The Way Home may be secretly based on the most unhinged children’s book of all time

It seemed like a coincidence at first – and perhaps it was – but now The Way Home Season 3 is underway, links to one unhinged children’s book are coming in thick and fast.

Across multiple different timelines, Alice, Kat, and Del are three Landry family women who are each affected by the time-traveling pond on their land. While Del wants nothing to do with it, Alice and Kat revisit points in the past to learn more about the family’s secrets.

With the exception of missing brother Jacob returning home, this has largely been upsetting. Alice failed to prevent Jacob going missing or Colton’s death in 2000, and has learned she couldn’t stop Rick’s death in Season 3.

If the basic bones of the binge-worthy TV show feel familiar to you, that’s because it is. Now in its third season, links to the most unhinged children’s book of all time are becoming too obvious to miss.

The Way Home has multiple parallels to Alice in Wonderland

While showrunners Heather Conkie and Alexandra Clarke claim any similarities were originally unintentional, The Way Home Season 3 is now sowing obvious Alice in Wonderland-shaped seeds.

Hallmark

Let’s look at the obvious. A teenage girl falls down a hole, learning it sends her to a faraway place. While there, she meets a host of strange, enigmatic characters who each have secrets and riddles of their own. There might not be any beheadings, but The Way Home’s Alice is following the same story.

This is taken up a notch in Season 3. The above still shows a clear reference to Through the Looking Glass, leading some fans to believe Kat is working on a similar novel that follows the same pattern.

References range from direct (teen Kat’s bedroom posters and favorite book, themed cards) to more indirect (Jacob is essentially Kat’s White Rabbit when she’s trying to bring him home to the present day in Season 2).

“As we started looking at this show and the concept, it became so much clearer to us how oddly echoing it all was to the book, and we sort of thought well, if it’s there, let’s use it. It’s a story about a girl that literally falls down the rabbit hole into a whole other world and is trying to make sense of what she’s seeing and of her adventures there,” Clarke told Variety.

While linked, Season 3 is a bit of an anomaly. There were only two Alice in Wonderland books written, meaning the third installment is going rogue.

“I think the thing we’re going to kind of try and do this season is looking at the two books as a whole as a set and what to sort of glean from the two of them and who owns them. And the themes of them will still be a huge part of our show,” Clarke added.

You can find The Way Home Seasons 1-2 already on the app, with Season 3 streaming weekly. For similar vibes, check out Virgin River Season 7, Sullivan’s Crossing Season 3, and shows if you like Virgin River.