The Way Home Season 3, Episode 4, “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” Spoilers Ahead
It’s a lore-heavy week with The Way Home Season 3, Episode 4, “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song.” While the Landry women learn lessons about life and love in multiple time periods, the pond lore keeps growing. It’s an episode that reminds us not to lose sight of the all-important little things, even when the big picture is overwhelming.
A New Dawn
I suspect it will be controversial to have Kat actually move in with Elliot in “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song,” but I like it, and not just for romantic reasons. Since we met her, Kat has thrown her own life overboard to help her family, get answers for her family, or protect her family. But now, it feels healthier for Del to let go a little, for Jacob to have space without a protective big sis hovering, and for Kat to prioritize her own life and relationships. And she’s right next door!
For the first two seasons, Kat and Alice, as our time travelers, mirrored each other. But now, Kat is mirroring Del more and more. Alice is growing up and striking out on her own in small ways. It’s challenging for Kat, who keeps trying to convince herself that Alice needs her in the same way she used to. But she knows deep down that it’s good to have her kid take steps forward — something Del knows quite a bit about. Chyler Leigh and Andie MacDowell are just so good at playing these beats.
Nothing Good Happens at Lingermore
The Way Home Season 3, Episode 4, “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song,” spends more time really digging into Jacob’s trauma. A sweet flashback of him and Colton “camping” in the fields morphs into a nightmare featuring Cyrus Goodwin, taunting Jacob about leaving his family behind in 1814. Things get much weirder when Lewis Goodwin calls, wanting to pitch a business opportunity.
Lewis wants Jacob to partner with him on wine production (throwback to last year’s storyline about the Goodwins trying to buy out some Landry property). Specifically, he wants Jacob to apply his knowledge of historic farming practices to help the Goodwin wine venture. I don’t trust Lewis, and neither does Jacob. It doesn’t help when he keeps having flashbacks of his torture at Cyrus’s hands.
Later, Del spots the scars on Jacob’s back, and he eventually tells her the truth about what happened to him. It is heartbreaking when Jacob calls himself “broken.” Port Haven desperately needs a therapist! Del points out that Jacob would be good at the vineyard job, but it’s Jacob’s call to make.
The Lingermore of today is intercut with Alice and Evelyn in the past. What’s supposed to be a hangout at the house with Colton gets turned upside down when he spots Del by the pool. He apologizes and manages to get a date with her, to Evelyn’s dismay. She enlists Alice to put on the world’s least subtle disguises (sunglasses, naturally) and spy on the date from afar.
Finding Love in the Little Things
“There is so much beauty in real life. The small moments in relationships that matter the most. The little gestures — not the grand ones. That’s where the love is.” Del tells a stressed-out Kat. That seems to be the overarching theme of the episode and, indeed, the season so far. I appreciate how this episode weaves together all three generations of Landry women as they come to that realization in their own ways.
The starting point is, of course, young Del and Colton. First, he insists on taking her on a boat ride despite her protestations. Bad idea. When that fails miserably because of her motion sickness, he tries to apologize by serenading her with ABBA’s “Waterloo.” Better, because it calls back to her calling out his music snobbery. Alice (and a heartbroken Evelyn) sees this, and in the present day, Alice tells Del how cool it was to see the moment she and Colton fell in love. But alone with Colton’s ghost/memory, Del reveals the truth. That wasn’t the moment they fell in love. It was later, alone, when he showed her an acupressure trick on her wrists to relieve her nausea.
Del offers that wisdom to Kat, who is struggling in The Way Home Season 3, Episode 4, “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song.” The “honeymoon stage” with Elliot is over, and they’re starting to quibble about things like cleaning floors. Kat admits she’s terrified that they’ll end up like her and Brady: glorified roommates with nothing in common. Del encourages her to have faith in the little moments — as we’ve seen, those were the most precious moments she and Colton shared.
At first, Kat gets in her own head and nearly backs out of living with Elliot. But then, they’re in the kitchen, a familiar song (“Closing Time” by Semisonic — welcome back ’90s references!) comes on, and they get goofy, singing along and dancing together. And then, you know, intensely making out on the kitchen counter. As one does! Until Kat sees the mystery sweater and recognizes it — yep — as one of Colton’s.
Finally, it’s Alice’s turn. On her official first date with Noah, Alice mindlessly scratches at a mosquito bite. Noah takes her wrist and gently presses on a pressure point to help stop the itch. A perfect parallel! Which is quickly overshadowed by the arrival of Lewis’s son, Max Goodwin — who has never heard of Casey?!
She Knows Not What the Curse May Be
This season has been introducing a new literary motif, and we have to talk about it. Evelyn is clearly portrayed as the Lady of Shalott, aka Elaine of Astolat. This figure in Arthurian legend is famous for two things: her unrequited love for Lancelot and a curse. In the best-known version of her story, Elaine is cursed to remain in her tower, unable to look outside except through a mirror, and isolated from the world. She falls in love with Lancelot, who she watches from afar. When she looks down through her window, the curse comes upon her. As her last act, she leaves the tower, gets into a boat, and dies floating down the river to Camelot, where Lancelot discovers her.
The parallels aren’t exactly subtle. In a previous episode, Evie refers to Colton as “Lancelot,” and the image of her being stuck at Lingermore certainly evokes “lady in a tower” imagery. They get even less subtle during this episode when Alice finds Evelyn reciting Tennyson’s poem by the pond. And they also do indicate that Colton could be literally wrong when he writes, “no curse is on you.”
Colton-as-Lancelot also brings up some interesting bits of mythology. Lancelot is often known as “Lancelot du Lac” — as in, Lancelot of the Lake. In the Vulgate Cycle version of Arthuriana, Lancelot is the son of a defeated king. As a baby, he’s carried off by the Lady of the Lake, who raises him, teaches him to be a great knight (the “White Knight,” in fact), and serves as a sort of guardian on his adventures.
(This would totally fit with the theory that Colton is from another time altogether. Is Fern the Lady of the Lake analog? Is Alice? The mind reels!)
Courtesy of Kat’s investigations, with an assist from Jasper, we learn more about Evelyn’s connection to the pond. Jasper uncovers a tape of the town meeting from the flyer in ’65. It turns out that the demand to fill in the pond stemmed from children falling in — specifically, Evelyn falling in and Colton rescuing her. On the tape, 8-year-old Evie insists that the pond is special and magical and that she was saved by… someone. (The Lady of the Lake?!) Young Colton cuts her off, but not before she can insist that he “saw it too.” And again I say: What is happening??
What I’m Pondering
- As a girl who also suffers from severe motion sickness, I can attest that it is extremely un-romantic! But I, too, would fall for a cute boy who found a sweet way to help.
- We get to see Del and Colton’s first kiss, and the first time he calls her “Delly.” I’m swooning.
- Alice realizes that she’s not in the ’70s to help Del and Colton — she’s there for Evelyn.
- Del is still getting those creepy letters. “I know about your family. And soon, they all will.”
- Fun Canadian filming fact! The locations used for the Landry farm and the Augustine house also portrayed, respectively, Green Gables and the Blythe farm in Anne with an E. And, of course, “The Lady of Shalott” inspires one of the most famous incidents in Anne of Green Gables lore. Anyone else love these connections? Just me? Okay, on with the show.
- I could be wrong, but I feel like this is one of the only times a Hallmark show/movie has directly (and positively) acknowledged that adults in relationships do adult things?
- At Lingermore, Evie and Alice linger at a particular painting. It looks like two children and a dog in a forest… with a pond in the background, and a ghostly “woman in white” hovering over them. Evie casually says it must have been painted over a hundred years ago. Filing that one away too…
- Del’s ’70s style is just the best.
- Anyone who knows more about tarot than me want to take a stab at interpreting Evelyn’s tarot spread? The Tower (sideways) in the middle, with four cards around: The Empress to the left, The Hermit below, the Knight of Cups (upside down) to the right, and an unclear card on top (possibly The Lovers?).
- Colton tells Alice about Fern’s stories about the pond. He also admits he tried to jump after Rick’s funeral, but it didn’t work and he doesn’t believe the stories.
Now streaming on Hallmark+: What are your thoughts on The Way Home Season 3, Episode 4, “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song”? Let us know in the comments below.
First Featured Image Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Peter Stranks