FROM Season 4 Episode 1 Returns Us to a Hopeless Town That Just Got Worse

Critic’s Rating: 4.8 / 5.0

4.8

We have never been more back, FROMily.

We may have had to wait 26,290 years (no exaggeration) for a new episode, but I’d venture to say it was worth the wait, because the first hour delivered everything we love about this show.

It was creepy, emotional, shocking, and maybe most important of all, intriguing.

Coming out of FROM Season 3, which was a very strong season, everything picked up right where it left off, which is typically the case with this series.

Time isn’t really concrete or tangible within this universe, so they can’t just jump to a new season and ignore what happened moments earlier. 

Except they kind of did.

This season begins directly after Jim’s throat was cut, but no one even knows he’s dead yet!

Julie’s storyline last season revolved around her discovering she was a story walker, and much of FROM has revolved around the idea of stories. It’s why so many people are convinced that when all is said and done, and the series is over, we’ll find out that we’ve just been watching someone’s make-believe story unfold.

Per Ethan, a storywalker is someone who can travel into a story, but they can’t change it. So when we see Julie running into frame, hoping to change her father’s fate, it’s futile because that story has already been written, even though Julie still seems to try to change the outcome.

We see a Julie different from the Julie we’ve been seeing, and the Man in the Yellow Suit makes it clear that they’ve met before, and she keeps doing the same thing over and over again.

So, this is clearly a future version of Julie, but it’s unclear exactly how far into the future she comes from.

Time hopping is about the least shocking thing this show has ever done, but more than trying to figure out what era Julie was coming from, everything the yellow-suited man was saying was much more interesting.

Remember way back in FROM Season 1, when we heard that man’s voice specifically telling Jim that Tabitha shouldn’t have dug that hole in the basement? It makes you wonder whether that was a trigger for many of the things we’re currently seeing.

The town feeds off fear, and the town came together at the end of that first season, putting aside town versus Colony House differences, to try to do something to change their situation.

There was some hope floating around those days, or, at the very least, they were feeling something other than all-encompassing terror.

With that town now seeped in despair, everything really changed from that moment forward.

And now we’ve got the Man in the Yellow Suit in the flesh, also taunting Julie with Jim’s death like it could have been avoidable if everyone just continued to respect that they were locked in this town forever with no hope of ever leaving.

Now, my biggest question about The Man in the Yellow Suit is that he knows what’s ahead because he blatantly says so. And while the storywalkers can’t change the story, is there another person or another way that the story can be changed?

Because at this point, isn’t that the only way for anything that’s already happened to change?

My brain hurts thinking about all the scenarios at times, but before we even go down that larger rabbit hole, the majority of this hour centered around both that man’s arrival and the fallout from Fatima giving birth.

I wouldn’t have blamed Boyd if he thought he’d truly lost it once and for all when he looked into Smiley’s eyes, down there in that cave, but luckily Kenny was there to corroborate the story.

Boyd’s seen many things and gone through even more, but seeing Smiley was the straw that broke the camel’s back, because it put everything into perspective in a way nothing else ever had.

When he killed Smiley, nothing actually changed when you think about it. They were still stuck there, and the monsters still came out at night.

People were still dying, and everyone’s faith was still deteriorating at a rapid rate, but for once, they weren’t the losers stuck in that town at its mercy.

They did more than just survive; they became proactive participants in their surroundings, resulting in the demise of one of their biggest nightmares. It was a win, however small and ultimately inconsequential; it was still theirs.

Smiley resurrecting via Fatima’s womb took all that away. And Boyd felt the effects of that immediately.

Everyone in that place has lost something, but I’d be tempted to argue Boyd has lost the most. However, he’s also been the one unable to feel or express that grief outwardly, the way everyone else does.

Seeing him pull all those bullets out was the moment I realized that we were watching Boyd lose any and all optimism in real time. It had been building and building slowly over time, but he’d reached a place where he just could not see anything beyond his failures.

Whereas they were once the underdogs with a fighting chance, like Rocky or the kids in Little Giants going up against the big, bad Cowboys, Boyd felt deep in his soul that it was all over. And it’s one thing to realize that, but quite another to accept it.

Even when his justified self-loathing was interrupted by the car crash of Sophia and the preacher, he stepped in to do what he always does, which is to help, and then immediately morphed back into his woe-is-me spiel when he debriefed with Donna, Kristi, Fatima, and Ellis.

On the one hand, I understood Boyd completely because how many times can you be beaten down before you submit? It’s so easy to tell someone to keep going when you’re not the one in the fight.

Boyd’s done more to keep that town going than anyone, but that’s also the reason why he’s basically forced to keep going. If he truly gives up, then he might as well bring those bullets out because he’s the de facto face of hopefulness.

Without him, everything goes to crap even more than it already has.

The moment between Boyd and Ellis may be one of my favorite scenes of the whole series. Seeing Boyd completely stripped bare and vulnerable with Ellis, not sugarcoating or trying to be the strong man for his son when he needed a minute to just exist without expectations or an air of having it all together, was incredibly powerful.

He’s provided comfort to so many others, and he needed it back in return from the person he loves most.

So much of the show is centered on the mystery at its core, but when all is said and done, I’m going to remember the relationships just as much because they do so much with such a large cast.

Speaking of the cast, it expanded with the addition of Sophia, who showed up in a car crash, and hello people, she was sketchy from the jump.

For starters, when we saw the priest stuck at the tree, he seemed to be alone. Sure, they hid the car enough so it wasn’t totally clear, but I distinctly remember thinking we were getting a newcomer who was all alone this time.

To then suddenly see Sophia in the passenger seat when the car crashed into the post office just felt off.

Sophia’s reactions fit the bill of a grieving daughter, but even then, something wasn’t right. And it wasn’t until her conversation with Kenny that I realized this girl was hiding something.

Many newcomers have experienced their first night in that town, but none reacted quite like Sophia. There’s a difference between shock and failing to register the seriousness of your situation, yet Sophia’s response was almost muted indifference.

I started to wonder if maybe she was a monster that could come out during the day, which is a whole other terrifying concept. And hell, I was kind of right in the end.

Although the big reveal at the end unfolded a bit too slowly, it was still highly effective. While not every moment needed explanation, the suspense was well maintained.

But I was still on the edge of my seat because this character has quickly become potentially the most interesting of all, giving us insight from the other side, and it seems like it’s information we can trust.

Sophia’s now in the town, and she’ll be integrated like everyone before her, but will she sit back as an observer as the town eats itself alive?

Or do things hinge on her putting certain things in place to help facilitate everything going to crap?

It seems like the Man in the Yellow Suit is the leader of everything, but what if we’re jumping the gun here? It appears he was the one who made the deal with the parents to sacrifice their children, but knowing FROM, there’s probably something else we’re missing in all of this.

Trying to piece together the town’s origins now that we know so much more about the children, while seeing the town fall apart, should be fascinating.

Because that’s where this has always been headed after all.

Each season, we’ve seen resolve break, resentments intensify, and hope dwindle. And we’re finally at the breaking point.

It’s sad, but it also makes me even more excited for this season, because we’re going to see people wrung emotionally raw by the brutalities of that place, and I can’t wait to see how everything goes.

I should be more scared, but right now, I’m more fascinated by the implications of a story that seems determined to see just how far it can push everyone before something finally gives.

I’m more than ready to see everything fall down.

Loose Ends

• Not to say that everyone isn’t struggling in that town, but Fatima spent so much of last season in this dark place, eating garbage and begging people to hear her when she said something was wrong. And now she’s emerged from that in an even darker place. My heart hurts for her.

• Acosta’s righteous attitude has always been a bit obnoxious, as has her one-sided beef with Boyd. But she’s not totally wrong about everyone being monsters, but how does she not see what that place is doing to people? We’re past the days of trying to police and institute certain laws!

• When do you think someone will find Jim? Hopefully, he’s found soon because we don’t need a ‘Where’s Jim?’ saga hanging over the season.

• Tabitha’s decision to take a moment to breathe and absorb the fact that she’s been reincarnated for centuries and placed in a hellhole she can never escape was so relatable. Can she get a minute to process, Jade?

• On the flipside, though, they do need to tell Boyd and Donna at the very least. The biggest issue in that town is that NO ONE communicates. People discover these big, huge things and then refuse to tell others about them.

• I forgot all about Sara ripping Elgin’s eye out. Was it necessary? Yes. But damn, that whole thing will be a trip to tell the town.

• Jim’s dead out there, his family doesn’t even know, and now they’ve got flying pots and pans.

• “All we have in this place is what we believe.” Jim was many things, but he sometimes spoke the truth. And that little saying only furthers the narrative that this is all someone’s story.

I didn’t realize how much I missed this show until that ‘Previously on FROM…’ hit my screen.

There was a lot thrown at us, even if overall, the first hour back was much more setup than action.

I’m sure you guys have lots of thoughts and theories, and I can’t wait to hear them all. So please let me know what you think in the comments below!

You can watch FROM on Sundays at 9/8c on MGM+.