Reviewer Rating: 4.75/5.0
4.75
From.
What. only. Did it happen?
After watching the third episode of Season 3, should we continue to live our lives and pretend they didn’t leave us in a cliffhanger? Hello!
It’s rare for a show to truly leave you speechless, but FROM does it quite often. And it never gets stale either.
A lot of gotcha moments can become annoying if they’re played in a way that’s just meant to illicit shock rather than add anything to the narrative. FROM does not have this problem.
One thing about this series is that things move slowly and quickly at the same time. Time is nothing but a construct in this world, and as we watch each day unfold, they are not always filled with action and fear.
Some days are more depressing and more about world-building and character-building, and this is one of them.
The cliffhanger in the second episode of Season 3 comes quickly, as the demon on the phone pretends to be Thomas and taunts Jim over the phone, basically telling him that he’s a terrible father.
I’m not a big fan of Jim because of his short temper and willingness to make bad decisions at every turn, which makes him more of a liability than a help for most of his time in town.
But Jim had been through a lot, and like many people in town, he did the best he could under the circumstances. He did not actively try to bring his children down. He was just being pulled in different directions, and the only direction that mattered now was to be with his kids.
The monsters’ taunting calls are another way they try to infiltrate the town’s psyche. They are now playing with the food and then decide to do the next big thing to assert dominance.
Boyd realized they were becoming a vulnerable target as it became clear that things were getting worse. They may have found a way to survive using amulets, food, and the rules they created, but apparently that wasn’t enough.
They’re complacent in that town, and when they try to do something, like in episode 10 of Season 1, the town comes back hard.
But that’s no reason to give up, Boyd understands now. They cannot be content with just surviving every day. They must start looking for a reason to live.
Just look at Ethan and you’ll know how far this town can break your spirit. Within a few days, he lost his mother and Tianchen. Victor yells at him that they lost some animals.
He was very brave considering what he had to see, but an adult can only take so much before breaking down, and Ethan is just a kid. He asks Jim sincere questions, morbid of course, but it all stems from his desire that his missing mother be adequately cared for after her death.
Jim hangs out as grumpy as usual, grieving Tabitha’s absence as much as the kids, but he needs to find a way to put his kids’ feelings above his own. It’s like parenting 101.
Poor Ethan can no longer be fueled by his self-loathing and disappointment, and people need to start understanding that. He’s a kid, but his feelings are right.
That’s not to say you need to tell him things will never get better, but there’s no use pretending you’ve got it all figured out, especially when it’s obvious you haven’t.
Boyd’s optimism even in the face of mounting losses is commendable, but right now it’s just talk. It’s always words, but they feel even hollower when some kind of horror sweeps through each day and leaves a devastating impact.
Boyd’s desire to capture the monster is entirely reasonable, because what do they have to lose now? The town was killing them off one by one and they had to do something.
I understand where Donna and Ellis are coming from, and even about Father Carter’s visions, but what other option is there? Do nothing?
Boyd needs to do this if he can come up with a realistic plan that at least gives him a fighting chance. They have to start taking risks because staying in the status quo and accepting the cards they’re dealt isn’t going to work.
That town was full of fearful and brave people, but Boyd was the one who made the tough decision about how to move forward.
Spending the night on the bus felt like the first step toward his goal of capturing a monster, and I was curious to see how that would come to fruition. I’m a part of Boyd’s team every day, but he should take a few nights to study them more and develop his plan.
Is what Father Carter told the truth? Did the monster succeed in defeating Boyd?
I don’t think so, but if he doesn’t attack the plan in a way that limits the danger to himself and others, I’m afraid they might.
Elsewhere in town that day, Fatima was still eating rotten food in broad daylight. Seriously. Why didn’t she just grab a handful and find a place to hide?
Of course, this happens so Tilly can hold onto her and the two can bond, even though Fatima isn’t anything spiritual that she brings to the table.
It’s funny when people in town get angry about something that’s unnatural, unnatural, or not “normal.” It’s like it makes perfect sense that they’re living a nightmare day in and day out, but nothing else can be true.
Tilly tries to be there for Fatima and provide her with the comfort she desperately needs. Something was wrong with this pregnancy, and maybe Ellis was a little too preoccupied to say it. But he and Fatima did not communicate because they were so afraid of hurting each other.
But not talking to each other right now is what’s really hurting them.
Tilly is Fatima’s sounding board and she can at least say out loud that she’s scared instead of just feeling the emotion. Talking about this pain can do wonders for your soul and help you feel less alone.
Whether you believe in tarot or not, Tilly is trying to do a good thing, and I’m not here to make Fatima feel bad. However, Fatima also felt incredibly lost.
Side note, this is one of my favorite things about this show. Everyone has their not-so-good moments, but they are also going through the worst moments of their lives.
It’s okay to give people grace.
Well, everyone except Dale and Randall. And Jed, when he shows extra aggression.
Anyway, I was nervous about the tarot reading, but Fatima got a different answer.
When you ask the universe if your baby is okay, a bird that actually commits suicide told me everything I needed to know, if there was any doubt at the beginning, where this story was going to go.
There are so many possibilities here and I’m scared for Fatima, for Ellis, and for the whole damn town. Something sinister happened with this pregnancy.
In the woods, Kenny leads a group to search for food at a location he and Jim found, and apart from Jed seeing a dead man trying to strangle him and Dale’s constant complaining, they appear to be gathering a lot of food.
Kenny was still a live wire, and Christie’s presence might have been the comfort he needed in that moment. If he’s not ready to let go of his emotions, trying to force him won’t help.
I was confused as to why they had to have suction tubes to get out until I realized they had to sleep there! Suddenly, Dale’s playfulness made more sense.
There’s no use blaming Jade for what happened to Kristy, but the turn of events was so dramatic. Christie is injured, and Jade destroys the creepy statue temple to free her. Now they must spend the night in the woods.
Nothing terrible is sure to happen there.
I hope this season will delve deeper into what the townspeople are seeing. Jed had a vision from way back when, and we saw countless other visions, Elgin saw the creepy lady, and Randall saw the bugs here.
What does this mean?
This problem persists throughout the series and every storyline, except maybe Tabitha’s storyline.
She’s obsessed with figuring out why she was sent to that town to meet Henry and how to get to the bottom of it so she can get her family back.
Every time Henry opens his mouth, things get more unsettling, as it sounds like Miranda has drawn a map around her house and town of almost everything she sees in her dreams(?).
Seeing the bottle tree was just another thing to upset Tabitha, and I wasn’t even surprised that she started questioning everything when she found that bracelet in Henry’s car.
Things get really weird. To the sleep-deprived Tabitha, this makes less sense than what she just went through, because how do you go back to the “real world” and meet Victor’s father and have all these coincidences?
Nothing added up and I didn’t blame her for feeling scared and doubtful in that moment. Maybe she’s not actually back and this is really some neighboring world or something sinister.
She was no longer thinking clearly, and when everything came to a head, I knew something was wrong. Friends, a fight or argument in a car almost always results in an accident!
But what happened next shocked me to the core, because what was it about Tabitha, an unconscious Henry, and these three first responders who were about to join the town?
oh. mine. God!
This can’t be true. Tabitha went out and then went in? Will Victor be reunited with his father? Did Tabitha really “escape”?
The questions continued to mount as my jaw remained permanently on the floor. It’s great to have this show back.
unresolved issues
- Great to see Bhakta! I’m curious to hear how she’s doing and it’s nice to know she’s performing as expected.
- What did Victor dig up? Why did he take it to Sarah?
- Julie now hates her dad very much. She was tired of him messing up.
There’s a lot more to discuss after this, so let me know what you think in the comments section below!
What happens to us next?
You can watch FROM on Sundays at 9/8c on MGM+.
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