FROM has always survived on one deliciously cruel idea: give the audience just enough information to believe they understand what is happening, then rip that certainty away.

Season four pushes that relationship almost to breaking point.

There are moments when FROM remains some of the most unnerving horror on television. The town feels increasingly hostile, its mythology is finally beginning to connect and Harold Perrineau continues to give Boyd a bruised humanity that holds the entire series together.

This is no longer simply a man trying to get everybody home. Boyd is exhausted. He has been psychologically dismantled by this place, yet somehow remains the person everyone expects to lead them out. The problem is getting there.

Season four suffers from the same weakness that has haunted FROM for years, it can take an extraordinary amount of time to move several metres forward.

Characters with crucial information still avoid conversations that could transform the story; mysteries multiply while answers arrive reluctantly. At times, you can almost feel the writers pulling the handbrake because revealing too much would accelerate the endgame, and then the finale arrives suddenly; the restraint disappears.

The Bottle Tree, Tabitha and Jade’s discoveries, the children’s remains and the terrifying escalation surrounding the town finally begin pushing the mythology somewhere tangible. The consequences are brutal. Characters die. The rules change. Even the protection residents have relied upon no longer feels certain.

This is FROM at its best, it is frightening because nobody, including the audience, understands where safety ends.

Yet the finale also exposes the season’s greatest frustration. Why did we have to wait so long for this urgency? Perhaps six episodes contained the meaningful material stretched across ten. Season four is frustrating, occasionally repetitive and completely addictive.

With season five confirmed as the final chapter, there are no excuses left.

The questions have been asked.

Now FROM has to answer them.