Summary
From moves fast and furiously in “Best Laid Plans”, finally getting all of the Township on the same page just in time to pull the rug from under them.
A lot of people have been complaining about Season 4 of From taking too much time to set things up, and I can kind of see where they’re coming from, even if I don’t necessarily agree. But worry not. Episode 7, “Best Laid Plans”, is one of those clear turning-point outings where a bunch of important truths are revealed, the status quo is rattled, and a bunch of new problems – or tweaked versions of the usual ones – begin to emerge. Echoing a sentiment from earlier in the season that knowledge comes at a cost, it takes the Township finally getting on the same page to light a fire under the plot.
With the discovery of the hidden door in the basement, Boyd has figured out that there is real validity in Jade’s claims about his and Tabitha’s various reincarnations, and the bones of the children being the key to escaping. For now, though, the door remains sealed. A talisman is hung on it for good measure, but the more pressing problem becomes getting everyone on the same page, both to deduce a way of opening it and to ensure that everyone is as prepared as possible when that happens.
Thus, Boyd tells Henry and Victor that Tabitha is the reincarnation of Miranda, and Tabitha and Ethan tell Julie the same, supported by the fact that she remembered how to kill the dolls thanks to her prior experiences. Out of everyone, Henry takes this news the worst, but he’s also still very drunk, both on moonshine and, more worryingly, Sophia’s blood. “Best Laid Plans” doesn’t reveal much about how this is actually going to affect Henry going forward, but he does begin having startlingly clear visions of himself in a hospital bed being tended to by a younger Victor.
Victor is a bit more amenable to the idea of Tabitha being his past-life mother. In fact, he visits her almost immediately and requests that she and Ethan accompany him on a scary mission to figure out more about the Man in Yellow, which involves taking a sneaky peek at the dirty brown car he originally drove into the Township in. Alarmingly, Victor finds a pouch of human teeth in the glove box, only further cementing the obvious similarities between this show and Apple TV’s wonderful Widow’s Bay, the central mystery of which also seems to revolve pretty heavily around teeth.
The discovery of the teeth panics Victor a little, since with the news about Tabitha, he’s beginning to feel like history is repeating itself. Miranda arrived in the Township with a girl and a boy, and only the boy survived after the Man in Yellow appeared. This time, Tabitha came with a boy and a girl, and the Man in Yellow has returned, so Victor wants to “prepare” Ethan for what’s coming by madly shoving the teeth in his face. I think he has the right idea, but his approach needs some work.
From Season 4, Episode 7 marks the point where Boyd and Jade clue the entire Township into what’s going on, or at least what they believe is going on, which gets several characters moving. The theory that the children’s bones are the key to their salvation, and that Jim might have been killed as a warning on account of getting too close to this truth, is as good an explanation as any other, and Boyd believes they’re close to figuring the place out. He tasks Acosta with assembling a team and finding out as much as possible about the Man in Yellow, but his main plan involves testing out Tabitha’s totems on the Creatures.
Of course, Sophia is in the background of most of these scenes, getting a running commentary on how much progress Boyd is making. Naturally, she starts to ask some awkward questions, and when she learns of Boyd’s plan with the totem spears, she makes a brief trip to the shed with an egg to revive Roger, telling him it’s time to play.
“Best Laid Plans” ends, predictably, with everything going wrong. Ellis and Kenny convince Boyd that on account of his tremors it’s too dangerous for him to go out and fight the Creatures, so Kenny volunteers in his stead. He sneaks up behind one and skewers it, but the totem has no effect at all, and the Creatures immediately begin to round on him. Smiley himself arrives and chases him onto the roof of the bus, but Fatima, who can see through Smiley’s eyes, is able to distract him enough that he isn’t able to charge at and eat Kenny. But he’s far from saved.
Meanwhile, a newly revived Roger pulls his own sewn-up jaw off and breaks into Colony House, only to be immediately stabbed with a totem spear by Elgin. Sophia is just watching and smirking at the unfolding chaos. Poor Roger can’t catch a break.
