MGM+’s convoluted mystery thriller series From finally ends its 2nd season with a temporary resolution to some of the characters’ dismay while also raising more questions in its usual style. Season 2 of From began with Sheriff Boyd finding himself inside a dungeon-like chamber where an old, frail man named Martin was kept chained to a wall. Martin warned Boyd against a sinister music box and then wounded Boyd, transferring his own blood onto the sheriff’s before dying. When Boyd left the chamber, he saw that the place was no longer there as if magically transformed, and after traveling through the forest, he returned to the town. Although Boyd was safe, he seemed to carry some power, or curse, inside his arms, which appeared like bugs crawling under his skin. Out of desperation to help the townsfolk against the increasingly dangerous attacks of the monsters, Boyd slit the throat of one of the monsters and transferred his own blood onto it, which successfully killed the monster. There were no longer any bugs under his skin, but these very bugs, which are cicadas, were now released onto the whole town, which brought in a grave new danger. People could now be attacked in their sleep and even killed, and this was tied to the cicadas and the sinister music box, which everyone heard when attacked.
Spoilers Alert
From Season 2 also brought in a new set of characters in the form of new people who arrive in the town aboard a public bus. Interestingly, Kristi’s girlfriend/fiancé, Marielle, or Mari, was also present on this bus, and the two were now reunited, although it was not a very happy reunion because of Mari’s drug addiction. Aboard the bus was also Elgin, a young man who had dreamed of certain scenarios in the town much earlier while on the bus, and he is also more aware of the things going on in the town than the others. Another man, Randall, who had come to the town on the bus, turns out to be a selfish miscreant who creates trouble for everyone around him. The characters we had already seen in season 1 also feature heavily this time around. Sarah is back in town, and Kenny finally learns that it was she who got his father killed. Despite his anger and hatred towards the young woman, Kenny eventually keeps his personal feud aside and focuses on the danger in the town.
Jim tries to investigate a theory he has that they are part of some cruel experiment and appoints Randall for help, which results horribly as Randall takes people hostage, and then, when he is outnumbered, the man foolishly runs into the forest with the monsters chasing him. Tabitha, on the other hand, learns that Victor’s mother had gone to a tower to save some children and believes that the strange-looking children that she has been seeing are connected to this. She believes that she, too, needs to find the tower, save the children from it, and do something different than Victor’s mother so that they can all return home. Finally, amidst such a scenario and the heavy buzzing of cicadas around the town, Randall, Marielle, and Julie fall sick as they seem to be taken over by the cicadas in their sleep.
How Does Boyd Temporarily Save The Day?
As the new dangers of the nightmares and cicadas were being investigated by the townsfolk, the bus driver Bakta connected the words that Elgin remembered from his dream to those of a children’s nursery rhyme. This rhyme mentioned that attacks always came in threes, and sure enough, this tied in with three characters getting attacked by the invisible creatures. Randall in the woods, Mari at Colony House, and Julie at the house where the Matthews were staying are all taken control of by something as they all fall unconscious, with their eyes gone feculent and their pupils having turned gray. While Mari and Julie are treated and comforted by the people around them immediately, Randall is found in this state the next day, inside the forest where we had seen him swarmed by the cicadas. Randall is brought back to the Colony House, where he, too, receives some minor treatment and attention. But despite their best efforts, the friends and family cannot help the three victims, as nobody understands what exactly they are suffering from. The three keep screaming out at the very same time, once every few minutes as if they are going through some excruciating pain together.
In order to find some solution to this problem, Boyd and Kenny go to Sarah and tell her about the whole situation. Boyd makes this connection with Sarah because Elgin said that he had seen a young boy dressed in white in his dream, and Sarah also claimed to have seen this boy earlier in the forest in From season 1. Boyd then takes Sarah over to the place where the dungeon-like chamber had been, and the young woman seems to connect to the place, saying that she can hear the music box playing. Sarah frantically tries to find the music box, claiming that stopping the music would be the only way to stop the pains of Mari, Julie, and Randall, but no such box is to be found there. As if hearing noises and the rhyme herself, with her nose bleeding as well, Sarah says that the three victims will die soon if nothing is done to help them.
This warning sticks in Boyd’s head, and the sheriff keeps trying to think of ways to save the three. Finally, he realizes that going to the empty clearing in the forest with a torchlight might make the chamber appear once again, and this does seem to be the case. As soon as Boyd lights up a torch, the chamber appears in existence, and inside it are Mari, Julie, and Randall, chained to the walls just like Martin had earlier been. The three look to be in extreme pain, which is connected to the music box playing in the corner of the chamber, and Boyd knows that he needs to destroy it. There is a brief pause in his plan as his dead wife, Abby, appears once again, trying to convince him to let the music box be. Abby says that the three individuals would surely die one way or another, and instead, it would be cruel to give them new hope of survival. By this time, though, Boyd has probably started to realize that Abby appears only in the most crucial of situations and tells him to do things that are exactly the opposite of what needs to be done. Realizing that his wife’s appearance is just a projection that the place was using to play with his head, Boyd decides not to pay any attention to it, and he destroys the music box with the torch.
As soon as the music box is destroyed, Mari, Julie, and Randall wake up in their respective beds looking fine and recovered. Their eyes turn back to normal again, and they are able to speak, too, meaning that the nightmare is over and they are now out of danger. Young Ethan then also notices how the noise of the cicadas is no longer heard, which means that the danger has truly passed, at least temporarily. This is all due to Sheriff Boyd’s bravado, and the man has finally been able to save the day. As he leaves the chamber and comes to the opening in the forest, Boyd spots a dog, one of the many he had seen in the forest earlier. As the dog runs away, it is not clear whether Boyd will follow it or return to town.
What Is Going On At Colony House?
The grieving husband, Reggie, whose wife, Paula, died in episode 8 from a nightmare during her nap, is now put up at the Colony House. The man had lost control the previous night, panicking and almost attacking the residents in a frenzied state, and had to therefore be locked up inside one of the rooms. The next morning, Ellis apologizes to Reggie, and the latter accepts the apology, saying that he knows why locking him up is necessary. Reggie pretends to be understanding and caring, but then it is revealed that the man has truly lost mental balance and plans on killing the entire town, just like Abby once did. The man kills one of the guards at Colony House and gets hold of one of the rifles, which he takes to kill his first target. Since the cicadas had been essentially brought to town and also released by Sheriff Boyd, Reggie’s first target is Boyd himself. Reggie shoots the sheriff in the shoulder, but Boyd quickly replies with his own handgun and kills Reggie. It is after this that Boyd goes to the chamber inside the forest, seemingly not seriously hurt by the bullet. Why exactly this plotline is kept, especially since Boyd is not that hurt and Reggie is instantly killed, or at least it seems so, is unclear.
On the other side, Ellis hears Reggie talk about his misery after losing Paula, and he has a conversation with Fatima about this. Fearing, or calmly assessing, that the end might be near for them, Fatima tells Ellis that she wants to get married to him on this very day before their lives potentially end. A very small ceremony is held at the Colony House, with Ellis and Fatima’s room decorated with flowers. As there are no priests in the town, Donna oversees the wedding as an elder, and Boyd also joins in. It is at the wedding of his son, while hearing the vows about light clearing away dark places that Boyd comes up with the plan of going to the clearing with a torchlight and then saves Mari, Julie, and Randall from their misery.
What Does Jade Find Inside The Tunnels?
Jade still remains fixated on finding the meaning of the symbol that he has been seeing since the beginning of his time in the strange town. When Tabitha had earlier told him that she had seen the symbol in the underground tunnels, Jade believed her but knew it was dangerous to go into the tunnels and therefore did not act on it. Now, while spending time alone at the bar, which he seems to have made his home, Jade starts to see the dead bartender, Tom. Although he knows that this is a hallucination, Jade clearly sees the man and even has a conversation with him, just like Boyd once had with the dead Father Khatri. It is now Tom, or Jade’s own conscience in the form of the dead bartender, that convinces Jade to go to the tunnels and find out the important meaning of the symbol.
Jade goes to the opening of the tunnel inside the forest and then crawls in. He comes across the doll wearing a suit, which he had hallucinated earlier, and Victor had also seemed affected by it when he was in the tunnels. How this doll is significant is still not clear, but Jade currently brushes past it. Reaching a clearing inside the tunnel, Jade looks up to see that branches and other growth have formed the symbol on the opening of the caves. He then also sees that he is surrounded by seven stone slabs on which seven children, the same ones that Tabitha had been seeing, lie and chant the word “anghkooey.” The meaning or significance of this word is also not made clear yet, and it seems to be some sort of cryptic language that the children use to communicate. Within the next moment, Jade understands that he had hallucinated the whole thing, for neither the children nor the symbol actually exists. We are not shown Jade leaving the tunnels, though, and it could be that the man will continue investigating the place in From season 3.
What Happens To Tabitha Matthews?
Tabitha was, by now, convinced that she was supposed to find the tower and save the children in order to save the rest of the townsfolk. She informs Jim that this seems to be the only option and then asks for Victor’s help in locating the tower. Victor replies that although he does not know where the tower is, he surely knows the way to one of the faraway trees that supposedly takes one to the tower. He takes Tabitha to the tree and then gives her his lunchbox with some snacks, wishing her all the best for her adventure. As Tabitha steps inside the faraway tree and then comes out of the other side, she finds herself in a thick forest and soon finds the tower that she had been seeing in her visions.
The tower is indeed the lighthouse, which was last seen at the end of From season 1, and Tabitha now starts to climb up the stairs. With toys and other things thrown all over the staircase, it is quite evident that one or more kids live there. Tabitha once again hears the mysterious word “anghkooey” repeatedly, as if a child is calling out to her from the very top of the tower. The woman reaches the top of the lighthouse and then sees the boy dressed in white walk up to her. The boy apologizes for what he is about to do next and states that this is apparently the only way, then pushes Tabitha toward the edge of the lighthouse. The woman is thrown backward, shatters the glass, and falls from the tower.
As the screen cuts to black, Tabitha is next seen waking up on a hospital bed, where a doctor soon comes to check on her. It is very evident that she has somehow been transported back to the real world, and the doctor says that a group of hikers found her in an injured state deep inside a forest. It is after three days that Tabitha has woken up, and she immediately realizes what has happened. Walking up to the window of the hospital room, Tabitha sees that she is indeed now in the normal world, with cars and boats and people going about their usual activities.
Based on this ending, it seems like the lighthouse works like some sort of portal through which people trapped in the strange town can make their way out to the normal world. This is what had seemingly happened with Victor’s mother, too, as she had left and never returned, but then Victor also found her body near the faraway tree. This could mean that Tabitha’s body might also be found by the residents of the town the next time around. Or, it could be that after Tabitha had fallen from the lighthouse, seemingly into the real world, she was lucky enough to be found by a group of hikers, while Victor’s mother was not so lucky, and she was never found.
In the very last scene inside the hospital room, when Tabitha walks up to the window, the reflection on the glass also seems to show a different face. Although we see it only for a very brief second, it seems like Tabitha’s face on the reflection is very different from her actual face, perhaps suggesting that she had woken up in the body of someone else and that it is only her consciousness that has traveled back to reality. If one is to find resemblances, the reflection might remind of one of the monsters seen earlier in From season 1, who was in the form of a woman named Jasmine and had led the infiltration and attack on Colony House. Whether this suggests a split of the body and the consciousness, suggesting that the strange town was some sort of an alternate reality, or whether it hints at a glitch in the simulation, if the town is actually a sort of created dimension, remains to be seen. Judging by how briefly we see Tabitha’s reflection on the window, it can also be that my assumption that we see a different face in the reflection is untrue, but with a show like From, just about anything can actually happen.
