FROM Season 3 Episode 4 Review: ‘There And Back Again’

FROM Season 3 Episode 4 is simply packed with action, with new knowledge, and with so many big moments, it’s impossible not to wonder how anyone could fit so much into an hour of television. Even though we kinda knew where Tabitha and Henry were headed at the end of Episode 3, “There And Back Again” gives us the terrible confirmation that it was, in fact, foolish to hope for some kind of twist. And everything that happens to rescue them from the dangerous night brings with it a new sense of urgency, a new level of terror, and yet more completely avoidable loss.

Simply telling the story of what happens when that ambulance makes its entrance into town would be enough to keep viewers on the edge of our seats — and it most certainly does. Somehow, though, we also get some slower, more personal moments mixed in that are just as entertaining, just as important to the overall arc, and so beautifully executed. No matter how precious little we may know about the town, or the monsters, or anything else, we certainly know one thing’s for sure: FROM continues to be one of the best written, shot, and acted shows out there right now.

“Want to hear something crazy.”

FROM Season 3 Episode 4 may feature a lot of action and a lot of loss, but it also includes check-ins with Kenny, Kristi, and Jade that are incredibly lovely and such a stark contrast to everything else that’s going on. These three are as safe as anybody can be out in that forest, having taken shelter for the night with their talismans. So, for them, it’s the closest thing to downtime they’re gonna get anytime soon. If nothing else, it’s a chance for Jade to finally open up about his hallucinations and for all three of them — especially Kenny — to just pause and reflect.

We really love that Kenny’s holding onto his culture and tradition by writing that letter to his mom. Because it’s yet another reminder of the humanity and heart in this series, no matter how much supernatural horror may be at the forefront. The detail of Kenny taking that time alone to write that letter, in the dark of night when nothing else is happening and he can’t hide anymore, reminds us that just because he threw himself into the task of going out to get more food, that doesn’t mean he isn’t still grieving. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t still miss his mom. Because he does. He always will.

Kenny offering Jade a little bit of comfort makes their time in the cabin even more bittersweet. Kenny didn’t have to say anything about Tian Chen liking Jade. But he did. Giving these two, plus Kristi, a chance to share with one another is so valuable. For the characters themselves, to realize they’re really not alone and truly do have something to keep fighting for. And for us, as viewers, to just get to see them making connections — to see who they might have been before all this madness and who they might still get to be. Throughout all of these scenes, Ricky He really steals the show. There’s something special about his sense of quiet introspection and maintaining that feeling of heartbreak, even as Kenny smiles fondly about how his mom “just…ignored” people she didn’t like.

Many other series would either completely ignore this piece of the journey or rush through it. Treat it like an afterthought, perhaps. That’s where those shows fail because not rushing through and/or ignoring the character work makes us care more. It serves to make the mystery that much more important to solve and the scary stuff that much more impossible to turn away from. Because we care in a way that we otherwise couldn’t if we just had all these characters and all this chaos with no foundation or soul.

“I was trying to save everybody.”

FROM Season 3 Episode 4 Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens — Credit: Chris Reardon/MGM+

FROM Season 3 Episode 4 makes it abundantly clear that the town’s monsters aren’t finished trying to break Boyd. They haven’t just moved on to the next big scare. They’re still playing that same game of taunting this one man as they try to destroy him, regardless of whatever else they may be doing here. And, for all the many, many great beats Harold Perrineau hits in this hour, the images that will stick with us the longest might just be the ones where Perrineau portrays just how much this place is getting to Boyd. He does not waste a single line, a single frustrated — or agitated, or terrified — movement or expression.

Right from those early conversations with Randall, demanding to know why the other man is even here, there’s a lack of patience and an emphasis in Boyd’s words that reveals just how frayed his edges are starting to become. And all that extra intensity adds to our intense anxiety as we watch the town’s latest crisis — and the monsters’ latest test for Boyd — unfold. That split second decision he has to make — to take the keys from the creature’s hand, saving the people on the ambulance but leaving Randall out there with those things — weighs on him. Even the way he reaches out and snatches the keys in the moment speaks volumes. Later, the achingly vulnerable scene where Boyd beats himself up and is so close to falling apart while he tells Donna how he “just left” Randall out there is brilliant.

“What’s wrong with you, Officer? Something scares you, you just start shooting, huh? Is that right!!! You’re sorry?!”

That, of course, leads up to when Boyd lashes out at the cop who shot Nicky. It’s pure, unfiltered rage. Admittedly, we could say “oh, he’s directing all that anger at the wrong place.” But. eh. The words are so spot on, we’re not exactly complaining. Especially since this cop lady didn’t listen to Tabitha. And, more to the point, since she just kept on wildly shooting at anything that moved long after it became more than clear that it wasn’t going to help her. Typical cops. Honestly, getting to see Boyd — out of everyone in Fromville — go off on her like that is a special treat. Not just because Perrineau does such a killer job here — though he most definitely does. But. Well. A Black man hollering at a white cop for being trigger happy and killing an innocent? Sign us up for more of that.

Finally, there’s the abrupt change when Boyd realizes that Donna is also falling apart. On a scale of 1-10, Perrineau takes Boyd’s level of defending his righteous anger down from about a billion to 0 in less than a breath. And that happens because Boyd sees someone he cares about — someone who’s usually so strong — in need of comfort. So, he gives it to the best of his ability in this awful place, at this increasingly-terrible time. It’s a heartbreaker from Perrineau and Elizabeth Saunders both. And it’s so illustrative of how the strongest among us are often struggling the most without anyone noticing. Not to mention, when they finally do let themselves release some of that pain, it’s bad.

“Basement’s for secrets.”

In FROM Season 3 Episode 4, Victor tells Sara a story that’s much more tragic than it is scary. It’s the story of a little boy (his younger self), told to hide with his sister while his mom tried — and failed — to save everyone. The detail of him coming outside the morning after and seeing all those bodies that he can’t bury all by himself is horrifying in a way that’s difficult to even fathom. Just…to have to witness the carnage we see in the flashbacks, much less be completely alone — and a child, no less — while confronted with it? Even the thought makes our blood run cold.

“Because I don’t wanna do this alone. I may have to remember some scary things. You’re the scariest person here. So, it won’t scare you.”

But Victor isn’t alone as he goes through all the buried memories he’s (quite literally, in the case of the touchstones he uses to remember the dead) dug up. Now, he has Sara with him, in a blanket fort, in the house where he and his sister used to pretend they were home. The items he’s kept buried all these years may not appear to be precious to us, but they clearly still are to Victor. Just watch the way his face lights up as he remembers Mr. Gerber who smelled like onions, or dims just a bit as he mentions Dolores who always cried a lot. Sometimes, the things that stand out to us, the things we use to remember those lost to us by, may seem to outsiders like the smallest bit of nothing. But, to us, they are everything.

We always find it difficult to explain the haunted and traumatized, yet still somehow innocent, nature that Scott McCord plays Victor with. But we can certainly point out that, as he tells his story, we don’t need the grotesque images of those bodies in the streets to know Victor is right back in that place. Because we see and hear it in McCord’s performance. That’s not to say that those flashback scenes aren’t powerful in their own right; it’s just that they simply elevate everything McCord is already doing in the moment.

Then, we get to Christopher. First, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Not sure we had “possessed dummy like in that one episode of Buffy or that one Goosebumps story” on our BINGO cards for this series. But, in retrospect…why not?

Now, the hard part. Watching Victor completely lose it as he gets to the part of his memory he can’t stand to face is tough. It’s tougher still to hear Sara, who was so wounded when Victor initially told her she was the scariest person he knew, use that line to remind him he’s safe with her and can keep going. And then, to hear the rest of the story, yet not ever actually know what Jasper and Christopher were saying to each other, is so intriguing. This is the gap in Victor’s memory. So, we hear nothing until the score kicks in and, eventually, Jasper lets out that demonic roar. Because that’s all Victor can remember — it’s all he has to give. Just an image of that angry conversation and the knowledge that it scared him. Nothing else.

And, oddly, for as scary as it all is…it’s not at all the same type of suspenseful, or action-packed, horror that we get with the big ambulance rescue. It’s something else, something worse. The not knowing, the pushing past the mind’s protective walls, even the sense of loss of it all. All of this is just so well done, and the thought of Victor needing to remember a nice person — a friend — who “started getting scary” can not at all bode well. Certainly not for Sara, or Julie, or Randall (though, uh. He’s got plenty of problems anyway), or so many others.

But also: There’s a dummy out there somewhere????

More on FROM Season 3 Episode 4

The entire opening sequence with that ambulance driving in circles, with no one listening to Tabitha’s increasingly-desperate pleas and just writing her off as crazy…God. Talk about every “hysterical” woman’s experience. Throw in how much worse being “lost” like that has to be for Tabitha, knowing where they’re actually headed and that they’re going to be headed there at night. Catalina Sandino Moreno kills it here, with just enough desperation to “explain” the outsiders treating her like she’s nuts — while also being completely grounded since we know Tabitha knows the truth.
I was going to make a Scream joke because of Ethan also getting a mysterious phone call. But like. What is this??? “But they’re not your children anymore.”
Someone get Jim a comb. And remind him to tone the intensity down so as not to scare his kid.
“Whatever bad juju that thing has, I don’t want any part of it. And by the way, I don’t mean to ask the obvious question here, but do you think it’s really smart to do tarot readings in a place like this?” Bakta is so real for this.
That little pause Donna takes with Elgin to check on him…a queen.
“We pretended we were home again.”
“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…and I think I need to remember soon.” The way his voice is basically a sob on “remember.”
“There was never snow here before.”
There’s something particularly awful about that happening to Randall right after he said he wanted to help because of the things he’d seen.
“Everybody here just talks about how afraid they are of dying. Well, I don’t think that’s the worst thing that could happen to you here.” …and at the end, he…does not appear to be dead. Horrible to think about this line in that context. Also: What about the context of Christopher turning “scary.”
“It just feels like, all of a sudden, everything that I thought I was fighting for is gone. And everything I thought I was going home to…and the two people that I would talk to about that are you and Mom.”
Just gorgeous, gorgeous writing.
Kristi’s “you’re not alone here,” versus Victor telling Julie he can’t do it alone and him being so alone for so many years…oof.
“Maybe talk in the morning.” “F**ck it. I’m awake.” Jade is me. I am Jade.
Big fan of David Alpay’s comedic timing and tone, too.
“The boy in white told me to gather things that were precious. To bury those instead.” Do we trust the boy at this point, though? Is this a “wow, such a great connection to humanity and how meaningful keepsakes can be” thing? Or something else. Both?
No but seriously. Avery Konrad’s performance, both in being an active, present listener and reacting as if struck when Victor tells Sara why he needs her here to listen.
Do we think the monsters changed their pattern tonight only because they knew that ambulance was coming in? Or is something else up????
“You really watch these things closely.” “Yeah, well, there’s no TV.”
“They’re gonna die! They’re gonna f**ckin die!!!” Listen to ~~Cassandra~~ Tabitha, you idiots.
Like, we know what’s going to happen when the EMTs get out of that ambulance in the middle of the night. We know no actual human would be out after dark, especially in the middle of the road. And yet. The execution is so good, we still were like “OH HOLY FFFFFFFFF OH NO OH NO.” Love that for us!
The shriek from that thing.
Donna pushing that cop lady. Art.
“Oh, sweetie. It doesn’t work that way.” Uh. Does the talisman actually work at all???
The string of Fs and MFs as Boyd takes the keys and speeds off.
That surgery is so…crude…
Donna just backing up and not even knowing what to do with herself when she sees Tabitha.
“Uh. It was a long night. For everyone, it seems.” Understatement. Every night in this cursed place, really.
“I f**ckin told you.” GET HER TABITHA. Imagine if they’d just listened to the traumatized woman. Two dead EMTs, dead Nicky, whatever those things did to Randall…FOR WHAT.
Love, love, love Elgin’s reaction to…whatever it is he keeps seeing.
“Help me.” What.
“I’m trying really hard to be ok.” I can not tell y’all how valuable this is.
“First, she made me tea.” Hm. Yeah. This hurts, just like the “she made me tea” in Episode 2. Except, like, more. Because he’s explaining a bit more instead of just blurting that out with no background for the others.
“She really liked you, you know? My mom?” The way Ricky He’s voice just barely breaks on “my mom.”
“She only frowned at people that she liked. And the people that she didn’t, she just…ignored.” The coolest.
“Finish that letter. Tell her we all say hi.” Gutted.
“…and I tried. I just…so sorry. I’m so sorry.” Oh, Tabitha.
“Why is this happening? Why is it just one thing after another, after another?” It’s like waking up every day in recent years and reading the news. Or even just…life, when it gets tough and can’t ever seem to get better.
“I’m so f**king scared.” And I’m so f**king broken from watching this.
“People didn’t laugh much back then, so. It was very nice that we could.”
They really spend just enough time with Fatima and that body to make it as disturbing as possible — without overdoing it. And just the way Pegah Ghafoori again just sells Fatima’s conflicting emotions over having this craving, before ultimately going in for a taste of fresh blood, is second to none.
Vampire baby?
“To better f**kin days.”
…and then, that.
He’s…that accusatory stare??? And again with the demons (or whatever) knowing how to display their handiwork for maximum effect on their real target (Boyd).
Ok, so to recap: Scary dummy out there somewhere, Tabitha and Henry are now in town, something’s knocking on the cabin, Randall’s messed up but not yet dead, thing haunting Elgin, Fatima’s definitely got a demon baby. Did we miss anything???