I must admit, I have somewhat mixed feelings about this latest episode of From. On the one hand, I can accept that it’s largely just setting up the final two episodes of the season. On the other hand, a lot of the characters were really frustrating and I hate it when I come up with better ideas faster than the characters themselves.
For instance, Jade has been trying to come up with a plan to get a team of townsfolk into the tunnels, into the sacrificial chamber, and out with the bones of the children. Boyd needs this plan to be perfect, because he refuses to countenance anyone actually dying along the way. (A spectral Father Khatri eventually drives home how unrealistic this is, but Boyd is nothing if not stubborn).
Right away, I was thinking about Jade’s experience in the chamber and the roots above with the opening to the sky. Why not go in from the top? I thought to myself. They could dig a hole from above into the chamber below, rappel down and get the bones, then get pulled up to safety.
When Jade finally remembers this second entrance, he rushes to tell Boyd. But his plan is really boneheaded, especially since he’s supposed to be a genius. I’m not sure if the show’s writers just didn’t come up with something better, or if they’re devising this stupid plan because they want to create more conflict. In any case, Jade’s plan goes something like this:
A team of daring tomb raiders will head into the tunnels and make their way to the chamber of child sacrifice, whereupon they’ll barricade the entrance and retrieve the skeletal remains. Meanwhile, a second team of intrepid lumberjacks will pull the bottle tree up by its roots, opening an escape hatch above the pit. Apparently, these two things must happen simultaneously.
But why? Why do they have to send people into the tunnels, people who have to hope that the tree will come out without any problems and that in doing so, an opening large enough for them to escape will be revealed?
Why not just: either A) pull out the tree first or B) dig a hole next to the tree before sending anyone inside?
This solves Boyd’s “Plan B” problem. Nobody goes inside until there’s already a second exit. If something goes wrong yanking the tree (or digging the hole) then nobody is left trapped in a deadly monster cave. If they do open their way down, they can send people in from up top, avoiding the tunnels altogether.
So why isn’t this part of the plan? Are we to assume that Jade and Boyd and Kenny are this stupid and stubborn that when an idea with obvious flaws is proposed, nobody tries to workshop it at all? Boyd is so constantly aggravated, he can’t seem to think straight. He doesn’t let anyone else talk. Instead of sitting around discussing how to make the plan better, Boyd storms off and Jade is left shaking his head. They’re both wrong, of course. The plan is bad, but it doesn’t take an actual genius to see how you could improve upon it in ways that just make good, common sense.
I’m frustrated also with several of the characters beyond Boyd. Tabitha is at the top of my finger-wagging list today. She reluctantly agrees to let Victor help Ethan prepare for the worst, but she doesn’t let him finish. Instead, she promises Ethan that she’ll get him home. “That’s what my mom said, too,” Victor points out. (P.S. I just typed Victor with a “y” on the end by mistake, and it spells out the word “victory.” Coincidence?
In any case, Victor tells them that after everyone died, the Boy in White first appeared to him and told him three things: First, that he’d need food. He showed him the trailer and it was filled with canned peaches. Second, that loneliness was the real enemy and he’d need to find ways to pretend not to be alone. Victor said he made friends with inanimate objects, and even had stuffed versions of his mom and sister. And third.
Third, um, oh right. Victor wasn’t able to impart that nugget of wisdom because Tabitha cut him off, telling him “We’re not doing this anymore, Victor,” and shutting down him down entirely. Instead of concrete advice for Ethan, she gives him false promises she can’t possibly guarantee she’ll be able to keep. I’ve just about had it with Tabitha at this point. Ever since Acosta stopped being horrible this season, Tabitha has risen up to the top of my Worst From Characters List.
Who else is on there? Boyd, lately, who just blusters around and barely pays attention to anything. We can forgive him a little since he’s been having visions of a mass shooting. He thinks it’s the one his wife, Abby, carried out. I think it’s much more likely a warning about what’s to come. And who will pull the trigger this time?
Henry, obviously. Henry I have pretty mixed feelings about. I hate how much he promised Victor only to completely lose it and start drinking. But, like Boyd, he’s also seeing visions now. The most diabolical visions imaginable, of him waking up briefly from a long coma and seeing Victor and Victor’s son, Sebastian, and learning that he’s in a delusion. None of it’s real. Fake doctor lady even tells him that he has to eliminate the anchor. A very pale, very gaunt looking Henry returns to Fromville from the last of these visions, pleading with his dead wife. How does he eliminate the anchor? Soon enough, I fear, he’ll realize the only way to do that is to kill Victor, or kill everyone. Abby 2.0 is almost here. I suspect this horrific incident arrives at the end of the season. The only question is, will Henry go through with it? Will somebody stop him? Will somebody discover who Sophia really is before this all goes down?
Kristi also got on my nerves this episode when she chastised Mari for giving Fatima hope. She called it “out of line” and I think she’s wrong, and I think the way she goes about talking with Mari about it is, in fact, what’s “out of line.” Granted, later when she reveals that Fatima has a blood pressure level and heartrate that should mean she’s dead, we have to question whether anything else good, beyond saving Kenny, can come of her condition. It’s almost unfair that Fatima, having endured the Smiley “pregnancy” would have to suffer yet another body horror. But there’s very little fair in this show.
Beyond this, we have a fun scene at the RV. When Tabitha bizarrely let’s Ethan go with Victor to Colony House to see Donna (apparently she just trusts that the lessons won’t continue?) she goes home and hears the phone ringing. It’s Fake Thomas on the other end, who tells her to go to the RV or he’ll “hurt Ethan and Julie.” When she arrives, all of Ethan’s pictures are taped to the side of the RV. Then we see the Man In Yellow behind her (Sophia having found the yellow suit earlier in the episode) and they talk. He tells Tabitha she’s the closest thing he’s ever had to a friend. He also tells her that she’s stumbled on something new. Maybe the bones will free the children and give everyone a chance to go home. Or, maybe they’ll unleash suffering “unlike the world has ever seen before” or something to that effect.
“I wouldn’t dream of killing you,” the Man in Yellow tells a terrified Tabitha. “At least not yet.” The point isn’t to just kill people, you see, it’s to feed on their suffering.
Scattered Thoughts
- Jade’s reaction to Boyd telling him that “Landscaping is not a plan” was hilarious. It’s not a plan! Jade’s plan makes no sense. But Boyd being this dismissive all the time is really starting to get old.
- I hope they didn’t burn that Talisman along with poor Roger, though burning him was the right idea.
- I feel like this show needs a mage. Someone who can repel the Man in Yellow’s magic.
- I also thought we’d get a bunch more time-traveling from Julie this season, but we’ve barely gotten any. She sure gave up quickly!
- I’m not really sure what the point of putting all of Ethan’s pictures up was from the MiY’s perspective.
- Sophia keeps acting sneaky and manipulative and suspicious and nobody seems to notice. You’d think Sara might start to clue in given the fact that it was only after Sophia moved in that Sara started receiving messages again. Then again, I’m not sure why Boyd doesn’t start to wonder if these visions he’s seeing don’t point to something more immediately sinister.
- The Man in Yellow telling Tabitha he kept one of Jim’s teeth makes me think more than ever that yes, he’s an evil “tooth fairy” though in a dark, twisted, demonic sort of way.
- Tabitha better tell someone she saw the Man in Yellow. I can just see this show having her keep it to herself because “it’s not real.”
- Along those lines, the moment Boyd says he’s seeing these visions, the question shouldn’t be “what medical thing can we do” it should be “What could this possibly mean given the context of our current supernatural situation?” That also applies to Fatima’s condition. The notion that science or medicine or mental health can explain any of this is silly. I’m not sure if I fault Henry for not talking about what he’s experiencing, if only because he’s still pretty new around these parts. But still, he should talk to somebody. Keep talking and nobody explodes.
The big question now is who puts two and two together with Sophia. Will Tabitha perhaps hear her humming the same song? Or will Sara start to wonder about that backpack filled with clothes once she learns about the suit going missing and Tabitha seeing the Man in Yellow. Assuming, that is, that Sara even learns about any of that. They’re talking to one another more this season, but between Boyd’s blustering and everyone just generally shutting each other down all the time, it’s not enough. I’m not saying I want more talking scenes, but I would like the Fromvillians to actually talk about important stuff a bit more. Not just mention it and then go on their merry way.
What did you think of Episode 8? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.