As From: The Way Things Are Now begins, Kenny (Ricky He) is shown trying to chop down a tree while nearly crying. After the intro, we jump back to the RV in the middle of the night as Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) tries to help Ethan. After Ethan stops convulsing, Kristi confirms he is breathing and stable. After they hear voices outside, Jim (Eion Bailey) thinks they came back for them, but Boyd thinks it is something else. Boyd (Harold Perrineau) has to detain Jim to prevent him from opening the door while explaining they’re not people or here to help. Ellis (Corteon Moore), Julie (Hannah Cheramy), and the others try to rush back to the house before the monsters come. Jade (David Alpay) collapses to the ground causing the group to slow down. They pick him up and carry him toward the porch.

Inside, a woman looks out the window and sees them. She begins screaming they have runners on the hill while ringing the bell. When Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) sees Ellis out there, she argues with a guard with a gun who refuses to open the door. Donna (Elizabeth Saunders) runs down the stairs while telling them to open the door. A couple of people approach Julie and the others. One of the guys is someone who knows Julie. Kenny shoots him although it doesn’t seem to bother him. The door is opened as the group rushes inside. Although Ellis says otherwise, Donna makes Tabitha (Cataline Sandino Moreno), Julie, and the others get on the floor before they’re tied up. Kristi and Boyd wonder whether the monsters have gone, but it is hard to tell. Boyd checks on Jim who says he is okay and asks about the monsters that aren’t people.

Boyd says they’re not people although they aren’t sure what they are. He tells Jim about the talismans that are used to protect the houses in town. They don’t know how it works but it does. Jim calls that impossible. When Kristi asks about Ethan’s seizures, Jim says he has never had them like that before. Kristi admits that could mean a number of things, but they need to focus on getting the table leg out of Ethan’s leg right now. Ethan (Simon Webster) wakes up and begins moaning in pain so Kristi decides to give him a sedative. Next, Trudy (Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks) asks Ellis about Jade. They agree they’ve never seen two cars before. She seems particularly interested in Jade’s watch. Ellis tells her to leave it alone. She says it is pretty and so is Jade. Ellis instructs her not to touch anything. She says okay although she is going to stay and watch him for a little while anyway.

Donna returns to Tabitha and apologizes for what happened down there, but insists it was necessary and she’ll find out soon. Once Donna unties her, Tabitha tries to run to see her daughter. She is stopped by Donna and a guy with a gun. After she calms down, Donna explains these are the precautions they have to take because everyone reacts differently on their first night. She explains everyone here has been exactly where she is right now and nobody wants to hurt her or her daughter. Donna wants to tell her how things are going to be from now on before she lets Tabitha see her daughter. She is asked whether she believes in monsters. Julie is shown tied up downstairs when a man, Victor (Scott McCord), enters to retrieve a can of peaches. He reveals they’re not supposed to take them, but Donna looks the other way from time to time. He offers to share the peaches with her before saying it is special that there were two cars because that hasn’t happened for a long time.

Fatima interrupts and tells Victor to leave her alone. Once Victor leaves, Fatima says he is harmless although creepy. She reveals she is going to be Julie’s proxy so she is going to keep her company. They’re tied up because people often freak out on their first night which can be weird and scary. Fatima admits they shouldn’t have pointed guns at them but promises everyone is just trying to do the best they can. Fatima offers to untie her and show her something if Julie doesn’t do anything crazy. She takes Julie to the room where Ellis keeps his drawings where she suggests Ellis would like to draw her because she is beautiful.

Then, Fatima tells her about the importance of keeping the windows covered to make it harder for the things out there to trick you. They try to get into your head and convince you to let them inside. Fatima asks Julie to look out the window without looking down. She claims even a nightmare can look like a dream if you climb high enough. Meanwhile, Kristi confirms that Ethan’s breathing is good and his pulse is strong. They hear a knock and someone asking to help them. Jim wants to know what happens if they get in. He doesn’t know why Boyd doesn’t use his gun, but Boyd explains it won’t do any good. Boyd tries to calm him while saying they can only get in if they let them in. Kristi begins freaking out and worrying that the talisman is going to fail so Boyd has to reassure her that everything is going to be okay.

He encourages her to focus on Ethan. Kenny complains to Father Khatri (Shaun Majumder) about Julie and Tabitha being tied up. Ellis interrupts to say a room is ready for them on the third floor. Kenny questions whether they’re going to be tied up first, but Ellis doesn’t say anything. Jade is still out and will likely have a tough time when he wakes up due to the drugs he was on. Ellis insists things could’ve been much worse before they argue about Kenny leaving the spike strip in the road. Father Khatri breaks it up. Ellis gives them alcohol so they’ll have something to take the edge off. Bing-Qian Liu (Simon Sinn) plays chess with Gina (Jessica Barry) who finds out he is very good. He tells her he couldn’t speak English when he came to America, but people speak the same when they play chess.

It was like a universal language that he eventually taught Kenny. Bing reveals that his name is Fu-Hen and he wanted an American name. He begins speaking another language before freaking out and yelling he wants his son. Gina tries to calm him. Kristi and the others prepare to pull the object from Ethan’s leg. It takes a few minutes and a lot of screaming, but it is successfully removed. They tell him he did well while preparing to stitch up the wound. Sara Myers (Avery Konrad) is distraught after killing Tobey. She paces and says she can’t do it anymore. She walks over to Tobey, apologizes, and tries to remove the screwdriver from his neck. Once it is out, Sara asks how. She grabs a scalpel and asks if she needs to remove all of it. She sticks the scalpel in Tobey’s mouth. Kenny drinks with Khatri and admits his mom is likely worried sick about him, but he is told it’ll be fine.

Then, they begin discussing Bing and how he used to make Kenny play chess for hours on end. He confesses he hated it. Now, Kristi takes good care of his father. Khatri says Boyd and the others are going to be okay so they can pick them up first thing in the morning. Kenny isn’t sure he can go after what happened to Lauren and Meagan. He feels like he is hanging on by a thread. Ellis asks Julie about Fatima and learns she is just using the restroom. He puts on a shirt as he learns that Julie hasn’t had the chance to see her mother who is still talking to Donna. While they talk about his drawings, Tabitha suggests Donna is crazy. Donna wishes that was true, but she knows they drove around the town numerous times today. Tabitha isn’t sure what she saw which is what Donna’s sister said. Her sister was a real character and not someone to be messed with.

They were on a hunting trip when they saw that tree in the road. Tabitha is surprised by Donna knowing about the tree and crows. Donna recommended going back to a motel, but her sister didn’t want the deer to spoil. When they entered the town, they drove around once and saw people in the road. They were stopped by someone in the road the second time. Since that person wouldn’t move, Donna’s sister got out with a shotgun before screaming at him to move. It just stood there still and smiling. Then, it ripped her face off right in front of Donna. When she saw another coming after her, she just started running.

She crawled into the bushes and found a place to hide. That is what people used to do to survive here. Since she could still hear her sister screaming, she knew her sister was being tortured. Donna believes those things were making it last because they like hunting and playing. Tabitha was lucky the sun was still up and people came to help. After more than three years, Donna can still hear her sister screaming. Back in the RV, Kristi prepares saline so she can clean Ethan’s wound. She reveals she is a third-year medical student and they improvise when they can. As for Jim, he is an engineer who builds theme park attractions. She finds it funny that he is still speaking in the present tense. Ethan says it hurts. Then, he reveals he saw the Lake of Tears and all the drawings on the walls. It reminded him of when he would draw with crayons and his father would hang the pictures on the fridge.

As we see Victor sketching, Ethan tells his father that they were all in the drawings. Victor has drawn a picture of the vehicle crash. Ethan says someone screamed because the spider came down from the ceiling. Jim tells his son that everything is going to be okay. Kenny tells Father Khatri about his father having dementia. He sits down and says his father wandered out of the house one night before taking a bus to the city. When they drove out to pick him up, his angry mother kept asking why he would do something like this when he knew better. Kenny had to explain to his mother that he couldn’t help it. On the way home, Kenny knew they had a second chance and he wanted to do things right, but they ran into the downed tree. When they’re interrupted by another resident, Khatri finds that Kenny is sleeping. Sara takes a shower. Her brother knocks on the door to say he was taking a nap and didn’t hear her come in.

She opens the door and tells Kevin (Christopher Hayes) she didn’t have a choice before asking for his help. Gina tells Bing to get some rest while she checks on the guy from the crash, but he asks her to stay because this place is scary. He says something about his mind not working and having nightmares. Gina checks on Tobey and finds him dead. When she tries to run out, she finds two people or monsters standing by the door. She runs downstairs where she locks herself into one of the rooms. Jim picks up the talisman and asks the others how it works. Doing so allows the monsters to break inside, but it is only a nightmare Kristi was having. Boyd promises it is okay. They’re going to be fine now that the sun is coming up. Tabitha and the others arrive in a van as Jim carries Ethan out of the RV and back to the road. Sara tells her brother about the little girl and the broken glass. The girl knows the broken pieces used to mean something, but she can only see the shards.

When she tries to put them together, they only cut deeper and deeper into her skin until she bleeds all over the floor. Nevertheless, she keeps trying because she knows there is an answer and a shape they used to make. Sara reveals she hears their voices and they told her it had to look like it was the monsters. She didn’t want to do it, but the monsters told her it was the only way to save them and to go home. She eventually admits that she left the door open before Kenny and the others arrive at the clinic. They find the door open. Kenny runs inside to see what has happened. Father Khatri stops him to offer to go first, but Kenny continues ahead of him. Bing is found dead. Kenny holds him and cries. Then, he goes outside and chops down a tree. Boyd approaches to tell him the family is going back to Colony House for the night. Kenny reveals he needed wood for the new chess set that he and his father made together.

It is ruined now because the blood soaked into the wood. Kenny mentions that the monsters walk and never run. He suggests they’re taking their time because they know they only have so many places to go. He tells Boyd they’re running out of places on the board. Boyd goes to the board and removes it since there has been an incident. He goes inside and sits at his deck before pulling out a key. The fob has a boat on it with the words “To Buoy-d”. Julie plays with Ethan although she is much nicer to him this time. He seems to be staring out of the window, but he won’t tell his sister what he is looking at. We see that there is a boy dressed in white (Vox Smith) outside. Before the episode ends, the boy tells Ethan to be quiet.

 

From Review

The second episode of From primarily focused on telling some of the characters’ backstories and how they got stuck in this town. Although it was interesting, the episode was a bit dull until the very end. The show has a lot of characters and it seems intent on creating an emotional backstory for each of these characters, but that might be difficult to pull off. It may not even be necessary considering the genre of the series.

Personally, the characters seem shallow despite learning how some of them got to this point. Watching the series is more about seeing how the story progresses and who is killed off next because I can’t see myself cheering for anyone right now. For the series to be successful, it needs to rely heavily on its strength which is being creepy. It worked well with Victor but not so much with Sara. The only thing that somewhat ruins it is the fact that it’d be so easy to avoid being slaughtered by the evil monsters outside.

After all, Donna has been living in town for a few years without any issues. If she can do it, I am pretty sure anyone could. Then again, this could transform into a psychological drama as the characters try to figure out who is responsible for opening the doors and letting the monsters inside. It might be trying too hard to be serious. I hope it gets better because the idea is interesting and I could see this getting pretty creepy from time to time.

The second episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of From can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.