The MGM series From revolves around the lives of different people from different parts of America who get stuck in a strange town without a name. Much of the story follows the character arcs of these townsfolk, who go on a quest to uncover the mystery of the strange land. For each one of them, the quest is different, and therefore, their emotional and mental responses to the new clues are different too. Tabitha Matthews is undoubtedly one of the most important characters, as the creators have been giving her a lot of clues throughout the two seasons so that she can become the key to solving the mysteries. She arrived in the town in the first season of the show when her husband spotted a strange tree in the middle of the road. The Matthews family was given the shocking news that turned their lives upside down. Soon, their struggle to adapt to this new environment began.
In the previous season, Tabitha took on a quest to dig up the ground in her basement to find where all the wires in the house went. However, it wasn’t an easy task, and it toyed with her sanity. During this quest, Tabitha got a vision of climbing up a stone staircase in the ninth episode. At that moment, the place didn’t look familiar to us, and we had no idea where her dreams were taking her. But with Tabitha finally arriving at the lighthouse at the end of Season 2, we are certain that the vision foreshadowed her visit. In her dream, she saw certain toys on the stone staircase that she believed belonged to her son, Ethan. But now it seems that these belong to all those children that Tabitha saw in her visions. During this nightmare, she also witnessed the RV accident. Chronologically, the accident should have happened before her visit to the lighthouse. But as suggested by the Season 2 finale, Tabitha ended up in a hospital after an accident, which means she already knew what was going to happen to her after her visit to the tower. This particular vision could be a memory that was happening all over again, as someone might have been toying with her head in order to get different outcomes from similar situations.
Coming to the cave painting that Tabitha and Victor found in the underground tunnel, we can see that it has been divided into three important parts. The first part of the cave painting shows some people on a boat surrounded by mountains. Numerous “F” symbols surround these mountains and the people. These people on the boats could be those who arrive in Fromland, whereas the F symbol could be a depiction of trees that represents the forest surrounding the town. In the end, we notice a large F symbol that separates the first painting from the second one.
In the second painting (or the middle one), there is a large symbol that Jade has been witnessing throughout the series. On top of the symbol, one can spot two people drawn as if they are looking down through it. At the bottom of this painting, there are certain stone slabs, which we finally saw in Season 2. Jade had gathered enough courage to go into the caves, where he had a vision of some children lying on these stone slabs as if someone had tied them up and was soon going to sacrifice them for a ritual. The third part of the painting is divided by the red devilish entity, beyond which there are two people with birds above them. Maybe this is the happy place or the escape from the endless loop, or perhaps the two people in the third part of the painting are the ones controlling the entire simulation. Whatever the case may be, we believe that this painting is the key to all the mysteries in their world, and in the third season, we will know more that will help us understand its significance further.
As Tabitha and Victor plunged further into the cave, they found items and luggage that probably belonged to the previous visitors who went there or the people who died there. But right now, there isn’t any concrete explanation as to how these items ended up in the cave. Tabitha also witnessed a cairn that was later built by her son Ethan in exactly the same way, which we again believe is a repetitive pattern that suggests the possibility of a simulation. The strangest thing of all is that this tunnel or cave looks completely different when Jade visits it at the end of Season 2, which hasn’t been explained in the series, especially the location of the ventriloquist doll, which was seated on a suitcase during Tabitha’s visit, whereas Jade found it sitting on a rock when he went inside the tunnel. It could be theorized that maybe different characters witness the same things differently in Fromland, which is only possible if someone is experimenting with their minds.
Throughout the series, Tabitha had been getting visions of these eerie-looking children, one of whom she even saw locked inside the cave. She believed that these children were trying to haunt her, but Victor later told Tabitha that his mother had similar visions, because of which she had gone to the lighthouse in order to save those children. Tabitha, who had been obsessively trying to connect the dots, believed that just like Victor’s mother, she too had been given a quest to save those children locked in the tower, and perhaps that would become their way out of these strange lands. Well, at this point, one thing is certain: whatever challenges these characters take up, they believe it will show them a way out, and this is another pattern we can spot in there. Are the creators of this strange world keeping the characters busy with such tasks so that they can observe their actions?
During the finale of Season 2, Tabitha finally shows up at the gate of the lighthouse after traveling through the Faraway Tree. It is important to note that Faraway Tree has a mind of its own and, therefore, can push people anywhere it wants. Maybe it sends people to the location they need to be so that their behavioral patterns can be observed further. In this scenario, Victor brings Tabitha to a very particular Faraway Tree, decorated with bottles, which he believes will take Tabitha to the desired location. Upon reaching the destination, Tabitha climbs the staircase of the lighthouse, which she has already visited in her dreams.
Inside the lighthouse, Tabitha noticed machinery employed to rotate the light. For some reason, the machinery looked incredibly new, which suggests that the entire setup could be fake. Also, she didn’t find anyone working inside the tower, so who had been taking care of the fire inside it? Finally, in the end, as Tabitha looks around, she is attacked by the boy dressed in white. Tabitha takes a fall from the tower that’s supposed to be fatal, but she ends up in a hospital with minor scratches. The strange circumstances of her fall and the subsequent injuries may suggest that she’s either stuck in a dream or another simulation. For some reason, the logo of the St. Anthony Hospital looks similar to the strange symbol that Jade and Tabitha had been hunting throughout the series, and it couldn’t be a mere coincidence. The chart in the corridor states that it’s level 2, and maybe it is, or maybe we are looking too much into the details here. Even the scars on Tabitha’s face suggest that she procured these injuries from a crash instead of a fall, so maybe she is back to square one, i.e., back to the day when the RV met with an accident. This time around, she isn’t with her family, so perhaps the chain of action and reaction will be different.
As Tabitha looks out of the hospital window, everything looks soothing, like a beautiful dream, but the devil is in the details here. This theory is a bit stretched but we think her reflection on the window glass doesn’t actually resemble her, and could belong to a monster named Jasmine, whom we saw in Season 1. However, it is impossible to say anything with certainty when we are dealing with a series like From. Wherever Tabitha has ended up, we believe that if she still has the memories of Fromland, she will try to reunite with the family, and that will be the quest we follow in the third season. Also, if this simulation is in the second level or stage, then Tabitha has successfully passed the first one, and thus, as per the painting in the cave, she has to pass the second one, too, in order to meet the creators of the simulation or find her way back home. Maybe her family did indeed die in reality, and thus, with so much trauma, she became a perfect subject for some scientists, which is why they are experimenting with her brain by placing her in different situations. The third season is surely going to shed more light on the mysteries and give us the answers that we are so desperately yearning for.
