HallmarkWhen Hope Calls Season 2 is only a few weeks away, but there’s already a glaring plot hole if you’re a When Calls the Heart fan.
The spinoff might have moved over to Great American Family from Hallmark, but the towns of Hope Valley and Brookfield are still closely intertwined. When Hope Calls started by following sisters Lillian and Grace, who we first saw introduced in the main show’s Christmas specials.
While Grace has set down roots in London with Chuck, Lillian is expected to fleetingly appear in new episodes. However, our new lead romance will be led by Hallmark stalwarts Cindy Busby and Christopher Russell, playing Nora and Mountie Michael.
There’s just one small problem. Our new pairing in When Hope Calls directly conflicts with something we’ve already seen in When Calls the Heart.
When Hope Calls newbie Cindy Busby is actually When Calls the Heart alum
Before Nora was even invented, Busby also played Marlise Bennett in Season 4 of When Calls the Heart. Marlise is Dr. Carson Shepherd’s sister-in-law, with Amber Carson’s late wife and Marlise’s sister.
Great American Family Obviously, this isn’t something that has passed Hearties by. One posted on Reddit, “With season 2 of When Hope Calls coming out, there is a huge plot hole the writers missed. Cindy Busby is playing a new character in Season 2, but she also played Carson’s sister in a few episodes of When Calls The Heart. Since they are in the same universe, there are two versions of Cindy Busby in this world.”
“It’s possible it’s the same character and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see all the discarded characters from When Calls the Heart on this show at some point, like Clara and Jesse, Carson, Pastor Frank,” a second chimed in.
However, whether fans end up being bothered by this while When Hope Calls Season 2 actually airs remains to be seen. Nora and Michael are expected to lead new episodes of the show, and according to Russell, a slow-burner is definitely on the cards.
Related
“There’s gonna be a little bit of family-oriented fun, there’s gonna be a lot of heart, and let me tell you, there’s gonna be some romance,” Russell explained at Christmas Con 2024. “Some people are gonna fall in love, they might even kiss, I don’t know.”
The first look at Nora and Michael’s relationship was seen in the When Hope Calls trailer, which dropped on February 28.
Russell added about his chemistry with Busby, “We’ve done four movies together. And then when – I’ll just tell my side of it – I was offered the role of the new Mountie in town, I think I was accidentally BCC’d on an email chain and shouldn’t have been. And I saw that Cindy Busby was also going to be a part of the show. And that was it. I was like, ‘You’d better get me on that.’”
When Hope Calls Season 2 drops on April 6, 2025, with Season 1 available to stream on the Hallmark Channel. In the meantime, catch up with When Calls the Heart’s episode release schedule, how to watch outside of the US, and why Jack left. You can also keep up with the latest on Morgan Kohan’s other hit series, Sullivan’s Crossing Season 3.