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Use simple random walk on the loopless undirected unweighted graph, with transition probability $1/\mathrm{deg}(x)$ to each graph neighbour, and take $a\ne z$. Set $T_z=\inf \{t\ge 0:X_t=z\}$. Returns to $a$ before visiting $z$ do not end the commute. After its first visit to $z$, stop at the subsequent first visit to $a$, so $\tau =T_z+T_a\circ {\vartheta }_{T_z}$. Count transitions with departure times $0\le t<\tau$, including the final step arriving at $a$. The expected hitting times are finite: in a finite connected graph there is a uniformly positive probability to reach any fixed target within a fixed number of steps, giving a geometric tail bound.

We prove the needed killed-walk occupation voltage identity from its visit balance equation. DefineFor $x\ne z$, counting arrivals before absorption givesHence, for the Graph Laplacian $Lv(x)=\mathrm{deg}(x)v(x)-{\sum }_{y\sim x}v(y)$, we have $Lv(x)=1_{\{x=a\}}$ away from $z$. Since the sum of all Laplacian coordinates is zero, $Lv(z)=-1$. Thus $v$ is the electrical voltage of a unit flow from $a$ to $z$, grounded at $z$, and $v(a)=R_{\mathrm{eff}}(a,z)$.

Construct $w(x)=g_{za}(x)/\mathrm{deg}(x)$ for the opposite killed leg. It satisfies $Lw={\delta }_z-{\delta }_a$ and $w(a)=0$. Therefore $L(v+w)=0$. The harmonic maximum principle on a finite graph makes $v+w$ constant: at a maximum its value equals the average over its graph neighbours, forcing all of them to share that value, and connectedness propagates it. At $a$ the constant equals $R_{\mathrm{eff}}(a,z)$.

For any oriented edge $(x,y)$, each visit to $x$ before the target hit produces a transition to $y$ with conditional probability $1/\mathrm{deg}(x)$. The expected traversals during the first killed leg are therefore $v(x)$, and those during the second leg are $w(x)$ by the Strong Markov property at $T_z$. This proves directed edge occupation in a random-walk commute:In particular, both directions of every unoriented edge have this same expected value, although their counts on an individual commute need not coincide. Summing over the $2|E|$ directed edges also recovers the commute time identity ${\mathbb{E}}_a\tau =2|E|R_{\mathrm{eff}}(a,z)$.

The distinct-terminal convention is necessary for the printed “returns” interpretation. If $a=z$ and $\tau$ is the first positive return, a graph with two graph vertices and one edge gives $S(a,y)=1$ while $R_{\mathrm{eff}}(a,a)=0$. Thus either take $a\ne z$, as intended, or explicitly define the degenerate commute as $\tau =0$. A general nonuniform random walk is not covered by the unweighted simple-walk formula.

Group the random resistance cost by unoriented edges. For $e=\{x,y\}$, its resistance contributes once whenever the walk traverses it in either direction. Pathwise,The graph is finite and the commute has finite expected value. Linearity of expectation, or Tonelli theorem for these nonnegative terms, therefore permits taking expectations of the sum. By the directed edge occupation in a random-walk commute, both directed traversal counts have expected value $R_{\mathrm{eff}}(a,z)$. ThusApply Foster's theorem from part (a) to obtainThe factor two counts the two orientations of each edge. It would be lost by treating the expected directed count in part (b) as an expected count for both directions together. The same distinct-terminal and simple-random-walk conventions from part (b) remain in force.