'From: Season 3 Episode 9' Review: The show wakes up as it nears its season finale

It's another week and another hour of your life spent watching nothing likely happen again with another episode of From's third season! The season is slowly coming up to an end with very little given to the audience over its current nine episodes each around an hour in length, and it's showing that it's preparing itself for another big sudden change towards the final episodes as something finally happens to which we're most certainly going to end on an incredibly frustrating cliffhanger. With the way this season has been evolving, I have no doubt for it at this point. The first few episodes of the season were by no means great, but they held some aspect of mystery to them that implied something more was to come in the following ones. Well, nothing did follow. And it's evident in the ratings as each following episode was met with harsh criticism over how the show had suddenly become a total borefest that ignored much of its main appeal. While many ended up stating online that they're more than happy to see character development and challenges, the show barely even considered that as the dialogue per much of the episodes was focused more on pointless arguments in which the characters simply refused to talk to each other and made endless excuses as to avoid doing so. These episodes had many at their breaking point, offering nothing in several hours of episodes. Utilising the same excuses and narrative structure in each episode as it became incredibly predictable: nothing happens, characters argue over nothing, and then a hint of something in the final minute of the episode.

The show still isn't out of the water yet. I still have little faith in From to do something actually interesting this season as it approaches its end. And it feels as if the few hints and answers we have been given over the last two episodes have actually somewhat soured my interest more. Particularly in the idea of time travel, leading to a much more lazy feeling to the narrative as it seems like an easy way out to explain much of the strange events that take place in the world of From. We saw last episode how Julie had gone back in time and helped Boyd, and we've slowly been seeing how Tabitha has these strange visions, as well as admitting she had in fact seen areas of the town before in her dreams as a child. This was amplified a little more in this episode as Tabitha's physical contact with Victor leads to visions of the past, seeing what happened to Victor as a child and his mother. There are plenty of theories online that Tabitha is in fact Victor's mother from another time period or dimension. I'm not sure how much I believe that, but the time travel aspect of the show has been proven in some way or another in Julie's story. There are some curiosities over where these two characters are heading with how suddenly they're starting to hold importance in the greater narrative, there's something more that these characters hold and it's clear that the show will move forward with deeper revelations regarding their presence in the town.

This episode finally felt a bit more normal in the sense that the characters felt more real with their communications. Though here and there were still some nonsensical moments that showed that things still hadn't really changed all that much. Mostly noticeable in Jim and how he was having a vision while working on a rooftop, to which Victor's father notices it, asks about it, and Jim just shrugs it off and says it's nothing. How much more of this can we deal with? It already is stale in how characters have been ignoring each other this whole season, how the constant attempts to avoid each other have led to nothing good. There has been a little bit of progress in some characters finally starting to talk to each other. And some of this is a bit ridiculous in how the show progresses: Boyd's entire Parkinson's disease was a bigger theme in the previous seasons. How his body was slowly declining and he was losing his ability to move around so freely. That plot direction was dropped for almost this entire season until it was suddenly convenient for Boyd to talk to his son and finally inform him of it, only because he actually ended up collapsing. I don't like that these areas of the characters are used only when convenient, especially with how we've been seeing Boyd run around this whole season as if nothing is wrong. It would've been better to see this decline more frequently, especially with how Boyd's character is constantly toyed with by the creatures, which have specifically stated that they want to break Boyd. Why haven't they utilised this aspect of his health at al?

Elsewhere, we've seen Elgin being manipulated by some type of spirit which claims he can help save everyone if he does certain things for her. This has led to some very odd events. Fatima and her assumed pregnancy have been all over the place and it's clear that something is terribly wrong within her. Elgin is tasked with kidnapping her and feeding the baby, which ended up being his own blood. This led to the thing inside Fatima growing insanely quickly, but it's clear it's not human. The development of this has been a bit slower, though it clearly hints at a reveal a bit more closer to the season's finale. It's not remotely clear what the case is with this pregnancy, and it's really not clear whether Elgin has become a tool of manipulation for the monster's bidding due to Fatima's decline and inability to provide the right food for the thing attempting to grow inside her. It's an interesting direction of the plot and it's still incredibly loosely told, so who knows what's next for that side of things. Though the more things advance, the more it does look as if Elgin has managed to do the completely wrong thing, and is actually contributing to something far more sinister that the people of From will have to deal with.

This wasn't a special episode, but of course as the number of episodes this season start to run thin, the show feels the need to suddenly wake up and actually try to tell a story. I just think it might be a little too late in the season, and there haven't been enough interesting ideas given to the audience to make people care enough to watch through to the next season, even if the next episodes attempt to really hook us in with some cliffhangers and character deaths. I would've preferred a more meaty season that cared more for the audience's time, giving us more of the great stuff and less of the stretching out of plot lines that either get dropped or go nowhere. So much of the show thrives on its atmosphere and thrills, but when there's none of that and none of the character development that gives us people to care for, what are we watching for?