From offers up the best episode so far in Season 2.
Season 2 of From has been a bit of a mixed bag, with a strong start to the season tapering off into three much slower, more frustrating episodes. Last week’s was particularly vexing, with most of the episode devoted to various characters yelling at Sarah and dropping a truly excessive number of F-bombs in the process.
This week’s episode, no two—named after a type of ballet where two dancers, typically a male and a female, dance together—was easily the best episode of the season, propelling the plot forward in exciting and unexpected ways in one of the scariest and intense episodes of the show’s entire run. Spoilers follow.
My Blood Is Your Blood
In the beginning of the season, Boyd encounters the old man chained in the weird dungeon. The man cuts him, saying “My blood is your blood” and then dies. Later, Boyd discovers creepy worms sliding around beneath his skin. He doesn’t tell anybody because he doesn’t want to seem crazy. When he finally does, people don’t believe him.
The only reason he comes clean is because he has no choice. Things are getting worse. He’s having pain now, convulsions, and his visions are growing more terrifying. He starts hearing a music box, and and then a ballerina appears. Nobody else can see or hear any of this. Worse, the ballerina is some kind of monster. When he first sees her, she’s just dancing a very normal (if unsettling) ballet dance. Then she smiles and opens her mouth:
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Notice the tentacles coming out of her mouth look like worms—perhaps the same worms we see under Boyd’s skin. He wakes from the dream on the floor of the diner, where Kenny rushes to help him.
Neither Kenny or Kristi can see the worms, and they think he’s just losing his mind. When Kenny discovers him talking to himself and Boyd reveals he was having a full-blown conversation with the very dead Father Khatri, he fears the worst.
Accidental Stabbings
Meanwhile, over at Colony House, things get bad quickly when word gets out that they’re running out of food. One of the longer-term residents accuses Edgin of stealing food, which Edgin denies, saying he had food in his pack. The older man is a grouchy bastard, and starts waving his knife at Edgin and the bus driver lady, telling them to get out. Of course, this would be their deaths given that it’s nighttime, but I guess that’s okay with him. When Ellis tries to calm him down he spins around and accidentally stabs the young man in the chest.
I admit, this was my least favorite moment in the episode for two reasons: First, it was way too telegraphed. As soon as you saw him chopping vegetables and hurling accusations I knew he was going to stab Ellis. Second, this is the second accidental knife wound in the show. Sarah accidentally killed her own brother in Season 1 when she spun around holding a scalpel. I think perhaps they could have come up with something a little more original this time around.
No big deal, though, just something that annoyed me.
At this point, Ellis is in pretty rough shape. He’s not only bleeding profusely, his chest cavity is filling with blood, making it impossible to breathe. They have to go to the clinic, but it’s nighttime and the monsters are outside. Fatima says they can take the van, but Ellis has no way to reach it fast enough, so Edgin—who continues to be one of the most likable and heroic characters—springs into action. He runs outside to the van (which they really should park closer to the house!) as the monsters walk after him menacingly. He can’t find the keys, and drops them in his panic, barely getting the van started in time, then drives up to the house where Fatima and Ellis clamber down the steps to the van.
They drive, and the camera moves back and forth dizzyingly between Edgin driving into a dark void and Ellis and Fatima in the back seat. Ellis bleeding, gasping for air. Once there, Kristi is able to drain the blood from his chest so he can breathe again, but he’s not out of the woods yet. The blood loss has been so bad at this point, he needs a transfusion, but the only person with his blood type is his father, and Boyd refuses. He won’t transfer the infection to his son even if it saves his life. Kenny, fully fed up with Boyd at this point, draws his gun (which seems like yet another major overreaction from Kenny, but he’s not having a great week so we’ll let it slide).
This is when Kristi’s fiancé, Maryelle, sees the worms. Suddenly they’ve reemerged and now everyone can see them. Kenny has a bit of a redemption moment when he offers to take the infection himself. Boyd can pass them on just like the old man did to him, and then give his blood safely to Ellis. It’s a very selfless gesture, but Boyd won’t do that either. He has another idea—an idea so crazy, it just might work.
How To Kill A Monster
He leaves the clinic and starts hollering at the monsters. The super creepy one shows up first, then others walk up, forming a circle around Boyd. Boyd cuts his hand, then cuts the monster’s throat. No blood drains out, but Boyd clamps his bloody palm to the creature’s throat and says “My blood is your blood mother-*#*$!*” and then staggers back. The monster smiles his creepy smile and says “I like this game.”
Then he stops and begins to convulse. His human face disappears and becomes a face of teeth and bone, monstrous and grotesque.
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The thing appears to be dead, and Boyd backs slowly—too slowly!—away as the other creatures move forward to observe their fallen comrade. They ignore Boyd, thankfully, perhaps too shocked by what’s just happened to even care. He rushes back into the clinic.
Later, as he and Kenny stare out at the road where the creature’s body lies, Kenny asks, “Has it moved?”
“Nope,” Boyd says, a look of grim satisfaction on his face. The credits roll.
Verdict
This was such a great episode that delivered in just about every way. Fans of the show, myself included, were getting a little tired of the plot spinning its wheels. Characters weren’t talking to each other about anything important. The only characters who seemed to want to figure anything out were Jim and Jade, but they were stymied every time they tried (Victor finally did help Jade last week at least, but Boyd basically shot down Jim cold when he suggested they work together, which was super frustrating).
This episode we get some reveals. Boyd finally tells people about his infection and then we learn that for whatever reason, the blood worms can kill the monsters. If they can find any more of it, they’ll have a weapon to use against them (though it’s clearly playing with fire given how scary the visions are. We don’t really know what would have happened to Boyd if he hadn’t expelled them).
These revelations don’t spoil the fun, either. Now we have new questions, like who or what created the blood worms and did they intentionally do so in a way that makes it a sort of puzzle, purposefully making it the one thing that can kill the monsters?
Jim is convinced that this is all being done to them with a purpose, that someone is watching and observing them and how they behave under stress. It’s a solid theory. Hopefully in the next episodes we get everyone sharing information and ideas. Everyone having visions—Tabitha, Jade, Sarah, Ethan, Victor and Boyd if my count is correct—needs to compare notes. Some of these are shared visions, some are unique. The little boy in white has been seen by three different characters at least. Add Edgin to the list because of his dream.
Scattered thoughts:
- That was a nice moment between Ethan and Donna. Donna has been mostly a one-note character this season (angry!) and it was nice to get her operating on a different level. I like the sweet moments in this show, like the violin scene last week. It humanizes these characters and makes us care about them more, which is pretty important!
- What will the repercussions for the stabbing be? I know Boyd is against using The Box now, but they can’t just have people stabbing other people willy-nilly or threatening to throw them out of the house at night. And this was Boyd’s son stabbed, so you know he’ll be a little less forgiving.
- I’m glad that Kristi and Maryelle had their fight over the drug stuff and that wasn’t dragged out for the rest of the season, though obviously her addiction issues will remain a conflict.
- No Jade or Victor this episode, which is always a bummer, but still plenty of meaty stuff.
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