Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0
4
We’re beginning to get some answers on The Way Home Season 3 Episode 8, and it feels pretty good.
This show gives us so much to discuss and connects an entire community that has formed about this Hallmark series, and I can’t think of anything better than that.
Here’s where we’ll start: I don’t want Nick to leave, as he’s become a beautiful ball of joy bouncing between lovely people who are more downtrodden than they should be.
Really, for all the love these people share, they should stop and think for a moment about how incredibly lucky they are to experience it.
It sure wasn’t lost on Nick. Who else was surprised to learn that he returned merely because his fascination with the pond became too great to ignore?
If any friend deserves to be a part of the show, it’s Nick. His life was affected in ways nobody else experienced, even Elliot. But isn’t it funny that because Elliot knew about time travel, he feels he’s different?
But back to Nick. In a season where friendships have taken an unexpected back seat in the present (one scene with Rita. Have we seen Monica?), his inclusion in the discussion about the time-traveling ponds has been delightful and revealing.
Nick: Is everyone here a time traveler?
Elliot: Nick, please.
Nick: Well, it seems like it. Everyone but us. [Elliot glares at him] Wait, you, too?
Nick even paved the way for Del to understand her frustration with Colton’s secret keeping, whether she realized it or not. And since it’s Del, who can be pretty obtuse, she missed it.
Del spent a good portion of the hour upset that Colton time-traveled and didn’t tell her. She’s hurt, especially since she recalls flat-out asking Colton (albeit jokingly) about the family’s history of time travel after a chat with Grandma Fern.
It might have been said in jest, but it would have been a good time for Colton to open up to her about the reality of it, especially since we know that he had time-traveled during the summer he met Del.
On The Way Home Season 3 Episode 3, Colton was strangely concerned about the farm when he emerged from the pond. I thought it was because he was surprised to see Alice and couldn’t think of another reason she would be at the pond. But now we know that he had just returned from 1816.
But was that the first time he had traveled? No, it wasn’t. He had been back before to tell Jacob and Elijah to plant rye and potatoes.
That’s why he was so distraught, believing he was the cause of the events in 1816 when Cyrus was ranting like a madman, telling the people of Port Haven that Elijah and Jacob sold their souls to the devil.
Of course, he had no idea that Kat had done a little damage in that department at the beginning of the dark summer when she proclaimed herself a witch. Those darn Landrys!
Colton was trying to save Nick (1974 version, not 1999 and 2025 Nick. Couldn’t they have chosen a different name?), but instead, he returned to 1816 because the pond needed him to save Jacob.
In the present, Nick told Del that he would never reveal the pond’s secret to Claire because as a no-nonsense lady like Del, she would think he was nuts. No-nonsense is a perfect way to describe Del, too.
Thinking about the enormity of the tragedy Colton and Del suffered with Jacob’s disappearance makes it even worse. Del wasn’t on board with how Colton reacted to Jacob’s disappearance during most of The Way Home Season 1. Can you imagine if he had tossed a time-traveling pond into it?
But again, his problem was not trusting Del to accept the truth. And if she wouldn’t accept the truth about his family and its capabilities, then was their love as strong as they thought it was?
Many of us have been pondering whether Elliot truly loves Kat when he manipulates her so often with sob stories or his distrust. He did it again during “Smoke on the Water” when she finally admitted kissing Thomas.
Instead of being grateful she wasn’t hiding it anymore, he said it felt like she was saying it as payback for what happened with Emma. I wanted to choke him. The man has no idea what he wants.
And then there is Thomas, who doesn’t care how or when Kat comes to him, only that she does. She amidst to loving another? Cool. I’ll wait. She wonders why he didn’t wait, and he laughs it off but welcomes her anyway.
Thomas never makes Kat or her choices seem small or petty, even when they are. By contrast, Elliot almost always questions Kat’s choices and motivations. Which of those behaviors seems more like real love?
I also cannot tell if the writers are trying to say to us that Elliot and Kat have significant issues with the following exchange or if they’re trying to convince themselves and the characters.
Kat: Something is broken here, and I don’t know how to fix it. I wish we didn’t have to try so hard to make this work.
Elliot: Well, maybe that’s our answer then.
Yes, that is the answer. This relationship is in the honeymoon phase, and they already need counseling. Newsflash: That means there is a serious problem — one that might not make sense to solve.
Another thing that Colton’s time traveling in 1974 reveals is that he knew Alice in 1999. I no longer doubt that. But it is one more thing that could bring great pain to Del.
Colton was an active time traveler when he met Alice in 1974, and she sang on his demo, one of his life’s pivotal moments. That’s not a moment you forget.
Colton knew what he was doing when he taught her in 1999. He welcomed Alice into his home because he knew her. He may not have known exactly who she was, but he could suss out that Landrys traveled back to Landrys.
Could his “My Katherine” as he lay dying have been from his realization that Alice was her daughter? He has probably seen the painting at some point, too, and suddenly, as his life flashed before his eyes, he put it all together.
Someone who has seen the show more times than me might remember if Alice ever called her mom Kat or Katherine when she talked about her then. It seems unlikely since she was with Kat, but it’s possible.
As Del spit angrily at the pond, “You won’t stop until you have taken everyone I love,” I tried to understand what she was feeling, even though she didn’t know herself.
And how could she? The revelations are coming too fast and furious for her to grasp.
But I laughed when she wondered if Colton knew Jacob might have gone through the pond. She said it made her sick to think he let her mourn when Jacob still could have been out there.
She told Kat that you shouldn’t have to keep secrets from someone that you really love — while she’s actively keeping secrets about the letters from the people she really loves. People often cannot see their own actions in the same vein they see others.
When Alice asked her why Colton might have kept the secret from all of them, Del said he might have felt trapped, but trapped by what? Trapped by her? Surely not.
Elliot’s odd remark to Del about truth was also a head-scratcher. “Maybe the truth is overrated, especially when unloading it on the person you love means you’re asking them to shoulder your burden,” Elliot said.
When she questioned him, he said he had kept the secret about Alice and the pond for decades. Everyone has their reasons for shielding the truth.
As much as we’d like to believe that being a time traveler is a burden, we’ve also seen beautiful things come from it.
Kat saved Colton and Evie from drowning, Colton saved Jacob from the fire, and Kat saved Susanna from hanging as a witch. Alice brought light into the lives of everyone she met in the past, urging them to be themselves and embrace life.
Only Elliot and Del have looked upon the pond as a burden. When the two sad sacks were in the truck talking, it dawned on me how alike they were.
For some reason, The Way Home creators find relationships filled with secrets and people who are afraid to share their true selves with the people they love to be inspiring.
Yet, at the same time, they have given us Thomas and floated him as a potential (if impossible) love for Kat.
If you giggle at the impossibility of that love, remember that, while grounded in all that makes us human, The Way Home is also a fantasy. And if we can see people flitting through time, then a romance through time isn’t all that hard to believe.
In a surprising turn of events, Del spoke to a silent apparition of Colton, revealing that she has faith in her girls to find the answers they need for the family to get through this. They can’t do that without the pond she hates, so the tide of her emotions has taken her somewhere new.
A few extra things to ponder:
- Did Evie wreck Colton’s chance for a music career after she heard he had proposed to Del and hoped his music would take him back to her?
- Before he attempted to burn the painting, Cyrus said he sees all the love his wife should have for him in her eyes when she’s with Kat.
- Alice’s potential future with Max took another step when she found him in Noah’s van.
But what’s next? Unlike you, I haven’t just seen the preview for The Way Home Season 3 Episode 9. How far will the story they’re telling this season go?
With two episodes left, what can we expect? I’ve done enough theorizing, and now that you know more than me, it’s your turn to comment below.
Let’s get this party started!
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