This article contains spoilers for MGM + ‘s From Season 4, Episode 9
For a few episodes now, Season 4 has been pushing the same narrative: the townspeople trying to nail down a plan to finally escape the hell on earth they are stuck in. The season has teetered on being its own worst enemy at times, and as Spinal Tap put it so eloquently, there is “a fine line between stupid and clever.”
“The Calm Before” continues to move toward the finish line. It features several storylines, including a few new ones, in a fast-paced episode that sets the stage for the show’s finale.
A Plan Comes Together in From Season 4, Episode 9
After much debate, the plan to retrieve the children’s bones from the tunnels is now ready to proceed. Boyd (Harold Perrineau) finally comes to grips with the fact that, whatever they plan to do, not everyone will survive. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but he accepts that he can’t save everyone.
The final push came with Tabitha’s (Catalina Sandino Moreno) revelation that The Man in Yellow had been in her house during the day and that the talisman didn’t work. That is enough for Boyd to realize that things have changed yet again and that they are out of time. He agrees to Jade’s (David Alpay) idea, including pulling down the bottle tree. They move forward.
Not everyone is happy with this, though. Victor (Scott McCord) is visited by the boy in white, who tells him the plan includes pulling down the bottle tree. Eventually, after Victor’s very vocal protest, he is subdued and locked up for the time being.
However, it is Sophia (Julia Doyle), aka The Man in Yellow, who is most disturbed by this course of action. So she turns to a backup plan, a promise she made to Clara (Katerina Bakolias) to get them home in exchange for a favor. It’s hard to imagine anyone believing these promises at this point, but the town and its evil overlord have a way of making you question everything.
We’re Reminded Once Again of Victor’s Importance in From
After Clara and Sophia swap some blood through cuts in their hands, a poisoned drink is delivered to the clinic via the cut in Clara’s hand, intended for Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori), who is dealing with her own issues at the moment. It turns out that her blood pressure and heart rate are at a point where she should be dead, yet she is still here, among the living.
The connection she has with Smiley, while helpful to the town, is not doing her any favors. Now that she is poisoned with Sophia’s blood, I’m sure that little power will no longer be able to help the town.
Henry (Robert Joy), who has been a great addition to From, has another flashback to “real life,” where Victor tells him again that he needs to cut the cord, aka kill Victor in the town, to come back to them. The evil surrounding the town is working hard to eliminate Victor, which means Victor still has an important role to play.
Speaking of visions, Tabitha sees the children again, all pointing at her. She realizes that she and Jade are the only ones who need to go down into the tunnels to dig up the bones. No one else. Upon hearing this news, Sophia is not amused.
She had talked about a certain ritual that had to be followed for the plan to work, and now it seems Jade and Tabitha are that ritual. She then switches tactics again, forced to use Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons) for an undetermined plan after he discovers an old picture of her in the background.
Will Every Question Be Answered in the From Season 4 Finale?
Overall, From Season 4, Episode 9 feels a lot like the last few. However, with the plan now set, the sense of urgency pushes the episode into a better place and a faster pace. Both good and evil are forced to change course. Sophia/The Man in Yellow is becoming unnerved by the group’s cleverness, which only adds to the horrific possibilities they might unleash to stop it.
It didn’t hurt that they put a few characters on the back burner this week to better streamline the episode. Things needed to be set up for next week’s finale.
There are still many questions hanging in the air, and with a final season still to come, they likely won’t all be answered. “The Calm Before,” which may be anything but calm, effectively puts the final pieces in place for a cliffhanger finale that will probably see some not survive.
The From Season 4 finale, “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…,” will premiere on MGM+ on Sunday, June 28.
