The Way Home EPs Talk New Mystery Teen And Kat/Thomas/Elliot Resolution, Tease 'Emotional' Finale
Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9. Proceed at your own risk!
The Way Home's penultimate Season 3 episode delivered a long-awaited confrontation between Alice and teen Colton, who finally admitted to her that he time-traveled to the 1800s.
The first time he took a dip in the pond was by accident, when he angrily threw his backpack into the water, then fell in while trying to get it out. That's when he ended up in 1814 and met — unbeknownst to him — his future son, Jacob, and told him what crops to plant. He wanted to let Evie know the truth in a way she'd love, so he wrote it in invisible ink in the books he gave her. Then Delilah arrived at the Cove party, and everything felt like magic — until tragically Rick died that same night. Colton thought he could stop the accident, but when he jumped, the pond took him to 1816 instead to see how he destroyed his entire family's future.
Because he told Jacob the future and broke the rules, the pond no longer works for him, Colton shared with Alice. He then asked if she's also a time traveler, but Alice denied it, although she does believe him, she added. As she later explained to Del, Colton didn't recognize her in 1999, so it made her think that she never told him the truth about who she was.
Alice also told Del that Colton only travelled twice, when he was a teen, which is a pretty big assumption to make! Of course, viewers know from the Season 2 finale that Colton made a trip as an adult to the summer kickoff party in 1999.
The discrepancy "means that the full story hasn't entirely been told," co-showrunner Alexandra Clarke tells TVLine, adding that "it's a weird situation we're in this year versus any other season, where the audience knows more than our characters do... There's still more story to be told and still more answers to be given."
There's also still more adventure for Alice in 1999, she realized when Kat and Elliot shared a teenage memory of playing MASH with her that hasn't happened yet for Alice. But as with all things pond-related, the reunion will have a deeper impact.
"The pond takes you where you need to go. Every visit has a purpose," Clarke previews. "So as much as maybe Alice would love to think that whenever she gets to take this extra trip, it's just going to be fun and games, playing MASH, but in fact, the pond will always have more meaning than you might expect it to."
"And more ramifications," co-showrunner Heather Conkie teases.
And because nothing on the Hallmark drama is random, TVLine also asked the mother-daughter showrunning team about a certain moment in this week's episode that was somewhat conspicuous: While Alice was hanging out at Coyle's in 1974, a teen girl quoted T.S. Eliot to her and reminded her that life's too short for regrets.
"As much as it is this little fleeting moment, the fleeting moments end up being ones that can be quite important in the trajectory of things," Clarke hints cryptically.
Even the show's own post-production team was theorizing about the mystery teenager who gave Alice some meaningful advice: "They were all trying to figure out who she was, because we've also trained them to know that nothing is random," Clarke shares. "So it was really fun hearing all of their theories before going into [Episode] 10. I think it's a lovely little moment. I hope people notice it."
Elsewhere in the hour, Kat and Thomas had an honest conversation about their future — or lack thereof. She would be giving up her life to stay in the past with him, and he would never ask her to make that sacrifice.
"People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime," she said. With him, "it wasn't just a season... You were a reason." Because of Thomas, she knows what she wants from love, but they both acknowledged that their future will not be spent together. So Kat urged him to get on the ship to New York for a chance at a real future.
"One of the major themes that we always want to convey is that the past is never truly gone," Clarke says, "but I do think that an honest talk needed to be had, because we've seen Kat, especially in the few episodes leading up to [Episode] 9, kind of making rash decisions, leading more with emotion than with her head, and there needed to be a bit of a wakeup call that you can't really do that forever, and the homestead burning at the end of [Episode] 8 was such a moment for so many reasons."
Had something happened to Kat and Jacob in that fire, Del would have had no way of knowing. And Thomas wouldn't know if something happened to her in her time. Plus, he has no way of getting to her.
"As they're, literally, pulling the wreckage out of this place, [they're] realizing that they're a bit of a wreck, as well, and having a bit of a moment to come to terms with the harsh reality," Clarke says.
But that didn't stop Thomas from returning to the homestead after he'd already said goodbye. Clarke confirms that he was, indeed, coming back for Kat, when he spotted her embracing Elliot, who travelled to 1816 with Jacob's help.
"We always imagined him going down to the docks and stepping on that ship, and then taking a step off and then going back. We figured why not just punch everyone in the gut one more time," Clarke shares with a laugh. "As much as he's wild and rugged, he's a realist. We all know that he cares very deeply for Kat, and seeing her with Elliot, who he now knows exists this season [because] she's talked about him, [he's] realizing that's a relationship that actually, should they choose to go forward with it, [could] be something that's possible versus the impossible that he and Kat represent."
So when Thomas and Elliot spotted each other from afar, the two men gave each other a nod of respect.
"I'd like to think it was an understanding. I just think it's a recognizing of equals, and also a nod of, 'Take care of yourself, take care of her,' and Elliot making a promise maybe," Clarke says.
Adds Conkie: "I think it's a repeat of what Thomas did when he did try to jump in the pond and realized it didn't work, and he said, 'Enough.' This is his other 'Enough.'"
Looking ahead at next Friday's season finale, the showrunners are urging viewers to have their tissues at the ready for what "is probably one of the most emotional [episodes] in the entire history of the show," Conkie proclaims. "We're very proud of it... We can honestly say it answers a lot of questions."
The Way Home fans, what did you think of the episode? Hit the comments with your predictions for the finale!