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From Season 4 has been a pivotal one for the series. Behind the scenes, the show finally broke out of obscurity to become a much bigger trending hit, attracting a much bigger fandom to go with it. Meanwhile, the storyline of the show entered a critical chapter, as Season 5 will be the final season of From. That put more pressure on the Season 4 Finale than any season before it, and From certainly had a few surprises to throw at us.
Creator and showrunner John Griffin had been stirring the pot all season long before letting the stew of psychological and supernatural horror boil over in the finale episode, “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…”. Now that the cast and crew of From get to actually discuss the events of Season 4 with press and fans, we’re learning that Griffin had an even more intense version of the finale that they ultimately scaled back – including a very shocking and violent death.
SPOILERS In the Season 4 Finale of From, Sheriff Boyd (Lost‘s Harold Perrineau) goes through with his big gamble to let two townspeople, Tabitha Matthews (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and Jade Herrera (David Alpay) follow their past-life visions and retrieve the bones of the seven children that the original inhabitants of the town sacrificed in blood ritual pact with an evil force that promised them immortality. To make sure Jade and Tabitha can escape the single-entrance cavern, Boyd and his circle of trusted allies set up an escape route by pulling up the mystical “Bottle Tree” and using a rope ladder.
From‘s big bad, The Man In Yellow (masquerading as town member Sofia), sabotaged the rope ladder, and Victor’s (Scott McCord) dire warning from the benevolent entity, The Boy In White, proved true: pulling out the tree unleashed whole new levels of dark force onto Fromville, including the safety of daylight suddenly darkening into night. Boyd’s squad was forced to flee the woods, as the fall of darkness quickly brought out the grinning creatures for an ambush.
Boyd ended up in a van driven by former cop Dani (Samantha Brown), and one passenger happened to be Colony House member Patty (Trina Corkum). Patty was on the verge of losing it when Boyd gave her the last gamble of fate on the bone heist; when the plan goes wrong, and monsters are chasing down their car, Patty loses all hope and goes for Boyd’s gun to kill herself. Boyd knocks the gun in time, and Patty blows out a car window; however, that wasn’t always the way things played out.
From Star Reveals Season 4 Finale Death That Got Cut For Intensity (& Explains Why)
In a new interview with Beats Boxing Mayhem’s Ismael Abdu Salaam, From star Harold Perrineau reveals that originally, Season 4 Finale director Jack Bender wanted that car chase/escape sequence to be much darker: “Jack Bender had an idea. So you know in the van, and we have… Patty [she] originally takes the gun and panics, and I go to get it, and she blows her brains out.”
From has done a balanced job of keeping a lineup of “red shirts” (i.e., minor or bit characters that are introduced just to quickly be killed off), and using their deaths effectively. Patty killing herself in the van wouldn’t have necessarily been in that same vein, and the cast and crew of From could sense that.
“It just felt like so much death, that we all thought like, it almost took you out of it,” Perrineau explains. “So that the deaths that do happen feel more impactful. It almost took you out of it; it almost felt like ‘Oh ok, I guess everybody’s dying.’ And you don’t want to feel that. You want to feel the pain of losing anyone.”
Patty low-key had one of the darkest arcs of Season 4: She went on a food-scavenging run with Tabitha, Donna (Elizabeth Saunders), and some others when they were attacked by living dolls that rose out of the lake. Patty was nearly murdered by one doll and had her face severely burnt by the sadistic creature before being rescued. Soon after, The Man in Yellow resurrected Roger, a Colony House member the dolls killed, and had him go on a zombie-style rampage before being killed in front of Patty. Having her blow her brains out suddenly, before moving right on to the bigger events of the finale, would’ve felt cruel and exploitative, something From has avoided.
The Season 4 finale certainly did make fans feel several hard hits of loss – even if it wasn’t major characters. The most brutal (in terms of dramatic impact) was the death of nurse Marielle Sinclair (Kaelen Ohm) – not so much because of the character herself, but because of the impact on main character (and Marielle’s fiancé) Kirsti (Chloe Van Landschoot), a moment Perrineau says he may “still cry” over. Marielle’s death was sad; The Man in Yellow murdering good-natured newcomer Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons) was shocking enough (if not rushed), while main character Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) transforming into one of the creatures felt like a “death” of sorts.
Patty shooting herself in the van would’ve felt like aggressive shock value. It also may have leaned too hard into the hopelessness that TMIY is cultivating in the townspeople, not to mention forcing the finale to either dedicate time to dealing with Patty’s suicide or (like Elgin) just rushing past it in an awkward way.
For now, there’s still time and opportunity for Patty to do something crazy and/or reckless in From Season 5. The series can only be streamed on MGM+. Discuss the Season 4 Finale on the Forum!
From Season 4 Ending Explained (& How It Changes Everything)
