Kat's search for Jacob ends in The Way Home season 2 episode 5 but there's a twist!

The Way Home season 2, episode 5, "Long Time Gone," ushers in an entirely new storyline as summer comes to an end and Port Haven, both in the past and the present, celebrates Founder's Day.

The founding family's are more entwined than Kat could have ever known and that becomes abundantly clear as she works to find out when Jacob will return to his home in 1814. She does get an answer, but it takes some doing and involves an unexpected connection to Thomas Coyle, the man who shot her when she first time traveled to the 1800s.

Major spoilers ahead!

In "Long Time Gone," Kat is only briefly deterred by Elliot's reveal that he searched through his father's ship manifests and didn't find Jacob on the rolls. This was due to the conversation she had with Thomas when she walked in on him bathing at the pond.

Apparently, he's a friend of her brother's. He also might be the person who painted the portrait of her that hung in Lingermore since he called her "My Katherine" during their exchange, and he was carrying painting tools with him. She was struck by surprise as she hadn't considered Thomas as anything beyond being a man with loose morals who has a penchant for flipping coins.

Working on a hunch, Kat asked Elliot to look at the manifests again to see if a Thomas Coyle was listed. He was and that's how she learned that Jacob made his way back to Port Haven aboard the Belladonna under Thomas' name. Kat knew to expect him on the first day of harvest, but she wasn't sure if the pond would bring her back to greet her brother.

Thankfully, it did! But, unfortunately, the two didn't to reunite. Kat was waiting by the shore along with Elijah and Susanna. She called Jacob's name, and he did turn toward her, but he didn't recognize her. That's the be expected. While she had an age progressed rendering to refer to, Jacob would have no idea what his sister would look like in her 30s.

Kat's time seeing her brother was cut short when British troops apprehended him. They pulled him out of the boat and arrested him on grounds of treason. Both Kat and Elijah tried to stop them, but they were roughed up by soldiers for attempting to interfere. Jacob was dragged off while a momentarily distraught and then fiercely determined Kat looked on. At this point, it's not known why the British suspect Jacob of treason, but it likely ties back to Cyrus Goodwin.

Jacob delivered a ship that Cyrus had commissioned. That's why he was in Upper Canada in the first place, and Cyrus was mighty antsy about when Jacob would be returning. Thomas Coyle, a known associate of Cyrus who appears to be akin to a gun for hire, paid for Jacob's passage back to Port Haven. They're supposedly friends, but we don't know much about Thomas, so we can't rule out that he might have betrayed him. What we do know is something fishy is going on and Kat's going to have to get her brother out of this mess fast because his life is hanging in the balance.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next on The Way Home!