The Best Is Yet to Come

Eugene Meltsner has been offered his dream job: leading a research team in Baltimore that will carry forward the memory-restoring technology he invented. But the news lands hard on his adopted son, Buck. Life in Odyssey has finally become wonderful for Buck - good grades, stardom on the football team, great friends - and in the heat of the argument he blurts out one more reason he refuses to leave: he has a girlfriend, Jules Kendall, and he is staying in Odyssey with her.

Eugene brings his dilemma to Whit at Whit's End. He worries about uprooting Buck so soon after the adoption, especially now that Buck is dating Jules and showing a surprising new interest in church. Whit gently pushes back, asking whether Eugene has grown stagnant at Campbell College and whether God might be calling him forward. Since Eugene invented the technology, only he can be trusted to protect it from greedy or manipulative hands. "If you don't go to Baltimore, who will?" Whit asks. He urges Eugene to visit Baltimore, gather the facts, and pray - a lot.

Downstairs, Katrina and Connie compare notes in a comedy of crossed wires: Connie knows Buck and Jules are singing a duet at church but not that they are dating, while Katrina knows they are dating but not about the duet. Once the shock wears off, the grown-ups decide to let the relationship play out under close supervision, since it is at least getting the two teens to church to hear the truth. Connie confronts Jules about keeping secrets, insists she is too young to be dating anyone, but still allows the duet - "Fine, but no enjoying it, okay?"

Choosing their song, Buck and Jules hatch a scheme. Their parents have both hinted they would feel better about the relationship if the teens were Christians, so the pair decide to act genuinely interested in Christianity, figuring Eugene and Katrina would never move away if Odyssey seemed to be drawing Buck toward God. They pick "Amazing Grace," and when they sing it, the plan works better than they imagined: Eugene is moved to tears, saying he never thought he would hear his son singing in church about God's grace.

In Baltimore, Dr. Langford Hunt pulls out all the stops: a rent-free penthouse apartment with a pool, a gym, a game room, and a bedroom for Buck already decorated with the local high school's football pennant. Buck privately tells Jules the luxury means nothing to him and he just wants to go home - though he suspects Dr. Hunt overhears him say it. Watching scientists treat his father like a celebrity, Buck is startled to see Eugene energized and excited like never before. Still, when the family talks that night, Buck praises everything about Odyssey - its warmth, its people, and especially Pastor Knox's church, where he claims he wants to hear more about God. After he leaves the room, Eugene and Katrina agree that if Odyssey is where Buck is most likely to come to faith, they cannot see how they could move.

Then comes the funeral of Mr. Hancock, the patient who died after Eugene's experimental surgery. When Eugene tries to apologize to the widow, Loretta stops him and tells a story instead. Her husband proposed to her by a pond, and for years they recreated that proposal every Valentine's Day - until his memory failed and he could only stare at her blankly. But after the treatment, just last week, he led her to the pond and got down on his knees one more time. "You gave me a few more days with my husband, Eugene," she says, promising to be grateful forever.

Back home in Odyssey, Eugene and Katrina sit by the fire, both haunted by Loretta's words. Katrina remembers how devastating it was when Eugene once lost his own memory, and reminds him how many lives his work could restore. Eugene insists he is called to be a father more than a scientist - when Buck's voice floats down from the treehouse asking why he can't be both. Buck climbs down and confesses everything: he doesn't believe he will ever become a Christian, and the sudden interest in church was a scheme he and Jules cooked up to keep the family in Odyssey. But something real did sneak through. He remembers Pastor Knox teaching that love rejoices in truth and is not selfish, and he admits his deception was both. After hearing Loretta at the funeral, he knows his father can help millions of people, and keeping him in Odyssey would be unfair to all of them. He tells his dad to take the job. Katrina agrees that Eugene should listen to his wise son, and Eugene finally accepts: the Meltsner family is moving to Baltimore.