From Season 4: Jade’s Evolving Love for Tabitha & Mushroom Trip Explained

Warning: Proceed with caution if you have not yet seen Episode 5 of Season 4. Jade’s love for Tabitha in From has been one for generations – literally.

After the season 3 finale revealed that Jade and Tabitha are the reincarnations of two of the town’s original residents, previously Miranda and Christopher, who failed to stop the ritual sacrifice of the children that created the curse that now torments their lives, the connection between the two becomes even clearer, with their bond forever linked in both the previous timelines and the current timeline. While Tabitha still mourns the loss of her husband, Jim, who died last season after being killed by the Man in Yellowit is not until season 4 that the generational love Jade has for Tabitha is truly cemented.

ScreenRantTatiana Hullender spoke with David Alpay, who plays Jade on the hit MGM+ sci-fi horror series, about his relationship with Tabitha and his hope for them to move forward.

Jade remembers the emotion of her bond with Tabitha

It’s not just that Jade remembers her past lives with Tabithabut also the emotional weight of loving him with each reincarnation. And while Jade feels that deeply this season, with Jim’s death still so fresh, Alpay tells ScreenRant Jade will have to “Play his cards very carefully.”

David Alpay: I think he has to play his cards very carefully. I think I’m discovering that they have this very long-standing bond, that they’ve apparently been together for generations and generations and iterations and iterations. I think he not only remembered it, but I think he remembered it as well. And going into that first episode of season four, where he sees her for the first time, it’s like she’s helping Sophia out of the car, and Jade kind of trips in the moment, and he catches her eye. It’s the first time he’s seen her since the revelation. For me, it was a very emotional moment. I thought, “Okay, he remembers all of this. He remembers every time he’s ever lived. He remembers her every time. He remembers how he loved her every time, even though they appeared as different people, which continues.”

Part of that love, says Alpay, is “to go back” a little and letting Tabitha heal and show some of that selflessness didn’t need to push her away.

David Alpay: And I think part of that love that he felt for her meant stepping back a little bit and letting her handle everything in her own time. And then also, don’t be too pushy when everything happens to Jim, because I think when you love someone, you have to give them space to experience what they’re going through and not be selfish about how you love them. And I think that was also beautifully constructed by the writers as part of Jade’s evolution. I don’t think in season one Jade would have been this selfless. So yes, it was a very nice moment to be able to play, and yes, I hope it touched the audience.

What Jade Learns About Himself Through This Mushroom Scene

Although Jade’s big breakthrough after taking mushrooms was still to come, having the opportunity to see her younger self wasn’t just “tripped” for him, but also for Alpay, who described the resemblance between him and the actor who played his younger self, “amazing.”

David Alpay: Oh man, that was really trippy. I mean, just experiencing it at a younger age, the young actor they cast, Vigo, to play young Jade, is so good. He’s so good, it was a pleasure to work with him and he’s so much like me. It’s rather strange. And we just had a lot of fun playing together.

Creating this sequence took a lot of thought, with Alpay and the team being careful not to create a scene depicting taking mushrooms in a way that would be “too comical” or cartoon-like, with everything from the colors to the use of practical effects all taken into account when creating this moment for Jade.

David Alpay: And the whole sequence, that mushroom trip sequence, was very carefully designed not to be too comedic. We didn’t want it to be a little too wacky with weird colors and all that kind of stuff. So to that end, most of the visual effects used for these scenes were sort of in-camera. So, for example, we did a whole bunch of camera tests to see what it would look like. We did green screen tests where I walked backwards, and then it played backwards, to see if that would somehow affect his gait and dynamics. It would just give the audience, “Something is wrong, but I can’t tell what. I know I’m in a different kind of space.”

That was one of the tests, which I don’t think they used in the final cut, but one of the cool things they did was they took a piece of plexiglass, warped it with heat with one of those heat torches and they kind of bent it and warped it, and then they just slid it back and forth right in front of the camera lens. So you think it’s a CGI visual effect where the world is blurred, but that’s not the case. It’s entirely behind closed doors. This is a very practical effect. I love it.

They also wanted to make it seem like even though Jade had taken mushrooms, the experience he was having and the hallucinations he was envisioning were “very real for him”, keeping the moment much more grounded and less comedic than the scenes depicting taking hallucinogens.

David Alpay: They got their hands dirty and came up with old-school methods: Back then, they preferred to just rub Vaseline or something on a lens to make it look a little spacey. So to be a part of that was pretty special, and it was really old school. And then just to keep it grounded as much as possible and not get into that sort of “Jade trips on mushrooms” thing, but just to keep it like it all feels very real to him, so that he can experience it more deeply and not just forget about it.

Everything else David Alpay said FromIncluding Jade’s Viral Cat t-shirt

ScreenRant: So I was really fascinated by the reveal of the reincarnations, Jade and Tabitha having returned here each time. When did you learn this? Did you learn this by reading the script or were you told it beforehand?

David Alpay: We had a pretty strong feeling about it, a pretty strong feeling of something leaning in that direction towards the end of the previous season when we discovered the meaning of Anghkooey. I think it was sort of a defining moment that we remembered, and it was because we had experienced it so many times, but we left it at that, and this episode ends very abruptly afterwards. But yeah, at the beginning of the season, I’m sure everyone said it over and over again. They don’t tell us anything until the scripts are released, and then the scripts come in batches of two because we’re shooting two episodes at a time. So it was a bit like that. Just little pieces.

ScreenRant: Now Jade has this cat shirt that he wears very often. What is the story behind the cat shirt, either in the real world or in Jade’s life?

David Alpay: I can’t believe how big this has gotten. It became like a viral thing in itself. And I know there are people on Etsy now selling shirts with cats on them. The idea was that I would change costumes throughout the first season. He wore a blue and white striped shirt. He wore these capris and socks with no shoes, and that was his look. And at one point, I think most of the first season, I asked Rachel, “Hey, is Jade going to change her costume? It would be nice to maybe wear something else.” She said, “Yeah, come on in. We have a bunch of racks of clothes we want to try on.” And I found a cardigan, kind of like this one actually, a green cardigan at a thrift store in Halifax, where we’re filming, and it was like one of those beautiful Halifax thrift stores and East Coast knit sweaters, fisherman sweaters.

And I walk in and I’m like, “Oh, these are cool outfits. But what do you think of this? It’s kind of fun. It’s nice and comfortable, something Jade might wear just to be comfortable.” They say “Okay.” So they finished three. And then I said, “And as for a t-shirt, I have this idea.” I think I had seen a meme online, and it was like a little kitten, a little fluffy kitten, kind of a shy kitten, like the Cottonelle kitten, but he fancies himself a brave kitten. And just above him, in a sort of blurry imagery, there is another kitten, a little braver, perhaps on a branch. And I thought, I want Jade to wear this shirt. Can we have this shirt? Can we put this meme on a shirt? Because without saying anything, without ever calling attention to the fact that he’s wearing some kind of goofy shirt, and I want it to be hot pink.

Can we do hot pink? And I never want him to draw attention to that. I don’t want to… It’s like he’s rummaging everywhere, he’s grabbing the shirt, he doesn’t care what other people think about it, but sometimes, the way people’s pets look like them, I thought he should wear something that gives off what he feels inside, which is kind of a cat persona. It’s his spirit animal. So he’s a little gruff. He likes to be alone. People bother him. I had a cat that grew up, and that’s exactly how he was. And then I got a dog later in life who was exactly like my cat.

ScreenRant: Oh wow.

David Alapy: I’ve never had… Even though I’ve tried to love animals, the feeling isn’t necessarily mutual, but I still feed them and pet them. So Rachel Grant, who is a brilliant costume designer, left. She came up with five or six different iterations of cat shirts, and then ultimately, the decision was between her and MGM, and they chose the purple one with all the cats depicted. And I’m like, “Okay, this works.”

ScreenRant: Amazing.

David Alpay: And I can wear it every day, and it’s so great. And that just takes away the advantage, I think. Even though he’s become this haggard thing, he gets to wear a little cat shirt, and I think it’s awesome. I think it’s great. The same goes for all the people who receive them, wear them and celebrate Jade.

Discover more of our From cover here:

• How do you yage in Julie’s time is the key to solving the biggest mysteries despite the failure of season 4, teased by Star
• How Season 5 Honors the Original Plan for the Hit Sci-Fi Series Explained by Star
• From season 4 returns to one of the very first mysteries of the series

Release date

February 20, 2022

Network

Epix, MGM+

Directors

Jack Bender, Brad Turner, Alexandra La Roche, Bruce McDonald, Jeff Renfroe

Writers

Vivian Lee, Kristen Layden, Brigitte Hales, Jeff Pinkner, John Griffin

Cast

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  Harold Perrineau

  Boyd Stevens

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  Catalina Sandino Moreno

  Tabitha Matthews