The central mystery regarding the place the townsfolk are stuck in continues to get more unnerving and baffling with each episode of MGM+’s mystery thriller From. The intricately woven storyline acts almost like a metaphor for life; just when we think we have a grasp of the narrative, it throws a wicked curveball at us, forcing us to reconsider everything we had assumed so far.
In the previous episode, which was also the midseason finale of this ongoing season, one of the most triumphant moments of the series took place as Boyd managed to kill one of the nocturnal monsters using his infected blood. Tabitha struggles with recurrent bouts of visions of disfigured children since her return from the underground maze, and Jade notices her during one of those hallucination bouts. Sara’s return to town leads to an awkward situation as she is hated by most of the townsfolk for her past actions, and the situation is worsened after Kenny gets to know that Boyd didn’t mention to him that Sara was also responsible for his father, Mr.Liu’s death. Jim Matthews gets desperate to learn more about the ‘observers’, whom he thinks are responsible for the predicament of the townsfolk, but his suggestions get ignored by both Donna and Boyd. Fatima asks Kristi about available pregnancy tests as she speculates that she and Ellis might be expecting a baby. The seventh and eighth episodes of the season deal heavily with the monster death scenario, and as sketchy details regarding the previous mass massacre of the town resurface, things start to get even more convoluted.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Is Fatima Not Happy About Her Pregnancy?
As the seventh episode begins, viewers are taken to the clinic, where Kristi and Fatima have a conversation about the possibility of the latter’s pregnancy. It seems that Fatima is indeed pregnant, but unlike Kristi, she isn’t overjoyed. Kristi assures her that, as a third-year medical student, she is more than capable of handling the delivery situation, but from the visible frustration on her face, it is quite clear that that’s not what Fatima is concerned about. Later, as Boyd asks Fatima and Ellis to return to the colony house, Fatima shares the news with Donna, who congratulates her with much enthusiasm. Fatima shares that previously, long ago, since before being stuck inside the town or meeting Ellis, she had been diagnosed as infertile by doctors, and therefore she wonders whether her current situation is a cruel ploy orchestrated by the place itself. Donna assures her that amidst all the horrifying, unbelievable things they have come across so far, the news of Fatima’s pregnancy might be the most positive, hopeful thing to have happened, and she should treat the news as such. Heeding Donna’s advice, Fatima let Ellis know about the good news. Later, as Boyd comes to check on his son, Ellis almost proceeds to share the news with him as well, but the duo gets interrupted by Donna, leaving Ellis to consider sharing the news later.
With the traumatic experience of seeing newcomers from the bus get mangled by the nocturnal monsters still heavy on Fatima’s consciousness, her mind hasn’t been able to process the grief of Ellis being in mortal danger soon after. No wonder she can’t help but conceptualize her pregnancy as another machination crafted by fate, providing a sliver of hope only for the place to forcefully take it, which can prove to be a breaking point for even the toughest ones.
Silver Bullet: What Did Boyd And Kristi Decide About The Monster Corpse?
As Ellis, Elgin, and Fatima return to the colony house, Boyd, Kristi, and Kenny discuss the appropriate action that should be taken regarding the monster corpse. While Boyd and Kristi are of the opinion that they should dissect and analyze it in order to learn more about this thing, thereby possibly coming across a deterrent for the monsters, Kenny is absolutely horrified at the prospect of bringing the corpse to the clinic, or for that matter, anywhere inside a human residence, as he fears that their curiosity might lead to something terrible. However, Boyd and Kristi are determined to go through with the procedure, and Kenny reluctantly agrees, only to bail out later. Kristi goes after Kenny, who confesses that despite the fact that he has made amends with the fact that she is with her fiancée Marielle now, he still loves her and cannot afford to lose another loved one to the evil machinations of the place. Kristi remarks that after patching up people for a long time as the sole medic of the town, she finally has the chance to make a difference by analyzing the corpse. Boyd’s infected blood caused the monster to die, which means somehow, traces of infected blood might be present in its bodily system, which, if harvested, can be used to kill the monsters as well. Whether exploring that leads to further danger or not, Kristi is determined to take the risk. She goes back to the operating table, and Kenny once again reluctantly returns to assist her and Boyd.
As Kristi dissects the monster corpse, she finds the inside of it to be similar to human anatomy but totally desiccated. Without any bodily fluid, preparing a deterrent would be impossible, and facing a desperate situation, a frustrated Kristi starts stabbing the innards of the monster and suddenly punctures the gallbladder, and bile pours out. Elated at finding something substantial, the trio wastes no time collecting the sample. Later, while Boyd makes a visit to the country house and wonders how to inject the monsters with bile, Elgin suggests he use it as monster hunters use silver bullets, coating the bullet with the substance and firing at the monsters from a distance.
Nightmare Connection: What Did Kenny And Elgin Experience?
As the eighth episode begins, Kenny returns home and experiences a vivid nightmare where he sees a swarm of cicada-like insects, one of which attacks him and leaves a wound on his arm. Even after waking up from the nightmare, Kenny sees the wound on his arm but avoids Boyd’s question about it during their conversation. On the other hand, Elgin shares the news of the monster killing with Julie, and taking a cue from her suggestion that he calm himself down, he takes a dip in the bathtub at the country house. However, he goes through a near-death experience as a shriveled, lanky lady figure almost drowns him inside the bathtub, but he wakes up in his bed, coughing water all the while.
The situation is not limited to only the members who were present during the monster-killing scenario, as residents in town also go through such ‘real’ nightmares as well. It seems like Boyd and co. have poked their noses in the hole a bit too much, and killing a monster has drawn the ire of the ‘observers,’ who have decided to subject the townsfolk to an even worse fate by making them literally live their nightmares. Initially, the captive Martin stated to Boyd that monsters are not even the worst part, and we are gradually getting an idea about what he had hinted at.
Can Victor Be The Key To Freedom?
As stated multiple times previously, Victor’s experience and knowledge about the place, thanks to his prolonged stay (he has been living in the town since his childhood days), might show the townsfolk the way to escape, and these two episodes prove that once again. Matthews sibling duo Ethan and Julie are eager to go to the Colony House to meet Victor, but their father, Jim, isn’t too keen on that prospect as he doesn’t want his children to go near the ’emotionally stunted freak.’ Tabitha reminds him that freaking out was the reason that she and Julie were alive in the first place, but driven too much by the intrigue of the place, Jim is convinced that’s what ‘they’ want people to think.
Tabitha goes to meet Jade, and they both quickly form a bond over their experiences with horrifying visions. Tabitha sees the strange symbols drawn in Jade’s journals and identifies them as similar to the ones she saw in the underground maze. Jade gets furious at Victor for not mentioning this previously during their conversation and hurriedly starts searching for him.
Young Ethan goes to Victor and makes amends with him, who gifts him his childhood jacket. As Julie and Ethan invite Victor to the diner, it is saddening to learn that the latter has been living in this godforsaken place for so long that the outside world is almost synonymous with an alien land for him. However, Ethan discovers a toy in his jacket’s pocket, which triggers Victor’s memories, and he quickly retreats to his own reserved self. Almost at the same time, Jade and Tabitha arrive at the diner, and Jade starts acting increasingly over the edge, shouting and pushing Victor while demanding answers, resulting in Victor fleeing the scene.
Tabitha reprimands Jade, chases after Victor, and comforts him, stating that they really need to learn what he knows in order to escape. Victor is unwilling to recall whatever happened during his childhood or about the fateful day in town where he was told to hide while his mother left him forever (presumably killed by the monsters or the place itself), but he agrees to show Tabitha pictures that he has drawn since then as a method to archive his memories. Victor takes Tabitha to the car graveyard and searches in the trunk of his mother’s car, where he receives another tragic blow in the form of paintings that are not his but are his late sister Elois’. As he goes through an emotional breakdown, Victor blames himself for his sister’s death; after hiding Victor and Elois when their mother left all those years ago, a scared Eloise ran after her, while Victor, too petrified to move, couldn’t come outside till morning when he presumably discovered that he was the sole survivor of the town. Tabitha calms Victor down and learns that Victor’s mother had gone to save the children residing in the lighthouse before all hell broke loose.
Victor truly exemplifies the devastating effect clinging to the past can have, but he didn’t have a choice either, as his traumatic experience mentally broke him during his childhood, and all alone, he had nothing to survive by except his memories. Jade keeps acting in his usual pathetic, overbearing demeanor but forgets to consider how much the place has taken from Victor and rendered him essentially a man-child in the very literal sense.
Did Jim Make A Mistake By Taking Randall’s Help?
Previously, we saw how standing up to the monsters behind the protection of the talisman acted as a temporary deterrent method, while the hothead Randall spent his first night alone on the bus. But we had not considered the manner in which he was going to interpret this realization. After Jim notices Randall flying his drone across the town, he considers taking his assistance. As someone who is rejected by everyone, Randall somehow seems to him to be someone to confide in. Added to the fact that Randall helped him previously to muddle through his collapsed house to search for Tabitha, Jim thinks that he has found the right partner to discover more about the place.
Using Randall’s drone and wiring from his RV, Jim once again tries to affix a makeshift radio atop the tree covers of the place but fails to do so when the drone doesn’t reach as high than intended. On the contrary, Randall gets to know that Jim speculates about the place being part of a peculiar covert experimentative procedure, and his eccentric mind already starts to weave conspiracy theories out of that realization. He tries to implant the idea in Jim’s mind that the entire place is a set-up and the townsfolk are carefully playing their parts to keep the ruse intact. His experience of the first night as a bus driver, where he confronted the monsters fearlessly and sent them moving away, led him to believe the deaths were just a part of an elaborate plan to make the residents frightened. As their conversation moves to Sara, Randall persuades Jim to converse with her.
On the other hand, Donna meets Boyd and others at the clinic and learns about the monster situation. After a strange occurrence of the cicadas swarming the monster’s body and draining the remaining bile, they consider burning the body. Kenny finally comes around, getting some solace at the death of one of the creatures responsible for his father’s death, but not so much that he will resume his duties as Boyd’s deputy.
After having an argument with Boyd about her willingness to help the townsfolk, Sara is waiting at the church, and all of a sudden, Jim and Randall approach her, asking about details of her journey which led her and her brother Nathan to this place, and even questioning whether Nathan’s death was real or not. Donna arrives at the same time in the scene, as Boyd had asked her to assign Sara some productive work. Considering Donna’s arrival as another sign of confirmation of his conspiracy theory, Randall starts antagonizing her. Jim later suggests to Randall that instead of presuming people’s motivations and actions, they should observe what truly happens at night when the monsters lurk outside and propose to spend the night together in Jim’s RV. To think of it, although viewers are shown the mangled, chewed-through bodies of unfortunate victims in the daytime, we really haven’t had any instance of seeing exactly what happens during the monster attack, and if the duo goes through with their plan, we might get a first glimpse at that. However, Randall isn’t willing to comply with the plan as easily, as the eighth episode ends with Jim going to the rendezvous point only to find Randall holding Donna captive. With two more episodes remaining for this season, we are no closer to unraveling the mystery in its entirety, but at least some of the common factors have brought the characters together to seek answers in a unified way. Unfortunately, their battle for freedom gradually seems to be heavily one-sided, as more problems start cropping up than get solved. Randall might be the peak example of a crazed denier, but it will be interesting if at least some of his proposed ideas come true about a mole being among the townsfolk or the monsters not operating in the way everyone thought they did.
