‘The Way Home’ Season 2: Stars Chyler Leigh and Sadie Laflamme-Snow Tell All! (EXCLUSIVE)
Don't miss the premiere on January 21 at 9/8c on Hallmark!
Fans tuned in episode after episode for Hallmark Channel’s debut season of their original series The Way Home in January of 2023. The heartfelt time-travel saga instantly garnered a cult following and fans have been anxiously waiting for season two… but the wait is now over! The Way Home season 2 will air on January 21st, 9/8c on the Hallmark Channel — and we can’t wait to see what comes next.
That’s why Woman’s World sat down with stars Chyler Leigh (who plays Kat) and Sadie Laflamme-Snow (who plays Alice), to get an inside look at the anticipated sophomore season. You’ll love what they had to say!
RELATED: Get To Know The Cast of ‘The Way Home’
What happened in season one of The Way Home?
The first season of The Way Home begins when Kat (Leigh), a reporter, has been let go from her job. Meanwhile, she learns that her ex’s new girlfriend has moved in with him.
When their daughter Alice (Laflamme-Snow) notices her mother missing and her father distracted in the midst of her talent show performance, she rebels by setting off the school fire alarm. Expelled from school, Kat soon receives a letter from her estranged mother, Del (played by Andie MacDowell), telling her to come home.
Returning to her small town of Port Haven, the three women experience a whirlwind of events over a small amount of time. During her initial tour of her grandmother’s land, Alice was shown a pond. After a disagreement with her mother, she runs off and when reaching for a bracelet she threw, falls in.
When she emerges, the year is 1999 and she comes face to face with the teenage version of her mother. As she further explores her surroundings, she sees a much younger version of her grandmother, as well as her grandfather, Colton, and her mother’s brother, Jacob, both of which have passed on in present day.
In time, Kat also discovers her ability to time travel. With this newfound ability and the help of Kat’s friend Elliott (Evan Williams), who is present both in the past and present and aware of the reality of time travel, the mother and daughter learn the truth behind the tragedies of their past, specifically, the death of Kat’s father Colton and the disappearance of her little brother Jacob.
What can we expect from The Way Home season 2?
**Spoilers ahead**
Season one ends with the knowledge that Jacob, Kat’s little brother who had gone missing, actually fell into the pond and never emerged. With this knowledge, Kat is set on finding him and bringing him home, no matter what it takes. This also means that her relationship with Elliott, which left off a bit differently than fans anticipated, is no longer her priority.
Throughout season one, Elliott was a source of comfort for both Kat and Alice, being that he was essentially the only other person who understood the magnitude of what they were experiencing.
However, season one ends with Kat revealing to Elliott how she truly feels about him in the wake of her finalizing her divorce. In spite of this, Elliott decides it’s best for him to start a new chapter for himself. However, when he returns in season 2 after being away, Chyler Leigh revealed that their relationship isn’t exactly at the forefront of Kat’s mind.
“When we come back, he’s been gone for a long time, so she doesn’t know where he’s been, she doesn’t know the full reason of why he left, but the two of them coming back together, she’s just very dead set on just really focusing on trying to get Jacob back,” Leigh revealed to Woman’s World. “So it’s less about oh, am I gonna hurt your feelings or am I gonna disrupt our relationship, because I’m way more dedicated and passionate about this, more than ever.”
However, Kat isn’t the only one who had to deal with Elliott’s departure. “Alice really depends on Elliott a lot, especially in the first season,” Sadie Laflamme-Snow revealed to WW.
“He’s the only one that knows she’s traveling, and both in the past and the present, she goes to him for every time travel question and worry and mishap, she goes running to Elliott. And so, when he just picks up and leaves, there’s a huge hole in Alice’s life. She doesn’t have that mentor in the present day, she doesn’t see her friend in the past in the same way. I think she feels, you know, how could we go through all of that together and you just leave?”
Taking on a new era
The Way Home season 2 will take Kat into a completely unfamiliar place in an effort to find Jacob: the 1800s. “I had so much fun doing the 1800’s work,” Leigh said. “We have the most beautiful cast that we will meet. The actors are phenomenal. The world in and of itself, the 1800s world, is so beautiful, but beautiful in a non-traditional Hallmark way, in the sense that it’s darker, it’s gritty.”
Leigh continued, “And it’s heartbreak, it’s struggle, because she’s starting to see where the family came from and that generational trauma is generational trauma. So you’re starting to see the beginnings of it.”
Kat’s daughter, Alice, also plays an important role in her journey. Laflamme-Snow said, “We kind of thought we had made peace with this question of where did Jacob go and now to open that up again can be really painful and really stressful for Kat. Alice has to be there for her in a way that she’s never had to before, because it was kind of a solo quest for Alice for a long time in season one, and so it’s a really nice thing to explore how a daughter can be there for her mom.”
“We see Kat there for Alice, we see Del trying to be there for Kat, and then to see Alice trying to be there for Kat is a really beautiful story.”
The evolution of Kat and Alice’s relationship
Season one began with the mother-daughter relationship between Kat and Alice on rocky waters. Leigh recalls, “Kat is going through a divorce, she loses her job, and then all of a sudden she gets this mysterious letter from her mom who she hasn’t spoken to in 20 years, and then uproots she and Alice and they go back to the farm, and so she kind of throws Alice into an extremely uncomfortable situation, not meaning to hurt her, but that’s kind of just what it was.”
Leigh continues, “And they ended up kind of being at odds in the beginning as well, but once Alice went back and saw the origins of what happened between Kat and Del when she was younger, it starts to make sense.”
Season 2 also marks a time of maturing for Alice. “I think she starts to see Del and Kat as human beings and not just as ‘mom’ or ‘grandma,'” Laflamme-Snow explained. “But I think that’s a huge part of growing up is seeing the adults in your life as individuals. It’s a big maturing moment for Alice to really see that they’re flawed and they have regrets and they have things that they wish they hadn’t done or hadn’t said.”
Kat and Del’s relationship evolution
As for Kat and Del, their relationship continues up and down. The new discovery regarding Jacob’s whereabouts means that Del once again will face the pain of Kat’s inquiries as she sets out on her journey to find him.
“It almost seemed like they had a chance to kind of let it go, move on, grow, but once Kat gets that nugget, it’s like okay, she starts asking these same questions again and it just almost becomes like cyclical for them, where it’s that same conversation, and it’s heartbreaking for Del, because she doesn’t know what’s happening,” Leigh explained.
“She doesn’t see what Kat’s seeing. And Kat is living it in real time, so for her it’s like she’s not even really thinking about the fact that she’s asking her mom these really hard questions again.”
Alice’s growth in season 2
Having spent so much of the first season going back and forth between the past and present, Alice enters season 2 longing for the life and friendships she had in the past. “I think we see her almost haunted by the past in a way, she can’t get those images of the beach party or images of her sweet moments with Nick in the past, she can’t get those out of her mind,” Laflamme-show explained.
However, fans can look forward to seeing Alice attempt to root herself in the present. “We see her really starting to have a nice relationship with Del, they really start depending on each other, and really being a family and challenging each other, and there might even be some romantic prospects on the horizon for Alice,” Laflamme-Snow teases.
The anticipation grows for The Way Home season 2
It’s a treat to know that the actors in a series are just as excited to be a part of it as the fans are to see it, and that’s been made clear by actors like Sadie Laflamme-Snow.
“I think I’m in love with the part that I think the audience loves which is the heart inside of a time travel show. It’s this massive challenge creatively to pull off time travel in a way that makes people still feel deeply about these characters,” Laflamme-Snow said.
“It’s not a show about magic or a sci-fi only series,” she continues. “It’s the fact that you love and care for these characters so much that brings you back and makes you want to jump in the pond again and get those answers, and so it’s just kind of this never-ending creative source for me.”
The Way Home season 2 premieres on January 21, 9/8c on the Hallmark Channel — you won’t want to miss it!
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