In From Season 3 Episode 5, ‘The Light of Day’, Boyd’s losing control of the Fromville folk, Tabitha gets a grilling, and Victor and Henry are finally reunited.
A lot went down in Season 3 Episode 4. Tabitha and Henry arrived in Fromville, for a start, and they brought a group of unsuspecting officers with them. When nightfall hit, the paramedics were slaughtered by the smiling monsters.
A police officer managed to survive, but she accidentally shot and killed Colony House resident Nicky in the process. Meanwhile, Boyd had to make a tough decision, eventually deciding to sacrifice Randall in order to save the others.
This didn’t quite work out as expected, however, as Randall was returned. This only creates more tension in the new From Season 3 episode. Before we get into it, warning: spoilers ahead!
Chaos in Colony House
It’s a gruesome start, as Randall (A.J. Simmons) is brought into Colony House and he’s in a bad way. As Marielle (Kaelen Ohm) tends to his wounds, she pulls the cloth covering his face to find his cheek skin is hanging off. Those monsters did a number on him.
Randall lashes out and pushes Marielle away, so Boyd (Harold Perrineau) steps in to restrain him. But he’s the last person he wants to see. “You did this, you f**king left me out there, man,” he screams.
Outside, Kenny (Ricky He) and Jade (David Alpay) return from the woods, holding Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) up after the bear trap accident. Marielle takes Kristi in while Boyd fills them in on the night’s events. He explains they’re having a town meeting at the diner later but before he can finish his sentence, Jade runs off.
Meanwhile, Donna (Elizabeth Saunders) catches up with Victor’s father and Fromville newbie, Henry (Robert Joy). She tells him they’ve sent some people out to look for his son.
Thankfully, Victor’s (Scott McCord) not far away. He heads to Colony House to gather “supplies” with Sara (Avery Konrad) as they prepare to head into the tunnels, but they’re stopped in their tracks when they see everyone clearing up from the carnage and bloodshed last night.
Donna starts to tell Victor about Nicky and Randall… and that’s just the half of it.
Victor’s overwhelmed
“Tabitha came back last night, and she had someone with her,” says Donna. “Victor, your dad is here.” It’s all too overwhelming for him and he runs out the door. He tells Sara to go home, saying they’ll get Jasper the ventriloquist doll later.
Back at the Matthews’ home, Tabitha’s catching Jim, Ethan, and Julie up on her time out in the real world when Jade comes barging in, frantically asking her about the lighthouse and the bottle tree.
Jim (Eion Bailey) argues it’s just the Fromville entity messing with their heads, but Jade responds, “She went home. That’s not a trick, it’s not a dream. That’s real.”
“And there is a whole town full of people who are going to be banging down your door demanding answers whether you have them or not. Take me to the tree, let’s see if we can find something.”
Over at the clinic, Randall’s recovering while Kenny fills Boyd in on their trip to the woods. He says there’s something else out there, something that “walks around at night.” But Boyd’s got bigger fish to fry right now.
Kenny ponders why the monsters didn’t just kill Randall, with Boyd’s leading theory being that they want to remind the Fromville residents that they’re still there and they’re still a threat.
“Part of the thing that keeps people sane here is that we get to pretend during the daytime; pretend that we’re safe,” he says. “With Randall walking around, we don’t get to pretend anymore.”
Guilt takes over
As their conversation is unfolding, Marielle tells Kristi about Nicky’s death while tending to her foot. Kristi tries to tell her not to blame herself for what happened, but Marielle takes it the wrong way, assuming she means she doesn’t want her to relapse on opioids.
But Marielle apologizes, saying she just wants to focus on looking after Kristi. They hear Randall waking up in pain and she goes to check on him.
Boyd walks in too, but Marielle says him being there will only make Randall worse. She quickly realizes she could’ve worded it better and recommends he focus on what he does best: making sure the rest of Fromville is in order.
But the damage is done: Boyd is clearly feeling guilty for abandoning Randall.
At Colony House, Donna takes Henry to Victor’s room, where he opens up about the fact that he eventually gave up hope that Victor, Eloise, and Miranda were still alive.
“What kind of man gives up on his family?” he asks, blaming himself for Victor not wanting to talk to him. “Just give him a little time,” Donna reassures him. “He’ll come round.”
Tillie (Deborah Grover) walks in to announce that the town meeting is about to start, with Donna explaining to Henry that people have a lot of questions for Tabitha’s real-world sojourn.
Julie’s escape
The diner is packed out with people wanting answers, and the questions start rolling in as soon as Tabitha shows up. Meanwhile, Julie (Hannah Cheramy) sneaks into Fatima and Ellis’ room and steals a stash of weed.
When she goes to leave, she’s nearly attacked by Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons), who thinks she’s an intruder. He apologizes, and they decide to hang out.
Sara asks Victor why he doesn’t want to see his father. Ultimately, it boils down to the same thing everyone’s feeling: fear. Victor says he’d almost convinced himself his life before Fromville was a dream and Henry was a figment of his imagination.
He’s worried his dad’s expecting him to be the same little boy he was all those decades ago, but Sara points out that Henry’s probably just as scared, if not more so.
At Colony House, Elgin tells Julie about the kimono-wearing ghost he’s been seeing while they smoke a few bowls. Julie gets serious and says she’d take the ghost lady over what she hears in her head everyday, having been left traumatized by the dungeon incident in From Season 2.
When Elgin asks her what she hears, Julie replies, “Mostly just screaming. I don’t just hear it… it’s like I can feel it too. This is the only thing that makes it quiet,” referring to the weed.
Later on, they head into the basement and dig through the belongings of past residents. While goofing around, they come across a Polaroid camera and it’s still got film in it.
Disorder at the town meeting
The town meeting’s not going well: everyone thinks Tabitha squandered her opportunity, believing she should have gone to the authorities.
The newbie police officer, Acosta, steps in to defend her, insisting that she thought Tabitha was crazy and other officials would have reacted in the same way. But it’s not enough to convince the townspeople.
Tabitha gets overwhelmed and storms out while Boyd tries to calm everyone down. A majority of them argue that they should be lining up at the tree if there’s a chance it could take them home, but Boyd reminds them that when he went into a faraway tree, it nearly resulted in his death.
At the Matthews’ home, Tabitha announces she’s going to go back to the tree after all. Although Jim’s not in favor of the idea, Tabitha says, “They’re right. I went out and I came back with nothing. I owe it to them.”
Jim pulls her to the side and tries to talk her out of it, worried they’ll lose her for good. She reassures him that she’s not going to go into the tree; she’s just going to investigate. Jim reluctantly agrees, but only if Ethan (Simon Webster) stays at home with him.
Boyd loses his cool
After the town meeting, officer Acosta approaches Boyd, saying that while she can’t take back what she did, she can help. “If you want them to stop focusing on that tree, you have to give them something else to focus on,” she explains.
Boyd doesn’t give her the warmest response. Quite the opposite – he shouts at her, reminding her of all the things she did wrong the night prior. Here’s the thing: she didn’t know what was going on at the time. She was frightened and just following protocol.
However, Boyd is going through it at the moment: in From Season 3 Episode 1, he saw Tian-Chen tortured in front of him; winter is coming and the food supply has been on shaky ground; morale is lower than ever before; and now he’s losing his ability to manage everyone.
Boyd is just taking his frustrations out on officer Acosta, and he knows it. As soon as she storms out, a look of regret spreads across his face.
Things aren’t looking much brighter with Boyd’s son Ellis (Corteon Moore), either. He catches Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) as she’s feasting on a bucket of the rotten veg like it’s a fresh KFC. Tearfully, she admits she thinks there’s something wrong with the baby.
Victor and Henry’s emotional reunion
Outside, Ethan and Henry go for a stroll, only to bump into Victor and Sara. Finally, the father and son are together again for the first time in decades.
The pair pause as they slowly walk towards each other, almost in disbelief, before eventually coming together in an embrace. “I didn’t know how to get home,” Victor cries, to which Henry says, “It’s okay.”
Meanwhile, Bakta (Angela Moore) approaches Boyd, who’s looking a little lost. She apologizes for not speaking out during the town meeting, reassuring him that he’s just trying to do what’s right for everyone. “I just want you to know that I’ll have your back next time,” she says.
We cut to Jade and Tabitha at the bottle tree, where they’re pulling out the pieces of paper. All of them have four-digit numbers on them, with Jade theorizing that they’re dates. Which would make sense, except one of them says 2659.
Jade sits down beside her and opens up about what he saw in the tunnels: the symbol; the concrete slabs; the children repeating the word “anghkooey”.
Jade says that even though he was scared, “for the first time I felt like there were threads that were finally starting to connect.” But piecing it together has been an impossible task.
Dale takes a wrong turn
As they’re talking, Fromville resident Dale (Cliff Saunders) shows up. He’s been antagonistic ever since Tabitha returned, and now he’s taking matters into his own hands: he’s going to go into the tree’s portal.
Jade and Tabitha try to reason with him that it could be dangerous, but it’s no use. “Look, somebody’s got to try, right?” he says. “It’s okay, you guys can thank me later.” Dale climbs in and just like that he’s gone.
You don’t have to wait to find out what happens to him. And no surprises, he doesn’t end up back in the real world. Instead, Boyd and the rest of the town find him infused into the concrete wall of the swimming pool.
Boyd tries to figure out what to do but after a few agonizing moments, Dale dies. As everyone watches on in horror, Boyd shouts in frustration, “I am trying to keep you alive, don’t you see that? I can’t help you if you don’t let me.”
In short, everything is falling apart at the seams. Remember in From Season 2 when Boyd shouted, “You don’t f**king break me.” Well, whatever is behind this place, it sure is trying its hardest to.
From Season 3 Episodes 1-5 are streaming on MGM+ now, with Episode 6 landing on Sunday, October 27. Until then, be sure to check out our recaps for Episode 2 and Episode 3.
You can also take a look at the best binge-worthy TV shows to watch right now, as well as the new series coming to streaming this month.