The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9 “Too Late to Turn Back Now” Spoilers Ahead
You know how people say, “It’s the journey, not the destination?” Well, The Way Home’s “Too Late to Turn Back Now” feels like the very opposite. The journey getting here has been rough at times. But the payoff in this episode is a worthy destination — and a showcase for the whole cast’s talents. Hold onto your hats; we’ve got a lot to discuss!
Dreams Pursued, Dreams Delayed
In The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9, “Too Late to Turn Back Now,” Del needs answers. For the first time, she asks Alice to travel and find out the truth about Colton. When she lands in 1974, Alice finds Colton and Evelyn celebrating: their demo landed Colton a gig in San Francisco! And they want Alice to come with them! Evie is already planning a big bohemian life, but Colton confides that he’s hoping to earn enough to be “enough” for Del.
He won’t have to wait long, though. Del shows up on the Landry porch — and Cole promptly proposes. When Del went back home, her parents had lost all their money. Obsessed with what they’d lost, they neglected Del, so she fled back to Port Haven. Evelyn is upset not just about the engagement, but about Colton putting off his music dreams. Del sides with Evelyn and tells Colton to take the job, but he brushes them both off. Evie, meanwhile, accuses Alice of never having been on her side, and ouch. Their unlikely friendship has been a highlight of this season. And just, in general, Devin Cecchetto is such a star, finding all the little quirks and edges in this messy character I can’t help but love.
The one person Colton doesn’t brush off? Alice — who he believes now is a time traveler. She catches him at the pond and confronts him, and he spills everything. How Fern taught him the stories of the pond. How his first jump was after Rick’s death, but he landed in the 1800s and offered crop advice instead. Back then, Fern had warned him against telling people their futures, and he believes the burning of the Landry farm is proof of that. Now, he thinks he can’t travel anymore and that he’s being punished for breaking the rules. But when he asks Alice if she’s a traveler too, she tells him no. Later, she explains to Del that since adult Colton didn’t recognize her in 1999, she assumes she didn’t tell him in 1974.
(But … adult Colton definitely recognized Alice, right?)
Reasons, Seasons, Lifetimes
I’ve criticized the heightened focus on Kat’s love triangle in the last few episodes. I still don’t love how a lot of it was executed or how long it went on. And yet, I got quite emotional about it in The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9, “Too Late to Turn Back Now.”
My biggest complaint has been that the over-reliance on the triangle for drama has brought out the worst in all three characters. But in this resolution, all three get to be their best selves, and in large part because of each other.
Kat’s parting dialogue to Thomas (that he’s a “reason,” not just a “season”) is deeply moving. It’s also beautifully acted by Chyler Leigh and Kris Holden-Reid. Thomas is now New York-bound, where we know a big family future awaits him. Instead of pining over almosts and fate, they’ll be able to take what they’ve learned from each other and live thriving, rich, joyful lives with thriving, rich, joyful relationships. It’s a running theme on this show: something can be important without being forever.
Elliot, meanwhile, has finally decided to stop sitting on the sidelines. He’s not the boy who was cowed by his father, hopelessly in unrequited love, and weighed down by lonely secrets. He’s still the man who shows up for Kat and who she leans on. But now he’s standing tall and actively doing, ready to be in the kind of love story he and Kat both want and deserve. He enlists Jacob to get him to 1816 to help the Landrys rebuild. When he arrives, Kat is crying in the yard, physically and emotionally drained. But when he calls her name, she runs right into his arms, and they reconcile with a weepy kiss. It’s as much the culmination of Elliot’s becoming as it is the resolution of their relationship.
It’s also lovely that Thomas and Elliot acknowledge each other with private, wordless respect. One of the few elements of this triangle I have loved is how no one is the villain. No one insults anyone else; no one tries to tear down their “rival.” To end on a note of mutual respect moves us back towards hope and away from the soap opera.
(Now, seriously: no more breakups! No more miscommunication for the sake of drama! We’ve had enough!)
A Time to Rebuild
Much of The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9, “Too Late to Turn Back Now,” focuses on the aftermath of the Landry farm fire. While the Landrys and their friends struggle to find a way forward, we learn the truth about the instigator of it all. Cyrus is bedridden and in bad shape despite Elijah’s heroics. The doctor tells Susanna that Cyrus will recover from his burns. But he’ll never recover his strength, and inhaling the hot smoke has all but destroyed his larynx — he may never speak again.
With support from Kat, Susanna takes charge. She promises to care for Cyrus, hide his condition, and maintain his reputation. But! He will allow her to take control. Her first choice in this new role? Rolling up to Landry Farm with supplies and helpers in tow. Later, she tells Kat that she’s going to use this opportunity to be a leader and carve out a legacy. She also reveals that she herself tore out the Cyrus chapter in her book because of their deal. Watson Rose is spectacular in this episode. I would watch a whole spin-off of Susanna!!
Elliot gets some particularly great moments in the 1800s. His wide-eyed reaction to meeting Elijah is adorable, as is the way Elijah immediately brings him into the fold. But the scene where he meets Susanna is everything, and it’s one of Evan Williams’s best scenes yet. He’s downright awestruck watching Kat and Susanna talk. And when Kat introduces “my Elliot” to Susanna — it’s everything. Susanna immediately takes his hand, calls him family, and vows they’ll always have Augustines looking after Kat (and the Landrys).
Goodbyes and New Beginnings
We say a lot of goodbyes in The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9, “Too Late to Turn Back Now.” In 1974, Alice encourages Evelyn to go live her life — which she does. It sure feels like a farewell, with Alice telling Evelyn she’s “always been on your side.” Evie leaves the Landrys with two parting gifts. She reminds Alice to follow her own dreams, especially music. Later, she gets her parents to let Del stay at Lingermore until the wedding. It does finally reveal why ’00s Del “owed” Evelyn. But if that’s the “big” reveal Del was dreading… it feels kind of anticlimactic? Maybe there’s more to come.
In the present, Max reveals more about Evelyn’s life. We finally get an answer about the Goodwin last name. She married young, and when it ended badly, she went back to her own name. She traveled a ton, including with Lewis, and loved art and culture, despite her cynicism. As Max tells it, though, she and Max truly understood each other the best. Now, he’s carrying enormous guilt from pulling away when she got sick — and not answering her last phone call.
Alice repeats the advice Evelyn gave her (though she plays it as advice Evie gave Del). “Dreams are the thing. And you can’t follow them if you’re standing still.” And wouldn’t you know it — that’s what Evelyn said in the voicemail she left Max. There’s a moment… and then, yep, Alice and Max kiss. Alice later tries to decide: did she kiss him because she wanted to, or because she thinks that’s her fate anyway? Or, maybe, a little of both? I don’t hate this, actually! Max is certainly a more dimensional character than Noah got to be (poor, sweet Noah).
We Need to Talk About Jacob
We already knew this, but The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9, “Too Late to Turn Back Now” makes it super-clear: Jacob is not okay. This is the one place where this episode veers a little too much into the melodrama for my taste. Jacob is obsessed with blaming Cyrus for the Landry farm fire. Which, fair. Cyrus is absolutely responsible for that and plenty of other monstrous deeds.
But now he’s obsessed with getting revenge in the present day. He starts his job with Lewis Goodwin and plays nice. He’s clearly gathering info, though. First, he learns about the placement of water and fuel; then, he learns the security cameras won’t be functional for a few days, and he gets a temporary key from Danny. It’s all revolving around his research on how wildfires destroy vineyards.
After dropping off El in 1816, Jacob returns to carry out his plan. Fortunately for him, Del finds his computer open and drives off to stop him. She catches him just before he can turn on the fuel line to ignite his torch and burn the fields. Del is a fierce, all-protective mother and an angry not-time-traveler, begging him to leave the past behind. She convinces him to leave and not follow through. But in the closing moments, we see that the security cameras are, in fact, operational. How much did they catch? Did they see Jacob’s (or Del’s) face? I guess we’ll find out next week in the finale!
What I’m Pondering
- When Elliot nearly drops the clock, the bottom slides out to reveal… something. It’s a long, thin, gold wire with a bend in the middle. Anyone know what that’s supposed to be?
- It’s really quite sweet how Elijah has basically adopted every younger-generation person who crosses his path.
- I do love that Evelyn, in the end, never became the “villain” of Del and Colton’s story.
- During Colton’s monologue, we see the flashback from Season 2, with young Col at the pond with Grandma Fern. But Fern isn’t a Landry by blood, but by marriage. So does she somehow get the time-travel power, too, or is she more of a “keeper” of the lore?
- Colton blames himself for the fire. So, is that what the Ouija board picked up in 1974?
- Kat remembers a game night in 1999 with her, Elliot, and Alice. Elliot’s journal confirms it… but Alice doesn’t remember it. Looks like last week’s ’90s line wasn’t just a throwaway!
- “Footfalls echo in the memory, down the passage we did not take, towards the door we did not open.” Is the random teen quoting T.S. Eliot significant as a person or just as a theme-deliverer? (And no, this is not the T.S. Eliot “Memory” you’re thinking of — different poem, same guy!)
- Unsolved mystery check-in! We’re still waiting on answers about KC’s real identity, who pushed Alice into the pond, Colton’s sweater, Del’s letters, Fern’s prophecy, Sam’s whole deal, and the baby at the pond.
- The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9, “Too Late to Turn Back Now,” has Susanna deliver a line that had me in tears. “Humanity is not all lost — I promise.” I think a lot of us desperately need to hear that these days. And honestly, I couldn’t describe the ethos of this show better if I tried.
Now streaming on Hallmark+: What are your thoughts on The Way Home Season 3, Episode 9, “Too Late to Turn Back Now?” Let us know in the comments below.
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