It’s impossible to be in the midst of a Team Elliot vs. Team Thomas situation right now, but I kind of feel like we are there anyway.
If you’re like me, you may have been a little bereft at leaving 1814 behind to tend to issues in the present, even if it meant we got to see what happened in 2007.
Then the realization hit: The Way Home Season 2 is working because of 1814.
If we’re going to say goodbye to the characters of 1814 over the course of the next two episodes, here’s a word for the producers for The Way Home Season 3:
Please reconsider.
The Way Home Season 2 Episode 8 steered mostly clear of the past, and in my estimation, it suffered for it.
Not even partially discovering what went down at Lingermore helped make the hour any more exciting. Why? Because it doesn’t seem like any wild party could tear apart a mother and daughter for 17 years.
Given everything we’ve seen so far, they’ve even been suggesting the possibility that Kat and Alice could be similarly at odds after Alice gets wind of what went down at the party.
And, then we got to the party, and it’s right out of an ‘80s teen movie.
Kat is the girl torn between two worlds, unhappy with her decision to leave the old one behind, regretting setting her future in stone when she has so much life to live.
At 24 years of age, she’s eager to build something for herself, and a family isn’t it. She’s already gone behind Brady’s back and applied for a journalism program overseas, so you know her heart’s not in the relationship any longer.
What wasn’t explained was why, out of the blue, Kat is reconsidering her feelings about Elliot. As he says in the present before their fiery (well, awkward to me) kiss, he needs to know he’s not her fallback guy.
Landing in Elliot’s lap and asking him to go to Europe with her was the epitome of using him as a fallback. For all of her fear of a future set in stone, at that age, she’s not necessarily ready to go it alone, either.
But even if she was mulling over her potential romantic feelings for Elliot, she failed to see just how far gone he was over her. She couldn’t read him in the past, and she can’t read him in the present.
How can she not know how he feels about her by now? Yes, he cut things off at the end of The Way Home Season 1, but even then, he didn’t exactly hide the fact that he was doing it to live a little since he’d spent his whole life waiting for her.
He never said his feelings were gone. When he returned, he apparently did it to try again with her, which I also thought was obvious, until he heard she had visited the pond again. That shut him down, and he never uttered a word about how he felt.
Now that I think about it, who wants to be with a man like that? Why is his action of choice not to act at all? Instead of using his words and asking questions and understanding the woman he supposedly loves, he clams up and assumes. And yes, that does indeed make asses out of both of them.
They have the worst communication style of any romantic couple I’ve ever seen. Neither of them really listens to what the other says, and they sure as hell don’t read emotional or physical cues, either.
But let’s go back to the Lingermore party for a minute.
Elliot and Brady were in an actual brawl, which was embarrassing. Neither of them is cut out for that kind of activity, which led to Elliot slugging Kat and knocking her unconscious.
This must be how Kat discovers she’s pregnant. It’s not exactly an event that would otherwise cement her future with Brady. She’s obviously going to the hospital, and they’ll probably discover she’s got a bun in the oven.
Can you think of any other reason she and Brady stay together after this fiasco of a night?
None of what’s happened so far is deadly to a mother-daughter relationship, though. Well, unless you’re Alice and worried that you may disappear in a puff of smoke when the past changes in an instant.
What was all of her prattling on about things changing? Nobody had ever spoken with her about Lingermore, so how would she know if anything was changing? Common sense should have told her that if she was still there, things carry on as expected.
As for Kat and Del, I guess Del was up in arms over the fact her daughter humiliated her. Del was angry during The Way Home Season 2 Episode 7 because Kat humiliated her again with her Founder’s Day edition of The Herald.
Del cares a bit too much about what other people think. Why wasn’t she concerned about what was going on with Kat in the past and present to ask why? She could still ask why in the past, but given a 17-year rift, it seems unlikely.
Del apparently shouldered the burden of the house party. Elliot’s dad wouldn’t be able to pony up any cash. But there were lots of other kids there, too. Why did it all rest on Del? She kept saying she could never repay Evelyn. For what?
Trashing the house seems like a good answer, and perhaps not pressing charges. But wouldn’t Elliot be in the line of fire since the house is his responsibility?
More importantly, why am I wasting so much time trying to figure out how a party gone bad ruined so many relationships? If that was the criteria, I probably still wouldn’t be talking with my mother.
We’ll find out on The Way Home Season 2 Episode 9 how badly Del reacts to the party and Kat’s accident. It’s just an odd revelation that this is the event that tore them apart.
While we’re on the subject of Del and overreacting, it’s been 20 years since her husband died, and she never dated again. When she does, all she thinks about is Colton. I’ve never lost a husband (because I was never married), but doesn’t 20 years seem a little long?
Shake it the hell off already, Del! You’ve got an incredible man who admires you, and you’re being peevish. It’s silly. Also silly is how she is too proud to accept money from her daughter for the farm in the past and as an investment from Sam in her desire to community farm in the present.
Del is an enigma. She’s stubbornly proud yet also overly concerned about what others think. I’m still not sure what to make of her. Who is she? What did she do those 20 years? Will we ever find out?
Speaking of finding out — did Nick just realize that his Alice is present Alice? Will Elliot tell him the truth?
Of course, the discovery came on the heels of his desire to reunite with Claire, an oddity that should mean nothing since Alice is a child. But you can’t say that it wasn’t written to suggest he’s still not over his childhood crush.
This hour was made up of drama for drama’s sake when we could have been spending time in 1814. How could Kat turn her heels just after connecting with Jacob again?
How unimpressed he is with her being there makes me wonder if the story will end with her saying goodbye and moving on, never sharing with Del that Jacob didn’t die but lived a wonderful life in the past.
Del would think she was nuts anyway. She isn’t one to believe much of what Kat says, and she often dismisses it outright because she’s so sure she already knows what Kat is thinking or feeling. Yet, like Elliot, she does not.
Do you know what’s missing on The Way Home? Happiness. How often have you seen anyone smile? Elliot, especially, is one dour dude. Seeing him in a dance-off was interesting. That he was the one who suggested it shocked me to the core.
Nick is always smiling. Monica enjoys life. Kat becomes a different person in 1814, which is why I like her there. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. She comes alive when she leaves the present behind. After reading this review, maybe that makes more sense to you.
Kat doesn’t get to be herself with the people who supposedly love her. With Alice, she is. With Del and Elliot, she’s always on tenterhooks, worrying that she’ll say or do the wrong thing. That’s no way to live, and it is definitely no way to love.
If I were going to choose a man for Kat, I’d want to do the impossible on this show that makes the impossible probable: find a way to bring the past to the present or to drag out our visits to the past indefinitely.
Kat knows where she stands with Thomas because he doesn’t hide things. Yes, he did have some secrets, but she knew him for all of a minute, so they weren’t exactly mysteries. They just hadn’t come up yet.
She’s known Elliot all her life, yet she knows relatively nothing about him. What does that say about the two of them? Do you see them changing after all this time and opening up to one another entirely? I don’t see it. Maybe it’s because I don’t want it to happen.
Let’s be honest: I was Team Lucas during the trials and tribulations of the most annoying love triangle on TV over there on When Calls the Heart, so it shouldn’t be a shock that I’d be Team 1814, either.
What about you? Did “Lose Yourself” do it for you? Did the party at Lingermore live up to the lore? Do any of these people know how to have natural relationships?
Let me know what you think about everything in the comments below!
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.