‘The Way Home’ Recap: ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’

2/19/2024

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 204 of ‘The Way Home’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.

One thing that we can all agree upon, is that it is tough to sit through television shows that focus deeply on the nature of grief and trauma, and the long way home in recovering from it. Because such subject matter is often bleak, and it can be scary to ponder upon what those elements of life do to us and how they transform us. So, we sometimes approach those stories with trepidation, since some of them… just let loose in that showcasing and really hammer home the scary nature of grief and trauma and well… that’s precisely what they should NOT do. In part, because they are indeed scaring people away from exploring an important part of the human condition, but also because… they’re not representing the process properly.

Because the fact of the matter is, life does go on, and there are still aspects of it we experience and explore as we mend our souls and heal. And we need to acknowledge that because those are important moments that can also help us heal and help us to discover a way forward and that is why The Way Home on the Hallmark Channel remains such a poignant and important series. Because it does just that, as evidenced by its next episode. For ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ only featured a touch of the more powerful subject matter it operates within. To showcase how sometimes… we need to just take a moment and observe the world around us, really observe it. Since during grief we can want badly to fix everything, to hopefully fix ourselves. But some things don’t need our help. They will resolve on their own, and that’s a lesson Brady and Alice learned when Del was able to handle any forthcoming issues for the farm on her own. Which was… a powerful lesson to learn, one of many in this tale.

One of which related to an experience that Alice was hellbent on being part of in this tale. In that, she wanted to know everything she could about her parents. How they came together, their highs and their lows, and that sent her back to 2001, post 9/11 as well, at a time when the world was looking for bright spots and struggled to maintain them. All because she had the chance to see her father propose to Kat, and see the joy, and the wonder of the moment. Which of course, didn’t play out the way she expected, in fact, their engagement was messy. But this was a critical storyline that pointed out… we still have things to explore in this life while we hurt, and we should seek them out. To learn, and grow, and perhaps find solace that takes root within us, and this plot thread gets bonus points for also pointing out how we romanticize memories and our parents, and that we should be mindful that they are people that make mistakes so we can better understand them.

Which was plenty for us to chew upon and could have easily carried this episode from beginning to end… but it still had more to explore. The kind of stuff that related to the central theme of grief. Because Kat made a point to return again to 1814, out of the raw fear that something awful happened to Jacob in the past. After all, he had yet to return home in that era, and he was in fact, missing from the history books, and well… while this episode did indeed reveal a potential villain of sorts for that era, who may indeed cause harm for Jacob and the family, it more so taught us… how unresolved grief and trauma… can put us into a tailspin line of thinking. Where we panic and let every negative thought take control. Which was, another very real element to find here, adding depth to an already powerful and poignant episode.

But that is what this show does, it examines every bit of the human condition during a supremely difficult time in our lives and once again… the show succeeded there. Since it informed us how being the hero doesn’t always pay off and isn’t necessary since some folks can take care of themselves, and it won’t heal us as is. Alongside Alice’s beautiful and powerful journey to better understand her mother and her father, something we can all take something away from. And once again, its commentary on grief was powerful and relevant and this show simply continues to impress. For week in and week out, we are treated to incredible stories that truly reflect our journey through tough times and it will be fascinating to see what other lessons await us as Kat and Alice do their best to heal. Until next time.

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