15 of the most haunting questions from FROM season 1

The second season of the horror series FROM premiered on MGM+ on April 23. Thankfully. FROM season 1 ended with a cliffhanger and left a lot of unanswered questions. Will they get answered in season 2?

That’s not one of the official questions I have, but it definitely is one.

I’m hooked on the series, which isn’t perfect but is a lot of scary fun. If you’ve watched it, maybe you feel the same?

If you haven’t, it’s one of those intriguing, ensemble-cast thriller-mystery series like Lost, Under the Dome, or even Wayward Pines, where people suddenly find themselves stranded somewhere.

Except, in Lost and Under the Dome, their location was less of a mystery. In FROM‘s case, or Fromtown, as Eion Bailey (who plays Jim Matthews) termed it in an interview, it’s much more like Wayward Pines.

Where are they and how did they get there are among the huge questions central to the main premise of the series. Speaking of…

Am I going to regret giving FROM season 1 a shot and letting myself get addicted to it? Would I  have watched if I knew who was responsible for making the show come to life before starting it?

That one especially haunts me. The trailer piqued my interest immediately. The first thing I noted was the familiar face from Lost, Harold Perrineau, a.k.a. “Michael.” Maybe that should’ve been my first clue. There was a Lost component involved…

It took me until just before the premiere of FROM season 2 to finally break down and subscribe to MGM+ to give it a go. (Both the series and the streamer, both of which I’m digging so far.)

Well, mostly digging. I didn’t realize until after I’d finished FROM season 1 that Jack Bender, an executive producer for both Lost and Under the Dome, was involved in producing this mind-bending series created by John Griffin.

So that explains why there are similar overtones. And that’s why I’m not sure I would’ve wanted to let myself get sucked in by FROM if I’d had a glimmer that, like Lost, it’d be a case of “here we go again.” Each week, more mysteries, more questions. Questions, questions, questions. And in some cases, it was seasons before we got answers!

FROM season 1 very much started out like that. (And from what I’ve seen so far in season 2, it’s continuing the trend.)

Yet, FROM is also very much its own beast.

Ah, beasts. Or, rather, creatures. Lost had the mysterious Smoke Monster. Wayward Pines had Abbies (short for Abberations), which, as TV Guide so perfectly described them, were “genetically evolved humans that are the perfect carnivores.”

FROM has… Well, it’s maybe not the first question I’d start my list with, but since the topic has come up, let’s begin there.

So many questions from FROM season 1! These 15 are not even all of them…

1. What are the monsters?

Besides being terrifying, of course. At first, they reminded me a bit of the vampires in the ABC miniseries version of Salem’s Lot.

The first episode of FROM season 1 starts with a scene where a sweet-looking old lady is floating outside of a little girl’s second-story bedroom window at night. She’s trying to coax the girl to open the window. Let her in. She’s her grandma.

The girl says she’s not her grandma, but ends up opening the window…much to her mother’s horror. Not to mention demise. Both mother and daughter meet a grisly end when the old woman morphs into a flesh-devouring monster.

But one thing that’s curious, these monsters tend to leave most of the carcass intact. They eviscerate the torso, but the arms, legs, and head are usually not eaten.

Anyway, are they some sort of vampire? They share similar traits, hibernating underground during the day and only coming out once the sun has set and night has fallen.

They appear human, until they encounter a real one. Then their true colors —or, rather, teeth— come out.

They’re also immune to bullets, so it’s no wonder Fromtown’s residents do whatever they can to avoid them. They’re literally lunch —or should I say dinner?— otherwise.

2. Who created the talismans?

One way the residents stay “safe” from the monsters is by hanging a talisman in whatever building they’re occupying for the night. It’s really nothing more than a stone with a swirly symbol carved in it.

Boyd (Perrineau) discovers a “crop” of them when he’s in the forest after nightfall and the monsters chase him into a carved out space. (I want to say it was in a hollow of a tree, but maybe it was a partial cave opening?)

Anyway, he’s sure he’s a goner. Instead, the monsters stop, refuse to enter after him and calmly turn away.

That’s when he notices all the talismans hanging around and feels sure they have something to do with it. He collects as many as he can, brings them back to the town, and when they try hanging them and the monsters don’t get them at night, the Fromtownians know they work.

But who created them, and why do they work? Will we ever get that answer?

3. What’s up with the tree in the middle of the road?

The one thing that all Fromtownians have in common is that they were driving —from locations all over the United States, which brings up even more questions— when suddenly they came upon a downed tree blocking the road. They’re forced to turn around, and next thing they know, welcome to Fromtown!

Trees play a big part in the series, actually. But with this tree in particular, how is it possible they all encounter it?

4. Who chooses who is detoured to Fromtown by way of the tree? Or is it random?

The more back stories that are revealed during FROM season 1, the more I wondered, “Why these people?”

Are people “picked” for some reason, or is it just random…not to mention very bad luck?

5. What’s up with the crows?

The other thing everyone notices when they compare notes about how they got there is that in addition to the tree in the middle of the road, they see crows circling overhead.

Owls get all the credit for being “wise,” but according to Birdfact, crows “are known for their remarkable intelligence.” Studies have shown they’re “capable of complex abstract thought” and can problem-solve.

As far as what they symbolize, Birdfact put it best: “death, the afterlife, wisdom, intelligence, adaptability, prescience, fortune, destiny, transformation, and the future.”

Some cultures regard them as good omens, others as bad. They feel ominous in From, especially because I don’t think they ever reappear in season 1 after people see them at the tree in the road. So what does that all mean for Fromtownians?

6. How do they have electricity? a.k.a. The mysterious wiring issue.

The fake outlets in the buildings and the wires leading to nowhere are a huge mystery. Somehow, the residents have lights, power, and even running water, but how?

7. How did they all get there from different places?

The scene with a map in Boyd’s office of all the pins showing all the different states they were in before arriving in Fromtown is nuts. How on earth could someone in the Heartland and others from there East and West Coasts end up in the same place while on very different roads? Literally ones thousands of miles apart?

Or maybe that’s just it…maybe they’re not on Earth anymore?

8. Who —and what— is the Boy in White? 

When Ethan (Simon Webster) and his family arrive to the nightmare, they first live at Colony House. Ethan was injured when his family’s camper crashed. While recovering, he looks out the window and sees a friendly little boy about his age dressed all in white waving at him…a boy no one else sees.

Well, one person sees him: Victor (Scott McCord). Victor’s the next enigma we’ll look at, but who is that Boy in White? Since he’s seen during the day and not at night, is he a ghost instead of a monster?

9. What is Victor’s story?

I happen to know we’re going to learn more about Victor in season 2, but in season 1, he’s quite the enigma.  Did he grow up in that town, or was he stranded there too? If he got stranded, who was he with? What happened to them? And how has he survived there that long?

What’s up with his lunchbox? And why is he so obsessed with the trees? Speaking of…

10. Are the trees really moving? And what do the trees symbolize in the series?

When Victor realizes Ethan can also see the Boy in White, he confides in Ethan about the trees and how they seem to move closer to Colony House. He sort of measures or tracks them somehow.

Again with the trees…is there a clue there too? Trees definitely feel symbolic in From season 1.

Better Place Forests talks about the image of the “world tree” and how it’s prevalent in cultures and religions worldwide.

"The world tree is a concept of the world being structured around a tree whose branches support our world and whose roots spread down into the underworld. The tree of life metaphor often involves a tree that is seen as the source of life, whose fruits provide life to humans and, in some cases, immortality."

Is the downed tree indicative of death, while the trees moving closer may be trying to shelter and protect?

11. What is Sarah infected (or possessed) by?

Sarah (Avery Konrad) does some pretty awful things in From season 1. She kills one of the newcomers, making it look like one of the creatures did it. That same night, she leaves a door open at the clinic, which results in Kenny’s (Rick He) dad being eaten. Then she sets her murderous sights on killing Ethan.

Except, she’s perhaps an unwilling participant, controlled and coerced by something else. She hears voices. Her skin literally crawls with worms that form messages telling her to do things. All with the promise that if she does, they’ll be set free. Or at least her and her brother will.

Is she actually nuts and hallucinating? Or does she have some kind of entity in her? If so, how did it get there…and can she ever get it out?

12. What do the symbols mean?

Jade (David Alpay) is haunted by visions and a certain symbol that always accompanies them. He begins drawing them obsessively over and over. Then he finds a book among the things of Those Who Have Come Before (and died and now their stuff is up for grabs). The book contains pages filled with the exact same symbols he sees.

But what are they? What do they mean?

13. Who’s the guy in the photo that young Victor inadvertently photo bombs?

In the book with all the drawings, Jade finds a Polaroid of a man leaning against a car with Fromtown’s diner in the background. But as he looks closer, he notices something familiar. A lunchbox…carried by what can only be the childhood version of Victor walking past paying no mind to the picture takers.

Who was the man? Is he significant? Or was it just to illustrate how long Victor has survived there?

Also, who took the photo…and what happened to those people? What are their stories?

14. Who was the voice on the radio?

Cell phones don’t work in Fromtown. And even though there’s electricity, there are no working landline phones either. Jim and Jade rig up an antenna and radio to try and connect with the outside world that way.

They do get through to someone…a man who warns Jim that his wife, Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno), shouldn’t be digging under their house trying to figure out where the wires go.

Who was that man? Where is he? How did he know she was digging? Why doesn’t he want her to dig? Ah! More questions!

15. Lighthouse? Spider web forest? There are more “realms” than meets the eye?

FROM season 1 ends with a couple of big new doozies. In addition to a busload of people pulling up to the diner, Boyd and Sarah venture into the woods on foot to see if they can escape the insanity that way and bring back help.

Armed with a talisman that they hang in their tent at night, they think they’re okay. Until something drags them away. They wake up to a forest of trees covered in thick, white webs.

What in the heck made those?

Then they spy a lighthouse in the distance with a sea beyond. They’re near an ocean? Or is it a mirage?

Curse you, FROM season 1, for hooking me so completely! Unless season 2 takes some bad turn that turns me off to the storyline completely, I’m stuck watching this series to see what gets answered…but knowing there will be even more questions to come first.

What questions haunt you from FROM season 1? Or do you have any speculations about any of the mysteries? Leave a comment sharing your thoughts!