The finale of the third season of MGM+’s thriller series, From, has turned out to be the most eventful, messy, and confusing episode presented by the series so far, and in my opinion, this could have a divisive effect on its dedicated fandom. It’s one thing to keep things interesting by spinning a web of mysteries with each season, withholding information, and letting the audience go on a wild speculation trip of their own. But at the same time, an abundance of surprising revelations that seem hard to bring together into a cohesive whole, despite going through three seasons worth of storytelling, might feel like a deal breaker. I can’t believe how many times I have said this already, but once again, keeping up with the tradition of the series, the finale raises a myriad of questions without answering too many of the older ones. It’s way past the time for makers to start untangling the knots they have formed in the first place; the fourth season better have some answers, or the series will end up imploding under the force of the burdens it carries, just like Boyd did in this episode.
Spoilers Ahead
Victor’s Guilt
Previously, we saw Victor in a miserable condition as he recalled the tragic memory of his mother, Miranda’s death, and blamed himself for her demise. A young Victor had overheard the conversation between Christopher and Boy in White and learned about the escape route through Bottle Tree, which he had shared with her mother. In her pursuit to find an exit, Miranda lost her life at the hands of one of the nocturnal monsters, and her daughter, Eloise, presumably met the same fate as well. The trauma tormented Victor for a long time, and in the finale, as his father, Henry, meets with his son to reconcile with him, Victor can’t help but bring him to the place where he had buried his mother and sister. Victor shares his guilt with Henry, who comforts his son, stating it was Miranda’s choice to venture outside, as she wanted to protect her son. Henry opines that Victor shouldn’t beat himself up over it and offers the emotional support he so desperately needed.
Has Boyd Finally Lost It?
The finale raises serious questions about Boyd’s leadership, as it becomes apparent that the Fromville has pushed him over the edge at this point. The search party for Fatima is scouring every nook and cranny of the town, and in the beginning of the episode, we find Boyd and Kenny checking out the shack where Fatima was last seen. Kenny questions Boyd as to the reason she was there in the first place—a question which Boyd fails to answer as he has been conveniently covering up his daughter-in-law’s actions. Ellis meets the duo to share his suspicion that Elgin might be aware of Fatima’s whereabouts, given the way he made efforts to convince Elgin that Fatima going missing might be a good sign and whatnot. Boyd decides to take Kenny and Ellis to Colony House and Sara tags along with him as well, as he suspects that, like her, Elgin has been communicating with the controllers of the town and might have been misguided by them to abduct Fatima—unwittingly putting her in danger in the process. As they meet Elgin and confront him about the truth, it becomes pretty clear that Elgin is convinced that he believes that the Kimono Lady, on whose command he has abducted Fatima, is an Biblical angelic figure who will guide the people of Fromville to their due salvation by helping them escape from the town. The more Boyd and co. plead with him to disclose Fatima’s location, the more he resists, maintaining his stance that whatever is going to happen to Fatima as she delivers the demonic baby will be for the benefit of the townsfolk. From her own experience, Sara knows that there is no way Elgin is going to divulge the information on his own if he truly has good intentions and justifies his actions using that.
Boyd takes a drastic step as he decides to torture Elgin to extract the information out of him; the man has not lost his edge from his military days and definitely isn’t kidding around, and Kenny’s attempt to talk some sense into him goes in vain. Boyd’s psyche lashes out at him as he sees a vision of Khatri, mocking him for his double-standards as he is so prepared to take things to such a despicable level when someone close to him is in danger, but deliberately kept Fatima’s actions a secret from the others, overlooking the gravity of the incident at the same time. It seems like the town has finally broken Boyd; he himself is turning out to be the kind of danger he pledged to protect the townsfolk from, as he beats Elgin with a hammer to force him to reveal information. Interestingly, before Boyd decides to go all Annie Wilkes on Elgin, the Polaroid takes a snap of Boyd, where he sees the dream house, which he had bought to surprise his wife with before they got stuck in the town—Elgin states it to be a means of communication with the Kimono Lady, but Boyd finds it to be an add-on to the cruel humiliation dealt by the town. Things take a turn for the worse as Acosta arrives to apprehend the situation and gets bewildered seeing all this, prompting Boyd to take a break and have an argument with her, while Sara decides to meet with Elgin. Sara appears sympathetic towards Elgin, but she believes that the burden of protecting the town doesn’t rest on Boyd’s shoulders alone. She reveals that Boyd doesn’t know what it takes to push people to the edge, and takes it upon herself to pry the information about Fatima out of Elgin. By the time Boyd and co. rush to Elgin after hearing his maddening cry, Sara has bashed one of his eyes out and has learned that Fatima is captured inside the root cellar.
What Did Boyd Find Inside the Tunnels?
Meanwhile, the baby inside Fatima’s womb grows rapidly, and as she goes into labor, a desperate Fatima almost considers cutting her own belly open to stop whatever abomination is festering inside her from being born. The Kimono Lady is a vigilant presence who stops her from doing so and successfully manages to help Fatima deliver an enlarged fetus moments before Boyd and co. barge through the door of the root cellar. With the fetus in her hand, Kimono Lady enters through the trapdoor to reach the tunnels underneath.
Fatima is rescued, and Boyd decides to follow the Kimono Lady alone, instructing Kenny and Elgin to return to the colony house and bring everyone to safety. Fatima reveals to Ellis that she has learned the truth about the monsters—that they sacrificed their children to obtain mortality. Are these the same Angkhooey children Tabitha and Jade have come across? The later part of the episode reveals some hints about it. For now we follow Boyd as he sneakily watches over the Kimono Lady, who appears in front of a gathering of nocturnal monsters. As she presents the fetus, it develops rapidly, and tearing the bloody membrane, emerges the smiley monster who had killed Miranda all those years ago, the same creature whom Boyd had killed in the previous season. These monsters are truly unkillable, but another question pops up as this segment ends: Will Boyd be able to return to his timeline by going back the same route? Given the way Julie tapped into time-traversing zones in the previous episodes.
Tabitha and Jade Remember Their Past
Tabitha has managed to gather her senses after her experiences in the previous episode, where she relived Miranda’s last moments, which strongly suggested that both of them shared a connection with each other. As Tabitha speaks with Jim and Jade about how vivid her experiences were, Jade comes up with a theory about the souls of Fromville, who, as a form of energy, cannot be destroyed or created (a possible Hindu mythology reference?), and therefore they are trapped in the town, trying to communicate with present residents through visions and other mediums. This assumption makes sense much later in the episode, as Tabitha remembers the truth about her true origin.
This time Jim is interested in helping Tabitha and Jade untangling the mysteries as well. Learning from his mistakes, he is no longer trying to impose his idea of normalcy upon others when the baffling, inexplicable nature of reality has posed a threat to their survival. Despite brainstorming for hours, Jade and Tabitha couldn’t come up with a rationale for the numbers in the Bottle Tree, which they are sure to be indicative of a common clue—but Jim is quick to offer a proper solution by suggesting the digits could line up with the twelve notes in music—the universal language. Jade brings Miranda’s violin to play the notes, and Jim warns him not to play while inside the town—given the musicbox seen by Boyd or the haunted jukebox from the diner, all are related to something ominous. The trio of Jade, Tabitha, and Jim go to the Bottle Tree as Jade plays the music, and listening to it, Angkhooey children approach them. This time, both Jade and Tabitha are able to decipher that Angkhooey means remember, as they do within an instant. A shocked, distraught Tabitha quickly leaves the spot, and a puzzled Jim follows after her, only to learn from Tabitha that she and Jade have been in the town since the beginning; in their previous cycle, they used to be Christopher and Miranda. A traumatized Jade recalls Angkhooey was part of a lullaby he and Tabitha shared with their daughter during the first cycle, who is one of the creepy children. Jim doesn’t understand much of it but realizes that his wife isn’t the person he thought she was; Tabitha has an altogether different identity—one that is not related to Jim.
Is Jim Dead?
On the other hand, the series takes a little time to showcase the plight of the three victims of the coma affliction; Randall, being tormented by the insect presence, decided to lobotomize himself by putting the defibrillator to his head, but Marielle stops him just in time. Kristi later confronts Marielle, whether, like Randall and Julie, she too is feeling strange ever since recovering from her condition, and learns that Marielle isn’t at her best either.
Julie, on the other hand, shares with Ethan that she was able to tinker with the past timeline by stepping through the ruined arch and wonders whether she will be able to save their late brother, Thomas, in the same way as well. Ethan warns her not to do anything of that sort, as it could jeopardize everything in the process, but it seems Julie has ignored his warnings. As Jim strolls in the wilderness, crestfallen after learning about the recent events, Julie appears in front of him, frantically rushing away from something and desperate to stop some event from taking place. This seems to be a future version of Julie, who presumably has tried to cross the timeline barriers for personal reasons and is now probably fleeing from repercussions. The being she was afraid of, a man dressed in a yellow suit with blood-red eyes, appears in front of her and mentions Jade’s tunes while taunting Jim in the process. In his cryptic way, the stranger states that knowledge always comes with a cost. Jim tries to fend him off, only to realize how powerful the being in front of him is as he takes a hold of Jim by choking his throat, lifting him rather easily. The stranger taunts Jim, saying Tabitha shouldn’t have dug the hole underneath their house, and proceeds to slash his throat open—as a horrified Julie watches in terror and the episode comes to a close.
The Angkhooey kids, this stranger aka Man in Yellow, the sacrifice, and the monsters are connected with a single thread, the nature of which still remains unknown by the end of the third season. To add to the confusion, time travel has been put into the mix, and it remains in question whether it was Jade’s music that attracted the stranger in the place, or was it a time-displaced Julie, who was desperate to save her father, who ended up bringing him into this timeline. Is the Man in Yellow the prime controller of the place, and did the monsters make a deal with him to attain immortality? All of these questions need to wait until the fourth season, almost a year and more to go.
