#from mgm+

[neyrra13]

this is the stance of a woman who is tired of being the voice of reasoning

[divorcingjimmatthews]

[takkytakk]

[esoteric-choleric]

I can't believe they gave us Tabitha/Jade/Jim throuple for 5 minutes before ripping it away lile that, I'll never recover from this

[ghostflowerdreams]

When Fatima tried to enter the Colony House, it seemed like the door was locked. She got distracted by the smell of rotten vegetables, but the other woman entered without any trouble. Looking back, it’s almost always Ellis or someone else opening the doors for her. Could this mean she’s turning into a monster, or that her baby is one? That feels like the obvious route to take with her story, but it could just be a regular pregnancy, like Marielle suggested. Maybe they're trying a bit of misdirection with the audience, eh?

What did Marielle say, that it's hyperemesis gravidarum? Apparently, it's a severe form of morning sickness characterized by extreme nausea, persistent vomiting, which can lead to significant weight loss, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalances. Repeated vomiting can wear down tooth enamel and increase the risk of decay—not exactly tooth loss, but her condition is likely worse than others due to the lack of access to a dentist and basic oral hygiene products like toothpaste, floss, and mouthwash.

The next question is: why is she eating rotten vegetables? This could be explained by pica, an eating disorder that can occur when the body is low on essential minerals and nutrients like iron and zinc. Pica can happen at any time, to anyone, and women can develop pica during pregnancy. Some people might eat substances like dirt, clay, cornstarch, or even other non-food items like stones, mothballs, and paint chips. Given that she hasn’t eaten anything in three days, it’s quite possible that she has developed pica.

Some people have suggested the food was intentionally rotted to provide her with something to eat. This could hint at her having a monster baby, but it may also be unrelated.

Whatever force controls the monsters and the town clearly operates under its own set of rules, which are always rigged in its favor. It takes something away while offering something in return.

A lot of people in the Colony House died, but then a bus full of people show up. Interestingly, I can't recall who it was, but someone expressed concern about not having enough food to feed everyone. Shortly after, we see that the crops they were growing have all rotted away. Now, they really don't have enough food to feed everyone.

Tian Chen remained hopeful, suggesting they could grow the food by planting the crops in different locations to find suitable soil. Then, Jim and Kenny discover a patch of cabbages growing amid the remnants of an old village. That location wasn't there before, but now they have enough food again and a new place for their crops to grow.

It feels as though something is listening; it knows what’s on their mind, and offers them hope (or makes their fear a reality), only to crush it later. The townspeople aren’t just a source of entertainment for it, they’re likely the very means by which it sustains itself. It's their fears and hopes that make their despair (or soul) all the sweeter to consume.

Why else would the radio in the dinner turn on when Kenny was grieving? It taunted him, but at the same time, that radio was the same one that gave Boyd a sign to explore the forest.

It's clear that some kind of overseer entity is listening and watching them all. I wonder how long it will take for them to realize they need to be more careful about what they say aloud, as their words seem to manifest into existence.

[bluebirdcurse]

Jim definitely thinks Jade is gay and is going to have a full crashout if Julie ever tells him about bisexuality. Man's marriage is already in shambles and now his wife is besties with a lonely billionaire who's a shave and a mild sedative away from being the cutest boy in hell? Who shares Tabitha's twin passions of hallucinating and having perfect bone structure?

[doitsushine92]

i don't like that they took apart that statue. not in the slightest

[cooperhoward]

What will this place take from them next?

FROM returns on September 22 on MGM+

[goddamnromantic]

Kristi is DEFINITELY the dead body seen in the From season 3 trailer

1. She is seen wearing white legwarmers with jeans, and those same legs are seen getting caught in a bear trap

2. The dead body HAS THE BEAR TRAP WOUND (hard to see in these ss, it goes by fast but clearly lines up)

3. In the promo photos, she’s seen wearing a red beanie, but in the trailer Jade is talking to someone wearing it that isn’t fully pictured, and then later he’s wearing it

4. Kenny is clearly mourning (the flowers on the counter, his outburst at the radio) it would make sense he’s emotional at losing Kristi and isn’t able to show it in a healthy way because of Marielle

I think this makes the most sense plot wise, and would force Marielle to step up and maybe take on Julie as a nurse trainee. I’m DYING to know other people’s thoughts though I couldn’t find anyone else mentioning these points let me know what yall think :3

[irraetional]

Give it up for men covered in blood! 👏👏👏

[ananke-xiii]

The Identity of the Man in Yellow

These are just my speculations but you still have to have watched S3E10 of FROM to get all the references. So it's not exactly spoiler-y because S3 ended weeks ago, but if you haven't caught up with all the episodes it is, lol.

The first thing I want to say is that I havent't found anybody talking about the significance of the color yellow and it's a bit weird because it's such a glaring thing! I'd like to write about it because the use of colors in general but in American media is always very precise. I mean, yes, color studies and film studies go hand in hand but also I've always been fascinated by how American writers are very intentional with their choice of colors in their works (Poe and Melville with white, Hawthorne and red, Morrison and blue, Perkins Gilman and yellow but also Fitzgerald and yellow/gold etc).

If it wasn't clear enough before, it is now: one of FROM's undercurrent themes is race. This is why I'm baffled by people being confused as to who the monsters are. I mean, guys, please. An eerie town stuck in the fifties, isolated, in the middle of nowhere. Where there's a sign for a motel but no motel (which I take as an unwillingness to welcome foreigners but an interest in luring them in). Where all monsters are white (I have things to say about the Kimono Girl but I won't now) and blood is represented as being infectious and carrier of weird things&death.

I think it's safe to say that one of the meanings of the monsters is to represent the cultural anxities of white people around racial purity. Throw in the Civil War soldiers, the never spoken-about-but-it's-there Vietnam War and the fact that Boyd is black and his wife Abby is white and their son Ellis marries Fatima and that from their union SYMBOLICALLY (I have to highlight this word everytime) a monster is reborn... That the monsters want to BREAK Boyd... There's no escape, the monsters are all about race.

So what does this have to do with the Man in Yellow? (It's a long post)

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the Man in Yellow is Jim's father.

No, not his actual father, rather the reincarnation of Jim's father. I don't know how to technically fit this into the reincarnation aspect, but, I believe, just like Tabitha and Jade are destined to go back to the town to save the children (and fail), the Man in Yellow is destined to go back to the town to continue the abuse (and succeed). Because the thing about the cycle of abuse is not only about victims who keep being sacrificed but also about abusers who keep doing the sacrifice. And since the sacrifice is all about parents and children... the Man in Yellow must be someone's father and my money's on Jim.

If you really think about it, it makes sense because monsters are connected with immortality but they were CLEARLY scammed by someone because, surprise!, they can very much die. Sure, they can be reborn the same as before (not reincarnated) but they need actual people there for them to come back. Which means that someone must send/attract/lure these people to the town.

It's not a coincidence that a lot of screen-time is given to Jasper, the ventriloquist dummy. To me the monsters are like the dummy so there must be a ventriloquist as well.

The facts are these:

in the pilot the little girl opens the window because the monster tells her that she's her grandma. It's established from day 1 that we need to watch out for grandparents or people claiming to be them;

the father of said child MUST die because he failed to protect his child (and wife). In hindsight THAT was a HUGE clue;

right before the Matthews met the tree (lol), Jim says how he wishes things were like they were before and recalls the day he and Tabitha met her parents. Tabitha says that she was terrified that they wouldn't like him. So the theme of fear is very much connected to that of the parents' parents since the very first scenes of the show;

for the love of all that is holy I cannot find this scene but I am SURE that, at one ONE point in season 2, Ethan asks Jim if they will ever see Thomas and his (Ethan's) grandfather again. By linking Thomas with his grandpa I think it's safe to assume that grandpa is dead just like Thomas is. Now it could be Tabitha's father but I think Ethan's talking about Jim's here;

in season 3 when Jim talks with Henry in the bar he mentions that his father was/is (I don't remember but, see above, I think grandpa is dead) an alcoholic. He says this because he recounts the night Julie was born because that night he went to a bar and decided to quit drinking because he didn't want to be like his father;

the link between the Stevens and the Matthews is Julie. Future!Julie saves Boyd by giving him the rope (even if she doesn't know that there's Boyd in that shaft) and Boyd saves Julie in return from whatever happened to her, Randall and Marielle in S2. In a similar fashion, future!Julie will try to save Jim, although she seems to be unsuccessful;

music: Boyd had to destroy the music-box to save Julie and the others and, in so doing, he destroyed his chance to uncover his past (well, this is my hypothesis tbh). On the other hand, music allows Tabitha and Jade to remember and, potentially, to save the children;

Boyd's father, thus Ellis's grandfather had Parkison's and Boyd thinks he has it too;

and now for the meatier part: Jim and the Man in Yellow scene in "Revelations" and Boyd and Smiley scene in "Pas de deux".

The scenes:

In "Pas de Deux" Boyd is faced with a dilemma: his son, Ellis, needs a blood transfusion because he's been wounded by Dale. However, Boyd had been "infected" by Martin ("infected" is such an ugly word but this is the general vibe that I get from the show and I think it's intentional albeit uncomfortable. Sometimes discomfort is important) and doesn't want to "pass it on" to his son. Kenny, Boyd's putative son, steps in and accepts to get whatever Boyd has in his blood "passed on to him" so that Boyd can be free and Ellis can be saved.

Boyd solves the dilemma by going out into the night, slit one of the monsters' throat and pass his blood on to the monster. In a surprising turn of events, the same monster, so-called Smiley, will turn out to be Boyd's SYMBOLICAL nephew. Smiley is what comes out from Fatima's pregnancy and Fatima is Ellis' wife. It's stated in the show multiple times that, before it was revelead that the pregnancy was real/unreal, Boyd would become a grandfather (I mean, of course, but like, mentioning it was meant to focus our attention to Boyd becoming a grandpa, not just an obvious, throwaway line like "oh you'll become a grandpa, you're old haha").

Therefore, when Boyd says to the monster "My blood is your blood now" he wasn't... wrong.

In "Revelations: Part Two" the Man in Yellow appears in the woods, by the RV where Jim and Julie are. He also slits Jim's throat and tells him that "knowledge comes with a cost". Since the previous scene had established that the "monsters" sacrificed their children (the "cost") to gain immortality, I think there's room to see the Man in Yellow as sacrificing his child (the "cost") making Jim the Man in Yellow's son.

My hypothesis is reinforced by all of the above facts but specifically about the scene with Boyd and Smiley in S2 because these two scenes are visually very, very similar. This would be good news because it could mean that Jim can "resurrect" just like Smiley did (hopefully in a different, less gory way).

There's also the element of Future!Julie linking both Boyd and Jim as father-figures to be saved.

Would this make Ethan closer to Ellis/Kenny in terms of narrative function? I don't know, Ethan baffles me because we know from day one that he's a super-key element to "solve" the story but the writers are rightfully doing their best to cover the answers they've disseminated throughout three seasons. So it's not easy to fully understand him but one thing is sure: he's connected to the Man in Yellow by the color yellow.

To sum up: Boyd and Man in Yellow are grandfathers of monsters. They represent the ancestors, if you will. This is the reason why the monsters are so obsessed with Boyd and want to break him. Boyd is the antagonist in the Man in Yellow's immutable, immortal story while he is the protagonist in our story.

Their sons are Ellis/Kenny (whom Boyd didn't want to sacrifice) and Jim (whom the Man in Yellow definitely wants to sacrifice). This also makes Jim and Smiley stand very closely to each other. Julie is Boyd's symbolical daughter and Jim's actual daughter. She managed to save the first at a cost (what happened to her in S2 started because of Boyd) but couldn't save Jim who, in turn, had to bear the weight of the cost of having helped Jade and Tabitha unearth their past.

The show is about reincarnation, generational trauma and children sacrifice. There's an element of "what goes around comes around" that must be stopped or this "cost" will keep be "passed on" from character to character and from parents to children. In other words, the story must be changed,

Mothers are shown to be the ones who are bent on breaking the cycle while fathers seem to keep repeating it because they haven't shared light on their trauma, yet. In this respect, Jim, if he ever makes it out alive, is/was actually closer to Boyd in breaking the cycle. For example, Jim clealry states that he doesn't want to be like his father, while Boyd is shown to believe that he also has Parkison's just like his father had (I insist on the "believe" part because Boyd refuses to be examined by Kristi and says that he "knows he has it" but I think he's being an unreliable narrator here). This makes me think that Boyd is convinced that he will end up just like his father, even if he says that the town won't break him. Perhaps he already feels broken inside. In "spirit" he's much more like the Man in Yellow than Jim is.

In all season finales Boyd is undergound which is a symbol of the unconscious and repressed trauma. A good indicator of whether he's gonna make it to the end alive or not will be to check S4 finale: if Boyd is still shown in an underground, dark place I don't think a happy ending is in for him. Ultra Sad Face.

You might have noticed that my first point (and the show's first introduction of the monsters) is about a grandmother. So how do grandmothers fit in all this?

There are also several grandmothers in the show: Tabitha's mother who we only hear on the phone (just like the Man in Yellow before his appearance); Elgin's grandmother who, I believe, was the person he was supposed to go see when he took that fateful bus; Tillie and her seven grandchildren (just like the number of the angkoohey kids) and, finally, Jim's mother, the piano teacher whose teachings proved to be THE key to solve the numbers' enigma. This brings me to my final point:

Jim's mentioning his mother in "Revelations" reveals that the Man in Yellow is his father (or, rather, his father's reincarnation). Why?

The facts are these II:

the last three scenes of "Revelations" are about remembrance, birth and death. Two parents remember their child, one "child" is born and the grandfather watches his "birth", Jim dies and his child watches him "dying";

the two parents were able to recognize their child because of Jim's mother's teachings;

Boyd watches the birth of his "nephew";

the Man in Yellow kills Jim while Julie watches.

There's a signifier vacuum around Jim in all these scenes: he's a father-figure for sure but right now he's a son, a child. His mother's child. And as one "child" is born... one "child" dies. And this child is Jim. Jim is a sacrificed child. This makes the Man in Yellow his father, because the sacrifice of the town is not about random kids: parents must kill their children. And so the Man in Yellow kills Jim. And so the father sacrifices his child.

In S3 of FROM we got a "I am your child" moment.

In S4 of FROM we'll get a "I am your father" moment.

[neyrra13]

pov sarah and viktor on their side quest while the rest of the town was dealing with the most mentally exhausting fucked up shit

[divorcingjimmatthews]

[takkytakk]

Maybe in some fucked-up way, this could be the key to getting the hell out of here.

[esoteric-choleric]

Fatima: I can only eat rot and can't seem to pass through doors unless invited

That old lady from the bus: the wonders of pregnancy < 3