From Season 4 vs Season 3: Which Season Is Better?

If you have just finished From Season 4, you have probably already started the argument. Was this the best season yet, or did Season 3 do it better? It is one of the most common debates among fans of the MGM+ horror series, and there is no easy answer, because the two seasons are trying to do very different things.

Spoiler warning: this comparison discusses major events from Seasons 3 and 4 of From, including both finales.

A quick refresher for anyone new. From follows a group of strangers trapped in a town in the woods that nobody can leave. Every road loops back, smiling creatures come out at night, and carved stone talismans keep them out of homes. Harold Perrineau stars as Sheriff Boyd Stevens, with Catalina Sandino Moreno, David Alpay, Pegah Ghafoori, Hannah Cheramy and Scott McCord among the core cast.

Season 3 aired from September to November 2024. It was the season of revelations. Fatima’s strange pregnancy, the origins of the creatures, the secret of the Bottle Tree and the past lives of Tabitha and Jade all came into focus, and its finale, “Revelations: Chapter Two”, delivered more answers in one hour than some seasons manage in ten.

Season 4 aired from April to June 2026. It took those answers and acted on them. The Man in Yellow stepped out of the shadows, disguised as a newcomer named Sophia. Jade and Tabitha went after the bones of the sacrificed children. Fatima became one of the creatures. And the finale, “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…”, ended with the Bottle Tree uprooted and the town more exposed than ever.

So which season is better? We have broken the comparison into ten head-to-head rounds: the main mystery, Boyd, the horror, Fatima, Jade and Tabitha, Julie, the major villain, emotional impact, the finale and the critics’ scores on Rotten Tomatoes. This is not a ranked countdown. The rounds appear in a fixed order, each one names a winner, and the scores are added up at the end.

Each round starts by explaining what each season does with that element, so you can follow along even if your memory of Season 3 is a little hazy. Then we compare them, explain why one comes out ahead, suggest which kind of viewer will prefer each season and point you to the key episodes.

Our short answer, if you want it now: Season 3 is the stronger mystery-revelation season, while Season 4 raises the supernatural stakes higher than the show has ever gone. Which one you prefer will probably depend on whether you watch From for answers or for dread. The long answer is below.

Let’s get into it 👇

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Round 1: The Main Mystery

Victor and Tabitha stand near the Bottle Tree in the forest in From — The Bottle Tree, with Scott McCord and Catalina Sandino Moreno, in *From*. Credit: MGM+

Season 3’s main mystery is the origin of the town’s horrors. The residents are struggling with rotting crops and dwindling food, while Tabitha, who escaped at the end of Season 2, wakes up in a hospital in Maine and tries to find her way back. Along the way, the season peels back layers: Miranda’s paintings, the numbers in the Bottle Tree, and finally Fatima’s explanation that the creatures were the town’s first residents, who gained immortality by sacrificing their children. Season 4’s main mystery is what to do about it. Jade becomes convinced that recovering the children’s bones from a hidden chamber could break the cycle, and the season becomes a mission to reach them.

Both are strong, but they work differently. Season 3 is a detective story, where each episode moves us a step closer to understanding. Season 4 is a heist with horror stakes, where we already know roughly what the goal is and wait to see what it costs.

Winner: Season 3. It gave the show its biggest mythology answers to date and reframed everything we had seen before. Season 4’s mission is gripping, but it is built on Season 3’s foundation.

Viewers who love unravelling clues will prefer Season 3. If you prefer a clear goal and a ticking clock, Season 4 is your pick.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episodes 2, 8 and 10; Season 4 Episodes 5, 9 and 10. In the US, all four seasons stream on MGM+; in the UK, From is on Sky and NOW.

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Round 2: Boyd Stevens

Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens standing outside at night in From Season 3 — Harold Perrineau in *From* Season 3. Credit: MGM+

In Season 3, Boyd is under attack from every direction. In the premiere, creatures handcuff him in the barn and force him to watch them torture Tian-Chen to death. The residents turn against him at a heated town meeting, and he reveals to Kenny that his Parkinson’s is getting worse, telling him he needs to be ready to lead. In Season 4, Boyd starts at rock bottom. He finds out that Smiley, the creature he killed, has been reborn, and he loses hope entirely. Kristi and Ellis push him back toward leadership, and he eventually approves Jade’s plan and goes into the tunnels in the finale.

Harold Perrineau is superb in both seasons, but Season 3 gives him his rawest material. The barn scene, his breakdown afterwards and his loneliness as the town turns on him are some of the hardest scenes in the show. Season 4’s Boyd is more of a leader making grim choices, which is satisfying, but less surprising.

Winner: Season 3. Season 4 gives Boyd a meaningful arc back to leadership, but Season 3 tests him more brutally and shows more of the man under the badge.

Choose Season 3 if you want Boyd at his most vulnerable. Pick Season 4 if you like watching him fight his way back.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episodes 1, 5 and 9; Season 4 Episodes 1, 8 and 10.

Round 3: The Horror

Tabitha and Ethan Matthews crouching in fear inside a log cabin at night in From Season 4, Episode 5 — Catalina Sandino Moreno and Simon Webster in *From* Season 4, Episode 5. Credit: MGM+

Season 3’s horror is rooted in the body and the mind. Fatima eats rotten vegetables to satisfy cravings she cannot explain, Dale is teleported into the walls of an empty pool, and the creatures stage a trap by releasing the town’s animals. Season 4 widens the scope. Giant straw dolls rise from a lake and attack a foraging party. A dead man’s body takes on the dolls’ features. Smiley walks into the clinic when a talisman falls. In the finale, an eclipse plunges the town into darkness and the creatures descend on everyone gathered around the uprooted tree.

Season 3 is creepier; Season 4 is scarier. The doll episode and the finale’s darkness are among the most frightening sequences the show has done, and they make the town feel more dangerous than ever. Season 4 also introduces the idea that fears and nightmares can become real threats, which raises the stakes for every resident.

Winner: Season 4. It takes bigger swings and makes the creatures feel unstoppable again. Season 3’s horror is effective, but Season 4 is the one that will make you check the locks.

Body-horror fans may lean toward Season 3. Anyone who wants creature attacks and big set pieces should go straight to Season 4.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episodes 1, 2 and 5; Season 4 Episodes 5, 7 and 10.

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Round 4: Fatima Hassan

Pegah Ghafoori as Fatima Hassan standing in a wooden room in From Season 4, Episode 8 — Pegah Ghafoori in *From* Season 4, Episode 8. Credit: MGM+

Season 3 is Fatima’s pregnancy story. She is newly expecting with her husband, Ellis, but something is wrong. She craves rotten food, an ultrasound shows she is not pregnant, and she loses control and kills Tillie. Elgin traps her in a hidden cellar, and the Kimono Woman helps her give birth to what turns out to be a reborn Smiley. Season 4 is the aftermath. Fatima feels a connection to the creatures, controls Smiley long enough to save Kenny, develops markings like theirs and has a pulse so low she should be dead. In the finale, she transforms into one of the creatures to save her family.

Pegah Ghafoori is excellent in both seasons, but Season 4 gives her more to play with. Her mix of fear and curiosity, and the moment she says “Remember who I was” before transforming, are among the season’s best scenes. Ghafoori told ScreenRant she sees the finale as a “villain origin story”.

Winner: Season 4. Season 3’s pregnancy plot is unsettling, but it sometimes kept Fatima apart from the main action. Season 4 makes her central, gives her agency and pays off two seasons of build-up.

Season 3 is for viewers who like slow-burn body horror. Season 4 is for anyone who wants that horror to pay off.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episodes 2, 6, 7 and 10; Season 4 Episodes 4, 7, 8 and 10.

Round 5: Jade and Tabitha

David Alpay as Jade Herrera and Catalina Sandino Moreno as Tabitha Matthews looking at an object together in the woods in From Season 4, Episode 9 — David Alpay and Catalina Sandino Moreno in *From* Season 4, Episode 9. Credit: MGM+

In Season 3, Tabitha spends the early episodes in the outside world, learning about Miranda, Victor’s mother, through Henry. Jade, still in the town, finds a second Bottle Tree and links the numbers in the bottles. In the finale, they discover the numbers are musical notes; playing them summons the children, and they learn they once lived and died in the town as Miranda and Christopher. Season 4 takes that knowledge and runs with it. Jade sees previous versions of himself in hallucinogenic visions, Tabitha remembers more about her past lives, and together they enter the chamber and recover the bones.

The Season 3 reveal is one of the show’s greatest moments. But Season 4 gives the partnership its best material. Catalina Sandino Moreno and David Alpay have real chemistry as two people bound by a destiny they did not choose, and the finale’s chamber sequence is their most heroic work yet.

Winner: Season 4. Season 3 had the bigger reveal, but Season 4 turns a twist into a full partnership and gives it a genuine victory.

Viewers who love a big reveal will prefer Season 3. Those invested in the relationship should favour Season 4.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episodes 1, 6 and 10; Season 4 Episodes 5, 9 and 10.

Round 6: Julie Matthews

Hannah Cheramy as Julie Matthews looking terrified in the ruins in From Season 3, Episode 8 — Hannah Cheramy in *From* Season 3, Episode 8. Credit: MGM+

Season 3 is where Julie discovers her gift. Randall teaches her to drive, and they find ruins Boyd had seen before. In Episode 8, exploring the ruins with Ethan, she has a vision that sends her into a past moment where she helps save Boyd, before suffering a seizure. By the finale, she is in the woods trying to “change the story” as the Man in Yellow attacks Jim. Season 4 explores the ability more deliberately. She travels through the ruins with Randall’s help and tries to “bookmark” moments so she can return to them, but the Man in Yellow tells her she cannot change the past.

Hannah Cheramy is good in both seasons, but Season 3 makes Julie’s storyline feel genuinely new and exciting. Season 4 has interesting rules, but much of it is set-up, and her scepticism about Tabitha’s past lives sometimes holds the story in place.

Winner: Season 3. It introduced story-walking with real mystery and tied it directly to the finale’s biggest moment. Season 4 expanded the rules but did not yet change the main plot.

Season 3 is for viewers who love a character discovering a power. Season 4 is for those who like to study the rules of time travel.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episodes 7, 8 and 10; Season 4 Episodes 1, 2 and 4.

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Round 7: The Major Villain

The Man in Yellow in a yellow suit standing in the forest in From Season 4 — Douglas E. Hughes as the Man in Yellow in *From* Season 4. Credit: MGM+

Season 3’s villains are spread out. The creatures remain the main threat, Elgin falls under the influence of the mysterious Kimono Woman and traps Fatima, and a voice on the phone taunts Jim. The Man in Yellow only appears at the very end, when he rips out Jim’s throat. Season 4 puts him at the centre. Played by Douglas E. Hughes, he appears in his own form and as Sophia, a newcomer played by Julia Doyle. As Sophia, he befriends residents, manipulates Henry, uses Clara as a helper and, in the finale, kills Elgin and steals the town’s talismans.

Having a single, intelligent villain changes the feel of the show. Season 4 becomes a game of dramatic irony, because the audience knows who Sophia is long before the residents do. Jeff Pinkner told Collider the Man in Yellow “wants our characters to suffer”, and Season 4 shows exactly how.

Winner: Season 4. Season 3’s threats are effective but scattered. Season 4 gives the show a face, a voice and a plan to fear.

Choose Season 3 if you prefer mystery about who is pulling the strings. Choose Season 4 if you want a villain you love to hate.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episode 10 for the Man in Yellow’s arrival; Season 4 Episodes 1, 6, 9 and 10.

Round 8: Emotional Impact

Fatima and Marielle reacting in alarm inside the clinic in the From Season 4 finale — Pegah Ghafoori and Kaelen Ohm in *From* Season 4, Episode 10. Credit: MGM+

Season 3 is full of loss. Tian-Chen, Kenny’s mother, is tortured to death in the premiere, Dale dies in the walls of the empty pool, and Tillie is killed by Fatima. It also has one of the show’s most moving reunions, when Victor and Henry see each other for the first time in forty years. Season 4 opens with Jim’s death and his family’s grief. Henry spirals into visions, and in the finale, Marielle is killed by Smiley in the clinic, Elgin dies at Sophia’s hands and Fatima sacrifices her humanity.

Both seasons hurt. Season 4’s finale is devastating, and Marielle’s final moments with Kristi are heartbreaking. But Season 3’s emotional moments are spread across the whole season, and the Victor and Henry reunion balances the grief with genuine warmth.

Winner: Season 3, narrowly. Season 4’s finale may hit harder, but Season 3 is the more emotionally complete season from start to finish.

Season 3 suits viewers who love character-driven drama. Season 4 suits those who can handle a gut-punch finale.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episodes 1, 2 and 5; Season 4 Episodes 2, 6 and 10.

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Round 9: The Finale – “Revelations: Chapter Two” vs “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…”

Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens speaking angrily in From Season 3, Episode 10 — Harold Perrineau in the *From* Season 3 finale. Credit: MGM+

“Revelations: Chapter Two”, the Season 3 finale, aired on November 24, 2024. Boyd interrogates Elgin to find Fatima, the Kimono Woman helps her give birth, Fatima explains the creatures’ origins, Boyd sees Smiley reborn, Tabitha and Jade discover their past lives, and the Man in Yellow kills Jim. “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…”, the Season 4 finale, aired on June 28, 2026. Jade and Tabitha recover the bones, the Bottle Tree is uprooted, the town is plunged into darkness, Marielle and Elgin die, Fatima transforms and Sophia throws the talismans into a hollow tree.

These are both outstanding finales, but they do different jobs. “Revelations: Chapter Two” is one of the densest hours of mystery television in years, answering questions fans had been asking since Season 1. “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…” is a survival-horror spectacle that leaves the town in its worst state ever.

Winner: Season 3. Season 4’s finale is more intense, but Season 3’s finale changed how we understood the entire show, which is a rarer achievement.

Choose the Season 3 finale for answers. Choose the Season 4 finale for a white-knuckle hour of horror.

Where to watch: Season 3 Episode 10 and Season 4 Episode 10.

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Round 10: Rotten Tomatoes Critics and Audience Scores

Harold Perrineau as Boyd Stevens pointing ahead in the woods in the From Season 4 finale — Harold Perrineau in the *From* Season 4 finale. Credit: MGM+

On Rotten Tomatoes, as checked on November 9, 2026, From Season 3 has a 100% Tomatometer score from 25 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.2 out of 10, and a 73% audience score from more than 1,000 ratings. Season 4 has a 96% Tomatometer score from 20 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10, and a 63% audience score from more than 500 ratings. Scores can change as more reviews and ratings are added.

Critics loved both seasons. Season 4 has the slightly higher average rating, which suggests the critics who liked it liked it a lot, but Season 3 has the perfect Tomatometer score. Audiences were cooler on Season 4 than on Season 3. ScreenRant reported that Season 4’s audience score started at 92% after the premiere, so its lower score now reflects reactions over the full season, including the finale.

Winner: Season 3. A perfect critics’ score and a higher audience score give it the edge, even if Season 4’s average critic rating is a little higher.

If you trust critics, both seasons are safe bets. If you follow audience scores, Season 3 is the more widely loved.

Where to watch: both seasons stream on MGM+ in the US and on Sky and NOW in the UK. Rotten Tomatoes scores are on the show’s Rotten Tomatoes page.

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The Verdict: Season 3 Wins on Mystery, Season 4 Wins on Stakes

Adding up the rounds, Season 3 wins six (main mystery, Boyd, Julie, emotional impact, finale and Rotten Tomatoes) and Season 4 wins four (horror, Fatima, Jade and Tabitha, and the villain). That makes Season 3 our pick as the better season overall, but the scoreline hides how different the two seasons are.

Season 3 is the stronger mystery-revelation season. It answered questions, reframed the show and delivered a finale packed with discoveries. If you watch From to understand the town, it is the season that rewarded you most.

Season 4 raises the supernatural stakes. It gave the show a central villain, made the creatures more frightening, transformed Fatima and left the town in its most dangerous position yet. If you watch From for dread, it may be your favourite.

The good news is that the two seasons work best together. Season 3 asks “what is this place?” and Season 4 asks “what will it cost to escape?” With the final season still to come, both questions need an answer.

Which season do you think is better? Do you agree with our scores, or would you hand Season 4 the win? Tell us in the comments.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is From Season 4 better than Season 3?

It depends on what you want from the show. In our comparison, Season 3 wins six of ten rounds and is the stronger mystery-revelation season, thanks to its huge answers and its finale. Season 4 wins on horror, villainy and stakes, with the Man in Yellow at the centre and Fatima’s transformation. Many fans will enjoy both for different reasons.

What is the Rotten Tomatoes score for From Season 4?

As checked on November 9, 2026, From Season 4 has a 96% Tomatometer score from 20 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10, and a 63% audience score from more than 500 ratings. Scores can change over time.

What is the Rotten Tomatoes score for From Season 3?

As checked on November 9, 2026, From Season 3 has a 100% Tomatometer score from 25 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2 out of 10, and a 73% audience score from more than 1,000 ratings.

What is the Season 3 finale of From called?

The Season 3 finale is “Revelations: Chapter Two”, which aired on November 24, 2024. It reveals the creatures’ origins, Smiley’s rebirth, Tabitha and Jade’s past lives and the arrival of the Man in Yellow, who kills Jim.

What is the Season 4 finale of From called?

The Season 4 finale is “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…”, which aired on June 28, 2026. Jade and Tabitha recover the children’s bones, the Bottle Tree is uprooted, Marielle and Elgin die and Fatima transforms into one of the creatures.

When did From Season 3 and Season 4 air?

Season 3 aired on MGM+ from September 22 to November 24, 2024. Season 4 aired from April 19 to June 28, 2026. Both seasons have ten episodes.

Who is the villain in From Season 4?

The Man in Yellow, played by Douglas E. Hughes, is the main villain of Season 4. For much of the season, he disguises himself as Sophia, a newcomer played by Julia Doyle. He manipulates residents, kills Elgin and steals the town’s talismans in the finale.

What did Season 3 of From reveal about the creatures?

In the Season 3 finale, Fatima explains that the creatures were once the town’s first residents, who gained immortality by sacrificing their children. Boyd also witnesses Smiley being reborn. Season 4 builds on that history with the plan to recover the children’s bones.

Do I need to watch Season 3 before Season 4?

Yes. Season 4 picks up immediately after the Season 3 finale, and almost every storyline depends on what happened before, from Fatima’s pregnancy to Tabitha and Jade’s past lives. Watching in order is strongly recommended.

Where can I watch From Seasons 3 and 4?

In the US, From streams on MGM+, which can also be added as a channel through Prime Video. In the UK, the show is available on Sky and NOW, according to Sky’s official From page. Availability can change, so check your service.

More Places to Find Great Movies and TV Shows

Rotten Tomatoes – critic and audience scores for each season of From.
ScreenRant – cast and creator interviews, including Pegah Ghafoori on Fatima’s finale.
Collider – an in-depth Season 4 finale interview with John Griffin, Jeff Pinkner and Jack Bender.
TV Insider – recaps and finale coverage for From Season 4.
Radio Times – UK-focused coverage, including a Season 4 ending explainer.
IMDb – cast, crew and episode listings for From.
Deadline – industry news, including the Season 5 renewal.