The Way Home is throwing as many curveballs in Kat and Elliot’s direction as possible — but should fans of their relationship be worried?
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Chyler Leigh and Evan Williams weighed in on the Friday, January 31, episode which introduced Elliot’s (Williams) ex-wife and paved the way for a reunion between Kat (Leigh) and her love interest from the 1800s, Thomas (Kris Holden-Ried).
“They seemingly have made strides and everything is looking good. Then all of a sudden a certain ex-wife shows up,” Williams, 40, quipped about the “classic” obstacles being thrown Kat and Elliot’s way. Leigh, 42, couldn’t agree more, adding, “[Just like] the classic problem of going back to the 1800s to the man that you can never really have.”
Williams leaned into the humor of the situation by poking fun at Thomas’ return.
“That old chestnut. Super old chestnut,” he joked. “But we’ll see if Kat and Elliot can ride out the turbulence. It really brings some of the fundamental, I would say, cracks in the foundation of their relationship to bear. And there’s things that also don’t really have anything to do with their relationship but it’s just contextual. It’s a time travel show and so all these characters are sort of spread out across time in a way.”
During the joint interview, Leigh took the opportunity to praise how Williams’ performance elevated Elliot’s story, saying, “I’m the president of your fan club. Evan’s work — especially the scenes between Elliot and [his dad] Vic — are so unbelievably beautiful. What I love so much is that moment where Elliot finally says to Vic, ‘Get out of my house.’ And you just go, ‘Whoa, that ownership and that bravery.’ It’s hard to move past that point in your life and saying, ‘No, I’m choosing me at this moment.’ Just to see that back and forth, I just think he’s extraordinary and that whole story line crushes me every single time.”
The Way Home, which premiered in 2023, introduced three generations of women in the Landry family who stumble onto a pond on their land that allows them to time travel. While the Hallmark series revolves around Kat and her family, Elliot has been at the center since the beginning. His crush on Kat became requited — and a flashback during Friday’s episode even revealed that Elliot and Kat nearly crossed paths as adults before she moved back to Port Haven in season 1.
“It’s the Ross and Rachel [from Friends] of it all. You got to have that little bit [of] back and forth and we were talking about it too. When they live in such a fantastical world — something that is so hard to really wrap your mind around — all of a sudden we have these characters in a place where it’s like, ‘Oh, well what do we do in real life?” Leigh noted about throwing in simple relationship problems in addition to time travel twists. “If one adventure seemingly ends, where do we go from here? So it’s a lot of those reality check moments that I think we don’t see what that in-between with Kat and Elliot looks like.”
Fans are also curious about Kat’s chemistry with Susanna (Watson Rose). Leigh told Us there’s “always been a magnetism” between Kat and Susanna, who is from the 1800s as well.
“They’ve always had some sense of a kindred spirit. Plus with Watson Rose, how could you not be in love with her in real life? But also her depiction of Susanna has just been so lovely,” she gushed. “[Her performance] is just breathtaking. But between the two characters there is definitely a love there and we tried to tow a line where you can tell that it’s something that maybe Kat has never felt.”
The Way Home wanted to explore organic potential between Kat and Susanna. “If you really pay attention to the details about Susanna, there’s a lot more to it about her discovering herself and who she is and why she feels the way that she feels,” Leigh teased. “We learn a little bit more about that and about Susanna this season, which is really wonderful. We get a lot of understanding of who some of these characters — that we only have 42 minutes of airtime with — are. But the long game we will see. We’ll get there.”
As for Kat’s return to 1814? While she originally left it in the past — pun intended — Leigh said never going back is “a difficult concept” for Kat to face.
“That’s the tough part about it because she knows that you can’t come forward. But of course she’d never leave her daughter,” the actress said about Sadie Laflamme-Snow, who plays her daughter and who chimed in during the interview, “Alice [also] doesn’t know about Thomas and Thomas doesn’t know about Alice.”
Williams was quick to point out that Alice only knows Thomas as “the guy who shot” her mother. Laflamme-Snow didn’t mind not having her character involved in that time period, adding, “You guys are protecting her from things Alice doesn’t need to know about. She’s already dealing with enough time travel craziness on her own.”
The Way Home airs on the Hallmark Channel Fridays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes are also available to stream on Hallmark+ and Peacock the next day.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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