Kat Landry (Chyler Leigh) is at a crossroads when we meet her in the fantasy drama series The Way Home: She’s dealing with separating from her husband, Brady (Al Mukadam); she’s lost her job as newspaper reporter; and her daughter, Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow), is in the midst of an epic teenage rebellion. Not only that, but Kat’s just received an unexpected letter from her estranged mother, Del (Andie MacDowell), which sends her and Alice back to the Canadian farm where Kat grew up. But that’s not the only place they’ll travel back to, if you catch our drift. Because yes, this is a time-travel show. Read on for more about Season 1 and everything you need to know about its ending. 

What happens in The Way Home Season 1?

When mom and daughter arrive and set up camp in Del’s spare bedrooms, it’s a bit awkward and tense — given Alice’s moodiness, and the fact that Kat and Del haven’t spoken in 20 years. Why? The disappearance of Kat’s little brother, Jacob (Remy Smith), and the death of her father, Colton (Jefferson Brown), shortly thereafter created an emotional rift that neither woman could bring themselves to heal. 

Alice is facing culture shock now that she’s in rural New Brunswick, a far cry from her childhood spent in Minneapolis. She’s also not thrilled about processing her parents’ divorce while on this remote farm or having Elliot (Evan Williams), her mom’s childhood best friend who still has feelings for Kat, as her teacher. And she’s definitely not expecting to accidentally fall into the pond at the back of the Landry farm and get pulled out by a 17-year-old version of her mom (Alex Hook) — in 1999. 

That’s how the time-travel journey. The jump back in time gives Alice a chance to befriend her mom at her own age, and puts her back on the Landry farm only a few months before Jacob disappears and Colton dies. As Alice gets closer to teenage Kat, and after adult Kat follows Alice into the water, the duo try to find out what happened to Jacob after the town’s fall fair and save Colton from his untimely demise. But the pond holds more secrets than they could’ve imagined — and nothing will ever be the same. 

Who are the main characters in The Way Home?

The story is centered on the relationship between three Landry women: Alice, Kat, and Del. Elliot grew up next door and has been in love with Kat since they were kids. He’s now the high school science teacher and the only person outside the Landry family who knows the pond can be used for time travel. Teenage Elliot (David Webster) is the first one to realize Alice is outside her own time. He becomes her time-travel guru in 1999 and in 2024. 

Alice and Kat are drawn to the past by young Jacob and Colton. Saving both of them is their primary mission. Kat’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Brady, is also a factor, as their separation is the catalyst for everything that happens in the show. 

Who knows about the time-travel pond?

Alice is the first person (that we know of) to traverse time through the pond. Kat follows an episode later. Elliot knows about the pond because teenage Elliot discovers Alice coming out of the water, and she has no choice but to explain. He takes notes on her appearances and disappearances from 1999, which he uses to help 2024 Alice with her first trips through the pond. 

By the end of Season 1, Kat, Alice, and Elliot seem to be the only ones who know about the pond’s mysterious magic. Del is not aware that she has a scientific wonder on the back of her property. That means Kat can’t explain to Del that she’s wrong about Colton having an affair, because the mysterious woman Del remembers seeing at Colton’s funeral is actually a time-traveling Kat. The Way Home isn’t afraid of these kinds of emotional gut-punches. 

How does the time-travel work in The Way Home?

Every time-travel show has its own mechanics, and The Way Home is no different. The pond chooses who can time-travel when they get in the water, and the pond chooses what time period those people will go to. Only Landry family members time-travel in Season 1, and they continue to go back to 1999. However, the pond gets to pick when in 1999 to drop off Kat and Alice. One day in 2024 could be three weeks in 1999. They arrive in time for events and conversations they were destined to have. 

That means the pond follows the “time is a circle” theory of time travel. Everything that happens in the past was always going to happen, and there’s nothing the time-travelers can do to change it. However, Kat and Alice enter the pond with the idea that they are operating under the butterfly effect theory of time travel: If they change the past, they’ll change the future. They want to use their knowledge of the future to save both Jacob and Colton, but their efforts are futile. Jacob disappears, and Colton dies, because the present Kat and Alice go back to 1999. 

Confused? Let’s break it down. Everyone in Port Haven believes that Jacob disappeared by falling off a cliff at the fall fair. Present Kat goes to that fateful night and finds him wandering outside the fairgrounds. She walks him home to keep him from going anywhere near the cliff and watches him go into the Landry house, safe and sound. She assumes that means she stops him from disappearing, but he’s still missing when she returns to the present. 

That’s because she didn’t change the past — she was always meant to walk him back to the farm. She doesn’t know because no one in 1999 saw her leave the fair with Jacob, so it’s not part of the disappearance narrative Kat has believed for 20 years. His disappearance was always going to happen. It wouldn’t have if 2024 Kat hadn’t brought him home. 

How does Jacob disappear?

Present Kat rushes back to the pond after she sees Jacob go inside. She hears a dog barking but ignores it because she’s so eager to return to 2024 and see if an adult Jacob will be there. 

The bark comes from Finn, Del’s dog in 2024. He can also time-travel through the pond. Young Jacob is the only Landry who sees the dog in 1999, and everyone thinks he’s imagining it so Colton and Del will get him a puppy. He’s desperate to prove the dog is real, so when he hears Finn barking on the night of the carnival, he follows the dog into the woods. Finn jumps into the pond, and Jacob falls in after him. 

But no one in 1999 thinks Jacob fell into the pond. The search stays limited to the carnival grounds or focused on the prospect that he was kidnapped. Present Kat only realizes that Jacob went into the pond when Finn comes into the house in the Season 1 finale, soaking wet and carrying Jacob’s old baseball. That’s when she remembers the dog barking in the distance after she dropped off young Jacob.

When does Jacob time-travel to?

The final moments of Season 1 reveal that Jacob went all the way back to 1814, when Port Haven was first founded. 

The closing sequence reveals that Kat will also head back to the town’s pioneer days. She’s the woman in white running through the woods at the very beginning of the series. Season 2 will take Kat on a new adventure to find her brother, and we’ll find out why she has a horde of men with torches chasing her through the woods. 

Do Kat and Alice save Colton? 

Present Kat believes that she can stop Colton’s fatal car accident, and the pond takes her to that fateful night in the penultimate episode of The Way Home Season 1. Kat doesn’t account for Alice following her into the water. Alice doesn’t want her mother to witness Colton’s death, so she begs her to come back to the present with her. She tries to drag her mom back to the pond, but Kat pushes her off. 

The shove knocks Alice into the middle of the road just as Colton’s truck lights come into view. Kat pushes her daughter out of the way while Colton swerves to avoid them. He drives his truck into a stack of wood because Kat and Alice went back to save him. (Elliot finds a newspaper clipping from 1999 with a footnote that a witness saw two women running through the woods shortly after the accident, confirming the mother and daughter pair were always there.) 

Kat pulls Colton out of the truck and holds him as he bleeds out. Before he dies, he looks her in the eye and says, “My Katherine,” which implies he knows exactly who she is. That bewilders Kat after she and Alice return to 2024, and it’s a mystery to be explained in a later season.

Does Kat get back with Brady? Does she finally give Elliot a chance?

Kat and Brady are done. She signs the divorce papers in the Season 1 finale, and the two seem ready to become cordial co-parents. Kat’s ready to move on from her marriage in part because she finally has feelings for Elliot. 

In Episode 8, Kat and Elliot share one of the most epic first kisses. After an epic trip through the pond, she literally runs into him and crashes her mouth into his — and then runs off to talk to Alice, leaving Elliot yelling, “Oh, come on!” It’s pitch-perfect, but the good vibes don’t last forever. 

The pond is a chance for Alice to get to know members of her family who had been like ghosts to her. Elliot doesn’t go through the pond, and Alice spoiled twenty years of his future during one of her early trips to 1999. He’s been an observer and helper for two decades, haunted by the predictions a strange girl told him when he was 17 years old. When Kat and Alice can’t save Jacob or Colton, Elliot resents the pond for trapping him in a future in which he feels like he has no choice, and for opening old wounds. 

He wants to focus on the present, while Kat is still determined to change the past. When she realizes she can’t, Elliot is ready to make decisions about his future with no input from time travelers. He breaks up with Kat in the Season 1 finale so that he can leave Port Haven and seek out a life of his own choosing rather than stay in town because a time-traveling teenager told him he’s supposed to. He wants to feel in charge of his own destiny for the first time in his adult life. 

He and Kat definitely still have feelings for each other, but Elliot chooses himself, so their relationship is off for now. 

Who sent Del’s letter inviting Kat back to Port Haven? 

Del swears throughout The Way Home Season 1 that she never sent a letter asking Kat to return to Port Haven. She has no idea how her daughter received it, but it turns out it was another trick of the pond. 

Alice returns to the pond after Colton’s death to check on her best friend, teenage Kat. The pond doesn’t send her back to 1999, though. It takes her to earlier in 2024, when Del’s best friend, Rita (Marnie McPhail), is trying to convince the stubborn Del to send the letter. Del refuses and puts the letter in the trash. Alice waits for them to leave, then retrieves the letter and puts it in the mail. She comes to Port Haven with her mother at the beginning of the show because future Alice went to the past and kicked off this whole adventure. See? Time is a circle! 

Are there more seasons of The Way Home? 

Yes. Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Netflix. Season 3 has also been released, and Season 4 is currently in production. 

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