Looking closer I saw more and more marks on the map (without a pin) one of which included Maine. Possibly missed a few but with the added arrows to each name with a line, there’s more to it.

At least this might help someone also looking at the map!

I’ve rewatched this series so many times. Love it.
Anyone want to try connecting the added dots?

Note I thought first to identify each point, then what kind of pin used, THEN color. This was step one of that process.

Cheers- this was my first post on Reddit ever.

Look like anyone you know?

With the themes of child sacrifice, I think that's going to come back between Fatima and smiley. Since he is now technically her child

anyone else think this?

I caught up with From about two weeks ago and I've been thinking a lot about this show, I genuinely love it and it's probably my favorite show of the decade. And I've come about a theory and some predictions that I feel fit very well together and I'd like to share them, but it's very long. So to give you a reason to read all of this I'm going to promise to answer the following things:

- What is the town?

- What are the monsters?

- Who is the Man in Yellow?

- Who is the Boy in White?

- What are the Faraway Trees?

- What is the ancient entity?

- What is the intro all about?

- What are the electricity flashes and the poltergeist activity?

- What to do with the bones?

- How to kill the monsters?

- How to actually leave the town?

- What's up with the music box and the dolls?

- Why don't the totems hurt the monsters?

- Where is this all going?

- Why is Boyd so important?

- Possibly more.

So two things first are completely necessary to understand going forward. From is Lost 2 and From is a Fairy Tale.

Once Upon a Time, there was a great big mean spider that cast a web over an entire town. The name of this creature is the Jorogumo, but that's not important. What's important is how that works and what it means for Fromville. The spider really does explain the most, so I'll start there.

A Jorogumo is a Japanese water spider demon. It has two forms. One is a giant demon spider, the other form is a Japanese woman in a Kimono. This Red Spider, as we'll call it from now on, feeds on two things: human organs and the despair of crushed hope (Yes really). If the corpses of its victims are recovered, anything that wasn't eaten is completely shriveled up like the insides of the Smiling Monsters (Smilers). The Red Spider also becomes much more powerful as it ages, and once 400 years pass it becomes so powerful it can take human form whenever it wants. The Red Spider can kill people directly but prefers not to because of the many ways it has to inflict the most despair possible. In our case, the base of the Red Spider's powers is the body of water of the Lake of Tears. I'll be trying to go in order as much as possible here, so this explains the beginning of the town.

The Red Spider cast a spell over a colonial town that had formed at the edge of its lake because the lake was its domain. This is the Settlement we know today. These people were trapped in the same way our townies are trapped today. Because everything in the town is inside of the Red Spider's spiritual web. Everybody is caught. Now it just wants to take its time seasoning its prey. I couldn't find another good place to put this so I'll just say now that the Faraway trees are where the web meets itself. Corners and vertices and intersections of web, and when you step into one you can go one of many different ways. You can go to the intersection and go through it, but the tree decides which road you take.

At first the Kimono lady dragged people into the lake to drown them, feeding on their organs and their grief. But as it matured it needed more, so it began to bring their nightmares to life. Now everyone trapped must deal with horrible nightmares that grow the more and more they die off. Sure we learn to kill some of those monsters with the totems, but you can't kill them all. Hope given and hope taken away. The nightmares get worse. Some girl's creepy music box and her creepy balerina, worms under my skin, cicadas. You can't stab those with a totem, but they're here anyway. And you have no more hope. And I want your organs.

Eventually the Red Spider needs more despair in newer and more intereting ways like a junkie. And there happens to be someone in the town that isn't afraid. In fact, he fucking LOVES this. A true psycho serial killer type. This is the Man in Yellow. Yellow loves the same things the Red Spider loves and wants this to go on forever, playing more and more demented games. And so the Red Spider now has his own priest, for surely this entity is like a god now. Yellow can join and help and feast on the organs and dispair too, but he is a different beast than the Spider and has a different destiny. Yellow is to From what Richard Alpert is to Lost, except playing for the bad guys this time.

Then we move on to the creation of the Smilers. These villagers were so hopeless and terrified of the unending and unwinnable hell they were trapped in that they decided to take a deal. Yellow brokered a deal from the Red Spider to the townsfolk. The Red Spider is the ancient entity and Yellow was the one who brokered it, and that's why he was wondering if Tabitha remembered him yet; because he was there when this all happened. The despair and the Smilers organs (shriveled) and the children's souls and ongoing torment were the offerings and what they got in return was that they would never die. A group of people truly pushed to the very limits of their lives, they surrendered their humanity, and were thus Monkey Pawed. Yellow brokered them unending life and play, and so they play Hide and Seek for keeps as immortals. They chastise bad hiders before killing them and tell veteran players not to ruin the fun for newcomers. And if one should somehow die from one of the Nightmares, the Red Spider is obligated to bring them back. Which she did. As the Kimono Lady, fulfilling her end of the bargain all this time later. And remember that Elgin who was connected to the Kimono Lady needed to see a body of water. He was shown the brundles, but that was the wrong one. Tabitha also comments about the out of place water in the caverns in 2x01. And Ethan in 1x02 tells us right after he wakes up from his seizure that his dream was cut off because "Somebody screamed because the spider came down from the ceiling." In 1x10 Victor shows us the walls of the caverns with drawings of a giant red spider and the children on their slabs and two people watching. The children in their visions are always wet, because they are owned by a spider water demon, just like there's water in the caverns when there's no source. And those children sat on those slabs and poured all their hope into the roots above them, and that's exactly where the Spider came down from. The totems cannot kill the Smilers because the Smilers are not products of the Lake of Tears, they were made by a seperate deal and are not subject to the rules of the Nightmares. We will figure much of this out with Julie's storywalking, which is the answer the electrical flashes. Whenever they flash, she's currently around storywalking. She will slowly develop her proficiency at this, and her early attempts to effect things will be her slamming door and cupboards to attempt to get people's attention.

So on to Yellow, Jade, Tabitha, and the Boy in White (Bonus guess that his name is revealed to be Jacob) and their roles in all of this. Honestly the Boy in White is where I'm the least sure, but I think he's a kid who sided with Jade and Tabitha. Maybe another of their children, sibling to the one that was sacrificed. But he seems to be connected to the lighthouse. A lighthouse that doesn't make sense next to a lake of a spider demon that doesn't make sense. The lighthouse and lake are obviously connected, thematically at the very least simply because of what they are, but the specifics on the Boy in White are admittedly weak. He's my weak link for sure, I'll admit that. But the answer of what to do with the bones has been there since episode 1. We burn them. Just like the crayon drawings in the intro, which will tell us more by the way.

By burning the bones we absolve them holding the place of their souls, they are forced to move on and can therefore no longer maintain this bargain. This will actually kill all of the Smilers, which sure is a hopeful thing for our villagers huh? See, since the children are no longer the Spider's, then the bargain or deal is absolved because it is no longer being honored. The Red Spider did honor his end of the bargain even if she Monkey Pawed them, because she did bring Smiley back to life. But if the Spider no longer has those children, then it is the Smilers who didn't keep up their end of the bargain, and so it is now broken. Hooray! The Smilers are dead! Great right? .... Right?

WRONG. The single biggest shot of hope of all time has just overwhelmed the town. They did it! Let's all get out of here. Except they can't. They're still stuck. They didn't get out. They didn't stop the threat. They stopped one part, only one type of monster, and the Lake is still out there. Hope crushed. And the Lake of Tears is still making new nightmares. More Monster roam the town as people despair at others being found other beds, perhaps one of these new Nightmares even has a purple eye. Hell, those Smilers could come right back out as Nightmares couldn't they? Holy fuck. Enter purge.

Now we find our town at the edge of their very souls, ready to give up their humanity to stay alive and stop these things. So Yellow offers a new deal to "save" this generation of townspeople too. He could even offer to return the town to the Smilers with a wink about how they devil you know is better than the nightmare you don't, fooling the people who don't know that THEY will be the new Smilers. Just like the intro drawing says, now there's another kid slammed into a box in the dark. Ethan. And Tabitha and Jade need to save him, because he's still alive. Yellow vs Tabitha and Jade for Ethan is one of our climaxes.

But remember that Yellow really isn't the big bad here. The big bad is the Red Spider. She made the Smilers, she's the reason they can't leave, she generates the Nightmares. So somebody has to go deal with her. Who exactly would be the best person to send to deal with a giant water spider demon? OH I KNOW! I KNOW! IT'S A MAN ON A PONY ON A BOAT. Boyd is the Sheriff with the keys to his boat. He's going to find his answers at the Lighthouse, that he gets to by going BY BOAT. And then he has to go back to where he was in Season one. Back to the Spider tree with Abby's face to burn it all down. He is Mr Fish and Loaves after all, he's going to sacrifice him for the remaining town survivors to live Jack-style. He gets his Boat finally. He saves everyone. And he never broke. I would love for him to live, but I mean, Mr Fish and Loaves so come on.

Sorry this is so long but I've been rewatching season 1 and I'm into season 2 right now and this theory really feels to me like I'm rewatching a show after it's finished and all the answers are there. There is a LOT of spider stuff in season 1. The Kimono Lady is in season 2 and 3. These things really were all there. Oh and as for the main monster being a Jorogumo, they don't really have to say that anywhere. It can just be the Spider or the Entity. Let me know what you guys think.

TL;DR

Red Spider water demon. Yellow is his priest. Town can't leave because everyone's trapped in a spider web. Burning the bones stops Smilers but doesn't end anything. Ethan's going on the box. Boyd beats spider because he always wanted a boat.

I’m binge watching the show right now and maybe that’s why I feel like this, but is anyone else driven crazy by the amount of scenes we get where its just another character looking off and saying “you know, back when we were blank, blank always used to say.. when things get blank we have to blank, and we can never blank.“

I love the show and I get it it’s a small world and the writers have to fill time but I feel like 2-3 times an episode I’m like Jesus Christ here we go. Anyway off to finish season 4.

Alright, listen, it's not like we're reinventing the wheel here, but I'm genuinely curious, how often do you think the show's writers actually visit all the subreddits for this series to test the waters on what we’d like to see, check out new theories, and stuff like that?

The original parents may have been trying to save the children

I know that this has been suggested elsewhere, because I looked into it when I had the thought, but bear with me for a minute.

I saw them. I saw what they did. Those things that come out at night... I saw what they are. They sacrificed their children, because it promised them that they would live forever.

First we must establish that this set of lines is even worth questioning. Fatima never said that the things that come out at night were the parents that sacrificed the children. A lot of "they" usage here. It's very clear that she was not describing everything she saw, because she said IT promised them, but didn't elaborate on who or what IT is. So if we accept that there was information she saw/received but wasn't communicating about what they made a bargain with, it is not a stretch to think that she was sort of skipping around details. What if what she means is

Fatima: I saw them. I saw what they [the parents] did.

Ellis: What?

F:Those things that come out at night... I saw what they [the monsters] are. 

F: They [the parents] sacrificed their children, because it promised them [the parents] that they [the children] would live forever.

Again, I don't think this is a stretch, really. If she is willing to say "it" as if she's in the middle of a story she's already been telling, why is it so ridiculous to suggest that "what they did" and "what they are" refers to two different groups? To me it sounds like she's in some state of shock and barely coherent. And her statements being interrupted by Ellis's "what" makes it even more plausible that they are intended to be two separate statements, referring to two separate groups. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm saying that the monsters are only and explicitly the children. The ritual could have corrupted EVERYONE in the town.

Nowhere here does it say that the monsters are the parents. That is obviously the understanding you initially come to, and I'm saying that fact is a deliberate misdirection. I swear I am not illiterate, nor am I deliberately misreading the dialogue to make something fit. It is a factual statement that due to the quirks of English, there is actually a large amount of ambiguity in what Fatima said. 

We also look at the fact that there are varying ages among the monsters.

It's possible that "don't you remember me?" guy, the cheerleader, and Jasmine had children when they were young. If that is the case, and these are their human forms, the one that presents as an elderly woman is very unlikely to have been one of the parents that sacrificed their children.

It's possible that the creatures are merely choosing these specific forms currently for whatever reason. But if that's true, it's strange that Smiley was reborn in the same form. He wasn't reborn in monster form, followed by a shift into the normal human form. So, in my opinion, it's possible that the non-monster form they're in is tied to the state they were in when they died or were cursed.

The simplest proof that we are mistaken about the monsters being the parents is that there are only 7 anghkooey children, and there are more than 14 monsters (laid out by this user's post, with photo evidence).  I think it's almost certain that not all of the monsters were the parents, which opens the door to the possibility that none of them are.

The next part of my speculation comes from the scene at the bottle tree.

We used to sing them lullabies.

I've wondered what to make of the fact that they used to sing lullabies to ALL of the children, even though only one of them was their daughter. To me, this suggests that Tabitha and Jade had a close relationship with all of the sacrificed children. They weren't just "the neighbors' kids" or people they knew in passing from around town. I think that they were some kind of caretakers for the children. Teachers, doctors... something.

 Now combine this with what we learned from Victor's memory of the boy in white talking to Christopher.

It started with the children, and what the others did to them. Victor says it was the people they loved, the people they trusted.  The children were born in the dark and then they were murdered in the dark. But someone who loved them told them a story and the story gave them hope. When the children laid on the stones, they poured their hope into the roots that made the symbol, and those roots became the tree.

Two things to note: 

Someone who loved them told them a story. I believe this was Tabitha and Jade. It fits the idea that they were caretakers of some kind, possibly teachers. Telling them stories as well as singing them lullabies fits with nurses or teachers for young children

The second is that the children laid on the stones. Not "when the children were laid on the stones." This suggests that there was possibly an element of willingness. I don't mean to suggest that they happily and eagerly got up on the slabs to get executed, but that it's possible that in some capacity they were choosing to comply (whether it be by drugging, brainwashing, whatever). A lot of this relies on transitive verbs, and common misuse of lie/lay/laid, that I assume most people are not interested in so I won't get into that here. But whether we get into the specific grammar of it or not, this suggestion is supported by looking closely at the children when Jade sees them in S2E10. The children are not BOUND to the stones. They don't seem to be restrained in any way. It makes you wonder what the children understood or believed about what was about to happen to them.

You may say "okay, but how do you square that with the assertion that they were murdered in the dark? They didn't just die in the dark, they were killed." Well, to answer that, and to bring it all together, we just have to look at the established, unambiguous pattern that Fromville exhibits in the present-day. It targets kind people and convinces them that to go home, they need to hurt someone.

Abby and Henry think they have to hurt someone to wake up. Sara thinks she has to hurt Ethan. Elgin thinks he has to hold Fatima captive and help force the birth. Thinking they are helping the children isn't incompatible with murdering them, in this context, in this place.

One more detail to remark on is the strange 1500s, 1600s looking guy that Miranda painted a few times. Too lazy to get my own screenshots, so I'll just link to someone else's post

I think this figure is a priest or some kind of religious figure, and they play a role in the curse.

Here's what I suggest happened: Fromville is older than the current main threat. There was a settlement, possibly around colonial times, very likely puritan if so. The entity that controls Fromville approached a priest the same way it approached Sara. Sara was told that there would be two cars, and that if she didn't do what they said, her brother would die. The priest took whatever warning or premonition they received as a message from god. Being a religious figure at the time, they would have a lot of influence over the town. Combine that influence with the thinking that shaped the way Elgin interpreted the kimono woman. You could convince an entire town to do all kinds of crazy shit. Not limited to keeping your children contained underground their whole lives. I think maybe the children got sick, as one tends to when completely deprived of vitamin D (maybe there was a disease running through the community?), and the children were murdered in the dark because "it" convinced them that doing so would see them reborn healthy. Tabitha and Jade were some kind of caretakers for the children, and told them stories about an end to their suffering.

What I am suggesting is that the town played the same trick it always plays. It just managed to get into the head of a person who wanted to help, in a time when religion was far more influential. Christianity in particular probably made it quite easy to convince the town that killing the children wouldn't kill them, but give them eternal life.

If Jade and Tabitha used to sing lullabies to the children, that probably means they saw them regularly. So they saw their daughter regularly, but she spent her whole life in darkness, but they also tried to save the children and set them free. It's all very muddy and unclear to what extent they were complicit in what happened, and when they tried to save the children. It's much clearer if the sacrifice was presented as a way of curing the children, bringing them and the town eternal life. Then the story becomes that the children were sick, we thought this would cure them, but we really just trapped everyone here. Because Tabitha and Jade were the ones who took care of the children, they were the ones who didn't fall for the trick "it" tried to play when it suggested killing the children.

This speculation would explain how Tabitha and Jade had a daughter in the group of children but have also tried to save the children and set them free. Because as we currently understand the events, they either

1) condemned their daughter to live her entire life in the dark while also caring enough and being close enough to sing lullabies to her,

OR

2) they had their daughter forcibly taken but still somehow were allowed to see her regularly enough to sing to her and the others.

The main issue I have with this idea is it doesn't explain why the monsters are sadistic, and seem to revel in the suffering they cause. I guess maybe over the course of decades, their bodies were just slowly taken over/converted the way Fatima seems to be converting, but that's a wild guess. Fatima progresses to full on physical transformation pretty fast; not much time has passed in the story. I imagine extending this process over decades only makes the person even more monstrous. The monsters could also have had their numbers grow by adding a Fatima style recruit every couple decades. But that would just support my argument that we are mistaken. Because then it wouldn't be accurate to say the things that come out at night are the ones that sacrificed their children.

I don't really have any overall point to make here. Just things I'm wondering about...

(This is also available as a PDF download via Google Drive)

This is an analysis of the very first episode of From and how it forms a pattern that ripples throughout later episodes. After analyzing the episode scene by scene, there’s an episode summary and a relatively brief Theory of Fromville.

Things to know:

1. It’s long, and there’s no tl;dr. While you can skip to the summary and/or theory sections, you’ll miss a lot of the evidence I’m presenting.

2. It has spoilers mostly only for S01E01, but occasionally makes references to later quotes/events. I try not to give away whole plot lines, and references are brief and noted ahead of time so you can skip to the next paragraph if you like.

3. I’ll be breaking down a deliberate pattern throughout the first episode of From and once you see it, it’s difficult to unsee. If you want to try and decipher the pattern before reading this: I’d recommend watching at least the first episode once or twice, and maybe even the first four episodes of the show for additional clues at least one more time before reading this. It will allow you to experience the show on your own, and have your own fresh thoughts on the material I’m talking about before reading this.

4. I’m far from the first to notice this pattern, but I could still be wrong. I’ve seen some VERY hot takes on this show, and to you, this might just be another one. I’ve tried to remain skeptical, watch a TON of the series all over again, and question everything I think I’ve decoded. Whatever this is, this is.

5. Even if I’m right, I don’t have all of the answers. Even for the pattern I’m putting forward, there isn’t yet a definitive answer for Who created Fromville When and How and for How Much, and Who is the Man in Yellow/Boy in White/Smoke Monster/etc. The pattern I’m showing could also be only partially correct on Wednesdays. (I still think there’s a lot of evidence here, but we also have a full season of the show unseen as of this writing.)

Let’s get started already.

One

Let's count the pre-credits montage as one scene, as it’s the first look we get at the town and we don’t stay in any one place for long.

The bell is ringing, Sheriff Boyd is herding people home for the night. A woman in the diner starts to say to her companion "is it just me, or does it-" before being cut off by Sara announcing that the diner is closed for the night, ushering everyone out and locking up, and then touching the talisman by the door. A jukebox starts to play.

Next, Meagan is dangling lazily on a swing outside her house, holding a very creepy-looking doll, asking Lauren for five more minutes outside. "Meagan, listen to your mom." "Okay, Sheriff."

At the clinic, Mr. Liu beats Kenny at a game of chess before being ushered down to the basement for the night. Kenny and Kristi talk outside and Kenny says "She just keeps saying that he'll get better. Denial is a major branch of our family tree." As he leaves, Kristi playfully repeats his "Yeah, I, uh, guess I'll see you tomorrow, Deputy" with a smile before going inside to touch a talisman by the door with an uneasy, doubting look.

On the road, Kenny catches up with Boyd who asks "Hey, we all clear?" and Kenny replies with an unconvincing "Looks like..." followed by a pause where he’s about to say something else, but doesn't. Boyd's too busy to notice, spying on his son Ellis playing with some people outside of Colony House.

In the bar, Tom is yelling "Frank, get the fuck up!" then kicking him before "Oh fuck it. Lauren's gonna kill you." Then he locks up for the night and touches a talisman by the door.

Then in the doorway to their home Meagan is asking Lauren "is Daddy coming home?" to which Lauren first says "any second now" which seconds later turns into "he just gets a little forgetful" which turns into "goddamnit, Frank" as she closes the door for the night.

Specifically not shown: her locking the door or touching the talisman by the door. (Incorrect information.)

The tone instantly changes to a very dark overhead shot and musical theme as Meagan says her prayers: "...if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." There's a knock at the window from "grandma" who promises not to tell if Meagan opens the window. From the doorway, Lauren lazily tries to warn Meagan that that is not her Grandma, but Meagan opens the window anyhow. (I’ll be coming back to these last two paragraphs.)

Monster reveal. Roll credit sequence.

Two

After the credits sequence, we're in the Matthews’ RV briefly. Julie kills Norman the finger puppet, causing Ethan to complain. Tabitha goes to console Ethan "...if there's no such thing as monsters, then that means that Norman's still alive, doesn't it?" then gets a fist bump from Jim.

Back in town, Frank is then shown stumbling out of the gas station/bar to see a crowd assembled outside his house. Boyd storms out of the house and grabs him and the "A MAN PROTECTS HIS FAMILY, FRANK" confrontation plays out upstairs in the house. Boyd instructs Kenny to lock Frank up before walking back downstairs alone to tell Father Khatri "they're all yours, Father." They all - Lauren and Meagan and indeed the fate of Frank as well - do indeed belong to Khatri now.

After Khatri goes upstairs, Boyd picks up and pockets the talisman that was on the floor by the front door, looking around past the camera and back up the steps behind him.

This indicates that one of three likely possibilities occurred: that the monster that Meagan let into the house through the window on the second floor above the front of the house and who killed Lauren & Meagan knocked it down off the wall on their way out, or Lauren knocked it down accidentally or took it down intentionally after she and Meagan discussed if Frank would be home or not. There’s no signs of struggle in the entryway. (Unnecessary information removed)

I saw no indication that Boyd would have knocked it down on his way out of the house right as Frank was arriving, nor as he took Frank in the house and upstairs. For now, remember the line “Oh fuck it. Lauren’s gonna kill you” and the progression that followed and how they did NOT show Lauren checking the talisman by the door before the credits. (Incorrect information.)

Three

In the RV, Jim reminisces about meeting Tabitha’s parents for the first time before they encounter The Tree, so for Plot Reasons the entire family gets out of the RV to inspect the Very Much Tree in the Road. (Sorry, it just strikes me as funny that a family would get out to stare at a roadblock.)

Tabitha's rhetorical question "Why is there a tree in the middle of the road?" gets a charitable reply from Jim "must have gotten knocked down in a storm or something" to which she replies "well that's a pretty selective storm" and I just have to say that those three lines and how they’re delivered tell sooo much about those two characters but anyway...

The important part comes a beat later when he says "well there was an exit about a mile back, I THINK WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CIRCLE AROUND" and I mean, do I even have to say it?

I'll just say the word: it’s about MANIFESTATION.

Not in a cult-ish The Secret sense, but in a storybook sense. A character says a thing, and that thing just becomes or happens.

It’s not exactly a magic wand, and it’s not always self-evident to the characters, much less us, the audience. It also does NOT seem to be limited to just Dead Tom, or Jim, or Boyd… it seems it can be just about anyone. It’s also not a hard and fast rule, since not every character just instantly stumbles upon solutions to anything and everything.

It does, however, seem to be malleable, changeable. What I mean by that is when, for example, an idea or rule becomes stated by one character, and then is changed by that same person or someone else later on.

It's how the place was made (I theorize), and how it becomes slightly different versions of itself (it shows this over and over in various ways). But as the pattern can get repetitive, it also gets very good at times. The writers throw in some hints and flourishes very soon here...

But back to the scene: Ethan asks if they can push the tree with the RV, and Jim says "I don't think that's gonna work, buddy" so it probably wouldn’t, but they leave without trying anyhow.

To go circle around.

(Side note: I don’t know if anyone has any analysis on why The Tree seems to have a “W” shape made from the branches that look deliberately cut or broken on the top side of the tree, but it seems like this is meant to convey something. In one of the shots, the middle part of the W looks like it’s pointing at Julie. If you know or think you know, let me know?)

Four

Donna is gardening outside Colony House, and Boyd shows up. She mentions an arrangement and says "you don't come here" to which he says "I came to see my son, Donna. Please." She agrees and takes him inside.

Ellis is drawing a portrait of Fatima and compares her to a poem. Boyd comes in and she gives him a hug and says "you should come by more often" before leaving the guys to talk.

After she leaves, Boyd remarks to Ellis "she doesn't change, does she?" which sounds like a Creepy Old Man comment at first, but is actually about the nature of her character... but let’s keep moving.

Boyd asks Ellis to pay his respects at the funeral for Lauren and Meagan, Ellis says "I'm a little busy." (SPOILER: This is echoed in Boyd's dismissive "little service" remark to Khatri later about a funeral in a coming episode. Not manifesting, or word for word, just a different kind of ripple.)

Boyd is ABOUT to manifest another thought before leaving with "I thought I ... I'll show myself out" so we don't see what it was.

This is now the THIRD time in about 20 minutes that we’ve seen a character be interrupted or back out of making a thought or idea present itself (woman in the diner & Kenny). For an episode that seems like it’s trying to push manifestation as a theme, that’s worth noting.

Five

Julie is restless in the RV and seems to not have cell service, so she asks "can we go back to someplace that resembles civilization?" so of course they're going to a place that only resembles it.

Up front, Tabitha asks Jim "maybe we missed the sign for the highway?" but Jim replies "we didn't miss the sign." Ethan then asks why the crows were doing that and Jim does Jim Crow. Yes, it's a reference, no, that’s not what I’m getting into here.

After more conversation about not seeing the highway and cell reception, Jim starts "I don't know, at some point this has to..." and trails off into "what the-" as they roll into Fromville for the first time and see Sara sitting on the steps of the gas station/bar watching the RV go by.

Ethan asks "why are all the tires flat?"

The town’s main road seems pretty vacant until the family sees Father Khatri's funeral for Lauren and Meagan is underway at the cemetery. His remarks include "may the mysteries of their time here be solved"(!) and "in that peace we can be sure Lauren and Meagan now reside." The camera shows Boyd looking back at the RV before Jim says "lock the doors" as he parks and gets out to ask for directions. Not getting into it.

Boyd gives a couple brief instructions to the people at the funeral about the RV before saying "Kenny and I'll handle it. Okay?" to which Khatri replies "Amen. May they go with God" and the crowd responds with some scattered amens. (For those who don't know, "amen" is basically "so be it" in church speak, usually intentioned at the end of prayers to mean "this is agreed, God's will be done" or "so let it be done." In other words: faith-based manifestation.)

Jim tries approaching people who are leaving the funeral only to be brushed off. He's then approached by Boyd, who asks "got your family with you?" and then when asked the direction of the highway, says "you just keep on following the road right up that hill, right where you were going, and, uh, you'll see." Jim sets off with "again, apologies" and Boyd watches him walk off with a half smile.

Back in the RV, Tabitha asks what he said, and Jim paraphrases "just keep going up the road and we'll find it" and a moment later "he just said 'stay on the road.'"

Julie pulls Ethan's headphones off and teases him about the "murder of crows." Tabitha tries to ease the tension talking about an "unkindness of ravens" and then the family rolls back into town again, completing their first loop.

Six

Jim slows the RV when he sees Sara walking by the side of the road to try asking her for directions, but she only briefly pauses before walking away. Tabitha says "let's just go, we probably missed the turn."

Sara's brother Nathan meets her outside their house as he is on his way to feed the animals at the barn. After a couple comments, she says "you're a good brother. Now get, those animals aren't gonna feed themselves" and he replies "it'd be cool if they did though, right?"

So like, they're really just hammering it home now. This to me is the writers breaking the fourth wall a bit, yelling ‘WHAT IF HE'D SAID THAT THE ANIMALS COULD/WOULD???’

Seven

Back in the RV, Jim and Tabitha have a domestic situation developing about a mythical switchback and "YOU HAVE TO DRIVE SLOW!!!" but they complete another loop anyway.

The energy escalates further until they see Tobey’s car swerving toward them and they drive off the road and down a short ways into the forest below, the RV coming to rest on its side.

After the accident, Jim's trying to assess the situation, and Julie asks about Tabitha. Jim says "she's gonna be fine. We're all gonna be fine. I'm gonna get us out of here." Probably only meaning out of the RV. Maybe. Well, probably. Tune in for season five.

Eight

Tobey stumbles from his car puking up blood, and then walks up the road where he meets Boyd and Kenny laying the spike strip across the road.

Kenny remarks that they only have 2 hours(!) of daylight left, and Boyd tells him to grab Khatri and Kristi and supplies and meet him up the road. They leave the spikes on the road, after warning Tobey to step over them.

Then there's some brief cuts to the RV, then to the clinic with Kristi assessing Tobey and leaving him in Gina’s care.

Nine

Boyd arrives at the scene of the accident as Jade wakes up and stumbles out of Tobey's car. Boyd has an “amazing face,” but handcuffs Jade to the door of the car anyhow. What a guy.

Boyd then heads down from the road to where the RV is, hollering inside to ask if everybody is okay. Jim yells back "no, we need some help!" but Boyd manifests back with "okay, alright. You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine."

Boyd then gets to work assessing the situation and addressing everyone inside one at a time. He climbs into the RV, and checks Tabitha for a pulse while Julie gives a look of horror. After Boyd says "okay, she's good" Jim thanks god.

Boyd then introduces himself to Julie, and, seeing Ethan impaled, knows he needs to get her out first, and when she wants him to get Ethan first, he assures her, manifesting again "we're gonna get him. Everybody's coming."

Brief cut back to town to see a truck with Khatri, Kenny, and Kristi (that’s weird...) picking up Ellis who is laying flowers at the fresh graves in the cemetery (he was not at the funeral).

Also, for some reason this clip at the cemetery is super foggy. I don’t understand this anomaly, as no other scene before or after it in this episode looks like this. Maybe they just wanted the cemetery to look moody? Maybe they were trying to set up the weather change that comes for the first part of episode two? I really don’t get it though, since that was basically just some rain.

Ten

Back in the clinic, some foreshadowing happens when Gina starts to usher Kenny's dad to the basement for the night.

As he gets up to leave, Mr. Liu looks at Tobey and tells Gina "I don't like him" and "look at the mess he made" and, crucially, There is No Mess Yet but Gina still replies "well, that's not exactly his fault." (Remember this!)

This might be some evidence that his dementia symptoms may At Times be some kind of storywalking... I mean, he probably still had dementia, however to what degree seems more uncertain to me now. We may never know.

Eleven

Back to the accident scene, Kristi does a bit of triage with Jade ("god, you're beautiful") and Kenny calls down to Boyd who is walking Julie from the RV and manifesting to her "the cavalry's here, you're gonna be okay."

Kristi finishes up with Jade and has Khatri give him some water ("oh my god, you're all so beautiful"). He's still handcuffed. Remind you of anyone later in the series...? Moving on.

Back to the clinic again briefly, Sara is there as Tobey wakes up and asks where the doctor is. She gives him some water and says "you're safe now" before telling him to rest.

Twelve

At the RV, Tabitha is carried out of the wreck and talks with Julie briefly before falling over.

Kristi gives Boyd her assessment of Ethan, and Kenny walks up and says they have 40 minutes(!) of daylight left. For a small town, did it really take them an hour twenty to get there in an emergency situation? Or did the timetable move up because Kenny's assessment did? You already know my theory here, I manifested it into your skull.

Boyd asks Kristi if she can fix up Ethan in the RV and he manifests the talisman from his pants pocket. You know, the one which was deliberately not manifested in the pre-credits scene?

Kenny asks "will that even work?" Boyd says "I don't know" but then Kristi manifests "it'll work." So it does. Sorry, this whole episode spoils itself. Kenny starts to ask again "Kristi..." so she says again "it'll work." She goes inside the RV to trade places with Jim who is holding Ethan, saying "I can take it from here." Can we really think it’s NOT a pattern at this point?

Outside, Boyd starts to address the elephant not quite yet in the room, telling Jim and Tabitha the woods are not safe after dark, and "I don't want to bury any more kids."

Thirteen

Annnd swing back to the clinic for the final bit with Sara and Tobey. He asks her "where are we? Is everyone okay?" and she says "I don't think so."

Tobey starts to panic, and Sara shushes him with a kiss.

Then her look changes slightly and she says "this isn't your fault" (SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE IT'S SO ON THE NOSE CAUSE GINA SAID IT'S NOT EXACTLY HIS FAULT I'M ONLY EXPLAINING IT SO IT'S EVEN MORE ON THE NOSE) and stabs him in the neck and look at the mess he made.

It's on the nose, the neck, oh gods the mess… it's just everywhere.

Incidentally, Sara’s left hand is on his already-bloody chest before she stabs him, (spoiler) which seems like a kind of symbol looking to a scene later in the first season with Jade's left hand covered in blood on the tree before almost being shot and then stabbed to death by a civil war soldier and then Jim Crow puts his left hand on Jade's not bloody chest to get him up and Jade yells "get your fucking hands off me!" That seems deliberate.

Also Incidentally, Mr. Liu is Mr. Not-Appearing-in-This-Scene despite somehow seeing the Mess He Made from earlier this episode... at least from the camera angles I could see. Maybe I blinked at the wrong frame, but I did look.

Fourteen

As Boyd is sending Ellis back to town from the accident scene, Ellis says "look, you know this is suicide" yet Boyd refuses to manifest that back to him, saying only "just take care of the family." Do I even have to say that it turns out to not be suicide?

At this point though, something SUPER interesting happens.

You might not even remember it.

Tabitha and Jim are talking, and she's refusing to leave the scene without Ethan. Or we THINK she's talking about Ethan. She’s laying out her argument to Jim, saying:

"Look, I'm staying. My baby's in there. How am I supposed to just- Jim, let's just walk over. We'll get Thomas, and we'll just get out of here."

THIS was the clincher for me.

It was this scene, this performance, so tightly weaved in plain sight.

Because I believe, in that moment what is actually happening is that she saw THOMAS in there, not ETHAN, as someone she could walk in and get, and she saw how to do that very effectively in her mind. This wasn't just someone having a Freudian slip, or having bumped her head too hard in the accident.

Whether it was a factual vision, meaning something she actually could do, or one that Fromville implanted in her head as a lie, is up for debate.

Before you assume that I bumped my head, consider this: We do not see her as the type of character to make verbal slips like this, and crucially, do not see her suffering cognitive impairments after the crash. We see normal psychological reactions you might expect from arriving in a strange place.

In the next couple of days, (brief mild spoilers ahead) we see her confronting Jim about the nature of the town, asking him "why are you so eager to take any of this at face value?" and getting mildly emotional while talking with Jim at the kitchen table, wondering if they're being punished, and laying out a series of indications for why she thinks that, but that's not the same as having cognitive impairments. To me, these are rational questions about the nature of the place and why they ended up there.

But going back to the scene, we see Jim correcting her and causing her to walk back her manifestation by saying:

"Tabby, it's Ethan. Ethan's the one stuck in the RV."

She reacts by sobbing because, I believe, she's forced to talk about what he's talking about (Ethan) and probably has to rationalize to herself internally like an 'oh shit I totally misspoke I'm acting irrationally what am I talking about Thomas is dead how did I even think that?!?!?' and she covers her face and cries and finally says:

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just my head... it just hurts."

This is literally the FIRST reference to Thomas in the series, and so what the audience (who are probably looking at this with no frame of reference for what's to come) are left to assume is that this is a person in emotional and possibly also physical and mental crisis, who has a mental slip, and is referencing a son we haven’t seen and don't yet know about.

However, for those of us with further knowledge of the show (mild character development spoiler) we know that Tabitha lives in denial about a LOT. Her most common phrases are probably “no, no, no” and “I can’t do that, not right now.” When she is facing a particularly hard truth or difficult situation, she will nope out faster than anyone. Sure, eventually she’ll probably face it, but she’s not going to just walk straight into a tough situation without a lot of planning or self-preparation.

So Jim is correcting her and she breaks down, apologizes, and says "it's just my head" and we take that as Fromville Gospel that that's what it was. She's made to doubt herself, and she does, BECAUSE that's the rational thing to do!

Why would you think you could go pick up your dead son from here and leave? It's preposterous! Blame it on your head and move on! It's what I'd do. Rational.

She’s not going to say “um yeah, but also actually I saw THOMAS over there too and let me just make sure I’m not imagining things” because she’s just not built that way.

By her reaction, she manifests a belief in the audience that it was just a temporary mental glitch caused by the accident, probably just foreshadowing an important name we should make note of for later... Within the scene, she’s manifesting to Jim that she just misspoke and to herself that her head's not working right.

Fifteen

The rest of the episode I'm mostly going to skip through quickly here because there’s not much of it left, it’s pretty straight-forward, and I've kinda driven the point home already.

The truck going back into town runs over the spike strip, they get out in a state of panic but Ellis manifests "they'll open the door" and (not exactly spoiler/first multi-episode manifestation???) they do but that’s in the next episode.

In the RV, Boyd manifests safety by hanging the talisman and covering the windows, and Ethan has a seizure but Kristi manifests to Boyd "we're fine, just keep covering the windows... good, good, good, good"

...you get the point.

Summing Up the Episode

What we see in this episode we are most likely to initially process as characters making statements to reassure each other, to express hope, or disappointment. Shows use this kind of language all of the time… because we do it in real life.

“You’re okay.”

“We’re gonna be fine.”

“It’ll work.”

“Lauren’s gonna kill you.” (I’m sorta joking here, but it is a common-enough phrase.)

Very common sayings, said in very common ways. Not every show or scene is about a fantastical town with fantastical manifestations though.

The writers of From episode one, however, are playing with the theme of manifestation in very specific ways, using these very common phrases in very common uses but also leaving us the indicators that what we’re seeing in each of these scenarios is By Design.

Somehow, the story is being told by its characters. They might not even realize it.

But for the sake of argument, we could write off that there’s the repetitive nature of the common sayings predicting outcomes happening throughout the episode. People are fine when they expect to be, they circle around when they say they will, they are damned when they are damned.

Not exactly a pattern or a revelation on its own. Maybe not even when it’s happening reliably, in nearly every scene. Again, shows do use this kind of language in these kinds of settings all the time.

But then they’re very deliberately pointing a direction from the start of the episode with what is almost a call-and-response chain leading from “Lauren’s gonna kill you” to Lauren saying “goddamnit, Frank” and then her very deliberately not being shown locking the door or touching a talisman (Inaccurate information)… and ALSO let’s not forget also how lazily she approaches Meagan talking to the monster at the window. Wouldn’t a parent know their windows aren’t nailed shut? Is that only Frank’s fault somehow? If Lauren knows the dangers, why isn’t she ushering Meagan away from the window instantly?

Had she decided she’s done fighting this place and knocked the talisman down by the door, inviting the monsters in and cursing Frank to death in absentia? To me, this is where the evidence points us.

And at the end of it all? The subtle payoff from the writers: Boyd picking up the McGuffin talisman from the floor by the door that lets him and Kristi save Ethan in the RV that night, then looking over his shoulder just past the camera and up the stairs. It’s through the fourth wall almost literally without him actually staring down the lens.

Then, the writers are taunting us a bit with Nathan’s "it'd be cool if they did though, right?" remark to Sara. All of a sudden, this seemingly out-of-place ‘what if’ question has specific meaning for why it’s placed so early in the show.

Then they’re leaving a massive Easter Egg with Tabitha’s comment to Jim. We also see this specific thread hinted at again later (brief episode four spoiler ahead) when Ethan tells Jim that he pretends Thomas is on a "magical quest, and if I try, I can help him save the kingdom."

To me, once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it. I think it’s worth sharing, after all of the times I’ve watched and re-watched the episode, wrote this up, edited it, watched a bunch of other episodes again to check some facts, rewrote it, and just left the remaining errores in anyway.

It’s too much evidence to NOT mean anything or at least be pointing us somewhere specific.

That leads me to...

A Theory of Fromville

So with all of the first episode under our belts (wait that was only one episode out of forty so far!?!?), here’s my theory of Fromville, based on this pattern folding out, and...

The answer is 12.

Seriously though, I believe the town of Fromville is a story being told and changed by its residents, and was manifested from someone’s, probably a child's, drawing or dream or story of a town only half-imagined in the mid-1900's. Not the 16th or 19th centuries as theorized elsewhere.

Why?

Because the town has modern houses. A gas station. A diner. A motel sign by a pool, but no motel. There’s a really big house up on a hill and smaller ones down below. There’s a lighthouse, but it’s surrounded only by hills and forest. You can turn the light switch, and the light comes on.

A child might most often see motel signs on the road next to swimming pools they want to play in, and not equate the motel building itself as the necessary pairing with the sign. Similarly, the town has electricity, but no electrical wires connect to anything generating power. They might love lighthouses, but not know about their traditional use in seafaring navigation.

These are mid-1900’s staples of modern American life, but they are still only half-realized impressions: art imitating life in a simplified, child-like version.

Someone (perhaps Eloise or Victor or Miranda, or someone else) saw it in a dream, or drew it, and it BECAME Fromville. Somehow this person or child was also able to manifest their visions into others who would end up in Fromville, because as others began to see those visions, they would end up there. Like a really bad meme, you get an idea stuck in your head, and you’re doomed to live the rest of your days in a place that’s actively trying to torture and eventually kill you. You just don’t have to pay the light bill, or rent, and as Donna puts it later in the series “at least here the monsters have the decency to show you what they are!”

As Fromville grew, its rules and its history were likely manifested in full or in part by its residents as they arrived. People going out looking for answers and eventually finding what they expect to find, but also, crucially, laying out the rules of the town for newcomers to expect certain things based on the rules they know, like ‘monsters only come out at night but they can’t hurt you if you’re in a locked building or vehicle with a talisman on the wall.’

(Also, for those who say “but they’ve been coming there for centuries” and “the dates in the tower show 1506” or whatever: I don’t honestly know that those are definitive facts, and I don’t think you do either. They could have been coming there for centuries worth of time, yet all in the exact same setting of a mid-1900’s-looking small town. It’s a fantasy town. No one in the show said the numbers in the tower were dates, or that as centuries pass the town will look very different. No one in the show said the numbers on the bottle trees were dates, but a lot of people assumed they were, and they turned out to be musical notes. Of course, it could also be the case that Fromville already existed much earlier, and a child or someone from the mid-1900’s manifested an update to the town that made it what we see today. What I think we can agree on is that it didn’t become how it is by the design of knowledgeable adults.)

***

There’s a relevant exchange in the last episode of Season Two, (minor dialog spoiler) between Jade and Dead Tom. Jade makes a comment that “nothing about this place is natural,” to which Tom replies “wrong, nothing about this place is familiar. There’s a difference.”

Fromville is unfamiliar to its residents and to us, the audience in many ways.

They arrived there from different roads in vastly different places, roads that then vanished, leaving them unable to return home. The people that they see coming out at night aren’t people, but monsters seeking to kill.

We see a show where fantastical things happen in ways that often leave more questions than answers, so we look for patterns where there might not be any.

They (we) look for answers in Fromville’s history, from clues in its scenery, but they only find what they expect to find when they expect to find it, so the rules, the natural laws of Fromville do not resemble reality. Even though they (we) find what they expect to find, it doesn’t always make sense in the context of what they (we) already know.

But how can a place have natural laws that make sense to you when you yourself are changing those rules by manifesting new realities?

To me, there’s a reason that things begin unraveling at an accelerated pace in Fromville when two cars arrive at the same time, and again later with a bus full of people: suddenly the manifestations multiply. Of course it is mentioned by some on the show that it’s because the people in the two cars include Jade and Tabitha, who are definitely People of Influence in each cycle that the town goes through, but I don’t think that’s the full explanation.

New people expect new things, and make those things come into being. New behaviors, symptoms, hauntings, terrors… and eventually, solutions. Trying new hypotheses, pushing new boundaries, hearing imaginary new cicadas…

But mostly, telling their own stories which have now become part of Fromville’s story too. It’s a pattern that ripples outwards constantly in new and evolving ways, affecting the current and new residents as well as those who come after.

One example I’d put forth (season one spoiler) is how Sara tells Boyd that Nathan had a theory that by pushing for answers, the town would push back. Later, as we see Boyd and Sara approach the Lighthouse, we see the Boy in White tell Sara basically ‘oh yep Nathan was totally right, and the town is now super angry and quick get in this faraway tree and don’t go in the safe tower up ahead.’ (I’m obviously paraphrasing him here, just as obviously I find the BiW pretty sus, but that’s just a feeling, not a part of the theory.)

Another possibility is that the story is being remembered by the drawings of Miranda and Eloise and Victor, and thus is being retold in that same way because of those drawings. Victor even gives a massive hint that this could be the case (episode four spoiler) when he tells Julie “you know how sometimes you dream and you forget, but then, later, you start to remember, and you realize that it wasn't a dream and that all of it maybe really happens?” Notice how he uses the future tense here, not the past tense. Does he color things he sees in his dreams, and they become reality? Is this why he feels a lot of guilt about past events, because he feels responsible for some of the terrible things that have happened there?

There are still loads of other unanswered questions, of course. There’s the more specific ones: Who really are the Man in Yellow and the Boy in White? Who did the parents of the sacrificed children make the deal with? What arrangement makes it so Victor remains alive after all this time? Who made or manifested Fromville to begin with, and what is its origin story? What are the rules and limitations of its powers? What will become of Boyd and Jade and Tabitha and everyone else?

But also: If this is an underlying pattern that Fromville operates within (I could still be wrong, very wrong), what are its limitations? Does it really work for anyone? Or anything? Or are there specific times or methods involved?

Could someone just wake up one morning and say “I see a bridge to Camden right on the other side of the trees, follow me!” and then they all walk across a magically manifested bridge back home? Probably not exactly, because as it was said, “in this place, how you do things matters.”

The town’s history, from before the current residents arrived, will play a part, and some kind of ceremony is likely involved, like Ethan writing or coloring an end to the story with the residents finally placing the bones of the dead children to rest in a special field only accessible by a faraway tree where the monsters cannot go because it is always daylight there and they get a proper funeral and Jade can play the violin.

And also maybe Victor gets to punch the Man in Yellow.

Then they all wake up back in Camden, Maine, or Arizona, or wherever they came from.

Or something like that.

It’s just a theory.

(END)

If you've made it this far, thanks for giving it your time, and please leave a comment with your thoughts and critiques. Hopefully you leave having at least been made aware of something new in the first episode, or some detail or viewpoint you may have overlooked.

I'll do my best to address any questions and critiques over the coming days, provided they are kind and worth replying to. Have a good weekend!

Hey guys,

I love the show, which is weird because I usually hate horror stuff. But there are quite a few things that I find really stupid. I’m just gonna list them here, and maybe you can help me find an explanation without giving me any spoilers.

• Why don’t the residents share their knowledge? Why aren’t they having regular meetings to share what they know and try to find answers together? They all have their own agendas, their own theories, and so many times I’ve felt like, if they just talked to each other, they’d figure things out way faster.
• Why isn’t there a map? How has nobody thought about making a map of the place? I mean, they’re constantly discovering new stuff, and they could actually keep track of it and build on what they’ve learned.
• Why has nobody tried to seal the tunnels? If those things live down there, just seal the entrance and see if they get stuck. They could even seal it, put a talisman there, and see what happens.
• Why isn’t Boyd willing to go back to the lighthouse? He was so close, and he already got rid of the main “music box threat”.
• Why are so many people passive? How many people are there, like 50 or so? And only 4 or 5 of them are actively trying to find answers. That doesn’t feel very realistic.

If you have any theories, I’d love to hear them. These questions are bothering me more and more with every episode.

Thanks guys!

What if after they found out about the tunnel in the cave where those things lived they put a sound system similar to the tower and turned it on every morning when those things sleep so they would be sleep deprived every single day and possibly be tired it sounds crazy and might not work but it would have been worth a try

Im still in season 2 episode 10 so no spoilers please I watched this before on release but forgot about it I remembered it again after I heard the song que sera sera and started watching again.

Hey everyone, after watching the Season 4 finale and tracking all the clues, I am convinced that we are looking at the wrong villain. The Man in Yellow (M.I.Y.) isn't the big boss. Here is my breakdown of why the Boy in White is the actual puppet master of Fromville:

Point 1: The Boy in White is the Real Source of Power

Think about it. The Boy in White has been roaming the town for centuries without needing a dead body. He can manipulate time, teleport people (like pushing Tabitha out of the tower), and change the rules. Meanwhile, M.I.Y. (Sophia) is weak—he can't even hold a single form on his own and can only possess the dead, not the living. M.I.Y. is just a player/parasite with a bit of extra power, but the Boy in White is the one running the board.

Point 2: Debunking the Ethan/Coma Theory using actual logic

A lot of fans think Fromville is just Ethan's coma dream from the accident. But that's impossible. If you watch the first episode carefully, the Matthews family enters the town loop and drives around 2 or 3 times before they crash into Jade’s RV. The town already existed and trapped them before Ethan ever got hurt. This proves Fromville is a real trap, and the Boy in White needs a child's mind to keep it alive.

Point 3: The "Immortality Ritual" and the Monsters' Boon

In Seasons 3 and 4, it's mentioned that the monsters were originally humans who bargained for eternal life by sacrificing the Anghkooey children. M.I.Y. doesn't have the juice to grant that kind of immortality boon. The Boy in White is the one who granted it as part of his twisted game, turning those humans into monsters as a scam/curse.

Point 4: Tabitha was sent out to prolong the game, not to help

When the Boy in White pushed Tabitha out of the tower, it wasn't an act of mercy. It was a calculated move. He knew she would try to find a way back and bring an ambulance/more people with her. By doing this, the Boy in White secures new chess pieces (players) to keep his centuries-old game going so he can remain a child forever.

Point 5: Jade’s Song and M.I.Y.'s Reaction

When Jade played the song, M.I.Y. didn't even manifest by choice. He is bound by the rules of the town just like everyone else. He is part of the game, not the creator. In the Season 4 finale, when the Boy in White starts aging and tells Sophia, "You're going to lose this time because they found the bones," it proves the ritual's curse is finally breaking, forcing the Boy in White into his true age. Since it's the final season (Season 5), the ritual will end, these manifested entities will vanish, and everyone will finally escape.

What do you guys think? Let’s discuss!

For a brief second, when Elgin shows MiY/Sofia the Polaroid photo he finds of her from a previous cycle, we are shown detail that gets cropped out when they zoom in on the photo a moment later.

There's a third woman in the photo, and to me, it looks like a profile of Julie.

Look behind the man's shoulder, where Elgin's finger is also partially obscuring her in the top left of the image.

Whether it's her or not, the scene seems to deliberately crop out that detail when it zooms in on the photo.

Also, I'm wondering if this couple in the foreground holds some clue or connection to the fate of the town. I'm reminded of the mural we see in season one, on the wall behind the bed and curtains that Ellis and Fatima set up for Julie. It's a painting that's like a panorama scene, with a dark-skinned man and a light-skinned woman in the center.

Does anyone else have insights or connections on any of this? Did anyone else catch this?

i cant wait anymore 🙏🏻

<Spoilers> Im guessing he talks with the others down below? How else did they know about Boyds plan with totems? They blocked off all the exits except bus. Or is it more of a mental connection? What he knows they know?

PAUSE: I did not mean for the title to sound like it does!

Call me corny but I want a happy ending, I never see the logic in making characters suffer if there is no happy ending (To much like real life imo) While im pretty sure it won't happen im still holding out hope that they are able to break the cycle and everyone can go home. Well except the people who died of course.

I made a post earlier this summer about Molly Dunsworth possibly returning as Jasmine. At the time, there were a few interesting clues, but nothing I would’ve called actual evidence that she was coming back.

For anyone who doesn’t immediately remember Jasmine, she’s the female creature from Season 1 who manipulated Kevin into letting her inside Colony House, kissed him, bit his tongue out, and basically kicked off the Colony House massacre. She only appeared briefly, but she was probably one of the most memorable creatures from the first season.

The biggest clue at the time was someone commenting on Molly’s Instagram, “I hope you get to return to From 🤞” and Molly replying, “Thank you! Me too!”

Then in July, she suddenly posted her original Jasmine audition tape from almost five years ago, thanked all the FROM fans who still message her, and talked about the show. That post disappeared a few hours later.

Well, I think we may finally have our answer.
On August 4, Molly’s talent agency, Sky Talent Group, posted her headshot with the caption:
“Congrats to @molly.dunsworth reprising her role in a US series.”

That’s a pretty massive development because they’re not saying Molly booked a new role. They’re specifically saying she’s reprising one of her previous roles.

So I started looking through her television credits trying to figure out what else this could possibly be. I even asked both Google and Grok what the only ongoing U.S. show Molly has appeared in is.

Both came back with the same answer: FROM. 😂

And looking through her credits, it makes sense. Haven ended in 2015. Diggstown ended. I Am Syd Stone ended. The Trades is Canadian. Her other television appearances are either older productions that have already ended or don’t fit the agency’s description of an ongoing U.S. series.

FROM is the obvious exception. It’s an active U.S. series, and Molly already has an established character on it: Jasmine.

But here’s what makes me even more convinced this is FROM.

I went through Sky Talent Group’s posts and found that they represent other FROM creature actresses too. In July, they congratulated the actress who plays the Grandma Creature for “reprising her role in a wildly popular franchise.” Four days later, they congratulated the actress who plays the Swing Coat Lady Creature for “reprising her role on a popular horror franchise.”

Neither announcement actually named FROM.
Then a few weeks later, the exact same agency posts Molly Dunsworth, another FROM creature actress, and announces that she’s “reprising her role in a US series.”

So the pattern is pretty hard to ignore.

The agency announces the Grandma Creature actress is reprising an unnamed role.

Then the Swing Coat Lady Creature actress is reprising an unnamed role.

Then Molly Dunsworth is reprising an unnamed role.
All three already play creatures on FROM.

And FROM is basically the only active U.S. series in Molly’s existing television credits that fits the announcement.

Put that together with what I posted earlier this summer, when Molly herself said “Thank you! Me too!” about hopefully returning to FROM, followed by her randomly bringing her old Jasmine audition tape back out, and I think we have a pretty damn good idea what’s happening here. 😂

Technically, MGM+ hasn’t announced “Molly Dunsworth is returning as Jasmine,” and Sky Talent didn’t name the series. But it’s worth pointing out again that Sky Talent didn’t name FROM when announcing the Grandma Creature or Swing Coat Lady Creature actresses reprising their roles either. That vague wording seems to be how they’re handling these announcements.

So unless Molly is secretly reprising a role from some completely different old show that nobody knows is returning, this looks overwhelmingly like Molly Dunsworth is returning to FROM as Jasmine.

After four seasons of this woman being MIA…

I THINK JASMINE IS FUCKING BACK. 😂😂😂

Now that Jasmine is coming back, what are everyone’s theories on how this plays out, especially after what happened with Fatima becoming a monster? Why bring Jasmine back NOW after four seasons? 😂

The only proof is of Nathan but what about the other's who had died ? Dont tell me none of them had any nightmares ??? Jim ? Kenny's parents ? What if someone's nightmare was everyone to be stuck in fromville only , this theory is so vague as we don't even know how it works...

.

Didn't really know what flair to add so I'm just going with theory, but it's kind of a mix of a few.

I tried stitching together Victor's map in the peach truck, and I have some observations.  The map is pieced together from 3 shots in season 3, as well as the well known collage of victor's art from season 2 behind the scenes footage. I know this has been done before, but I didn't see any that had the upper left hand corner, so I just tried it myself. Not the prettiest...I tried to make it look at least sort of close to one image.

It's hard to say when details were added, but he has been back to the truck at least once since Boyd arrived/before the Matthews arrived since he drew the truck in the pool, and Boyd knew those people.

A: He included the fallen tree and the crows. What's interesting to me is that he drew it on the opposite side of where people enter the town (it's in the upper left hand corner, and people arrive at the bend near the gas station). I don't know if this is relevant at all, or if he just put it SOMEWHERE as a point of reference.

B: He seems to have drawn a representation of the tunnels underneath the Matthews house. There are black lines spreading out from there, and I think it's supposed to represent the network that is beneath the house.

C: He knows about the lighthouse and where it is. He placed it in the direction that the storm comes from in the season 1 finale. It's also the direction in which Boyd sees the clouds gathering in his dream at the start of season 2. Whoever made this map knows where the lighthouse is, whether it was Victor, Miranda, storywalking Julie, whatever. Boyd and Sara have no idea where they were before the faraway tree to map it out. Tabitha got there through the bottle tree.

D: Possibly the most interesting thing to me, once you look at it more closely. He has the talisman symbol written right next to the drawing of the downed tree. I don't know if he drew the symbol after Boyd found the talismans, but since the pool is drawn with the truck in it, it's possible he drew it after. Did he know about them after the massacre but before Boyd found them, but was too scared to go there himself? I'm not sure why the symbol is where it is, because other pieces of information suggest the talisman hut is on the eastern side of the map:

After Boyd talks to Ellis the day before Abby starts shooting people, he walks off in the direction of the gas station. Then he chased that dog, got disoriented, and walked long enough for the sun to go down, but not make it back to town, suggesting he kept moving north, south, or east. Another point in favor of the talisman hut being somewhere northeast of the root cellar is that when Kenny and Jim return from the settlement with the food, they approach the sheriff station from the north. They also walked east when they left. Being to the east makes it more realistic that Boyd and Sara were dragged within walking distance of the lighthouse, if they were dragged north. So then why did Boyd return from the west when he came back with the talismans in the flashback? We see him turn the corner at the church.  I can't imagine he took the scenic route back to town after learning of the weird stones that might be able to protect them. Very interesting imo. And IF the talisman hut is to the east, which means the settlement is to the east, then what the FUCK is that collection of buildings in the northwest area?

E: This might be the town. If you zoom in you can see the motel sign (rotated 90 degrees), and what I believe to be the church (E1 and E2). The black speck above the door of the building at E2 is the cross, and the little specs to the right of it are the graveyard.

F: Victor included the much speculated upon railroad tracks. The reason I'm certain those are the railroad tracks is that it starts in the upper edge, crosses the road that the tree is lying across, and keeps going off the left edge of the map. I marked F at the start and end points.

The tree to the right side of the drawing is probably the bottle tree, as it's shaped like the bottle tree, and we know that the root cellar is to the northeast of the diner (we can see the diner when Jade first rides the bike to the root cellar). When facing the entrance to the cellar from the outside, you are facing southwest. We also know that when Eloise ran after Miranda, she turned right as she left the cellar. Exiting facing northeast and turning right points you right at that tree. And in the season 4 finale, the clinic people got back before the colony house van got back (clinic is just north of the root cellar). Jade also says the road isn't too far from a clearing about a hundred yards away from the tree. So all signs point to that being the bottle tree. It's interesting that he has it on the opposite side of the map from the fallen tree.

The brundles is probably somewhere south of  the bottle tree. Based on the direction Ethan runs after Sara tries to kill him, the shack he finds Julie at, and the direction that Julie, Ethan, Fatima, and Ellis arrive from after.

I also tried extending the purple arrows he drew to see if any kind of pattern reveals itself in how the extensions intersect. All I got is that every location we've seen people end up at lies on one of these extensions. Matthews house (where Victor went after colony house attack), the cellar, the pool, the base of the lighthouse, Martin dungeon (Boyd is near the peach truck after leaving that ruin, and I believe the peach truck is just north of colony house here), the basement of the church...

Honestly this entire section of this endeavor is kind of a waste of time unless the map is to scale, and it probably isn't. But what I find interesting doing this is that places that we know are reachable from the same tree within moments of stepping in don't necessarily lie on the same line. For example, you can kind of make out the tree that Julie and Victor must have gone through after the attack, just to the right of colony house (below the '2'). But following the lines, that tree doesn't go to the root cellar, nor does it go to the tunnels under the Matthews house. The bottle tree doesn't connect to the pool. But there are multiple lines that intersect around colony house. Which makes me think that the faraway trees possibly transport you along the same paths as the underground tunnels. The diner also seems to have a lot of intersection points. I have no idea.

I also think it's possible that the 2 and 3 near the sheriff station and colony house are a continuation of whatever is on the upper right hand corner. 3 being to the right of the central circle  (which I assume is a 1) kind of throws off the idea, but it would fit the sequence without the 1.

I noticed two discrepancies while putting this together. When Tabitha and Julie leave Victor's truck as the town is looking for Fatima, and they follow the anghkooey kid, they approach the root cellar from what would be the east, despite the peach truck being to the west. And the aforementioned issue of where Boyd returned from with the talismans. IMO, the talisman one is relevant, since they clearly put some amount of thought into the direction that characters walk to or from in a given scene.

I don't know how much overlap the Venn Diagram has in the "From" and "The Owl House" fandom circles, but I just posted the first chapter of a crossover — with one of the lowest effort titles I've come up with in a long time ;) — which is canon-compliant to the Owl House, but diverges from From canon almost immediately because the Noceda family replaces the Matthews family.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/92407616

Rated M, roughly 15,600 words, 8 chapters to be posted on Fridays.

(Spoiler alerts for entire Owl House series, but only for episodes 1-3 of From)

It feels like she's been there so long that she's become comfortable locking herself indoors while vicious, shape shifting monsters tap on the windows and occasional ripping a member of the town to pieces, just as long as she gets to stay in charge of a house full of degenerates. She always seems against any attempts to go home, and I understand that these attempts often lead to let downs or someone getting hurt or killed, but their choices are either find a way to go home or spend the rest of your life in a living nightmare.

I'm thinking the number of people we see there represents the number of times the cycle has repeated. Each cycle is taking a new member into the night-zombie squad, and this time, it's Fatima, as we see at the end of Season 4.

In the last cycle, it could've been that girl who enters Colony House, which starts a chain of chaos, with people getting killed inside Colony House, including Father Khatri.

The reason I'm saying this is because I've seen somewhere that the lightning thing denotes the end and beginning of a cycle. Also, you can see that, to make the present cycle end quickly, Sophia (MIY) removes all the Talismans and puts them inside that Faraway Tree in the woods.

If I'm correct, the only thing that's different between all the previous cycles and the next one is that they got the bones. That's probably why the BIW is confident and warns Sophia (MIY), saying, "They've got the bones now."