[First Time Watching] From 4x2 - Fray

What the hell is this?

This is an overall dump of my thoughts during my first time viewing of From's fourth season's second episode, Fray. 

And now for my notes.

Oh boy I forgot that this is where we left off. Good luck Kenny! Knew that bitch was gonna leave the door open.

Marielle, you'd better clock this shit. Being suffocated has a distinct look.

Elgin, I do NOT care about you. You can literally jump off a cliff for all I care. Tbh what you did was tantamount to rape. You kidnapped a pregnant woman and forced her to give birth to a monster with no help. And Boyd, you CANNOT trust this guy. He's not Sarah. He's fucking Dale. Y'all need to be much more willing to "accidentally" kill people.

I just adore the little jukeboxes so much lmfao

What the fuck is that shit? Oh wait fuck it's Jim's corpse, isn't it? Why is it still dripping lolol

I cannot stand Ethan. Also y'all literally don't even know if that's him yet it could be a goat or something. Also, Jade, I don't even know why you're choosing to be this prominent in this scene, you should probably take a few steps back lmfao

I feel like they're dragging their feet about the reveal wayyy to much for it to really be him at this point?

A, told you! B, oh no does that mean his body's in the barn lololol

Oh wow an Odin reference? Fuck me that means Jim's coming back to life somehow, doesn't it? Goddamn it.

Ethan go fuck yourself I HATE you lol

Ellis, where is your WIFE and WHY are you not WITH her?

Sarah, I need you to beat up your evil counterpart pls (also how is this how I find out Sara is tall??)

But also since the fuck when are Kenny and Jim "close"? Have they ever even had a conversation? Am I stupid?

Boyd isn't going to believe you, baby. Jade, my sweet dumb boy. Good luck. I think you're gonna get absolutely fucked this season :(

Interesting to being up Sara's brother now tho... Haven't thought about that man in eons...

"How do you save something that's already dead?" Please tell me it won't be some kinda thing where Tabitha has to eventually choose between saving the children and saving Jim...

Acosta, STFU

Why do I feel like Julie's about to give herself a dramatic haircut and try to save her dad real soon? Surely the time travel bit is end-of-season stuff?

Donna, she's like 16. Don't let her go out without a chaperone. I mean she's assigning herself one but Randall's bitchy soooooo

It does NOT necessarily mean it's real, baby.

Tabitha, this is kinda a valid crash out but let's not pretend this is just you trying not to feel so guilty over being with some other man while your husband was murdered.

Acosta, literally what the fuck are you doing? You're WASTING gas. A VERY limited resource.

Wait shit fuck me I JUST realized that letting MIY into the storage area is the LAST thing y'all should've done...

Are the glasses important??

Oh Jesus and now stupid fucking Ethan is up to bullshit.

Acosta, are you for real? (But how funny would it be if she and Kristi DO get out somehow? Congrats now you have no doctor!!)

Realistically tho how is Randall even talking lmfao

Highkey there's too many characters and the show prefers to waste time on my least favorite ones 😭

Yuck spare me the Jim/Tabitha love story, these two s u c k (and PLEASE spare me a Jade/Tabitha anything dear god)

DO NOT POP THE AMBULANCE'S TIRES, BOYD, I WAS JUST DEFENDING YOU AS SORTA SMART AND YOU ARE IMMEDIATELY PROVING ME WRONG

Could we get a therapist to pop into town next pls? Everybody really needs one lol

But srsly old man father-son bonding/comfort is something I genuinely don't think I've ever seen on tv before... Don't fuck this up!!

Bitch just give him actual answers before you do dumb shit! "It'll probably look like I'm seizing, but don't worry, I'm fine." How hard is that???

See, Julie, you've fucked yourself. And what the fuck was that monster doing, covering your face instead of ripping your guts out?

Bro Ethan bounced and lemme guess you're gonna be screaming at Donna next

Acosta NO ONE CARES shut the FUCK up

Holy SHIT you fucking suck Acosta I literally HATE you

Also Kristi open your fucking mouth because Ethan needs HELP right now

Pity Jade's idiot friend crashed the RV way back when because it could've been a nice house in a pinch...

Oh NO what the fuck is this? Ghost? Time travel? MIY?

Why does it look like Jim's actor is wearing a wig?

Ok Jim knows he's dead. Ghost. But the actor looks like... Fucking weird. Is he?? High???

No no I don't like this shit at all. Really setting up that Jim is getting resurrected and ALSO that just seems like a really bad thing?

Thoughts After First Watch

After the episode: it's also now occured to me that there are other Odin references too. The tree blocking the road (Yggdrasil), the crows, Elgin losing his eye like very shortly before Jim's death... (Lake of Tears = Mimir's well???)

ALSO I'm SO stupid, how the fuck did I clock the parallel between Sara in the first episode and MIY in the first episode without ALSO clocking the 'is Daddy coming home' parallel between 1x1 and 4x1!? I guess because in the opening of 1x1, it was the family who died when the dad didn't come home, whereas in 4x1, it's the dad who dies the night he doesn't come home.

AND since we're having these parallels... I'm lowkey at the point right now where I'd put money on MIY trying (or managing!) to kill Ethan, just like Sara was goaded into doing.

So for to that point... I want to glimpse for a second at the episode titles. There are two versions, one which leaked four months ago and is probably not accurate, and one which is on IMDB now.

So all that's super interesting. Speaking on parallels, remember that season one ended with that storm rolling in and ruining Jim's radio experiment, not to mention the MIY's taunting over the radio and the bus showing up; that makes "The Calm Before" (implicitly "the Storm") look a hell of a lot like foreshadowing for a parallel... And then don't forget that immediately after the storm, Jim/Tabitha's original house collapsed on top of Jim, Randall, and the bartender, requiring them to stay out all night with no protection (and the bartender died). "If a Tree Falls in the Forest" might be harkening back to that, which could mean there's a literal (bottle?) tree falling that the characters have to deal with and/or (less likely) that we're gonna get a repeat of the 'stuck outside with no talisman' bit (potentially with three victims, only two of whom survive).

Now, "Merrily We Go" is a reference to "Merrily We Roll Along)" and/or "Goodnight, Ladies". Here it could be used as a reference to "going along (to get along)" or as a hint of a romance (surely Kenny's not actually going to hook up with "Sophia" who's explicitly mentioned as being a child???) OR as something darker. The lyrics of Goodnight, Ladies are:

Goodnight, ladies! Goodnight, ladies! Goodnight, ladies! We're going to leave you now!
Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along. Merrily we roll along, o'er the dark blue sea.
Farewell, ladies! Farewell, ladies! Farewell, ladies! We're going to leave you now!
Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along. Merrily we roll along, o'er the dark blue sea.
Sweet dreams, ladies! Sweet dreams, ladies! Sweet dreams, ladies! We're going to leave you now!
Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along. Merrily we roll along, o'er the dark blue sea.

So... a hint that someone's leaving? Literally? Or as a euphemism for dying? There's a prominent theory right now that Fatima's going to kill herself, and she didn't even show up in this episode, so if the next one is tragically Fatima-centric...

But it's probably more accurate that the next episode is going to be a whole thing with Acosta and Elgin teaming up against Boyd (and Sarah) and trying to turn the town against him (potentially with the help of "Sophia"). Like, they've been "merrily go[ing] along (with Boyd)" but now Acosta and Elgin are determined to take him down? His forgiving Sara is a definite point against him to most people, I expect, and if it ALSO comes out that he helped Fatima cover up the death of Tillie... (Especially if we parallel Boyd's putting that one guy in the box and then forgiving Sara for a worse crime with Boyd threatening to put Elgin in the box and helping Fatima to cover up what she did...)

"Of Myths and Monsters" should be worldbuildy so potentially doing some heavy lifting in regards to Tabitha and Jade or (and/or?) Jim, Julie, and Ethan. Maybe Julie learns more about MIY, since he made comments about specifically knowing her.

"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is apparently a novel that's "a realist commentary on social conflict and [...] a parable about fascism." So maybe by this point, the town has already revolted against Boyd and their replacement "government" is worse... or Boyd becomes a much more tyrannical leader in the aftermath of some tragedy, new threat, or failed coup? (Alternately, it could be something to do with Tabitha trying to get Jim back. Shrug.)

"What a Long Strange Trip It's Been" could be Julie doing her story-walking thing in a properly meaningful way for the first time?

"Best Laid Plans" is obviously about some plan(s) going awry. ALTHOUGH, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (the novel) and "Of Mice and Men" (the other half of 'the best laid plans of mice and men') are both stories about disability and struggle within small town environments... so maybe we're dealing with more prominent disability than Elgin's blindness (because surely that's not enough to name two episodes after... unless it is because it really is a reference to Odin's quest for wisdom and so the missing eye is actually really pivotal? lol).

Of note, though, is the poem that "the best laid plans of mice and men" actually comes from. Here's the last two stanzas:

But Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes of mice and men
Go oft awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!

Still you are blessed, compared with me!
The present only touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!

That fits with the overall vibe of the theme song ("whatever will be will be, the future's not ours to see, que sera sera")".

Bonus: Thoughts After Seeing the Trailer for the Next Episode

Okay, so the trailer also explicitly includes a bit with Boyd telling Acosta that she reminds him of (his failure to help) his wife. They're even a bit physically similar though obviously very different ages. So... there's another parallel. Maybe a full watch of season one is in order to pinpoint more parallels?

Really makes me wonder if we're going to get a bit parallel to the bus showing up. We've already got too many characters... but if we want to have a real massacre in the final season, the more implied/background bodies, then more non-MC casualties they can include...