Warning: This article contains spoilers for Season 4 of From on MGM Plus.
Between giant, deadly dolls and scheming, yellow-suited villains, Season 4 of MGM Plus’ horror-mystery series From has introduced more obstacles and nightmare fuel for those still trapped in the show’s relentlessly scary town.
As Season 4 of From nears its finale, I spoke with creator and executive producer John Griffin, showrunner Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Fringe) and director Jack Bender (Lost, Game of Thrones) about the show’s scary dolls, the infiltrating Man in Yellow and “always” keeping fans in mind. The fifth and final season of From is expected to premiere in 2027.
“At the end of the day, our goal was never to tell a bleak story,” Griffin said. “And that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a hard story to watch or a story full of sacrifice and sadness. Whatever it ends up being, our goal is to reward the audience for taking this journey with us.”
The second-to-last episode of From Season 4 debuts Sunday in the MGM Plus app and on the MGM Plus linear channel at 9 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. PT.
Q: This season of From has felt a bit different for me as a viewer because I know a big secret the From residents do not: the Man in Yellow is walking among them as Sophia. What was the thought process behind letting the audience in on that secret from the very start of Season 4?
Griffin: A big part of it was, you know, looking at our villain, and the type of villain that we have and the role that he’s played behind the scenes in this world and in the lives of these people. It felt like, ‘How would he most enjoy this next phase of the game?’ And how would the audience most enjoy sort of like watching him operate, so that he wasn’t so much like an indistinct presence on the periphery of the show. It felt like, ‘Ooh, well, the last thing the people in town would expect is to have this thing living among them.’
Huge dolls terrorize Fromville residents in Season 4.
Q: From the original monsters that come out at night, to Season 4’s giant killer dolls, horrific creatures and visuals are a big part of From. Can you tell me more about bringing these scary dolls to life this season and how you come up with new ways to terrify viewers?
Jack Bender: I will say that the dolls, when I first read them, I went, ‘Oh my god, OK.’ Because so often Jeff and John and the writers come up with stuff, and I go, ‘OK, how do we pull this off in a unique way that isn’t going to be goofy and is going to be terrifying?’ We looked at a lot of pictures of period dolls and other things. It was also our designer and production designer, actually, Matt Likely and Rachael Grant, who collaborated. Eventually, Rachael came up with the overstuffed look of the dolls.
In the process of seeing the dolls alive as standing, full figures, I realized that seeing them run around might look a little goofy. Just because they’re lumbering and they’re big and they’re soft. And so the whole idea of having them waterlogged from the lake, and the seaweed dripping, and all that stuff really helped. And the material sagging and a little ripped helped keep it ragged and more frightening. And then, of course, our vis[ual] effects people with the creation, which Jeff and John, and we were all involved in — the creation of those teeth and everything hit a home run. So, like most things on our show, it’s a great collaboration inspired by what the crazy [stuff] Jeff and John and our other writers come up with.
Q: Boyd faces a dilemma this season of protecting people in town or putting them in danger for a theory that could get them closer to going home. What was the thinking behind depicting Boyd’s fear for his townspeople this season and the choice he eventually makes?
Jeff Pinkner: I think for Boyd, the bind he is constantly in, and the bind that is going to become more acute for him as we go forward, is protecting his family versus protecting the town. And there’s a debate to be had. When the show started, Donna’s attitude was, ‘Tomorrow’s not guaranteed, we enjoy today.’ That was sort of the philosophy of Colony House. And Boyd’s attitude, which was very [much] in opposition to that, was, ‘We stay safe today so that one day we may go home.’ Donna was like, ‘Well, going home isn’t guaranteed, so let’s enjoy today.’
Boyd and Donna in From, Season 4.
And over the course of these four seasons, that’s sort of been the ping-pong debate. ‘Do we try to go home, risk it? This place clearly wants us to suffer. Maybe the hope of going home is our suffering.’ We try to always relate this to what would you do if you were in this position? What do you value? Sort of the premise of the show from the beginning is.Your life, the world falls apart — who are you in that vacuum?
And for Boyd, that’s always the question at the front of his mind, ‘What’s the right move here?’ And it’s an impossible choice, and the more impossible it is, the more alive Harold [Perrineau] becomes, which is our great weapon, you know? One of the incredible joys of this show is our cast and writing for any of them. But writing for Boyd, specifically, and Harold, that’s the dilemma. What do you do? Do you risk it or do you not?
Q: I know that I would love to see all of the citizens of Fromville escape after everything that’s gone down. But this show doesn’t seem like the kind where there would be a happy ending inevitably, or you know, that might not even be possible. Are you keeping fans in mind as you craft the final season?
Griffin: A thousand percent.
Pinkner: We always keep the fans in mind. From the beginning, our premise was that the show can’t be hinged on a mystery and what’s the final answer, because that’s not the way to ultimately satisfy the fans. If you’re building a show based on, ‘What’s the answer?,’ either it’s too elusive for the audience to guess — and then they get frustrated — or it’s too easy for the audience to guess, and then they get frustrated, ‘Wait, that’s all it was?’
So, our premise has always been, we’re going to reveal all the answers. The question is, then, what do the characters do about it? Can they survive? Who will leave? Who might get trapped here? Will anybody be able to leave? And we always, always, always write from the perspective of, what is the audience engaging with? What are they frustrated by? What do they want to happen? What are they afraid might happen? And sometimes we use that audience frustration on purpose, sometimes we lean right into it. But when it comes to the way we make the show, it’s always with the audience in mind.
Fromville residents gather at Colony House in Season 4.
Griffin: Our goal is never to punish the audience, punish the characters or punish ourselves. To me, the show has always been best summed up by the speech that Henry has to Tabitha in the basement of his house, while we’re also watching Tian-Chen’s funeral. And Henry says, recounting Miranda’s words, you know, ‘They had nothing to hold onto, so they held onto each other.’ As bleak and as difficult as this show can sometimes be, to me it’s always been a show about hope, because it’s a story about people with nothing to hold onto that are reaching out for each other.
And that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a happy ending, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a sad ending. People are going to struggle. The audience isn’t going to get everything they want. The characters aren’t going to get everything they want. But at the end of the day, our goal was never to tell a bleak story. And that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a hard story to watch or a story full of sacrifice and sadness. Whatever it ends up being, our goal is to reward the audience for taking this journey with us.
Bender: What I will say is that my task was always — and always expressed it to you guys, to John and Jeff — ‘OK, how do we make this real?’ You know, what if this were us? The ‘what if’ question, I think, is essential for great storytelling. You know, whatever the world is, whatever the obstacle course that those characters are tortured through, or have to go through. But the fact is, we’ve always tried to keep it human and real in terms of how they face these issues.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
