The Way Home Finally Introduces Adult Jacob! Inside His Twisty Debut and ‘Bittersweet’ Reunion With Kat

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Sunday’s The Way Home. Proceed at your own risk!

The Way Home staged a long-awaited reunion during Sunday’s episode, but it did not go according to plan, much to Kat’s dismay.

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After Elliot failed to find Jacob on any ship manifests, Kat asked him to instead look for the name Thomas Coyle, having realized that the man may have something to do with Jacob. And her hunch was right: The documents showed that Coyle arrived on the ship Bella Donna on the first day of harvest in 1814. Coyle had paid for Jacob’s passage back home, and that’s why his name was listed.

Kat returned to the past to wait for Jacob’s return and discovered his childhood sneakers buried in the ground, confirming that he was there. Then Susanna called to announce that the ship had arrived. Kat gripped Elijah’s hand and braced on the shore for Jacob’s homecoming. But when Kat cried out to her brother, rushing into the ocean, he only briefly glanced at her before turning away without a word. Before she could speak to him, British soldiers arrived and arrested Jacob for treason.

Below, adult Jacob’s portrayer, Degrassi: Next Class and Reign alum Spencer Macpherson, talks about his character’s much-hyped introduction, how Jacob has changed during his time in the past, and his “bittersweet” reunion with sis Kat.

TVLINE | Before you got cast in this role, what was your familiarity with the show?
I wasn’t super familiar with the show prior to being cast, and the audition was interesting because they used a different name, as well. After I had auditioned for the show, I started watching episodes of it, and I saw Remy Smith, who plays young Jacob, and I kind of put it together because there’s sort of a similarity there.

TVLINE | You said you went back and watched some episodes. What other kind of preparation did you do to play adult Jacob?
It’s a really interesting moment in history, as well, where we find adult Jacob, and there was a lot of research to be done about that time. I just wanted to kind of familiarize myself with that time and the other actors who are also in 1814. I wanted to make sure that we’re all similar, tonally. Another big part of it was getting to watch Remy Smith, who plays young Jacob, and trying to find whatever sort of connective tissue I could between what he did and where Jacob is now.

TVLINE | Were there any qualities or characteristics to his performance that you can speak to that you were able to incorporate?
Yeah. He brings like a real mischievous charm to Jacob, I think, and you might get to see some glimmers of that… I wanted to have the similarities with what Remy did with young Jacob, but also, it’s been 25 years that he’s been in the 1800s. So I think he’s had to adapt and change. As a viewer and as Kat, I think we want to see young Jacob again, but a lifetime has gone by. There’s something that’s kind of tragic about that to me.

TVLINE | We, as viewers, and Kat only know Jacob as a little boy or what’s been said kind of secondhand about the adult version of him. So how would you describe your Jacob and who he is as an adult?
Well, it’s a really interesting moment in history, 1814. Every single aspect of society was really different then, as far as, like, even the way that he connects with other men, with Thomas. I guess the word would be more measured. There’s a certain amount of, like, composure that he has. He’s very contemplative, and there’s an element to him where, this is a weird word to use, but he’s sort of omnipresent. Like, he’s got one foot firmly planted in 1814, but a toe is dipped in 1999. I think that even with the way he talks, at times, he kind of bounces between this older dialect or just like a lack of contractions and stuff like that, and then when he’s with Kat, he kind of has a bit more of the Jacob that we used to know.

TVLINE | How has he adjusted to life in the past, having come from this completely different world?
Without saying too much, he’s had to repress his old life. I don’t imagine he even really knows if it was real. It’s almost as if he had to push it all deep down in order to accept his new reality, and I think that that’s what a lot of people would probably do in that situation. He kind of went through a nightmare and came out on the other side, and all he could do was push it down and accept his new reality.

TVLINE | Is there part of him that likes living in the past? He’s got a father figure in Elijah, he’s got a fiancée… Does he consider this home?
Oh, absolutely. This is his world. This is, essentially, all he really knows. As the season progresses and we get familiar with this cast of characters in 1814, and they’re all excellent, they’re all really welcoming. They’ve welcomed Jacob into this world, and this is his home. Without saying too much, I think it’s all he really knows, essentially.

TVLINE | At the end of episode 5, Jacob is pretty unresponsive when Kat is calling to him on the shore. What’s going through his head in that moment? Does he not recognize her?
Yeah. He had to repress a lot of his past. I think maybe he’s seen Kat in, like, his dreams, but he can’t even really reconcile if that was what happened. The whole concept of going into this pond, there’s something nightmarish about that, if you were eight years old, being dragged to the bottom of a pond and then spit back out in a time where you knew no one. I think it was extremely traumatic for him, and he had to almost forget about his old life in order to accept his new one. So I think he looks at her, and he sees a face he’s maybe seen in a dream, but he’s been forced to push it back in order to cope.

TVLINE | That scene is such a pivotal moment, especially on Kat’s side, finally seeing her brother again. Did you discuss it with Chyler Leigh before you filmed and talk about what you wanted to bring to it?
Yeah. That was the first day I was ever on the set. It was really funny because I came in, and I went to the hair trailer just to kind of get acquainted with everyone, and Chyler was there, and she got immediately quite emotional because I think it’s been such a long time coming. And I think a lot of the emotions that are in that initial scene, where they lock eyes, were pretty authentic to the way that, especially for Chyler, how she felt, finally, finding this puzzle piece that’s been missing. And Jacob’s not even aware that there was a puzzle, really, I don’t think.

TVLINE | Once Kat and Jacob are able to have a proper reunion, how is that relationship? What is that brother/sister dynamic like now?
It’s fractured, for sure. A lot of time has gone by, and as I said before, Kat’s got a lot of expectations about what Jacob will be like after all this time. And Jacob sees someone who he can’t quite reconcile what to make of her. As the episodes progress, you get to kind of see their relationship grow and develop, and it’s not going to be what it was when they were kids, and there’s something bittersweet about that.

TVLINE | Just as Kat and Jacob are finally coming face-to-face, he’s being arrested for treason. What can you tease about where Episode 6 picks up with that and what kind of trouble he’s gotten himself into?
Oh, gosh, yeah, it’s such a whirlwind, the end of that episode. Well, Jacob has been on a boat, smuggling, and of course, Cyrus Goodwin, who owns every inch of Port Haven, sees him as a threat to his empire, I guess, and Jacob’s facing the consequences of that. Of course, in The Way Home fashion, as soon as we get this epic reunion, he gets taken away. So as it goes on, we’ll see Jacob face the consequences of what he was doing in his war efforts.

The Way Home fans, what did you think of adult Jacob’s long-awaited debut? Hit the comments!