The Ties That Bind

Whit has collapsed at a stormy town meeting, and now he's spending the night in the hospital while doctors run their tests. Across town, Wooton's troubles are piling up fast: a break-in at his house, a blogger called the Perilous Pen leaking his comic book secrets, and now fire engines in the street - his home burns to the ground with everything inside. Standing in the ashes, Wooton makes a decision: he's going to hunt down the Perilous Pen, and Eugene Meltsner is just the man to help him. But Eugene has worries of his own when Buck comes home scraped and bruised after an attack in the park... and refuses to say who did it. The next morning Buck marches off to school anyway, battered face and all, determined to show Odyssey he came to give, not to take. In a town full of secrets, somebody knows more than they're telling.

Found on The Ties That Bind Album 58 · 14 episodes

The run See every episode

4 of 14 0754 The Ties That Bind A reformed young con artist gets a second chance at a real home, while old secrets and new opportunities begin to stir trouble across Odyssey.

5 of 14 0755 The Ties That Bind As Odyssey prepares for a festival celebrating tolerance, a paint-balloon attack on Whit's End, a reformed troublemaker's return to school, and a mysterious blogger stalking Wooton's new comic set several unsettling mysteries in motion.

6 of 14 0756 The Ties That Bind When a notorious troublemaker returns to Odyssey hoping for a fresh start, Whit uses the town's biggest train set to teach the kids a lesson about design, choices, and consequences.

7 of 14 0757 The Ties That Bind While a mysterious break-in at Wooton's house points to an online leaker after his new comic series, a wave of coordinated pressure against Whit's End hints that something much bigger is stirring in Odyssey.

8 of 14 0758 The Ties That Bind As Whit faces mounting pressure to join a town festival that clashes with his convictions, a hidden connection surfaces that changes everything he thought he knew about his opponent.

9 of 14 0759 The Ties That Bind While a reformed troublemaker fights to prove he's changed, three kids' hunt for smugglers in Hangman's Hollow uncovers something far stranger than any of them expected.

10 of 14 0760 The Ties That Bind As Whit recovers in the hospital, Wooton's search for the source of his leaked comic secrets takes a devastating turn, and the people of Odyssey are forced to weigh what truly matters against what can be lost.

11 of 14 0761 The Ties That Bind While rumors swirl that Buck started the fire that destroyed Wooton's house, the people of Odyssey grapple with suspicion, shifting loyalties, and a mysterious informant who may be closer than anyone thinks.

12 of 14 0762 The Ties That Bind As the hunt for the mysterious Perilous Pen closes in on someone shockingly close to home, Buck faces a detective who believes criminals never change.

13 of 14 0763 The Ties That Bind As the trap around the Perilous Pen tightens, a hidden clue at Whit's End threatens to expose a betrayal closer to home than anyone imagined.

14 of 14 0764 The Ties That Bind A season of secrets unravels in Odyssey as confessions, forgiveness, and one final question change everything.

0765 Follow Me Long before a call by the Sea of Galilee changes everything, three boys in Capernaum - a proud scholar, a dreamer, and a restless fisherman's son - find their futures shaped by a reckless prank against a Roman tax collector.

1 of 3 0766 The Cure Returning to his Alaskan hometown, Wooton reconnects with a surprisingly changed figure from his past and joins a mercy mission along the Iditarod trail - just as a storm and a stowaway complicate everything.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 7 more roles

3 featured characters

Penny Wise Kimmy Robertson Buck Oliver Robby Bruce Jules Kendall Shona Rodman

4 supporting roles

Hadley Bassett Chad Doreck Firefighter Rudy Rudy Haerr Zelda Actor Unknown Police Chief Woodly Actor Unknown

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Paul McCusker Writer · Director Christopher Diehl Sound Designer Nathan Hoobler Producer Dave Arnold Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

Odyssey is reeling from a hard night. John Avery Whittaker has collapsed at a tense association meeting, where members were pressuring him to support a town festival, and he has been rushed to the emergency room. Jason Whittaker, who missed the meeting because he was handling an estate sale, hurries to the hospital as soon as Katrina Meltsner reaches him. In the waiting room, Connie panics and half-jokes that someone may need to slap her, but the news is reassuring: Dr. Graham has run tests, wants to run more, and is keeping Whit overnight mostly to force him to rest. Jason stays the night. When Whit wakes up thirsty, the two talk quietly about the estate sale at Wanda Dempsey's ranch, where her children are selling off everything, and about a trunk Mrs. Dempsey filled with Connie's old school papers so Connie could pass them on someday. Jason remembers how his own mother saved his things, and Whit explains that she wanted him to know his life was part of something larger than himself. Saddened that the Dempseys kept nothing of their mother's, Whit observes, "Some people see the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Meanwhile, Wooton Bassett still cannot decide whether to sign with Maximized Comics. His house was recently broken into, and he and Penny cannot stop wondering who might be behind it, and who is feeding secrets to the Perilous Pen, a blogger who keeps leaking Wooton's comic book plans. Suspects include Dee Grant of Maximized Comics, the collector Hugo Wells, and, as Penny reluctantly points out, Wooton's own brother Hadley, one of the few people with easy access to Wooton's artwork. Hadley, exasperated that they have turned the biggest opportunities of Wooton's career into worries, shoos the couple off to the diner for Boston cream pie, then joins them with news: the Perilous Pen has just revealed Emma Robinson, the new mother character in Wooton's Sleuth Family Robinson comics, details that exist only in Wooton's house. Hadley proposes that Wooton catalog everything he owns to figure out whether the burglar is the blogger's source. Wooton declares, "I'm flummoxed and gobsmacked, but I'm willing to do it!" But when they drive home, fire engines fill the street. Chief Woodley breaks the terrible news: Wooton's house is gutted, everything inside destroyed, and because of the recent break-in, investigators are treating it as a crime scene. The next morning, gazing at the blackened shell, Wooton admits that right now it does not feel like it was just stuff. Then he squares his shoulders: instead of writing a novel, he is going to hunt down the Perilous Pen, and the person most qualified to help him trace the blogger is Eugene Meltsner.

At the Meltsner house, Katrina has been encouraging Eugene to be more than a halfway-house provider to Buck, to be a father figure who finds common ground with the boy. But when they arrive home from the hospital, they find Buck scraped, bruised, and evasive. He admits he was attacked walking home through McAlister Park, but he refuses to say who did it and begs them not to call Detective Polehouse, insisting the detective would only assume Buck himself caused the trouble. Eugene reluctantly agrees, warning that if it happens again there will be no further debate. In the morning, Buck insists on going to school despite his battered face. Pressed for a reason, he finally confesses, "I want people to see that I'm not what they think I am." He wants to prove he came to Odyssey to make a difference, not to take from it. Eugene gently tells him that our significance is not in what we do but in who we let God shape us into being, and Katrina adds that the people who matter already believe in him. Buck goes to school anyway, armed with sunglasses that Eugene dryly assures him will fool no one on a cloudy day indoors.

Connie, meanwhile, confronts Jules about slipping away from Whit's End without a word to go off with Vance King. Connie tells Jules she can see the difference: away from Vance, Jules becomes the person Connie suspects she really is, but with him she turns hard and cynical. When Connie demands to know what is really going on, Jules answers softly that she doesn't know how to tell her. Before she can find the words, Penny arrives at the door in tears with the news that Wooton's house has burned down, and the mystery of what Jules and Vance are up to is left hanging.