The Way Home Season 4, Episode 8, “Tainted Love” Spoilers Ahead
Can you believe we only have two episodes left before The Way Home ends forever? “Tainted Love” is barrelling towards the big, defining moment of the season: the Lingemore explosion. It’s a tense episode, full of heartfelt moments that are — as the episode title somewhat implies — darkened by a sense of impending doom.
The Second Hand Unwinds
While there’s plenty of Landry lore to untangle, too, “Tainted Love” truly belongs to the Augustines. We rewind to the moment where Elliot let go of Kat’s hand in “Working My Way Back To You,” except this time, we stay with Elliot in 1925 instead of following Kat home. Elliot immediately returns to the farmhouse, insisting he wants more time with Tessa. She’s busy, though, trying to fend off Capone’s anger over the botched shipment (but she still refuses to jump back to the present).
Elliot and Fern have a really lovely conversation on the porch. You wouldn’t think they have much in common, but as the two people most hurt by Tessa/Coop, they bond. When Cliff shows up, Fern creates Elliot’s cover story on the fly — and his “Tom Buchanan” alias! One of my favorite things is that Cliff clearly doesn’t believe half the stories Fern feeds him, but he finds it charming enough that he just goes with it. Elliot makes himself useful at the farm, cooking dinner and then sitting down at the piano to play as Fern and Cliff slow-dance. As he starts singing “Time After Time,” Tessa walks in, clearly affected. It turns out that’s the song she used to sing to baby Elliot!
(Oh, and if it sounds familiar, there’s a good reason! Evan Williams’s cover of the song also played over the final scenes of Season 1.)
Elliot and Tessa’s conversation is masterfully emotional without being sappy. She insists that she wasn’t scared of Vic, but scared of herself, though she doesn’t clarify why. When Elliot asks about Griffin, she’s cagey about whether she loved him or not. But she does reveal how she got stuck. They landed in the 1880s, started building their lives, and then Tessa got sick. When Griffin tried to jump back to get modern medicine for her, he never returned. Tessa stumbled for help until she reached the Landry farm.
A later conversation, however, opens some new mysteries. Tessa swears she didn’t send the letter to Vic with her ring, so who does (and when)? Likewise, she has no idea about the clock on the wall. Which, to be honest, kind of aligns with my theory that Elliot plants the clock.
What I Did For Love
It takes a month, but Kat is finally able to get back through the pond to Elliot. (Sidebar: can I just say how good their hugs are? Okay, moving on). They have to have a complicated conversation. After finding his own picture in the newspaper, Elliot knew his destiny and wanted to keep Kat safe. She understands, but she’s still upset he didn’t confide in her. And thank you, The Way Home Season 4, Episode 8, for not turning this into a big dramatic miscommunication!
Speaking of messy relationships, Port Haven’s handsomest temperance inspector is growing on Fern. She and Tessa argue about him, which Kat overhears. When Kat confronts Tessa about abandoning Elliot, Tessa tries to play the “mom” card, only to have Kat say that she’s a mother too… and leading Tessa to realize who Alice was. Cliff, meanwhile, is heading out of town to accept an award. But Grayson quietly lays a verbal trap and figures out the event is fake — Cliff is actually planning a raid.
And, sure enough, the temperance team catches Coop’s operations. Kat, Elliot, and Tessa flee, but Cliff catches them — only for Fern to step in. Our morally upright inspector lets them get away, only to pack up to leave Landry Farm the next morning. Kat and Elliot see them arguing: Cliff feels lied to and betrayed, while Fern tries to tell him that she didn’t even know what she wanted until he brought her and the farm back to life. And that, my friends, is how you do it! Cliff stays and embraces Fern, and oh god, I’m going to be so sad.
What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
Kat and Elliot jump home, but they both know they’ll be back. Elliot finally, finally gets to hug his mom, even though she still declines to jump with them. He insists on meeting with her when he comes back on New Year’s Eve… but that’s the night he gets arrested. And given that we only have two episodes left, that’s probably the night of the Lingermore explosion, too. Yikes on bikes!
When they return home, Del and Alice rush to hug Elliot — a nice reminder that he does, in fact, have that family he (and Tessa) wanted after all. He and Kat sort through the old newspapers, looking for more clues, and Kat tells him about the mysterious note from inside the piano. They figure out that some of Fern’s columns have coded messages to/for Tessa, using T.S. Eliot quotes as markers.
When they decode the message for the issue after New Year’s Eve, though, they probably wish they hadn’t. “NYE job botched. Tunnels destroyed. Five souls in, four out. Tessa is gone.” Elliot says what we’re all thinking: did he just invite his mother to the site of her own death?
I’m curious who the “Five souls” will be, too. Tessa is one, obviously. And I think it’s safe to speculate that Cliff will be another, given what we know about Fern’s life. Grayson, Fern, and Mo Augustine (Elliot’s great-grandfather) have to all survive, so not them. So… who else?
High in Her Tower She Sits by the Hour
It’s easy to get caught up in the 1920s intrigues, but The Way Home Season 4, Episode 8 also peels back more of the 1980s era. Alice jumps to find Evelyn, hoping for answers about the mysterious cut footage from Jasper’s reels. Instead, by the time she lands, she learns that Evelyn is in her Lady of Shalott era. She lives alone, with Lewis, at Lingermore, and she’s grown apart from the Landrys.
It turns out she tried to go back and get the film reels, but they were already gone. If she didn’t find and cut the footage… who did? Griffin, maybe? Drunk Evie admits she suspects something is strange about Alice, but she dozes off before she can get any further.
Alice also briefly witnesses a sweet moment between Del and Colton. They talk about how they always see the best in each other, even when they don’t see it in themselves. It’s a theme running through the whole episode (and the whole show, to be honest): how the ones who love us most are the ones who see us how we wish we could be seen.
And then, when she returns home, she texts a demo of her song… to Max! She’s right that he has believed in her and pushed her, even when she doubted herself. That said, he still owes her a huge apology for his outburst at the Cove.
What I’m Pondering
- The Way Home Season 4, Episode 8 reminds us how important music is to the story. That’s why I’m so excited that Hallmark is releasing the show’s soundtrack as a streamable playlist, starting June 12!
- Elliot tells his mother how his life turned out, and she reveals she wanted to be an English teacher! I particularly love how this scene comes right after the 1980s “family dinner” one. It really highlights how things turned out nothing like the young families hoped, but also somehow did work out, just in a different way.
- Elliot also joins Coop’s operation, admitting to the Augie boys that he’s her son and that he just wants to help. Oh, Elliot, please stop putting yourself in danger trying to be the hero!
- Abby and Jacob’s romance continues steaming ahead at hyperspeed, and, sure, why not? They’re already exchanging “I love yous,” and Jacob wants to take their relationship public. They start with a Landry family dinner, and things get awkward when Abby mentions wanting to return to Toronto.
- Kat officially closes the Herald. The newspaper really served as a plot device more than anything else, but I’m sad even when fictional local papers close!!
- Young Del mentions meeting a chaotic new friend at an art class. It’s Rita, everyone’s favorite Port Haven trivia-sharer!
- Tessa tells Fern that she’s been like a daughter to her, and she gives Fern the bracelet! So now we know how Fern ends up with that, at least.
- Sam finally tells Del he knows about the pond, but we don’t see her full reaction yet.
Now streaming on Hallmark+: What are your thoughts on The Way Home Season 4, Episode 8, “Tainted Love?” Let us know in the comments below.
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