Predictions for From Season 4: Change is coming!

As Season 3 of the Paramount Plus TV show From ends, the town is engulfed by winter, after 50 years of stable, consistent warm weather. This cannot portend 50 years of winter... as all the inhabitants of Fromville would die of starvation, being unable to grow anything. We did cycle through fall pretty quick, so I imagine spring will arrive early in Season 4... along with a lot more. 

I believe the seasons are now changing because the system is about to update its roughly 50 year cycle. 

Remember the changing of the weather comes shortly after the arrival of the two cars on the same day (50 years since this last occurred), as well as the explorations of Tabitha, Jim and Jade. They've pushed the limits of the web laid by the emotion vampire-spider that created it. This could also cause the emo-spider (or Man in Yellow) to update the trap's dressing to something more contemporary.

When this happens, I suspect that some new modern buildings will appear, that the overall geography may alter in some way (not the core area which is built on a real site in Nova Scotia, but perhaps areas around it). There was once a river in the area (as shown in the cave drawings), which is now gone, presumably replaced by the road. The lighthouse was there even then, which assumes a sea or ocean nearby, but that's long gone. So the land itself changes over time. Think about Victor measuring the movement of the trees.

The new buildings may even get modern appliances... flat screen TVs and perhaps even WIFI! Actually, no, that would be too useful, and the phones there already don't work, unless it is to be leveraged by the web's evil entities. But there will be more modern stuff... perhaps only there to torment.

The changes will extend to the monsters, too, which will upgrade to modern attire, as they are not really from the 1950s. The cave drawings don't fit that at all: these beings are ancient. The drawings suggest the tragedy of the sacrifice of the children occurred centuries ago. As such, the monsters are 'updated' to reflect the images in the minds of the trapped humans, whether they present as pioneers, civil war soldiers, or 1950's archetypes. 

In Season 4, they'll present as modern people, but be just as creepy. And if they do update, that will explain the disconnect between how ancient the drawings in the cave are, and the much more recent attire of the monsters. It's just a replaceable facade... or more accurately, camouflage. Their dated garb right now is a dead giveaway to survivors: it signals stay away! But if the vampies are in modern dress, will survivors know to run, before it's too late?

More importantly, this will give the Man In Yellow a chance to update his god awful, tattered wardrobe, and return in a slick billionaire's suit, the better to exploit and torment ordinary citizens.

The faces the monsters wear may also change, becoming the loved ones of the surviving trapped humans, the better to deceive and demoralize them. They are lures and deceivers, used by the vampire-spider to trick survivors. It used Tabitha to lure in Victor's dad. That's why she wound up in Maine... that's where the vampire-spider wanted her to go, it knew she'd contact Victor's dad, and that allowed it to bring him into the nightmare, too. This was it's plan all along; the gravy on top is that her return caused even greater despair amongst the Fromvillians. The Entity (spider-vampire, Man in Yellow, whatever) also brought in the significant other of paramedic Kristi Miller (Chloe Van Landschoot), presumably to cause her emotional turmoil and crush Kenny's spirits. The vampires get great pleasure tormenting Boyd and trying to break his spirit... that's far more important to them than just torturing and eating him. Jade is going mad thanks to how senseless the whole place is... so the next iteration of the town may make even less sense than it does now.

It's all a great big deliberate mind f_ck... which could be a fun meta commentary on Lost.

The Man in Yellow / vampire-spider, if they are in fact the same entity and not a group (the Boy In White certainly seems autonomous, but also linked to this hell bubble... yet he was the only entity Tabitha saw in the real world), seems to feed on suffering. It doesn't want to eat everyone, not physcially; rather, it feeds on their fear, despair and emotional turmoil. 

When it updates its web/trap, it will offer a mix of positive and negative. The buildings are like decorations in a fish tank (which is why they have no functional wiring, it's all a front, a Potemkin Village; this is also why there is a motel sign and pool and no motel). It wants the inhabitants to remain in the box, feeding it delicious fear, and to keep that fear feast going, it has to give them enough tools and resources to survive.

When the two cars arrive, bringing back Christopher / Jade and Marina / Tabitha, it marks the beginning of a new cycle. When that happens, the reincarnated pair are coming back once more to save the children. As such, they are a threat to The Entity, and might end the Hell Bubble (Don't let Ellis hear you calling it a pocket universe), so it upgrades things to make it all more difficult.

That's my guess, at any rate.

What do you think will happen in Season 4 of From? Plunk your theories in the comments!

From: Analyzing the symbols in the cave

I tried lightening and increasing the contrast on some frames to see if that helped clarify things.
It doesn't, at least not much.

I love symbols, and From has a bevy. Not only do Victor and Miranda paint up a storm of pictures, the evil creatures paint their narratives in their caves. At least, Victor assumes it was the monsters who painted them. 

Some of the pictograms are easy to decipher, others... not so much.

This is my take on what they might depict.

Let's take it as a given that the tableau goes from left to right. 

The far left side of the mural, showing the river. Has this been supplanted by the the road?

At far left, we see a river with three boats carrying 2-3 people each (8 in total). There is forest on either side of the river, and 3 large conical objects that might be stones, all in white. They may reference the red stone circle (prior to it becoming red). Below this is a large red structure that looks a little like an Inukshuk, but has rays going from either side of the top: this is the lighthouse. 

At the right end of the river is a massive tree, taller than any of the others, and in black, rather than white; possibly the tree the children poured their hopes into, for all the good it did them. Above are two red curves cupping an empty centre, matched at bottom by two similar curves, but this pair is ringed by trees. Possibly cave entrances/exits. Could be Faraway Tree exits, too, but then, why would one have trees around it, but not have a tree motif incorporated around the curves?

The boats (canoes?) are the only mode of locomotion depicted in the entire tableau, which suggests this was the original way to enter the Hell Bubble. The river has since been replaced by the road we know so well.

At the end of season 3, it groes cold and snows, after decades of warm, stable weather. That there is a landlocked lighthouse, and no longer any river (or sea) nearby, suggests that the changing of the weather might extend to the geography itself. The buildings may be replaced, and new buildings may appear. 

We already know this is a curated space (Tabitha was let go to snag Victor's dad and bring him back, Boyd was brought in to organize the survivors, the priest to give them hope, animals appeared out of the forest to provide sustenance, etc), and the geography has changed before, so why not again?

I don't think the monsters painted the mural. This was painted long before the 1950s, likely back in the days of fur traders and Courier de bois. The drawings look more like tribal pictograms than what an educated person from the 20th century would scribble. 

That raises the question: are the monsters the originals, or new iterations? If they were created centuries ago, is their Fifties garb an affectation? Do they 'reskin' themselves to unsettle more modern inhabitants of the town? 

The circle with three roots, the iconic symbol Jade sees in his dreams, and that Miranda paints, is next. Beneath it are 7 white rectangular sacrificial slabs, one for each of the seven children. Below the slabs are 2 figures slightly to the left, and 8 figures to the right. Note there are also 2 more figures in the upper left, just above the circle symbol, which are easy to miss. They may represent the archetypes Miranda and Christopher, in their 'original; past life, fleeing from the sacrifice. They may also be the two below who are to the left, perhaps suggesting they were trying to undermine the sacrifice. 

There are 8 white figures in the canoes, and 10 figures beneath the circle (albeit 2 are slightly separated from the 8). The number of figures varies across the tableau, so it's hard to say if this has any significance. 

Next we have, at bottom, a tree, out of which fly four crows or ravens; beside it, towering over everything, is the Big Bad: a crude, menacing shape that seems to have 4 legs and two stubby arms. It's blood red and outlined in black. This is the demonic being to which the children were sacrificed. Did it also create the pocket universe? Or was it trapped here by another power? Not sure. But the pocket universe could be akin to a spider's web, designed to trap prey, so the Big Bad can feed off their fear and pain. 

To the upper right of the Big Bad is a black square, out of which fly 11 white birds. Not sure if the colour use here is significant or not. 11 does not match the number of any of the previous figure sets. These are likely the crows that appear at the fallen tree on the entrance road.

Below the box are two figures, holding hands. They are off on their own here. Likely MIranda and Christopher ancestors, continuing their flight. 

To the right of the Big Bad: crops, red figures, and infinity

To the right of them is a forest at top, with a white house, and beneath it rows of crops, surrounded by red figures, some of which appear to hold spears. These could be aboriginals, or they could be red because they are the monsters. There are 14 figures in total. Why are they surrounding the crops? Are they farming, or are they raiding? Not sure. The white house could be one of the abandoned houses by the second food source, the one with the freaky warding heads on sticks. But there are 3 houses there, not one. So I am not sure. 

I think the mural was painted long before the modern town was plunked down, like decorations in a fishtank. This seems to represent the original tragedy, which occurred hundreds of years ago. The big problem with this reading is the garb of the monsters: if they are immortal, you'd think they'd be wearing pioneer garb, but they aren't. If the Big Bad grants immortality to people who sacrifice to him, what happened to the earlier generations of monsters, the ones from centuries ago? Did they make a different compact? And yet, it is explicitly stated that the children were sacrificed so their parents could live forever, so the monsters are the original sinners. Their costumes then make no sense, unless they are projections or something. 

In the far upper right are two figures painted in white, holding hands. Again, Miranda and Christopher. Beneath them is an infinity sign with a sidweays line through it surrounded by 'glow' lines. I suspect this represents Miranda and Christopher being tied together as the two sides of infinity, jointly recycling through this ancient trauma/crime. 

The lighting is honestly terrible, and my fidgeting in my phone app hasn't helped much. It's hard to make out detail, and I may have missed things. 

Finally we have the talisman stones (below). It depicts two people overlapping, with what could be a large belly, possibly pregnant. On the left side is dawn, on the right side, sunset. Around them is a ring of trees. The figures protect people in houses/structures from attack, so it could be the spirit of life/birth, or it may just be the merging of Miranda's and Christopher's spirits. Note the monsters twisted pregnancy into birthing Smiley, so it could be a larger thematic element.

The Boys season 4 review

The show's still got it, but the paint job is wearing thin. 

Franchises are repetitive by their very nature, but work best when the audience isn't constantly being made aware of this. 

I'd tune in to watch the X-Files, for example, with a vague expectation of what I was in for: a spooky occurrence, Mulder and Scully getting dispatched to investigate, Mulder insisting it's aliens while Scully desperately rationalizes, jeopardy followed by our heroes either overcome the foe or escaping by the skin of their teeth, with Mulder largely confirmed in his beliefs... yet still with room for doubt. The same as every week, just different. Swapped in details, same format. 

Same goes for The Boys, although it is far less episodic and more season (and multi-season) story arcs. In season 4, the show cycles through the usual corrupt hero tropes, just with different heroes than previous seasons. 

Nothing moves forward.

Don't get me wrong: I still enjoyed the show, I like the satirical bent of it all, and it's very sharp edged humour at times. The gross out stuff grated a bit, though; they've dived into that sordid pit over and over, and it's kind of getting old. Having said that, it seems to be baked into the DNA of The Boys, and the dungeon of the faux-Batman stuff... I still can't believe they put that on television. 

For all the glorious blood spattered exploded brains and sex act juvenilia, it felt like padding, like they were dragging their feet, and honestly, I think they were, in order to have that cliffhanger finale.

Fortunately, in the last couple episodes of the season, everything speeds up and events cascade. 

NOW things feel like they're moving forward again. I suspect they wanted to save the really bonkers stuff for the final season. 

Kripke was the showrunner on Supernatural and told a well realized story arc that concluded with season five. Then he left, and the show was kept on life support as a Zombie Franchise for 10 more seasons because money. But this bodes well for The Boys: Kripke very likely DOES have an ending in mind, and I expect it to be both disgusting and spectacular.

Which is exactly what you'd expect, and want, for The Boys.  

I have faith!

The Wire vs. Sherlock

The sense of verisimilitude show runner David Simon achieves in The Wire is phenomenal. A slow burn ensemble piece, it gives the audience a wonderful window on institutional absurdity. Nuanced Dilbert topped by a throat-cutting edge, it's rewarding viewing.

Simon has his head screwed on straight; interviews reveal a clear thinking and spiritually aware individual unencumbered by the raging narcissism so rampant in the entertainment industry. His work is refreshing, challenging, dark, wearying, exhausting, rewarding, and brilliant.

Characters are well rounded, have motivations one can identify with, believable abilities, and face an exterior world of crushing weight and overwhelming power. Most shows preach the solipsistic idea that we are indispensable to the world (Fringe, for example). This one actually acknowledges a reality outside the psyche.

It's in stark contrast to Steven Moffat's Emmy nominated Sherlock, starring the fantastic Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The first few episodes are engrossing, but before long the show's tropes begin to grate. Superficial, flashy and endlessly self-congratulatory,  Sherlock's buoyed by a swelling musical score, ostentatious cinematography, frequent all-caps 'acting' moments,  and other pretentious affectations. Still, it barrels along at an incredible pace,  hoping to keep ahead of the plot holes, dazzling the audience with snappy dialogue and quick cuts.

Natural Sherlock is not. A Superman comic book would feel more real. The saving grace is Cumberbatch, who has great presence on screen. He rocks the role, and one hopes to see him get the opportunity to lead on the big screen. The shows are very different beasts. As a drama,  Sherlock can't reach the shins of The Wire. It's like comparing a glittering puddle to a deep,  quiet lake.

Different strokes for different folks.