Victor, Boyd, Tabitha, and others have all come across The Faraway Trees in From over the years and they always take you to a random location – or, so they say… There is evidence now that they are not random at all. With each season that goes by, the locations the trees send characters to tell us a lot about how to solve the show’s biggest mystery and it feels like only a matter of time before somebody notices.
In From Season 3, the audience finally got some answers about what originally happened in Fromville, leading to blood-thirsty monsters coming out at nighttime. The town’s old inhabitants traded in all of the children in a sacrificial process that saw all the youngsters killed and, in return, they were given eternal life in monster form, as we’ve seen with the Smiley Monster returning in the finale (full recap here).
The more who arrive in Fromville, the more chance we have of seeing them on the receiving end of an attack when the sun goes down. It is the most dangerous time to explore. And still, many of the existing townspeople are adamant in trying to figure out why they are there and, most importantly, how to get home.
Tabitha is the only one who managed to leave the town for a short period of time at the end of Season 2, where she was pushed out of a lighthouse and woke up in a Maine hospital after following the ‘anghkooey’ children.
We now know they had been trying to get her to remember she had a child affected in the atrosity in a previous life. Because she was unable to save her daughter in the sacrifice, it’s now thought she will keep being reincarnated until the whole thing is figured out.
And now, more than ever, it appears the answers are in The Faraway Trees. Clue by clue, we’re going to explore the theory that by visiting them more at night, they could soon be handed the clues to solve the mystery of Fromville and find their way home.
What are The Faraway Trees (and Bottle Trees) in From?
Let’s start with a quick recap, then. The Faraway Trees have a hole in them, almost like a door, for people and objects to jump inside teleport to different locations. Victor shows this perfectly in Season 1 when he takes Ethan to one, throws a stone inside, and it lands next to them after falling from the sky in the daytime.
As for how useful they have been, they have also saved people as we saw when Victor pulled Julie Matthews inside one to escape the monsters who broke into Colony House at night.
Over time, we have seen a few variations of The Faraway Trees. Some of them have bottles tied to their branches with numbers inside – a mystery Jade struggled to solve without Jim’s help, with Jim not being long for this world after learning the Trees’ secrets. Others have just appeared at random when the characters have been wandering around the woods.
Our theory explained
The Faraway Trees appear as very unpredictable, in isolation, but, if you look back at each of the scenes in From where these special trees have appeared there is a clear pattern emerging. It appears the trees are very helpful during nighttime and take them where they need to be to discover more clues (when it is most risky to get to them). And in the daytime, it’s not a good idea to go inside one.
Once they figure this out for themselves it might just save them from this nightmare, so let’s look at the clues so far to back up the theory, not in chronological order. Let’s start with the positive clues…
Why The Faraway Trees will solve From’s biggest mystery
Clue 1: Victor saves Julie in The Faraway Tree
Julie Matthews did think Victor was a bit of a creep at first when he kept approaching Ethan, but little did she know The Faraway Trees he showed Ethan would soon save her life. After the monsters broke into Colony House in Season 1, it was an absolute bloodbath. Julie would have been part of that if Victor hadn’t pulled her into the tree.
She later ended up in the safety of the root cellar and bypassed the attack, proving The Faraway Trees will help in your time of need.
Clue 2: Faraway Tree takes Tabitha to the lighthouse
Victor was convinced Tabitha could help the ‘anghkooey’ children – as his Mother tried to do – by getting to the lighthouse far away from Fromville. He showed her a specific Faraway Tree she could enter and indeed, stepping in took her to its doors.
“They always take you different places and you never know where you’ll end up,” Victor told her before she stepped in. “But my mother said this one was special. That it would take her to the tower, to the children.”
It was just about to turn night in the scene and was darker when she arrived. It appears most of these major discoveries happen more when it’s getting dark in the show (when it is riskier).
Eventually, she got to the top of the lighthouse, guided by the children who wanted her to remember what happened, and The Boy In White pushed her off the edge leading her to the real world. This ties in with another theory I have connecting the boy and new villain, The Man In Yellow (read more here).
But, as far as getting home and the kids are concerned, the tree helped take her exactly where she needed to go as darkness was falling.
Clue 3: Miranda, Victor’s Mom, dies running to The Faraway Tree
In Season 3, Episode 9 we found out Miranda – Victor’s Mom – died after trying to get inside a Faraway Tree after Victor overhead a conversation with The Boy In White, leading her there. This came in a flashback scene Tabitha could see after realizing she was a reincarnation of Miranda.
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There is a distinct chance that Victor and his mother had a feeling back then that The Faraway Tree could help save them and their children. They never found out, though, because one of the monsters came running and ripped her apart.
Unfortunately for us, Victor’s memory is a little off regarding the importance of the trees… So watch this space. But again, it all happened in the darkness and the monsters were trying to stop her from getting there.
Clue 4: The Bottle Tree makes Jade & Tabitha remember
This is the final clue where something good happens. In Season 3, Jim and Jade realize the numbers in The Bottle Tree (a Faraway Tree in itself, marked with bottles) are there to be played as notes of a song. As Jade starts playing it, he and Tabitha can see all of the dead children flock back to The Bottle Tree. One girl stepped forward to get Tabitha to remember her and Jade had a daughter, killed in the sacrifice the townspeople made.
The roots of the tree also formed the sign that helped Jade figure out where the children were killed, with moonlight shining down on them in a hallucination in the tunnels. This shows, again, how The Faraway Trees have assisted them in finding out more.
It is one of the biggest discoveries in the show and comes from clues found in a Faraway Tree, again. In the same two-part finale, The Boy In White urged Victor to not harm the trees as “they are important” – suggesting they will help again at some point in the future.
And now, for the grim clues…
Clue 5: Boyd’s Faraway Tree experience
In the nighttime, a flashback scene shows Boyd having the courage to explore deep into the forest and eventually finding an area the monsters cannot hurt him in: the Talisman Cave.
He later returned there in Season 2 and can’t find any more of the Talismans, but he did find a lighthouse. Quickly after, The Boy In White appeared and tells Sara to get Boyd inside the tree during a storm (further feeding into the theory The Boy In White is up to no good), promising to be “right behind him.”
The sky may look dark, but don’t be fooled: It is not nighttime. The ferocious rain, wind, and changing weather just make it look that way.
He entered the tree with the promise of safety after getting a nasty spider bite and instead, finds himself trapped at the bottom of a dry well. Without somebody throwing a rope to help him (where he meets Martin) who knows – Boyd might have died down there, further showing how dangerous The Faraway Trees can be during daytime. He later got a curse from Martin that changes his fate forever in Fromville, with worms crawling under his skin after an encounter.
Clue 6: Dale death scene in From
If you need a little more evidence the trees are up to no good in daytime, just look at the case of poor old Dale in Season 3. He was determined to follow in Tabitha’s footsteps and get out of this hellhole of a town, as he would probably say if he was still alive.
Dale packed his bags, walked right up to a Bottle Tree, stepped inside, and the next minute, he was stuck inside the swimming pool back in town. He died there soon after and was unable to speak, with just terror in his eyes.
Victor has been quite hopeless at remembering much from the past, and yet, the more we see from his personal story arc the more it looks probable it is that. he could put the pieces together and confirm this theory: The Faraway Trees can help them in dusk and night time, but are very dangerous if you go inside them too early in a day.
Think about it. This could explain why the monsters come out in the dark from the tunnels and haunt the town, trying to keep them locked away in their houses and not exploring – as Boyd did to find the Talismans. The further they venture, the better the chance they have of finding out more and getting to leave the nightmare they are living.
It appears The Faraway Trees can help you if you take the risk, as we have seen with the discovery of the lighthouse, the protection of Julie, and the Bottle Tree’s roots symbol helping Jade remember what happened to the children in the tunnels.
It might take Tabitha, Jade, Boyd, and Victor to share their findings (a lack of communication between characters has been a big point of frustration with the show historically) to piece it all together. But, the sooner they realize a few night trips in the forest is in order, the sooner they will get some of the big answers they are looking for to escape once and for all.
Well, there’s that, or they could try it again in the daytime… And end up nearly dead in a hole or with one eye popping out of the nearest swimming pool. RIP, Dale.
