What actually happens
Every road is a loop
The Matthews family, meaning parents Jim and Tabitha plus Julie and Ethan, are driving an RV across the country when a fallen tree forces a detour into a small town. Every road they try loops back into it, and after a crash leaves Ethan with a serious leg injury, the locals arrive as night falls. Boyd, the self-appointed sheriff, explains that the forest around town is full of intelligent creatures that hunt at night, that every resident arrived the way the family did, and that talismans inside a room keep the creatures out. Donna runs Colony House, where newcomers can choose to live communally. Sara, who hears voices, kills a crash passenger named Tobey and opens the clinic door, which lets the creatures in. Father Khatri decides the town is a test from God, and Jade starts to suspect everyone died in the crash.
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A window opened for a friend
The scene to brace for is the seventh episode of the first season, during a party at Colony House for the anniversary of Fatima's arrival. Kevin opens a window for his friend, who is a creature, and it kills him and leaves the window open. After that the creatures swarm the building at night and kill many of the residents. A few residents get away in a van. Ellis and Fatima live through it by shutting themselves in the foyer with a talisman, and Victor and Julie run into the woods. The season then goes back in time to Boyd's arrival with his wife Abby and son Ellis, and ends with Boyd stuck in a shaft, Tabitha falling into a cave, and a bus pulling into town.
The bus brings a box with a song in it
Passengers from the bus complicate the food supply and the paranoia. Boyd climbs out of the shaft and finds a chained man named Martin, who grabs his arm, transfers some parasites to him and dies. Boyd later uses them to kill the creature known as Smiley. Cicadas begin killing people in their sleep, and the residents are told to stay awake. A music box seems to be behind it, and Sara says Boyd released an entity by accident. He destroys the box, the people held in the entity's dungeon wake from their comas, and the immediate threat ends. Tabitha follows Victor to a tower where the Boy in White apologizes and pushes her out a window. She wakes up in a hospital in the outside world, where she was found on a trail three days earlier.
Tabitha leaves, and the crops quit
In Camden, Maine, Tabitha follows an address from Victor's lunchbox to his father, Henry Kavanaugh. Back in the town every crop rots, the creatures let the farm animals loose, and Fatima starts eating the rotten vegetables, convinced she is pregnant. An ambulance arrives, the creatures kill its drivers, and a police officer named Dani Acosta shoots a resident by accident. The townspeople turn against Boyd. A scan shows Fatima is not pregnant, but the Kimono Woman that Elgin talks to helps her give birth anyway. Fatima explains that the creatures are the earliest people who lived in the town. They became immortal by sacrificing their children. Jim, Tabitha and Jade learn that Tabitha and Jade died in earlier lives as Miranda and Christopher, and then a man in a yellow suit rips out Jim's throat.
Knowledge comes at a cost, payable in Jim
Julie and Ethan find Jim's body in the barn, along with a message that "knowledge comes at a cost." Julie learns to travel back in time with Randall's help, and her trips back nearly get her killed. Jade drinks from a skull, sees his past lives, and decides the town's sacrificed children can be saved if their bones are dug up beneath the bottle tree. Boyd resists, because the plan has only one route and no backup, until Tabitha tells him the Man in Yellow killed Jim. Sophia and a resident named Clara have a deal of their own going, and Clara has Fatima drink blood belonging to the Man in Yellow. Henry starts to believe the town is something he is imagining. Victor is told not to cut down the bottle tree, and Boyd cuffs Victor's hands and has Kenny take him off to the station.
The ending, explained
In the fourth season finale, Jade stays behind to buy time and tells Tabitha to take the bones and get out. Boyd's group uproots the bottle tree and lowers a ladder into the cave, but the ladder breaks before Tabitha reaches the top. Darkness falls and an earthquake hits. A talisman falls at the clinic, Smiley walks in, and Marielle is mortally wounded and dies in Kristi's arms. Sophia tells Elgin their cycle is ending, he refuses her deal, and she kills him. Henry prepares to kill Victor because of a vision, and Victor subdues him when Ethan appears. Boyd, Fatima and Ellis rescue Jade and Tabitha from the tunnels, and Fatima turns into a creature so the group can get away. The Boy in White predicts that Sophia is about to lose, and she tosses every talisman she collected into a farway tree.
The post-credits ruling
There is no end-credits scene in From. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is FROM scary?
Yes. FROM scores 6 out of 10, and the dread lasts about a night. The fear is mostly hopelessness, plus creatures that attack after dark and jump scares.
How does FROM end?
The fourth season ends with the bottle tree uprooted, an earthquake, and Marielle and Elgin dead. Boyd's group rescues Jade and Tabitha from the caves, and Sophia throws the town's talismans into a farway tree.
Does the dog die in FROM?
No. No dog dies in FROM. A cow is killed by a monster, and the farm animals the residents keep are discussed as future food.
Is there a post-credits scene in FROM?
No. FROM has no end-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What are the creatures in FROM?
Fatima explains in the third season that they are the town's earliest residents, who became immortal by sacrificing their children. They hunt at night, and talismans placed inside a room keep them out.
