FROM Season 4 Episode 3 Review: ‘Merrily We Go’

(Warning: Major spoilers for FROM Season 4 Episode 3 “Merrily We Go” ahead.)

In FROM Season 4 Episode 3 “Merrily We Go,” a double funeral for two fathers—Jim and…the person everyone at least thinks is Sophia’s father—gets interrupted by a murder of crows. As Julie later points out, those birds seem to be celebrating. That one incident basically sums up how we find the people of FROMville in this hour. Because every slice of normalcy, every pause for reflection, every attempt to move forward and find some answers to getting out of this place faces a sudden, shocking interruption. And, much like the crows, at least one major evil at the heart of this place—”Sophia”—is enjoying every second of it.

Still, not all reminders that this place is a horror show are created equal. Some, like a rat emerging from a corpse’s mouth while Randall’s in the ruined house to get Ethan’s books for Julie, are great jump scares but mostly harmless. (Eh, probably. Who even knows anything for sure at this point?) Others, like Victor recognizing the Man in Yellow’s discarded jacket, are utterly terrifying warnings. That moment features the type of performance from Scott McCord that we’ve come to expect of him in this role. It’s agonizing to witness, a brilliant portrayal of a person who’s experienced unimaginable trauma shutting down, trapped in pure agony as yet another nightmare of a buried memory resurfaces.

Right by his side, and no less powerful of a performance, Robert Joy plays a father desperate to protect his son from something he can’t even see or understand, telling him he’s safe…when we all—viewers and everyone on screen alike—knows no one is. And, as viewers, we’re basically extra aware that there’s a new level of threat, lurking out there while everyone goes about their business with no clue. We know the Man in Yellow—whose mere clothes freeze Victor in his tracks, then send him into a collapsed, curled inward, knees hugged, sobbing, screaming, spiral—crashed into town as “Sophia.” Now, after trying to convince himself that this part of his nightmare experience was made up for all these years, Victor knows that thing is real.

In an hour packed with important moments and stunning performances, that has to be at the top of the list of highlights. Victor knows the Man in Yellow is real now. Real, nearby…and does he know it could be in town as literally anyone? If so, viewers should be extremely worried for his safety; but if not…well, we should still be worried, actually. Not to mention, “Sophia” pi**ing Julie off and then deciding she wants to live with Sara…can’t be good.

But if knowledge comes at a cost, does bad news get to be counter-balanced by Jade finding mushrooms, probably to assist with whatever cracked scheme he comes up with for unlocking his memories? Meditation—something that also faces countless interruptions in FROM Season 4 Episode 3, from Boyd early on, then from Victor and Ethan at The Brundles—doesn’t work in this hour. So…is that because he hasn’t paid enough of a price for anything to click, or is it something else? And what—and I mean this sincerely—the everloving F**k happens at Abby’s grave with that hand trying to drag Boyd into it?

After yet another strong episode, we end on yet another shocker…and I’m, yet again, wondering why we have to wait another week to know what comes next.

MORE: Learn more about Sophia/Man in Yellow from our Julia Doyle interview.

“I want to see the tree my wife died trying to reach”

Better late and after more death than never: FROM Season 4 Episode 3 finally sees Tabitha and Henry going to the bottle tree together. It’s just not the one in Maine, somewhere across town from Henry’s home, that they were driving to when Tabitha got sucked back into FROMville. (And Henry became trapped here for the first time.) Still, the distorted mirror image of that trip in last season’s third episode has to mean…something. Unfortunately for Tabitha—or, likely, fortunately for her and her living children thanks to Henry—she doesn’t get to actually go through the tree in search of the lighthouse (and a way home) again.

I know a lot of viewers have been like “girl, WTF” at Tabitha a lot, and I’m not even going to argue there. A lot of her choices have failed to make anything remotely resembling sense. But I’d like to call what she does in this particular episode rationally irrational. She’s just learned about her past lives, the many failed attempts to save the children. Next, with no chance to process what that means about who she is—how much of her life is hers, Tabitha’s? And how much is Miranda’s/her original self’s/someone else’s????—or how many connections she may have to everyone else trapped in FROMville, there’s Jim’s ghastly murder and body put on display with the warning in the barn. So, I mean, who wouldn’t be out of their effin’ minds at this point?

Not to mention, going into the tree and finding the lighthouse did take her somewhere before—let’s all ignore that it also forced her, hopelessly and tragically, right back here for a second. So, why wouldn’t another voyage into the great unknown do something? She doesn’t want to believe the answers she’s found so far—the season premiere, coupled with the way she lashed out at Jade in the barn proves that—so, let’s go ahead and roll the dice and try again. Right??? Wrong, obviously. But again, there’s some bizarre sense in there, somewhere, too. Viewers have to put themselves in a completely different reality to see that, but like…look around. Every single character in this series is living in a place that is totally outside of what would even pass as reality in their original world!

With that being said.

The unforgivable part about what Tabitha attempts in FROM Season 4 Episode 3 is that she’s leaving her kids behind a second time—this time when their father just died and they just found him in the barn like…THAT. And she tries to sneak off, leave a letter with Donna, and not even say goodbye to them at that. That part…no. NO excuses there.

Thankfully, Henry—who knows what it’s like to lose your spouse and coparent, not to mention also your kids in his case—catches Tabitha in the act of sneaking away, knows she’s not OK, and won’t leave her alone when she’s clearly a mess. I love how this part of the story builds. Initially, Henry approaches Tabitha oh, so carefully. The way he calls her bluff when she claims to be “ok” is so simplistic, yet so unbearably open and vulnerable. Then, when Henry says he knows she’s not just going to her current home, there’s again a lot of nice, friendly honesty to how he approaches the question. But just that little bit of pushback gets an increasingly irritated Tabitha to lose her battle to hold it all in. So, she blurts it out: She wants to go to the lighthouse.

Catalina Sandino Moreno brings so much desperation, determination, and—yes—plenty of Tabitha’s delusional mindset—to the moment. There’s passion and no small amount of hopelessness here. This is someone who doesn’t care what happens to herself; she just has to try. But Tabitha doesn’t get to go off alone. In a lovely moment from Robert Joy, Henry practically begs Tabitha to let him come along and (finally) see the bottle tree. And off they go.

Of course, Sandino Moreno and Joy share a much bigger, much more powerful, scene once Tabitha and Henry actually get to the tree. Whatever level of emotion they bring earlier in FROM Season 4 Episode 3, at the bottle tree, it’s even more intense. Henry refuses to let Tabitha abandon her kids, so he just puts his body right between her and the tree’s entrance and doesn’t move. Not even when she basically begs. And she just…it’s obvious she’s frantic, just trying to do something, anything, and not at all thinking clearly. Not about herself and not not about the consequences. Because his personality is usually so much more quiet and unassuming, the moment when Henry explodes with that “not if you’re DEAD!!!” is particularly powerful, but the entire back and forth, for both actors, is just brilliant.

As it turns out, it’s not Henry but the Boy in White—who, at this rate, will be the Old Man in White any second now. Kid’s growing way too quickly—who stops Tabitha from going ahead with her (lack of a) plan. When she sees the Boy, Tabitha freezes, distracted mid-argument. And although her initial line of questioning is “wrong” according to him, Tabitha finally asks the right one: “Will that tree take me back to the lighthouse?” He says he doesn’t think so, and that…doesn’t sit well with Tabitha. To say the least. She gets frustrated, can’t believe the kid doesn’t think so when he used to believe it was “the only way.” Well, “it was. But that was before.”

Whatever that means. Just as an irritated as F— Tabitha asks him to stop talking in riddles, he warns her: “You’re getting so close now, but I’m afraid you’re running out of time.” (The irony of that being yet another riddle isn’t lost on me.) And then, FROM Season 4 Episode 3 reunites Tabitha and Henry with both of their sons…and Jade. It’s…interesting that Ethan and his mom parted ways, off on their own mostly secret journeys—only for that bright yellow, yet so terribly dark, discovery of Victor’s to bring them back together.

In fact, the only living member of their little multi-generational, multi-cycle family to not wind up in the woods in that exact moment is Julie. Why? Because she’s off on her own mission. That has to mean something, even if the message is something as simple as “imagine if the family worked together instead of constantly doing their own, separate things.”

MORE: Everyone should be afraid of going into that tree after what happened to Dale.

“Thought you might be doing something stupid”

FROM Season 4 Episode 3 sees Julie and Randall taking another trip to some ruins, just not the ruins. This time, instead of story walking without any kind of guide, Julie has a smart idea: Learn how to control it first. Because Ethan’s the one who explained to her that she’s a story walker, and because he learned the concept from his books, Julie believes the books could help her. This idea that children’s stories have meaning and value, that imagination is just hidden knowledge, is so important. Somewhere, behind all the monsters and so much senseless death, FROM buries this hopeful sort of message—imagination is knowledge, dreams are vital, and a child’s understanding of the world might be the most valuable of all.

There’s something special about Randall, given the option to help Julie find answers or leave her alone, just holding his hand out for that rope and then following behind her. These two characters continue to surprise me with how much they just work together, and this hour is no different. If anything, that connection becomes even stronger once they get to that destroyed house. Julie becomes so emotional when she sees the place where she thought her dad was going to die. As she opens up and tells the story of what that was like, Hannah Cheramy delivers a heartbreaking, haunted performance.

The way Julie struggles, jaw working, trying to find a smile and failing as she talks about her dad telling her things would be ok, not to be afraid, is so relatable. Sometimes, you look back, and you remember certain moments so fondly that you really do want to smile about them and can’t. And for Julie to be so fresh in her grief as she has this memory right now, for the awful irony of the moment to be that now Jim’s dead, completely unexpectedly—or at least as unexpectedly as anyone can die under the current circumstances—of course there’s going to be more bitterness than sweetness in what is, still, a bittersweet memory. But man, is it just…tragic to think that he got through all of that, only for the Man in Yellow to come out of nowhere and end him in an instant.

So, Randall offers to go in and look for the books. Because he cares, because he sees how much she’s struggling with not only pain but also more than a little bit of fear. Her rushed, anxious protests are met with that strong, calm hand on her shoulder. And that little smile Randall gets after asking her to “let someone else do the cool sh** for a change” is oh, so soft.

Randall pushes forward, past his own fear and any sense of self-preservation, and works through a series of dangerous, potentially deadly obstacles to find those books and bring them back safely. I mentioned the rat up above, but there are a number of times when things could go terribly wrong, and while Randall’s hunting for those books, FROM Season 4 Episode 3 builds plenty of suspense and makes it feel like something very bad could happen in all that rubble. But each near disaster is a miss, and no matter how afraid Randall is down there—A.J. Simmons plays all of this so well—he always calls back to Julie that everything’s fine, always reassuring her. In the end, he gets those books.

What a hero. Here’s hoping crawling over the body of a dead guy—and getting freaked the f**k out by falling debris and things that go bump in the night—will be worth it. Even if it’s not, these two are…they’re something. Friends? Allies? Two people nobody else seems to want to protect, looking out for each other? The knight in shining armor and the story walking princess? I don’t know. Whatever it is, I’m loving it.

MORE: Julie went story walking in FROM Season 4 Episode 2, with Randall’s watching over in the present.

More FROM Season 4 Episode 3 reactions

Pegah Ghafoori and Nathan D. Simmons are so good together in that first scene, and I particularly like how Ghafoori moves throughout it. She freezes in that doorway, holds herself very carefully there at the sink as Fatima works herself up to turning to ask Elgin if he’s ok, and then very gingerly seats herself in that chair. There’s an awkwardness to both characters trying to studiously avoid each other, yes. But Fatima’s body has been through so much recently, and instead of that supernatural birth being some kind of afterthought now that it’s over, we can actually see the pain she’s in. (Both physically and emotionally.)
“Are you ok?” “I’m not really sure I deserve to be.” My heart. Broke.
No, I’m not at all surprised that Fatima shows Elgin the grace she does. Yes, I’m concerned about what she asks him to do, considering.
The hope in Elgin’s eyes, though!
“You know, Kristi told me yesterday that she’s seen dozens of people with dozens of schemes about how to leave this place. There’s only one thing that they have in common. You know what it is? They all died.” Super pause from Harold Perrineau to react here. “Yeah. Well…this time, it feels different.” “Yeah, that’s probably what they thought.”
Ouch.
I know I want to throttle Acosta on the regular, but this…ouch. She’s so…ouch. This is the most clear embodiment of giving up.
The silence while they wrap up this poor dude’s body is deafening.
Julia Doyle is killing it this season. Seriously, that is some creepy, seamless transition from the “nice” girl to pure, demonic evil.
I thought gloating over corpses was evil enough, but nah. THE TOOTH?! That awful noise as she digs it out of there? Wow.
Absolutely cracked up at Jade going from that peaceful, meditative stance to just shouting F***! out of nowhere.
“Jade.” “What.” The anguish. “Tell me you got something.” “Oh, does it fu**ing look like I have something??!!!!!” I LOVE HIM.
And Boyd’s just standing there with that head tilt, and that expression, and that posture like, “tell me you didn’t just get that attitude with ME.” Amazing.
“It’s all, it’s in here—it’s in here. I know it is. There’s more—there’s more to what we need to know. And I just—I can’t…Oh. F— it. You don’t have any acid, do you?” People died.
Basically, that whole Jade/Boyd scene in FROM Season 4 Episode 3 is a blast. David Alpay continues to play “guy who’s on the verge of snapping because he can’t grasp the thing he knows is right within reach” so incredibly well.
…and then he completely deflates when he says he’s not going to the funeral. Poor guy. I know I made excuses/justifications for Tabitha’s behavior, both in the barn and with her particular level of “let’s be crazy and make my kids orphans” in this hour, but man…Jade just had his entire reality smashed, too. Instead of literally anyone looking out for him, he’s just fighting that wall between his present and his past all alone.
“You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to.” “Yes, I do. At Grandpa’s funeral, Dad said a man wears a suit to show his respect.” “…you look very handsome.” MY HEART.
“Days like today, they’re not easy. I’m not gonna stand here and try to tell you that…” This halting speech from Perrineau was great. Until, you know, the crows.
Warning: Do not watch FROM Season 4 Episode 3 with cats who’ve maintained their hunter instincts. Source: Experience.
“When I was a boy, I drew pictures…so the pictures would remember? …This is for you.” Beautiful, beautiful work from McCord here. Poor Victor struggles so much with getting the words out, with knowing there’s a sadness here, with knowing he has no idea what to say. When he puts that childish drawing down, it’s so gentle, too.
Great battle against all those emotions from Sandino Moreno. Tabitha can barely get out her quiet “that’s very sweet, Victor. Thank you so much” before that one tear falls.
Speaking of a struggle for Victor: “I’ll make s—sure that nothing happens to him. I promise.” It’s so hushed and reverent, and like…he knows that’s not a promise anyone can really keep here. But he does it anyway. For Ethan? Anything.
Not hearing what Sophia says to Julie because we’re now with Boyd and Kenny…is fascinating. Just on its own, I think it’s a great way to change perspectives. But in the greater context of FROM and that whole concept of Julie not being able to change a story once it’s been written? Genius. We don’t know what Man in Yellow says! That story hasn’t been told yet. Whether this exact moment comes back up or not, it’s a genius move.
“Do you think it’s true?” “What?” “That when we got here, that all of the bad things that have happened since we got here—do you think it’s our fault?” “No, Honey. Of course not.” Ok but how could Tabitha not think that at this point, when she knows things about herself and Jade???
Super perspective change when we miss the words but see all the upset gesturing through the eyes of “Sophia” back in the diner, who’s absolutely relishing the chaos she’s created.
Ellis and Fatima. That is all.
Or. Well. One more thing: “I’m trying to be ok. I am. I just…I’m trying to let go of this. I—I just don’t know how.” It’s ok not to be ok! Fatima sharing this with Ellis is huge for keeping their relationship intact and reminding us how much love there is there, even after of all the monster baby angst. Maybe especially after all the horrors.
Victor, my love, Ethan probably doesn’t want to hear about you getting to spend more time with your dad right now. Poor thing.
“You can talk to me, you know, if you’re ever af—if you’re ever afraid.”
“Why? Friends aren’t supposed to keep s—s—secrets! Ethan!” Have I mentioned yet that Scott McCord is brilliant in this role? Surely, I can stand to do it a few more times. Every time Victor raises his voice, every time he’s hurt and lashes out in anger because he just doesn’t understand why Ethan won’t tell him—it’s all brilliant.
If there aren’t gifs and memes and whatnot of Jade floating face up in that filthy water, what even is the point?
These two kids, talking about this man like he can’t hear them…
“Jade!” “WHAAAAT.”
“I need to find the Lake of Tears. It’s a lake with magical powers.” “What kind of magical powers.” “It can make people better when they’re hurt. I thought I made it up, but my dad told me it’s here. I need to find it.” “When did he tell you that?” “Yesterday. Out by the RV? Maybe once I find it, it can make him better? Maybe he’ll come back.” The tears in his voice on “it can make him better”??? And then it gets worse on “maybe he’ll come back”???
Victor looking genuinely stunned, concerned and MOVED when he says it was yesterday…
“Maybe Jade can help…JADE!” “Oh, for chrissakes! What?!!” He is annoyed AF. (I giggled.)
“WE NEED TO FIND THE LAKE OF TEARS!!!!” “The lake of what?!!”
Too early to make a comment about an ancient dad and his long, lost boys or…?
“It’s a kids’ book, though, right? Stories made up for little kids?” “Before I got here, I thought monsters were made up, too.” “….fair point.”
“It’s good for my self esteem.”
“Why—why would you—why would you want to live with her?” Poor Kenny absolutely can not.
…now, how has Man in Yellow seen Sara’s “kindness”? Hm.
“Randall?” “I’m fine.” (Said nobody in the history of TV, ever, who was actually ok.)
“Why?” When Boyd starts fast-blinking like that and makes that face, you know he can’t believe your audacity. “…because I asked you to.”
Perrineau. For. The. Win. The way he delivers this whole speech is absolutely stellar: “Because you remind me of someone. All right? You remind me…” The way he turns away, bracing himself against the memory and kinda stomping in place before he turns back… “…of someone I could’ve helped. And I didn’t. I don’t get to get that back. I’m not gonna stand here and…”
“Look, i know you think everything i said is bullsh**. And maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. Right? But if you do this for me, think about alllllll the people you might be helping. The people you might be saving. You think about the cop. Who first put that badge on. You do all that, and you still want that bullet…then, yeah. We’ll talk. It’s a promise.”
Samantha Brown’s emotional reaction to the part about all the people Acosta could help is also not to be overlooked.
I do love a mirror shot.
“40 years I sat in my house after my family disappeared. I was…a lot of things. Ok was never one of them.”
“She was my wife. Please.” There’s a beat in there where it looks like Tabitha might tell him she’s also Miranda. But not, yet kinda, but…
It would require her accepting what she’s learned as true instead of it being like Schrödinger’s past life, though. Like, her claim that maybe the bottle tree is just for her would hold weight if I fully believed that she’s no longer in denial about everything else. But. No.
“When my mom died, you were the one that brought me back. You didn’t even know me very well. But you knew that I was still…in there. Underneath all the…dark, horrible sh** that I was going through. And you never gave up on me. Not until you finally pulled me out. It’s my turn now. Give it a shot.” THEM.
When Fatima starts smashing sh** up, it’s so raw and real. I don’t know how else to say this: Ghafoori kinda perfectly embodies a certain rage that’s just…women get it.
That SCREAM.
Jade’s little prayer position when he starts to get irritated again.
“I’m trying to remember something that I used to know. Something that’ll help us leave.” “So, we’re both looking for something that can help everyone.”
Ethan and Jade’s shared concerned glances when they notice Victor’s just…standing and staring at something.
“Victor, we got a lake to find!”
Randall awkwardly trying to pronounce those titles cracked me up.
That awe when Henry sees the tree…
“This looks just like the one she made back home.” When Joy’s voice was shaking there, it kinda broke me.
“Good. Well. I didn’t realize you’d left a note. I’m sure they’ll be just fine.” I can understand why Tabitha’s a mess right now and still be like GET HER, HENRY. So. GET HER, HENRY.
“I DON’T KNOW!” Well, now you’ve done gone and made Henry, of all people, explode.
“I don’t know. I wish I did know, but if—if you want to go through this tree. You’re gonna have to go through me first.” THE WAY HE HOLDS HIS HANDS OUT IN FRONT OF HIMSELF TO TRY TO HOLD HER OFF.
Victor burying his head on his daddy’s shoulder while he has this meltdown might well and truly be the biggest killer in this hour, and there’s plenty of pain to go around as it is.
Sir. Put the wild mushroom down.
Poor Boyd. Just another quiet, vulnerable few moments for Perrineau to end the episode. Can’t go without that—…
WTF?!
Man, the way he pants with fear, too.