The Way Home Season 4, Episode 5, “Don’t Cry Out Loud” Spoilers Ahead
Oh, Ponderers, we’re really in it now. The Way Home‘s “Don’t Cry Out Loud” puts us at the halfway point of the final season. And honestly, we have more questions than we did at the start of the season! But isn’t that the fun of this show?
Much like “We’ve Got Tonight” did, “Don’t Cry Out Loud” balances the drama with a touch of comic relief (courtesy, as usual, of Nick). But it’s around the point of the season where things tend to take a turn for the darker. I appreciate that this season is focusing more on the mysteries and on characters dealing with emotions in complex ways, rather than inserting a bunch of secret-keeping to whip up drama. The result — so far — has been a really rewarding ride, and it’s given the cast a lot of excellent material that lets them all shine.
Enter Auntie Coop
Since the start of the season, we’ve assumed Fern knows more about Tessa than she lets on. The Way Home Season 4, Episode 5, confirms it. In Fern’s apartment, Kat finds a set of Alice in Wonderland books inscribed by “Auntie Coop.” Those books just keep popping up!
Grayson unexpectedly interrupts Kat’s snooping, but instead of throwing her out, he invites her to stay for a drink. He talks with Kat about Fern, and it starts to sound like he might actually love her. As usual, the Goodwins are complicated, gray (heh) characters. Helpfully, he reveals that Auntie Coop is a longtime family friend who “travels a lot.” Also of note: he’s wearing round glasses that look a lot like the ones found in the Lingermore tunnels!
Any suspicion that Grayson is a good guy, though, goes out the window when we overhear him commanding someone to “get rid of” someone. To be continued!
Fortune Favors the Brave
Nick and Kat aren’t the only time travelers in The Way Home Season 4, Episode 5. Alice brings Elliot along on a jump when he says he wants to rescue his mom himself. It lets them through, but lands them back around 1979. They stumble upon a practically pastoral scene, with Evelyn and baby Lewis playing with young Tessa. You can just see the emotions flickering through Elliot’s face: all the grief, the pain, the wonder, and the love.
We also find out — as expected — that Del suffered a miscarriage. It’s one of those moments where this show does such a great job reminding us that some parts of the human experience aren’t limited by time period. We’re really seeing just how much grief Del has been through, which puts a lot of her current-day fears and feelings in perspective.
Tessa and Evelyn also bond over their mutual interests in fortune-telling. Tessa mentions being a palm reader (like, say, the fortune teller at Grayson’s party?), and Evelyn offers to read her tarot cards. Evelyn says the cards show a “tall, dark stranger” in Tessa’s future, fertility and motherhood, and a third card we don’t see. Tessa confides that she’s unsure if she’ll be a good mother, or if she even wants to be. And now we know why Tessa had Evelyn’s tarot cards in her bag!
While Elliot doesn’t get to talk to Tessa, he can’t avoid being spotted by young Vic. They have an awkward but surprisingly sweet conversation. None of us — Elliot most of all — has ever seen Vic like this. My heart just about broke when young Vic talked so hopefully about having a son!
Heard Your Voice in a Dream
After her fall at the end of the last episode, Del gets “rescued” by the ghost (or hallucination) of Colton, who walks her home to Alice at the farm. She seems fine, just ruffled, when Sam arrives after Alice calls him. But the first clue that something is wrong is when she refers to her horse by the wrong name. There’s a deeply unsettling scene as Del wanders into the fields, getting more and more disoriented. Sam finds her and rushes her home, but she remains unconscious.
Once again, she dreams of Colton, although it’s definitely more supernatural than a regular dream. It has the tinge of when she would talk to Colton’s “ghost” in the earlier seasons. When she sits with Colton and young Jacob in a beautiful, sunny haze, she insists that she’s exactly where she needs to be. Colton, though, reminds her and Jacob that she needs to go back.
If you’ve ever had a loved one seriously ill, the scene where Alice tries fruitlessly to wake Del will feel like an absolute nightmare. Fortunately, fiction in this case is kind to us. Jacob (the real, adult one) arrives after Alice calls him, and unsurprisingly, he’s the one who manages to wake Del up.
The Happiest Time Traveler Ever?
The Way Home Season 4, Episode 5, confirms what we already knew: nothing fazes Nick Oates! As promised in “We’ve Got Tonight,” Nick accompanies Kat back to 1925 to keep investigating what happened to Tessa. He is just so enthusiastic, and it’s really quite endearing. He does need to work on his poker face (see: his absolute inability to think on his feet when Cliff shows up unexpectedly at the Landry farmhouse while they search for the almanac).
But Nick is more than just a pretty face (or “hunk of butter,” as Fern so delightfully calls him). He quickly befriends the Augie boys, posing as a fellow fisherman, and gets them singing bar songs and letting their guard down. Kat isn’t sure about his approach, but it works. The Augies offer to bring him into their bootlegging operation, which gives him and Kat leverage when, once again, they end up arrested by Cliff. He suspects Grayson is up to no good, too, and she plays on that (plus his feelings for Fern) to get him to release them.
They make it to the hideout, where they find the whole bootlegging operation. Nick’s sneeze gives him away, and he tries to play it off and just claims he’s taking them up on their invitation. Unfortunately, Kat is soon discovered, and then it’s a race through the woods as the Augies pursue them. They run into Fern en route to the pond, and she tries to mediate. Ultimately, though, it all ends with a fight at the pond. Nick very nearly gets stranded, but he makes the jump with Kat just in time. When they don’t resurface, the Augies assume they got the job done, and Fern doesn’t correct them.
What I’m Pondering
- Elliot takes Kat’s keys to the newspaper and frantically goes through the archives. By the end, he finds… something that he has a strong reaction to. What did you find, El??
- Among the tidbits Grayson drops: Fern had a little brother who died in WWI. Another piece of the Landry family tree.
- Jordan Doww and Julia Tomasone get a lot less to do this season, since the ’70s plotline is relegated to third string. But scenes like their porch swing conversation are such a great reminder of what gifted actors they both are. I hope we get to see great things from them after this show!
- Nick cheerfully says he’s probably done with time travel, but he’s glad he got to do it! And now he’s off to finish his job and will be back in a month to settle in with Claire. And finally, we’ll get to see if any of the theories about Claire are correct, or if she really is a totally non-supernatural person who has no idea what she’s walking into!
Now streaming on Hallmark+: What are your thoughts on The Way Home Season 4, Episode 5, “Don’t Cry Out Loud?” Let us know in the comments below.
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