The Way Home Season 5 took Kat and Nick to the 1920s—and without fail, they ended up in jail… again.
Though this time, it was kind of worth it and worked in their favor, as Kane eventually released them so that they could help Fern and help him take down Grayson Goodwin.
He seems to be the only other person who sees through the Goodwin charm, mostly because he’s got the hots for Fern, who is definitely aware that she’s in danger, especially as the Auggie boys, who previously struck up a friendship with Nick, realize that he double-crossed them, nearly costing him his trip back home via pond.
It was a tense moment, as it wasn’t immediately clear if Nick would be trapped in the 1920s indefinitely when Kat was pushed into the pond before he could get there, but the pond doesn’t make mistakes, and he arrived safely back home after getting to experience time traveling for himself.
And what a ride it was. It’s fun to see someone else experience the rollercoaster that is time travel. Kat and Alice have become kind of immune to the charms, often not realizing the great gift that they’ve been given.
Nick reminded Kat of that, even though his reckless attitude was a little infuriating at first.
He seemed not to understand that time traveling wasn’t a game and came with its fair share of danger; however, it was also necessary to get them the answers they were seeking.
He was necessary to accomplish what Kat couldn’t, as his passive approach got them in with the Auggie boys, as they bonded over sailor things and drinks.
Kat almost takes it too seriously sometimes, as she’s on a mission to find out the truth about Tessa, and as Fern pointed out, she sometimes doesn’t ask the right questions.
Nick eventually learned the location of their hideout, where they make rum and work for their boss, “The Big Fish,” while Kat managed to get some facetime with Grayson, where she learned that he knows all about Auntie Coop—who is also on the Auggie boys’ radar.
Everything with Grayson is rather ominous, but I’m not sure if that’s because he’s actually dangerous or because the show wants us to believe he is. He didn’t seem to hate Auntie Coop and seems to truly love Fern.
Is he calling all the shots for real? Or is there someone else in charge? Someone like Tessa, perhaps? I think Kat may have gotten it wrong, though someone does want her gone.
Kat’s meeting with Grayson revealed other tidbits of information—pieces of a puzzle that will hopefully fall into place one day to reveal the larger picture—like the fact that Fern also had a brother who was killed in combat and whose body was never recovered, leading me to believe that he also may have found his way into the pond, just like Jacob.
Then her mother died young and her father succumbed to the Spanish flu, meaning Fern has a lot in common with Kat and Del, as she’s endured her fair share of loss and suffering as well.
The episode confirms Del suffered a miscarriage, which Alice experiences firsthand in the ’70s, allowing her to better understand her grandmother.
I do hope that we’ll get some explanation as to the fallout between Del and Evelyn, as in the ’70s, they all seem friendly and cozy, so it’s unclear what happened to the friendship after Kat was born. Why did she lock herself in Lingermore?
Will there be enough time in the season to explore it?
Anywho, once Kat finally locates Fern, she gets the confirmation she’s been seeking this whole time—she does know Tessa, and she has all her life.
While she doesn’t know when she’ll be back, she explains that every single time she’s come by, she has asked if anyone from the pond came looking for her.
This means Tessa is still alive in 1925, but where is she when she’s not there? What is all the traveling she’s doing? If she can’t jump into the pond alone, does this mean she’s with Griffin all the time?
She’s also clearly in deep with the Auggie boys, so my guess is she had some hand in the illegal alcohol distribution, maybe even way more than we could’ve ever imagined. And let’s not forget that something happened in the mines under Lingermore that we still haven’t dug into. Was Griffin the one shot at the mines?
Meanwhile, Elliot and Alice travel to the 1970s, where he gets to see his mother before she became a mom.
He doesn’t have any memories of her, but seeing her in this young and carefree moment, dressed up as the white witch and playing with Evelyn’s son, shows him what his childhood could’ve looked like, even if Tessa wasn’t exactly convinced that she wanted a child of her own.
There was a questionable moment during which Tessa stole Evelyn’s tarot cards, and just like when she stole the money at Coyle’s, it doesn’t come with an explanation and is largely dismissed by the events that follow. I’m wondering if maybe she’s just got a stealing problem, which got her into trouble in the 1920s?
And then there’s the incredible moment where Elliott meets a version of his dad that he’s always hoped for—another glimpse into what could’ve been if it hadn’t been for Tessa’s one fateful decision that changed the outcome of his entire life.
It’s a beautiful yet painful moment for Elliott, as he harbors the pain of knowing how everything turns out instead, while talking with a man who is so hopeful about the future.
At least he knows that the right intentions were always there. It’s such a gift to be able to see this, even if it is an extremely brutal realization. And his father doesn’t even know he’s talking to the man who bears those scars.
Time travel is such a gift and a curse.
In the present, Del’s horse incident results in a concussion that keeps pulling her between the past and the present.
She keeps slipping back into the memory state to be with Colton and a young Jacob, but the harder she tries to hold on and chase what once was, the more dangerous it becomes.
Eventually, she realizes she has to live in the present, as Jacob finally decides to come home and be with everyone. Del finally got her baby back, slightly different than the memory she holds of him, but it forces her to prioritize the present versus the past for the first time in a while. She needs to nurture what she has left and value the ones around her.
Del’s family may have been largely away, dealing with pond business, but she had two gentlemen eager to take care of her. She realized that while she may have felt butterflies with Julian, it wasn’t a reality for her, and shot his advances down, while the verdict is still out for her romance with Sam.
Admittedly, I feel like a little too much time was spent on Del throughout this episode when there are still so many lingering questions that remain unanswered. I know her relationship with Colton is the emotional depth and anchor for the series, but it isn’t providing anything new for us—and with a final season, well, I feel like we’ve worked through this already. It’s hard to imagine Del letting go and moving on, but if we can’t change what happened in the past via time travel, she needs to prioritize the now, for her own sanity.
It also feels like the series just doesn’t know what to do with Jacob’s storyline, so they sidelined him, but I feel like there’s so much to explore about his past and his future.
There are plenty of lingering questions that exist in the present, including Claire and Sam’s identity.
After Nick’s rollercoaster experience as a time-traveling hitchhiker, he tells Kat that he’s closed on his house, so will we finally meet his future wife? Have we already met her? And are we right to be super suspicious of her?
There also hasn’t been much momentum on KC and Sam, though we know they are connected. Sam seems to be around a lot more, which is great, but it goes against my theory that he’s also from the future. But then, who is he? And why does he know about the pond?
And will we have enough time to dig into these storylines properly and wrap up the loose ends? I’m afraid that the conclusions won’t be satisfying/rushed. I’m hoping this is all setting up the foundation to easily connect all the dots later for that true aha moment that leaves us content and feeling the magic of the first pond jump.