When Calls the Heart Boss on That Season 11 Finale Cliffhanger: 'It Creates a Challenge' for Elizabeth and Nathan

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Sunday's finale episode of When Calls the Heart. Read at your own risk!]

There's never a dull moment in Hope Valley. In the closing minutes of Sunday's Season 11 finale, When Calls the Heart dropped a shocking bombshell that rattled Elizabeth (Erin Krakow) and Nathan (Kevin McGarry) to their core. After they made their debut as a couple at Mei (Amanda Wong) and Hickam's (Ben Rosenbaum) wedding, it appeared the path was clear for Elizabeth and Nathan to embark on a new chapter together. As fate would have it, the universe had other plans.

While Elizabeth and Nathan were sharing a kiss after seeing Mei and Hickam off, blissfully unaware that their world would be turned upside down, Nathan's superior at Fort Clay, Andrew Hargraves (David Lewis), showed up to crash the party — and he didn't waste any time killing the moment. The urgency of the matter was apparent, as Hargraves said the news he had to share needed to be discussed in private and couldn't wait a minute longer. Presuming Hargraves was there to see him, Nathan went ahead to escort him to his office. That's when Hargraves made the surprising reveal about Jack, rendering Elizabeth and Nathan speechless: "Mrs. Thornton, it's about your late husband." What could the news be? 

McGarry offered his thoughts about the unexpected cliffhanger, telling TV Guide that Hargraves has always been "a thorn in Nathan's side," adding to the tension of the moment. "That leads right into the early problems of what's going to happen in Season 12," the Hallmark star said. "Finally they get to the honeymoon phase — I don't want to say it's cut short because we're still going to see it blossom — but there's definitely a big boulder thrown right in their way in the last couple seconds of Season 11. We'll see how Elizabeth takes it, where she stands with it all."

When Calls the Heart showrunner Lindsay Sturman hopped on the phone with TV Guide to break down that surprising Jack-related finale cliffhanger, the short- and long-term ramifications of the news, how this will factor into Elizabeth and Nathan's relationship in Season 12, and much more.

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Elizabeth and Nathan are now officially a couple. The finale saw them exploring the early days of their relationship. Now that you've set Elizabeth and Nathan on this path forward, how are you feeling about the response? 

Lindsay Sturman: I think the fans really reacted to, after five years, them coming together and feeling that this was a slow burn and then this really beautiful payoff in Episode 11. Elizabeth's speech to Nathan and how heartfelt it was. There's been a lot of warmth and love for their relationship. It's five years in the making so there was a lot of positivity and feeling of warmth around that.

Why was this the right time to have them come together and explore this new chapter?

Sturman: The heart of the show is Elizabeth and following her heart, wherever it leads. There was a lot of exploration of trying to find where her heart was leading? And we ultimately felt like this was the direction. Also, Lucas [played by Chris McNally] is an interesting character and he has so much complexity to the character. What's been great this season is to watch Lucas grow as a leader and delve into his past. It was a season of the past catching up with a lot of the characters. For Lucas, it was Jeanette and his more complicated past in New Orleans. We love delving into Lucas's complexity, while also watching Elizabeth follow her heart and the show watching her fall in love with this slow burn. There were a lot of twists and turns to her story, but this felt like it really just made sense.

Is Nathan "the one" for her or is there going to be another love triangle?

Sturman: One can never say, but I think that they are. They have found each other. And now we're excited to see what that looks like and unfold that going forward.

Elizabeth and Nathan are currently in their honeymoon period. They attend Mei and Hickam's wedding together, and they talk to their kids about each other. Is this a preview of what their relationship is going to look like in Season 12?

Sturman: That's such a good question. There will always be hurdles and challenging situations as people grow closer and fall in love and take those next steps. They found each other and now it's about, how do you face challenges together going forward — life throws you challenges, but watching those challenges pull them together as they face the future together.

Season 12 will bring all sorts of firsts for Elizabeth and Nathan as they navigate their relationship. They've known each other for such a long time so they are only growing stronger as they face challenges now as a unit. We're excited to really savor the little moments of their relationship, as they grow closer, and navigate those early days of finding love — especially as we know so many fans have been waiting so long to see them together.

One of those hurdles presents itself at the end of the finale when Elizabeth is told there is news about her late husband, Jack. What went into the decision to have that be the cliffhanger to the season?

Sturman: Jack [played by former series regular Daniel Lissing] is not coming back, but we did want to keep his memory alive. From the beginning of the show, it was a story about widows and for Little Jack, as he's hitting these milestones growing up, how does Elizabeth keep Jack alive for Little Jack and hold his memory and the complexity of that when she's in a new relationship? It was a way to complicate [Elizabeth and Nathan's] new situation, which ends on a sweet note and then, oh no, there's this new complexity. It can't always be simple.

I know you can't say what the "news" actually is, but I'm curious about the severity of it. It already rattled Elizabeth just with the mention of Jack's name. How major is it?

Sturman: It adds to the cliffhanger and creates a challenge, but it's not meant to upend everything we've built. The show always was about how you come back from loss and as Nathan and Elizabeth settle, this complicates the two of them going to the wedding together and being together. There is history that Elizabeth always has to grapple with.

Lucas asks Lee (Kavan Smith) to join him in Capital City to help get the park idea off the ground. What can you say about this potential partnership should Lee agree to make that move?

Sturman: The show is always going to be set in Hope Valley, but with Lucas being the governor, there is this pull back to Capital City. Does he pull Lee with him with his grand vision, and both of them wanting to do great things for Hope Valley and their communities, while also their hearts being in Hope Valley as well? It does create a push-pull into Season 12.

In terms of Lucas in Season 12, what can you share?

Sturman: Lucas is always a character who is bound for greatness, and a man of big ideas and big ambitions that are also always for his community and not for himself. As he's growing into this leader, Season 12 is a new chapter of him facing these challenges while trying to always do good for all the people that he represents and, of course, for Hope Valley. So it's watching him step into bigger shoes and growing into being a leader.

Is he going to have room for love again or is that on the back-burner?

Sturman: Let's just say, love may be in Lucas' future.

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What went into planning Mei and Hickam's wedding? It was nice to see an Asian-influenced ceremony that was nuanced with cultural touches.

Sturman: We wanted to show a wedding that was unlike what we have ever seen in Hope Valley, and bring both Mei and Hickam's background and family culture into their ceremony. Hickam and Mei have had such a whirlwind but beautifully fun romance after so many years of being so unlucky in love. It felt like as soon as Mei and Hickam got together, the pieces fell into place with them. We worked with a wonderful cultural consultant and the production team did a ton of historical research of what would have happened in that time so we could get the different aspects of the wedding right. We used materials that were available at the time, like the fabric of the banners and the traditional colors, including the exact shade of red that would have been available in that era. We also wanted to include elements that were meaningful to Hickam's family and were from Hope Valley, like the flowers in the boutonnieres. The traditional white wedding cake with the added red and the "double happiness" symbol, we were able to marry their cultures. We were also excited to meet Mei's brother since we now know so much about Hickam's family. 

Filming is about to begin on Season 12 soon. What are you looking forward to once production picks up again?

Sturman: It's thrilling to be in Season 12 of any show, but especially this show with such an incredible fanbase. It's been amazing to watch new audiences find the show and the online community keeps growing, whether it's on Facebook; [X, formerly known as] Twitter; and Instagram, that it's almost like there's a secondary conversation going on. It's amazing to be on a show with such dedicated fans and also has so much longevity. It's an amazing cast with so many stories to tell. The questions like, how do you keep coming up with stories? We have too many stories we want to tell, so we hope the show goes on for years because we only get to tell so many stories each season. It's been thrilling.

If Season 11's theme was new beginnings and new chapters, what is the theme for Season 12?

Sturman: The themes of Season 12 will focus on romance as we follow Elizabeth and Nathan's relationship that has been years in the making. There are also a few major milestones that happen in Season 12: Little Jack would be starting school and some of our main students are graduating. Telling stories about these big moments let us touch on themes of facing the future, overcoming fears, and following your true path to happiness, which is, of course, Elizabeth's story — following her heart. 

Circling back to Elizabeth and Nathan, things at the moment are good, barring the Jack bombshell. How worried should fans be in Season 12? Will they stick together?

Sturman: They're on a journey to get closer, people should not worry.

Does the Season 12 premiere pick up immediately after the events of the finale?

Sturman: It does. It picks right up from that moment, that scene.