Spoilers!
From’s third season premiere, “Shatter,” lives up to its title. It cuts a jagged and bloody trench down to the bone of this trapped, frightened community. The scar it leaves behind will be a long, ropy mass that burns in the cold as a constant reminder of overwhelming trauma. And for a series that opens with the hollowed-out corpses of a mother and her young child, that’s one hell of an accomplishment.
Thanks to Dustin’s thorough recap, I can focus on the evolution of From’s mythology and Harold Perrineau’s brutal, brilliant performance this week. What began as the same slow dread that’s haunted Fromville since its pilot escalated to a nightmarish new high. Boyd offered a challenge to the malevolence that rules this mad bubble, and as a result it has turned its gaze to him, possibly dooming the town as a result.
That malevolence has, for the most part, stayed impersonal in its slow torture of the current townsfolk. It sicced the “Frombies” on the population and kept them isolated from the outside world, but apart from turning Sara Myers (Avery Konrad) into a murderer, it remained at a distance. It seemed content killing the community by inches — a man here, a household there, like a cat toying with a mouse colony. Its actions appear cyclical; we know the music box claimed victims before. Victor’s mother and the other townsfolk from his childhood experienced a similar escalation in violence when they investigated the town and strange lighthouse. Since its mice attempted an escape and Boyd directly challenged its power, the enemy’s attention is focused on its prey. The crops have withered. New animals no longer arrive. The community is being pushed to a breaking point. I do think that however it works out, each generation of townsfolk reaches a critical mass before they’re slaughtered like farm animals. Then more people are summoned from across the country to become the next crop of misery. From the ’50s-era motel sign and dry pool, the collapsed cabins, stone talismans, and the way the ghost children dress it appears this has gone on since the 19th century, and maybe longer.
Whether the Frombies are former townsfolk turned into ghouls or something native to the area, I don’t believe they’re capable of learning. I think what we’ve seen so far is a hive mind or controlling consciousness focusing its attention, and the Frombies are the clawed hands with which it reaches out. Apart from their limited ability to glamour residents or shapeshift into more human forms, they haven’t shown much autonomy. But what is that controlling intelligence? So far, the idea of a wizard in a tower manipulating reality with the help of psychic children is very Stephen King’s Black House and later Dark Tower books, though if it’s as simple as a rip-off of the Crimson King and his Breakers I’ll be a little disappointed. Likewise, if it’s a Charles Manx\Christmasland from NOS4A2 clone or a Twilight Zone Anthony Freemont situation. Tabitha’s return to the real world at least shows us it’s not another Purgatory or time travel story. Part of me hopes we never get the full story; as Petr pointed out, efforts to do so usually fall flat. We don’t need to know how or why the bubble works to understand things are deeply wrong.
Tian-Chen’s brutal murder was one of the most effective and gut-wrenching final scenes I’ve seen on television. Knowing it was coming didn’t help any more than the focus on Boyd. Perrineau’s performance as he tried so hard to help the doomed Tian-Chen deserves an Emmy, plain and simple. I haven’t seen him in much since his Lost days, which says more about my viewing habits than his ability to find work, but what he does in a show that could be cruelly classified as mere genre television shows the range of his talent. His progression from a straitlaced former military officer to a town leader forced to deal with spiritual and supernatural matters around town for which he has no answer – not to mention the visions, parasites, and spectral visitors – has turned him into a Job-like figure who refuses to give in no matter the trauma inflicted on him by a higher power. And not through any belief in a supposedly benevolent God who allows all this to happen, but an overwhelming desire to free his son and fellow townsfolk from their hellscape.
A few quick last notes on the season premiere and what’s come before:
A.J. Simmons makes me loathe him every time he’s on the screen, and yet does a remarkable job keeping Randall this side of contemptible. Barely. He’s a conspiracy theorist, an obvious libertarian Trump supporter, and yet he keeps contributing just enough that I don’t want to see him dead yet. I won’t shed many tears if and when it happens, however. It’s a great performance from the Reacher alum. I just wish I didn’t hate him so much.
Did Eion Bailey lose a bet? Has he done something to make the From writers angry? Because Jim Matthews rapidly went from a concerned father to the biggest liability over the age of 13 in the entire town, and the premiere doesn’t change that trajectory. Every decision he makes is not only bad, but almost immediately undone when he changes his mind. He encouraged Randall’s conspiratorial thinking to the point that they nearly tortured Sara. He’s put his family and others at risk multiple times. He’s the worst, and I’m including the Frombies, ghost kids, and possible giant spiders in that assessment.
How many more times can we watch poor Kenny’s heart break? His well-acted agony over the death of his father, the heartbreak of watching Kristi pull away, and what feels like constant betrayals from Boyd, his second father figure, have nearly broken the young man. I don’t know what’s going to happen when he returns to town the morning after his mother’s dismemberment, but it won’t be good.
I know puberty blockers are a touchy subject, but maybe it’s time to start giving Simon Webster a few. Otherwise, Tabitha’s going to come back after three months away and find her child a giant teenager. To be fair, it’s a feeling many parents can relate to.
Speaking of Tabitha, calling her mother was such a dick move. I’d be surprised if the poor woman didn’t have a heart attack as soon as she hung up the phone. I’m not a big fan of the Matthews couple, though at least Tabbie has started accepting the lunacy around them, something Jim seems incapable of doing.
I do hope we start to see some residents fighting back against the Frombies. I get that they’re strong enough to rip out a cow’s throat with the aid of what had to be half the show’s CGI budget, but they never move faster than a walk and there are talismans that can lock one away in a house long enough to perform some basic experiments. I don’t care how tough they are – nothing survives long without a head, and they have a whole barn full of scythes and axes. Swing away.
From set its hooks deep in me from the start. It’s been a while since I enjoyed shouting at the television so much. Even if it’s become the kind of show where I need a palate cleanser after, the mysteries and character work are so well done I keep coming back. Whatever From has in store for us, it’s going to be brutal. Buckle up.