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'The Way Home' Season 4 tribute reveals Kimberly Hills Leibe's real connection to the show

The fourth season will see Kat and Alice travel back to the 1920s to uncover the secrets about Elliot's family tree before Kat and Elliot settle down together.

The fantasy drama series 'The Way Home' returned with its fourth and final season on April 19 on the Hallmark Channel. Co-created by Heather Conkie, Marly Reed, and Alexandra Clarke, the series premiered in January 2023. The time-travel drama focuses on three generations of Landry women—Delilah ‘Del’ Landry (Andie MacDowell), her daughter Katherine ‘Kat’ Landry (Chyler Leigh), and her granddaughter, Alice ‘Ali’ Dhawan (Sadie Laflamme-Snow). After visiting their Canadian farm town of Port Haven, Kat and Alice encounter a magical pond that lets them travel back to the 1990s to resolve the fractured bond between Kat and Del. Besides the ladies, Evan Williams appears as Kat's love interest, Elliot Augustine.

As fans tuned in to watch the Season 4 premiere, titled 'Show Me The Way To Go Home,' on Sunday, they noticed that the episode was dedicated to a certain Kimberly Hills Leibe. The tribute card at the start of the episode read: "In Loving Memory of Kimberly Hills Leibe. Fare thee well, dear friend…" For those wondering who Leibe was, Decider revealed that "Kim was a fan who quickly became a dear friend and ultimately a true inspiration to our entire Way Home family. We all held her in our hearts as we filmed Season 4… and I know we will continue to always."

Fans are in for an emotional ride as the cast of 'The Way Home' is set to bid farewell to their characters at the end of Season 4. The tight-knit cast has been equally sad about the show's ending, revealing how certain scenes from the latest season drew parallels to their own lives. Laflamme-Snow spoke about the "bittersweet feeling" of seeing her character graduate on screen. She added, "[At] the start of the season, Alice is graduating. I feel like for me, that felt very, again, life imitates art because I feel like it’s been sort of a growing up experience for me, and then also for Alice. So it was really emotional to do that first episode back because it was feeling like a little bit of a graduation in a way."

Leigh, on the other hand, reflected on her character's journey in the series and how it prepared her for similar experiences in life. "I personally, in my life learned so much from Kat and in a lot of ways, art imitating life for that, as well. I was able to grow in ways that I wasn’t anticipating were going to be that profound. So in that sense, I’m so incredibly grateful because I feel like Kat’s sort of helped me off a little diving board to kind of go into the next phase of my life. But at the same time, I love her so much, and I love our cast so much and I love their dynamics and whatnot. So it is hard to let go for sure," the 'Grey's Anatomy' alum said. Fans can watch the latest episodes of 'The Way Home' Season 4 on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Hallmark Channel or stream the next day on Hallmark+.