The Pact

Agnes Riley knows she made a promise long ago - but she can't remember what it was, or to whom. The date August 2 is everywhere in her room at Hillingdale Haven: circled on the calendar, frozen on a broken watch, even written in lipstick on the mirror, always with the mysterious initials J.O. While young Mandy helps the old woman search her fading memory, Agnes paints picture after picture of a train, a maple tree, and a lake. Then comes alarming news: Agnes has slipped out a back door and vanished. Her husband Tom, Mandy, and Whit dig through decades of calendars and red-and-gold journals, where a returned letter to a mission in Sri Lanka reveals that "J.O." is a long-lost friend named Jo. But while the police watch the bus and train stations, Agnes is already out on the open road... riding toward a place called Loon Lake.

Found on Friends, Family, and Countrymen Album 39 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0505 The Toy Man When a toy-company executive's push for family-friendly toys puts him at odds with his corporate colleagues, an unlikely job offer from Whit forces him to weigh security and status against a calling he thought he'd left behind.

0506 For Trying Out Loud When repeated tryouts leave Liz Horton convinced she has no talent, an eccentric mailman's disastrous stage debut helps them both discover that real gifts aren't always found where you're looking.

0507 The Benefit of the Doubt With Novacom in ruins, the people of Odyssey must decide whether its ordinary employees deserve suspicion or trust.

1 of 2 0508 The American Revelation When Marvin dismisses the American Revolution as history that has nothing to do with him, Whit's rebuilt Imagination Station drops him into 1775 to see for himself.

2 of 2 0509 The American Revelation When Marvin joins the exhausted defenders of Bunker Hill, he must find his own courage while discovering the forgotten Black patriots who fought for a freedom not yet their own.

0510 For the Fun of It A wealthy teenager, forced to spend a week with her eccentric mailman uncle to escape etiquette school, sets out to prove her father can't control her - and finds far more than a way to rebel.

1 of 2 0511 The Pact At Hillingdale Haven, an elderly woman with a failing memory becomes convinced she made a long-forgotten promise that must be kept on a fast-approaching date - if only she can remember what it was.

2 of 2 0512 The Pact When Agnes vanishes on the anniversary of a secret childhood promise, Tom and his friends race to decode her journals and paintings before six o'clock.

0513 Do or Diet When Connie's shot at a personal training scholarship depends on coaching Whit, Bernard, and Wooton to each lose ten pounds in five weeks, her biggest obstacle isn't the diet plan - it's her clients.

0514 Room Enough for Two When Liz's beloved older brother returns from the Army with a surprise fiancée in tow, she sets out to protect her place in his life - until a crisis forces the two women who love him most to face what they have in common.

0515 B-TV: Behind the Scenes A behind-the-scenes look at a live TV broadcast about unity that threatens to fall apart because the crew can't stop fighting long enough to save their own struggling station.

0516 Bassett Hounds A grieving-support trip to Alaska turns out to be something else entirely, as Bernard discovers Wooton's family is far more - and far wealthier - than he ever imagined.

0517 It's All About Me When Connie casts Mitch as the host of a Kids' Radio advice show, the credit for its success lands in exactly the wrong place - while a mysterious "Prank Man" turns the school upside down.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 3 more roles

3 supporting roles

Agnes Riley Susan Silo Truck Driver Joy Blowers Dr. Jennings Corey Burton

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Nathan Hoobler Writer Bob Hoose Director · Producer Bob Luttrell Sound Designer · Producer Marshal Younger Producer Paul McCusker Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

While volunteering at Hillingdale Haven, Mandy Straussberg brings Agnes Riley her medication. The sight of Mandy stirs a memory Agnes cannot reach. She becomes certain that she has made an important promise and that the day to fulfill it is approaching, but she cannot remember what she is supposed to do or whom the promise concerns. She asks Mandy to remain with her and help her think.

Agnes’s memory shifts unpredictably. She can describe events from long ago with great clarity but forget what happened only minutes earlier. Dr. Jennings says this pattern is common in her condition and is grateful that Agnes has formed a connection with Mandy. During the next two days, Agnes paints quickly and constantly, covering her room with pictures of a train, a maple tree, a lake, and other scenes.

Agnes tells Mandy that her husband once repaired train cars and is probably working in the garden. She means her first husband, Wilbur, who died about thirty years ago, not Tom. When Tom arrives, Mandy is surprised to learn that Agnes is his wife. Tom has learned to accept that Agnes may not always recognize him, but even he has never seen her so consumed by one thought.

The date August 2 appears everywhere in Agnes’s room. It is circled on her calendar, fixed on the date display of a favorite watch whose battery no longer works, and written in lipstick on the mirror. Beneath the date are the letters J.O. Agnes knows that they do not represent an ordinary set of initials, yet hearing them makes her more certain that something must happen that very day. She repeatedly says that she promised.

Agnes asks Mandy to steady a chair while she searches the top of her closet. Unable to find what she wants, she grows increasingly agitated and insists that she has somewhere to go. Dr. Jennings asks Tom to investigate old birthdays or anniversaries that might explain August 2 and give Agnes peace.

Tom, Mandy, and Whit search the stack of calendars Agnes has kept through the years. The same mark - August 2 and J.O. - appears on a calendar from twenty years earlier, when Agnes was caring for Tom after he broke his back, and on another from ten years earlier, when she first entered Hillingdale. It is absent in the intervening years. Tom remembers that on the drive to Hillingdale, Agnes repeatedly insisted he was taking her to the wrong place, but he assumed her confusion was part of her illness.

Dr. Jennings suddenly calls with alarming news. Agnes has disappeared. Earlier she insisted on visiting the hospital library, where she pulled a peculiar collection of books from the shelves. Afterward she returned toward her room singing joyfully, as though she had finally remembered something. An hour later, a nurse found her room empty and a back door open. Police begin searching the grounds, roads, and transportation stations.

Dr. Jennings believes Agnes must have found a clue among the books and urges Tom to help identify it. The subjects range from seasons and short stories to taxes and investments, with no obvious connection. Whit notices instead that all the books have red covers with gold lettering. Tom immediately remembers Agnes’s journals, which have the same appearance and contain entries reaching back to her childhood.

At the Riley home, Mandy recalls that Agnes had tried to reach the top of her closet. There they find a box of personal belongings and several red-and-gold journals. A returned letter has been tucked into one of them. It is addressed to a mission in Sri Lanka, marked for the attention of J.O. The envelope suggests that Jo is a person from Agnes’s past and that Agnes’s attempt to reach that friend has failed.

The box also holds rare clear photographs of Agnes, who normally hid her face from cameras. Tom sets them aside so the police can circulate a current likeness at bus stations, train stations, and the airport. He assumes she cannot travel far without money. Unknown to them, Agnes is already walking along a road. A passing driver stops, and Agnes asks for a ride to Loon Lake. By chance, the woman is going in that direction and invites her into the car.