Hallmark Channel’s The Way Home began in January 2023, but I didn’t find it until years later on Netflix. At the time, the supernatural drama only had two seasons available to stream, with the third being added months later. Despite only 20 episodes to binge-watch, I instantly fell in love with the Landry family.
I’m a time travel genre buff who was looking for a new show or movie to obsess over, and the Landry women have filled the gap. Although it’s ending this year with this being the final season, I couldn’t be more stoked to see how their story ends. It’ll be bittersweet unraveling all the time travel pond mysteries. It’ll also be magical finding out all the secrets throughout the history of the Landry, Augustine, and Goodwin families that have been passed down for generations.
The pond has given and taken from its travelers, but mostly it has brought answers and friends through time. Alice’s (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) adventures led her to befriend her mom and her best friend in 1999, while Kat’s (Chyler Leigh) jumps led her to befriend an Augustine and falling in love with Coyle in the 1800s.
Wherever they travel, the pond always takes them where they need to go. As they uncovered the mystery of Colton’s (Jefferson Brown) time traveling, Del Landry (Andie MacDowell) started to understand her late husband’s life and secrets despite having mixed feelings about his hiding time travel from her. At the end of season three, the latest time travel mystery left us hanging when Elliot Augustine (Evan Williams) discovered his mom may have jumped in the pond when she left him as a baby.
Letters break hearts sometimes
Kat, Alice, and Elliot rush to the pond to try to get to Tessa Augustine (Elliot’s mom) while Sam lurks behind a tree out of sight. They’re too late; she’s already jumped and left baby Elliot in a basket with the note. They carry baby Elliot to his house and uncover that his mom knew his dad would be gone on a trip when she left him. Kat knows there’s one more place they can try: the Landry farm.
This time-travel trip reveals who knocked on the door in 1984. Kat sat baby Elliot on the porch, knocked, and watched from the bushes as a young Del, Colton, and baby Kat emerged from the house. Elliot’s rightfully bothered by Del and Colton not sounding surprised to find him. He wonders what they knew about his mom as Kat tries to get him to go home since baby Elliot is safe.
Danny comes to the Landry farm worried about Jacob (Spencer MacPherson). Sam rushes in, and Del immediately tells him they need to catch up to the bus Jacob is on. She can’t let him leave, not without knowing why. Del drives fast enough and gets the bus to pull over so she can talk to Jacob. The talk is unsuccessful. Jacob has to leave because of the letters Del has been getting for him coming home. He needs to know he can build a life in the present time. She has to let her go. He promises to call her, and they part on love not being enough for him to stay in Port Haven.
After Del gets home, she sits down with Kat, Elliot, and Alice to tell them about Jacob leaving and the letters. She doesn’t want to talk more in depth about it when she sees their wet clothes. Kat tells Del that they think that Tessa jumped in the pond with a Landry and reveals that she put baby Elliot on the porch. Elliot ponders that the Landry could be a time traveler, but then he backpedals and doesn’t want to know more about why his mom left him or who she left with.
7 months later
Alice plays her guitar and sings in the field when Kat finds her. She only has 48 hours as a high schooler, and it is time to celebrate that in downtown Port Haven. As they are on their way to the house, Elliot stumbles into a hole that Del is digging in the yard. She tells him it’s a small personal project and leaves it at that, with vague answers. They reveal that they’ve taken a break from the pond, and Elliot is proposing at the end of summer. Kat reminds him she needs her wingman since Brady is coming to dinner, while Del tells him to bring wine.
Kat and Alice drive to downtown Port Haven as they sing and reminisce about arriving at the Landry farm for the first time. Now, Alice is graduating and getting ready to leave for college. She’s struck with a life lesson: her dream car, after months of sitting on the side of the road, has a "sold" sign. Kat: “Life is rife with disappointment.” Kat struggles with waiting for Elliot to propose while Alice reminds her that boyfriends can be complicated. Yet, Kat reminds her that she has a great boyfriend in Noah.
Alice walks into the Point Cafe to set up, as she greets Noah with a kiss, and Max tries to get things rolling. They put out framed pictures of graduates - Kat and her friends, Noah, and Del and Colton (the greatest small town couple). We flash back to 1975 as Colton promises to make traditions with Del as they graduate and start their life. It is a hint to what Del is looking for in the yard, but she still hasn’t found it as she wonders where Colton put it.
Celebrating Alice
Later that night, they have a family dinner with the soon-to-be college graduate. Alice tones down her dad’s praises about college by saying she got in with the help of Noah helping with her audition types, and Max helping her keep her grades up. She’s humble about her success because she knows it’s okay that she didn’t do it alone. Yet, Brady can’t stop harping on paying the bill, and is glad she is going to school within the States. Of course, he makes a dig at Kat’s job and money. Del shuts it down; she wants to stop wishing summer away before it has even started.
Kat makes a bittersweet speech to Alice on her next steps as she leaves the house to start her journey. It is even more heartbreaking when Del reflects on the mother-child bond, which has Elliot hurting again, as we see his nightmare about trying to chase his mom to the pond. He pulls out the clock and sets it on the mantle. As he’s walking back to bed, it starts playing a tune.
Alice finds Kat in the pond after an unsuccessful jump. She reveals that she didn’t stop using the pond as they promised, but unfortunately, it hasn’t taken her anywhere either. Fern told her she goes back to another era where she meets her, but it hasn’t happened for Kat yet. Although she’s hopeful it’ll lead to Tessa, she doesn’t know for sure.
Finally, Del digs up what she’s been looking for in the year. A flashback reveals her and Colton buried it years ago. As she uncovers it, the mailwoman drops off a package for Alice from Jacob. Kat and Del watch Alice open the package: two mint-condition Alice in Wonderland books with a note from Jacob. The inscription only leaves them wondering even though the note is heartfelt.
The Port Haven residents return to the Point Cafe for the graduation celebration, where Mr. Goodwin picks at Kat about the estate. They put on a happy face since their kids, Max and Alice, are friends. Rita reveals that Mr. Goodwin plans to open up the estate’s tunnels, where hopefully some ghost stories reside for Rita’s ghostly podcast. As their conversation ends, Max announces that they met their fundraiser goal, with his father making the largest donation on a box of film reels. Then, Max introduces Alice to sing, and she gets nervous and pivots from an original song to Colton’s song.
Before Alice puts on her cap and gown, she pulls out Colton’s Alice in Wonderland editions and starts to uncover the pages that match up. Her curiosity is cut short as her mom calls her down to the front yard. Alice worries about choking at The Point Cafe, as she did on the stage before they came to Port Haven. Kat reminds her that memory was her past, and now she’s stepping into her future. Del and Kat promise Alice that she’ll always have them and the farm as Elliot pulls up in her dream car.
After graduation, they celebrate with family and friends as Elliot feels like Max mirrors him as a teenager when he loved Kat, while she loved Brady. Del walks out with the time capsule that she and Colton buried in 1975: a tradition they tried to start but couldn’t find until now. The letter she wrote to their future child for their graduation. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find it when Kat graduated, so now she reads it to Alice and encourages her to do the same for future generations. Later that night, Del worries she pushed Kat away again by not remembering that letter all those years ago. Rita tells her to shake it off and have some fun as a song reminds Del of a painful memory.
Fern’s riddle explained
Max and Alice have a tough conversation after the Cove party. He wishes he had performed her song because he wants her to believe in herself. It reveals that they are best friends now and won’t be together in the fall. She knows she’ll be okay even if she doesn’t feel like it. While Max is doing something, Alice walks in on Mr. Goodwin watching the 1925 film reels he bought at the celebration.
He leaves to take a phone call as Fern Landry dances on the film reel. She’s interrupted by a time-traveling Kat. The strip cuts off as Kat and Fern look scared of something off-camera. She takes the reel and hurries home to show Kat and Elliot. They marvel at how different 1925 Fern was from 1974 Fern who raised her son alone. “65 there they thrive, 65 and 25,” was the riddle Fern told Kat, and now it is starting to make sense. Elliot doesn’t believe it is connected to his mom. The 65 can’t be connected to Tessa because she would be 67 now, but Kat isn’t convinced.
In a flashback to 1975, Fern gives Colton a letter from his brother, Griffin. She convinces him to add the pocket watch to the time capsule, even though he doubts their kids will know his brother. In the present, Del apologizes to Kat for not reading the letter to Kat. She realizes that it was generational wounds, as she worries she’s too wrapped up in her grief again. Kat reveals she sends Jacob updates via text to still keep him involved in their life. Del hopes Alice will remember where she buried her time capsule as she heads out to bury it.
As we see her letter to her future child, her shovel hits something hard. She digs up a suitcase full of Tessa’s belongings that reveals her true birth year (1961, not 1959), the only remaining photo of her and Elliot. The blanket in the photo is the same one that was wrapped in. Tessa would have been 65, meaning she must know Fern, and the reason Kat goes back to 1925. All the clues lead Elliot to want to jump into the pond. Alice wishes them good luck as she watches Elliot and Kat jump to try to get to Tessa.
But sadly, Elliot isn’t taken with Kat and reemerges, leaving Alice to jump after her mom as Elliot returns to hug Del. Kat emerges to find a young Fern greeting her, while Alice is greeted by an older Fern. They both ask where they are from as the episode ends, and Alice’s letter reminds her future child that there will always be a road that leads back to family.
The next episode of The Way Home airs on Hallmark Channel on April 26 at 9 p.m. ET
Add us as a preferred source on Google