Events from the past unearth major connections to the terrors of Fromville in the sixth episode of the ongoing season of MGM+’s mystery thriller, From, as the quest to gain answers begins on all fronts. In the last episode, Tabitha’s revelation about her temporary escape from the town caused a ruckus among townsfolk, the majority of whom criticized her for not being able to do more with the opportunity she had. Some overeager townsfolk decided to find their own escape route, among whom Dale tried to go through a bottle tree only to meet a horrible end by getting transported into the wall of the pool. Fatima shared her woes with her boyfriend, Ellis, while an emotionally charged reunion between Victor and his father, Henry, followed. Jade became eager to find connections and explanations after learning about Tabitha’s return, while Elgin and Julie found a polaroid camera inside the Colony House inventory. As questions pile up with every single episode, here’s hoping the remaining three episodes of the season provide much needed answers as well.
Spoilers Ahead
Angkhooey Kids Are Back
The episode begins with Matthew’s family drama as Tabitha and Jim have a heated argument at their residence. Tabitha cannot help but feel the townsfolk are right in their claim that she should have used the opportunity to find help, even though she doesn’t know how—and her frustration and confusion result in her lashing out at Jim, who is revealed to be secretly holding a grudge against his wife for leaving the responsibilities of their children to him—even though Tabitha went in the first place to find a way to save Julie’s life. Ethan and Julie downstairs overhear their parents’ bickering, and the next day, as Jim leaves with the foraging party, Julie questions her mother about whether his actions are motivated by their quarrel the previous night.
Tabitha comes across Donna, who is seen creating a cairn with a pile of rocks, to create a burial mound around the ghastly spectacle of Dale’s final moments. Donna arranging Dale’s burial is interesting, in the context that in real life the actors are married to each other. Tabitha shares her condolences, after all Dale was last seen by her and Jade while entering the bottle tree, and once again she begins to beat herself up for not being able to do more while she had the chance. Donna quickly soothes her by reminding Tabitha the real opportunity for her was to return to her family – there’s a thin line between bravery and foolishness and Tabitha shouldn’t cross it in her effort to be a hero.
Much later, at the Matthews’ residence, as Ethan shares his grievances with Tabitha regarding her fight with Jim, Tabitha is alarmed by a noise coming from upstairs. As she decides to check out the situation, she is confronted by the Angkhooey kids once again. Previously, a rock cairn inside the tunnel was shown to be associated with these strange kids, and in this episode, Dale’s burial mound is a rock cairn as well—there seems to be a broader connection here, which might be highlighted in the future.
Jade’s Multiple Theories
On the other hand, Jade is chalking out nifty theories to explain precisely how a lighthouse in the forest could have led Tabitha to Camden, Maine—as he draws upon string theory and quantum physics to piece together a causality with a wormhole or dimensional rift. All of which goes above Boyd’s head, whom Jade has brought to share his ideas with. However, as Boyd reveals, there are multiple bottle trees—one of which he and Sara came across as well during their journey into the wilderness in the first season—which results in Jade once again losing the momentum in his research. Exasperated, Jade goes to visit the bottle tree he and Tabitha visited in the previous episode, and the uncertainties of his mind conjure up a vision of town barkeep Tom, who lost his life early in the second season inside the collapsed house of the Matthews. While desperately clinging to the hope that some sort of rationale or explanation still exists that can justify the town’s existence, Jim also fears at the same time that he might be struggling to find one in vain. Tom’s vision—Jim’s own skeptical self—advises him to drop the bottle, as his recent alcoholic tendencies to numb the fear and confusion conjured by the town have been messing up his otherwise sharp mind.
Fatima’s Plight
Boyd checks up on Randall at the clinic and learns from Marielle that the ambulance Tabitha arrived in had a portable ultrasound machine, which he considers to be good news for the expecting couple, Ellis and Fatima. Randall seems to be recovering fast enough as he is discharged from the clinic. He decides to question Marielle and later Julie about their experiences when they were in catatonic trance—with which the trio of them were affected in the second season. Randall can’t help but question the nature of their present reality itself, in light of what he has been through recently.
So far, Kenny has kept himself busy, away from the home, which has helped him to avoid the harrowing reality of the absence of both his parents, but in this episode, as he returns to home, he is wrecked after having to confront the truth. It is not possible for him to stay at the house where memories of his parents will continue to haunt him forever, and he requests Donna to arrange a place for him at Colony House.
After learning about Fatima’s strange pregnancy related affliction, Ellis is at a loss, and as Boyd meets them at Colony House, Ellis shares the troubling news with his father. However, upon learning about the ultrasound machine, the couple agree to go through a thorough test with the hopes of learning what really is going on. Elgin, who has suddenly become quite a shutterbug after getting his hands on the polaroid camera in the previous episode, clicks Fatima’s picture – as he plans to make a collage of residents of the Colony House. At the clinic, the ultrasound reveals Fatima was never pregnant to begin with, much to her and Ellis’ shock and dismay. Elgin sees the Kimono woman in Fatima’s portrait, who manifests for a brief while to offer help to Elgin to assist the townsfolk to escape. This seems to be a pattern – similar to what happened with Sara as well, and promise of otherworldly help inevitably ends up in tragedy. Fatima’s connection with the terrifying Kimono woman apparition becomes clearer with every episode, but some direct link needs to be shown already. The way Fatima is losing her teeth and sleep, it may not be wrong to suggest that she will eventually turn into the Kimono woman.
Victor Enters the Tunnel With His Father
Meanwhile, Henry chooses the strangest father-son bonding activity as he decides to accompany Victor to venture into the tunnels. Victor wants to get Jasper, the talking doll of Christopher who seems to be holding a key to the town’s mysteries, and deems it to be dangerous for his father, with whom he has just reunited, to go along with him. But from Henry’s perspective, he fears losing his son after having a chance to finally be together, which is why he is unwilling to listen to Victor’s concerns. Victor agrees to let Henry join him, but as he continues to venture deeper inside the tunnels, Henry is engulfed by a sense of fear and keeps asking his son to turn back. Finally, Victor reaches the end of his current route, where he manages to find Jasper inside a strange room, and as he bags the doll, Henry unwittingly awakens a monster from its slumber while sharing his astonishment after finding Miranda’s belongings in the room. The appearance of a woman, probably a monster as well, dressed in 60s attire props up and warns Victor of his transgressions, prompting both father and son to flee the scene.
Upon returning, Henry cannot make sense of Victor’s assumption that Jasper knows the story of the town, which the doll had shared with Christopher, and Victor is willing to pry open information from it as well. But as a father, he realizes that Victor has been through a lot in this godforsaken place, without the presence of anyone he can call his family. The dynamic between the duo remains the most interesting character interaction in the episode, and I am waiting eagerly to know what exactly Victor hopes to find from Jasper.
What Was Tabitha’s Connection with the Town?
Jade is back at his drawing board when Tabitha arrives at his place with Ethan to assist him in his research. Jade draws comparisons with both the bottle trees and finds the years written in the paper inside the bottles are exactly the same. He is hopeful to find a possible combination or clue from this, when Tabitha notices rough sketches of the pinhead voodoo dolls Jade had come across outside the wooden huts inside the forest. Tabitha remembers having seen these dolls in her nightmares back in her younger days, along with three red stones arranged in a circle—which precisely matches with the landscape of the place as Jade recalls from his memories. The episode comes to an end with Tabitha coming to the realization that not only Miranda, she too had visions of the town much earlier in her life, and a connection between Miranda and Tabitha is firmly established. The ending also suggests that, contrary to Jade’s logic-driven approach to explaining the mysteries of the town, Fromville’s roots lie in the metaphysical unknown. Instead of trying to make sense of the place, the inhabitants need to play by the rules the place has assigned in the first place—but even then, freedom is not guaranteed.