These From episode reviews have somewhat started to become a bit of a comedic outlet for me as I vent out a lot of my frustrations in the show with sarcasm. It's a show I thoroughly enjoy but can't deny that it has gone downhill in its third season. Removing much of what made the show interesting and replacing it with lazy filler to stretch things out and lead us to the final two episodes of the season where naturally everything starts to wake up again. This third season has been quite a bore due to the structure it has held, and while I'm fine with something being a bit more of a slow burn, I can't say I have much interest in shows that almost intentionally avoid character development to reach that means. The last episode somewhat fixed things, again, by showcasing a few more serious events that push the story forward an inch, but it also showed a change in how the characters actually interact with each other as the dialogue became surprisingly normal for the most part. These characters can actually talk to each other! I did enjoy these changes, but I felt that they came a little too late into the season, but I can't help but have that curiosity over From and wanting to know what it all means. And that brings us to the tenth and final episode of From's season three.
Annoyingly, but also fortunately, the season's finale follows in the direction of giving us characters that are starting to seem more realistic, engaging with more dialogue between each other and actually starting to work together to share their ideas and find answers to many of the place's strange events. Elgin in the last few episodes has taken a much more serious approach to the story with his haunting leading to the kidnapping of Fatima, under the assumption that by doing so and helping her have the strange baby that she shouldn't be having might lead to some answers and freedom. Elgin started off as a quiet character that saw something before arriving in the location, a dream that showed events before they took place. Since then there hasn't been much, but I've enjoyed this sudden development of his character, especially with how the haunting for the longest time didn't seem like something sinister, giving us the assumption that he might actually be on to something. As things have progressed it became a bit harder to feel that. Giving us the feeling that he might actually be doing the bidding of the monsters as they manipulate him. This conflict was also heavily amplified in how Boyd takes matters into his own hands with Elgin, leading to a pretty brutal torture scene in which he shatters his hand with a hammer.
I think this development of Boyd has been pretty great, he's no longer the calmer leader that holds reign upon the town. It's instead time for his arc in which he acts more like a tyrant, forcing people to bend to his will and no longer accepting the nonsensical dialogue that leads to arguing wasting so much of his time. I really liked that Sarah went and took matters into her own hands with Elgin, utilising that brutality she had managed to gain when the spirits had been manipulating her. It's rare in From that we see action taken upon others in the town, to the point of causing genuine physical harm. There's a few accidents here and there in the town, but witnessing the town slowly turning against each other in this fashion really puts things into another light. Showcasing their desperation at this point, as well as lack of trust in each other. It's unfortunate that it took this long to get to this point, but I do appreciate the recent developments in this regard. It's a big contrast from the usual "I don't want to talk about it" attitude to the physical interactions. And at the same time, while all this internal conflict unfolds, we see others sharing ideas and coming to their own conclusions in a more peaceful manner.
Different groups encountering different events at the same time makes the episode a much more engaging experience. Each set of characters are up to something and it really felt like things were finally in motion. Especially on Tabitha's side in which the numbers in the bottles finally comes to some sense: the numbers are actually a song. Groups of notes and chords that could be played. Those bottles and numbers were once on the tree which teleports people all over, and Victor previously mentions that this tree once led to the death of his mother, with very little left of her after the event. Little moments to connect things here and there were nice. But the real development in the story of this episode was the birth of Fatima's not-baby. Leading to the rebirth of the smiling monster which Boyd previously killed in another episode. For a finale though, this isn't much of a great one. It doesn't have that finale appeal to it that makes things feel grand. A lot of the revelations are things that, as I have mentioned so many times before, should've been there throughout the season. I think the most grand reveal was Tabitha realising that she had been in that location countless times before, and that they had tried many times to stop the event that had happened there. That one of the children was actually theirs. Though there was one major event right at the end that I'd prefer to not mention.
I would say it was a better episode, probably the best episode of the season. But that's a relatively low bar to reach given how weak the mid part of it all was. It didn't even take much action and horror in this episode to be considered one that I think ranks higher than most, it's really that having the characters actually working together and having that tension surrounding the town works much better than having them pretending to be so stupid.