WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for From season 3, episode 9!Jade makes a speech about Victor in From season 3, episode 9 that truly captures the special nature of the town’s longest-trapped resident, highlighting a major advantage that he has over the others. For over 40 years, Victor was essentially on his own in town, as he first arrived in town as a child with his mother and sister, who, alongside the rest of the residents at the time, were brutally massacred by From’s nocturnal monsters one fateful night. More people would become trapped over the years, but Victor was still without any family – until his father, Henry, unexpectedly arrived.

Henry had long believed that his family died after their disappearances, only for Tabitha to land in Camden, Maine and inform him that, while Eloise and Miranda died in From’s town, Victor was still alive. After Henry became trapped, he tried to reconnect with his son who he hadn’t seen for over four decades, but Victor is more withdrawn and eccentric than his father might have expected. Lamenting over his struggles, Henry seeks help from Jade, who gives him some sage advice that Victor can’t be fixed “because he’s not broken,” which reflects a big theme throughout From season 3.

Jade Is Right About Victor Not Being Broken In From Season 3 Episode 9

Victor Can’t Be Measured By The “Normalcy” Of The Outside World

While Jade has been wrapped up in analyzing the meanings of From’s bottle tree numbers, his visions, and their connections to the “Anghkooey” kids throughout season 3, he’s also seen plenty of character growth as he works through these mysteries with others in town. From forming friendships with Tabitha and Ethan to arguing with Jim or spending time in the bar talking to Henry, Jade has proven to be one of From‘s wisest and most level-headed characters, despite others seeing his fixations as being erratic. Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising that Jade is so perfectly able to describe Victor’s situation:

You’re trying to figure out how to fix him, right? You can’t, because he’s not broken. Victor is a product of what this place made him. Victor has been surviving here for decades. He’s been shaped by this place. He’s Tarzan, growing up in the jungle, and you’re the guy who comes along and makes him feel like an a*hole because he doesn’t know how to eat with a fork.

Jade brilliantly describes Victor in a way that should really drive home to Henry, and anyone else in town, why they shouldn’t focus on trying to make him “better.” Victor has been in a state of arrested development since the massacre, but it’s because he was left alone as a child in a town filled with manipulative, deadly monsters and creatures. For so long, Victor’s only “friend” was From’s Boy in White, whose true nature is difficult to decipher. Victor learned to not trust most things around him, never being given the tools to develop in a “normal” society.

Victor can’t be “broken” or considered outside the norm because nothing about his upbringing was normal.

If Victor had grown up in the outside world, then his demeanor might be a bit more concerning or cause for question. However, like Jade says, Victor is a product of this town and what it shaped him to be. Victor can’t be “broken” or considered outside the norm because nothing about his upbringing was normal. Nobody else in From’s town has an experience that compares to Victor’s lonely, tragic upbringing in Fromville, so it’s completely unfair to measure his actions, social skills, and emotional reactions against any otherFrom character his age.

Victor Not Being Broken Connects To From Season 3’s Themes About The Town Trying To “Break” Them

Victor Can’t Be Broken By A Town That Made Him Who He Is

Since the season 3 premiere, the show has put a big focus on the idea that From’s town is trying to break the residents. This has been the driving factor of Boyd’s story throughout season 3, but it applies to everyone else trapped in Fromville – the town wants to “break” them and bend them to its will. However, Victor can’t be broken by the town because it already made him who he is today. The tricks and forces that the town uses to try to break everyone else are exactly what shaped him into who he already is today.

Therefore, Victor isn’t as vulnerable to these manipulations and tricks by the town as the rest of Fromville’s residents. It’s a major strength and advantage that he has over the town, allowing him to understand the evil forces at hand much better than the others. Victor has survived in From’s town the longest, so it’s better for the others to learn from him rather than try to “fix” or ignore him. He understands what the monsters want, how the forces manipulate and change people, and what visions to trust, which the others struggle with from an outside world perspective.

Since Victor has been trapped in this town for so long, he forgot what it was like to be so focused on trying to leave. Victor had forced himself to believe that his childhood before coming to Fromville was just a dream, which meant that the town couldn’t manipulate him by taunting him with these memories. Without any remaining family, the monsters couldn’t use the safety of Eloise or his mother to trick him, leaving very little room for From’s forces to try to psychologically “break” him.

Was Victor Being The Sole Survivor Of From’s Massacre Always The Town’s Plan?

The Town Could Shape Victor However It Wanted

Considering how his differences from the other residents have led to him often being isolated, it’s possible that Victor being the sole survivor of the massacre was intentional. As the monsters’ mission to “break” Boyd has proven, Fromville often operates like a psychological and social experiment, with some unknown sinister forces acting as scientists while the trapped individuals become guinea pigs. By getting Victor, a young child, to grow up in this town by himself, the forces could shape him however they want.

It also wouldn’t make much sense for the monsters to kill every living person at once. The town thrives on the terrifying nature of its history, and From season 3’s time travel reveal makes the cyclical feature of the location more important. By sparing Victor, he serves as the town’s “living memory” and the encyclopedia for all its horrors and rules, which also helps emphasize to the new residents how truly vile this location can be. From’s monsters have previously implied that they take it easy on Victor, perhaps because he was a crucial part of the town’s plans.

When Victor and Henry travel through the tunnels in
From
season 3, episode 6, one of the monsters tells him, ”
You know, Victor, if you keep coming down here, one of these days we’ll make you stay
.”

Not to mention, Victor simultaneously serves as a story of hope in town. While the characters have debated whether hope is a dangerous thing or a strength in From, the forces certainly do feed on it in some way. Victor’s recovered memory of the Boy in White’s message to Christopher revealed that the “Anghkooey” children created the roots of the symbol and the faraway tree through their hope, so hope is quite literally rooted in this place’s DNA. Young Victor’s survival against all odds creates hope for the others who fatefully enter, which could be some intervening force’s intentions.