'The Way Home' Star Chyler Leigh Teases Emotional Final Season: 'Every Answer Leads to Another Question' (Exclusive)

As Hallmark’s The Way Home heads into its fourth and final season, it’s time to say goodbye to its beloved time-traveling characters – and to the tight-knit cast behind them, including Chyler Leigh, who plays Kat Landry.

Leigh, whose TV credits include Grey’s Anatomy, knows that the adoring fans lobbied for more seasons. Still, she believes the final chapter will deliver exactly what viewers have been hoping for. Season 4 consists of 10 episodes and premieres on Sunday, April 19.

“We learned early on that our show could heal people, relationships, and families,” Leigh exclusively told Parade.

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“We heard from viewers that they felt healing from grief, anger, resentment, and bitterness,” she said. “Sometimes life is more than you expected, but you keep going. You keep moving forward. You don’t stop.”

The Way Home follows three generations of Landry women: matriarch Del (Andie MacDowell), her formerly estranged daughter, Kat (Leigh), and Kat’s teenage daughter, Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow).

At the start of the series, Kat and Alice return to the family farm in Canada for a fresh start after Kat’s divorce, where Kat reconnects and eventually falls in love with her childhood friend Elliot (Evan Williams).

Related: ‘The Way Home’ Will Return for Its Fourth and Final Season: Get a First Look!

Amid family tensions, long-buried secrets, and shifting relationships lies the show’s signature twist: a mysterious pond that allows Landry family members to time-travel, deepening both the mystery and the romance.

Leigh teases that Season 4 will continue that tradition. “In true The Way Home fashion, every answer leads to another question,” she said. “But by the end, the creators, writers, and actors have done everything within our power to tie these stories back together.”

The story also hits close to home. Leigh, who experienced a 22-year estrangement from her own mother, says she deeply relates to the show’s exploration of complicated generational relationships. And as the mother of two teenage daughters, similar to Kat and Alice, she personally connected to the fabric of The Way Home.

“It’s like the evolution of being a woman — being both a mother and a daughter,” she said.  “It goes to show the things that we can change and how you can’t change the past. That’s the major theme of The Way Home, too. “

That message resonates strongly for Leigh. What The Way Home tells us is, “Learn from the heartache. Carry the good times forward. Love each other again,” she said, adding that “the ferocity of love between mothers and daughters is intense.”

What allows Leigh to get a good night’s sleep is simple. “My girls know they are loved and cherished. That makes everything worth it.”

Related: Andie MacDowell, 67, Makes Powerful Statement About Refusing to Feel ‘Shameful’ About Aging

When it comes to Kat Landry, Leigh says she is taken away one defining trait: resilience.

She also found Kat’s evolving relationship with Del especially powerful. “Those conversations in Season 4 are incredibly cathartic,” she said. “The experience of this series has been extremely cathartic. Kat will live in me forever; I will always hold a piece of her in my heart.”

Saying goodbye, however, won’t be easy. “I don’t ever want to say goodbye,” Leigh admitted. Still, she took home a meaningful piece of the show: Kat’s portrait, entitled ‘My Katherine,’ from the Lingermore estate, which is now displayed proudly above Leigh’s fireplace. “It represents where Kat was, her heartache, and how hard she worked on herself,” she said.

As for Kat and Elliot, fans are hoping for a long-awaited happy ending—and Leigh shares that hope. “What I love is that you see the love and maturity in their relationship,” she said. “But you also see that now there is a genuine sense of comfort between the two. Especially in the little things, like a simple goodbye kiss.”

Related: Hallmark Delivers Heartbreaking Update for Fans of ‘The Way Home’

Those small moments, she added, reflect how much they’ve grown individually and as a couple. “They’ve always fought for each other, and that hasn’t changed.”

Leigh also appreciates Elliot’s bond with her TV daughter, Alice. “It’s incredible. I love that storyline,” she said. “And working with Evan Williams, I couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else.”

Though she’s sad to see the series end, Leigh is confident fans will feel satisfied when the final episode comes to a close.

“I love that the audience will see how hard we worked, and that they’ll get real closure,” she said. “You’ll see Kat and Elliot having fun in unexpected ways. And because it’s Hallmark, there will absolutely be love and growth!”

Season 4 of The Way Home premieres on Hallmark on Sunday, April 19 at 9/8c.

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