It turns out, time travel is pretty complicated. In the latest episode of Hallmark Channel’s new series The Way Home, Alice makes a surprising discovery about how the pond portal works. Meanwhile, Kat tries to start over with a new job and Del struggles to let go of a piece of her past.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Way Home Episode 3.]
Del tries to move forward by selling Clayton’s boat in the latest episode of ‘The Way Home’ on Hallmark Channel
In the Jan. 22 episode of The Way Home, Del (Andie MacDowell) took a major step toward healing by having a memorial service for her son Jacob (Remy Smith), who went missing more than 20 years ago. In “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” she tries to put another piece of her past to rest by selling her late husband Clayton’s (Jefferson Brown) boat.
Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) is horrified when her grandmother announces her decision. During her trips back to 1999, she’s seen how happy Del and Clayton were when they first bought the boat. But what she doesn’t realize is that her grandparents were never able to take the boat out on the ocean because Jacob vanished shortly after they purchased it.
In some ways, it’s strange that Del has kept the boat this long. As we saw in the series premiere, she’s already removed almost all signs of both Jacob and Clayton from her home. But the boat likely represents one of the last happy memories she has of her family before Jacob disappeared. It makes sense that she’s clung to it after letting go of so much else. Her daughter recognizes this, and urges her not to try to bury her entire past.
“You don’t have to erase every reminder of what life was like before it happened,” Kat (Chyler Leigh) tells her mom. “Turning your back on the past, it doesn’t make you strong.”
Ultimately, Del decides not to sell the boat, provided that Alice helps her fix it up. It’s a small but important step forward and one that suggests that Del, Alice, and Kat might be able to repair what’s broken in their family.
Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) discovers time travel is more complicated than she realized
Alice’s time-travel adventures continue in this episode, but she discovers that hopping between decades can be complicated. For one, the pond doesn’t always work in a predictable way. When she returns to 1999, she’s shocked to find that two months have passed, even though it’s only been one day in the present timeline.
A quick-thinking Alice comes up with an explanation for her absence that satisfies the teenage version of her mom (Alex Hook). But the realization that she won’t always know in what time she’ll end up when she jumps in the pond is unsettling. And if Alice does want to attempt to use her time-travel ability to find out what happened to Jacob, that’s going to be a lot harder if she doesn’t have control over where she goes when she travels.
Alice also discovers that time-hopping makes her own life more complicated. In the present, she misses out on a new friend’s party when she opts to spend the night in 1999. And while hanging out with teen Kat, she shares her first kiss with a guy named Nick (Samuel Braun). So far, we haven’t seen an adult version of Nick in the 2023 timeline. But things are going to get awkward if they encounter each other again and he’s now old enough to be her dad.
Kat (Chyler Leigh) discovers her daughter’s secret
Kat spends much of this episode trying to find her footing in Port Haven. She lands a job at the small local newspaper. But the editor isn’t impressed with her by-the-numbers article on a local farmer and his monster-sized vegetables. He urges her to go back and try to find the real story. She does, letting go of a little bit of her big-city reporter ego in the process. She also forges a tentative bond with her old high school rival, Monica (Samora Smallwood).
But the big moment for Kat in “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” comes in the episode’s final moments. She’s figured out that Alice didn’t show up at her friend’s party the night before. Rather than call her on her lies directly, Kat opts to follow her to see where she goes. She trails Alice to the pond and watches as she jumps in – and doesn’t emerge.
A stunned and frightened Kat follows her daughter into the water. We don’t see what happens after that. Will the pond work the same way for Kat as it does for Alice? And if it does, where will it take her? Hopefully, we’ll find out when another episode of The Way Home air Sunday, Feb. 5 at 9 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.
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