There are many reasons to wish that we still had 22 episode seasons of things and The Way Home is one. The last two episodes have felt like so many things crammed into them and I feel like we’re missing things. I feel like so many things should have been fleshed out.
Yet, maybe what they are doing is setting up for season three and they realized that they need to tie things up. That being said though, I wish that they hadn’t had to rush through.
And that also being said, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t love parts of it.
The best thing about The Way Home is that they keep you on your toes and make sure that what you are doing is guessing. You’re guessing what will happen, making theories up in your head, getting frustrated, and no matter what at the end of the day, you’re loving the show. With this show, you’re invested in each character. It can be love, it can be hate, but you’re invested.
With this season finale, I find myself forgiving characters I was angry at. I found myself wanting to forgive others. It was a moment. It was an experience. And it was both heartbreaking and joyful.
Some things were mended and what could be better than that?
THOMAS AND KAT
I will admit that I am Team Thomas. I didn’t like him much, but I have found a way for him to grow me. I think that it’s because he loves Kat and even though he’s not always the kindest, he does challenge her. He makes her live on the edge and he challenges her.
I think that Kat needs that.
She’s lived the majority of her life looking for Jacob. It’s just living in 1814 is not an option for her. She’s got Alice. She’s got a life in the future/present. Running back to 1814 to say her goodbyes to Thomas, I feel for her. She’s realized that she loves Thomas. He knows that he loves her. But he’s about to die and so he tells her to go.
The truth that I have learned in life is that falling in love isn’t easy, but falling in love when you’re in two different times? Well, that has to be difficult AF.
Kat lets go and heads back to the present to Elliot. I think we all know my feelings on Elliot. I am glad that he’s finding his way and that he’s putting himself out there, but he also needs to find himself first. Elliot has to let the past go, but how does one let the past go, when you keep searching for five more minutes?
ELLIOT AND THE TIME TRAVELING
I am so happy that one theory that I had was right. One is better than nothing and well, it’s only half right, but look, I am taking that and running with it.
Elliot has a theory about travel. A person can travel with a Landry as long as they are going to the past and not to the future. Alice, well she’s willing to try that out and takes the jump with Elliot.
They head back to 1999 and Elliot can have more time with Colton. He’s able to help Colton and have those five more minutes with the man he considers a father. He was able to hear just how much Colton thought of him and how much he was loved by Colton.
I think for Elliot, he needed to hear that he was loved and he needed to learn what it was like to let go.
Letting go of the past and realizing that you can find love in yourself and the present is an amazing thing. Elliot forgiving others, yes it was great. But Elliot forgiving himself and living in the moment was something that he needed. He needed to let the walls down.
Seeing Elliot starting to understand what Kat and Alice are going through with time travel, was a good thing. Maybe it was a good thing. Who knows. We’ll have to wait for season 3 to be able to understand how Elliot has changed.
But a big step forward for him was getting rid of the wall and the place where he put a hole in it. It’s symbolism – IMO – that he’s willing to start a new one with himself. It’s something that he needed to get to on his own.
ALICE’S PURPOSE
The pond takes you where you need to go, but sometimes its purpose feels a little all over the place. Alice has been wondering why she keeps going back, but finding that purpose hasn’t been easy for her. She needs to figure it out because, for her, she won’t be able to stop until she fixes everything.
When she goes back, she heads to Elliot’s. He’s leaving. He’s graduated teachers college and he wants to leave. As the two are talking, Kat shows up and Alice hides. Kat doesn’t bring the baby, who is 5 months old at this point, and confides in Elliot that she doesn’t know if she’s a good Mom.
But this time, Elliot assures her that she is. He assures her that she’s on the right path and that all of the things that she is doing are right. He assures her that one day, she and Alice are going to be the best of friends.
Kat wanted to make up with her Mom too, but Del was gone. She has to resort to asking Elliot’s Dad to give her a plane ticket to Minneapolis, but we find out that he never does. This whole time, this argument and life between Del and Kat could have been over.
But it wasn’t, because of Vic.
Alice believes that it was her purpose to reveal this to them and heal the wounds that it left between Kat and Del.
One of the most moving, but also hardest scenes to watch was Del and Kat learning that they hadn’t gotten to move forward, because of that. Healing their wound though, that payoff felt genuine.
And I mean, I kinda thought that everything happens in time. This one was on its own time, but it did happen.
CASEY GOODWIN
Sometimes, I wonder why it is that characters are introduced. I have wondered that with Casey. She shows up at the weirdest times and then disappears.
This time is no different.
She shows up at the cafe when Alice is working just to say “hi.” Alice tells her that they’ll be seeing a lot of each other being as the Goodwin’s bought the land. Casey suddenly has to bolt and once again, you’re thinking woah, this girl is somewhat strange.
But here we are. And then even stranger she shows up at the farm to tell Del that the sale is no longer going through.
AND THEN, even stranger is that she’s wearing Alice’s ring around her neck. Is Casey, well, is she Alice’s daughter? Sister? Who is she?
DEL MOVES FORWARD
Have to admit that I want Del to move forward. She and Sam seem cute together. They seem to also bring something out of each other and what is better than that?
I feel for Del because she feels like moving forward means that she’s forgetting Colton. I feel like Colton would want her to be happy and if Sam makes her happy, why not? It’s just a matter of her opening her heart and that seems to be something that she doesn’t like to do.
I am not blaming Del for that though. She’s had a hard life. Been hurt more than one person deserves to be hurt. Yet, I love the moments that we’re seeing her let walls down and what we’re left with is a woman who has so much to give.
She can definitely take it at her own pace and she should.
THE PAINTING
Well, hold the paintbrush, because we know now who it is that painted Katherine and it definitely wasn’t who we expected.
Susanna.
When Kat found Susanna’s headstone, there was the same star on there that was on the painting. And in the painting was a secret message. In the fireplace, Susanna left a manuscript, as well as Jacob’s page from the almanac.
Susanna and Kat were something special and the way that they knew what each other needed… well that’s something I can respect. I respect that Susanna wouldn’t let what her time said that she could do as a woman define who she is. Instead, she fought against that and made sure that she was finding her voice.
However loud or quiet it needed to be.
I just don’t understand why that painting was in the Goodwin’s home. What is their tie to the Landrys? What is their tie to Kat?
JACOB COMES HOME
I about fell off the chair when I saw Jacob come through the pond. Luckily Kat was right there to help her brother and guide him home.
Jacob returning isn’t something that I thought I would see.
Before I even start talking more, can we please talk about how piercing Jacobs’s eyes are? Like wow, the blue of those eyes was insane. He’s captivating.
What I am going to be excited to see is Jacob returning and Del’s reaction. But, I will also love to see his reaction to Alice. There’s just so much there and how the third season will all come together with Jacob back, I am intrigued.
I love that Jacob has returned, it’s just how he will explain where he’s been. That’s the thing that will be one of the most intriguing things to me. I think that Jacob is going to change the dynamics of this town.
Jacob does bring the news that Thomas survived. He’s alive. He had gotten armor and wore it, preventing Cyrus’s gun from killing him.
OTHER THOUGHTS
WAIT – Colton is a time traveler? WHAT THE HELL? Does this mean he’s still alive? I need to understand how this changes everything and what he knew about Jacob in 1814.
Does this mean that he knew about what happened with Jacob? How does this change things? Was he time-traveling to find Jacob?
I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS!
Also – the coins from Thomas – did he know that the Landrys needed help? I have so many questions. I also want to know if Kat’s going to be able to part with them because she does love Thomas and they are from him.
Unfortunately, I will get no answers until 2025, when The Way Home returns.