Season 2 Episode 2 of The Way Home premiered on Sunday, January 29, and this latest episode gets another A+ review. A few new mysteries were introduced, and tensions are growing higher for the Landry family (and for Elliot!) The episode rewarded viewers with a solid clue about Jacob, while introducing new mysteries that are bound to be the topic of discussion for quite some time. Let’s look at some of the biggest mysteries in the show so far, and what was revealed in this episode, including the flashback Elliot had, what he was writing in his journal, and a look at that mysterious horse.
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**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR S2E2 BELOW**
Elliot Might Be Hiding Another Visit from Alice in the Past, Based on His Flashbacks
The episode picks right back up where we left off last week. Knowing there is only one person right now who knows anything about what’s going on, Alice returns to the present-day and visits Elliot to catch him up. Unfortunately, Elliot is so caught up in his own questions that he doesn’t end up being much help to Alice. He falls back into the pattern of lecturing her about time travel. She explains that they’re trying to find Jacob, which gives him pause, but he’s still unhappy with their choices.
Alice has a great line in her opening conversation with Elliot, when she says that ruining his life “was an accident” on her part, but his decision to leave “was a choice.”
As the episode continues, we slowly realize that there’s more going on with Elliot than meets the eye. He has his own demons to battle, and I have a feeling that he may have more of a connection to time travel than we were led to believe in Season 1. When he’s in Evelyn’s home, he has some flashbacks to something really bad that happened there. I’m going to guess that the fountain/pool on the property is connected somehow to the pond, and both are time travel portals. His flashback might somehow be related to that.
Here’s what Elliot heard when he was in Evelyn’s home, according to closed captions:
“She said she wants you to leave,” Elliot hears his younger self saying.
“Alice, just go back inside,” he recalls Kat saying.
He hears Brady in the past saying, “Stay out of this buddy. Alright?”
And then he hears a woman in the past screaming.
I can’t help but think that Elliot’s flashback is related to why he doesn’t want Alice and Kat time traveling any more: he knows something bad will eventually happen if they do. At the end of the episode, Kat and Elliott have another big fight. Elliot thinks it’s wrong that she’s using the pond and it’s become some sort of a fixation. Since he firmly believes the past can’t be changed, he thinks her actions are a waste of time and putting people in danger. But Kat disagrees and believes she still can make a difference somehow. Their argument compels her to go right back to 1814.
Yes, Elliot is hiding something, and it isn’t good.
Elliot’s Journal
Elliot’s journal also contains some clues, which you can read below.
The first page we see has an entry from January 17(?), 2000. In it, Elliot wrote that his last theory was “scrapped!!” a;nd the gaps between Alicie’s visits weren’t getting longer because she was already back. He thought he had the pond figured out, he wrote, but he was wrong.
Then he adds that Alice finally ended things with Nick, and he was glad because “things were starting to get really weird” and there was nowhere their relationship could go. He adds that Nick is really upset, but needs to move on and he’ll be OK.
Then Elliot has an entry for February 20, 2020, which was for Colton’s funeral. He writes about how the world has come crashing down and “nothing has gone right since she showed up… What does that mean?” Then he adds that he thinks the pond might be cruel in its choices, such as bringing her back right before something like the funeral. Then he talks about how surreal the funeral was, and how Brady was there.
This second page’s first entry is from June 24, 2000, which is months after the funeral. This is his entry after Alice had returned the first time for just a few minutes (which we saw.) He wrote that it was the day before Kat was leaving and the day after he graduated, and the timing was really bad.
The second entry is two days later, likely the second time Alice visited. So we don’t get any significant clues from this journal, unlike his flashback.
Kat Finds Big Clues in the 1800s
At the beginning of the episode, Kat finds herself in a very dangerous position. She’s back in 1814, going septic after being shot, and stuck in a timeline that doesn’t have access to nearly the kind of medicine she could get in the present day. Thankfully, she is nursed back to health, but she also eventually finds herself under the close scrutiny of two dangerous men. I’m glad they didn’t leave her stuck in 1814, but allowed her to escape and go back home (even if she is already returning again.)
We get some really interesting clues while Kat is in 1814.
The owner of The Point general store (established in 1795, according to the sign) is Thomas.
He made a deal with the woman, Susanna Augustine’s, dad.
Susanna is somehow related to Elliot, since he’s an Augustine too, but it’s not yet clear how.
Cyrus Goodwin catches up with Kat briefly before Susanna rescues her, and reveals that he runs the entire town in 1814. We know from earlier episodes that he was the founder of Port Haven, along with Elijah and Rebecca Landry.
Later, we find out that Samuel Augustine is the name of the person who wrote “The Founding of Port Haven,” a book that Colton read so much that his copy fell apart. (In our public “The Way Home” Facebook group, there’s speculation that Samuel is a pseudonym that Susanna used, since the 1800s were not a friendly time for women.)
Jacob Might Be Located
We get a little closer to finding Jacob when Susanna revealed to Kat that a young boy named Jacob Landry is living on the Landry farm. Kat describes her brother, and Susanna says the description is the same. Thus, we’re left to believe that when Jacob went back in time, he ended up in 1814 and right back under the care of a Landry family at the Landry farm.
Del Is Facing the Possibility of Losing the Landry Farm
Del has had an interesting storyline of her own. She wanted to start a nonprofit project at her farm to help make up for the money she’s losing from her neighbor no longer leasing her land. Unfortunately, her proposal to the town council is rejected. She’s left with a burgeoning worry that if she doesn’t figure something out, she might lose the family land. (And this also puts the time-traveling pond at risk!)
Although she imagines a conversation with Colton, where he advises her to confide in Kat, she ultimately decides not to (just like Kat decided not to confide in her about the pond. The women are still keeping secrets from each other.)
The Black Horse Is Not Susanna’s Horse
Del saw the mysterious black horse again in this episode. Many fans believe that this horse might be time traveling, perhaps from as far back as 1814. But in case you thought this was the same horse that Susanna was riding in 1814, it’s not. See a picture of Susanna’s horse below.
Her horse was a dark brown horse with a white mark on his head. The horse that Del is seeing is all black.
Alice Makes Tough Choices
Alice was impressive in this episode. She handled herself well, including dealing with her mom’s temporary disappearance and young Elliot’s initial anger towards her. She and young Elliot made amends when she went back in time the second time, even though she and present-day Elliot are still at odds (and understandably so.) In the end, realizing that her mom will have to go back to 1814 like the portrait indicates, she decides that now is not the time to leave the farm for the summer. Her dad is upset, but he gives her autonomy to make that decision rather than forcing her to visit, which he could have done.
Cons:
- There’s still only one con, and it’s that no one has opened up to Del yet and told her what’s going on.
My grade for The Way Home Season 2 Episode 2 is A+. Once again, I had to watch closely the entire time, and I definitely don’t have the mysteries figured out yet!
Stephanie Dwilson has been working in entertainment journalism for more than a decade. She's led teams of writers covering top TV show franchises like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty, and more. She's a veteran Hallmark journalist and runs a 60,000-member Facebook group dedicated to the genre.
Stephanie is a licensed attorney and she has a master's in science in science and technology journalism. You can reach her at [email protected].
