Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
4.5
Well, FROM decided to save the best for last.
After a season that started strong and seemed to meander a bit at times, FROM Season 3 Episode 10 was one of the finest hours the series has ever produced.
And I say that confidently while also walking away from that hour, even more confused than ever, a feeling I didn’t think was possible.
FROM is no longer some new show. We’re three seasons in, with a fourth season on the horizon, and we’re reaching a point where there needs to be some actual answers.
Answers have come this season, but every answer begets a new question, and as the cycle continued, it was easy to get frustrated at times. That’s a normal and common experience for a television consumer.
It’s a matter of balancing frustrations with all the other positive emotions, and since FROM is a science fiction horror show, it will never be the pinnacle of feel-good TV.
But every time an answer is revealed, it feels like an angel gets its wings, and this was the hour when so many things were discovered that it felt like your favorite holiday times a million.
Watching Smiley hatch in front of a room of maniacal monsters never felt so invigorating.
The hour was long, and there were distinct storylines throughout, with Ellis immediately coming to Boyd and proclaiming his suspicions about Elgin.
Elgin was a walking red flag when he and Ellis were “searching” for Fatima during FROM Season 3 Episode 9, and it was nice to see Ellis immediately pick up on that weird energy and take it right to his father.
If nothing else, someone needed to talk to Elgin and get him to elaborate on all the vague things he was hinting at, and that’s precisely what Boyd intended to do.
Boyd then going to Sara was an interesting move, though it made sense on the surface as she was the number one authority on the monsters getting into your head to the point you’re willing to do unspeakable things if you think it’ll save the day.
The rag-tag group at Colony House had no idea what they were doing, and it was very much another case of people putting their faith and trust in Boyd to do the right thing, which has been a constant theme throughout the series.
But perhaps more than in any other season, Boyd has struggled in his role as leader and finding that balance between dad and friend and truly being a leader of a town full of people who are scared shitless at every waking moment.
If you want to get technical, he’s been struggling since Abby, but when he decided to sacrifice Randall to the monsters during FROM Season 3 Episode 4, it became even more abundantly clear that he was always going to prioritize the needs of a few over those of one.
Except, that wasn’t really true, was it?
Not only was Boyd willing to protect Fatima after what she did, but amid this Elgin situation, he was ready to resort to torture if it got him the answers he was seeking.
Say what you want about Father Khatri, but he was spitting absolute facts in that shed because Boyd has been walking a hypocritical tightrope for a long while, and he effectively jumped off it when he decided that he would beat the information out of Elgin.
Boyd has been in the business of protecting his own, but what would anyone else in that town do if they were put in that position? There’s always a lot of judgment in that town, considering they’re constantly put in the worst situations of their lives.
I’ve always championed Boyd, and I think he’s continuously attempted to do the best that he could. Still, there was something genuinely iffy and comfortable about what happened to Elgin, even if it was becoming increasingly obvious that he was succumbing to the same thing Sara was.
The difference between what Sara did and what Elgin was doing was that one involved Boyd’s family. So, whereas he granted Sara a lot more grace after everything she did, he took a hammer to Elgin’s hand the minute he could.
While all this was playing out, Fatima was getting closer and closer to giving birth to whatever was happening inside of her, and one answer we didn’t get is just what spurred the pregnancy on in the days leading up to that one.
Everything accelerated in those final days, but why? Did killing Tillie unleash something in Fatima that made her body even primer to give birth?
Given everything else we learned, it may not be the most critical question, but it’s still intriguing, considering how things turn out.
Once Acosta made her way to the house, as usual, things fell apart, but this was the one time I couldn’t blame her for speaking up because the situation was crazy.
Elgin was sitting there with a broken hand, and all the people who’d been preaching to her about how things work and earning her place there were acting like it was completely normal behavior.
The continued fighting allowed Sara the time to escape and confront Elgin herself, and to all those out there who have never wavered on Sara’s sociopathic tendencies, well you were proven right.
Sara has kept herself under the radar more than anything and has stepped in when called upon to help, but she was never “cured” of what happened to her. The monsters could still get to her, as evidenced by them telling her about Fatima, but she hadn’t harmed anyone.
And Boyd essentially vouching for her made her untouchable even if it sullied many people’s faith in him.
Trying to dissect a character like Sara is futile because did we ever really know who she was in the first place? She is now someone who was saved by Boyd and apparently feels such a kinship to him that she’s willing to gouge someone’s eye out to help him.
She was also willing to make the move she didn’t believe Boyd either could or would make to get Elgin to talk. So, essentially, she’s about that life for real.
There were many surprises during this hour, but somehow, this one surprised me the most, if only because Sara has flown so under the radar that you could almost forget about her past because the show wanted you to.
They lulled us into believing Sara was rehabilitating, but in one swift scene, that was all undone. And honestly? Let it stay that way.
All those people in that house, sans Acosta, were willing to let Boyd do what he thought he needed to do as far as Elgin was concerned, and Sara just took what was in front of her and finished the job.
If they were okay with Boyd doing what needed to be done, they better not turn around and attack Sara when she got them the answer they were after.
They crossed that line, and they can’t try to go back!
Everything from that point forward was a bit of a fever dream, and the occupying string music didn’t help matters.
Fatima gave birth with the kimono lady acting as her doula, and the boys got there a second too late to actually see any of that because of course they did.
The thing that came out of Fatima wasn’t a baby, of course, but something else entirely, and when the lady descended the stairs, I genuinely had no idea what was about to happen, even as I tried to tie it back to what was happening to Tabitha, Jade, and Jim in the woods.
But good on Boyd for sneaking down there because imagine if he’d been sensible and got the hell out of there like I would have done.
The egg-like, spongey, and bloodied being on the ground was pretty gross if we’re being honest, and it looked like a scene out of an alien movie or something, like a baby alien hatching on a spaceship right before the eyes of the worried crew.
But Fatima’s “baby” was no alien. It was Smiley, come back to town after being “killed” during FROM Season 2 Episode 6, and what the hell does that mean?
Well, I’m not sure, but I’d venture to say that Smiley’s death threw something off-kilter in that town, as we’re learning now that the anghkooey children were sacrificed in that town by their parents who wished to live forever and said parents are those monsters that can only come out at night.
Smiley’s re-emergence felt like a result of what happened to him, as he was essentially not allowed to die due to the sacrifice that occurred. Until those children are finally freed, the town will continue to operate under its mercy, which means inevitably, Smiley had to be re-born.
This is all so fascinating, and I’m guessing, as most of us are about how everything truly works, but it’s safe to assume now that when Boyd killed Smiley, that set off many of the things we’ve seen since then.
I’m talking about all of the “changes” that have been noticeable lately, like the changing weather, the monsters being nastier than ever, and Fatima’s pregnancy.
All of this also gives greater credence to Boyd’s belief that what happened to Fatima was because of him, and I can’t exactly say now that Boyd’s assertions were wrong because he is connected to ALL of this.
But how did Fatima become infested with the Smiley spawn? How does any of this really work?
We only got a taste of what’s happening here, but when the hour ends, Smiley has re-emerged, surrounded by his enthusiastic fellow monsters, maybe because their sense of balance has been restored.
While all of this was happening, Jim, Jade, and Tabitha were continuing to look into the numbers of the papers found in the bottle tree, and Jim finally making the connection to music led them and that violin from times past out into the woods.
This season has focused a lot on Tabitha and Jim in a way they hadn’t necessarily been focused on since the early parts of FROM Season 1. They arrived in that town with a dying marriage and a family that was barely hanging on.
They’ve found their way back to one another, but there’s still a lot of pain embedded in that relationship, though Jim had recently taken some of the advice given to him and decided not to let his fear dictate his actions.
His working with Jade and Tabitha, not arguing with them, was a step in the right direction, and his coming up with the musical connection was not one they’d yet made.
I’ve had much to say about Jim over the years, and I stand by that! But he wasn’t keen to take the little song Jade played out into the forest because he saw the town for what it was.
That town looks to take and take and take. They’ve had numerous theories that they’ve tested, and they’ve all ended rather horrifically.
Jim had a right to be nervous, but Tabitha and Jade weren’t interested in hearing it, something we’d learn more about.
Tabitha’s reaction at the end of the previous hour, when she touched Victor, took her back into the night Miranda died. While to us, it did appear to be some kind of vision, to Tabitha, it felt like she could feel Miranda.
Miranda was trying to tell her something and force her to remember, just as all the people Jade had encountered were trying to force him to remember.
All of their interactions, from the Civil War soldier to the children themselves, were designed to get them to crawl into the deep recesses of their minds and remember the beginning.
The answers to the end are in the beginning, remember?
We thought that meant all the way back to the children being sacrificed, but what if that also meant the beginning of the town, meaning those who were first trapped there?
What if those first people were Tabitha and Jade?
Okay, maybe I lied about Sara’s inner demon jumping out being the wildest reveal of the hour because finding out that Tabitha and Jade were two of the first people ever trapped in that town, and they’ve been reincarnated over time and destined to be put right back into that town at some point in their reincarnated lives to free the children finally has broken my brain.
There has been a connection between Tabitha and Jade that has bloomed more this season, but their past selves having a child together? A child that died in that place?
And then their past selves seemingly dying there only to be reborn again and again, sent back to that town again and again, unable to free the children and ultimately dying over and over again, leading them to this exact moment?
How do you even begin to understand that?
The questions here are endless, but it does put some things into perspective, namely why they’ve been privy to things others have not. And while it’s such a tremendous piece of the puzzle, there are still so many questions to come from this as Tabitha and Jade grapple with what it means.
Imagine that on top of everything you’re currently dealing with, you also have to consider reincarnation, the pain of your past lives, and the reality that each time you fail in that town, you’re destined to repeat it.
The whole thing gives me chills!
They could have ended the hour with that reveal, and this hour would have still been a five-star affair, but they decided to go for absolute broke by doing the one thing I was pretty sure would happen but still caused me to gasp!
A different (future?) Julie sprinted to her dad to warn him that they needed to leave and that she needed to change the story. This must mean she knew her dad was dead, and she came to that moment to try and change the outcome.
Isn’t that how television time-traveling works?
But Ethan said she couldn’t change the story, only walk through it essentially, so did she get there only to watch her dad die in front of her? And not just any death, but death by a day-walking monster in a hideous suit.
Jim’s dead. Jim has died, and potentially Julie from the future tried to save him. Still, present-day Julie and Ethan will be without their father, and Tabitha without her husband minutes after discovering she’s intrinsically tied to Jade for all of eternity.
My brain, guys. My brain may never be the same after this one because I am so confused, but I’ve never been more invested in what the hell is happening here.
Loose Ends
So now we know why the Matthews and Jade arrived in town at the same time. No one currently there had seen two cars arrive at the same time, but whether they are physically together in each life or not, it must be their destiny to come together. WILD.
Victor needed that hug and reassurance from Henry so badly, and I’m glad they got to have that moment together with their family. It’s devastating but also something they both needed.
Fatima, walking away from all that trauma, seemingly physically fine, makes it seem like Elgin wasn’t totally lying. But he was obviously misinformed about what that “baby” was meant to do!
Randall was ready to shock his brain to get rid of that buzzing noise, and there’s still so much story to get into regarding Randall and Marielle and what happened to them during FROM Season 2.
Is Elgin dead? Or just missing an eye now?
Was this the best episode of FROM since FROM Season 1 Episode 1? I’ll let you be the judge of that!
This was a pretty damn good piece of television viewing, though, and now we have the long wait to see where things go next, but at least we’re guaranteed to see another season!
Please drop all your theories and thoughts below (I love reading them!) so we can discuss them!
Til next time, FROMily!
Watch FROM Online
