'From' Season 4 Episode 10 Recap And Breakdown: Is Marielle Dead?

In From Season 4 episode 9, Jade, Boyd, Kenny, and Donna had a discussion about their grave-digging expedition, which was something that Donna wasn’t entirely on board with, but since they were running out of options, she had to give that plan her thumbs-up. Tabitha told Ethan and Julie about her encounter with the Man in Yellow, which caused Julie to spiral out because she had lost all hope. Ethan, though, gave Tabitha some back up and told her to trust her visions. Henry once again saw a vision where he was in the care facility and a fictional version of Victor was asking him if he had killed the real Victor or not. As for Victor, the Boy in White advised him to tell Boyd and the rest to not uproot the Bottle Tree, as it would be catastrophic. While all this was going on, Boyd learnt about Fatima’s deteriorating condition. He got in touch with Sara to see if she could still tap into the “voices” and give him some guidance regarding their grave-digging expedition; Sara said that she couldn’t, but offered to help her in uprooting that tree and extracting the Anghkooey children’s bones. As Boyd and his team were preparing to go off on their expedition, Victor showed up to stop them, and Boyd had no choice but to detain him. With that out of the way, Tabitha and Jade entered the tunnels and got to the graves (because they were the “chosen ones” according to markings on the talisman), while Boyd and the rest stood around the Bottle Tree to uproot it as soon as Tabitha and Jade had secured the bones. As most of the residents were busy with that, Sophia conducted her own mission, where she used Clara to give Fatima a drink that had been spiked with her and Clara’s blood. Fatima drank it and, at night, she started getting stomach cramps. Elgin found a very old polaroid which seemingly had Sophia in it. When Elgin showed that to Sophia, she confirmed that that girl was in fact her, and seemingly proceeded to kill him. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Jade Reveals The Truth About The Bottle Tree

In episode 10, the creatures wait outside the tarp (which means that the talisman is still working), Tabitha and Jade start packing the Anghkooey children’s bones into their bags, and Boyd and the rest wait around the Bottle Tree to uproot it at the opportune moment. Now, why didn’t they uproot the tree first, while Tabitha and Jade are collecting the bones, thereby allowing them to have an exit route as soon as they put all the bones in the bag? Because, as per Jade, once the tree is destroyed, the talismans will stop working. So, they need to keep the tree intact until all the bones have been secured. You might be wondering, where the hell was this information revealed before the expedition was greenlit? The answer is that it wasn’t. Jade says that if anybody knew about this detail, then Boyd would have scrapped this expedition. My best guess is that Jade figured out the Bottle Tree’s connection to the talismans when he went on his mushroom trip, and then kept that info all to himself. Which is why Boyd thinks that only the grave will become vulnerable once the tree is uprooted, and he is unaware of the tree’s effect on the talismans. 

That’s fine, but would it have hurt the showrunners to give us a clue about this detail during that mushroom trip? At least that would have given the build-up to the mission a level of complexity, because we would have known that Jade was persuading everyone to let this expedition happen despite knowing that, if it failed, all of them would be doomed. This information being revealed as a last-minute plot twist just makes it seem stupid. Anyway, going back to the plot, Jade says that he’s gonna make the “sacrifice play,” as he’ll stay in the grave and tackle the creatures so that Tabitha gets ample time to climb out through the hole where the Bottle Tree once stood. Tabitha tries to protest this maneuver, but Jade can’t be dissuaded from his plan, and he signals Boyd (via their makeshift radio communicator) to uproot the Bottle Tree. The tree comes off pretty smoothly, and that’s when the creatures tear down the tarp (which means that the talismans have become inert) and begin making their way to Tabitha and Jade.

Jade And Tabitha Are Trapped In The Tunnels

Since the creatures can’t tolerate sunlight, Tabitha and Jade are momentarily protected by the sunlight that’s spilling through the hole in the graveyard’s roof. Boyd drops the rope ladder, and as Tabitha starts to climb it, the section of the ladder that Sophia had sabotaged snaps, causing Tabitha to fall into the graveyard. Since the sunlight is protecting Tabitha and Jade, it seems like Boyd and the rest will have the time to repair the rope ladder and resume the extraction operation. However, that’s when the skies get engulfed in dark clouds, which snuffs out the sunlight and allows the creatures to attack Tabitha and Jade. When the creatures get close to Tabitha and Jade, an earthquake strikes Fromville. That causes a previously undiscovered pathway to open up in the walls of the graveyard. Tabitha and Jade use that to escape while the creatures go after them at a glacial pace. Given how the clouds and the earthquake cancel out each other, I have a feeling that there are opposing forces at play here. Like, there are two godly creatures that are partaking in some kind of a chess-match, to see who’s superior, and these residents are the chess pieces. Which’d make it a turn-based game, and until and unless one of the gods makes their move, the other can’t do anything to counter it. Or maybe one has to play on the offensive and the other has to be on the defensive, and they switch sides every round. I’ll get back to this theory of mine in a bit. 

As the earthquake subsides, and Kenny has freed Victor from his detention cell, he scolds Kenny for allowing Boyd to uproot the tree. Boyd wants to get into the graveyard through the hole and save Tabitha and Jade. Ellis, Kristi, and the rest prevent Boyd from acting irrationally, especially because there’s no way in hell Boyd stands a chance against all those creatures in the tunnels. With the creatures in the forest approaching the digsite, Boyd and his crew get into the cars and start heading back to town. Patty kinda goes haywire and tries to shoot herself in the van, but Boyd stops her from dying by suicide. Meanwhile, Jade and Tabitha reach a spot in the tunnel where there’s a hole in the wall that’s barricaded with these thick wooden rods. Jade tries to breach them, but they are too strong to budge. One of the creatures almost gets to them, but an aftershock causes the entrypoint of that spot in the tunnels to be blocked by falling rubble (very convenient). Which means that the only way out of that spot is that hole with the wooden rods.

Marielle And Elgin Are Dead

Back at the clinic, Fatima and Marielle get into an argument about what they should do in this confusing situation, and why Marielle and Kristi aren’t telling Fatima the truth about her physical condition. That’s when Fatima realizes that the Smiley creature is coming their way. They assume that the talisman is gonna keep them safe, but then they notice that the talisman is actually gone. Instead of going somewhere safe, Fatima and Marielle keep bumbling around the clinic until the Smiley creature slashes Marielle’s stomach, causing her to bleed profusely. This prompts Fatima to scream like the creatures, and that’s what causes the Smiley creature to leave the clinic. However, the damage has already been done, as Marielle’s injuries are too grievous for her to recover from. Kristi and the rest reach the clinic, only to watch Marielle die in her beloved’s arms. 

I know that this is a really sad moment, but I kept thinking about why the creatures didn’t just enter the clinic (which was totally unguarded) and kill all the people there? Was Fatima’s screaming enough to keep all the creatures away from the clinic? Or is this just a horrible case of plot armor? Your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, while all this is going on, Sophia is seen having a conversation with Elgin at the diner, while Clara stands guard at the door. Sophia gives Elgin the offer to “help her out” (which means she wants him to become one of her minions) and, in exchange, walk away from the impending massacre completely unscathed. Elgin knows that Sophia is bluffing, hence, he refuses to shake hands with her. So, Sophia kills Elgin in a pretty bloody fashion. As Elgin dies, the clouds in the sky disappear, and the Township gets flooded with sunlight again. So, Sophia leaves the diner and tells Clara to “take care” of Elgin’s dead body. In case you need a proper confirmation: yes, Marielle and Elgin are in fact dead.

Red Lightning Shoots Out Of The Graveyard

In Colony House, Donna spots Henry in Victor’s room, reeling from the clouds and the earthquake. Henry repeatedly keeps asking how anything that’s happening in there can actually be happening, which means that the seeds of the idea that Fromville is fake and the care facility is real have started to take root. Donna doesn’t have any answers (even though it’s Season 4), so she tells him to go to the Sheriff’s Station and check on Victor. He says that he’s instead gonna clean up Victor’s room, which has been ruined by the earthquake (which is just an excuse for him to not look Victor in the eye when his mind is telling him to kill his son so that he can live in the care facility reality). While doing so, he finds a can with bullets in it, and he asks Donna where Victor got them from. Donna says that Victor used to carry a gun in his lunchbox until Boyd took it away but, evidently, Victor has kept some of the ammunition. Henry wonders where the gun is currently, and without giving it a second thought, Donna hypothesizes that it’s at the Sheriff’s Station. 

Boyd reaches the clinic and finds Randall, Ellis, and Fatima in a distraught state; when he goes into Kristi’s room and sees her holding onto Marielle’s dead body, he understands why. Nobody gets the chance to mourn properly, because red lightning starts shooting out of the hole atop the grave, where the Bottle Tree once stood. When those lightning bolts hit the sky, it gets cloudy again; except this time, the clouds are filled with those red lightning bolts. As everyone is observing this, Bakta, Acosta, Sara, and Patty reach Colony House, and that’s when Ethan and Julie learn that Tabitha is with Jade in the underground tunnels. This severely upsets Ethan, and he rushes inside while Julie and Donna try to console him. As they sit down with Ethan at the dinner table, the cabinets start to slam around on their own, while some of the utensils fly off the shelves, just like they did in Tabitha’s house. Since Ethan is panicking, Julie and Donna are unable to address that elephant in the dining room, as they have to focus on calming Ethan down.

Henry Almost Kills Victor 

We get a brief scene of Sophia collecting the talismans from all over town, and Henry stealing the gun from the Sheriff’s Station. Kenny almost catches Henry in the act, but Henry leaves so quickly that Kenny is unable to figure out what he has actually done. Soon after that, Boyd returns to the Station. As Kenny is talking about next steps with him, Acosta and Sara get there too. Acosta wants to go back to the dig site and get those bones. However, Boyd seems to be done with taking risks, and goes on an insane rant about how all his decisions have turned out to be major flops. Sara tells him to shut up and listen to the radio, because Jade and Tabitha are sending signals to let them know that they are alive. Unfortunately, Jade is unable to give them an idea about where they are, because the radio he’s using runs out of juice. Since Jade and Tabitha don’t know if their radio signal has reached anybody out there, they focus their energies on loosening the wooden rods on that hole in the wall. Boyd rushes to the clinic to tell Ellis and Fatima that Jade and Tabitha are still alive in the tunnels. He comes across Randall and Kristi taking Marielle’s corpse to the church, and asks them if they need his help; they assure Boyd that they’ll manage. So, Boyd goes back to discussing his extraction plan, which basically entails him going into the tunnels on his own. 

If Boyd is so interested in doing everything alone, why doesn’t he just do it on his own? Why does he have to announce it when he knows that the person he is telling his plan to is gonna oppose it? Is he just fishing for attention? Anyway, both Ellis and Fatima say that they’re gonna go into the tunnels with Boyd. Fatima’s presence there is important because, firstly, she can sense if the Smiley creature (along with his companions) comes for them, and secondly, she can scream like them to ward them off. Boyd has no choice but to take them along. As they head to the tunnels, we get a brief glimpse of Sophia collecting all the talismans from the town (with some help from Clara) and walking into the woods. Then, we go to Colony House and see Henry, in Victor’s room, loading the gun with bullets. Victor comes in to check in on his dad and asks him if he has done something wrong. He assumes that all the info dumping about the Man in Yellow and the circumstances under which Miranda died is the cause for Henry going off the rails by drowning himself in alcohol. Henry assures him that that’s not the case at all, and then pulls out the gun to talk about how he has to leave this fictional reality and go to the actual reality (From’s unintentional comedy is great). As Henry starts to ramble about all the things he has seen in that care facility reality, Victor realizes that his dad is a danger to himself and others. He tries to get him to put down the gun, but that’s when Ethan walks into the room. Thankfully, before Henry can panic and accidentally shoot Ethan, Victor knocks the gun out of his dad’s hands and loudly reprimands him for causing so much chaos as Ethan watches on.

Fatima Turns Into A Creature 

We see Boyd, Fatima, and Ellis go into the tunnels. Meanwhile, Jade and Tabitha try to dig underneath those wooden rods with the bones of the Anghkooey children. When Tabitha touches one of the skulls, she sees a vision of the corresponding kid. Tabitha says “this is her,” which could either mean that she simply recognizes the Anghkooey child that’s been showing up, or maybe that that specific child played a major role in the life of one of Tabitha and Jade’s previous incarnations. Before they can go into any further detail, the sound of the creatures’ screaming increases, which causes Jade to panic and start kicking the wooden rods to get them to break. Fatima tells Boyd and Ellis that the creatures have found out where Jade and Tabitha are, which means that they have to get to them before the creatures do. Soon after that, the trio finds the hole in the wall, and Boyd uses his gun to take down those wooden rods. Once Jade and Tabitha have been rescued, Fatima tells Ellis and Boyd to take them and leave while she holds back the creatures.

It seems like Fatima is gonna make a stupid sacrifice play, but she actually transforms into one of the creatures and keeps the other creatures from going after Ellis, Boyd, Jade, and Tabitha, thereby allowing them to get out of the tunnels. This means that Fatima’s monster transformation is complete, and she is not a human anymore. Since Fatima doesn’t attack her friends, that means she has some sense of control over what she wants to do. But how long is that gonna last? We still don’t know what makes the monsters tick. We don’t know if they are controlled by someone or driven by their hunger to brutalize humans. And I want to put the emphasis on “brutalize” because we haven’t seen them eat humans (the Man in Yellow was seen eating a liver and that’s it). I was assuming that the longer Fatima is gonna stay off that cannibal diet, the harder it’s gonna be for her to bat for the humans. But if the monsters don’t eat humans, what drives them to act so violently? Do they have a choice to act differently? Because if they do, it’s possible that Fatima is gonna usher in that change. At the same time, it’s possible that if Fatima keeps changing between her human and creature personas repeatedly, she’s gonna lose her humanity, become a full-time creature, and join her new family to kill the residents.

Sophia Meets The Boy In White

In the ending of From Season 4 episode 10, we see Sophia and the Boy in White walking side by side to another one of the Faraway Trees. As Sophia dumps the talismans into its trunk, the Boy in White tells her that she’s gonna lose this time. Sophia doesn’t agree with him because, while she accepts that the residents have the bones, they are at a disadvantage because that Bottle Tree is gone. What the hell does that mean? Initially, I thought that Sophia was implying that the Bottle Tree getting uprooted means that the talismans won’t work, and that’s why she thinks she’s gonna win. But if that was the case, why would she need to collect the talismans and chuck them into the Faraway Tree? Maybe the talismans were functional, and the Bottle Tree only deactivated the one in the grave? So, what are the long-term effects of the Bottle Tree being uprooted? Maybe it’s gonna cause more environmental changes and lead to longer nights and shorter days, thereby allowing the creatures to hunt for longer periods of time. Or maybe what she wants to say is that while the residents will be able to use the bones to stop the creature attacks, they won’t be able to leave Fromville, because the connection to the Lighthouse has been severed. 

Well, we’ll know more about that in the next season. Now, coming back to my “gods playing chess” theory, yeah, I think the Man in Yellow and the Boy in White are 2 gods who are trying to prove who’s the best. The pocket universe is their playground. Maybe the Boy in White uses the residents’ goodness to win while the Man in Yellow employs more aggressive tactics. The Man in Yellow has more access to the residents because he has won the previous rounds, while the Boy in White only has access to Victor and Tabitha (and maybe Henry). Yeah, I know; Lost. Whether or not that’s what’s actually happening will be revealed in the fifth and final season. If the showrunners leave things on an ambiguous note in that season too, I’m gonna riot. Anyway, what are your thoughts on the finale of From Season 4? Let me know in the comments section below.

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