Baby is Elliot, Sam’s Pond Connection

Spoiler alert: This message contains spoilers of “If you could read my thoughts”, the season 3 final of Hallmarks “The way home“It streams on Hallmark+ and Peacock.

“The way home” started his third season with leaving a mysterious baby, and fans have waited the entire season to get more information about the enigmatic scene. Towards the end of the final of season 3 we know an important thing about the baby: who he was. It turned out that the Cooing -Baby Elliot (played by Evan Williams as an adult) was like a baby. He was left by the pond by his time -traveling mother, who jumped into the ice -cold waters with someone who has to be a male landry, but whose face we never see.

Why they left Elliot at the pond and what the mother of Elliot connected to the possible non-voided Landry, are questions that should be investigated in season 4 “The Way Home” Hallmark announced the renewal of the show day before the final. While Kat (Chyler Leigh) and Elliot are investigating his family’s relationship with the pond, Del (Andie MacDowell) will be busy looking for Jacob (Spencer Macpherson) who disappeared after Lewis Goodwin (Philip Riccio) threatened to press attempted arson. We cannot imagine that del will be too happy to learn that her friend, Sam (Rob Stewart), knows much more about Jacob’s time travel than he has let it be, but it was gratifying for viewers to confirm that Sam has his own relationship with the pond, which was also confirmed in the final.

Although many questions are still hanging over Elliot, Jacob’s disappearance, Sam and KC Goodwin (Vaughan Murrae), the final of season 3 answered some of them about Colton (Jefferson Brown) and his time travel adventures. Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) made an unexpected journey to the 90s to have a heart-to-heart with her grandfather and to get answers that her family desperately needed about what the Patriarch knew about the pond when Jacob disappeared.

Variety Caught on Showrunners Heather Conkie and Alex Clarke to talk about the baby turning, Easter eggs, closure and what all final developments mean for season 4 and “The Way Home”.

What does this end mean for Elliot and his relationship with time travel?

Alexandra Clarke: It got a lot more personal, which is a nice new layer for all this. It is really a nice launch platform. No matter how much he enjoyed his five minutes with Colton, and he will never forget that, Elliot has always been someone who has kept time travel on arm length. To make this realization, or to create this theory involving his own family, it brings to the next level.

Elliot and Kat also seem to bring their relationship to the next level after an important conversation in this episode. Are they in a better place to actually make this relationship work than they were at the start of the season?

Heather Conkie: They come to terms with the reality of who they are like people. They are not the same people they knew in 1999; They have to mix. Alex wrote that beautiful scene. It is one of those scenes that I think that everyone who has bizarre repeat problems must look in their relationship because it is a master class.

Clarke: We started this season with them in love. They realized through the course of the season that it is not love that is still completely formed. They both grow a lot in this season and make mistakes and make impulsive things. All the arguments they have are not really arguments. They acknowledge that they have an impasse and they have to work on themselves before they can work on them as a unity. I think this sincere conversation is the crescendo. They realize that to really love each other, they must love who they are now and not who they were.

Going to the past is all good and good, but they cannot love each other with the past in mind. They can travel to the past, but they cannot live there. Elliot acknowledges that he always put her on a pedestal because her family was perfect, so every mistake she held against her because she had to be perfect. Conversely, Kat realizes that she always considered Elliot for granted, because he was when they were children. He was always there and he never staggered. Her realization that she must appreciate that is also very delicious.

Elliot is not the only one we learn has a deeper connection with the pond in this final. You validated everyone who has theoretized that at least Sam knows what the pond can do by showing him that he is standing there when he talks to Del. What can you pack about Sam’s relationship with the pond?

Conkie: We placed it in the exact position with almost the exact words, because we had Elliot at the end of the pilot. If you put together the two shots, they are literally identical. The lines are identical.

Clarke: That was a very targeted choice to mirror. Our show is completely about the echoes of the past and the present. The past has never disappeared. We love the call back to our first episode, because the entire final is about going back to the beginning, which is why we immediately opted for Coldplay’s “The Scientist” for the top. We show the audience that this has been in the making for a while. We have had these ideas since season 1 and we finally show you.

So many loose threads with Colton were tied in this final. Does it completely take the loop off its time travel, or is there more to discover there?

Clarke: I don’t think you can ever count Colton. The tradition of Colton is the basis of our show. He is such a fascinating character and we certainly reveal a lot between episodes 9 and 10 about his experience with time travel, and why he made the choices he made. The story is always more with Colton. There are so many questions that I hope people ask about those last moments of the episode with Younger Del, and Colton who takes Elliot. What are the implications of that? That is part of the story of Elliot that certainly was not aware of our audience. There are definitely more secrets to reveal.

One of the things we have confirmed in this episode is that Colton knew who Kat was on the crash site and he not only forgiven her, but always loved her. What does that knowledge do for Kat in the future?

Conkie: It certainly frees her from the intense debt she has felt since she made that fatal decision to try to change things. I think the hair will change in some ways, but Kat is also very ‘on the next’.

Clarke: One of the things that is really intriguing about season 4 is what Kat looks like after closing. Colton knew he would die and he stopped Alice to tell him something about how it would happen. He was willing to do what had to be done to bring Alice to this world and to have this moment with him in February 2000. He was resolved in his decisions. That will free Kat in a way that we have not seen her free before. I am intrigued to know what that means for her, or it means it is looking for the next or what it also means for her self -confidence. After that there are many ways to go with her.

Del also received some closure in this season. She finally jumped in the pond! What does the journey back to the 70s for Del and her relationship with the pond?

Conkie: The pond has been the enemy. This was the first time she realized that it could be absolute magic. The wedding is one of my favorite scenes throughout the show of the show. I loved the music. I love the way it was filmed. It is really very something, and very emotional.

Clarke: She needed that trip to be a gift to see the pond in a new way. She only knew it as a ship that takes people she loves. If she gives her the gift to see those people for another five minutes, she will show it in a different light. She is a very practical woman. She will not be obsessed with Kat or even Alice, but she had to have a positive experience with the pond to continue.

We also learn that Susannah Tiermore left to the Landry family. What can you tease about what that means for season 4 and the Goodwin/Landry -Vete?

Clarke: It is such a wonderful way to end that story now. They have this article in hand – what are they going to do with it? Do they actually want to go that way? It opens many questions about the relationship between the Goodwin and the Landry families. Remember, Louis Goodwin already knows that the will exists – KC has shown him in season 2. What does it mean when it comes back to chase him? These are exciting questions that you need to be confronted with.

KC returns to this episode and confirmed that she was not Alice’s daughter. However, we still do not know exactly who they are, so why did you want to give that piece of information?

Conkie: The slate knew this for Alice. She has smoked all season and fears that she will end up with Max Goodwin. Is that really the future and is everything destined, or does she have a choice about this world? Then she notices that she is really attracted to this guy and it is a relief for her to know that she still has a future that she can choose, just like Elliot and Kat now have a future that they can choose together.

Clarke: In the writers’ room we always try to associate these three incredible female characters with the past, present and future. This was a season in which DL interviewed her past. Kat interviewed her gift and where she now fits that her mission to bring Jacob’s home was over. Alice really interviewed her future because of the existence of KC and what that meant. In the end we wanted to see that these characters get a sense of freedom from those questions. Del was free from her questions because she went back to her wedding and it was exactly as she remembered. Kat and Elliot have this incredible conversation, and demonstrably through her experiences with Thomas this season, she was able to free herself to be in the present. Alice – because of the KC of all this, and the closure they give her – is free of some doubt she might have had about the future. It was important to show in our final that they are all free now.

The idea this season comes that the pond can punish people for breaking the rules. It is clear that the pond makes choices about when and where people return in time, but is it something that travelers can punish or reward for their behavior in the past?

Clarke: That was Colton’s explanation to Alice and his logic why he kept it to himself, why he was ashamed and why he thought it didn’t work for his family. These are all lessons in communication. Colton did not know the entire story about the pond. I think the pond learn lessons, but it’s all about reflection. It brings you where you have to go. I think it’s a passive entity versus an aggressive. Colton tells Alice that he made a terrible mistake, and he did. We are all able to make terrible mistakes, even an incredible character such as Colton. That is why this show resonates with people, because even the characters with the best of intentions that are nothing but are pure good are also able to fall and be wrong. And that’s okay. I think that is a very powerful message.

This interview has been edited and condensed.