'FROM' Season 3, Episode 3 Recap and Review: A Murder Of Crows

The latest episode of OUT OF is another blast in the thrilling opening phase of the third season. Honestly, it's a bit of a hassle having to wait a full week between episodes, but I'm still glad Amazon and MGM are releasing it this way. Good shows should have a chance to get the glorious water cooler talk week after week. I'm so old fashioned and OUT OF is the perfect show for discussions of fan theories, puzzling mysteries, and the occasional gripe about ridiculous character choices.

Let's take a look at what happens to each of our main characters/groups in this episode, starting with . . . .

Jade and the Collectors

Jade, Kenny, Kristi, Dale, and a few other Fromvillians from the big house all head to the small abandoned homestead with the creepy mannequins to collect more food from the lake, even though snow has fallen and things are noticeably less are more hospitable than before. It's a wonder that vegetables can be harvested at all at this time, although there are also berries.

Jade is in a bad mood and, after some arguing, trudges off alone to relieve himself when he comes across strange red boulders. Here he sees his first vision: a man in a tree, his face disfigured. As others appear, the man disappears, but Jade is at his wits' end and despite warnings that he will never make it back to the city before dark, he sets off alone. Kristi follows him, tries to stop him and falls into a bear trap.

As darkness falls, the rest of the group tries to free her. Jade and the ever-awkward Dale rush back to the mannequins, which are constructed from a combination of wooden and metal poles. They grab the latter and are able to free Kristi, even though her ankle has seen better days. As they work to reset her foot, Jade's vision cruelly reappears and only disappears when Kristi tells him to focus. They rush her back to the homestead to find shelter for the night. In the meantime . . .

Fatima and the birds

Perhaps the scariest storyline of the third season revolves around Fatima and her unfortunate pregnancy. We've already learned that she can't keep down regular food and, hungry, heads to the rotten crops now piled up in front of the big house.

She does this in an almost feral way, and although she doesn't want to be seen, her hunger seems greater than her need for secrecy. Tillie – who I still find unsettling – spots her and tries to talk to her about the oddities of pregnancy. She also offers a tarot card reading, which Fatima initially rebukes.

When Tillie assures her that it's not a game but something that has helped her in life, she gives in and the two sit down. But just as they are about to begin the reading, a line of air flies through the window. They are frightened, but continue to read, when suddenly another crow breaks through the window and flies around the house, covered in blood and cawing. It's truly frightening – as if the evil presence that controls the city is genuinely afraid of what it might discover in the maps. Will they come back to it or were they too unsettled to continue? What will Old Tillie's cards tell about Fatima's baby? And is there even a baby inside her? I think it's clear that something is very, very wrong.

But things aren't going so well in the real world either.

In Maine, Tabitha convinced Henry that she was telling the truth. She studied all the pictures and still didn't find anything helpful. Henry tells her about the bottle tree, and shockingly, his wife had hung bottles on the tree in their yard, just like the Faraway tree she entered to get to the lighthouse.

But that's not the original tree, he tells her. Victor's mother did another one first, back in town. So they get in the car and drive to the park. This is really interesting because there are also two bottle trees in Fromville. There's the one Victor took Tabitha to, but there's another one Boyd found earlier in the series. I wonder if they are the same distance apart as these two trees in the real world? This must be significant, but the second tree is never shown to us. Tabitha and Henry never make it.

On the way to the tree, Tabitha finds a bracelet just like the one she gave Jim, and suddenly she realizes – or at least believes it – that this is all actually a lie. She's not in the real world at all. She tells Henry to stop, she has to get out of the car, she's panicking. But Henry doesn't want to just give up after everything she's told him and drives the car onto the road without looking. A car crashes into hers and the next thing Tabitha knows, she's in an ambulance. Henry lies unconscious next to her.

And then it gets worse and worse. The ambulance has two paramedics and a police officer, and neither of them will let her go. They've been looking for the mysterious woman who just left the hospital the day before, and are understandably worried that she's not feeling well. And then they come to a tree on the road. Tabitha looks on in horror.

Elsewhere, Boyd tries to come up with a plan. Wanting to catch one of the monsters, he goes to Randall's bus and offers to swap seats for the night. Not everyone agrees with this plan, but Boyd is tired of waiting around. The creatures have changed. Things are getting worse, but there's nothing worse than just sitting around waiting for the next horror.

I'm really enjoying this season a lot more than Season 2. It really feels like we're making some progress, and while we haven't gotten any big answers yet, you can almost taste them on the wind. Tabitha's journey into the real world is a big deal, and her return to Fromville – along with Victor's father – will cause a stir among the residents.

I also noticed that we seem to be getting fewer F-bombs and the characters are communicating a bit better than in previous seasons. We'll see if that continues, but so far I'm really excited about this season and can't wait to see each new episode. It's terribly dark, but it really picks up speed and everything feels a little less narratively solid – even though our heroes are still stuck in this terrible nightmare.

And isn't Jade great? I just hope that he and Boyd and Victor and Tabitha and all the characters with real insight into different aspects of this mystery can come together and share information. It seems like this is happening now more than ever, but it certainly feels like Jade is wasted on a food run when he should be working on a plan with Boyd, Jim, and the others.

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