From Season 3 Episode 4, ‘There and Back Again’, picks up where we left off, with Tabitha, Henry, and the ambulance crew at the fallen tree entrance to Fromville.
Things haven’t been easy for the residents in From Season 3 so far. Although they’ve solved their food supply issue, the smiley monsters have turned their attention to breaking Boyd, starting by killing Tian-Chen in front of him.
In Episode 3, Kristi got stuck in a bear trap, Jade had more haunting visions, Fatima’s Tarot card reading took a sinister turn, and Victor prepared to build a fort with Sara to “remember”… something.
As for Tabitha, she discovered another link between her family and Victor’s: the bracelet she made Jim was in his father Henry’s car. Seconds later, the pair ended up in a crash, with the ambulance inadvertently bringing Tabitha back. Warning: spoilers ahead!
Tabitha’s coming home
It sure looks like Tabitha and co. are back in Fromville. Stopping at the fallen tree, the paramedics suggest taking a detour as the crows start circling.
But with Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno) being in shock, all she can say is, “It’s not going to work,” as she’s rounded back into the truck by a police officer on board.
At the Matthews’ house, there’s another phone call, only this time Ethan (Simon Webster) picks up. “It’s Thomas,” the entity on the end of the line says. “Mom’s in trouble. She’s in an ambulance… you’ll see. She’s on her way. You have to help her but you can’t be afraid.”
Jim (Eion Bailey) overhears and intercepts, telling the entity to leave his kids alone. “But they’re not your children anymore,” it says, at which point he pulls the phone right off the wall.
We cut to Colony House, where they’re dealing with the aftermath of the Tarot card bird incident. Bakta’s (Angela Moore) asked to get rid of it but she refuses, not wanting to absorb the bad vibes.
She also gives Tillie (Deborah Grover) a telling off, saying it’s not the smartest idea doing Tarot in a place like this (she’s got a point).
Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) gets a check-in from Marielle (Kaelen Ohm), who confirms that she’s looking a lot better since the last time she saw her. What she doesn’t realize is it’s down to the rotten veg she’s been eating, which only Tillie knows about… for now.
Victor needs to remember
The scene cuts to a house where Sara’s (Avery Konrad) helping Victor (Scott McCord) gather sheets for his fort, but she’s still confused as to what they’re doing. “I told you, I have to remember,” he says.
“When I was a boy, my mother tried to save everyone but she died, and then everyone died and I can’t remember how, why… I think I need to remember soon… Too many things are changing. It’s never snowed here before,” he adds.
Nightfall hits, and we cut to Tabitha and the ambulance. The paramedics, cop, and driver discuss turning around as they’re going in circles. Knowing this is a death wish, Tabitha tries to convince them to keep driving forward towards the town.
At Fromville, Boyd’s (Harold Perrineau) in the coach with Randall (A.J. Simmons), who’s decided to stay onboard with him. As part of his plan to catch one of the smiley monsters, Boyd wants to study them at night.
Although there’s tension between the pair, Randall admits that he wants to do anything he can to help the town get back home, especially after what happened to him, Julie, and Marielle.
“Everybody here just talks about how afraid they are of dying. Well, I don’t think that’s the worst thing that can happen to you here,” he tells Boyd. “I want out.”
Kenny and Kristi open up
Out by the lake, Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) wakes up in pain from her injury, only to find Kenny’s (Ricky He) already up. He’s writing a letter to his late mother, and the pair have a heart-to-heart.
“It just feels like, all of a sudden, everything I was fighting for is gone,” Kenny tells Kristi. “And the two people I would talk to about that are you and mom.” She reassures him, saying, “You can still talk to me.”
Their chat accidentally wakes Jade (David Alpay) up, who takes a drink from his flask before saying he’s got something wild to tell them.
Meanwhile, Sara and Victor have finished the fort, and he starts sharing what happened the day his mom and sister died. When he came out from hiding the following morning, the whole town was dead.
“There were bodies everywhere,” he says. “That was the day that I met the boy in white.”
“You know the boy in white?” Sara asks, with Victor replying, “He’s my friend. He was my only friend all those years that I was alone.”
The boy suggested gathering items that were precious to the dead, which Victor’s now got in a suitcase in front of them. He’s hoping they’ll help him to remember what happened.
The monsters come out to play
Things get a little wild at this point. You see, Randall outlines the smiley creatures’ nightly habits, and for some reason they’re currently nowhere to be seen.
As they stare out the bus windows, all of a sudden the ambulance drives through. Tabitha’s desperately trying to tell the driver to stop but it’s no use. They all think she’s just out of her mind.
They do, however, stop when they see a “body” in the road, which of course turns out to be a monster.
Tabitha tries to prevent them from stepping outside but this only lands her in handcuffs. All she can do is watch on in horror as the creatures slaughter the two male paramedics, including the driver who runs into the truck with his guts hanging out.
Jim decides to go out and see if the caller was right about Tabitha, with Boyd and Randall following him out to help.
The remaining officer gets surrounded by monsters and runs away, leaving Tabitha handcuffed to the truck. As she wakes Henry up, the doors swing open – Tabitha and Jim are finally reunited.
But their joy is short lived when they all realize no one’s got the keys for the cuffs. Randall heads over to the coach to retrieve a tool kit.
The surviving cop makes it to the grounds of Colony House. She keeps shooting at the monsters as they close in, unaware that her bullets are useless here.
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As if things couldn’t get any worse, one of her shots accidentally hits resident Nicky (Tamara Fifield).
As Marielle deals with the wound, the others are able to get the woman into the house, where Donna (Elizabeth Saunders) tries to calm her down.
In town, Randall grabs the toolkit, but when he steps off the bus, he’s approached by the smiley creatures. He throws the kit to Boyd before a swarm of cicadas surround him.
Boyd wants to drive the ambulance away but he can’t find the keys. One of the monsters turns up, dangling them in front of him.
They’ve been enjoying tormenting Boyd recently, and they show no signs of slowing. The creature says he can have the keys on one condition: they get to keep Randall.
After thinking on it, he reluctantly grabs the keys and drives Tabitha, Jim, and Henry (Robert Joy) to Colony House, leaving poor Randall to be ravaged.
A haunting vision returns
At Colony House, Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons) is chatting with Tillie when he sees the kimono-wearing ghost again. She leads him into another room and pleads, “Help me,” before vanishing into thin air.
Julie (Hannah Cheramy) and Ethan are at home, worried they’ll lose both of their parents. Ethan urges Julie to open up about what happened to her, and she finally admits she’s not been okay ever since the incident.
“All I remember is being more scared than I ever have been in my entire life,” she says. The pair embrace, agreeing to look after each other no matter what.
We cut to the cabin in the woods, where Jade’s told Kenny and Kristi about the hallucinations he had in From Season 3 Episode 3.
He admits he’s been having visions ever since he arrived in Fromville, revealing that Tian-Chen gave him the journal from previous resident Christopher containing sketches of the symbol. Their chat is interrupted by a banging from outside the cabin.
Meet Jasper, the ventriloquist dummy
Back in the fort, Victor talks Sara through the various deceased townspeople and their belongings, before realizing there’s nothing for Christopher.
If you cast your mind back to From Season 2, you may remember this name. Christopher was a friendly member of the community when Victor was a child. He started to turn “scary” after having visions of the symbol, similar to those seen by Jade.
In the present, the memory triggers an emotional response from Victor, who loses it and destroys the fort. Sara manages to calm him down, at which point he says, “I know what’s missing. His name was Jasper.”
As he’s saying this, we see a flashback to Christopher, who’s playing with the ventriloquist dummy Jade kept seeing in Season 2.
This would support the long-running From theory that the entities are manifestations of residents’ fears, but this is yet to be confirmed.
The aftermath at Colony House
Everyone at Colony House is dealing with the aftermath of the night’s events. Boyd tells Donna about Randall, while Tabitha fills Jim in on everything that happened in the real world.
Downstairs, things are going from bad to worse for Nicky, who starts moaning in agony and vomiting blood. “She’s bleeding internally,” says Marielle. She tries to resuscitate her but it’s no use – Nicky becomes another casualty of the town.
Boyd loses it with the ambulance officer – clearly, he just wants to take his anger out on someone. Donna steps in and orders Boyd to come upstairs to talk with her.
As soon as they shut the door, Donna breaks down, asking, “Why is this happening? Why is this just one thing after another after another?… Why can’t they leave us alone?” Boyd comforts Donna as she admits she’s scared.
Meanwhile, Victor reveals more about the ventriloquist doll, whose name was Jasper. “Christopher would make us all laugh. People didn’t laugh much back then so it was very nice that we could,” he says.
“But then Christopher started seeing the symbol and he changed. He didn’t make us laugh anymore. I remember Christopher started spending more and more time alone.”
One day, when he was a kid, Victor saw Christopher having a full blown argument with Jasper, which was talking and moving on its own.
At the end of their fight, the doll opened its mouth and screamed, in the exact same way it did when Jade envisioned it in From Season 2. “Jasper’s the one who can tell us what happened,” says Victor.
Fatima’s pregnancy cravings turn sinister
Over at Colony House, things take a sinister turn for Fatima. If you thought the rotten crops were bad, they’re nothing compared to what she craves next: Nicky’s blood.
Fatima asks Ellis (Corteon Moore) for some time alone with her, making out like she wants to offer her a posthumous apology for being mean to her the other day.
However, the mum-to-be’s urges get the better of her, and she starts dipping her fingers into the gunshot wound and hungrily licking the blood off her fingers. In other words, it’s getting more likely by the day that the baby is a monster.
In the final scene of From Season 3 Episode 4, Boyd and Donna have a strong drink, but as they cheers to “better f**king days,” the lights from the ambulance flash outside.
When they go to take a look, they see a bloodied Randall on the hood of the truck. It looks like he’s dead, until he suddenly opens his eyes and starts spluttering.
Perhaps the monsters kept him alive to create more division. After all, Randall’s not going to be happy knowing Boyd sacrificed him.
That’s for us to find out in From Season 3 Episode 5, which drops on MGM+ on Sunday, October 20. Until then, be sure to check out our recaps for Episode 1 and Episode 2. You can also take a look at the best binge-worthy TV shows to watch right now, as well as the new series coming to streaming this month.
