This week’s episode 7 of the MGM supernatural science fiction thriller series From season 3 further complicates things while not directly giving any answers to the questions raised in the previous episode. As Fatima struggles to accept the fact that she is not really pregnant, after the ultrasound test last week proved that her womb was empty, she ends up committing an act that is sure to have consequences. Tabitha also visits the site with the stick figure statues, or totems, while Julie has an unexpected adventure with Randall. Elgin also now steps up and makes an effort to help the ghostly monster that has been haunting him, although that is not a straightforward task.
Spoiler Alert
Did Victor learn anything from the doll?
Back in episode 6, Victor had gone on a personal mission, accompanied by his father Henry, to the underground tunnels in search of the puppet doll, Jasper. Earlier this season, Victor had sat down to recall incidents from his childhood days spent at Fromville, and this is when he remembered a friendly ventriloquist named Christopher, and the doll that he used to carry around, named Jasper. Incidentally, the doll had appeared to Victor in reality and in imaginary flashes throughout “From” season 2, and now it seems like these appearances basically suggested how the memory of Jasper was there in Victor’s subconscious, waiting for him to remember about it. Finally, as he told Sara about the people living in Fromville in the initial days, Victor recalled how Christopher had started to hear Jasper talk one day, and this strange incident was shortly followed by the emergence of the monsters. Therefore, Victor believed that there must be some connection between the doll and the monsters, and so had undertaken the dangerous task of retrieving it from the tunnels.
In this week’s episode, Victor is revealed to have spent an entire night shouting at the lifeless doll inside his room, demanding answers to his questions about the strange nature of Fromville. Henry is concerned about his son’s well-being, as the latter has been boarded up in his room without any break, even for food, and this is hard for him to see. This is why Henry later admits to Donna that, for a very brief moment, he wished that Tabitha had never found him, and that he had never been brought to the town. Henry says that having accepted that his son had died and that he would never get to see him again was perhaps easier and felt more comforting to him than having to see a psychologically disturbed and socially stunted Victor.
Nonetheless, Henry also knows that this is a rare opportunity that he has gotten to visit his long-lost son and even get to know him as an adult. Besides, Henry does not have any choice either, since he is stuck at Fromville like everyone else as of now. On the other side, Victor continues his effort to solve the mystery of the place, and he knows that Jasper will be the one to reveal any significant clues. Therefore, he takes the doll to Sara’s house, intending to keep up with his interrogation of the doll in her basement, where nobody will be able to disturb him. Considering the weird and unbelievable nature of the plot in From, it is very possible that the puppet doll, Jasper, will eventually start talking to Victor, though whether it turns out to be friendly or a monster itself remains to be seen.
Will Acosta create more problems for the townsfolk?
The police officer who had arrived at Fromville on the same ambulance as Tabitha and Henry had already killed a resident, although accidentally, while trying to escape the monsters chasing her. Quite understandably, Sheriff Boyd had taken her gun away after her careless and aimless shooting had got Nicky killed inside the Colony House. However, as Acosta spends a few days at the place, she starts going through the same frustration and anger stemming from helplessness, as many others had expressed earlier. She questions why there is a diner, an abandoned motel, and even a swimming pool in the town, as such amenities and infrastructure should not technically exist at a place run by monsters. She wonders who built all these facilities and naturally suspects that either she or everyone else are being intentionally trapped by a few people for some unknown reason. Although Kenny tries to calm her down by explaining how almost everyone stuck at Fromville had raised such questions, Acosta refuses to take any suggestion.
Going by her current state of mind, Acosta then questions the authority of Boyd, wondering why he is the one responsible for maintaining law and order at the town. The woman soon storms down to the sheriff’s office and confronts Boyd, suggesting that there is no proof at all of him being a war veteran as he claims to be. Acosta, however, has her police ID, and she is even in her police uniform still, which clearly makes her feel that she should be in control of the safety and security. When Boyd suggests that she has served in the police service for a much shorter time than he had served in the army, Acosta does not hesitate to make a personal attack against him. She reminds Boyd how a number of people in town had recently died, technically on his watch, and this makes him drop the argument once and for all.
Knowing that he cannot keep up with Acosta’s blind arguments, Boyd hands back her gun to her in compliance with her demand, but he removes the bullets from it before doing so. It is quite evident that letting an individual with such a short fuse have access to live ammunition would definitely create more problems for the townsfolk. Boyd states that he will keep the bullets with him until Acosta can prove to him that she is worthy of possessing and using them. As of now, Acosta does agree with the rule set by Boyd, but she will either end up stirring up more trouble or lose her mind as stated by Kenny and do something to herself.
What does Elgin find?
Elgin had been photographing various residents of Colony House after having found the old camera in the basement of the building. Very clearly, almost nobody showed any interest in his passion, and the people that he chose to be the subjects of the images were all quite reluctant to pose for him. Incidentally, Elgin seemingly himself becomes the subject of a photograph in From season 3 episode 7, as the camera automatically flashes and takes a picture while placed on a chair. Although it initially seems like the camera takes Elgin’s photo by itself, the reality is even more improbable and sinister. As the camera instantly prints out photos, the young man is able to look at the latest picture, and it is not of him but of the doors of an underground shed that is located near the outskirts of the town. Taking this as a clear hint, Elgin ventures out and finds the shed, carrying the photograph along with him.
As Elgin enters the shed, it seems to be empty at first, with just a wooden closet at the end, and the furniture is empty as well. However, as Elgin turns to leave, there is a clear knock on the wood, as if something or someone is trying to inform him of their presence, and he realizes that there is a room behind the closet. Pushing the closet aside and entering the room, Elgin finds old beds and other signs that someone used to live there, before eventually stumbling upon the dead body of a man as well. Right then, the ghostly figure of the woman, or monster, wearing something akin to a kimono, appears to him once again, and Elgin seems to think that he will get killed by her. But it is also possible that the woman is the ghost of a human who had died inside the underground shed while hiding from the monsters, and Elgin might actually find her body at the place as well, which might bring him one step closer to solving this particular mystery.
What happens to Tabitha and Julie?
Tabitha had already made a shocking revelation when she told Jade that she used to see the same stick figure statues, or totems (as she calls them), in her nightmares as a child, as the ones seen by the townsfolk near the hut by the lake. Tabitha even mentioned three red stones being present at the scene, placed in a circle, even though she had never visited the site, simply by remembering her nightmares. In this episode, she, Jade, and Ethan make the journey to the hut by the lake, where Jim and a few others are already present to gather some crops. Jim is naturally surprised to see his wife and young son at the place and is even more confused than before when he hears about her nightmares.He initially suggests that the recent events in Tabitha’s life might be affecting her head in a way that’s making her link unrelated matters with each other. But Tabitha is able to convince him that the strange nightmare she used to get over months during her childhood days placed her exactly in the same spot where they are currently standing, amidst the totems and the three big stones. Jade suggests that she must have been chosen to play some significant role in Fromville by destiny, just like Miranda, and this seems more likely with each episode. Although she is unable to recall anything more specific about her nightmares, Tabitha confirms that something large and monstrous used to scare her. As she, Jade, Ethan, and Jim go to the hut to spend the night there, it is possible that they will finally encounter the monster that everyone has heard so far.
Back in the town, Julie is left alone at her house since all her family members go to the forest, and so she plans on spending the night at the clinic. It is here that she comes across Randall and soon accompanies him on an adventure as part of their new budding friendship. When Randall learns that Jim was supposed to teach Julie how to drive right before they ended up at Fromville, he decides to do the honors and borrows the Colony House van. The two drive some distance away from town, when Randall suddenly starts hallucinating the insects once again, just like before. He is so distracted that he has to run out of the van to flee the imaginary bugs attacking him, although Julie does not see anything at all. She steps out of the van and tries to understand what is wrong with Randall, even following him as he runs into the forest by the road. This is when the two of them come across some broken arches that seem to be part of an old abandoned structure, and both of them clearly feel something extremely odd about the place. Julie is actually drawn to it and wants to go explore the spot further, but Randall somehow senses something evil or unwelcoming at the place, and he insists that they must return to town. Incidentally, these arches and the spot look like the same one that Boyd had visited earlier in the series, and it had not gone down well for him. Whether Randall and Julie might also get into some similar trouble remains to be seen.
Is Fatima Losing Her Mind?
When Kristi and Mari conducted an ultrasound test on Fatima, they were shocked to find that there was no sign of any baby inside her womb at all. After hearing about her rather erratic cravings and extremely strange situation, Kristi diagnoses Fatima’s condition to be one of psychosomatic pregnancy. She clarifies that this basically means that Fatima had been mentally wanting to, or was thinking of getting pregnant so much that her hormones believed the same and she started exhibiting signs of pregnancy. Although rare, the condition is not unheard of, and so Kristi believes it to be a case of this condition. However, she is also aware of the strange occurrences at Fromville, because of which she does reveal to Boyd that the possibility of a monster growing inside Fatima’s belly cannot be ruled out either.
News of Fatima’s condition starts to further spread, and this unfortunately makes her a social pariah of sorts as well. When Boyd talks to Donna about the condition that his daughter-in-law is suffering from, her reaction is very different from what he had imagined it to be. Although Donna expresses her sympathies, she also asks Boyd to ensure that Ellis and Fatima move out of Colony House for the time being, since it is not clear as to what exactly is living in her body. She mentions the safety and security of the other residents of Colony House, but Boyd is heartbroken by her demand, even though he conceals it pretty well.
By the end of From season 3 episode 7, it is still unclear whether Fatima’s condition is indeed psychological or if something is physically affecting her, although she ends up committing a gruesome act. While resting in her room in Colony House, she notices a bloody wound on her arm, caused by the drip syringe, and gets a strong urge to taste the blood, just like earlier. But Fatima resists this time, and almost immediately, her belly contracts, as if her skin is being grasped and pulled in by something from the inside. At the very end of the episode, when she once again resists the temptation of eating rotten crops, something seems to grasp hold of her from the inside. However, in both cases, others like Ellis and Tillie do not see anything physically unnatural on her body, making it seem very probable that these incidents are actually psychological.
How Did Tillie Die?
When Fatima goes through the same ordeal inside the greenhouse at the very end of the episode, Tillie enters to console her, stating that she must not be afraid. Either out of extreme pain and frustration or because she is momentarily taken control of by the monster in her belly, Fatima strikes the elderly woman with a knife before returning to her senses once again. There is nothing that can be done for Tillie though, as she exclaims that Fatima must run away from the town, all while dying a very painful death. As Ellis witnesses this incident, he must now make a choice between supporting the townsfolk in keeping his wife locked up or helping her escape somehow, for Fatima’s situation has gotten seriously and dangerously out of control.
