WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for From season 3, episode 5!As the greatest hope for escaping town and the terrors of the forest, From’s major character Victor, who has been trapped longer than anyone else in the sinister town, the trees have long been a source of intrigue for the residents. Only two faraway trees have been seen in From’s town so far, both containing holes at the center of their trunks, while one has bottles with numbers written on pieces of paper inside that hang from its branches.

While some characters have already ed through the faraway trees’ portals, the residents have yet to fully understand their origin, purpose, meaning, and patterns. After Victor guided Tabitha through one that took her to the lighthouse, and ultimately out of the town in From season 2’s ending, the mysteries of the faraway trees have become more complex as their connection to Victor’s family is revealed, Jade tries to solve the numbers’ meanings, and their unpredictability proves extremely dangerous. Ultimately, it seems that a complete understanding of the faraway trees is the key to piecing together From's many other puzzles.

From's Faraway Trees Include Portals To Unpredictable Places Around Town

Characters Walk Through The Trees Without Knowing Where They'll End Up

The function of the faraway trees that From has revealed so far is that they operate as portals around the town. However, the faraway trees’ portals are incredibly unpredictable; there’s no way of knowing where exactly the destination will be, even if one tree has taken people to the same place previously. For example, while one tree took both Miranda and Tabitha to the lighthouse, the same faraway tree later transported Dale to the pool’s concrete wall in From season 3, episode 5’s ending.

It seems the town’s supernatural forces are very particular in where each character is sent, depending on the purpose that they have for the travelers.

Meanwhile, another faraway tree has been used by Victor, Julie, Sara, and Boyd in the past, though they were all taken to different locations. In season 1, Victor led Julie into the faraway tree’s portal to escape From’s mysterious monsters, which transported her to the root cellar. Later on, Boyd and Sara were in the forest and unable to keep moving forward due to his injury. Both characters hopped into the tree and were transported to different places, with Boyd being sent to the bottom of a well while Sara was brought back into town.

While the faraway tree portals’ destinations are unpredictable for the characters that travel through them, it may not be accurate to claim that the locations are random. Rather, it seems the town’s supernatural forces are very particular in where each character is sent, depending on the purpose that they have for the travelers. For instance, bringing Boyd to the well brought upon a new psychological torture for him, sending Tabitha to the lighthouse portal finally allowed someone to escape town, and fatally transporting Dale to the pool wall served as a warning to the other residents.

The Faraway Bottle Tree's Origins & Connection To Victor's Mother Explained

Miranda Made A Bottle Tree In The Outside World After Having Visions Of The Town

It’s still not entirely clear who made the faraway bottle tree within From’s town, but they do have a connection to Victor’s mother, Miranda. Victor’s father, Henry – who wasn’t with Miranda, Victor, and Eloise when they became stuck in the town – revealed to Tabitha in the outside world that his wife had been having visions and dreams about From’s cursed location long before the family arrived there. As it turns out, she had even intended to find the town after having visions of needing to save From’s “Anghkooey” children from the tower.

The name that Victor gives the portals is based on the popular children's book series The Faraway Tree, which centers on kids finding a giant magical tree in an enchanted forest.

At one point, Henry confirms to Tabitha that they have a bottle tree in their backyard, which is a replica of one of Miranda’s art installations. However, on the way to see the original park tree where Miranda first hung the bottles, Henry and Tabitha get into a car accident. They’re sadly never able to reach that original tree in the outside world, as From season 3, episode 3’s ending saw Tabitha return to the trapped town when their ambulance came upon a fallen tree in the road.

While the faraway bottle tree is certainly linked to Miranda in some manner, it’s unclear whether they already existed in the town before her arrival or if she hung up the bottles on the tree after getting stuck. Since Miranda began having visions about features of the cursed town, they became recurring subjects in Victor’s mother’s paintings. Though not a painting, it seems that Miranda had visions of the tree and used it as inspiration for her art installation in the outside world. Even still, this doesn’t provide any answer to why the faraway trees also serve as portals around town.

What Do The Numbers In The Tree's Bottles Mean In From?

There Are Plenty Of Theories About The Numbers' Meanings

As Jade and Tabitha return to the faraway tree that originally brought her to the lighthouse in From season 3, episode 5, the two characters attempt to piece together the meaning of the numbers written on paper inside the bottles. Jade suggests that the numbers could indicate dates, though some of the higher numbers undermine his point. The numbers could be correlated to the dates on which certain people arrive in town or the death dates of certain residents. Additionally, the numbers could be addresses that indicate where the portal takes those who travel through it.

The numbers could also have a more supernatural meaning connected to the town’s history. In the real world, glass bottles hanging from trees have often been used as talismans to defend against evil spirits, not unlike the talisman that the characters already use to ward off the town's monsters. In folklore, they would also be used to trap traveling spirits, so each bottle and number could be indicative of a dead character in From’s past.