. She’s not comfortable living in a place where she can’t move a chair or open a window. It immediately turns into an argument about the clock crank. Dr. Calliope points out that even without the dress and the clock, they would still be married. They have all the history and foundation that they need-all the love- they just need to adjust to being married and sharing their lives and spaces.

Norman and Rita meet with Maria about the potential of adoption. She tells them that everything is in order and that they should be cleared to adopt the baby girl, but first, they must know the reality of the situation.

At the O’Toole home, an uncharacteristically punctual Shane comes downstairs to find a solemn Oliver standing by a clock that ticks no more. They discuss this moment in therapy. Dr. Calliope asks Oliver how it felt when the clock stopped ticking. He said the stillness made him sad. The doctor assured him that the clock will tick again, and that he needs to let go of his expectations of the clock and himself. She also tells Shane to let go of the dress, because happier days are to come. She challenges them to do something to surprise each other with a vision for the future and then she tells them that they are done with therapy. She assures them that their marriage isn’t in trouble, they just need to keep up the work.

After a 911 text, Shane and Oliver rush to meet Norman and Rita at Ramon’s restaurant. Rita tells them that the baby has a congenital heart defect that will require a NICU stay and surgery. They have to decide if they are up for taking care of a baby with a heart condition. Oliver assures them that they are the perfect parents for a child, no matter the circumstance. Rita and Norman show them an ultrasound of the little girl and declare that they’re having a baby!

Back at the DLO while they await the completion of the desiccation process on the final letter, the girls discuss Marlon with Charley. She admits that she always had a crush on him too. This sets Shane on a mission to find Marlon.

As the letter comes out of Norman’s Desiccation Revelation machine they are disappointed to learn that it is illegible due to poor penmanship. At that very moment, Marlon shows up. Shane had called him and told him that someone had written a letter and signed his name. Sending a letter under the guise of someone else’s name is a federal offense so she had an obligation to tell him- or so she says to defend her actions to Oliver. Marlon apologizes about Barry’s letter and begins to tell Charley that he had written his own letter to her- when he sees it on the wall- the one with the pitiful printing. He had sent it to Charley, who apparently is the only one who can read his terrible handwriting. In the letter he admits his feelings for her and says that he hopes he lives long enough to tell her in person- which sidenote, is sweetly reminiscent of when Oliver wishes to live long enough to tell Shane that he hopes their first date isn’t their last, in SSD: Lost Without You. After reconnecting for a bit, Marlon asks Charley to have takeout with him and offers her a ride home.

After everyone leaves, Shane and Oliver find themselves in the DLO discussing the day. Shane worries that Oliver is mad that she found Marlon, and he explains that he’s not angry, he just doesn’t understand why she insists on matchmaking. She tells him that they are both romantics, they just go about it different ways. They share a kiss and a sweet moment before Shane runs off to conquer a mysterious errand.

Shane picks up Oliver’s clock crank and returns home. She finds her husband -wearing a suspiciously green tie- inside the house, sitting on her reconstructed porch swing. On a small table before him, he shares with her his collection of special things. The seashells he collected as a child the Christmas that his grandfather died, the pen that Shane borrowed from him when she left him for months, the napkin that she drew her thoughts about what jazz felt like that Oliver carried in his pocket the entire time she was gone, the letter opener that she gave him for his birthday, and the last rose of summer- all of the things that remind him that everything Shane touches becomes a rare and sacred thing to him. He tells her that he wants to share everything with her, in a new home that they create together and that he offered the O’Toole home to the Historical Society to turn into a postal museum. Then he gets down on one knee and proposes marriage, once more, to Shane.

They renew their vows on the porch swing. He tells her that he has always been in love with her. He apologizes for expecting her to change to fit in his life and he asks her to build a new life with him, one that they share together. She asks him to forgive her for the same. She tells him that he’s the only man that she can truly be herself with and that no matter where they live HE is her home and she is his. They share a very loving kiss, and then she tells him that his surprise is going to be difficult to top- then she confidently stands up, winds the clock, and tells him that in their new home they’re going to need to keep the clock somewhere that “she can’t reach it” to which Oliver asks, “She?” Shane responds, “or he?” and she continues, the swing can be a rocking chair for two- or three. as she puts Oliver’s hand on her expecting belly. Surprise! It looks like the O’Toole family is growing!

SSD: A Tale of Three Letters was worth the wait, AND totally sets up the next installment to be the culmination of everything that POstables have been praying for since the coffee cart in the Pilot. Martha Williamson pours her heart and honest wisdom into each character, each letter, and each installment of SSD. I love that she writes imperfect characters in an imperfect world. Things aren’t always easy, but good relationships are worth fighting for, and working on. The introduction of therapy into the relationships in this installment is such a beautiful nod to getting the help we need, when we need it. Not because something or someone is broken, but because we can always work towards better communication and compromise. I also enjoyed all the Easter eggs that put us in mind of previous moments in the canon. The overarching quote that kept popping back in my head through the entire movie was Shane’s line from SSD: Truth Be Told- “Love is hard work, Oliver. It’s always trying to find that balance between too much and too little, too high and too low, we never get it perfect—but we never stop trying.” We’ve been blessed to see both Shane and Oliver, and Norman and Rita find love, get married, and now find their paths to expanding their families.

It was so wonderful to see the Fab Four back in action! Each character is so lovable and relatable. One can’t help but root for them and cry with them- and all of that comes down to amazing writing and exceptional acting. Kristin Booth’s ability to run the gamut of hilarious, to flirty, to depths of despair is unparalleled. Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe embodies sweet Rita’s light and kindness on and off the screen. Eric Mabius can break your heart and make you smile like nobody else. Geoff Gustafson,- oh Norman- I think his Character has grown the most of all. It has been so fun watching Geoff slowly transform Norman from this awkward and shy guy, to this equally awkward- but confident and awesome- man, husband, and soon-to-be father. Thank you to Martha, the cast, and crew for all that you do to continue to give us stellar television! And thank you to Hallmark for recognizing the audience and the need for more Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and for continuing to offer programming that shows that there is more to life than a perfect cookie-cutter world.

*********************************************************************************************

Thank you for taking the time to read our recap & review of Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters. You can follow Amanda Pezet on her Twitter and you can follow the POstables Hallmark’s Signed Sealed Delivered Fan Group here.

**Photos credit ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographers: Allister Foster/Luka Cyprian**