The Way Home
Who Is Sam Bishop on ‘The Way Home’?
The Way Home concluded after four seasons, putting to rest plenty of fan questions.
However, one lingering question remains—Who is Sam Bishop (Rob Stewart)?
The Way Home series finale didn’t really address Sam’s identity in the way that fans hoped, with Casey Goodwin simply admitting to Del that he’s someone very important to the family in the future due to his relationship with Del.
He’s obviously also someone whom Casey trusted enough to tell him the future, as they see him as a sort of grandfather figure.
One of Casey’s final acts of kindness included helping Del get closure with Colton. The duo jumped into the pond in the summer of 1999, as Del got one final moment with Colton before his untimely death, allowing her to finally live in the present rather than the past.
She was able to tell him that Jakey will eventually come back home, while confirming that their children are happy and she has the possibility of moving on and finding love again.
A dance and a final goodbye kiss later, and Del was fully onboard with committing herself to Sam.
While many fans thought that Sam may have had a deeper connection to the story—even possibly a relation to Thomas Coyle, after the possibility of him being Griffin, Colton’s brother, was dismissed—we never got any confirmation of that.
In fact, it seems like he’s just a random person who sought out Port Haven as his home, happened to fall in love with his neighbor, Del, and was entrusted with the secret of the pond by a time traveler who ends up being his granddaughter.
While there is something comforting about Sam simply falling into this life, rather than it being carved out for him by forces outside of his control, it doesn’t exactly track with the way the series has always unfolded, where everything happens for a reason.
So, naturally, fans expected Sam to be someone closely connected to the story, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
It’s a bit of a disappointment, I’m not going to lie. And it feels like a missed opportunity to connect him to something grander and more magical, though maybe that’s something that the series was hoping to explore in the fifth season before it was prematurely cancelled.
It’s possible there were bigger plans for Sam’s story that had to be put on the back burner because it was too messy and complex to fit into an already condensed The Way Home Season 4 finale, which prioritized wrapping up storylines and giving fans a proper goodbye with the Port Haven residents.
What did you think? Did you prefer that Sam have deeper ties to the pond?
And find out who Casey Goodwin was revealed to be here.
The Way Home wrapped up its fourth and final season this summer, on June 21, 2026, on the Hallmark Channel.
Now, three months later, fans who first heard of the show when it was added to Netflix will be able to stream the final season.
When Is The Way Home Season 4 Coming to Netflix?
The Way Home Season 4 is officially available on Netflix starting today, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026.
Fans can stream all 10 episodes in the final installment to find out how it all ends for the three generations of Landry women!
If you want to read our review, you can find it right here—but be warned, it contains plenty of spoilers!
Will There Be a The Way Home Season 5?
Sadly, there is no news about a fifth season of The Way Home.
Many hoped that after Hallmark prematurely cancelled the series, which was intended to run five seasons, Netflix would swoop in and save it, especially after it got such a huge boost following its addition to the streamer.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any confirmation that Netflix is interested in another season—though the cast has expressed interest if the opportunity presented itself.
Maybe following the success of season 4 on Netflix, the streamer will have a change of heart?
You can see what the creators had in mind for a fifth season right here.
Main Cast of The Way Home
- Andie MacDowell as Delilah “Del” Landry
- Chyler Leigh as Katherine “Kat” Landry
- Sadie Laflamme-Snow as Alice Dhawan
- Evan Williams as Elliot Augustine
- Alex Hook as teenage Kat Landry
- David Webster as teenage Elliot Augustine
- Jefferson Brown as Colton Landry
- Spencer MacPherson as Jacob Landry
- Al Mukadam as Brady Dhawan
What Is The Way Home About?
Per the official description, The Way Home follows “three generations of Landry women who discover a magical pond that lets them travel through time to heal past family tragedies.”
Fan-favorite small-town shows like Virgin River, The Way Home and One Tree Hill are joining forces for a first-ever experience.
As Virgin River fans patiently await season 8, there’s something else they can look forward to.
Ben Hollingsworth, who plays Dan Brady on the hit Netflix drama, took to Instagram for a first-ever announcement that delighted fans.
“Virgin River fans, I know you’re excited. You want to know: is Brady coming back for season 8? You want to know when season 8’s coming out? You want to know if there’s going to be a season 9. Well…” he begins, before a censored sticker covers his mouth and a bleep-out noise cuts off any sliver of news he was going to share.
“I’m just joking, I can’t tell you any of that,” he admits, before revealing something equally as exciting for the fandom.
“What I can tell you is that for the first time ever, me and a bunch of my Virgin River cast mates are going to be doing a convention.”
And it’s not just any convention, as he clarifies that it isn’t like “one of those mall ones,” adding that this one is “tailored just for shows like ours.”
By that, he meets small town shows, which have carved out a place for themselves in the TV landscape.
“It’s called Meet Cute con and the theme is small town television,” he added, noting, “that’s basically Virgin River.”
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The excitement continues as Hollingsworth reveals it’s taking place in Nashville at the Loveless Barn, with Virgin Hotels Nashville fittingly serving as a sponsor.
It will kick off with a rooftop party and run from Nov. 6th through 8th.
People reports it will include “celebrity panels, live music, interactive experiences, and Southern food for an intimate fan experience.”
But it’s not just Virgin River!
Other small town hows included in Meet Cute Con include One Tree Hill and The Way Home.
The confirmed guest list for Small-Town Swoon is as follows: One Tree Hill alum Jana Kramer, The Way Home‘s Evan Williams, and Virgin River stars Alexandra Breckenridge, Martin Henderson, Hollingsworth and Zibby Allen.
Additional celebrities from small town shows will be announced in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, if you want to be part of the first-ever meet up, you can grab tickets here.
The Way Home
‘The Way Home’ Season 5: Creators Reveal What Could Have Been — And We’re Even More Bummed It Was Canceled
The Way Home cancellation stings even more, knowing what was in store for season 5.
Fans of the Hallmark series may have reached the end of the road with Season 4, but new comments from the show’s executive producers reveal there was once an even longer journey planned for the Landry family.
According to executive producers Alexandra Clarke and Heather Conkie, Season 5 would have expanded the show’s time-travel mythology even further, diving deeper into the mysterious pond that connects generations of the Landry family.
Although the series concluded with a four-season arc, the creative team has shared that early plans once included a fifth season that would have continued exploring unresolved emotional threads and expanded key storylines left open in the finale.
Thankfully, knowing that they didn’t have time on their side, they planned accordingly, with Conkie noting to TV Insider, “I think everything we really knew was important we accomplished.”
Had a fifth season happened, however, we would’ve gotten to spend a lot more time exploring our favorite decades and learning more about the characters who felt largely underutilized.
More Time in the 1920s
“So our plan would have been to not introduce a new era. But our model has always been you introduce an era, and then the next season, it takes the B story,” Clarke explained. “And so we introduced the ’20s in Season 4. We would’ve done B story of the ’20s in Season 5, but not delved into another era necessarily. Maybe hinted at things, but really kind of just do a fuller look at the era as we already know.”
Spending More Time With the People We Loved
Jacob may have gotten his happy ending (and a child), but seeing his relationship blossom with Abigail was short-lived, which Conkie admitted she would have loved to have “spent more time with the Jacob love story.”
“And I would have loved to have spent a little more time with the Max Alice love story, and, of course, the Elliot Kat story,” she added. “And I would have loved to have seen the Del and Sam relationship move forward now that she knows she can and wants to. It would have been lovely.”
The story would’ve explored more from Griffin and Tessa, ” leading up to the jump a little more as well as what life looked like for them when they landed, and seeing the Landry family in that era, which is — Susanna [Watson Rose] is gone by then, so it’s the next generation and seeing Tessa be taken into the homestead.”
“We see a little sampling of it in episode 8, but it would have been very cool to basically see why Tessa became Tessa,” she added.
They also would’ve loved to explore the younger versions of Fern, Cassandra, and Grayson, who were mentioned plenty of times in connection with the White Witch, meaning they could’ve come into contact with Kat at one point when they were children.
What Does the Future Look Like?
Many of us clocked the subtle hints from Thomas Coyle about the future, and yes, they were purposeful and intentional.
“I think the questions that we leave unanswered, the questions that we raise in the finale, are fun ones,” Clarke told PEOPLE. “We’re trying to encourage the fans to write the next chapter themselves. Imagine where Kat and Alice jump to. Imagine why Thomas knows the house is blue. Imagine what Nick meant by that last little piece of saying, ‘Oh, I think you’ll meet her one day.’ Those are fun questions to leave dangling because we know everyone has theories, and we love their theories, and we’re so appreciative of those theories.”
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