The Way Home season 3 episode 5 was phenomenal. We were given so many new clues (and some brand new mysteries too!) I’m so intrigued by Casey’s background, Kat’s future with Elliot vs. Thomas, what Del is hiding, what happened to Evelyn, the couple who left the baby… The list just goes on and on! So here’s a detailed recap and review, including a list of the mysteries we need answers for at the very end.
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR S3E5!
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Alice Says She Saw Casey in the Field & the Mystery Deepens
Kat tells Alice that Casey’s references were fake and they definitely don’t appear to be a Goodwin. And while Alice is convinced that Casey is a time traveler, Kat doesn’t believe it. (Which is odd to me. You’d think she’d at least be more open to the idea, considering that Casey was wearing her engagement ring to Brady in a photo! Shouldn’t that “ring” (pun intended) bigger alarm bells with her?)
Alice mentions to Kat that it was Casey she saw in the field. And I’m drawing a blank on when Alice said this before. I know that Sadie Laflamme-Snow apparently mentioned that Alice assumed this because she believes Casey can time travel. But was this actually brought up before on the show? The last I recall, Alice was telling Kat that someone was running through the field. I’ll happily edit this part if someone points out when Alice said this before. Otherwise, I’m going to believe it was in a cut scene.
Evelyn later tells Alice that “Cassandra” is a family name she’s always loved. Is it possible that Evelyn was somehow the person who named Casey? It’s probably more likely that Casey is a future Goodwin and got their name simply because Cassandra is an old family name.
But Casey definitely isn’t Max’s sibling, and Alice is beginning to wonder what that means. At the end of the episode, Max catches up with her on the way to school and confirms he doesn’t have any family member named Casey.
“Casey is a family name,” Max says. “…They did their Goodwin research.”
The comment just convinces Alice even more that Casey is from the future and related to Max in some way.
Thomas’ Love Song for Kat Is Swoon-Worthy
Did anyone else just swoon when Colton sang Thomas’ love song to Kat? Wow.
(I also love how this artistic side of the Coyle family carries on in Jasper, who told Kat and Alice to let the music soothe their souls. He even published the songs from the 1800s. “If you really want to know history…it’s in the art,” he says.)
Here are the lyrics:
Won’t you carry a part of my broken heart?
As you slip from these cold hands of mine.
For fate has divined and a smuggler and sprite are divided by water and time
So you drift in your world, while I wander mine
and I’ll sing what is too sad to tell
Though we left, you and me
We were never to be
So fare thee, fare thee well. Fare thee well.
Jasper taught the folk song to Colton and it dates back to Port Haven’s founding days. Jasper gives Kat one of the songbooks, and teen Del picks up one too. (This is where the old songbook found in Del’s piano bench came from.)
Kat reads part of the second verse later: “Carry part of my broken heart in yours, when the waves call you home. Though we loved, you and me, we were never to be. So fare thee well.”
It’s clear a big part of her heart is still with him.
How Is Colton a Rule Breaker?
Kat sees Grandma Fern, who is lost in her own thoughts — perhaps lost in a vision of the past? I wonder if Fern is seeing someone from the past, much like Del sometimes “sees” Colton. Maybe when Del is older, she too will be lost in visions like Fern…
When Fern comes out of her daze and sees Kat, she grabs the songbook and mutters to herself, “Potatoes and rye, potatoes and rye, plant them soon or else you’ll die.”
Kat says Colton is special (referring to his music) and Fern snaps back, “I told you he isn’t. I was worried that he was. And the brother. But I’m not now. There’s enough to worry about with Cole as it is. He’s a rule breaker.”
Is Fern referring to Colton’s time travel skills? Maybe he breaks the rules by traveling forward in time, or perhaps choosing something that wasn’t supposed to be? (Maybe there was more to Evelyn saying “it should have been her” when she sees Colton and Del together than meets the eye…)
Alice & Kat Disagree on Colton’s Time Traveling Potential
Kat and Alice also disagree on if Colton can time travel. Kat still thinks that Colton is time traveling because Elliot found his sweater where Alice was pushed into the pond. But Alice knows that Colton wasn’t time-traveling as a teen, so she thinks Colton never got that skill.
We all know that at some point Colton did start time traveling, but the question is when.
Ironically, Alice insists that because Colton met her in 1999, he would have recognized her from 1974 if he’s a time traveler. But this show seems to be establishing pretty well that the Landry family is bad at remembering faces. 😄 Del didn’t remember knowing Alice in 1974, Kat didn’t remember knowing Alice in 1999. Nick didn’t recognize Alice. Only Jacob has good facial recall. Plus, Colton might have only been pretending to not recognize her in 1999.
Evelyn later tells Alice that when she and Colton were 8, she almost drowned and Colton dove in to save her. Their parents separated them, but Evie doesn’t explain to Alice why. When she sees the “My Katherine” painting, she comments that it looks familiar. And while it’s easy to assume that’s because of Kat being in 1974 with Alice, could it actually be because Kat appeared to Colton and Evelyn at the pond when they were 8?
Del Snaps at Alice & Leaves Her Granddaughter Crying
Last week, Del redeemed herself to me when she was so supportive of Jacob and his PTSD. But old habits die hard, and her abrasive side came out again at the end of the episode when she snapped at Alice and left her crying.
Alice just asked innocent questions. She wanted to know what Evelyn’s life was like before she locked herself away. She wondered if Evelyn got married and was happy. Del says she didn’t get to know Evelyn very well because she put up walls. So Alice explains to her that Evelyn was in love with Colton and her heart was broken.
Del had no idea.
“That summer was about me and Colton,” she insists, kind of strangely.
Alice then simply says that other people were involved too, and Del lashes out at her. She wants to know if Alice wants her to feel guilty. But of course Alice doesn’t! She’s just trying to figure things out.
“It’s just that there’s another side to this story,” Alice says, sharing how amazing Evelyn was back then.
Del then jumps to really strange conclusions.
“Colton would have been better off with her?” she asks. Obviously that’s not what Alice was saying at all.
“You think I only thought about myself that summer?” Del continues. “Well maybe I did. And maybe I got the happily ever after for as long as I could. But isn’t that allowed?”
It’s such a weird reaction from Del.
“Don’t try to make me feel guilty about what Colton and I had… Stay out of my memories,” she yells at Alice.
It was a truly awful scene for poor Alice, and it’s so hard for me to imagine a grandma saying that to her granddaughter. I mean, my dad once told me that he was dating another woman when he met my mom and left her without much of an explanation. Decades later, he felt bad about doing that and wished he had gone about it differently, even though he and mom had a really beautiful love story. He just felt bad about how he treated that person from his past. And to me, that’s a more mature reaction when someone is decades removed and looks back at what happened. That’s what we should have seen from Del.
Alice’s questions are triggering Del to think about whatever big secret she and Colton were hiding all this time. But Del needs to give a big apology to Alice, because she didn’t deserve any of that.
Del later talks to Sam about why she doesn’t like her birthday.
“It’s memories,” she says. “I left Port Haven on my birthday after the most perfect summer in 1974. And I said goodbye to this town and Colton. And I went back home. But everything had changed. It was brutal and so lonely. So I made a selfish choice. A choice that left other people no choice at all… I’m worried she’ll think less of me.”
What choice could Del have possibly made back then that would cause her to be so defensive today?
Brady Was Great Comic Relief in This Episode
I’m not the biggest fan of Brady after what he did to Kat, and how he stole that kiss from her in a previous season. But he helped Del on a number of occasions last season, and does seem to care about his family. In this episode, I enjoyed how his character was essentially a foil for fun comic relief moments.
First, the verbal sparring between him and Elliot, with Jacob commenting about how in his time “men would duel for less.”
And then, Brady’s reaction to Alice and Noah’s relationship was funny, even if it was overly protective.
But his heartfelt talk with Jacob later was so sweet. He still blames himself about Jacob’s disappearance, and Jacob tells him that he never blamed Brady. It’s a great moment to watch.
Evelyn Stumbles Upon Something Big With the Ouija Board
Evelyn moves into the attic of Lingermore to get some space away from Del (and her new relationship with Colton.) She tells Alice there’s a rumor that an old ancestor of hers kept his wife locked up in the attic. And while she doesn’t know the name of the wife, she decides to call her Cassandra, which is a family name that she’s “always loved.”
Evelyn also talks about a movie called the Ghost & Mrs. Muir, where an old sea captain’s ghost haunted a widow’s home. But she wasn’t scared, and over time they fell in love.
“There’s this wild tension between the two of them because they can’t touch and they’re from separate worlds…” (Is this a callout to Kat and Thomas maybe?)
(By the way: Amazon sells the “Ghost & Mrs. Muir” novel, which you can get at this affiliate link here. Or rent the movie for free here.)
Evelyn decides to use a Ouija board to get in contact with the ghost of “Cassandra.”
Del, Colton, Evelyn and Alice take part in the Ouija board ritual.
The ghost tells her that using the board doesn’t drain its energy and, of course, points out that its name isn’t Cassandra.
When Evelyn asks who the ghost is, it just spells out: “Fire.”
Were you involved in a fire, Evie asks, and it just says: “Too fast.”
Evie starts to wonder if this might be Ric.
Then the board spells out “Blame.”
Who do you blame?, Evie asks. The pointer circles the board and seems to fly off in Colton’s direction, though that might be a red herring.
There was never a fire in Lingermore and there was never a fire in the Landry home. So what does this refer to? Could it be referring to Ric’s car wreck and driving too fast? Was Colton involved after all, like I wondered in previous reviews?
Susanna is Marrying Cyrus & Might Be the Witch in the Folk Song
Evelyn and Alice discover Susanna’s “My Katherine” painting in a hidden door in the attic. This seems to be the smoking gun that Susanna was the Goodwin “wife” kept locked in the Lingermore attic. (Of course, that could be a red herring, but I think it’s pretty likely.)
At Del’s birthday party, Emma plays a folk song on the violin (with Elliot accompanying on the piano) that Alice sings. It’s about a witch who is hung, and Kat immediately suspects that might be Susanna.
“This is a tale I’m sorry to tell.
But draw near and I will tell you.
Of when witches were hung for stealing the sun,
and hung by the light of the moon, my love.
And hung by the light of the moon.
She was a healer or so she had said,
my potions and tonics are true.
But when fie3lds went a fallow she was led to the gallows,
that loomed by the light of the moon, my love.
That loomed by the light of the moon.
When her hanging rope tightened,
the witch did not look frightened,
for the night went as dark as a tomb,
and when moonlight came back,
the noose just hung slack,
she was gone by the light of the moon, my love.
She was gone by the light of the moon.”
It’s obvious based on the song’s descriptions that this is likely about Susanna, and she was blamed for the darkness that befell Port Haven in 1816 after a volcano erupted and blotted out the sun for that summer. It was called the “year of no summer.” The writers truly did their homework for this one.
Kat and Jacob are in a rush to get back in time to Port Haven to stop Susanna’s death. (Of course, since they’re time travelers, there’s no need to actually rush. But no one remembers this lol.) Even though Kat has consistently been taken back to the 1970s recently, she and Jacob are taken back to the 1800s this time. (And can we just mention how brave it was for Jacob to go with her, after all his visions last week!)
Based on the song’s lyrics, it’s obvious that they will be successful and save Susanna from the noose (since the song says the witch disappeared.)
But what’s surprising is when they arrive and see Susanna preparing to marry Cyrus Goodwin. And she’s wearing the Augustine ring that Vic (or someone) stole from Elliot!
Elliot & Kat Are Still Struggling, And Then Emma Appears
Things aren’t looking so great for Kat and Elliot, and it seems like every episode is making that more apparent. After returning from 1974, Kat pulls Elliot into a kiss, insisting that people might “write songs” about their love. But it’s kind of obvious she doesn’t really feel that way and is just comparing their relationship to what she had with Thomas.
Elliot’s ex-wife Emma stops by for a surprise visit after Vic called her about the ring. Emma comes off as just a very nice woman who loved Elliot and got caught in the middle of a bad situation that she wasn’t at fault for. (She had no reason to think Elliot was still in love with Kat.)
Kat hears the story of when Elliot proposed to Emma (they were married from 2018 to 2020.) Emma doesn’t seem bitter at all, and she and Elliot are still true friends. She just seems like a genuinely good person caught in the middle. Elliot didn’t even decide to propose to her until he saw Kat and Brady together and thought they looked happy (when really it was the end of their marriage.)
It’s entirely possible that Emma’s presence could stir up enough jealousy in Kat that she decides Elliot really is the one for her, more so than 1800s Thomas. But when Kat told Brady that her move-in with Elliot was only “temporary,” that makes Elliot (and me as a viewer) pause. Why would she say that?
I Can’t Decide if Sam Is Mysterious or Not
I’m divided on if I should be thinking there’s more to Sam than meets the eye or not. He and Del have a sweet relationship, and he does seem more taken with her than she is with him (though she’s slowly growing more and more attached to him.)
Sam and Jacob have a really sweet relationship already. Sam stood up for Jacob in a previous episode before he briefly left town.
He also helped with the paperwork needed to get Jacob declared alive again, and the two shared a fond hug all their own. Doesn’t something in Sam’s expression here in the photo below seem to indicate a connection with Jacob that goes beyond just meeting him now?
Some viewers think that Sam may actually be Colton’s older brother, traveled forward in time somehow. (I don’t think this is possible in this case, unless both Colton and his brother were originally born in the future. While I think there’s a very small chance Colton might be a forward-time-traveling rulebreaker, I don’t think they’d do the same with Sam.)
Others wonder if Sam is a Goodwin from the future who traveled back in time. They showed an odd expression on his face back when Del first talked about the coins from the 1800s that they sold to save the Landry farm.
Or maybe Sam is just Sam and these little “hints” are red herrings… Could he just be a kind man who loves Del and her family? 🤷♀️ He did help with the paperwork needed to get Jacob declared alive again, and that was super sweet.
All the Mysteries & Questions We’re Still Pondering
Here are some questions I’m pondering this season. Let me know in the comments if I missed any.
- Who is Colton’s brother and what happened to him?
- Why were Evelyn and Colton estranged later in life?
- How did Colton “break” the rules?
- When did Colton start time traveling if he didn’t as a teen?
- What secret did Del and Colton hide, and why would it be a “fear” their children would have to carry?
- Can someone travel to the future?
- Who is “the one” that Evelyn referred to?
- Who was the couple who left the baby in a basket? And who was the baby?
- What happened to Colton’s dad?
- Why did Elliot’s mom leave and where is she now?
- Could Evelyn travel through the pond by herself?
- What does Fern’s rhyme about 1965 mean?
- Did Kat travel back in time and meet a younger Fern?
- What’s the deal with the clock Elliot found when he tore down the wall in his home? The time was 11:10.
- What’s so important about Elliot’s mom’s ring? Who stole it? (And why is Susanna wearing it in the 1800s?)
- How is Susanna saved in 1816 but still returns to the past?
- Who pushed Alice into the pond and why were they wearing Colton’s jacket?
- Who sent Del the letters?
- Who is Casey really? Were they running in the field like Alice thinks?
- What is the story behind the “bee” necklace?
- What happened to Finn the dog?
- Is Sam just a nice guy or is he a time traveler too?
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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].
