The music featured in The Way Home season 2, episode 2, "Hanging by a Moment," seems to point to Elliot's conflicted feelings both in the past and the present. The episode title, taken from the Lifehouse track, is misleading. You can't count on another romantic reunion between Kat and Elliot, but the latter is hanging by a moment, two actually. Alice's arrival in 1999 and Kat's involvement in Colton's fatal accident in 2000.
In the past, Elliot has been left on his own just like Del has. With Jacob missing, Colton dead, and Kat running off with Brady, he no longer has the family he knew and cherished. Seeing Alice again triggers a negative reaction for the teen who blames her for the way his life has changed. Before her appearance, he'd been happy and now he's grieving the loss of his father figure, his best friend, and a boy he loved like family.
It seems, however, that the pond knew that he needed someone which is why Alice got sent back twice to see him. The two spend time together at the beach as they talk and, once he's calmed down from his earlier outburst, they listen to music off his MP3 player. The song that they listen to is "How's It Going to Be" by Third Eye Blind. The lyrics are perfect for Elliot's point of view as, according to Genius, the song is about being burnt out by a relationship. In the teen's case, it's his connection to time travel and Alice which can be seen in the following lyrics:
I'm only pretty sure that I can't take anymore
Before you take a swing
I wonder what are we fighting for
When I say out loud
"I wanna get out of this"
I wonder is there anything
I'm gonna miss
I wonder how it's going to be
When you don't know me
How's it going to be
When you're sure I'm not there?
How's it going to be
When there's no one there to talk to?
Between you and me
'Cause I don't care
How's it going to be?
How's it going to be?
WILDES inclusion in "Hanging by a Moment" comes in the form of Elliot putting on a vinyl record that plays the 2020 song "Let You Go" as he looks at his old notebook that houses all of his journal entries about Alice's visits to his teen years. Before he can look too long at his writing, Kat stops by furiously confronting him about lying to her and Alice about when her daughter stopped time traveling to the past.
Elliot's life has been so tangled with theirs and, while there has been immense joy, there's also been heartbreaking tragedy as well. Still, he finds himself gravitating toward the mother-daughter pair even when he's grieving and trying to escape the past.
In two separate time periods he's blamed them for the events that have unfolded. His need to get away stemmed from his anger toward Kat for her involvement in Colton's death and her inability to leave well enough alone when it comes to time traveling. Even knowing this though he can't let go of her and the family they share. Most of "Let You Go" applies to this pair but given the context of the scene, the lyric "You and I know, words they can haunt you" stands out the most.
Stay tuned to Hidden Remote for more analysis of the music featured in The Way Home!