Is The Way Home's Tessa Really Auntie Coop?! | Episode 4

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]I cannot tell you how shocked I was that Nick actually time traveled to the 1920s on the way home. Kristen here and I'm an entertainment journalist. I've been reviewing and doing interviews with the cast of The Way Home since the very first season and I've been having a blast breaking down each episode of the final season with you every week. So, let's get into The Way Home season 4 episode 5. What I love about this is that Nick is sort of the everyman when it comes to time travel because we really get to see it from his point of view this episode. Their main goal is to get the Landry family almanac and make Fern admit that she's known Tessa her entire life. But of course, nothing goes as they planned. While she can't find Fern at The Herald, Kat does find the Alice in Wonderland book given to Fern by Auntie Coop, aka Tessa Cooper. We also get to learn more about Fern's background. Her brother died in combat, her parents are dead, she's all alone.

[00:00:51]But she found comfort in the Goodwin family and they've been close since Grayson's late sister Cassandra brought Fern to Lingermore. I got to admit, it looked like Nick was going to be a liability episode, but he really came through. It was all part of his plan to get info. He finds out the Augie boys' hideout and learns more about the boss known as the Big Fish. They end up in jail but appeal to Cliff Cain's interest in helping out Fern and so he lets them out. I'm telling you, Cliff Cain is in love with Fern. I really think he's going to be the father to Fern's future child. They do get caught up with the Augie boys but escape in time for Kat to finally confront Fern about why she lied about knowing Tessa her whole life. She said Coop always told her that someone might come looking for her and it looks like Kat is that person, but I feel like the way Fern is responding feels a little bit less like playing into the riddles and more like she didn't really know at all. And when you think about it, she did tell Kat she was her first time traveler, so maybe Fern really didn't know anything. Then that makes me wonder, when it comes to the Big Fish, we were kind of sharing theories of could it be Fern? We don't know if we trust her anymore. Could it be Tessa?

[00:01:53]And I'm really leaning towards Tessa right now. Now that Elliot knows Tessa has been stuck essentially in time, he wants to be the one to go find her. So, he and Alice jump into the pond in hopes to go to the 1920s, but they end up back in the 70s and he comes across his mom as a young woman. Evelyn and her son are playing a white witch game with Tessa when they come across her, which I think is really fun just to see how deep that lore go with Evelyn's fascination with the white witch. He sees Tessa and Evelyn talking about palm readings and tarot card readings and it's clear that something is very interesting to both of them. Evelyn does her tarot cards and we see a knight, a tall, dark stranger coming into her life, and fertility or motherhood. She's unsure about the idea of being a mom, but the way Evelyn talks about it so positively really changes her mind and she even takes two of the tarot cards, which is what we end up seeing in modern day in the suitcase that Alice found. She specifically takes the tall, dark stranger and fertility cards and I wonder if that tall, dark stranger could be referring to Griffin taking her in time or maybe Elliot appearing in the 70s, meeting her. Going back to those two ripped photos, who's to say they're both of the same person?

[00:02:59]What if the one with Tessa, Colton and Dell is Griffin and the one with baby Elliot? What if that's actually Elliot?

[00:03:06]I just really think that would be so cool. In fact, I really thought Elliot was going to go and talk to her, but instead we see this really beautiful conversation he has with Vic that honestly got me emotional. You get to see how hopeful young Vic was about the future and you just feel bad for this guy cuz he had such a tough life. He lost his brother at a young age. Now he's going to lose his wife and family.

[00:03:27]Just really sad to see everything that he went through, especially when he was in such a positive place with Tessa. So, I'm like, "What made her jump?" And I wonder if it could tie back to this family that she never got to have when she was young. She kind of mentioned that last episode when she talked about the Landry Family Almanac. You know, she definitely lives in this gray area where like she's bringing people together, but then we see her stealing. You know, she jumps in the pond. Why? I can't wait to find out what's really going on with her. Can we trust her or does Elliot just have two kind of sucky parents?

[00:03:56]Ironically, Nick and Kat get attacked by the Augie boys while they're at the pond. They were really lucky here because the Augie boys think they drowned them, but really obviously they time traveled, but I almost had a heart attack cuz Nick almost got left behind.

[00:04:07]What would they do if Nick got left behind in the '20s, but luckily he made it into the pond with Kat to make it back to present day. Let's get into Del's storyline next. The accident that we saw at the end of last week has knocked her unconscious. She can literally see and feel Colton. It's almost like she wants to stay in her memories with him forever. I was like, is this some kind of near-death experience? Is this some kind of tumor?

[00:04:28]Somehow, despite all of that, she still manages to have her little flirtation, her little love triangle going on here.

[00:04:33]Sometimes it feels like they don't really know what to do with Del. And it just seems like a waste of a storyline because there's so many other things going on. Does she want to go with what's real? Does she want to go with what's easy? Why can't it be both? She's still just so haunted by Colton. It's like no one will ever live up to it. And I don't think Colton would want this for her. I think he would want her to be happy. She ends up running through the cornfields looking for Colton and young Jacob, and she faints. It's a good thing Sam came and found her. He's the reliable one. And they finally get to the hospital. I'm like, they should have done that from the beginning. It looked like she was trying to just stay in this dream world, and luckily Jacob came home and snapped her out of it. Was she just going to like forget about Kat and Alice and pass on?

[00:05:12]You got to look for the people that are here. We definitely got some more answers and a lot more questions. By the end of this episode, it feels like Elliot is now going to be the one pulling a Kat and doing his own research and going on a journey to find the answers that he's looking for, starting with old issues of the Herald. Maybe he'll finally find something there that will give him the truth he's been seeking. Let me know your thoughts and theories on this episode of The Way Home in the comments.