‘FROM’ Star Harold Perrineau Talks Shocking Season 2 Finale & Lingering Questions

Harold Perrineau in FROM - Season 2 - 'Once Upon A Time..'
Q&A
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MGM+‘s From Season 2 has officially come to a close with an ending that solves some mysteries while leaving us with several others.

Boyd (Harold Perrineau) freed the consciousness of some of his townsfolk after finding a way back to the mysterious dimension he found himself in at the start of the season. But in a shocking turn of events, Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno) was pushed out a window and woke up in a hospital outside of the town.

Perrineau talks about the Season 2 ending and some lingering questions for the future and provides an update on a potential Season 3.

What’s up with Martin (Robert Verlaque), who saved you from the well? Does his role play a role in Boyd and his future? Obviously, we see him pass the infection, but is he the new Martin now?

Harold Perrineau: No. I just think Martin is the person who lets us know; if you think you’re already dealing with the horrors, you are wrong. Like he says, “It’s the tip of the spear,” and spears are long, so you know. What they’ve always said to me — and I don’t really know all the answers — [is] that the first season really is just the beginning. As we get deeper into the forest, you’re gonna see it gets “wilder and wilder” as you try to find your way out.

And so the second season is exactly what they’ve decided to do. It got wilder and wilder. You see the monsters are not coming from places you could have considered before. So I think Martin just leads us into that journey. Like, “Oh, just hang on, because it’s about to get worse.”

One of the best scenes in the finale is Boyd confronting God in the church, and it’s very explosive; you reach a breaking point. Can you talk about that moment and where he’s at mentally? 

That’s exactly what happened. Like, I think from the end of Season 1, if you just think about it, like any person — somebody pushed him into a tree, pushed him into a TREE, and then he was somewhere else. And from that point on, you have to go like, “Wait, am I all here? Is this actually happening?” and I wish for Boyd that at any moment, it would have slowed down, but it really didn’t. Everything started piling on, and little things — not little things, big for him. His son is getting married when he comes back, but his son doesn’t believe him, and he’s freaking out. And then Kenny [Ricky He] has to deal with Kenny’s mom [Elizabeth Moy], and they have to talk about Sara [Avery Konrad], and they have to talk about being shot, and then, new things are happening, and then somebody gets on crippled up in her sleep! I think when we get to that point, and he just can’t figure it out because he’s just not sure [of] what you’re really happening…

Sometimes we all reach him for that core thing that we grew up with, like, “Oh, God, you a funny dude!” [Laughs] You start asking real questions because you just can’t seem to find anything. So, for me, it makes sense that Boyd has gotten to this place where he’s “not gonna break.”

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For the second time this season, Boyd sees his wife, who offers one of the first explanations about what feeds the forest and says it’s hope. What does this mean for Boyd and the town at large? Can you even trust the source?

I think all those questions are really, really relevant. I think all of the above, right? Can you trust the source? Because can he trust his mind? Can he trust whatever these things are and what they’re doing? He’s not making it happen, it’s being generated somewhere. So there’s no way to fully trust the source other than to say that the source is trying to do something, it’s trying to see something. And he’s not willing; his son is still there. Now he loves all these people, Kenny and Kristi [Chloe Van Landschoot] and Donna [Elizabeth Saunders], like, he loves these people. Whatever this thing is, he’s just like, “It’s not gonna go down, you think it’s gonna go down, you can shoot me, stabbed me, like, whatever, we just got to keep going.” And I think that that’s what Boyd is. I think he’s really raw, and I don’t think there’s anything he can trust outside of himself, and he can barely trust that.

At that moment, destroying the music box frees everyone captive in the realm. What’s your interpretation of it and the ballerina? The ballerina literally comes to life at one point and starts choking you.

[Laughs] It is literally Act 2. We got the Nightmare Creatures, I might have a solution, we got the dreams, maybe I handled that. If you got something else, I’m gonna keep trying. I’m gonna succeed. I think Boyd really has really decided after he kills Smiley, “You know what, I just gotta trust. I gotta trust who I am. And keep going, keep going.” And that’s what he does. It’s setting up whatever else is out there in that forest that’s planning to come and torture us; for whatever reasons, they’re going to try to do it. He’s going to keep fighting back until his last breath.

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I have to address that ending! Tabitha got pushed from the tower by The Boy in White, who we associate as good, and she wakes up in the hospital out of town! Is this a trick? Does this confirm you must die there to return to the real world?

Somebody asked me this recently. They said, “Is anybody going to die?” And I went, “Well, you know, depends on your definition of death, I guess.” So, if you think she’s dead, then, yeah, maybe you have to die to leave the town. If you think she’s just gone, then we have to assume the town is somewhere that you can enter and exit. It’s just a matter of finding out how to get to that entrance and exit, and clearly, The Boy in White just pushes her.

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And he says, “This is the only way to go.”

Right. So for me, I’m curious about, like, is Victor’s mother out there? Is that what happened to her? Did she not come back? Is there a way back? Is she still looking for him? When Tabitha wakes up in that new town, I was just like, “Whoa! Oh, no, this is about to get wild.” Because this is gonna set off trauma in the town, and trauma with her; if she’s dead, then she’s in hell then. And if she’s dead, she’s in hell because she’s gonna keep thinking she can get back to her family. But I reckon she’s not dead.

What do you want to be answered in Season 3?

Look, I’m always up for whatever, whatever games John [Griffin], Jack [Bender], and Jeff [Pinker] have to put in my way. I personally, Harold, don’t think that she’s dead. I think that she found the exit like there’s a sliver, it’s a thing, it’s somewhere. And I think that the journey in Season 3 is going to be to find that exit and can we get everybody through it? That might be [Seasons] 3 and 4, I don’t know. Because as you see, anytime you get close, some new things show up. And so I think for Boyd, the question of Tabitha is going to be a real question.

Like, once everybody gets to talking, which they will — there was no time to talk in Season 2, because things just kept happening. She’s seeing the kids. Jade [David Alpay] is still having what he’s having. Victor [Scott McCord] keeps breaking down and trying to figure it out. Boyd’s mind is going in and out. I think when they get a second to talk because Tabitha will probably be gone, I imagine that they’re going to start trying to figure out what happened. Victor’s probably going to be really, really instrumental in whatever that is because he’s kind of the only person who’s seen two people go to that tower. Again, I don’t know anything, and I don’t ask for anything. So this is just me trying to put pieces together as a fan.

Are there any updates regarding Season 3? Is the WGA Strike interfering with any progress?

Here’s the thing, I have no updates because I think none of us know what the deal is with this writers strike. And, you know, I applaud them for fighting for what they need, and I support them and all of that. So I am down with them for whatever. My truth is, I hope that we come to some kind of resolution because we’d all like to get back to work.

Now, we haven’t gotten an official pickup. But it is assumed that we will go back as soon as all of this calms down. We’ve been very successful, and the show keeps picking up steam. We are definitely like the little show that could. I’m literally getting calls from people who I haven’t talked to in years, and they’re like, “Yooo! I just saw your show!” And so I’m really excited about that. Literally, I was on the phone yesterday with Alec Baldwin, who I did The Edge with years ago, and he called me up because he and Scott McCord are working on something. When your friends from back in the day are calling, like, something’s happening. So I’m pretty sure we’ll get picked up. I don’t know exactly when [since] we really have to wait for all this other stuff to play out. And then I’m sure we’ll get right back at it, you know, hit it full steam.