i had this thought while i was rambling in the tags here earlier this evening and i think i figured out what grandma fern meant when she told kat last season she feared col was "the one...if not his father or brother, then him. but i was wrong" and "i was worried that he was special. and the brother. but i'm not now"
i think she meant that she was worried her son or col or griffin would be "the one" that the pond takes to 1790 to be raised by elijah and rebecca. even though jacob ripped out the pages elijah wrote about him in the almanac, i could see william and jacob jr still passing on that story to their kids and grandkids, and it becoming part of the family history that gets passed down from generation to generation. the family lore of a little landry boy, from some unknown time in the future, falls into the pond and is sent to 1790, and he's the reason rebecca and elijah stay in port haven. but they tell the story without ever saying what that little boy's name is, because the first rule of the pond is to not tell anyone their future
and any landry who has a son and has heard about the beginning of their family, a fairy tale as elijah called it, probably worries that their son may be "the one" that falls in the pond. and fern was worried that her son or colton or griffin could be the one until they were old enough that surely they must not be the little boy that gets lost in the past. and it's also why fern says baby kat is safe because she's a girl, and it's a boy the pond sends to elijah and rebecca. and by the time jacob, who is the one, was born, fern had passed away years ago and couldn't tell del and col that part of their family story when they came home with a baby boy
