Series / The Way Home

The Way Home is a Hallmark Channel original series that premiered on January 15, 2023. Andie MacDowell, Chyler Leigh and Sadie La Flamme Snow star as three generations of women in the Landry family, centered upon a farm in the tiny rural Canadian community of Port Haven.

The story alternates between present day, when Kat (Leigh) and her teenage daughter Alice (LaFlamme-Snow) leave their Minneapolis home for a fresh start with grandmother Del (MacDowell), and 1999, when Kat's younger brother Jacob went missing. Since that time, Kat and Del have largely been estranged.

Upon accidentally falling into a pond on the Landry property, Alice discovers she has the ability to time travel. She soon develops a keen interest in visiting 1999, becoming best friends with her teenage mother, getting to know her grandparents and long-lost uncle, as well as falling in love for the first time. And - what if - Alice were able to change the past?

Other stars include Evan Williams as Everett Augustine and Jefferson Brown as Colton Landry.

The Way Home contains examples of:

• Actor Allusion: Chyler Leigh walks down the stairs to "Kiss Me" in the exact same way as her character Janey Briggs did in Not Another Teen Movie, which itself was a parody of Rachael Leigh Cook's scene in She's All That.
• Brother–Sister Team: From the time they were kids, Kat and Jacob used to talk about working as a professional team one day, her as a reporter and him as a photographer.
• Childhood Friends: Growing up next door, Kat and Elliott were always best friends. They lost touch for a number of years, then instantly reconnected upon the pilot episode, as Kat and Alice move in with Del, only to learn that Elliott had divorced and purchased his old childhood home.
• Down on the Farm: The Landrys have been farming the same land for generations.
• Farmer's Daughter: Averted. Teenage Kat lives a typical late '90s existence, complete with parties, instant messaging and making mix tapes.
• Free-Range Children: At the time of Jacob's disappearance, the 8-year-old is free to wander the carnival alone without any concern from his parents.
• Generational Saga
• Generation Xerox: Alice and Colton bond over their shared love of singing and playing the guitar.
• Happily Married: Together since they were teenagers, Del and Colton are shown as a solid, loving couple.
• Married Too Young: Kat and her ex-husband Brady met at summer camp and started dating when she was 15.
• Missing Child: Much of the series focuses upon 8-year-old Jacob Landry going missing in 1999. His family was never able to learn his fate, which led to his parents' total emotional collapse and inability to move forward.
• Multigenerational Household
• The '90s: Season 1 has Alice, and later Kat, time-traveling numerous times to 1999. Numerous pop culture references, from Britney Spears to Y2K, ensue.
• Not What It Looks Like: Every time teenaged Alice bursts in to update adult Elliot (and her science teacher) on her time travel adventures, it sounds very bad to the people around:
  Alice: "We need to talk about last night!"
• Outliving One's Offspring: The happy life enjoyed by the Landry family comes to an end when Jacob goes missing and is presumed dead. Before Jacob was adopted by his and Kat’s 19 century ancestors they lost their firstborn son to a fever when he was a baby. Rebeca was grieving by the pond when Jacob arrived from 1999 prompting her to take him in and raise Jacob with her husband Elijah.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Elliot likens himself as Giles to Alice's Buffy, and Alice has no clue what he's talking about.
• San Dimas Time: Played With, as the pond (at least in Season 1) skips ahead (but never backwards) at random increments.
• Stable Time Loop and You Already Changed the Past: The entire show is basically this.
  • The biggest example is when Kat goes back in time to prevent the car accident that killed her father, and ends up being the one who caused it.
    • To be fair, it wasn't actually just Kat's going back in time that caused the accident, it was the fact that Alice also went back to try to stop Kat. Alice's attempt to pull Kat back to the forest led to her being in the road just as Colton's truck was approaching. Seeing Alice in danger, Kat rushed forward to push her out of the way while Colton, seeing two women in the road, swerved his truck to avoid hitting them and crashed it into the pole.
  • Kat also went back in time to her father's funeral and turns out to be the 'mysterious woman' Del saw crying and caused Del to suspect Colton was having an affair.
  • Kat AGAIN ensured Jacob's disappearance by walking him home. Jacob might not have run after the dog that hung around his house and disappeared if Kat had not made sure he got to the place where he heard the dog bark.
    • On the other hand, Jacob was already on his way home when Kat found him and accompanied him there, so he probably would have heard the dog bark and gone after it anyway.
  • Several times, Alice specifically goes back in time because she was told that she already did.
  • Elliot lampshades that his whole existence between 1999 and the present is fixed by the loop as an Unwitting Pawn, knowing that he is Alice's science teacher in the future, who hinted to Alice that he helps her in the past. He also knows he is going to stay in Port Haven and isn't going to end up with Kat, otherwise the time travel couldn't have happened.
  • Del didn't mail the letter that asked Kat to come home. Turns out it was Alice, knowing it would start everything.
• The Tease: Colton loves flirting with Del in this fashion. Right from the pilot, we see him teasing the reasons for his marrying her, which include her having "the best legs in the entire province".
• Time Travel
• Witch Hunt: The opening scene of the pilot episode features a young woman dressed in white, running desperately through the woods, jumping into the pond when she reaches it. The year is said to be 1814. The season finale provides viewers with one more glimpse of the scene, just enough to see that the woman is Kat.
• You Can't Fight Fate:
  • Elliot's speeches to Alice and Kat are basically this.
  • Kat walks Jacob home the day he disappeared, thinking she prevented his disappearance. Jacob ended up running after a dog and fell into the pond (into season 2)