The Way Home Season 3 Episode 9 Recap: Too Late to Turn Back Now

Kat and Jacob sit in front of Elijah’s burned-out rubble. Only one of them can go home because Elijah needs help. Jacob tells Kat she has to deal with Thomas anyway, so she should stay.

Elliot’s face falls when he learns Kat is getting help from Thomas.

Del is ready to toss Colton’s garbage out, but then she tells Alice to return to 1974 and get some answers. Her memories are messed up beyond recognition, anyway.

Jacob is reading something online about wildfires. Fire taints the vines for years to come, rendering the wine undrinkable.

We’ve been through dark times before, you and I. But luck runs out, Thomas. What if something had happened to her or Jacob? Their family would never know. Thomas tells Kat that if something happened to her in her time, he’d have no way of getting to her. She thinks the fire was a wake-up call. You can’t cheat fate forever. 

Elliot finds something in the clock. It’s metallic.

Lewis is happy Jacob is working with him, as it harkens back to Port Haven’s early days with the two families working together. Jacob can barely wipe his disdain from his face, and his eyes darken when he looks at the fuel tank.

Evie is so excited to see Alice when she returns. Colton has just learned that a producer loves his demo and wants Colton — and Alice — in San Francisco. Evie is excited to be Colton’s groupie. Colton says it’s a new road, and he hopes it ends with Delilah.

Alice wants to catch a ride with Colton, but Evie has things to say to Alice and keeps her back.

Danny is really excited that Jacob is working at the vineyard, but Jacob wants Danny’s security code. This won’t end well.

Evie tells Alice she hopes to use the road trip to grow closer to Colton. Alice is hardly receptive, and Evie notices. Alice says dreams aren’t everything, but Evie disagrees. She saw Alice’s face light up when Colton asked her to join them. A random girl quotes TS Elliot, “Footfalls echo in the memory, Down the passage which we did not take, Towards the door we never opened.”

Be the one to open the door, she says. Fix things. Life’s too short for regrets.

Susanna tells Kat about her book. She knows she isn’t safe now. If Cyrus dies, she’s defenseless, and if he lives, he remains her possession. Susanna should get Cyrus to change his will and leave everything to her, not his sons. What a time she must live in to think that is possible.

Alice finds Colton trying to jump and pretends she has no idea what he’s doing there.

The smoke has destroyed Cyrus’s larynx. He’ll likely never speak again.

Colton believes Grandma’s stories about the pond. She made him swear never to go into the pond until he was older. But then he had to save Evie, and when he got caught in the weeds, he thought she was just telling tales.

When he eventually jumped (or fell) for another reason, he wound up back in 1814. Using Jasper’s folk songs, he told them about potatoes and rye. 

He was so proud to save the family from starvation, Grandma said, telling them their future broke the rules. Colton wrote the messages in the Alice books to Evie to tell her she was right and the pond was magic.

But then Delilah arrived, and everything changed. When Rick died, he tried stopping the accident from happening, but he wound up in 1816 instead to see what he caused with his potatoes and rye comment. 

He tried to jump today, but now the pond doesn’t work because he broke the rules. Of course, she knows that’s not how it works, but God forbid she tells him the truth that she desperately wanted herself. He does admit that he thinks she’s a time traveler, and she says no. But she does believe him.

Susanna wants Cyrus to face justice. As such, she will be his voice from now on, running Port Haven as she sees fit. He agrees (not that he has any other choice).

When Colton gets home, Delilah is waiting for him. He proposes instantly while Alice watches. She walks away.

Del looks at the letters she’s been receiving and goes home to the sneak peek clip scene.

Alice wants to know what made her return to Port Haven, but Del’s not ready to tell her. Instead, she remembers Colton’s proposal. She is the way, the only way.

She had expected a warm welcome on her birthday, but her parents were silent. They lost everything. Money was who they were, and without it, they changed. They stopped seeing her. It was as if she didn’t exist.

They were so damn confused about what they had lost. It was all they cared about. They lost her, too. They even sold her horse before she could say goodbye.

Thomas asks about his and Kat’s fate. She doesn’t know. He admits he tried to get to her once. She says it will never work. The pond won’t let him jump forward in time. If they were to pursue this, she would have to give up his life to join his.

He would never ask her to do that. She tells him of the saying that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Thomas says it was a hell of a good season. Kat says it wasn’t just a season.

Because of him, she knows what she wants from love. She wants unwavering support and passion and she wants to be challenged by someone who loves her for exactly who she is. Thomas was not a season, he was a reason.

Thomas wonders about Elliot. He’ll be her lifetime? She says no one should know their future. But he says, yet we know ours will not be spent together. He plans on getting on a ship bound for New York. 

Kat: Fare thee well, My Thomas. 

Thomas: My Thomas. I like the sound of that.

She’s crying as he walks out the door.

Upon Delilah’s return, Colton cancels his plans for San Francisco. She asks him if he’s sure, and he is. It’s his happiest ending.

Jacob is poking around in Elliot’s fireplace when Elliot asks him to take him back to 1816. Gross.

Kat promises Elijah that everything is going to be fine, but she’s not so sure about that herself, and she breaks down sobbing. Out of the darkness comes Elliot. Did I say gross?

Could Elliot smile for once, just once?? 

She says it’s amazing. He is amazing. And then Elliot meets Elijah. From a historical perspective, I’m thrilled for Elliot. Thomas didn’t go too far, though, and he and Elliot catch eyes, nodding as if they were passing the torch. Uh, gross.

Evie is so sad. She’s alone — Evie against the world. No dreams remain. Alice reminds her that dreams are everything. Don’t stop living. Travel and meet people. If you let it, life can get so small, so don’t end it. I was always on your side, Alice tells Evie.

Susanna comes to Elijah’s rescue. If history looks kindly upon Cyrus Goodwin, it’s because Susanna set it up that way.

Port Haven needs a hero; Susanna says it will be her. Kat is surprised that nobody coerced her to pull the chapter on Cyrus. Now, she introduces “her Elliot,” Elliot Augustine. He actually cracks a smile, I think it’s the second one we’ve ever seen.

Del tells Alice that Evie did indeed travel. Delilah is allowed to stay at Lingermore as long as she wants. She doesn’t even say goodbye to Colton. Evie wants Colton to let her go because she’s his best friend. She tells Delilah, “You owe me one, Delilah.”

Alice recognizes Evie’s keychain. Max tells her all about Evie’s life. Incredibly cynical but full of life. She married young and changed her name back after it ended. She and Max got each other. When she got sick, Max couldn’t handle it and missed her call on the night she passed. He was scared, and he’ll regret that for the rest of his life. 

Alice will fall in love with Max because he’s the closest thing she’ll have to a life with her friend. “Embrace life even when you’re scared of it because you can’t follow your dreams when you’re standing still.” That’s the message Evie left for Max the night she died.

Alice tells Kat that she and Evie could have been best friends, just like they were in 1999. But then Kat tells Alice about playing a game just before she left for camp. Alice doesn’t remember, but Kat says it probably hasn’t happened for her yet. Back to 1999, we go!

Del sees what Jacob was reading on the computer.

Elliot is about to read about Alice showing up again in 1999, but Alice tells him no. You don’t tell someone their future if they can live it.

Del gets to the winery in time to stop Jacob. She yells at him to let go of the past, get in that truck, and drive. She’s begging him.

It’s all caught on camera.