From's Faraway Bottle Trees Explained

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WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for From season 3, episode 5!As the greatest hope for escaping town and the terrors of the forest, From’s faraway trees play a big role in the series’ central mysteries. Dubbed the “faraway trees” by From’s major character Victor, who has been trapped longer than anyone else in the sinister town, the trees have long been a source of intrigue for the residents. Only two faraway trees have been seen in From’s town so far, both containing holes at the center of their trunks, while one has bottles with numbers written on pieces of paper inside that hang from its branches.

While some characters have already passed through the faraway trees’ portals, the residents have yet to fully understand their origin, purpose, meaning, and patterns. After Victor guided Tabitha through one that took her to the lighthouse, and ultimately out of the town in From season 2’s ending, the mysteries of the faraway trees have become more complex as their connection to Victor’s family is revealed, Jade tries to solve the numbers’ meanings, and their unpredictability proves extremely dangerous. Ultimately, it seems that a complete understanding of the faraway trees is the key to piecing together From's many other puzzles.

The function of the faraway trees that From has revealed so far is that they operate as portals around the town. However, the faraway trees’ portals are incredibly unpredictable; there’s no way of knowing where exactly the destination will be, even if one tree has taken people to the same place previously. For example, while one tree took both Miranda and Tabitha to the lighthouse, the same faraway tree later transported Dale to the pool’s concrete wall in From season 3, episode 5’s ending.

It seems the town’s supernatural forces are very particular in where each character is sent, depending on the purpose that they have for the travelers.

Meanwhile, another faraway tree has been used by Victor, Julie, Sara, and Boyd in the past, though they were all taken to different locations. In season 1, Victor led Julie into the faraway tree’s portal to escape From’s mysterious monsters, which transported her to the root cellar. Later on, Boyd and Sara were in the forest and unable to keep moving forward due to his injury. Both characters hopped into the tree and were transported to different places, with Boyd being sent to the bottom of a well while Sara was brought back into town.

Characters Who Traveled Through From's Faraway Trees

Where They Were Transported To

Victor

Unclear

Miranda

Lighthouse entrance

Julie

Root cellar

Boyd

Well

Sara

Church basement

Tabitha

Lighthouse entrance

Dale

Pool's concrete wall

While the faraway tree portals’ destinations are unpredictable for the characters that travel through them, it may not be accurate to claim that the locations are random. Rather, it seems the town’s supernatural forces are very particular in where each character is sent, depending on the purpose that they have for the travelers. For instance, bringing Boyd to the well brought upon a new psychological torture for him, sending Tabitha to the lighthouse portal finally allowed someone to escape town, and fatally transporting Dale to the pool wall served as a warning to the other residents.

It’s still not entirely clear who made the faraway bottle tree within From’s town, but they do have a connection to Victor’s mother, Miranda. Victor’s father, Henry – who wasn’t with Miranda, Victor, and Eloise when they became stuck in the town – revealed to Tabitha in the outside world that his wife had been having visions and dreams about From’s cursed location long before the family arrived there. As it turns out, she had even intended to find the town after having visions of needing to save From’s “Anghkooey” children from the tower.

The name that Victor gives the portals is based on the popular children's book series The Faraway Tree, which centers on kids finding a giant magical tree in an enchanted forest.

At one point, Henry confirms to Tabitha that they have a bottle tree in their backyard, which is a replica of one of Miranda’s art installations. However, on the way to see the original park tree where Miranda first hung the bottles, Henry and Tabitha get into a car accident. They’re sadly never able to reach that original tree in the outside world, as From season 3, episode 3’s ending saw Tabitha return to the trapped town when their ambulance came upon a fallen tree in the road.

In From season 3, episode 1, viewers are introduced to Henry Kavanaugh, raising questions about why wasn't Victor's father stranded with his family.

While the faraway bottle tree is certainly linked to Miranda in some manner, it’s unclear whether they already existed in the town before her arrival or if she hung up the bottles on the tree after getting stuck. Since Miranda began having visions about features of the cursed town, they became recurring subjects in Victor’s mother’s paintings. Though not a painting, it seems that Miranda had visions of the tree and used it as inspiration for her art installation in the outside world. Even still, this doesn’t provide any answer to why the faraway trees also serve as portals around town.

As Jade and Tabitha return to the faraway tree that originally brought her to the lighthouse in From season 3, episode 5, the two characters attempt to piece together the meaning of the numbers written on paper inside the bottles. Jade suggests that the numbers could indicate dates, though some of the higher numbers undermine his point. The numbers could be correlated to the dates on which certain people arrive in town or the death dates of certain residents. Additionally, the numbers could be addresses that indicate where the portal takes those who travel through it.

From season 3, episode 3 includes a mysterious new subject of Jade's visions, who appears to have a dark history at the abandoned camp in the woods.

The numbers could also have a more supernatural meaning connected to the town’s history. In the real world, glass bottles hanging from trees have often been used as talismans to defend against evil spirits, not unlike the talisman that the characters already use to ward off the town's monsters. In folklore, they would also be used to trap traveling spirits, so each bottle and number could be indicative of a dead character in From’s past.

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In a nightmarish town that traps all who enter, residents struggle to survive while uncovering the town's dark secrets. As they seek a way out, they must contend with terrifying creatures that emerge at night, threatening their lives and sanity. The Matthews family, new arrivals, must quickly adapt to survive the horrors within the town.

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Why do you put the word “explained” in your titles and then go on about things that there aren’t actually any answers to?

a better title would be “what we know so far”

Boyd got teleported to a chimney, not a well

He called it a chimney at one point but it is more like a dry well. It had no fireplace or ashes at the bottom and no outside vent at the top but did have a wooden frame at the top like a well often has, and the top emerged from the floor of a cellar .Alternately, a chimney is a shaft that vertically connects two chambers but there was no chamber at the bottom.

Thank you. I couldn't read on until I seen the clarification.

What if they're coordinates within the town? I mean it isn't a very large place and stranger assumptions have been made.

When are we going to see a knowledge exchange? The town meeting was a joke at best, more of an opportunity for folks to whinge. Nothing was solved or resolved, it only added more anxiety to viewers and tension within the town IMO.

I was expecting the article to be about the idea that the numbers were coordinates. Instead of just a summary of what we already know and not even an attempt at all explanation. This website is turning into pure click bait

It could be code of some sort. Victor said that tree always took you to the lighthouse. They then took some of the papers out, Dale got in and teleported into the pool wall

It could also be the main tree and all of the papers are the coordinates for all the trees. One of them being this tree and why Dale went into the wall

I believe that removal of any numbers from the bottles alters the the destination of where the tree delivers a traveler. Also, even if the numbers are placed back in the bottles, the integrity of it's delivery is infected if the particular numbers removed are not returned to the correct bottles from which they were taken. This is very critical!

What if the #s correlate to the hotel room each monster is trapped in ? The mention of the missing hotel maybe means something deeper than Dale in the pool.

I sure hope this show keeps going . The story gets better, and better. I can't wait for the next episode!!! Great writing. ( This article sure did not explain much though )

Maybe the number of days people were there before they died ?

Such a remarkable show. As good as a Steven King Novel/Movie.. Absolutely love it !!

Can't wait for the next episode. How is Boyd going 2 deal with Dale's situation??

I have a thought, Tabitha had return to the real world where The family of miranda lives, and if there is also the same original faraway tree in where Father's Victor and Tabitha going-- isn't it the parallel town of From's town?

Miranda believed the bottle tree led to the lighthouse and that seemed confirmed when it took Tabitha there (then contradicted by Dale's trip) but Victor clearly said his mother was killed BEFORE she made it to/through the tree herself, so she never arrived at the lighthouse. She only knew of it from visions.

I'm starting to think this whole town, the monsters & everything else is somehow being created by Victor. Like his dreams come to life.

I'm enjoying From especially Jade, Boyd, Victor and the entire community. Love how each episode tells us just a little more

I appreciate if I can watch it again in Prime...lol...I was just left hanging...

I watch it from the beginning and until now still mysterious about the story. But still watch it until last. I hope it ends where everything has an explanation about all of the mysterious happened.

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