FROM – When We Go

By: Mariah Thomas

Jade (David Alpay) is with all the animals from the previous night. As the morning goes on and there is no sign of Boyd (Harold Perrineau), the worst is feared. He ventures to go check. He is met with Tian Chen’s (Elizabeth Moy) bloody body and a guilt ridden Boyd chained up facing her. He immediately clings to her body once free and apologizes over and over again. He was forced to watch her suffer and die without being able to help. The monsters want him to break.

Jim (Eion Bailey) and Kenny (Ricky He) discover many different crops growing near the lake. They intend to return to town heroic having found food, but the audience knows only heartbreak awaits Kenny. He lost his father in season one to these monsters and now his mother.

Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is being held at gunpoint by Victor’s (Scott McCord) father. Understandably, he is confused as to why this random woman has his son’s lunchbox. His son who has been missing for forty years and has been presumed dead. She recounts the truth to him of her journey to the town. He grows angered as she isn’t answering his direct question of where the lunch box came from. She finally says, “He gave it to me,” and he can do nothing but scoff. He refuses to believe his son is alive, but she pleads with him. He claims to have already called the police and they can sit together to wait for them. She attempts to prove to him she’s not lying by giving him names to look up the others in the town. The search results show them as missing. However, when she brings up trying to save the children locked in the tower, he begins to believe her. At the same moment, the police have shown up, but he dismisses them. Later he confides that his wife, before her disappearance, started hearing voices and wanted to “save the children.” He takes Tabitha up to Victor’s room. He expresses his guilt in his last moments with his family. He tries to wrap his head around the idea that Tabitha is telling the truth. Victor’s father leads Tabitha to the basement. Down there are Victor’s mother’s paintings. When she began hearing voices, she painted everything she saw. Tabitha recognizes all of her paintings and recounts how she described her experience. Her paintings depict all of the visions Tabitha herself has had. Victor’s father said his wife “wasn’t the first chosen one and that there were others before her.” The others were unsuccessful in freeing the children, so he wonders out loud how she was able to get out.

Boyd and Jade wheel Tian Chen’s body through the town as everyone watches in silence. She was appreciated and loved by all, so this is a tragedy for everyone. They’ve always handled deaths in the town with much care and respect. This is no different. She is brought into the church building so they can wait to inform Kenny upon his return. Boyd is haunted with memories of her slow and painful death as he walks. His thoughts are interrupted by Donna (Elizabeth Saunders) who runs to ask if the rumors are true. She asks Boyd if it was worth it. Putting so many people’s lives in danger to save the animals. Donna is distraught over losing someone beloved. “I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at me. You said one day we all would go home, and I was stupid enough to believe you.” Ethan (Simon Webster) is emotional as he and Julie (Hannah Cheramy) had a close bond with her. Ethan wants to bring her a blanket she loved to use.

Jim and Kenny excitedly stumble back into town ready to reveal their food finds. Everyone solemnly watches them as they know the truth he is about to discover. Boyd and Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) silently approach them, and Jim immediately fears for his kids. He reassures him they are fine, and Kenny asks, “Whose blood is that?” He then searches for his mom in the crowd and calls out her name. He refuses to listen and be told. Kenny takes off to process on his own and Kristi offers to go with him. The pair sit in the diner Tian Chen ran and Kenny begins to process this awful loss. Kenny is traumatized by remembering his father torn up by the monsters. He doesn’t want to remember his mom the same way. Kenny asks Kristi if she would make her look like herself again as a final act of kindness for his mother. Jim reunites with his kids. Julie has an anger at him looming in her. “I can’t be the fill-in parent while you lose your shit:” Previously, Jim and Tabitha lost another child forcing Julie to step into a parental role for Ethan. She stands her ground in not being able to be the parent, when she is still the child, too.

Kristi goes to visit the church to see Tian Chen and uphold her promise to Kenny. Together she and Jade clean up her body to the best of their ability and dress her in one of her favorite dresses. She intended to wear it the day they figured out how to leave.

Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) is pregnant and has been having major morning sickness. Her body is refusing to let her keep any food down and she finally decides to see medical help when she pulls out a tooth. In the medical center she discovers how malnourished her body is, but the baby is fine. Once she returns to the colony house, she sees the rotten crops and is drawn to them. It is finally the one thing her body has been craving. So, that leads audiences to wonder if the baby could possibly be tied to the monsters or darkness of the town.

Boyd goes to find Kenny filling up bottles of alcohol. His plan is to go into the tunnels the monsters reside in during the day and burn them. Previously, they had luck killing one this way. Rather than stop him, Boyd offers to help. Once they are set up, Kenny begins to regain his senses and understands the severity of the situation. Boyd reveals to him how brave Tian Chen was in her final moments and how her final words were a sweet message for Kenny. “Take care of him.”

Back at the church, Kristi did her best to fix her appearance so Kenny could get a moment to say goodbye. Later at her funeral, Ethan gently lays the blanket he wanted to give on her. Boyd confides in his son that he is sick of just having to sit around and wait. He wants to capture one of the creatures. As Jim walks his children home they decide to check on the animals before it’s too late. He warns them it’s getting dark soon. When he enters the home, he gets a phone call. In season one, he and Tabitha had dug through their floor and collapsed the house trying to find the source of the telephone cord only to discover: it led to nothing. He hesitantly picks up the phone and is greeted by a young boy claiming to be his deceased son.