8 Relationships That’ll Get You Hooked on From

As a seasoned fan of supernatural tales, I must say that From has certainly piqued my interest with its intricate and captivating narrative. The character development is nothing short of impressive; Victor, initially appearing as a deus ex machina, is humanized through his friendship with Ethan, and the Matthewses play a crucial role in this process. His insights about the town’s mysterious nature add depth to the story, making it less predictable than your average escape room.

Watching “From” is akin to attending a Halloween party where various characters from shows like “Lost”, “Yellowjackets”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and “Salem’s Lot” are playing Twister together. This means that while the horror elements may be familiar, the unique twist in which they are combined creates an exciting experience. If you have a void for the evil in your life or find the long wait for “Stranger Things” unbearable, then “From” is the ideal choice for a spooky season watch. With its third season set to premiere on September 22, we’re here to help you get up to speed on all the essential details.

In John Griffin’s creation, we encounter a town where the laws of space and time seem to be bent out of shape. Over the years, individuals driving through this area would unexpectedly find themselves before an enormous tree in the road, witness crows flying overhead, and eventually join this peculiar village. This place is a living terror, so enigmatic that its inhabitants ponder if they’ve entered the depths of hell or are trapped in purgatory. The horrors of this town are manifold: from bloodthirsty creatures masquerading as friendly humans who prey on the vulnerable outside at night, to sinister apparitions, malevolent insects, and scarcity of resources, not forgetting the internal strife among the villagers. So much for idyllic small-town living – it’s a constant struggle!

If you’re eager for explanations about the town’s peculiarities, such as its weather patterns, the functioning of talismans, or the slow movements of monsters in the show “From”, be prepared for a perplexing viewing experience. This is because the core of “From” lies not in its puzzle-box structure but in its characters and their struggles to make sense of a world where everything is deadly yet seemingly inconsequential. The townspeople’s relationships, including friendships, romances, and rivalries, provide tangible insights into this enigmatic setting. Whether you’re a seasoned “From” fan or a new viewer seeking background information before the series resumes on Sunday night, here are eight key relationships to grasp before the show continues.

Spoilers follow for the first two seasons of From.

Town leaders Boyd, Donna, and Father Khatri

8 Relationships That’ll Get You Hooked on From

In the undisclosed location depicted in ‘From’, the population is split between two distinct settlements. Each new arrival must decide which community they wish to call home. The Township offers a more family-focused lifestyle with single-family houses, a diner, and a church on its main street. On the other hand, Colony House, situated on a vast hillside property that cultivates all the town’s crops, exudes a more hedonistic, collectivist ambiance. Sheriff Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau, impressively played) governs the town, while Donna Raines (Elizabeth Saunders) presides over Colony House. At the start of ‘From’, these two groups rarely interact. In fact, newcomers are warned that their choice of residence is permanent, reflecting their chosen lifestyle. However, as the series unfolds, this self-imposed separation gradually weakens. This occurs due to a massive monster attack on Colony House, which forces its surviving residents to seek shelter in available town houses, and because Boyd and Donna develop a deep understanding of each other.

He knows that she needs compassion and vulnerability, despite her gruffness; she knows that he needs a steady, experienced figure at his side since he was forced to kill his wife, Abby (she thought the town was a dream and went on a deadly shooting spree). The pair balances each other out, and each of them also get some support from the community’s religious leader, Father Khatri (Shaun Majumder). Before he got his throat ripped out by a baddie, Khatri had a slightly Old Testament vibe and was more willing than Boyd to punish people for hurting others in town by putting them in the Box (an enclosure in public that is unprotected from the monsters, guaranteeing that whoever’s inside is torn apart and eaten). His arguments with Boyd about whether Boyd was getting too soft, how the citizens’ lack of discipline might hurt them, and what the monsters want provided some of the series’ moral backbone, and those conversations have become even more complex now that Khatri is dead but Boyd is still seeing and talking to him.

Lovers Ellis and Fatima

In the initial season of From, Boyd and his son, Ellis (Corteon Moore), aren’t exactly on good terms. Their strained relationship is gradually revealed through flashbacks, suggesting that before Abby’s death, Ellis had expressed his mother’s growing detachment from reality to his father, but Boyd, preoccupied with finding a way out of town and boosting the morale of their fellow citizens, failed to fully appreciate Ellis’s worries. There’s a fair amount of family tension, along with the usual generational differences, such as Boyd being a battle-hardened Army veteran and Ellis being a sensitive artist with questionable pendant choices and an apparent inability to completely button his shirt.

Through his friendship with Pegah Ghafoori’s character, Ellis gains insights into her life. Pegah, a resident of Colony House known for her sunny disposition, has a complex past; her family is Iranian and her father was a vocal cleric who faced government persecution. Despite their hardships, they find solace in each other and become symbols of hope within Colony House. However, their bond is tested when Fatima becomes pregnant, a surprise after being told she couldn’t conceive. Some viewers may wonder if this pregnancy is similar to the troubling one in “Rosemary’s Baby,” or if it might lead to an emotionally charged miscarriage plot. The series, “From,” has a history of delivering such impactful storylines, leaving us to ponder how Boyd and Fatima’s relationship will weather these trials.

Unrequiteds Kenny and Kristi

The trio of Boyd, Donna, and Father Khatri (at least when he was still alive) lead the town as its top-tier team. Deputy sheriff Kenny Liu (Ricky He) and town doctor Kristi Miller (Chloe Van Landschoot) serve as a backup force. Prior to their current roles, Kenny was a college student assisting his mostly Mandarin-speaking parents, while Kristi was a third-year medical student and EMT. This shared background of helping others during tough times has fostered a strong bond between them. However, there’s an added layer of complexity: Kenny harbors feelings for Kristi that she appears to reciprocate, but Kristi still holds onto her past relationship and isn’t ready to commit to a future in this town just yet, as it would mean giving up on that connection. It’s a challenging situation!

The situation becomes even more challenging for Kenny when Sara Myers, a diner employee who was like a daughter to Tian-Chen Liu (Elizabeth Moy), inadvertently causes his father’s death by the monsters. In season two, Marielle (Kaelen Ohm), Kristi’s fiancée, arrives, adding to the complexity. When Kenny discovers Sara’s role and learns that Boyd, his mentor and boss, shielded Sara afterwards, it leaves Kenny feeling betrayed twice. This double betrayal shakes Kenny’s spirit and strains his friendship with Kristi. The climax comes when they all work together on an autopsy of one of the monsters, a gruesome scene that highlights Kristi’s focused determination as crucial for the town, while also showing how Kenny’s intense drive to protect those dear to him could lead to risky behavior.

Sara and everyone who knows what she did (which was bad stuff)

Discussing Sara: She’s one of the show’s enigmatic characters often employed to escalate the tension. Initially portrayed as a young woman experiencing seizures, visions, and auditory hallucinations, she believes that if she carries out the killings instructed by these voices, herself and everyone else in town will be able to return home. Following the murder of a stranger, she’s given responsibility for caring for someone and causing another character’s death. In a conversation with Kristi, Sara expresses her predicament as a hypothetical scenario, to which Kristi admits that she might do what the voices suggested if it meant freedom for all. Consequently, Sara decides to target the next person specified by the voices: a young boy named Ethan Matthews (Simon Webster). When Sara’s kidnapping attempt is disrupted by her brother, who learns about her situation from Father Khatri, she accidentally slashes his throat instead, further isolating herself in the town. Many believe she should have been confined within the Box, others don’t trust her, and Boyd is questioned for allowing her to survive; she’s an outcast in a place where loneliness itself can be a form of death.

But Sara remains fascinating for her impossible-to-predict decision-making process, which feels tonally right for a place that is constantly mutating. On a trek into the forest with Boyd to find the edges of the town, she protects him when he gives up hope; later, she accepts the townspeople’s cruelties to her but draws the line at new resident Randall (A.J. Simmons) insinuating that she’s a crisis actor. A show that is constantly changing itself up needs a character to embody that chaos, and that’s Sara.

Marrieds Tabitha and Jim

The show introduces us to its unique universe via the Matthews family, including Jim (Eion Bailey), an amusement-park-ride engineer; his wife, Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno); their teen daughter, Julie (Hannah Cheramy); and young son Ethan. During a family road trip, they unfortunately crash their RV in a town where they eventually find themselves. The series unravels the mysteries of its monsters, the tension between the Township and Colony neighborhoods, and how this town ensnares its residents through interactions with the Matthews family, who upon arrival are struggling to stay together as a family. Tabitha and Jim are on the verge of divorce, Julie torments Ethan, and the family has tragically lost a third child due to negligence when he was just a few months old – an incident involving both parents.

However, it’s astonishing how the harrowing experiences of this location manage to strengthen the bond within the Matthewses. For instance, Jim erects a radio tower atop Colony House to contact the world beyond, and Tabitha delves deep into their home’s basement to trace the origin of their electricity. These endeavors not only unite them but also provide them with a sense of purpose, despite leading to even more perplexing situations. The vanishing of Tabitha at the end of season two, found inexplicably in a tree and then waking up in a hospital, leaving Jim, Julie, and Ethan completely clueless about her whereabouts, raises questions about whether such a family can truly thrive under these circumstances. In other words, it’s as if the show is probing whether happiness can endure within this strange location.

Unlikely friends Ethan and Victor

Living in this particular town for extended periods is uncommon due to its high mortality rate. Most residents either meet untimely deaths at the hands of monstrous creatures or choose suicide, a grim possibility hinted by the diner’s backroom serving as a storage unit filled with old and outdated belongings of former inhabitants. In stark contrast, Victor (Scott McCord) has lived here for decades, maturing among the monsters to become an unusual man characterized by emotional immaturity, awkwardness, and kindness. A lone survivor of a massacre that wiped out the entire town, including his mother, Victor’s memory issues limit his useful knowledge about the monsters.

Through his bond with Ethan, Victor transcends being merely a character resembling the Log Lady. He confides in Ethan about his theories that the town’s environment is altering, rescues Julie from the monster attack at Colony House as she is Ethan’s sister, and leads Tabitha through a tunnel network housing monsters to ensure her safe return to her family. While Victor might appear overly contrived as a deus ex machina, Ethan serves to make him more relatable. Victor develops a connection with the Matthewses that becomes his surrogate family, revealing his astute observations about this peculiar place. Despite Ethan’s inevitable loss of innocence within this setting, his friendship with Victor provides a sense of stability; when the world seems apocalyptic, it offers comfort to share simple moments like drawing pictures and strolling through the woods with a friend.

Possession victims Julie, Randall, and Mari

During the first season of From, there’s a custom observed between the townsfolk and the monstrous creatures. As the sun sets, Boyd walks through town, tolling a bell and warning everyone about curfew. In the darkness, the Township and Colony House residents remain indoors, having hung a charm to ward off the monsters who masquerade as friendly humans. They knock on doors and windows, asking for entry. If this charm falls or if someone within the home opens a window or door, allowing the monsters inside, the protection is breached. Essentially, it’s like living under vampire rules, with the humans being well-aware of the monsters’ behavior.

In the second season, the ordinary life shifts dramatically as Boyd becomes host to parasitic worms that induce hallucinations such as a music box playing and a menacing ballerina, along with telepathic communication with Abby who promotes nihilism and urges townsfolk to let people die. This new monster within Boyd wreaks havoc in the dreams of citizens, reminiscent of Freddy Krueger, and takes control over Julie, Randall, and Marielle, who, like the Flayed on Stranger Things, experience torture and entrapment in another dimension. However, by season’s end, Boyd manages to rescue them, hinting that the town’s nocturnal monsters may be mere precursors to the greater horrors they will encounter.

Jade and many, many ghosts

Software developer character, Jade Herrera (David Alpay), initially comes across as one of the most irritating characters in the series due to his wealthy, abrasive nature and belief that the town is a massive prank orchestrated by his friends. However, after encountering ghosts, he understands their predicament and, amidst bouts of intoxication, dedicates himself to helping everyone escape. Jade transforms from being the series’ most skeptical character to its most haunted, witnessing a variety of ghostly apparitions such as a man buried under a boulder, a Civil War soldier firing at him, and children bound on sacrificial altars. These spectral visions may hint at the town’s history, with Jade potentially mirroring a character named Christopher, who lived in the town when Victor was a child and became fixated on a specific symbol associated with monsters. Alternatively, the series might be recreating the essence of ‘Thirteen Ghosts,’ focusing on Jade as its central figure while consistently introducing supernatural elements to maintain suspense, which could prove more engaging than any designed escape room.

2024-09-19 20:54