‘When Calls the Heart’ Stars Break Down Season 13 Premiere’s ‘Life or Death’ Cliffhanger

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for When Calls the Heart Season 13 Episode 1 “Up in the Air.”]

Hope Valley’s never seen anything like this before. In the final moments of the January 4 premiere of When Calls the Heart Season 13, a fire broke out at the newly opened Goldie National Park.

To make matters worse, Allie (Jaeda Lily Miller), Cooper (Elias Leacock), and two others had just entered the park for a hike. When Nathan (Kevin McGarry) realized Allie and the kids were out there, he immediately hopped on his horse to find them, along with Bill (Jack Wagner), Joseph (Viv Leacock), and Oliver (Jacob Shoemay). TV Insider spoke with Kevin McGarry and Erin Krakow about what’s going through Nathan and Elizabeth’s heads in the final moments of the dramatic premiere.

“What kind of kicks him into gear is that they say all the kids are out there, and he realizes Allie’s out there,” McGarry said. “As much as, of course, his duty is to go protect the town to make sure it doesn’t get decimated by the fire, ultimately, I think at that moment, it’s my daughter out there. That’s why Joseph hops on as well. It’s his son out there as well. So we’ve got the two fathers going to get their children and the Mounties helping out as well.”

Ricardo Hubbs / Hallmark Media

He stressed that Nathan’s “main priority” is to “keep the town safe, keep Allie safe, and keep Elizabeth safe as well.” At the end of the premiere, Elizabeth was forced to watch the man she loved race right into the face of a potentially deadly situation.

“It must be hard on somebody when any responder has to go out here to put their life in danger for somebody else,” McGarry noted. “But I think in that moment, particularly, he’s going to save his daughter and help as many people as he can.”

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Krakow revealed that this situation “brings up some intense feelings and fears, especially on the heels of so much joy,” given that Elizabeth lost her husband in a tragic landslide. “The stakes are very high. It’s life or death, and knowing that there are kids in those woods… She has to stay with Little Jack, obviously, and make sure that he’s OK, but she’s quick to tell Nathan that Allie’s out there, and they ride out as quickly as they can to try to save the day. But it’s dangerous, and even a windstorm back then was life or death.”

McGarry teased that the second episode will pick up right where the Season 13 premiere leaves off, and the town “really comes together to save Hope Valley and the neighboring towns from this.”

When Calls the Heart, Season 13, Sundays, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel