***The following is review and breakdown followed by a detailed recap of episode 301 of FROM, “Shatter.” It’s full of big spoilers. For a spoiler-free review of the season, please read our other review.***

FROM really brought it in the premiere episode. I like that it picked up right from the get-go with Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno), as that to me was the most interesting part of the mystery currently. We now know she’s in Maine. Of course there are any number of things it could actually be, like she is dreaming etc., but at this point we can only take it at face value, and I really hope it doesn’t turn out to not be the case. When we see the Boy in White (Vox Smith) outside though, it is a little strange. Is he somehow projecting himself to Tabitha? Is he even alive? Is he even real? This is where it gets a bit tricky.

Back in the town when Boyd (Harold Perrineau) sees Khatri (Shaun Majumder) it raises the same sort of questions: is he a figment of Boyd’s imagination or is he something the town is showing him? Fans want to know if he is really there or not, but clearly the writers aren’t ready to tell us yet. Regardless, perhaps Boyd should not follow his advice, and he is only trying to make him scared.

There are a few things stand out with the storyline with Jim (Eion Bailey) and Kenny (Ricky He) to me. One is Kenny’s comment to Boyd about not wanting the Matthews’ kids to lose two parents, and I have to question in hindsight if this was indeed foreshadowing Tian Chen (Elizabeth Moy)’s death, because it definitely makes the statement hold more weight after the fact. The other comment I have is really just that it took Jim way to long to finally see some sense about not taking chances and leaving his family.

The huge revelation of course though, is this new area that Kenny and Jim find. Where did it come from? How did Boyd miss it? They make a point of not just blowing off the idea that Boyd and Sarah (Avery Konrad) could have been pulled past it. Was it there all along and the town just didn’t want them to see it? Is the place changing like the seasons? Could the town be bringing in things besides people? It’s really up in the air. Also, what do the weird scarecrow things mean? Are they perhaps used like the talisman, which could be a very good thing (imagine they could protect a huge area at once), or are they a warning? I’d love if we could see what is happening there outside at night.

As for the food issue, I feel like since we know that the town likes to play with people it wouldn’t make sense for it to let it go far enough to let them all die, or they’d have no one to torture, and I feel like somehow the powers that be of the place, whatever they are, will supply food in some form considering it seems like it somehow provided animals before. Besides, they have the cow now. Also of note, I love how Tian Chen was telling it like it is to Boyd and Donna (Elizabeth Saunders) about what they had to do with the crop. She just seemed so certain.

I also have to mention Jade (David Alpay). We didn’t really get much about him in this episode, but he did say he’s still working it out, so I expect him to come to some kind of revelation soon. I always want to know how his mind is working, because his theories tend to make some kind of sense, and I feel like he represents the viewer a lot of times as we are scrambling for clues. Whether he ends up right or completely out of his mind remains to be seen.

The other storyline I feel like there is a lot more coming with is Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori). Something is going on with her and probably her pregnancy, we just don’t know what yet. I still think Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons)’s vision of the skeletal woman (Shuoxin Fu) could be related in some way, maybe foreshadowing something bad.

Lastly is Victor (Scott McCord) himself. He has played such a huge part in everything thus far, and I really feel he was a bit under utilized in this episode. That being said, it is a big ensemble cast, so I get it, I just want more. Assuming Tabitha is correct, that Henry is Victor’s father, that’s a huge revelation, but we clearly only are seeing one side of it. I’m curious what he remembers about what happened when Victor left. Victor has never really mentioned much about his father, seeming to have repressed it maybe, so I’m curious to learn more about him, and to learn why he isn’t talking about his father.

On a side note, I do have one question about Victor, and I don’t know if this was simply a mistake or if I possibility missed something (and it’s not really that relevant), but it seems like Victor must be staying with Kenny, Tian Chen, and the Matthews since he’s there at night and I question why.

Rounding out the episode, the massacre that happened was of course heartbreaking, but not completely surprising, as it just felt like it was all building to something big. It also shows the theme of the season, which seems to be the town trying to break them, particularly Boyd. I really liked Tian Chen and am sad to see her go, but I feel like her storyline had the least places for it to go. Regardless, I’m sure what Boyd had to witness will have repercussions down the line. Tian Chen was also a mother figure to a lot of the town, so it’s sure to have ripples everywhere. I’m also looking forward to the conversation that someone, probably Boyd, is going to have to have with Kenny. I’m not sure if “Shatter” refers to the way Boyd will feel shattered, the way the group as a whole will be left after the events of the episode, or the way viewers feel, but it’s an apt name.

This was really a great premiere, and overall for the episode, the writers do a really good job of fitting in pieces here and there that are more meant to remind us what happened previously, such as Boyd cleaning his wounds, the mention of the music box, Boyd’s shaking hands, Jade’s obsession with the drawing, etc. I thought it was done in a masterful way to drop in those little pieces without it feeling at all like exposition. They feel more like little nods, and they aren’t obtrusive. It also left plenty of room for new parts of the craziness that is the town, and the story most definitely moved forward.

The episode also really of course pulls on our emotional heartstrings. As I stated previously in the season preview, Perrineau is a standout in this episode. I had a really hard time watching him watching Tian Chen being tortured, because it really put me there. They’ve said in other parts of the show that characters were made to watch, but I didn’t expect it to really go there, but it did, really showing a new dark side, in my opinion.

The episode was obviously filled with tension and excitement, and it only gets ramped up even more as the season progresses.

RECAP

The episode picks up where the finale left off, with Tabitha waking up in St. Anthony’s hospital in Camden Maine. Dr. Brody (Sharleen Kalayil) tells her the police are on the way as a formality; they just want to make sure she is okay. She tells Tabitha to get some rest and that she will be out in the hall.

Once the doctor leaves, Tabitha pulls out her IV and finds her clothes and Victor’s lunch box and sneaks out of the room and down the elevator. The police pull up as she exits the building. She sees the Boy in White across the street smiling and waving and almost gets hit by a car crossing to him. She follows him into a café where he’s ordering ice cream. She turns him around, but it’s not him, and the mother yells at her for touching her son. Tabitha apologizes, confused, and exits.

Boyd (Harold Perrineau) is cleaning his arm off where he was shot by Reggie (Zach Faye) at the end of the season. While he’s wrapping it, he talks to Father Khatri. We are not sure if is a hallucination on Boyd’s part or if the powers that be are showing him to Boyd, as the priest is dead. Khatri questions that Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) should be helping him. Boyd tells him that she has other things on his mind, and she has to look after Marielle (Kaelen Ohm). Khatri asks how they are doing, the three who were in the comas, Marielle, Julie (Hannah Cheramy), and Randall (A.J. Simmons). Boyd says that they seem fine.

FATHER KHATRI:   The fact that you can look at anything right now and describe it as fine has a bewildering charm to it.

Boyd says they are still there alive, but the priest points out that one of his own people tried to kill him three days ago, half the town is still afraid to sleep, they have a food shortage without a solution, and it’s starting to get cold outside. Boyd says they have blankets, so Khatri quips he guesses it’s fine then. He asks him if he wants him to make everyone panic, and Khatri says that maybe he and the town aren’t panicked enough. Boyd says that when he was in the chamber about to smash the music box and that thing that was telling me to give up, that hope is what the town fed on, whatever it was was not wife, so what is Khatri? He tells him he can’t answer that for him.

Boyd hears Ethan yelling outside and exits the sheriff’s station. Tian Chen is dragging Ethan (Simon Webster) to his house , which Victor is exiting. Jim sees them and yells at Ethan since he’s been looking for him. Ethan yells at Victor asking why he told them. He wants to go find his mother. Jim sends him inside.

Julie (Hannah Cheramy) walks up and sees he found her brother. She tells her father she’s going to go for a walk, but clearly doesn’t want to talk. She tells him none of it is his fault.

Boyd comes over to talk to Jim and follows him into the house where he starts to pack. He tells him that he can’t be in the woods overnight. Jim explains that his son just tried to run away to look for her himself and that his daughter refuses to talk to him about what happened. The kids need their mom. He’ll take the talisman and a tent. Boyd tries to explain how well that went, but Jim just says he made it back alive. Boyd starts to suggest that the odds are, his wife is dead, but Jim stops him.

Kenny comes in asking what’s going on. Boyd tells Jim that if he is going to go, there might be a safer way.

At Colony House, Fatima is in the bathroom throwing up when Nicky (Tamara Fifield) starts banging on the door, mad she’s not only getting double rations but now hogging the bathroom. When she comes out Ellis tells her that she has to eat something, but she says her stomach hasn’t been right.

After Fatima walks away, Tillie (Deborah Grover) talks to Ellis (Corteon Moore), telling him that the first couple months are hard, but she will be all right.

Donna tells Ellis that they have got work to do with the crops. He questions if it’s too soon to harvest, but they have already lost half of their crop to the storm and don’t want to risk losing what’s left hoping the ground doesn’t freeze. Meanwhile, Elgin walks by, kind of zoned out, and Donna asks Ellis if he has slept yet, but he doesn’t know. She tells him they have to worry about the food and to get people to go into the field.

At Jim’s house, Boyd tells Jim and Kenny about how when he and Sarah made camp they started out in the hut with the talisman before their tent got dragged. If they start there each morning, at least they will start closer to what they are trying to find but also have a place to come back to at night. Kenny says he’s going to go with Jim, because he can’t let him go alone. He understands why Boyd is afraid to go back there; he has reasons to be. Boyd of course denies this. Kenny says that he knows what it’s like to lose a parent and he’s not going to watch Julie and Ethan lose two in one week. He can’t play defense forever.

They hear an explosion come from the bar as the window is blown out and rush over. Jade is laying on the floor under a bunch of strings he has strung across the room in the shape that he’s been obsessing over. It’s clear he has been drinking. Kenny says he’ll get the window boarded up, but Boyd says instead to help him take Jade back to the station to sleep it off.

Back in the real world, Tabitha comes across a vintage pop-up sale on the street and asks two girls taking selfies if she can use one of their cell phones. The one lets her, and she calls her mother, telling her that they are okay and not to worry. Her mother says the police, and everyone has been looking for them. She tells her mother she will tell her everything when she sees her, but that she loves her and has to go. She notices a church after she hangs up.

Kenny and Kristi enter the diner where he tells her that his mom insisted on putting together rations. Tian Chen gives the food to him and makes him promise to be careful, as she can’t lose him too. He tells her it’s going to be fine and that they worry too much.

Ethan asks his father if he’s really gonna go find his mother. He tells him he will do the best he can, but he can’t do that if he’s worried about things at home, so no running off. He agrees. Julie tells him to promise he will be careful.

Jim heads outside. Boyd tells them that if they see spider webs, they’re heading in the right direction, and whatever they do to make sure they get back to the hut by dark. Kenny tells him they will be okay.

Ellis tells his father he has to come to the fields, and he follows him. Donna tells them when they walk up that all the food that survived the storm is rotten. They are out of food. Boyd asks how many people know about it.

Meanwhile the people who did know show up at Tian Chen’s front door demanding the food. They push their way in.

Randall shows up at the barn and takes away the goat; Ethan tries to stop him. Victor pulls a gun on Randall as Boyd and Ellis show up and try to diffuse the situation, getting him to give Boyd the gun. Boyd tells Randall and the others that the animals are off limits. They provide eggs and milk; they are a resource, which they are running thin on. He says that what happened is only a setback; he knows that they are scared and hungry, but they have to be careful and make everything last. He says that the place will not break them and the only way they go home is together. He tells Randall to give them time to figure it out. Ethan takes Alma back.

Back in the woods, Jim and Kenny come across weird sort of statue scarecrow things made from rocks and sticks. Kenny says they should turn around, but Jim continues on, and he follows him. There are cabins in the clearing. Kenny says they should head back to the talisman hut, because it will get dark soon, but Jim says they look solid and suggests they hang it from inside one of the cabins and start from there in the morning. Kenny says Boyd mentioned webs, not this, but Jim says maybe their tent got dragged past that, and they just didn’t see it. Kenny agrees to spend the night if they look around first so there are no surprises.

Tabitha goes to confession. She tells the priest (David Tompa) that she needed to talk to someone and didn’t know where else to go. She says she can’t tell anyone who she is or that she’s there, because they will think she’s crazy. Nothing she’s been through is possible; it feels like her mind is breaking. The priest tells her that when we reach our limits God will be there to break our fall. She tells him she didn’t come to talk about God, because if He’s real, he made that horrible place and created all that pain and suffering and is the one who let her baby fall. She says it was a mistake and leaves the confessional booth, but he follows her asking her baby’s name and if she has other children, indicating the lunch box. She tells him it belonged to a man, Victor who fixed her a snack before she left a place where monsters come out at night, and no one can leave. Her family is trapped there, and she doesn’t know how to get back. He just asks her about the snack Victor made and says to humor him; he’d like to help her if he can. When she takes out the food, she sees Victor’s name and a home address and knows where she has to go.

Elgin is trying to learn to crochet and starts falling asleep. Tillie tells him he needs to get some rest, as Boyd said it was ok to sleep. He says it’s not that, but he feels like something is watching him, but then he wakes up and can’t remember. She asks, “is that her?” He turns to see the skeletal woman wearing the kimono covered in blood. The woman, dripping water, puts her hands on his face, and he wakes up. Tillie isn’t there.

At Tian Chen’s house, Donna tells Boyd that people had been hanging on, because they had crops coming. Boyd says they need to figure out what’s next and asks what they have left. She tells him they took it all and even if they could get it all back, which they won’t, it’s nowhere near enough. Boyd starts asking about the animals, if they will feed people long enough for them to plant new crops. She tells him the soil is poison; everything is poison. He refuses to give up. They have one resource, but if they start killing the animals without a plan they are done. Tian Chen tells them that they can plant a smaller crop in different places with different soil. Boyd questions if the animals will buy them enough time if they do that, but Donna says slaughtering the cows one at a time would only last about a month, maybe more, so he asks about the goats. It’s at this point that Ethan walks in the house and hears them and runs out.

Boyd goes after Ethan to the playground. He explains that there is no other way, but the animals will be heroes keeping them all alive. Ethan asks him if he can make sure Alma goes first so she doesn’t have to watch her friends die.

Tabitha arrives at Victor’s house, on foot, when a car pulls up and a man, Henry (Robert Joy), gets out. He tells her he’s not in the mood and to leave, until he sees the lunch box and demands to know where she got it. She realizes he’s Victor’s father.

Back in one of the cabins in the woods at night, Jim tells Kenny that he was right about the spider webs. Boyd said they were everywhere, so they probably went in the wrong direction. They should get to higher ground to get a better look. Suddenly they hear noises outside the cabin and stay quiet for a minute. Jim tells him that he can’t do this. If he dies, he’ll be leaving his kids with nothing. Tabitha went alone for a reason. If something goes wrong, one of them has to be there for them, and she wouldn’t want him out there. He says they will head home first thing in the morning.

Back in the town, one the nightmare creatures opens the fence around some of the animals. The milkman monster opens the barn.

Meanwhile, Boyd is getting a drink from the bottle Khatri had. His shaking hands remind us of his Parkinson’s. He’s looking at the map on the wall when Jade wakes up. Boyd offers him a drink and tells him it was buried by Khatri and is “a long story.” Jade says he isn’t ready to tell him what’s going on with him yet, because he’s still working it out. Boyd looks out the window and sees cows walking in the street. He grabs the talisman and runs out leaving Jade to follow him. Boyd tells Jade that they can put the animals in the barn and use the talisman there.

Victor sees the animals in the street as well. He and Tian Chen go and tell Ethan and Julie to stay.

Randall wakes up in the commotion and sees the monsters are now getting closer to them and turns on the lights of the bus and honks the horn.

Ethan sees Alma walking in front of the house and opens the door before Julie can stop him, and the old lady creature (Sara Campbell) is there. Julie can’t get it shut, so she tells Ethan to run. Outside, Sarah grabs Ethan and tells them to be quiet, helping them both to hide.

The creatures start to close in on Jade as they are trying to move the animals. Boyd tells him to get out of there, but he stands by, horrified as the milk man creature slices the throat of the cow. Victor runs over and grabs him, pulling him away in time.

Randall helps Sarah, and the kids get onto the bus and shuts the door.

Boyd tells the others to get as many of the smaller animals into the bar as they can. He tells Tian Chen to go, but she says they will do it together and helps him to push the cow to the barn. They get in, and he puts up the talisman. Suddenly he hears the voice of the cowboy creature who, along with a few of the others, are already in the barn.

COWBOY CREATURE:   You said this place couldn’t break you. Do you remember that Boyd? “You don’t’ fucking break me,” that’s what you said.

The creatures grab both of them, slicing Boyd’s arm in the process. They take his handcuffs, cuffing him to the post. He sees they have Tian Chen and tells them to kill him  but leave her alone. One of them says that they aren’t going to kill him, that wouldn’t be any fun. He says that Boyd thinks the place can’t break him, but they will see.

The others hold Tian Chen as one of them pulls flesh from the back of her skull. The camera pans back to Boyd’s face as she screams, and they force him to watch the torture. He tells her to look at him. She is saying something in Cantonese. He tells her to keep looking at him and that she is so strong.