What If They Move The Tree?
FROM – Season 1 Episodes 1 through 3 – SPOILERS
In an unnamed small, probably American town, Sheriff Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau), signals the approach of sunset by ringing a bell as he walks down the main (and possibly only) street. The diner closes, and everyone goes home and locks their doors, and we see that each home has a talisman prominently displayed. Frank Pratt (Bob Mann) is passed-out drunk somewhere across town, and doesn’t make it home in time with disastrous consequences for his wife and daughter, because, despite the sheriff’s warnings, a second-story window in their home has not been nailed shut. Something pretending to be the child’s grandmother tricks her into opening that window, and both are killed. The following morning, Sheriff Boyd arrests Frank, accusing him of being responsible for the deaths of his family. (One wonders why Frank’s wife was incapable of nailing the window shut herself.)
There must be an interesting story behind this upside-down automobile in the empty swimming pool outside the town’s motel. We just haven’t heard it yet.
Like something out of an old Chevy Chase movie, an RV carrying the Matthews family exits an unspecified highway (likely I-15) not too far away. (Eion Bailey, who plays Jim Matthews, really does look like Chase.) Jim’s wife is Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno), and her name brings BEWITCHED to mind. (We get no indication of witchcraft happening, but we do get a retro comedy vibe in these early scenes in the camper.) They have a teenage daughter named Julie (Hannah Cheramy), who takes great pleasure in telling scary stories to her younger brother Ethan (Simon Webster), because Ethan has an intense imagination, likes to read (or be read to), and is easily frightened.
Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot) a third-year med student who is now the town’s doctor, helps Deputy Kenny’s father, Bing-Qian Liu (Simon Sinn).
They drive until they are blocked by an uprooted tree that has fallen across the road. Ethan stands on the trunk of it, as though to assure us that it is not an apparition of some sort. A murder of crows assembles noisily overhead, and Jim turns the RV around and heads back the way they came (or so he thinks). They pass through Boyd’s Town (let’s call it that) several times, then a car with New York plates runs them off the road (accidentally)/ After a complex series of events, the occupants of both vehicles end up in Boyd’s Town. Some arrive that evening, and others arrive the following day.
Jade Herrera (David Alpay), a tech entrepreneur who was riding in the car that ran the RV off the road initially believes he is the victim of an elaborate prank, but is soon persuaded otherwise. Jade enters a root cellar and finds a corpse with blood on its face, hiding in a closet. The corpse turns its head and screams at him. We get no further explanation of this, and he mentions it to no one.
Victor (Scott McCord), carries a “disco” lunchbox, and is the only person who seems to be doing any organized investigation of the situation. The style of shirt he is wearing looks like it dates from the 1970s
Hannah Cheramy as Julie Matthews
A big chunk of the town’s population lives in a large house on the outskirts. The Sheriff has no jurisdiction there, and the place is run by Donna (Elizabeth Saunders), who arrived several years previously, and newcomers get to choose whether they want to live in town, or at Donna’s place. Donna likes to tell newbies scary stories about her own arrival. Five townspeople (none of whom are from Donna’s place) die in the first three episodes, the exact number of new arrivals who are added to the population. All of the current residents of Boyd’s Town got there the same way that the Matthews family did, and all of them saw the tree (at least according to Donna).
Like vampires, the creatures terrorizing the town only appear at night, and can’t come inside unless invited. They try to trick people into allowing them into their homes, and once they enter, the inhabitants always die. They torture and kill their victims, but are not seen to drink blood.
Sara Myers (Avery Konrad), shown here with her brother, helps out at the clinic and the diner. Sara believes that the creatures outside tell her to do things.
Ethan sees a Boy In White (Vox Smith) who is about his own age outside his window during the daytime, and they wave at each other. In the best scene in the show so far, Ethan tries to make friends with Victor (Scott McCord), who is checking to see if the trees have moved overnight, and tells him about the boy dressed in white who “lives outside”. Victor seems very interested to hear about the boy.
Earlier, Victor is part of an intense scene in which he offers to share a can of peaches with Julie, who has just arrived at Donna’s house. Julie is tied up (part of the protocol for dealing with new arrivals), and is (perhaps inordinately) terrified of everything. Her t-shirt has “Illusion” written on it.
Before Julie enters Donna’s house, a creature appears to her as someone she once knew. (We are not told who.) The Deputy Sheriff sees it as well, and fires his gun at whatever it is, but the bullet has no effect. Julie was outside after dark, so why did the creature not attack her? Later, Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori) and Julie look out an upstairs window for a while, and no beasties show up to convince her to let them in. (Fatima does caution Julie not to look down.)
What Julie sees from the upstairs window at Donna’s house on the day of her arrival. The moon was a waning gibbous on the date the Matthews family disappeared (20 February 2022). The waning crescent seen here did not appear until 26 February.
The Diner’s sign lights up at night, even though it is closed and no one is permitted outside after dark. Whenever Sara locks the door to close the Diner, the jukebox begins to play.
FROM on EPIX tweeted some information that makes the puzzle even more complex. It seems that people find the exit to Boyd’s Town in widely disparate locations. Boyd Stevens has been missing since 15 November 2019, and was last seen with his wife Abby and their son Ellis traveling from Petersburg, VA to Wilmington, NC. Deputy Kenny (Ricky He) and his family have been missing since 18 March 2021, and was last seen traveling from Austin, TX to College Station, TX.
The Matthews family disappeared en route from Glendale, Arizona to Yellowstone National Park on 20 February 2022. Fatima went missing on 28 February 2021, somewhere between Boulder, CO and Portland, OR. Sara vanished on 18 September 2021, and was last seen on the road between New Hope, PA and Boston, MA. Jade Herrera disappeared while traveling from New York to Miami.
Seasons One through Three can be streamed on MGM+.