What are we to make of this?

The show has thrown all sorts of mysteries towards us, hints, suspicious details and clues hidden within conversations, soundtrack and set props... As of Saturday the 16th of November, we have an giant pile of questions and only a few confirmed answers. Fans and viewers have come together to discuss, corroborate and debunk each other's theories, some of them mindblowing, some of them ridiculous, but it's undeniable that this everlasting search for answer has been a major part of the From experience; it makes us feel just like the characters, confused, in the dark, desperate for each and every crumb of information that they can find. Just as they feel at the mercy of the place they are stuck in, we are in the hands of the writers - but that can't stop us from fighting to find the truth.

At the time I am writing this, there are only 6 hours left to the 9th episode of the 3rd season, titled "Revelations: part 1". Many believe that these last 2 episodes of the third season will finally bring answers, at least some of them, and wrap everything together; apparently the showrunners have stated that season 3 will mark "the end of the beginning", meaning that from now on, the characters will be able to understand their situation and try to fight back, finally stop playing defense. I am itching to watch these final episodes, but I also feel a bit of melancholy towards the path so far: if Revelations will finally provide some answers, it might be the end of many debates, theories and investigations that have made the show so compelling and entertaining even outside of the viewing itself. For this reason, in these few hours left before the episode airs, I want to put in this simple website of my making, all my observations, theories, analysis and so forth, as a sort of testament to the From community and its collaborative effort to reach the truth. For this reason any From enthusiast is more than welcome to contact me on Reddit to suggest adding a new topic, or to add to my thoughts, remind me of some theory or interpretation that I've missed... or to simply correct my English :) I hope that by Monday we will be able to see this as an archive of missed possibilities, all the story's directions that were never to be. And who knows, maybe this will serve as inspiration to future storytellers of mystery! Have fun reading. Bye!

Spiders

A recurring, nightmarish image of the show is that of spiders. In episode 1x02, The way things are now, an injured Ethan, who in a previous scene had experienced seizures, describes a vision he had:

I saw the Lake of Tears. It was a drawing on the wall. There were so many drawings on the wall [...] And we were all there in the drawings, you and me... and Mom and Julie. But somebody screamed because the spider came down from the ceiling.

Later in episode 1x09 (Into the Woods), we can see a drawining that represents an eerily similar scene:

Then we have, of course, the mystery of who dragged Boyd and Sarah's tent in episode 1x09, and some fan has observed that in a still from that scene, there seems to be a giant spider leg;

This is and interesting idea, especially because, whoever/whatever dragged the tent, brought the improbable duo to what seemed to be a widespread, dense and enormous spiderweb. Another interesting idea was pointed out by redditor u/Crazy-Flight-3332, who proposes that a giant spider might be the creator of monsters because, as we have learned in episode 2x07 (Belly of the Beast), the creatures seem to be completely dessicated, drained of all their fluids; and you might remember from science class (or possibly from Charlotte's Web) that spiders don't actually eat their pray, but rather suck away all of their blood.

My personal interpreatation is that spiders are definitely an important part of the plot. Even on a purely symbolic level, they seem to be quite relevant; Fromville is like a giant spiderweb in which people get stuck, where every thread of mystery is linked to another one; the more the characters move, fight and struggle, the more the spider feels the vibrations they produce, learns their weaknesses and positions, and takes advantage to increasingly close in on them. As Fatima says in 2x03 (Tether):

This one girl, Nadia, used to say that, it was like this place was calling on to us, but only some of us was listening close enough to hear it

Bracelet

The bracelet Tabitha made Jim when they started dating, and that he had lost the night Julie was born, is unexplicably found by Tabby in the Diner's storage room (episode 1x06, Book 74). She is positively certain that it's the same bracelet, because it has a defect that makes it one of a kind. This shocks both her and Jim, and opens many eerie possibilities. It's possible that Fromville exists as a place where lost things end up? Or maybe Tabitha was targeted by Fromville early on, and there are Fromville agents in the outside wolrd that brought the bracelet there for some reason?

An even more unsettling scene happens in episode 2x03 (Mouse Trap), when Tabitha has escaped Fromville and is in Henry's car, going to the park to see the original Bottle Tree. However, they never reach it, because Tabitha finds the very same bracelet in the glove compartment and starts experiencing existential panic, questioning wether she ever actually left Fromville. This isn't the only suspicious thing that happens in that car: just as they are going in, the car radio starts on its own, and Henry has this to say:

It does that sometimes... that tape has been stuck there for years

This is reminds us very much of the Diner's jukebox which has the tendency of starting on its own. To make things, the song that plays is "Blue", Tabitha and Jim's song, the very same one they hear from said jukebox on episode 1x04 (A rock and a Faraway). See the section about Town Design for more on the jukebox.
But let's get back to the bracelet. The scene in Henry's cat has always stuck with me because of all the implications the bracelet's presence brings. Let's see some possible interpretations:

1. Tabitha is right, she never left Fromville and Henry is somehow in on it; this would seem unlikely because two more people were in the ambulance that brought them back beyond the fallen tree, Acosta and the driver, who is now dead. However, there's still a big reveal coming regarding Acosta's first name, so nothing can be excluded yet
2. The writers went full existential with this one: wheter or noth Tabitha got out is irrelevant, because the outside world is just an extension of Fromville. Think about it: can you leave Earth? If you were to walk and walk and walk to escape this planet, would you not end up exactly where you started, just like in Fromville? Is the place we live on not full of "monsters", atrocities that we can't stop or understand, doesn't it feel sometimes that chaos and chance rule ruthlessly on your life, that they mock you and your pain? Don't you often encounter weird coincidences, have dreadful feelings of dejà-vu, have trouble telling dreams and memories apart? Don't we all sometimes feel like our existance is that of victims of a childish, capricious, at times sadistics god, that tortures us without reason or goal, just out of boredom? This interpretation is the one I came up with first and is my personal favourite, althought I doubt that it's the correct one: I feel most viewers would not understand or appreciate it, however I feel like it would be very powerful, forcing us to confront how powerless and blind we really are in regard to our human condition, as Kristi points out episode 2x09 Ball of magic Fire:

   It's this thing from med school. The whole world, even the parts that we think we understand, it's all really just one big mystery, floating through space around a giant ball of magic fire that keeps us warm from a million miles away. I mean, it's fucking insane.We're just used to it, that's all.

   Even as XXI Century humans, so full of certainties and and sure of our power over nature, we still have no clue of why we are here; we might understand the universe better than our ancestors did, but we still have no idea why it works the way it does; and as much as we delude ourselves with the idea that we are nature's dominators, each and everyone of us is one catastrophe away from annihilation, one illness away from death or grief, one misstep away from falling down. We are in Fromville, our life is a purgatorial, powerless and scary experience; just a little bit milder than the one From's characters are living, so we get to pretend a little bit more that this is not the case.
3. Tabitha actually escaped Fromville, and this coincidence is just one of the many others that connect her to Miranda; I don't think they are the same person and honestly I don't understand how people are saying this, they are played by two different actresses (althought after the retconning of Jasper as the Boy in White in 3x08 Thresholds anything is possible since we have only ever seen Miranda in Victor's memories... but come on, wouldn't have Henry recognized his wife?!) but it's undeniable that they are connected: both are mothers, bot tried to save the children, both made the exact same bracelet for their husband and both loved the song "Blue". They both had dreams and/or visions of Fromville long before they got there; althought Fatima says this happened to other people, we only know of three:
   
   

   

   
   Miranda (who saw the place in an acid trip), Tabitha (who saw the place in a dream as a little girl) and Abby (also saw it in a dream as a little girl). Elgin doesn't count as he had the dream after he had already passed the tree on the road. Could all of these three mothers have been chosen for some purpose within Fromville?
4. We learn from 3x08 episode Thresholds that some sort of time travel is a thing in this show. The fact that the bracelet Tabitha made disappeared the night Julie was born could be meaningful since Julie is the first confirmed time traveller; did she go back to the time she was born to make something happen, or to avoid some time paradox? Did she steal the bracelet and then travel further back in time and gave it to Miranda? Or maybe the other way around? This would mean that either Miranda or Tabitha lied, as only one of them made the bracelet, the other one only had it.

This plot point is probably one of those that intrigue me the most, but I have seen relatively little discussion about it. What do you guys think?

Water

This seems to be a central theme that touches on a lot of different subplots and "unrelated" theories (quotes are in order since everything seems to be connected in this show!). In the very first episode (Long's Day Journey into Night) we see Julie while she tells a story to Ethan, featuring the Lake of Tears. Ethan Mentions that fairies come from that lake; one of the protagonists of the story, Norman, dies near it. This seems like a good moment to remind everyone that the showrunners have stated that most of the mystery has already been explained through hints and clues in the first episode... of course, it's up to us to understand in which scenes and detail (see the dedicated section if you want to go deeper in this). In episode 1x02, The way things are now, an injured Ethan, who in a scene before had experienced seizures, describes a vision he had:

I saw the Lake of Tears. It was a drawing on the wall. There were so many drawings on the wall [...] And we were all there in the drawings, you and me... and Mom and Julie. But somebody screamed because the spider came down from the ceiling.

Later in episode 1x09 (Into the Woods), we can see a drawining that represents an eerily similar scene:

Then of course we have the connection between the monsters and water. First of all, when Kristi opens Smiley's ribcage in episode 2x07 (Belly of the Beast), she is shocked to see that it seems to have human anatomy, only it is completely dissicated except from bile in the gallbladder. And then, in episode 2x01 (Strangers in a Strange Land), when Tabitha and Victor are walking in the tunnels, there is this weird exchange when Tabitha notices a stream of water running on the ground:

Tabitha: Wait wait wait... where is the water coming from?
Victor: They're waking up...

Now, it's not clear if Victor is really answering Tabitha's question; it's entirely possible that he is giving priority to letting her know about the most urgent matter - that the creatures are waking up, meaning they have to hurry. However, I find this conversation intriguing. Is the process of waking up for the creatures somehow related to disposing of all their bodily liquids?

Then of course, we have the Brundles, a body of water near Colony House. This would seem unimportant except for the fact that Elgin dreamt about it prior to his arrival in Fromville, when he was having a nightmare on the bus (2x01, Strangers in a Strange Land). It's also worth noting that both times we see Fatima near the Brundles, she mentions that it's the only place in Fromville where she feels some sense of normalcy:

If you close your eyes and just listen, it's almost like being anywhere else in the world

she says in 1x05 (Silhouettes), and then describes it as

Closest thing we have to normal fun here

in episode 2x03 (Tether). Furthermore, the Kimono Woman starts haunting Elgin while he's in the bathtub and we often see her dripping water (episode 2x07, Belly of the Beast) and Kenny and Jim find a seemingly ancient village near a lake, where they also find enough food to get through the food shortage in episode 3x02, When we go

And finally, some fans have pointed out that the numbers Tabitha sees in her first vision of the lighthouse (1x09, Into the Woods ), could indicate years of water-related events. I was not able to find this theory but I am sure I have read it somwhere or pherhaps seen it in a youtube video; if someone remembers where it's from, please let me know so I can explain it further and credit whomever came up with it.

Trees

It doesn't take Jade to understand that trees play a major role in the show.

Everyone sees the tree

Trees connect to pretty much every mystery of the show:

1. Crows: every single person that got stuck in Fromville was tricked into entering because they found a fallen tree in the middle of the road, surrounded by crows. It's unclear what would happen if someone were to step beyond it; some people have suggested that, because Ethan balanced on the tree in the first episode, he has some sort of power within Fromville, or some deeper understanding of it. I like this idea, is very folkloristic, fairytale-like.
   
   

   

2. Miranda: we know that Miranda was the mind behind the original Bottle Tree, the one in the real world (or is it?! See the Bracelet section for more). In fact, Henry states, in episode 3x03 (Mouse Trap):

   The original is in a park a few towns over… in fact… well that was where we dropped acid together… you could say that tree is where this all started

   since Miranda suggested they did one last acid trip under the Bottle Tree in the park, which Henry describes as the first of many similar artistic installation made by her. Now seems like a good time to remind you all of what poor Brian said in episode 2x02 (The kindness of Strangers):

   This whole fucking place is weird... it's like we drove into a goddamn acid trip

   Also, I have always found Tom the Bartender's quote here very interesting:
   
   

   

   
   This expression could be related to Agatha Christie's novel "And then there were none", maybe as a reminder of just how much at risk our characters are at all times; however, I read it as something a bit more solemn, or even bilical:

   Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light [...] God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

   The Book of Genesis
   Maybe the two Bottle Trees are linked to the creation of Fromville, just like Miranda and Henry's acid trip set afoot the quest of the Kavanaugh's family? Are the two Bottle Trees a bit like the Adam and Eve of Fromville? From the trailer of episode 3x09 (Revelations, Part I) we also know that there might be a third Bottle Tree, that appears to be younger than both of them. This might be supported by Father Kathri's theory that they are living in Book 74 of the Bible.
3. Teleportation: some trees have an opening that leads the entering person to teleport, and are therefore called Faraway Trees. According to Victor in episode 1x04 (A Rock and a Faraway),

   It works for people too… problem is, you never know where you'll end up. It could be somewhere close, it could be somewhere far, or it could be that you end up stuck inside a mountain somewhere. They're temperamental that way...

   but when it comes to the Bottle Tree,

   They always take you different placese and you never know where you'll end up, but my mother said this one was special, that it would take her to the tower, to the children… uh… that's all I rememeber...

   However we know this is not true, as Dale went through it and ended up stuck in the cement of the pool side. There are various possible explainations to this; one, the teleporting needs to be in some way supervised by the Boy in White (see point 4); two, the numbers in the bottles act as coordinates, and since Jim, Tabby and Jade removed some of them, now the tree leads to a different destination (see point 6); three, Victor is lying or misremembering - we already know he is an unreliable and elusive witness. In any case, we have known from episode 1x04 (A Rock and a Faraway) that some sort of teleportation is a thing in this show, as everyone got stuck in Fromville from different locations;
   
   

   

   
   does this happens by the same mechanism that make the Faraway Trees work? This hasn't yet been explored much, however Jade has mentioned the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky paradox; needless to say, I haven't understood a word of it, but I'll leave here some parts that I think might be relevant. If there are quantum physicists among my readers (very patient ones), please explain this to me in plain English! Anyway, as far as I can see, this deals with a correlation between objects that are at significant distance from one anther.
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

4. Boy in White: It has been observed by some fans that Faraway Trees only work as hoped when the Boy in White is the one leading the characters to them. In fact, he's the one leading Victor and Ethan to one when Victor does his little demonstration in 1x04 (A Rock and a Faraway), and Victor follows him the Night colony House got attacked; he appears to Sarah when she and Boyd go through a Faraway Tree in episode 1x10 (Oh the Places We'll Go), which leads her (allegedly) to safety and Boyd to the ruins; and althought Tabitha didn't see him, it appears that he was the one behind her quest to save the children, since he is there waiting for her in the Lighthouse. Poor Dale instead had no vision whatsoever of the Boy in White, so he was unlucky with the Faraway Tree; and maybe this is the reason Miranda ended up being killed by the Bottle Tree when she tried going through it: she didn't have the protection of the Boy in White, which, as we know from episode 3x08 (Thresholds), had chosed Christopher instead. This makes the theory of the Boy in White being "evil" even more likely: if he has such control over the trees, and the trees being an integral part of the nightmarish entity that antagonizes our characters, then I doubt he is trying to help at all.
5. Angkhooy Children and Jade's Visions:

   He said the children were born in the dark. And then they were murdered in the dark. But someone who loved them... told them a story. The story gave them hope. And when the children laid on the stones, they poured their hope into the roots that made the symbol, and those roots became the tree. The Farway Tree. The Boy in White was trying to tell Christopher that to save the children... he would have to go through the tree.

   We have known about the symbol from the start of Jade's investigation, and we know it is connected to Cristopher and the massacre; in episode 2x10 (Once upon a Time...), as Jade goes into the tunnel, we discover that the symbol actually represents the roots of a tree, and those roots were on top of the cave where the Angkhooy Children were supposedly murdered
6. Kimono Woman: We know that one of the Faraway Trees has lead Julie to safety in episode 1x07 (All Good Things), by bringing her to the cellar where Elgin has kidnapped Fatima in episode 3x08 (Thresholds), by order of the Kimono Woman; this is also the place where Victor hid the night of the massacre, which probably saved his life.
   
   

   

7. Lightouse's Numbers: At least one of the numbers in the bottle of the Bottle Trees corresponds to one of the number Tabitha saw in her vision of the Lighthouse: the number is 1864.
8. The Omniscient Entity: it has been estabilshed that our characters are probably being watched all the time; there is of course the spooky voice on the radio Jim hears, the fact that the monsters knew of Boyd screaming "You don't break me" even though he was alone at the ruins, and the voice on the phone claiming to be Thomas. I wonder if the "spy" is the forest itself, the place itself; the trees with their branches and underground roots create a sentient net - much like a spiderweb... - and therefore can not only hear and see what happens everywhere in Fromville, but even experience it; let us not forget that the monsters live in the tunnel, which are just under the three roots of the original tree, the roots in which the Angkhooy Children supposedly poured their hope, thus creating the symbol. This would corroborate the theory that the entity itself is sentient and alive, and the enemy. Let us not forget the choice of words of Abby's "ghost" in episode 2x10 (Once upon a Time...):
   
   

   

Cicadas

This section is still being constructed, please be patient!

Children

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Cycles

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Life change

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Town Design

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Characters

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Open Questions

This section is still being constructed, please be patient!