The makers of MGM+’s sci-fi horror drama From have a great way of maintaining suspense throughout, so much so that even as the second season has ended, viewers hardly have a concrete idea about the central mystery. Much of this is achieved by withholding information, as shown through the role of Victor, who might be the most important character of the series so far. The seemingly frail, mentally broken, eccentric middle-aged man has lived in the godforsaken place for the longest period, and as the series has shown so far, his experience is going to play a vital part in learning about an escape route.
Victor, from his initial interactions with the townsfolk, is considered an oddball of a character by viewers, whose intellectual growth has remained stunted at a child-like phase. However, as we got to know more about his past, fans even started speculating that everything that happens in ‘Fromland’ was created by Victor’s imagination. While that might be a far-fetched idea, Victor’s role is vital in decoding the mystery of the place.
Spoilers Ahead
Victor’s Connection With Ethan
Right after the Matthews family arrives at Fromland, the youngest member of the family, Ethan, forms a friendship with Victor, whose mental age seems to be similar to the kid’s. Both of them share a knack for painting, game quests, and exploring, but what really allows them to confide in each other is the fact that Ethan starts seeing ‘the boy in white’ just after arriving in Fromland. Victor is intrigued after knowing this, as he had seen him back when he was Ethan’s age, and flashes of past events come flooding into his mind.
During Tabitha’s dreams about the lighthouse, numbers etched on the wall hinted that this current timeline isn’t the only instance in which a number of people across the country got entrapped in this nightmarish place. The vicious cycle dates back to the 15th century at the earliest and has been repeated through generations, with numerous other people falling victim to the evil machinations of this place. The most recent year shown on the wall, 1978, is perhaps the time Victor and his family arrived at ‘Fromland,’ and Victor’s memory flashes show he was the only survivor during that time. The scenario of him standing in front of the boy in white while the mangled bodies of the residents lay strewn across the town was traumatic enough for little Victor to forever scar his psyche. To make it even worse, he lost both his mother and sister during the event as well.
Helping The Matthews And Jade
The thing with Victor is that, due to his mental disposition, he is treated by the townsfolk mostly as a pity case, and no one takes him seriously, whereas he holds the answers to most of the questions regarding the place. Living alone in the place for decades, Victor knew whatever he had learned and seen could prove vital in the future, but at the same time, he knew he couldn’t memorize its entirety. Hence Victor sketched everything he witnessed in his drawings, which are so thematically important that the sketches are shown in a montage sequence in the series intro as well.
Unlike little Ethan, the rest of the Matthews family was extremely skeptical of Victor, trying to avoid him most of the time and considering him a creep. Later, during the Colony House massacre, Victor helps Julie escape from the monsters by guiding her to a Faraway tree, which teleports users to random locations. His knowledge of Fromland proves useful once again when he later arrives at the subterranean location of Matthew’s household and rescues Tabitha from there. Victor guides Tabitha through the underground tunnels, which are revealed to be the daytime hibernation place for the monsters, and the tunnel walls showcase several important motifs and symbols, which are essential clues to learning about ‘Fromland.’ Even without the mysterious talismans, Victor knows how to navigate his way through the wilderness and avoid the monsters, as his truck trailer hideout shelters Boyd, Elgin, and Tabitha.
The ever-curious, ever-impatient Jade gets to know about Victor’s importance in the entire narrative as he comes across the photograph from the 1978 timeline, which also shows little Victor’s presence in the town. The photograph focused on a former resident named Christopher, whose diary had the same strange sigil Jade had seen time and again, and upon inquiring with Victor about it, Jade learned that during the previous cycle, Christopher was the one who was responsible for the deaths of all the townsfolk at once—all except Victor, that is.
Victor Helped Tabitha Get Out Of Fromland
The most important way that Victor used his knowledge of Fromland was the way he unknowingly helped Tabitha escape from it. Tabitha had previously learned from Victor that his mother went to the lighthouse to rescue the children from the place, which, she believed, could help them go back home. Tabitha, who was seeing similar disfigured children in her visions, decided to do the same when her daughter Julie was on the verge of dying during the horrifying nightmare attacks. Victor takes Tabitha to the particular Faraway tree that can transport her to the lighthouse, and as a gesture of kindness, he decides to pack snacks for her in his lunchbox. Grateful to Victor for everything he has done for her family so far, Tabitha bids him farewell by embracing him, and it feels a bit tragic that this might be the first time someone has shown warmth to Victor since his mother’s death. Tabitha climbs up the lighthouse, and as the boy in white pushes her through the glass panels behind her, Tabitha falls and wakes up in a hospital in the outside world, finally free from the outlandish place. We can’t say that for sure, though, as it might be another stage of psychological entrapment where Tabitha has got herself stuck as well, but the fact that this will have an important role to play in the future of the series is undeniable.
There are lots of theories circulating around, some of which even state that Ethan is the younger alternate version of Victor or that Victor is somehow related to the Matthews family. Victor knows a lot, perhaps even about the beings that are controlling the place, as he fearfully mentions that ‘they’ won’t like it whenever he talks or acts ‘out of bounds.’ Boyd’s skin-crawling worms condition is first perceived by Victor, who knows the role Boyd will be playing in the narrative, and he also firmly states during conversation that the mass genocide like the previous cyclone will not happen this time—almost as if he has learned that from someone. Victor might have a broken psyche thanks to his traumatic past, but he knows the answers to the necessary questions. Tabitha and Jade know this, and if others in town notice that as well, there might be a chance to break free from the hellscape of Fromland.
