It’s wild to think that the town had just been on a winning streak. Deaths were nonexistent for months, and morale was seemingly up. Things were normal.
Well, as normal as it gets there, but normal-ish all the same. And yet suddenly, the deaths are coming fast and furiously.
FROM Season 1 Episode 5 saw death in broad daylight! Things are getting worse.
With each passing day, things are getting bleaker and bleaker. And the deeper into this season we get, we’re shifting more from the set-up questions to the endgame questions. Namely, how is everyone going to get home?
The Matthews take the only approach available to them at this time, and that’s to start asking questions. It’s the most logical place to begin, and it opens up your mind to start thinking outside the box.
It’s undoubtedly something everyone has done at some point or another, but with each new person that comes, maybe there are further questions to ask and hopefully better answers to be discovered.
One thing that’s been floating around the world wide web is the idea that everyone there is dead and in some kind of limbo, which would be kind of…boring?
Perhaps that’s not the right word for it, but rather uninspired. Although, this is probably a case where we should judge the journey and not the destination.
And the journey right now is all the more intriguing if you consider that to the outside world, these people just disappeared into thin air one day.
While Jim and Tabitha don’t make much headway in their quest for answers, Jade continues to float aimlessly, determined to find his way out of the maze he finds himself navigating against his will.
The best parts of From are the quiet character beats. It’s the scenes where you get away from the terror and focus on the human connections between these strangers who’ve become allies and family.
We get several of those scenes here, and the conversation between Jade and Tom is probably one of the first times you get to see a different side of Jade that isn’t just straight annoying. I mean, he’s still a little annoying, but he brings up some pertinent questions.
Much like Jim and Tabitha are pondering all kinds of scenarios, Jade wants to get the basics down to move forward. If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know where you’re going. And it’s impossible to know where to start. So, where are they?
That’s a loaded question, but everyone there has their thoughts and theories.
Why not gather everyone around and start comparing notes? Clearly, the town is in a period of transition and chaos, and you can feel that in the air. It may be the time to start comparing and contrasting ideas.
Boyd can feel it, and after everything that happened with Frank and feelings of his own mortality creeping in, he seems more determined to do something. And he spends some time with his deceased wife in another one of those soft scenes that the show does so well.
It will be a travesty if we don’t get to see Boyd and Ellis together before this season ends because I desperately want to know more about why their relationship is so fractured and their family in general.
With so many characters and moving parts, we get character background information trickled out to us over time in the form of conversations (we get a few during this hour), and it’s nice and comfortable. It’s beyond time for us to get Steven’s story.
Speaking of Ellis, he and Fatima spend their day taking Julie to this sketchy-looking body of water that appears to be a secret and lets them escape for a few hours and smile.
Good on the show for not glossing over what a monumental thing it was for Julie to essentially abandon her family for strangers when she chose Colony House.
They’ve done an excellent job of giving that story legs and not acting as if it’s been easy for Julie or a decision she took lightly.
She is struggling, trying to find her footing on unstable ground. Fatima is a great proxy to have in that place because she doesn’t push, but she listens and advises in her own way.
Hearing about her family was sad, but it adds so much depth to her character and shows why she’s a literal bright spot in a place with so much darkness and pain.
Julie and Fatima’s bond is sweet, and it was looking like we might get a new duo with Kristi and Sara spending time together at the clinic after her seizure.
Sara was spiraling per usual, and she brought about a very thought-provoking question. Would you be willing to do something terrible for the overall good of everyone else?
In this instance, we know she means killing Ethan, which is not acceptable. But even if she had to do something less horrendous, there is no guarantee that anything she does makes a difference.
Has she signed a contract with the monsters in her head that have assured her she will get what she desires after completing her tasks?
Nathan was super frustrating here because while I understand he wants to protect his sister, this is bigger than just her. This involves the whole town, and he should have told someone when he first found out what was going on with Sara because she needed help.
Allowing her just to exist like she’s not basically possessed is what lands them in that situation in the animal pen.
Poor little Ethan had no idea what was happening, and Sara fully intended to sacrifice him for the “greater good” if she weren’t interrupted. And that’s how we end up with Nathan getting his throat sliced accidentally and an unhinged Sara off on her own somehow.
We never get to see what exactly Nathan told Khatri, which I find extremely curious. Because if the monsters are speaking to her, then it’s probably safe to assume she doesn’t need to be protected by them. They’ve used her as a vessel thus far, so why stop now?
Jim: Where is she?
Khatri: Uh, she uh, she ran off into the woods.
Jim: And?
Boyd: If she comes back before dark, then we’ll handle it.
Jim: And if she doesn’t?
Boyd: If she doesn’t, then it’s handled.
And this makes everything Boyd says null and void.
There’s so much to digest here, and it starts for me with a simple question; why Sara? Why is she the only one in town seemingly used by the monsters to do their dirty work?
There’s no doubt she will survive the night and be back in some capacity, but she’s also public enemy number one now, so it’s hard to imagine she’ll be able to come back to town and work at the diner again as if nothing happened.
But if she’s unkillable by the monsters, that sets up a VERY perplexing situation for Boyd and company.
We are building and building towards something, and Nathan’s death will probably be just the tip of the iceberg.
Loose Ends
- Does anyone else think Khatri is a little shady? I feel like he should have been able to get Sara. There’s no reason she should have been able to escape.
- I need someone to make a map of everyone, where they came from, and who they were with when they went into the town. I’m trying to see something.
- What do we think Boyd’s plan involves? The idea that its failure leaves everyone in a worse position almost makes me wonder if he wants to destroy the town somehow.
- How that little lake is a secret is beyond me because you would think every single inch of that place would have been visited by everyone there as there is literally NOTHING else to do every day.
- Bless Tom for making a bar. It may be hell, but at least you can get a little buzz while you wait for whatever comes next.
We’re heading toward the finale rapidly, and things are getting more and more real.
Where do you think Sara is? And what does she do next?
Do you trust Father Khatri?
Did the Matthews survive the car crash?
Drop me a line down below, and remember you can watch FROM online via TV Fanatic anytime!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.