The Way Home: Chyler Leigh Breaks Down Kat's Desperate Search for Jacob and That Brutal Elliot Fight

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Sunday's episode of The Way Home. Read at your own risk!]

Get ready 1814, Kat Landry is coming.

Two episodes into Season 2, Hallmark Channel's The Way Homeisn't pulling any punches. Last week's premiere left Kat (Chyler Leigh) and Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) separated, the former landing in the 1800s — albeit in a pool of blood after getting shot by a mysterious figure — and her daughter back in 2000, reunited with a teenage Elliot. Things would spiral from there once Kat, after being tended to by a few prickly characters (including a Susana Augustine), learned that Jacob had somehow traveled to 1814 too and was happily living life with his family. That was enough motivation for her to do all she could to find Jacob and bring him back home. In the final moments of the episode, Kat raced after a young boy she believed could have been Jacob as she returned to 1814 with a mission in hand to fix the wrongs of the past.

On a personal level, tension between Kat and Elliot (Evan Williams) reached a boiling point when the two aired out their grievances during an intense argument over the true nature of their fractured relationship. Kat confronted him over his abandonment of the family. In response, Elliot revealed the real reason he left: Colton's death and Kat's involvement in it left him shattered. To add more stress to the Landrys' circumstances, Del's (Andie MacDowell) proposal to the Port Haven town council was rejected, something the matriarch kept a secret until Alice accidentally learned of the hiccup through a local. 

In a chat with TV Guide, Leigh broke down Kat and Elliot's brutal fight, her ongoing search for Jacob, and why these Season 2 episodes are just the tip of the iceberg for all the chaos that's about to ensue.

Before we get into the specifics of this episode, let's talk about the season at large. Season 1 was all about establishing the rule, the rules of the pond, and the parameters within the story. Heading into Season 2, what were the guideposts that you had in mind that you wanted these next episodes to achieve?

Chyler Leigh: I flew up about three weeks before we started filming because I wanted to be part of the prep. It was a lot of work to establish in Season 1 — the relationships between the characters, the world that they live in. Season 2 was like 2.0 Because now we're introducing the 1800s and we wanted to make it look as real and more raw as possible because you see the beauty in 2024 and you see a lot of the beauty in 1999, 2000. When you go back to the 1800s, it's not a pretty time. That being the case, we took a lot of risks and they were extremely well-received and everybody was on the same page to push those boundaries. This is like a homestead. It was a dirty time. 

There were also a lot of conversations about the logistics of the actual pond. It's a natural pond, so it's got its own ecosystem. You can't throw a heater in; you can disrupt the life cycle of the frog. There are logistics to that that we came up with — stages of what it's like to be wet after the pond. Post-pond 1 is when we're literally coming out of the water on the rocks soaking wet. Post-pond 2 is when we're more up on the shore. You can see our hair's wet, our clothes are wet, but it's not dripping. Post-pond 3 is however long it took for me to walk back to the farm; I've dried off a bit. We wanted to make sure that everything we did was intentional. That was a constant conversation to make sure that what we're doing really follows that thread line of how we started to make sure that we keep it consistent all the way through.

The Way Home Season 2: Everything to Know

In this episode, Kat learns Jacob is in 1814. By the end of it, she's desperate to find him. What's next for her as she tries to fulfill this mission?

Leigh: I find it really interesting and totally understandable if we were to live in the same circumstances. There's a part of Kat that's still wishing that when she hopefully finds Jacob, he's still going to be the little boy that she lost. But in reality, the way that the pond works, it's not necessarily that way. When you see whether or not it's little Jacob, that theory is tested. I love that there's that cliffhanger at the end. I love how we ended the episode because everybody's going to be like, "Ahh!" She's always going to be looking for that little boy. Whether or not that actually pans out and how much time has actually transpired, at the end of the day she has been looking for Jacob for 24 years. You look at that and you think, "Okay, well, that's a lifetime." There's some irrationality to her thinking for sure. But at the same time, when it's so emotionally driven, logic flies out the window. 

For her, the journey is, if he's here in 1814, how on earth did he get here? Why did he come to this time? What led him? Has he been on his own this entire time? Who's been taking care of this little boy? What does his life look like? Once she starts to get those questions answered in the first few episodes, there's still that fear in her mind that he's just outside of her reach. Whether or not she can actually get to him is the biggest question. Once we get more answers as to what he's been up to, what his life would have looked like… it definitely sends her spinning.

What does Kat hope to achieve by bringing Jacob back? Will she be fully satisfied even if she's able to do so?

Leigh: Yeah, closure. For her to actually get closure now that she's at least in what she believes is the right environment to find him. From a selfish standpoint, she wants to make sure that — because she feels responsible for what happened — to see if he's alive, to see if he's okay. There's going to be a part of that that will hopefully heal up a little bit for her. But a large motivation for it if she can bring Jacob back home is to bring him back to Dell. That's a big struggle for Kat and Alice throughout this second season because you want to share everything. But all the times that Kat and Del have these conversations, so much of it is Del going, "I'm so tired of hearing the same thing over and over again, and nothing coming from it." It's pulling that scab off that needs to heal all over again. Kat wants to bring some resolution, in one way shape or form, to Del to really move on. She keeps getting stuck in the past and that's what created such a huge wedge between Kat and Elliot. That's why when you see Episode 1 this season, seven months have passed and neither she nor Alice have jumped in the pond. 

Speaking of Elliot, we have to break down their massive fight where they finally get to the root of their issues with each other. Elliot finally comes clean about the true reason he left — that he held Kat accountable for Colton's death. Can you talk about filming that scene and the obstacles they still have to overcome?

Leigh: It's really hard. Evan and I talk about this; I absolutely love him. It's wild. We have the weirdest things in common, like we can finish each other's sentences. It was a complete cosmic bond when we first met and it's always been that way. Our scenes together, we really work very hard to maintain a specific integrity for these characters because we love our characters, but we know how much our characters love each other. For he and I, even with the breakup scene in Season 1, Evan and I cried together for 10 minutes after that because it was so raw. We didn't hold anything back from human beings expressing emotion, even though the words might not have matched what our actual life circumstances are. You're going to see a lot of those moments where it's a hard dynamic between Elliot and Kat. It's not easy and that's what relationships are anyway. 

The fights — and I do have an "s" at the end of fights because it's an ongoing journey — she's still so deeply embedded in it. I myself as Chyler look at the reason that Elliot left and it makes total sense, right? And I respect it. That's what Kat had to bring herself to, was understand and respect it. With those seven months having gone by and no sight of him at that point, when he comes back all those emotions, they don't dissipate, they don't just disappear. They're still going to be there, which is what makes the first few times they see each other so awkward. They have a journey because no matter what, they still love each other. That's always going to be the case; that won't ever end. It's just what that love looks like and how long it would take to evolve if we were to come back around again.

What will it take to get Kat and Elliot back on the same footing again?

Leigh: Because Elliott is a man of science — and he's had to deal with this his entire life, the vast majority of his life — he's always going to want to have concrete evidence. It's one thing to be wistful about something. It's one thing to be hopeful about something. It's one thing to have belief in something, but for many people, it's like if you can't see it right in front of you or have real concrete evidence, it's just hard to invest in. They're both having to protect parts of themselves from getting hurt again while being on their own journeys. I think it would take a miracle for that to really be rekindled.

So, by the end of the season.

Leigh: [Laughs] 

There's also the fact that there's questions about the farm after the town council rejected Del's proposal. This family truly cannot catch a break.

Leigh: When we learned in Episode 1 that the neighbor had to sell his land, his farm, and with a new person coming in, who we do end up meeting later down the road, but the new person coming in isn't willing to take over the lease. So now the literal cost is exponentially higher. For them to have to figure out how to make up for that, it seems it would take something drastic. That's where the stakes in this season are so high because the family just can't catch a break. There's a lot at stake. We'll end up finding out about what's so important about Lingermore and who's this Evelyn Goodwin and how does this person pertain to what we're doing and why is the portrait up there? There's so much hanging in the balance. And with Kat traveling so much back in time, she's still the editor of the Herald. And so she still technically has a job that she should be doing and that has its own consequences. And Alice still wanting to be part of all the time-travel and the trauma that comes with that, it's terrifying.The stakes are very, very high. It will take something drastic to keep the farm, keep the house, keep the land, and everything going.

Can you offer a tease of where things go from here?

Leigh: Oh gosh, people have no idea what's coming. I love the fact that Hallmark has entrusted us with taking bigger leaps and bounds. Even the fact that last season, when Colton died, it was the first death onscreen for Hallmark. This season, when Kat gets shot and launched into the water, you actually see blood in the water. That's spicy Hallmark. I have to give Evan his due credit [for coining this term], it's not necessarily sci-fi this season, it's sci-cry. 

We're going to turn theories on their head. Kat's going to be torn in many ways between her life in 1814 and her current life, and she's got a lot of cover-up that she has to do. With the new characters coming in, it definitely amps up the emotional stakes. But at the same time, one thing is answered and it opens up another five questions. You'll want to get your Hallmark wine, your coziest blanks, your Kleenex, a buddy to snuggle with, one of those stress balls, and a pair of running shoes so you can take a run afterwards and shake it off. Oh man!

The Way Home airs Sundays at 9pm ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.