The Way Home Showrunners Answer All Our Burning Questions About The Final Season!

Over the course of four seasons, The Way Homehas introduced viewers to the Landry women and made us feel like part of the family. The story was built on secrets from the past learning how to heal together through the lens of time travel. Now that the series has wrapped, creators Alexandra Clarke and Heather Conkie are pulling back the curtain on the show’s biggest lingering mysteries, including KC’s true identity, Tessa’s fate, and the meaning behind Kat and Alice’s final jump in the pond.

In an exclusive conversation with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado, the mother-daughter showrunning team reveal which questions they intentionally answered, secrets they chose to leave open to audience interpretation, and even a few storylines they would have explored in a potential fifth season.

Pop Culture Planet: What is KC’s (Vaughan Murrae) real name? What time are they from? What's the family drama that's been going on in their time? What can you tell me?

Alexandra Clarke: Oh man, I think some things are left up to the audience for sure. We certainly had an idea of what was going on in KC’s time, but some stories are going to be left untold. But yes, I mean, I think that the big biggest question around KC was who were their parents? And at least we answered that. We also hinted towards when they're actually from. The very fact that they know Sam (Rob Stewart) in their time and Del (Andie MacDowell) is very telling of how close in the future they might be from.

Obviously the wedding is in the future. We don't actually say how much further from when we leave our family before we do the big time jump. In our minds, it was always at least a little while. Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) is coming back from school for this wedding and has come into her own a little bit more. That was always our dream. That at least it was a year or two between when we leave them and the wedding.

KC, there were two versions. […] I don't know if I want to tell the two versions. What do you think? I want to leave it up to the audience, but at the same rate…

PCP: Tell us, tell us.

AC:It was always going to be Katherine. Katherine was their first name. No question. And in our mind, it was either going to be Colton as their second name or Cassandra because of the Goodwin side of things. The story of Cassandra was another thing, [this] little thread that played through a lot of our seasons. That's something that I would have loved to have explored a little more, especially young Fern befriending a young Cassandra with a little young Grayson all running around the pond. Basically that mural come to life. There's a really lovely line in our finale where Grayson says she was always stronger there on the farm and that's why [he] always took her there. Why was that and what is Cassandra's link to the White Witch? Because clearly she knew that lore. Again there's a really lovely scene with Grayson and Kat in that Herald office, their last scene together, where he […] peels a little bit more of that onion of who his sister was and her attachment to the Landry’s and the Landry farm. The fact that she knows the lore of the White Witch is I think really telling the fact that she's the one who found that will. Did she find My Katherine there as well and just hid that for herself. We know that My Katherine portrait was in that hiding space when Evelyn (Devin Cecchetto) finds it with Alice in the 70s. Those were the questions we were all in the background answering for ourselves.

PCP: Nick (Kerry James) has been very cryptic about Alice meeting Claire someday. What can you tell us about who Claire really is?

AC: Again, I think that was us being a little bit of a wink and a nudge to the audience in that last little moment of Alice and Nick's scenes together. We are very much a “never say never”-type showrunner. I think the very fact that Nick is buying Colton's (Jefferson Brown) boat to bring it back to life and return to his boat tours and he even says, “We'll be a regular Del and Colton.” I think that is amazing and that history repeating itself is something that's very much a Way Home signature. To hear him say that and to know that boat will get out on the water, I think is a really poignant moment.

Heather Conkie: We play sometimes with some of the audience's predictions even if they're not on track. We couldn't resist leaving it a little open because we wanted someone to say, "Hey, they listened to us. You know, Claire, Alice, very similar spellings and maybe in the future this happens." But that I think is something for the the audience to say, "Yes, I knew they'd get together or…

Both: Oh, that… there's no way.

PCP: Is Tessa (Megan Follows) really alive? And if she is, how would that change the “Five win, four went out” narrative for you guys?

AC: We always wanted to leave that a little open-ended because of the clock. And yes, in our mind, that was Tessa's way of telling Elliot (Evan Williams) that that she made it out. If you recall, even in the code that's in the paper, it says “Tessa gone,” not “Tessa dead.” It could have said “Tessa dead” and instead it leaves this open-ended nebulous thing. Even when little Mo comes in with Cliff's hat, which is such a killer scene in our finale, again he says “Tessa is gone.” We've sort of woven in these question marks as we do. I know it's going to probably drive people a little kooky crazy.

PCP: I wanted to talk a little bit about Griffin. Do you know where Griffin was coming from when Tessa first saw him coming out of the pond and where he is now?

AC: Yeah, we do. […] Griffin is an enigma. Charles plays him so well. We were so lucky to get Charles [Vandervaart]. The question of where he was coming from, what he saw that got him so excited, what happened to him and Tessa in that time when they landed ahead of him. You know, leaving her for very good reasons. He wanted to do exactly what Kat wanted to do with Jacob (Spencer Macpherson) in season two, which is go home, get medicine, bring it back, and save this person. For Kat, she went, but the medicine didn't. For Griffin, he got locked out completely and kept trying and trying and trying and couldn't get back to her to the point where he had to realize, “Oh my god, I left her in such a terrible way. I think she's probably dead.” That is awful because Griffin genuinely did love Tessa. […] She didn't love him in that way. She saw him as a means to escape a present where she really did fully believe that she was going to harm her child if she stayed. I think that that's a really interesting love story and it's tragic obviously. But then the question of where he went after delivering that letter [is] open-ended, for sure, for our audience to interpret.

PCP: Can you tell us who officially Kat was talking about in that first episode where she says "I wish he was here, too?”

AC: It's Colton. I mean, it's her dad. That's why when they are in the midst of the wedding, they all imagine him there. It's not just Del. Certainly she's the first one who “sees him,” imagines him there as the figment. But Alice, Kat, they do as well. He's the missing piece of the puzzle in that moment, but he is there, which is so lovely. I'm so glad we made that work with everyone being there. Each character imagines the key person that they wish was there and it's a really lovely moment. I'm very proud of that last scene.

HC: It's very beautiful. A lot of people, including our post supervisor, says, for him, it's Colton that packs the emotional punch. That, seeing him any time in the last three seasons, that's the emotional punch because you just miss him. Everybody misses him and it's so great to see it through their eyes.

PCP: It’s this gift where they all are there through different times. I love that.

AC: Well, they're within our characters. They're part of that family tree obviously and the family blood runs deep, but they're there. It really does show you that the past is never gone, which has been such a massive message to the audience throughout our entire four seasons. [The] things that are playing out in present day, they've probably played out before with other generations of your family, and to understand that and watch and witness that in order to understand the present was the key driver of our show. So to have all those family members there in spirit literally for Jacob's wedding was such an important piece for us to represent all the different eras that we've gone to in that last scene as Keane plays. I love that song and having “Somewhere Only We Know” was such an important thing for us and an important way to say goodbye.

PCP: Can you tell us about Alice and Kat’s final jump?

AC: We had to leave some things left up to audience interpretation. The biggest one of all is the final leap of Kat and Alice and jumping into the water saying “Every end is a new beginning.” That was always a scene that mom and I imagined as the end of our show. Like period, ever since day one, that was how it was going to end.

HC: Complete with the figments. Complete with all the people that were important to them that they had created such strong relationships with. You know, Jacob's family, his other family, we always knew that they would have to be there.

AC: Look, as much as maybe some people would like us to say, “Well, they're done with the pond now. They've gotten the answers they need. Bye, pond. Thank you, nice to know you.” It's just not who they are. They've built such incredible bonds with the family members that they've met and not family members they've met in all these eras. The idea of them just walking away and not wanting to to see them again just felt impossible. So yeah, ending them up on that rock holding hands and jumping was never a question and there's going to be more adventures. We just aren't allowed to see them anymore.

PCP: I did want to ask about Fern because she broke my heart in this finale. The history of the pond seems to end with her. Colton and Griffin know a little bit, but they take it as if it's a fairy tale. They don't really believe it until it's actually happening. Why do you think Fern is where the truth stops?

AC: Bianca [Melchior] astounded all of us. We were all a mess watching her shoot those scenes with Dan [Jeannotte] and with Chyler [Leigh]. I'm just in awe of her. You know, it's funny. I think a lot of people interpret it that way. The fact that she is so aware of this story of the one and that it. as she says, it became a strange little game in our family of who would be the boy that would disappear and go back and save us all. Colton and Griffin certainly didn't know that story. But in our mind, it was never Fern that kept it from her son. There is a bit of a blank space in the family tree that we never had a chance to explore, but also is the mystery link, which is the generation of Colton's father. What happened to him? And is he the reason that that story never got passed down to his son? Maybe it isn't Fern because, don't forget Fern, in season two, she's down at the pond with little Colton saying, "I know it calls to you, but don't go, not yet.” Young Colton always wrote that off to his grandmother being kooky. “Oh, she's got her weird little tales about this magical pond.” Why didn't he take her seriously? I don't think that's Fern. I think that's this generation that is the blank space that we never got a chance to visit.

PCP: Do you think you guys would have tackled that in a in a potential five?

Both: Yes.

PCP: Did you guys ever come up with names for some of these characters, like Colton's dad?

AC: Personally, I am terrible at names. [That's] the big joke is that I cannot for the life of me come up with a name and when I do they rhyme with other names that we have. I mean Nick and Vic, right? Like what happened there? [Laughter]

HC: But then there was the character you came [up with] whose name was Ezekiah. I recall.

AC: Oh, yeah. Elijah was originally […] Ezekiah. What is wrong with me? [Laughter] So, yeah, Colton's dad did not have a name yet.

PCP: I was curious how far in advance did you know that this was the final season and how did that impact how you were able to get everything into the story that you wanted to?

HC: Well, there were things that we would have liked to have expanded, but we had knowledge. However, we refused to believe it. We were in a state of denial a fair amount of time.

AC: Yeah, there was some denial going on for sure. [Laughter]

HC: But, as it turned out, it's better to know. There are things, as I say, that I'd like to have expanded on, including Jacob's relationship with Abby. That would have been lovely to see it blossom in a more organic way. But all in all, I think everything is working on a question basis, even if they had to wait for a lot of those answers until the very last last hat was hung. [Laughter]

AC: That's how we do it. Look, any season of any show is a gift. You go into that writer's room always saying, "Okay, this could be the last one or this could be the next one. Let's tackle the stories as if it is the last one." When we did receive that confirmation that it was indeed the last one, we were able to to make that work because we prepared for it. I think it was so incredible of Hallmark to allow us to have a 90 minute finale, certainly. Our show, if you actually take away all the commercials is only 41 minutes 57 [seconds] long each episode. To get that extra time to tell the story properly and answer the questions in that last episode was such a gift. I don't truly know how we would have done it if it had been a 41 minute 57 second episode. I don't think we could have left the audience… well, hopefully they are satisfied… but we certainly wouldn't have left them satisfied if it had been a regular length episode, for sure.

PCP: Did you ever come up with why the Landry family can time travel and why the pond specifically?

AC: We had our own theories. No question. But it's not that show. I will say anytime we, in the writer’s room, went down that road of, “Oh, is this the season? Will we reveal why the pond is the way it is and why the Landry’s are the ones?” We felt strange about it because, in telling that truth, in dissecting it that way, it became a sci-fi show. The air of the magic got let out and we just didn't love it. We've always gone into every season reminding ourselves of the purpose of that pond, which is it's not about why the pond is the way it is. It's about what the pond can give our family as both a blessing and a curse. At the end of the day, the show really is about why the pond is the way it is for Kat and her family, i.e. what's the gift it can give? Well, it's a tool for healing. It's a tool for understanding. It's a tool for bringing a family back together. It's about that. It's not about how the magic came to exist. So we left that alone and I think, as a result, the magic aura of it still stands. It's like a magician revealing his tricks, you know what I mean? It just felt wrong.

PCP: I wanted to ask about the dream that Thomas talks about of Katherine on the the blue porch. What can you tell us about that?

AC: Dreams are the thing, aren't they? [Laughter]

HC: Dreams are the thing. Well, there's a lot of little things like that that we want people to go away with questions. We want people to go, "He visited her. How did he do that? What happened? And when?” We sure didn't want to leave this beautiful series without any questions. It has to, by its nature, always create more questions. So that's one more thing for people to mull over. Y

AC: I think though that the questions that we have left behind are really lovely ones for our audience to take and run with versus ones that drive them crazy. You know what I mean? The questions left behind [of] where did Kat and Alice jump to? Where did they land? Who did they see? Why does Thomas know that the house was blue? Why did Cassandra know about the White Witch? All these lovely little questions are more about, well, now it's time for you to carry the story on for yourself. Because literally those questions would have been the questions we would have asked in a season five writer’s room and gone, “Ooh, here's the new stuff. What are we gonna do? Instead of, I hope that we answered all the questions that were really driving people insane over the last four seasons. These are more open-ended questions that we're hoping people will just take and dream with.

PCP: I love all the little Easter eggs in the show. Some fans noticed that Abby is wearing the ring Grayson gave Fern from the 1920s. What other Easter eggs or hidden details can you share the viewers might have missed?

AC: We really did try this year to include some of our crew in cameos throughout the season just because our crew has been incredible from day one. Most of them have been the same since day one. They turned down jobs to come back and film with us, which was just so incredibly kind. We really did become such a family unit over the four seasons. So, in honor of that, we inserted a few of our crew in places. For example, Grant Harvey, our main director, is one of the characters in the screen test. He's the wealthy tycoon. In our episode nine, our cameraman on the screen test is actually our director of photography, Thom Best. That's his grandfather's camera that he's using to film Fern in that moment. And then if you'll notice in the background, there's another member of the crew holding the clapboard that you saw Fern hold up. That's Nikos [Pantelousis] who was our key grip and he's been with us since day one. We had a lot of fun with those kinds of things for sure. But yeah, the jewelry is always such a fun Easter egg. Abby has that ring because obviously Fern was very kind and gave it back to Grayson and it stayed in the family.

PCP: Did you guys take anything home from the set?

HC: I have the Landry kitchen table and all the chairs. That is the heart of the Landry farm.

AC: I have Elliot's fish lamp. That was a must. The art department was really kind and gave mom and I a big box of all the key pieces like the almanac, all the little notes and letters that we've had over the seasons. We have the Polaroids, the jewelry. I walked away with some of the costumes. We have a lot of Rita's signs because they're just hilarious. They're going to the cottage. It was hard letting go of a lot of that stuff. Mom and I were in the offices as the sets were being torn down, so o that was hard, but it allowed us to swipe a lot of stuff.

HC: I think the funniest sort of… not funny, it's kind of sad, but all the props and furniture were in this massive [room] where our Coyle’s set was. They gradually were either taken or bought or whatever. The last thing that was left in that massive room was… I can't even say… Colton's gravestone.

AC: No one wanted to take that.

HC: It's just sitting there in the middle of this vast empty space and here it was. There he lies.

PCP: I was wondering what was your favorite moment over the course of the entire series.

AC: There's just been so many — oh gosh, I'm going to cry — that stay with you.

HC: The wedding is something I will never — it’s hard to talk — get out of my head. There were so many incredible scenes. The first massive kiss between Elliot and Kat when she's running through the field and it's that spinning around shot with the camera. It's gorgeous. I also think that iconic shot of Alice falling in for the first time and that hand coming through the water and pulling her up and it's her mom when she's a teenager. That is iconic. What I love most, and I think it will help is, I love doing series that have a lot of music in it. Now that the soundtrack is out there, I think there's going to be so many moments that that music brings back for anyone who listens to the music. They're going to remember those moments that we have so much in our hearts, in our heads.

AC: For me, one of the most iconic moments where we all realized “Oh my gosh, we have something” was that shot of Alice falling into the pond for the first time in season one because we really didn't know if this was going to work. You're shooting in a bubble. No one knows about the show. Seeing that get shot and how it looked and the pond and the way it on-camera looked so magical was a moment of looking at one another going, "Okay.”

HC: It gave us shivers. That's always a good sign when you get goosebumps.

AC: And similarly, I think in season two, Jacob coming back on the boat and getting arrested. That was such a production that day and Chyler was just so raw and so incredible. We were all in tears because of the fact that it really did feel like we had found Jacob.

PCP: The show has just been so incredible to follow over the four seasons. I recently became a mom and re-watching the show with that background completely changes how you take the story in. Honestly, every time I heard a creak in my house, I'm like, who's there? Who from my family is time traveling? I’ve had such a wonderful time talking with you guys every season and seeing everyone fall in love with it. Thank you so much for your time and congratulations on such an incredible accomplishment with the show.

AC: I still so vividly remember seeing you at our first premiere with your dad. It's just been such a lovely road with you and we're so grateful for the support and for how incredibly you showcase our show. It honestly means the world to us. I'm just so grateful and I think it's been a real labor of love for all of us covering the show and making the show. I will never take it for granted the four years that we had all together. I'm very proud of it and I'm so excited that you're seeing it through the new lens of a mom because it is a different lens to watch the show. Working with mom on it has been so incredible, but then also to have my own child and see him watch the show has been so gratifying. It was a lot of love.

All four seasons of The Way Home are streaming on Hallmark+.