The Way Home Season 4 Episode 4, titled “We’ve Got Tonight,” started with Kat stuck in a 1920s prison and ended with her jumping back into the pond with an unexpected new time traveler. 

Kat is truly wasting no time this season, as she searches for answers surrounding the mystery of Tessa Augustine/Cooper, while learning that she doesn’t have a totally good read on Fern either. 

And in between all of that, she found time to make a huge decision about The Harold, choosing to shut it down and hoping to focus on her future, though, admittedly, as someone who has seen how much The Harold meant in the past, you’d think that she’d want to preserve the history and return it to its glory days rather than just deeming it no longer important to the public. Hopefully, she holds off on making any major life decisions for now. 

In the 1920s, Fern admitted to drugging her so that she could spare her from whatever the Auggie boys were planning (because apparently, Kat was the target). It’s unclear why they’ve marked Kat as a threat, but either way, she was disappointed with Fern for not being honest with her. As she should be. 

We didn’t get much else out of this timeline; however, it was Alice’s time in 1979  that revealed way more about Tessa and Fern.

An explosive confrontation between a teen Tessa and an elder Fern revealed that there was definitely history between them, even if they hadn’t met in this timeline just yet.

When an older Fern saw Tessa in the Landry home during a kitchen party, she lost it on her, shouting at her that she isn’t family. Tessa seemed confused by the whole ordeal, as Alice later suggested it’s because she hadn’t yet met Fern, nor had they had any experiences together yet, since Tessa doesn’t jump until 1983. Instead, poor Fern just seemed like a crazy old lady.

There is a lot that does bubble up about Tessa, with answers seeming as if they are further away than ever. It’s not entirely clear how the puzzle fits together just yet, but it is intriguing, I’ll give them that. 

I’m stuck more on the fact that Tessa essentially admitted to wanting to befriend the Landrys and Evelyn to get her hands on the Landry almanac, where she specifically zeroed in on Jacob Landry Jr.

For a moment, I assumed that maybe she was Jacob’s daughter from 1920, since he had left his time, and who knows what he was up to there. That would make her a Landry and someone who could time jump on her own without the need for Griffin, which is still possible since we’ve never confirmed she actually needed Griffin to jump with her, despite what Kat and Alice believe. 

However, I don’t exactly know what she’d want with Jacob Landry Jr. 

Kat later pieces together that Tessa was the one who filled out the death entry for Jacob Landry Jr., along with the birth entry for Fern, meaning Fern has known Tessa her entire life. 

Tessa existed in 1882, 1896 and 1925, meaning she’s clocked as many trips via the pond as Kat and Alice, if not more. 

And they also land on the theory I mentioned in The Way Home Season 4 Episode 3 that she likely is stuck in the past after Griffin jumped back without her, waiting 43 years to come back home, since a Landry from that time couldn’t bring her to the future. If she isn’t a Landy herself, of course. 

But if Kat was there and Fern knew Tessa needed someone, why didn’t they just lean on her? And if she was stuck, how did she pen the letter regarding her death that she sent to Vic along with the ring? 

I also can’t shake the feeling that Nick knows something more. He swooped back into town, and while he’s always been invested in the time travel saga, when he asked about the findings on Elliott’s mother, he was the first person to suggest she was “trapped” in the past. I don’t believe anyone had used those words prior.

Kat feels that it’s her duty to find Tessa and bring her back, as Nick offers to jump with her, which is, honestly, pretty risky. 

He’s warned of the risks—if they get separated, he might never make it back, just like Tessa, but he’s still down for the experience, which, in terms of bad decisions, this one is pretty high up on the list. 

But Nick jumps, so there has to be some significance to the decision moving forward. 

Also, why have we never met Claire yet? You’d think he would choose not to jump in the event he never gets back to his fiancée? I’m suspicious of everything and everyone now. 

Jacob was finally back in the picture, but from miles away, as he wrestled with visions of Thomas calling him out for being a coward and running. It didn’t help when Elliott came and told Jacob the same thing, as he’s convinced that he’s hurting his family and staying away to “build a new life for himself,” aka hide out in a bar, is doing them a favor. 

I can’t say Del would agree, as she’s being forced to relive the trauma of losing her child yet again. She knows he left willingly this time, but the moment she heard the phone ring, she ran to it the same way she did all those years ago, hoping to hear Jacob’s voice or get any information on his whereabouts. 

He’s hurting them more by staying away when they’ve gotten this second chance to finally make up for lost time. 

The episode was kind of all over the place, as everyone’s storylines are taking them in different directions.

Del’s kitchen party in the present-day ended when Jacob called and hung up. She then went and tried to break up with Sam, who didn’t fight her on it, so she then called him out for not caring about it enough. The behavior was borderline gaslighty, and she was sending so many mixed signals, I’m not surprised he’s confused. Though I understand that Del is simply scared to jump into something serious again, since she was never fully over Colton. She’s trying to push Sam away, hoping to find anything wrong with him, but the fact that they are so comfortable with each other is a good sign. However, I do think they’re better as friends, as there’s no spark between them. He’s a good guy, but he doesn’t make Del feel alive, not in the way that Colton did, which is also what’s driving her hesitation and pushback. And when she met Nick’s father, Julian, who expressed interest in her, wanted to woo her and had an interest in the arts, she allowed herself to get caught up in the moment ever so briefly. 

I’m curious as to why they introduced Julian—is it simply to remind Del not to settle? Is it to underscore that Sam is too practical? Is it to show us that Del has prospects in the future but remains committed to the past? Either way, it was fun to meet Nick’s dad finally and learn that they have a good relationship.

And will we ever get any insight into who Sam really is?

There’s also the fact that she saw a glimpse of what appeared to be a young Colton, darting to the woods, right by the rock where Tessa’s luggage was found—the same rock where her horse, who came out of nowhere (he’s a time traveler, naturally), refuses to go. Del forces the horse to face his fears when she thinks Colton is getting away, which causes the horse to panic and throw her off. At the end of the episode, Del is unconscious, while Nick and Kat are jumping into the pond. 

Other things to note as they’ll likely fit in somewhere down the line:

• In the ’70s, Fern keeps repeating, “The end is her beginning, beginning is her end.” What could it mean?
• Del was pregnant in 1979, a few years before Kat was born, so she clearly suffered a loss, which no one knew about. That woman has endured so much pain in her life.
• I feel so bad for Alice constantly befriending people with whom she can’t grow up. Even if they are still there, it’s a different dynamic.
• Grayson Goodwin’s marriage certificate for 1926 reveals that he married someone else, so what happened with Fern? Did she fall for Kane?
• He also had a sister, Cassandra, who died young, which is the painting he commissioned at Lingermore Manor. What’s the significance there? The painting also has the White Witch floating over and protecting them. 
• Kane is becoming suspicious of Kat, asking questions about who she really is, with the target seemingly put on Kat thanks to Fern’s decision. 
• There’s a crown on the Goodwin crest, which was on Grayson’s gun and the bullet Alice found at the site of the 1926 explosion, which places him there. Kat thinks she has to warn Fern about him, but maybe Fern already knows the truth? She’s lied about a lot, so who knows what else she knows but isn’t saying?
• Nothing has been brought up about Tessa stealing money from the register, but I can’t shake it. Is she running from someone?

When Kat stated, “It’s just another thing that doesn’t make any sense,” I felt that in my core. That’s the never-ending story with this show, but not in a bad way. It’s part of the fun. We’ll get to the truth soon enough, but we’re enjoying the journey as much as the destination, which is a bittersweet realization because once we know everything, it means we’ve reached the end.