Critic’s Rating: 4.7 / 5.0
4.7
Welcome back, FROMily.
Let’s all take a deep, calming breath, wipe the tears, and grab a sip of our favorite beverage.
And once you feel more like yourself, scream into the void with me because WHAT THE HELL DID FROM JUST DO?
Listen, from the very first episode, the series made it known that it was not going to play it safe. This town is dangerous, and they’ve never shied away from showing the realities and brutalities of what this universe can be.
But sometimes you get lulled into this sense of safety, especially after the events of FROM Season 2 Episode 10, when things more or less worked out in the end.
Everyone woke up, Tabitha lived to see another day (albeit in another “world”), and the town still had each other. Considering the hell they went through during season 2, especially toward the end, that was the best outcome they could hope for.
So, with such little time passing in this season premiere, everyone was still reeling from the events of what just happened, but most were also able to take a big damn breath because they made it through.
That just pissed the monsters off.
But while everyone was decompressing in town, Tabitha was not. She was in Camden, Maine, internally spiraling, even if she did a good job of hiding it.
It’s odd to suddenly have this split version during an episode where we have the usualness we’ve come to expect in the town and Tabitha’s new existence in a seemingly normal reality.
With a show that makes you think continuously about any number of things, new questions and curiosities emerge when you watch Tabitha navigate another location.
After getting the most information she was able to get, Tabitha left the hospital with zero plan or idea, but it was probably better than having to sit in a room with cops who would have never believed whatever story she had to tell and would have likely put her in a position she didn’t want to be in.
When she woke up, there must have been a flurry of thoughts going through her head, with the most pressing issue being, now what? She’s “escaped,” but she doesn’t know what that means or what she’s meant to do now to get her family (and everyone else, for that matter) out.
Of course, the boy in white was nowhere to be found with any meaningful information, like why the fall dropped her into that town, so she was left to think on her feet.
And watching her stumble around town felt sadder than it had any right to, considering she won, right? She was free, and yet she probably never felt more alone.
Tabitha had nowhere to go, and she was reticent to just try to resume her old life for obvious reasons. The questions that would come would just invite more questions and scrutiny, which wouldn’t be beneficial when she’s still trying to wrap her head around what’s happening and what to do next.
It never dawned on me that there could be a clue inside the lunchbox, but seeing Victor’s address made me gasp. Even so, I still have no idea how this will help reunite Tabitha and her family.
Victor, being such a massive piece of this puzzle, has been one of the more exciting things to happen since the series began. It took the addition of the Matthews family for many of his memories to come back and Ethan’s kindness to help Victor as much as it has.
Tabitha fell into that town for an obvious reason: to glean something from Victor’s family, town, or home and get some answers. And that’s an intriguing way to weave this story back to what’s happening in the town.
And the town is a hot mess, per usual.
The Matthews left were trying to find Tabitha, but they were failing. While Jim’s decision to venture out into the woods was born from a desire to help his children by bringing their mom back, he needed to stay with them and comfort them instead of putting them in a situation where they could lose both their parents.
He reached that conclusion independently, but not before he and Kenny spent the night in the woods in a new place we hadn’t seen before.
What were those statues? And what was that place they found?
They could have a whole season set in those woods because there’s a whole other world happening out there, and it’s fascinating.
Boyd was his usual self, meaning he was stressed, but he put on his mask to be whatever someone needed him to be at any moment because that’s what he’s always had to be.
He’s still seeing Father Khatri, who more or less seems to appear to play angel and devil with him, and he is very attuned to the fact that the visions he’s seeing are projections of something.
Is Khatri appearing to ask him the questions he’s too afraid to say out loud?
When your day begins with shady Father Khatri and only gets worse from there, you know it’s about to be an AWFUL day.
You could tell everyone was anxious as hell in the come down from the cicadas and the comas. And all hell broke loose with the food shortage, which felt like a long time coming.
They got fortunate with their food source, and as things have continued to deteriorate with the storm and everything that transpired last season, one would think they were due for one more F you from the universe.
Listen, after everything they went through, it made a lot of sense for the townspeople to react in the manner they did. Everyone was tired, scared, and hungry, and they were barely hanging on.
It’s thrown Boyd into crisis mode, which has been activated for a while. And it would be comical, if it weren’t so depressing, to see Boyd have to bounce from talking Jim out of a suicide mission to drunk tanking Jade and then saving a goat from slaughter.
Why is Randall always at the scene of EVERYTHING? He’s just this angry specimen unwilling to ever be a team player or reason. And it’s unfortunate because he’s smart when you strip away the bravado.
No one is ever really equipped for what it means to run out of food, so again, acting a little irrationally wasn’t wholly surprising, but taking actions into your own hands in a society fraying at the seams was a disastrous decision.
Victor pulling a gun on Randall to save the goat was very extreme, though. It further proved how on-edge everything is and the magnitude of what they just went through.
It’s great when FROM remembers they have this wildly strong ensemble cast because it’s the show’s true strength. Seeing new pairings and dynamics only enhances the quality.
It was a small scene, but I can’t remember seeing Boyd, Donna, Tian Chen, and Victor together before. These are four people who exist within this bubble, with shared experiences but also totally different perspectives and places on the town’s power structure.
There’s no easy answer to making their resources work, but the only logical thing would be to make the animals last as long as possible and hope and pray you can start growing food again in new soil.
Tian Chen was right. As she usually is.
But the whole hour, and even in that specific conversation, Boyd had to talk people off the ledge. He had to question people’s resilience and the hope that’s been sucked out of the air with each passing day.
It’s not even clear if Boyd necessarily believed everything he was saying. Still, he knew that if he wasn’t the one to challenge the pervading negativity, that, while understandable, wouldn’t help the situation.
It’s to the point where you roll over and just let the monsters eat you, or you think outside the damn box and throw your Hail Marys. But of course, the monsters this season appear to be getting even stronger and more deadly than we’ve ever seen them
It makes you wonder if they thought they were on the cusp of winning, and Boyd’s strength has somehow made them smarter because I can’t believe they were capable of letting the animals loose the whole time and just… didn’t.
Leaving the barn open so some monsters could hide inside and letting the animals free was so insanely clever and horrifying. Some of you almost wants to be impressed by the monsters sometimes because they do things that genuinely surprise you.
The tension and filming of the whole saga, which involved Boyd, Tian Chen, and Jade trying to herd animals while Julie, Ethan, Sara, and Randall had to save themselves, were intense on every level.
You can’t look away from anything happening on the screen and the layers, people! Sara showing up out of nowhere to save Ethan with their history? And Randall stepping up to save people and doing something unselfish after I read him for filth earlier?
It’s what I deserve, honestly.
I kept thinking about how badly I needed everyone to get inside and how important it was to save as many animals as possible. Because if the animals are all gone, what’s left?
It didn’t fully register to me when it first happened that the barn was left open for the exact moment the monsters were counting on.
They were banking on Boyd getting in there, and Tian Chen’s presence, or anyone’s, was a bonus for them. It gave them precisely what they were after: a way to break the ONE beacon of hope keeping that town from self-destruction.
To say losing Tian Chen hurts wouldn’t do it justice. It’s such a crushing blow to the town and to us, the audience, as Tian Chen was a constant in the series and a good person.
There are many good people in the town, of course, but Tian Chen had the unique job in heading up the diner, as being a reassuring presence and someone reliable for EVERYONE.
And Kenny. Oh my god, Kenny!
He will have now lost two parents to that hellhole, and how do you come back from that? How do you keep your compassion and faith when the world beats you down and takes a part of your heart?
Oh, I hate this so badly, but this has never been a show where you can assume everyone will be safe and there’s a definitive happy ending in sight. We don’t know that.
And hours like this remind us of the reality of what we’re watching.
Loose Ends
Can you imagine your daughter, who’s been missing along with her whole family, calling you to say she’s okay, but that’s it?
Jade is slowly losing his mind, but it also feels like he’s on the cusp of a breakthrough that will help him better understand the town.
I still wish everyone would come together and compare notes because everyone has all these different experiences, and it makes you wonder what would happen if everyone just TALKED to each other.
Someone give Elgin a hug!
Harold Perrineau. No notes. All of the flowers. He’s a generational talent; we’re so blessed to have him lead this ship.
What a way to start this ride, FROMily! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about this one, so please comment below so we can discuss it!
You can watch FROM on Sundays at 9/8c on MGM+.
