‘When Calls the Heart’: Erin Krakow Gives Update on Henry & Abigail’s Story

Sven Boecker/Hallmark Media; Eike Schroter/Crown Media; Sven Boecker/Hallmark Media

When Calls the Heart, at the end of Season 10, seemed to be setting up a reunion between Henry Gowen (Martin Cummins) and Abigail Stanton (Lori Loughlin, last seen in Season 6). But is that coming in Season 11 (premiering April 7)?

While Erin Krakow, who plays Elizabeth and also serves as an executive producer on the long-running Hallmark Channel drama, would love to see Abigail again, “obviously, it’s tricky,” she tells TV Insider. “I will say, because I don’t want to get people’s hopes up too high, Abigail does not currently return in Season 11, and I hope that doesn’t feel like a bait and switch for anyone when they see Gowen go to her door at the end of Season 10. It is more about Gowen’s journey to self-discovery and self-forgiveness. But I would love it if she could come back. That would be just the greatest.”

In the Season 10 finale, as Henry was struggling with Rosemary (Pascale Hutton) and Leland (Kavan Smith) wanting him to be godfather to their daughter Goldie, Elizabeth found him staring at Abigail’s Café. It used to be “her on her side of the street, and me on mine,” he noted.

He spent his life trying to separate himself from the life he was born into, and “I lived in the darkness so long that I couldn’t see beauty anymore. Sitting here, across the street, helped me see it again. View hasn’t changed from here. I have,” he said. Elizabeth told him, “I think she would have really appreciated who you are now.” The last time we saw Henry, he was at Abigail’s door (though she didn’t appear). That could lead to more scenes between Elizabeth and Henry.

“They’re really grown together,” says Krakow of that relationship. “I just adore Martin, and I love our scenes together for so many reasons. But we do get some scenes between them because they’ve got a special connection to each other—for many reasons, but I think a big part of it is because they each have a very special connection to Abigail, and so there’s an emotional thread between them that I just think is really special and important.”

What do you hope to see with Henry, both in terms of Abigail and not?

When Calls the Heart, Season 11 Premiere, Sunday, April 7, 9/8c, Hallmark Channel