The tide turns in Hallmark Channel’s original show, The Way Home, when Kat Landry (Chyler Leigh) and her daughter Alice (Saide Laflamme-Snow) are ripped apart by the pond’s unpredictable current in Season 2’s second episode “Hanging by a Moment”. Alice washes up in 2000 to face the hurt she’s caused young Eliot (David Webster) while Kat is trapped in 1814 battling for her life after being gunned down. In present day, the Landry matriarch Del (Andie MacDowell) struggles to find someone to take over the lease for a large portion of her farmland.
Separated | Alice and Kat intended on traveling to the past together hand in hand, but the pond had other plans for the mother and daughter. Alice climbs out of the waters without her mom and is met with teenage Eliot. In a frenzy to be reunited with Kat, Alice jumps feet first back into the pond. The concerned daughter resurfaces from the time-traveling portal into the present day, still without a sign of her mother’s whereabouts. Frustrated and scared, Alice shouts across the emerald green water: “What have you done? Where is my mom?!” Unbeknownst to her, Kat has been sent to 1814.
Stammering over her words and dripping from head to toe, Alice spills the events on Eliot (Evan Williams). She is not met with the empathy and helpful guidance she needs from Eliot. Instead, he shuts her out. “You and your mom jumped into the pond and things went south – shocker,” he says dismissively. His full attention is only grasped once Alice begins to tell him about their search for Jacob.
Eliot is surprised by the revelation that Jacob may have traveled back in time. He realizes he’s underestimated the capability of the pond’s magic. Eliot begins losing himself in a flurry of new possible theories, but Alice brings him back down to Earth with the crisis at hand: Kat is missing and she needs his help! Eliot sinks into a chair without answers for her. “Here I am. I’ve barely unpacked and I’m right back to where I was sevens months ago, the ‘Giles’ to your ‘Buffy’”, he responds to her plea for his direction. Alice then realizes that Eliot is still processing the events leading up to his time away from Port Haven and doesn’t have the capacity to be the friend he once was. Alice stands, tossing aside the blanket he had given her to warm up. “I don’t need your help. I going to find Mom on my own,” Alice tells him before leaving his home.
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A Fever Dream | Much like a fever dream, a strange man cradles Kat, bloodied and soaked, carrying her down the tree lined path from the pond’s edge. Kat’s injury has left her ill. The gunshot wound to her arm is infected within days of her reaching the underground level of a shop in the middle of town. The man who shot her has put her in the care of a young, brunette woman. The woman soaks a rag in warm water to clean Kat’s bleeding arm. She is doing what she can to keep Kat’s fever from becoming fatal but she isn’t confident Kat will pull through. The man hangs in the background flipping a coin into the air. He seems unfazed by Kat’s dangerous state, wishing only he had “better aim” the day his bullet met her flesh.
Once alone, Kat rises. “Alice,” she murmurs to herself. The name of her daughter summons enough strength to get her out of the sweat-soaked bed. With pain searing her arm, she stumbles her way up the stairs to the ground floor. A few steps into the shop and she collapses. The young woman who’s been tending to her rushes to her side and Kat loses consciousness once more.
Love is Complicated | Fast forward to present day, Del wonders where Kat has been. Alice, still just as mystified as before, tries to cover for Kat’s absence. She tells her grandmother that Kat is out chasing up an important assignment for The Harold, Port Haven’s local newspaper. Assured that Alice is okay, Del heads to Eliot’s to share her idea for a land proposal she wants to present to the town council. With the break of a lease on a large portion of the Landry farmland, Del needs to acquire a new source of income with it. She decides to expand the school program called Crops for Kindness in which Port Haven youth are able to gain experience in farming. She proposes that students can grow crops and the profits from their yield can be donated to local charities. Eliot agrees to help Del write up an initiative. Before departing, Del drops one last musing for Eliot to ponder now that he’s back from his travels: “Don’t over think it. Love is complicated enough.”
Leave! | Alice’s patience for her mother’s return has run out and she decides to make her way back to the pond in hopes that the portal takes her to the timeline Kat resides. To much disappointment, she returns to year 2000. Young Eliot sees her from the barn clubhouse. Unlike the many visits before, she is met with anger from Eliot. “Alice, I want you to leave,” he tells her. From his perspective, Alice is to blame for the series of unfortunate events that occurred for the Landry family: Jacob’s disappearance, Colton’s (Jefferson Brown) accidental death, and now, Kat leaving to the United States with Brady. Alice runs back to the pond, but it is not her time to go back. She is forced to stay and face the pain that Eliot is suffering.
Young Eliot sits with Alice at the cove. As they look out to the overcast horizon, Alice acknowledges his loneliness and loss. She admits how difficult it must be to not have the ability to escape his sadness. Eliot and Alice find comfort in knowing that they at least have each other, and Alice expresses gratitude for the help that Eliot gives her in the past and in the future. Before heading home, Alice is struck with the realization that the pond must have kept her in 2000 so that she may mend Eliot’s troubles. She apologizes to her friend for telling him about his future.
Safe and Sound | With a deep gasp, Kat wakes from her feverish slumber with better health. When the coast is clear, she escapes the dark lower level of the shop and finds herself on a dirt road lined with barren wood buildings and people traveling on horse carriages. The reality of her whereabouts sets in: she is in the middle of Port Haven as it was initially erected.
Around the corner she hears the familiar sound of an airborne coin. She turns to see the man who shot her days ago when she emerged from the pond. Kat makes a dash down the road in the direction of her family’s land. Moments later, she falls to the ground and finds herself in the tight grasp of a man named Syrus Goodwin, one of Port Haven’s founders. Suddenly, the brunette woman from the shop arrives on horseback and pulls her to safety.
As they ride through the forest, the woman tells Kat who she is – Susanna Augustine (Watson Rose) – and demands the same information from Kat. Without disclosing the truth about how she found herself in 1814, Kat simply tells Susanna that she is a traveler making her way through the town. Susanna agrees to take Kat back to the pond where Thomas (Kris Holden-Ried), the gunman, found her.
Kat and Susanna arrive at the pond, and just before parting ways, Susanna asks how she knows Jacob Landry. The woman tells Kat that she called out for Jacob while she was fighting her fever. Kat’s heart drops to the ground when she learns that Jacob is there, just as she had thought; But much to her relief, Susanna informs her that Jacob is living with the Landry family safe and sound. The moment Susanna turns her back to saddle up, Kat slips into the glistening pool of water.
In a kismet instance, Kat and Alice return to the present day simultaneously. “I found him. I found Jacob! He’s in 1814!” Kat excitedly tells her daughter as they pull themselves from the water onto the rock where their journey to find Jacob began. Kat and Alice embrace each other in celebration, allowing the news of Jacob’s safety to wash over them.
Gallivanting Around | The next morning, Kat prepares for the day with a tumbler full of coffee. Del, still upset over Kat’s disappearance, chastises her for leaving yet again with Alice’s trip to Minneapolis in the near future. “Don’t you want to spend some time with your daughter… instead of gallivanting all over the place?” Del asks her pointedly. Little does her mother know she has spent days in an entirely different century being nursed back to health after an almost fatal gunshot. Before their conversation could travel further south, Alice joins her mom and grandma in the kitchen. She, too, fills up a thermos with coffee and insists on tagging along with Kat on her trip to the Goodwin estate sale at Lingermore. Alice’s proposal soothes her grandmother’s worries and the mother-daughter duo set off on their next leg of investigation. First objective: purchase the portrait painting of Kat before someone else does.
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Kat and Alice ascend on the intimate oil painting before anyone else arrives to claim it. Just as they remove the portrait from the fireplace mantel, Eliot enters the study. He is relieved to see that Kat has returned safely. Instead of telling him the truth, however, Kat plays along with the story about being away for an assignment. She doesn’t know, yet, that Alice had sought his help when they were separated and sent to two different timelines. Eliot is again left disappointed. As Kat and Alice are leaving the study, Kat notices a 19th-century revolver mounted on a desk. It is the very gun Thomas used to shoot her. Could it be that Thomas is also a Goodwin? She decides to purchase the pistol as well.
Putting two and two together, Alice realizes that Eliot is keeping his own secrets. He didn’t inform her or her mom that she’d be visiting the year 2000 again after teenage Kat left with Brady. When she is leaving the Goodwin home, Eliot approaches her to apologize so she asks him why he kept her additional trip to the past from her and her mom. Alice’s inquiry sends Eliot into a fit of frustration and he proclaims that he can’t be involved with their time traveling any longer.
No More Secrets | Del stands alone in a field on her farm when she’s notified by the town council of their decision on her land proposal. Her proposal to expand Crops for Kindness has been turned down. In an effort to find comfort, she speaks aloud to Colton. He appears to her just as he had when the idea for her farming program was first planted. Colton ensures her that she knows what to do next. “Tell Kat. Tell her now. Tell her everything… No more secrets,” her husband encourages her.
Del takes Colton’s advice and pays a visit to Kat at the The Harold with food in hand. Before she gathers enough courage to confide in Kat about the loss of the leased acreage, she learns that Kat is compelled to write an updated book capturing the history of the Landry family and their involvement in founding Port Haven. Kat’s enthusiasm for her latest project deters Del from informing her of the trouble the Landry farmland might be facing; But while Kat is kept in the dark for the time being, Alice hears the news about the farm from the person who is no longer using their land. The revelation prompts Alice to stay home for the summer so she can be a source of support for her grandmother.
Watch Me | Eliot sits at home, a record playing in the background, reviewing his journal from when he was a teenager. He had taken meticulous notes of Alice’s visits back in 1999 and 2000. As he thumbs through the pages, it’s revealed that Alice’s travels to the past are in fact not over. Before he has the chance to review the entry of her next visit, Kat storms through the front door with urgency in her voice. “Elliot?” she calls to him. Eliot quickly hides away the old journal before she finds him in the living room. An argument ensues. Kat demands he tell her why he chose to keep Alice’s most recent travels from her, and Eliot deflects by expressing his anger over her going back to the pond. Eliot’s resentment of Kat’s involvement in Colton’s death boils over like a valve unable to be closed off. “Colton was like a father to me… You got your last five minutes. I didn’t and it kills me!” he yells at her. Taken aback, Kat stands still for a moment to soak in Eliot’s bitterness. Kat leans in closely and in a quiet, confident voice she tells him that she will fix it. “Watch me,” she dares him.
The very next day, Kat sets off back to 1814 to make contact with Jacob and show Eliot, and herself, that she can mend what she has broken.
Catch Hallmark’s original series 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.
Dani grew up on the West Coast in sunny California. With a passion for film and television, she’s always on the hunt for binge-worthy flicks with diversity and positive representation of Womxn, the LGBTQIAN+ community, and other marginalized groups. Favorite genres include supernatural dramas, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and magical realism. Dani’s current favorite shows are Motherland: Fort Salem, Killing Eve, Dickinson, and Euphoria.
