Reviewer Rating: 4.7/5.0
4.7
Welcome back, FROMily.
Let’s take a deep breath, wipe away our tears, and take a sip of our favorite beverage.
Once you feel more like yourself, scream with me, because what the hell just happened?
Look, from the very first episode, the show showed that it wasn’t going to play it safe. This town is dangerous, and they never shy away from showing the reality and brutality of this universe.
But sometimes you get lulled into that sense of security, especially after the events of FROM Season 2 Episode 10 when things were finally more or less resolved.
Everyone wakes up, Tabitha lives to see another day (albeit in another “world”), and the town still has each other. Considering the hell they went through in season two, especially toward the end, this is the best they could hope for.
So, with the season premiere so short, everyone is still shocked by the events that just happened, but most are also able to take a deep breath because they got through it.
This just pissed off the monster.
But while everyone in town is decompressing, Tabitha isn’t. She was in Camden, Maine, spiraling inside, though she hid it well.
It’s strange that this split version of things pops up in this episode, where we see the normalcy we’ve come to expect in the small town, and Tabitha takes on a new existence within a seemingly normal reality.
The show will keep you thinking about a lot of things, and as you watch Tabitha navigate to another location, new questions and curiosities will arise.
After getting as much information as she could, Tabitha left the hospital with zero plans or ideas, but that was probably better than having to sit in a room with the police who would never believe any of the stories she had to tell , and probably put her in a situation she didn’t want to be in.
When she woke up, there must have been many thoughts in her mind, the most pressing of which was, what to do now? She “escaped,” but she has no idea what that means or what she should do now to allow her family (and others) to escape.
Of course, the boy in white didn’t find any meaningful information, such as why she fell into that town, so she could only think on her own.
Considering she won, watching her stumble around town makes me feel more sad than I have any right to, right? She was free, but she had probably never felt so alone.
Tabitha has nowhere to go and, for obvious reasons, is unwilling to try to resume her old life. The ensuing questions only lead to more questions and scrutiny, which doesn’t do any good when she’s still trying to figure out what’s going on and what to do next.
I never realized there might be any clues in the lunch box, but seeing Victor’s address made me gasp. Even so, I still don’t know how this will help reunite Tabitha and her family.
Victor is an important piece of the puzzle and has been one of the most exciting things to come out of the series since its inception. The addition of the Matthews family brought many of his memories back, and Ethan’s kindness helped Victor as much as possible.
Tabitha’s reason for coming to that town is obvious: to collect something from Victor’s family, town, or home and get some answers. It’s a fun way to weave the story together with what’s going on in the town.
The town was, as always, in chaos.
Matthews left and tried to find Tabitha, but was unsuccessful. While Jim’s decision to venture into the woods was motivated by a desire to help his children bring their mother back, he needed to stay with them and comfort them rather than put them in the situation of losing a parent.
He comes to this conclusion independently, but not before spending the night with Kenny in a new place in the woods that we’ve never seen before.
What are those statues? What was that place they found?
They could shoot an entire season in these woods because there’s a whole different world happening there, and it’s fascinating.
Boyd is still his usual self, which means he’s stressed out, but he puts on a mask and becomes whatever others need him to be at all times, because that’s who he’s always had to be.
He still sees Father Catri, who more or less seems to be playing the roles of angel and devil with him, and he is very attuned to the fact that the visions he sees are projections of something.
Catri seemed to be asking him questions he didn’t dare say out loud?
You know it’s going to be a bad day when your day starts with the shady Father Carter and then takes a turn for the worse.
It can be seen from the sound of cicadas and coma that everyone is extremely anxious. Food shortages threw everything into disarray and it felt like it had been a long time coming.
They’re lucky with their food source, and with the storm and everything that happened last season, and things continuing to get worse, one would think they deserve another F-you from the universe.
Look, after everything they’ve been through, it makes sense for the townspeople to react like this. Everyone was tired, scared, hungry, and almost at the end of their rope.
This sent Boyd into crisis mode, which had been activated for some time. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so frustrating to see Boyd having to go from talking Jim out of a suicide mission to getting Jed drunk and saving a goat from being slaughtered.
Why is Randall always on the scene of everything? He’s just an angry specimen who doesn’t want to be a team player or a rationale. That’s unfortunate because when you take away the bravado, he’s smart.
No one is really equipped to deal with running out of food, so slightly irrational behavior isn’t entirely surprising, but taking action on your own in a torn society is a disastrous decision.
Victor holding Randall at gunpoint to save the goat, though, was pretty extreme. This further proves how tense everything is and the gravity of what they’ve just been through.
It’s great when FROM remembers that they have such a great cast, because that’s a real strength of the show. Seeing new pairings and dynamics only improves the quality.
It was a small scene, but I don’t recall seeing Boyd, Donna, Chen Tian, and Victor together before. These are four people who exist in this bubble, who share a common experience but also have completely different perspectives and stances on the power structure of the town.
There are no easy answers to making their resources work, but the only logical thing is to keep these animals alive as long as possible and hope and pray that you can start growing food again on new soil.
Tian Chen is right. Just like she usually does.
But throughout the hour, and even in that particular conversation, Boyd had to talk people out of getting stuck. He has to question people’s resilience and hope disappearing over time.
It’s not even clear that Boyd necessarily believed everything he said. Still, he knew that if he wasn’t the one to challenge the prevailing negativity, while understandable, it wouldn’t help the situation.
It gets to the point where you roll over and let the monster eat you, or you think outside the damn box and throw out your Hail Mary. But of course, this season’s monsters seem to be more powerful and deadlier than we’ve ever seen
It makes you wonder if they think they’re about to win, and Boyd’s powers somehow make them smarter, because I can’t believe they have the ability to put animals at ease all the time, it just… doesn’t.
It’s very clever and scary to leave the barn open so some monsters can hide inside and let the animals free. Some of you sometimes almost want to be impressed by monsters because the things they do really amaze you.
The tension and filming of the entire story, which involves Boyd, Chen Tian and Jade trying to herd the animals while Julie, Ethan, Sarah and Randall have to save themselves, is tense on every level.
You can’t take your eyes off what’s happening on the screen and in the layers, friends! Sarah shows up unexpectedly and uses their history to save Ethan? Randall stepped up to save people and did something selfless after I read the dirty talk about him before?
Honestly, I deserve it.
I kept thinking about how much I needed everyone inside and how important it was to save as many animals as possible. Because if the animals disappeared, what would be left?
I didn’t quite notice this when I first saw the barn open at the exact moment the monsters were counting on.
They were counting on Boyd to get in, and Tianchen, or anyone else, showing up would be an added bonus for them. That’s exactly what they’re after: a way to break down the only beacon of hope that saves the town from self-destruction.
It would be unfair to say that losing Tianchen was painful. This is a devastating blow to the town and to us, the audience, because Chen Tian is a regular on the show and a good guy.
Of course, there are many good people in the town, but Chen Tian has a unique responsibility in the leadership of the restaurant. He is a reassuring person and someone everyone can trust.
And Kenny. Oh my god, Kenny!
He now lost two parents in that hell, how do you come back from there? How do you maintain your compassion and faith when the world beats you down and takes over a part of your heart?
Oh, I hate this so much, but this has never been a show where you could just assume everyone would be safe and have a clear happy ending. We don’t know this.
Moments like this remind us of the reality we are watching.
unresolved issues
- Can you imagine your daughter disappearing with her whole family, calling you to say she’s okay, but that’s it?
- Jed is slowly losing his mind, but he also feels like he’s on the verge of a breakthrough that will help him understand the town better.
- I still wish everyone could get together and compare notes because everyone has different experiences and it makes you wonder what would happen if everyone talked to each other.
- Someone give Elgin a hug!
- Harold Perrineau. No notes. All flowers. He is a generational talent; we are lucky to have him leading this ship.
What a great place to start this journey from FROMily! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this, so leave a comment below so we can discuss it!
You can watch FROM on Sundays at 9/8c on MGM+.
