The Way Home Season 2 Episode 3 Review: When You Were Young (2024)

Wow -- goosebumps much?

There's more than one way to travel through time. Kat's journeys through the pond are quite literal, but Elliot's is more accessible and well-known to most of us.

There is much to unpack from The Way Home Season 2 Episode 3, so let's jump into the article and let the spoilers fly!

Before we travel through time with Elliot and Kat, let's touch on Del and the farm. Del's a treasure trove of secrets. Perhaps it's because she and Kat are just finding their footing again that Del's holding onto her troubles and not allowing anyone in to share the burden.

The thing is, you can't do that with a curious teenage girl underfoot, and Del discovered that the hard way when Alice couldn't hold in what she knew for one more second.

Alice: Grandma, you don’t have to pretend that everything’s OK for me. OK? I’m old enough to know the truth.
Del: What are you talkin’ about? You’ve been acting strange all morning.
Alice: Because we’re about to lose the farm! [heads turn from every direction]
Rita: Wait. What?

• Permalink: Because we’re about to lose the farm!

That's what happens when you're closed off to help. Del Landry even admitted Alice had been acting weird with her the last few days, but secret holders are usually so invested in those secrets and so sure they've kept them well hidden that they miss obvious clues.

Now that we've seen the Landry history at the farm and in Port Haven, that farm is going nowhere. It's not a bad story to consider, especially in 2024, when farmers feel they're being squeezed out of their land and livelihood for factory farming.

It's tough maintaining a small farm and supporting yourself and your family doing it, but in this particular tale, the farm is as important.

The Mystery of the black horse is no more, as we discovered the recently vacated neighboring farm was purchased by handsome Sam Bishop.

With as attached as Del has become to the horse, aka Stormy, so quickly, hopefully, they can work something out where she can maintain a friendship with it. Stormy is bringing out a side of Del we haven't seen before. She's freer, opening up a bit from the worries she's carried with her for so long.

At the very least, Sam's presence offers up a new male friend who is of equal stature to Del for a romantic twist. He's a good-looking guy, and they would make a striking couple. They share a similar attitude, which would be playful and fun.

Elliot is another fella who often acts like the world is on his shoulders. And maybe it is.

What he experienced in childhood is unlike anything we have experienced. Knowing your future is one thing, but to lose so many people you loved in such a short time? Well, look what it did to Del.

No wonder they're kindred spirits who have remained close through the years.

They also share an inability to react well to jarring news. Del shuts down any possibility of finding Jacob, and Elliot, well, he's always got to throw a wrench into other people's happiness.

Elliot Augustine was coming off of his own trip down memory lane when Kat returned from the pond with the news she had found Jacob.

Finding Jacob was incredible, and Elliot was on board with her for a moment until he turned into a sourpuss again, being pragmatic and negative during a time for celebration.

Kat Landry is kicking herself for thinking that she would have found Jacob as a child, but they've only been time-traveling for a short time.

They have not been able to return to an earlier time than the one they visited before, but since they did travel to when Jacob was little, there was no reason to believe they wouldn't arrive at the same time he left rather than exactly as long as time had passed for them.

What Elliot is correct about, even if his timing was off, was that it may and will most likely be impossible to bring Jacob home. Not physically through the pond, necessarily, but because he has lived his entire life in the past, and he has a love.

Susana Augustine, Elliot's ancestor, is engaged to Jacob. It adds another layer to how intertwined Elliot's life is with the Landrys and makes bringing Jacob home more unlikely to happen.

If Del is ever to meet her son again, she may have to test the pond to see if she can travel.

At some point, they have to reunite. This is a joyful story about generations of families who happen to have the ability to time travel.

Now, I don't expect traditional family reunions of dozens of people joining each other through time, but for mother and son to see one another again is a must.

For Jacob, the way home was literal and figurative. He found his way home in another time, being raised by Elijah and Rebecca Landry. That's how the pond works. It's always in the same place. Port Haven is Jacob Landry as much as it was the founding family of which he was a part.

The fact that his hands brought Port Haven as we know it to life makes this story even more magical.

We didn't get to spend too much time with Elijah Landry, but he seems kind. He's family; he welcomed Jacob's sister into his without question.

I'm nowhere near as worried about Jacob being left out of the Almanac as Kat is. After all, his artwork is proudly displayed on the wall, and his brother's child was named after him. There are actually two Jacob Landrys in the Landry family. 🤯

Elliot had to revisit his past to remember how he fit into this story -- how he was as much family as any of the Landrys, and telling them how important they are to him would keep him from feeling pain in the event he loses any one of them.

But, once again, we're at the no more time travel talk part of the story, and with the enormity of the news at hand, how could Kat and Elliot dance around that subject while remaining friends? It would tear them apart.

He needs a happy ending to that story as much as she does, and when she left him after the promise to be more mindful, she failed to realize how much had changed over the last couple of days.

Elliot isn't a monster. He thought the woman he loved was setting herself up for a fall, and he also thought his own life could be affected by her decisions. Well, it can be affected, but it will only be in a positive light.

Bits and Pieces:

● Why did Casey's ears perk up when she heard about Jacob? Alice's high school friends haven't really worked out because she's so involved with the pond. Could Casey become a friend Alice can confide in about her family's secrets?

● Alice Dhawan and Elliot have such a strange friendship. She hasn't changed at all but knows both his younger self and his older self, and he's an adult who is now friends with a teenager. It must be so awkward, but they write it in a way that awkwardness dissolves.

Alice: We haven’t made a pact.
Elliot: Sorry?
Alice: Before. You said that we made a pact not to talk about my travels anymore, but I think I would remember that conversation unless it hasn’t happened yet for me. So, I must have made some kind of pact with you in the past, which means that I keep going back. But mom says she never saw me again, so what does the pond want me to do?
Elliot: I couldn’t tell you that even if I wanted to. But if I can offer you a piece of advice, Alice? Don’t be in a hurry to jump back in.
Alice: But why?
Elliot: You can never go back to the way things were. People grow up, and everything you knew about those kids we once were is going to change.

• Permalink: You can never go back to the way things were. People grow up, and everything you knew about...

● I do have to call foul on finding photos taped under Jacob's desk, with masking tape, of all things. Wouldn't someone have found them over 24 years? If nothing else, that tape would have given out, spilling them on the ground.

● With how time travels on and the amount of time it takes to travel by ship in 1814, what's the likelihood that we'll see adult Jacob in The Way Home Season 2?

OK. That's all I've got for now. What about you?

Have you taken trips to the past in the same way Elliot revisited his past?

What do you think of Elijah and how he raised Jacob as family? Do you have any concerns about Jacob's missing name in the Almanac?

Hit the comments and share your thoughts!

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.