5 burning questions The Way Home Season 4 needs to answer

Can’t get over that Season 3 finale? No, nor can I. Instead of waiting for The Way Home Season 4 to patiently come around, I’m delving into the five questions it needs to answer the most.

Now, I’ve picked five questions to explore here, but as any Ponderer will know, these aren’t the be-all and end-all. The Way Home wrapped up Season 3 by giving us a fair few answers, but even they are springboards for new issues in the long-run.

Adult Colton knew the truth about his family before he died, but will we see him return? Del finally took the plunge to travel back to 1974, but will she ever use the pond again? Alice and Max kissed, but Noah has texted saying he misses her. Who will she end up with?

Sadly for you, we’re not going to be touching on any of these mind-numbers for now. Instead, the binge-worthy TV show has bigger fish to fry when it returns next year with Season 4 – here’s what it needs to get to first.

The Way Home Season 4 needs to reveal who Casey is

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Obviously, we got tantalizingly close to finding out Casey’s real identity in The Way Home Season 3 finale, but the reveal was withheld from us at the last minute.

Instead, Alice runs into Casey, blurting out she thinks she and Max are Casey’s parents. Casey says Alice is wrong, heading to leave. Casey confirms they’re a Landry and Goodwin, but says they “don’t want to break anymore rules” by sharing more.

It’s going to be a while before we get any concrete answers to this, but the most popular theory is that Jacob is Casey’s dad. We saw the two interact for the first time in Episode 10, with Casey appearing with Susanna’s real will to help Jacob in his fight against Louis Goodwin.

As for their relationship definitely being father and child, the odds are becoming ever more likely – regardless of what the showrunners say. We know Casey is a Landry, and with Alice now ruled out, Jacob becomes the next most likely candidate. Plus, the two look incredibly alike.

Now Jacob has disappeared yet again – though we think we know where his hiding place is – everything just got a lot more complicated.

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But why didn’t we get the reveal in Season 3? Showrunner Alexandra Clarke told TV Insider, “I think we realized early on that there was a way we could of reveal all about Casey in our Episode 10, but we held back because it is such a lovely reveal and we didn’t want it to just be yet another reveal in this episode of reveals. There’s so much more story to tell with Casey. Casey is the most mercurial, incredible character.

“I love the Casey character and Vaughan Murrae plays them so perfectly, and they really could be anyone is the best part. They’ve got a little bit of Goodwin, they’ve got a little bit of Augustine, they’ve got a little bit of Landry. And I think it’s lovely to see the viewers continue to guess at who they actually are.

“The answer will be shared, of course it will. But I think there’s more story to tell and there’s more story to earn us that reveal rather than just kind of throw it away. It’s too big and important a reveal to just throw away in a quick scene in a finale episode. So I will say that they are telling the truth about not being Alice’s kid.”

Was this the best decision? Make your own mind up, but I certainly wasn’t thrilled.

Where has Jacob disappeared to?

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Then there’s the actual question of Jacob’s hiding place itself. In the second to last scene, the letters Del received are on the table, with a new one from Jacob. He says he doesn’t want to put his family in danger, thinking the letters will stop if he disappears.

She gets a call from Sam, explaining Jacob has left. “Well it’s going to be okay, I promise,” Sam says as we cut to him clearly standing by the pond. “How do you know that, Sam?” “I just… do” Sam replies, looking over the water.

We’ll get back to the part about Sam in a minute, but let’s focus on Jacob for the meantime. All we know is that he’s vanished, but of course that’s unlikely to be confined to the present-day timeline. In my mind, Jacob was brought up there, so it’s most likely he’s headed straight back to Elijah in 1816. Why? His ultimate threat has now gone.

After the Landry farm fire, Cyrus almost died, losing the ability to speak. Susanna is keeping Cyrus’ secret, running Port Haven as she sees fit under the guise of his leadership. As a Landry family ally, Jacob is now essentially safe to go back to the life he left behind.

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He loves Elijah, and getting vengeance in the present day didn’t exactly work out too well. He’s also now got the proof of Susanna’s real will to use against Cyrus’ sons.

However, this isn’t the only possibility. Casey left him in the lurch about what they really know about the Goodwins and Landrys, leaving out the back door before he could get his questions answered. There’s a chance he’s trying to track them down, though this could break the pond’s rules.

This leaves Colton. Jacob knows exactly what Colton found out on the day he died, and how he chose to go back in time to try and see his son one last time. Could a Collision Theory family reunion be on the cards?

Who is Elliot’s mom time-traveling with?

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The most unexpected clanger of the Season 3 finale was the reveal of who Elliot’s mom was, alongside the fact we’ve already seen her in previous episodes.

The Way Home’s final scene follows Elliot reading the letter from his mom, sent by his dad. He recognizes the words from a T.S. Eliot book, explaining the author was his namesake. Alice arrives, remembering the girl in 1974 who showed her the same book.

“I think I met your mom,” Alice says, with Elliot not able to figure out how a clock – with an inscription from the same poem referenced in the letter – ended up in a wall built before the book was published.

Then he reads the letter again. “I jump for love” is a phrase used, implying Elliot’s mom time traveled too. “There’s only one way she could have done that… she had to go with a Landry,” Kat adds. We see Elliot’s mom write the note and leave it in a baby’s crib (surprise! Elliot is the mystery baby), while the half-mystery couple jump in the pond.

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To point out the obvious, our man in this scenario is a complete unknown. He has to be a Landry to use the pond to begin with, but beyond that we’ve currently got no clues.

Then, there are other questions. Where did she travel to? Who did she become? Have we already met her at another point in time and just never noticed? Season 4 will definitely need to revisit 1974 to get some answers… although that’s assuming Elliot’s mom was from that timeline to begin with.

There’s also another. How did Elliot end up with Vic? We saw Colton find Elliot by the pond and bring him to Del, suggesting there’s more to Elliot’s story too.

Sam’s real identity

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Let’s pick back up with Sam Bishop now, because that guy clearly isn’t who he says he is. Remember? “Well it’s going to be okay, I promise,” Sam says as we cut to him clearly standing by the pond. “How do you know that, Sam?” “I just… do,” Sam replies.

The most obvious of our answers is that Sam is really Jacob from a future timeline. As we know, pond rules stipulate you can only travel back in time rather than forward, meaning if Sam really can time travel, he’s from the future.

Then there’s the idea Sam is also an Augustine, though there’s potential issues around pond usage here. We know creators like to subtly name their characters after other things, including real-life people. The inclusion of Augustine could be a reference to the church of St. Augustine, where said saint was a bishop. Augustine, Bishop… see what I did there?

Or could Sam be following the age-old tale of Samson and Delilah? As we know from the tale, this pairing is a story of betrayal that stems from Samson’s actions. Could Sam really be a red herring to set Del up in Season 4? We still don’t know who wrote the letters… just saying.

What happens to Lingermore now?

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Susanna’s will helping Jacob out in his hour of need wasn’t the only thing to come out of Casey finding it. As Casey leaves, Jacob finds out Lingermore – that’s the estate Susanna and Cyrus live in in 1816 – was left to the Landry family.

This will be a change Susanna made after Cyrus lost the ability to speak, but his sons changed her will after she died. The fake copy had been used to keep Lingermore in the Goodwin family, with Evelyn living there at least until 2000.

Jacob told everything he learned to Kat, Del, and Alice, but does this mean that anything will change in the future? After Jacob tried to set fire to Goodwin Vinyard, the two families aren’t exactly on the best of terms. Sure, they’ve got legality on their side, but that doesn’t mean the Goodwins will go down without a fight.

The Way Home Season 3 is now available on Hallmark+. Catch up with why Colton couldn’t be brought back to life, why Season 4 could have one big change, as well as the best Hallmark movies and best Hallmark TV shows of all time.