'Sullivan's Crossing' Season 3: Chad Michael Murray, Morgan Kohan have a hard goodbye as Cal faces his monster

Yahoo

19-05-2025

As we continue to learn more about Cal's (Chad Michael Murray) family in Sullivan's Crossing Season 3, things are getting even more emotional with him and Maggie (Morgan Kohan) at his parents home. Earlier in the season we found out that Cal's dad Jed (John Ralston) was diagnosed with prostate cancer, with last week's episode ending as it's revealed the cancer spread as is terminal.
While Cal tries to manage his feelings about his dad illness, while still being upset about how he, and his siblings, were treated as kids, Maggie is there for support. But while they're gone, the threat of Glenn's (Dean Armstrong) development next to the crossing becomes more severe.Picking up right where we left off, Maggie is trying to comfort Cal. He's hurt that his parents kept the information about his dad's health from him, and he starts to think that if he had come home sooner things would be different.
The next morning Cal's mom Marissa (Torri Higginson) asks Maggie if she thinks Jed is doing the right thing by not accepting treatment. Maggie says that while treatment may buy him more time, she's not sure how much time that will actually be.
Marissa goes on to say that she's worried about Cal taking on this news, given how angry he's been at his father for so long, while admitting that she relied on Cal a lot as she tried to manage Jed's condition, with Cal taking on more responsibility than any child should have to. But she stresses to Maggie that she hopes Cal remembers the good days they had too.
While Cal is chopping wood on the property, he has another flashback to his youth. His mom yelling at his dad yelling about how their kids need "stability" and a "proper home."
As Maggie goes over to him, Cal admits he's having a hard time processing his feelings, but Maggie suggests they get away from the house, taking him for a hot air balloon ride. It works, with Cal feeling like he's "disconnected" to everything happening below him.
When they get back to Marissa and Jed's home, Cal talks to his mom, who says his father promised her not to tell him anything about his cancer.
"You're always letting him tell you what to do, putting him first," Cal responds. "We were just kids. We needed you too."
"I wanted you to have a father in your life Cal, even if that meant having one that wasn't perfect. He loved you. Did you really want me to turn my back on him when he needed us?" Marissa says. "I wish things could have been different for all of us."
But then Cal realizes that he never thought about how hard the situation was for his mom.
"The person it's hardest on is your father. Remember that," Marissa stresses to her son.
Meanwhile, Jed tells Maggie how grateful he is that Cal has her, and he can leave this world knowing he's OK.
"It really broke my heart, you know, when he moved away," Jed says. "And I never understood why he did that. Until now."
"It just tears me up knowing that I'm the reason he's going to carry around all that anger for the rest of his life."
After that conversation, Maggie wants Cal to reconcile with his dad, but as he starts crying, Cal opens up about not being able to say goodbye, after losing his late wife Lynne.
"I don't think I can do that again," Cal says. But Maggie responds by saying that if he doesn't make space for a proper goodbye with his dad, he'll regret it.
Sitting by his father's bedside, Cal picks up a wooden duck his dad carved when he was young. We see a flashback of Cal coming out of his tent at night, he couldn't fall asleep, and his Jed picks him up in a piggyback, and they howl together to keep the monsters away.
Back to the present day, Cal brings up that moment to his dad, but also tells him that he wasn't there for him and his siblings because he wouldn't take the medication. Jed says the medication made him feel "disconnected from the world" and from his kids.
"I wish things could have been different, I thought I made the right choice," Jed says. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you would have been better off without me."
"You know, I don't think I've ever understood until right now, that the monster you were always so afraid of was me."
"I guess I wasn't the only one running from monsters was I," Cal says in response.
After his conversation with his dad, Cal apologizes to his mom for judging her, and at dinner Cal's parents announce that they're going on one last adventure, driving the school bus to the Grand Canyon.
As they're about to leave, Jed tells Cal to live life to the fullest, and hopefully he'll tell his kids stories about the good times they had together. Then Jed gives his son something top open after they're gone, it's a wood carving of a man with a little boy on his back, just like when Cal was a kid.
Back at the Crossing, Jacob (Joel Oulette) and Frank (Tom Jackson) head out together to collect lichen samples, and Jacob talks about how he came to Nova Scotia because he was hoping to get to know him and Edna (Andrea Menard) better.
Jacob spots a boreal felt, a rare species of lichen, but it looks like it's dying, because it's particularly sensitive to environmental toxins. That's when Frank brings Jacob over to see the the nearby construction site for Glenn's (Dean Armstrong) development. That means this could be the key to shut down the resort project.
Sully (Scott Patterson), Jacob and Frank go to the Nova Scotia Environmental Agency with the lichen sample and an inspector is set to visit Glenn the next morning. But the inspection comes up clean, with Glenn telling Sully's he's gone too far and he should watch his back.
Meanwhile for Rob (Reid Price), finding a new diner space is proving difficult, and he tells Sydney (Lindura) that he may have to move. When Sydney tells Sully and Edna about Rob's possible move, Sully has an idea for an available space.
Sully brings Rob and Sydney to a lodge his great-great-grandfather initially built as a social hall, but it's been abandoned for years. Sully planned to fix it up, but never got around to it. He also explains to Rob that Glenn bought land next to the Crossing, which he's developing into a resort, so having a restaurant with a "talented chef" on the property will giving the Crossing the attention for guests that they need.
Unfortunately, we'll have to wait and see if Sully's new spat with Glenn poses more problems for the Crossing.