Once again, Hallmark’s hit original series, The Way Home, is diving into a nonlinear theory of time by dancing between multiple decades. At some point in life, we all have wondered what sort of butterfly effect we would witness if a lucky (or unlucky) traveler had the opportunity to change former events; However, Season 2 of The Way Home takes this musing even further by pondering a reverse relationship between past and present: How can today’s occurrences bend our history?
Where the existing timeline collides with the origin of the Landry family history in Port Haven, New Brunswick, the Season 2 premiere, “The Space Between”, has us floating in an enticing portal of evergreen fascination of three generations of Landry women, the family ties to the founding of their hometown, and a pond beaming with life both past and present.
“The Space Between” opens with a flashback to Port Haven in 1814 and a recent discovery made by Katherine Landry (Chyler Leigh) that may unravel the daunting mystery surrounding her missing eight-year-old brother Jacob (Remy Smith). Right there in the family home, a clue sketched into the Landry almanac by Jacob proves to Kat that the pond has taken her brother to the year when a town erected in a rural country backdrop in coastal Canada.
It Calls to You | “Come, I know it calls to you.” An older woman in a blouse and long grey skirt extends a hand to a young boy approaching the edge of the serene pond – the same pond that Kat and her daughter, Alice Dhawan (Sadie Laflamme-Snow), had entered on numerous occasions to travel back in time. The boy, dressed in clothing strikingly similar to the outfit Jacob was wearing the night he went missing in 1999, accepts the unknown woman’s hand and looks up to her awaiting her guidance. With sympathy in her voice, the woman explains to the boy that the pond will “take him to where he needs to go” but he must wait. It seems Kat’s theory of her eight-year-old brother’s disappearance more than twenty years prior may be correct.
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The Pond is Done with Us | In present day, winter has set in on the Landry farm and the pond is quickly freezing over. In an intense moment of desperation to find Jacob, Kat plunges into the frigid waters. Alice is not far behind her mother, jumping in after her. When Kat resurfaces, she finds that time remains the same for her, but where is Alice? She quickly realizes that her daughter is trapped beneath the glass-like ice that spreads across the pond. Kat submerges once more and pulls Alice to safety just in time.
As Kat processes the danger she put Alice in, she visits Eliot Augustine’s (Evan Williams) home only to find a letter for her taped on the inside of the door. Eliot has left to find himself after living for Kat since their childhood. In the letter, he pleads with her to try to understand his need to leave for the time being. Eliot’s absence comes after a culmination of tragedy when Kat and Alice fail to prevent Jacob from disappearing and learn that their time travels led to the unfortunate car accident that killed Kat’s father Colton Landry (Jefferson Brown).
Shortly after, Kat decides that she and Alice must stop entering the pond to visit the past. “The pond is done with us, Ali. We have to be done with it.” Almost losing Alice to the iced over waters was the last straw for her. Kat and Alice make a pact to stay out of the pond and live in the present. This difficult decision doesn’t stop the pair from investigating Jacob’s time hop, however. They begin searching the Landry family genealogy records, checking off every member one by one with the hope that the last name on the list will be Kat’s long, lost brother.
My Katherine | Seven months later, Kat, Alice and Landry matriarch, Delilah (Andie MacDowell), have settled into the Port Haven summer. Kat solidifies her role as Editor in Chief of the town’s local newspaper, The Harold, with a new sign on the front of its brick building. In a fortuitous event, Kat receives news that her paper is inheriting a wealth of archival artifacts from one of the town’s founding families, the Goodwins, after matriarch Evelyn Goodwin passes. Del and Kat visit the Goodwin estate, the Lingermore House, to take inventory of enough historical possessions to fill a museum. What Kat finds among the towering boxes of the Goodwin family mansion leaves her in disbelief: a large portrait painted in oil medium titled “My Katherine, 1814” hangs on the wall of Evelyn’s study.
Carpe Diem! | Alice’s first year at the Port Haven High School has come to a close and Del plans for a traditional Landry summer cookout to send her granddaughter off to a vacation in Minneapolis with Alice’s father. Eliot makes a surprise appearance after being away for the last several months and Alice serves him a cold welcome. Being in the dark about her mom’s short romance with the family friend, Alice is angry that Eliot left without saying goodbye after mentoring her during her travels back in time to save her Uncle Jacob. That is until Alice catches a look exchanged between her mom and El later that evening.
Del ends the celebration with a surprise firework show to honor her beloved husband, Colton. When Colton was living, he always ended the special event with airborne fireworks. As Eliot lights the fireworks, Del shares her hope that everyone present feels her husbands loving presence. The night sky lights up in spectacular sparkles, bringing back warm memories for Del, Eliot and Kat. Eliot’s memories linger even after the show. He reminisces on the last Landry summer kickoff when Colton and he were sitting around the fire pit. Colton reminds Eliot that time is never guaranteed essentially giving some much-needed encouragement to tell Kat how he feels about her before she leaves for summer camp.
Alice approaches Kat after the night concludes to ask about her mom’s relationship with Eliot. Kat discloses that the two of them had been seeing each other for a short while before he left. Alice also learns that Eliot’s sudden holiday was prompted after the revelation of Kat and Alice’s involvement in Colton’s death. Kat explains that he had spent the majority of his life awaiting the predictions that Alice told him when he was a teenager. It left him feeling constrained to fate with no room to carve his own path. Now that all of the predictions had come true, it was his time to find his way. Alice leaves the conversation bearing the weight of guilt for her part in Eliot’s unhappiness.
All For You | Kat takes to the barn clubhouse to escape the night’s tension over Eliot with a glass of red wine and one of his mixtape cd’s. She is startled when she hears Eliot entering through the low doorway. Eliot asks Kat about her time travels in his absence and she shares that her and her daughter made the decision to stay away from the past and start the healing process in the present day. Eliot is surprised by Kat’s change of heart, leading him to apologize to her for leaving without telling her goodbye. Kat promptly stops him. The pair sit down side by side on the bed to listen to one of their favorite songs from childhood, “All for You” by Sister Hazel. The chemistry between the two rises as the song’s volume amplifies and they exchange a passionate kiss. The rekindling of their feelings is quickly halted when Kat moves away from Eliot. No matter how much Kat missed Eliot while he was away, she is hesitant to share her troubles with him.
It Starts with Us | Kat finds her mother, Del, contemplating over a glass of wine like she had been doing only moments before. Upon joining Del, they have a tender heart-to-heart. Del confides in her daughter about her desire to break her world “wide open” after shutting it out for so many years after Colton’s death and Jacob’s disappearance. Del wants to get to know Kat again and repair their relationship. In few words, Del shares with Kat that her presence has helped her to acknowledge her loss with less of the pain that’s been attached to it.
Where We Need to Go | Kat shows Alice the portrait hanging in the home of Evelyn Goodwin. Alice encourages her to go the pond and begs her take her with her for one last time. At the water’s edge, the mother-daughter duo takes each other by the hand. “Don’t worry, Mom. The pond will take us to where we need to go,” Alice tells Kat. To Alice’s dismay, the pond separates her from her mom’s grip just as soon as they jump in, sending Alice back to the year 2000 and Kat to 1814. In Alice’s confusion, she shouts for her mother. Little does she know, her mom is now almost 200 years behind her face down in the water with a gunshot.
Catch Hallmark’s original show The Way Home on Sundays at 9/8c, and join us for PopWire’s WitchSlapped Aftershow immediately after on the PopWire YouTube channel for a deep dive into each episode as Season 2 unfolds.
