There and Back Again

Whit Whittaker, his son Jason, and Pastor Wilson Knox have flown to New Zealand for what they call the epic Whittaker-Knox adventure, a trip meant to give their friendship the time and attention it deserves. As Jason puts it, if you only give relationships your scraps, they wither away. Their first stop is Hobbiton, the famous movie set from The Lord of the Rings, where a promotional film shoot has filled the grounds with costumed hobbits, elves, and dwarves. When Whit bumps into a grumpy little dwarf who snaps, "Not dwarf. Altitudinally abbreviated," he recognizes the voice at once: it is Jay Smouse from Odyssey. Jay explains that a television series lured him to New Zealand and then got cancelled, but rather than go home he stayed with a distant cousin, chasing his acting dream by playing bit parts and working what he grandly calls an aeronautics job. He insists his parents are fine with all of it, but the travelers are not convinced. As Wilson observes, "That boy has more walls up than Minas Tirith."

Driving toward Rotorua that evening, the three are startled by a woman standing in the road. They swerve to a stop and find her dazed and confused. She cannot say why she was in the road, where her car is, or how she got there, and the cut on her hand looks weeks old. When Jason asks her name, she hesitates and answers "Megan Renault." At the hospital, Wilson points out that their rental car is a Renault Megane; the frightened young woman apparently borrowed her name from the first thing she saw. The doctor finds nothing physically wrong beyond the old cut and believes her shock comes from some emotional trauma. She carries no identification, and the only clue is a small crocheted piece Whit found beside her, stitched with a single word: Tarore. It sounds like a word from the Maori language, but no one knows what it means. The hospital keeps her overnight for her own safety.

The next day, the friends go looking for Jay's aeronautics lab and find instead a bungee jumping outfit, where Jay cheerfully sells tickets on commission. Whit and Jason are eager to jump, but Wilson flatly declares he will never trust his life to a glorified rubber band. Moments later, to everyone's delight, he does exactly that, and his friends tease him mercilessly about the photo of his terrified face, which Whit threatens to frame. Over a meaty celebration dinner, Wilson keeps trying to look up the word Tarore on his phone, without luck. Instead he stumbles onto something else: St. Faith's Church, whose vicar, Tom Lyle, turns out to be an old seminary classmate. The only time Tom can meet is the next morning, so the group happily reshuffles their sightseeing plans so Wilson can see his friend.

When they drive Jay home, his cousin's house is dark and locked, which Jay admits is her way of teaching him a lesson for coming in late. Jason offers him the spare bed in his hotel room, and on the drive Jay starts asking pointed questions. Wasn't Jason once a spy? Isn't running an antique shop a boring step down? Wasn't Whit prouder of Jason back when he was saving lives around the world? Whit answers simply, "I have always been proud of Jason," and gently suggests that Jay's questions about someone else are really questions about himself. The truth spills out: Jay's parents know he is in New Zealand, but they do not know his part in the show was cancelled, because he was replaced. His dad was finally proud of him when he landed the role, and Jay cannot bear to see the disappointed look he is sure will follow. Whit assures Jay that his father loves him, but Jay believes he will never be the person his dad wants him to be.

Before Whit can say more, his phone rings. It is the hospital, calling about the mysterious young woman they rescued from the road. When Whit hangs up, his news leaves everyone stunned: no one knows whether she is all right, because she has vanished. "She's gone."