‘The Way Home’ Recap: ‘Here Without You’

3/25/2024

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 209 of ‘The Way Home’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.

Slowly but surely, the hit Hallmark Channel series The Way Home is bringing its overall commentary regarding loss and trauma through grief, into focus. For the characters in this beautiful and moving series are finally being forced to understand the hard lessons that accompany healing and how we begin to pull away from our grief and reassemble our lives and well… this week’s episode of the show, took those lessons to a whole new level by having Kat, Del, and Alice, and Elliot really… begin to learn the most important foundational lesson we can learn when it comes to healing. In that… we must learn that there is little we control in our lives outside of our own actions.

Because that really is the first big lesson that lets us heal. For it informs us of the fact that there is or was nothing we could do to prevent the trauma we experienced. For we cannot control when people depart this earth, we cannot control the lives they lead or the decisions they make and the sooner we learn that, and embrace it… the sooner do we begin to find some measure of peace and understand to enjoy the moment and live within it and celebrate the good, and all of that was explored by way of some big moments for the Landry ladies. Such as how Del decided… to sell the farm. Because she was tired of trying to control that which she could not, and deal with uncertainty. So, a sale gave her peace, freedom, and an understanding that she could write her own chapter for the first time in her life, putting her in a new headspace for certain.

Whereas Kat, of course, struggled with the lesson at hand. Because despite her best efforts to bring Jacob home and help him to lead a life in the 21st Century, he refused to do so. For he grew up in the past, he knew only his 19th Century family and there was nothing Kat could do to change his mind. Because he was his own person, and grown, and he was free to accept the life he wanted to accept. Which really did put Kat in a tough place, one that offered some solace since she could return at will and visit, but it did not provide her with the exact closure she wanted. But that is life, it takes and gives as it sees fit and there’s nothing, we can do about it but cherish those moments, and well… who knows what it will take for her to learn this since she made another selfish call about the past at the end of this tale.

But truly, the person that seemed to understand this lesson the best was Alice. Who spent time in the past after the party to learn that her mom was already pregnant with her, and that Brady immediately wanted them to get married to do right by their forthcoming daughter. Which rally helped Alice to understand we cannot change the past, and that our path forward is all that matters, and she seemed to find real peace in that understanding, and it helped her to set some boundaries, with Elliot no less, to hopefully inspire growth within him. Since he too has hung deeply onto the past and refused to understand the moment matters above all. But what mattered most here is that Alice saw the bigger picture and knows now how best to live life.

All of which made, for another brilliant and endearing tale from this series. One that really did point out a critical lesson we call can learn from and embrace. But that aside, we can also champion a story that featured a lot of beauty, some heartache, and some genuinely humorous moments, courtesy of sequences and events that felt shockingly relatable. Except maybe for Nick’s discovery, because that just brought the funny, and that’s not something we will ever deal with. But more importantly, this episode really did set the stage for a finale grounded in beginning the journey toward genuine healing, for the universe is hinting this stagnancy can stand no longer, and it will be interesting to see how that journey gets underway, come next week.

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