‘From’ Season 4 Ends With Shocking Deaths That Change Everything for the Town

Editor’s note: The below interview contains major spoilers for the From Season 4 finale.

From Season 4 has finally come to an end, but MGM+’s horror series didn’t resolve its penultimate chapter without some heartbreaking losses along the way. While the beginning of the season saw the aftermath of Jim’s (Eion Bailey) fateful meeting with the Man in the Yellow Suit (Douglas E. Hughes), the conclusion confirmed that his Sophia (Julia Doyle) guise is just as willing to get rid of anyone who could thwart his plans, even if it means murder. Meanwhile, Jade (David Alpay) and Tabitha’s (Catalina Sandino Moreno) mission to unearth the bones of the town’s sacrificed children, pulling up the bottle tree in the process, seems to incite the creatures all over again, culminating in a second heartbreaking loss.

Ahead of the premiere of the finale, “If a Tree Falls in the Forest…,” Collider spoke with actors Kaelen Ohm, who plays Marielle, and Nathan D. Simmons, who plays Elgin, about their characters’ shocking fates. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the two discuss when they learned that Marielle and Elgin wouldn’t be surviving the finale, why Elgin chooses to stand up to Sophia instead of agreeing to serve her, the significance of Marielle’s final request from Kristi (Chloe Van Landschoot), how they’d like to potentially be resurrected for From‘s final season, and more.

COLLIDER: When did both of you find out about what would be happening to your characters this season? Did you get a phone call as a heads-up before having to read it in the script? How did John [Griffin] break the news?

NATHAN D. SIMMONS: For me, how the event went was that I was out somewhere, and I got a call from John’s assistant. They were like, “John wants to meet you for coffee,” and I was like, “Okay, cool, cool. I’ll see if I can do this evening.” Then time went by, and I was like, “So I can’t do this evening. I’ll do it tomorrow.” Then I was like, “Actually, can we do tomorrow evening?” Then he was like, “No, John really wants to see you,” and then I was like, “Okay, cool.” Then I get to this one café, and it’s not clueing in. We sat outside, and it’s still not clueing in. And then I was like, “Oh, I see what it is now.”

KAELEN OHM: I was actually with Chloe [Van Landschoot] when John’s assistant called me, and I know what this meeting means because it has happened to people before, so some of us at least knew the template. So I answer my phone, and he’s like, “Hey, Kaelen, John would like to meet you for coffee.” We were just about to go into the climbing gym together, and she’s like, “What?” I got off the phone, and I was like, “I’m meeting John at the café tomorrow.” And so we processed the information together in a way. She was more upset than I was at first, I think. But yeah, it’s part of it. Someone’s gotta go every few episodes, and definitely by the finale.

‘From’s Kaelen Ohm and Nathan D. Simmons Didn’t Have Much Time Before Filming Their Death Scenes

“… everyone will be going back to Season 5 very, very soon, and we aren’t, are we?”

Image via MGM+

Both of you have probably had more time to go through the process of mourning these characters, but did you know from the beginning how it was going to happen, or did you end up finding out the specifics later?

OHM: I think he told me that generally I was going to be protecting Fatima and going out that way, and then he told me it was Smiley, and I was like, “Oh, that sounds cool.” So, I got a sense before we read the script, but we also had that meeting, maybe a week, but it could have been a few days before we got the script. It was not too much time in advance. It’s a process to go through because you hear about it, you read it, you shoot it, and now it’s coming out, and everyone will be going back to Season 5 very, very soon, and we aren’t, are we?

SIMMONS: Yeah. I think it was like what Kaelen was saying, like a week or a couple of weeks? I don’t remember exactly. But yeah, he pretty much told me everything about the prayer and the deal and everything, and it being Sophia. I remember it was before I read the scene where Clara joined Sophia’s side, so that was all surprising to me. I was kind of excited at that point, though, because the season before, I thought he was dead, and I had to process all that. Then this season, I felt like he went off on a really good note.

In the moment, Elgin has a choice to make. He can either do what Clara did and agree to work for Sophia, or he can stand up to her and go out resisting her. Why do you feel like he ultimately decides to stand up to her, even with the unspoken implication that he probably is going to die for it?

SIMMONS: For Elgin, it’s a thing of having to maintain what your morals are, who you are. I think that was, I guess you can say, the fatal flaw, more so than even saying, “Hey, is this you in the photo, Sophia?” I think his flaw was that he has this very pure view of what’s good and what’s wrong, and I think at the end, that kind of overrides his will to survive and even go home.

Kaelen, what was the preparation process like for you in terms of not just preparing to film the initial scene with Pegah [Ghafoori] and Jamie [McGuire], but also the scene with Chloe when Kristi has to go into the room and essentially see Marielle lying there?

OHM: Death scenes are interesting because I’ve never died before, obviously, so I don’t have a personal experience to reference. So, there is a technical aspect where you’ve got to make sure that it’s going to work and be believable on that level. But I think the process of dying, because that is most of the scene, she does get to have a struggle, which I loved, that it’s just really remembering what’s important.

I’m really fascinated with near-death experiences and have watched documentaries on them and things like that, and I think it was about dropping in that type of psychology, things I’ve heard about near-death experiences, things I’ve heard about what you can focus on when you’re leaving, but then trying to keep a line into reality, if you’re going to fight, because there is supposedly this decision point when you’re headed out. My grandmother actually has told me about this. She almost died a couple of times when she was younger.

There’s so many layers of it, and you prepare as much as you can, but then on the day, you just kind of surrender to what’s there. There’s a lot of technical stuff to execute. You’re trying to stay true and grounded in your own performance and still play off what other people are bringing, which, in that case, Chloe just brought such an incredible performance. Having Pegah and Jamie there, too, it’s all par for being able to have an authentic experience in acting, which is such a blessing, especially on television when everything’s moving so quickly.

The kiss between them feels like Marielle accepting that she’s going, and wanting that last pure, perfect moment of happiness with Kristi. Did the two of you want to approach that in any specific way?

OHM: No. There was so much to shoot that day and so much of the technical aspect of working with Jamie and the prosthetics on my body that when we got to that, we didn’t actually have too much time. So it was really raw. I think Chloe got two takes on that. We kind of got two takes together on the ground. I’m trying to stay in my suffering body so it doesn’t look like I’m suddenly asking for something with a normal level of energy.

I suppose she’d have to speak to this, but Kristi’s also having this moment of not wanting to say goodbye, but I think Mari understands that she’s about to leave, so I just asked, and she gave it to me. Then that’s when I was supposed to take my last breath. So, there was some spontaneity, I guess, is what I could say. That would be the answer, is that there was some spontaneity, and we found what we did on the day, and that’s what it ended up being.

‘From’s Kaelen Ohm and Nathan D. Simmons Reflect on Their Last Scenes of Season 4 and How They’d Want To Be Resurrected

“I think it’d be cool at the very end, seeing everyone together…”

Image via MGM+

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I know that you sometimes film things out of order, and there are sometimes multiple episodes being filmed at once. What was the moment when they called wrap for your last scene of this season?

SIMMONS: Lucky enough for me, it was my death scene. It was a very good feeling. It felt like I gave up, gave up the ghost. I got to say my final goodbyes there. It was good. Usually, like last year, for the hammer, passing-out scene, we shot a bunch of other stuff, so the big moment was over with, and then we did a bunch of small moments, but the emotional climax already happened. So, I was happy that this time I released it all as I released Elgin, which was really good.

OHM: They kept me, actually, unexpectedly. We shot the death scene, and that was supposed to be my wrap, and then they’re like, “Oh, we want to shoot you. When Boyd comes in, we want you to be there,” and that was some days later. So, that ended up being the last moment for me, but it was still the death scene. Then I got to have my good cry at the end, walking back to my trailer. One of our PA’s is a really close family friend, so that was nice, to do that with her.

As much as it feels like the two of you have said goodbye to these characters, I feel like it’s worth mentioning that we’ve seen characters who we’ve thought were dead come back in some form. Father Khatri has obviously been a presence. Jim has popped up here and there. There’s still one more season to go. There’s a possibility, maybe right at the end, that we could see some friendly faces. If you could choose, how would the two of you want to come back for one last hurrah in From‘s final season?

OHM: Marielle did have this vision in Season 4, when she was in the chamber, experiencing all the people who have died, and that people never get to actually leave things like that. So I guess to see her on that other side and what that means would be really cool. And I’ve had this vision of all of us, the regulars on the show who have died, somehow being together there. I don’t know. What do you think, Nathan? What’s your wish?

SIMMONS: I kind of have this vision of seeing Elgin 10 years later, or something, coming back with, like, a flamethrower and burning all the monsters and the Man in Yellow. Then Boyd comes up, and he…

OHM: [Laughs] Something very Rambo.

SIMMONS: I’m playing. That would be cool, though! But no, I think it’d be cool at the very end, seeing everyone together or seeing where Elgin is, or if he’s alive somewhere. Something like that.

All four seasons of From are now available to stream on MGM+.