“Nothing is hunky-dory in this town.” Robert Joy & Scott McCord on the heartbreaking, existential struggle of Henry and Victor in FROM Season 4.
The hit sci-fi horror series FROM has kept audiences on the edge of their seats with its terrifying monsters, shifting realities, and endless web of mysteries. Yet, amidst the supernatural dread, it is the deeply human, emotionally raw relationships that truly ground the series. One of the most compelling dynamics to emerge is the complex bond between Victor and his father, Henry. After a lifetime apart, their reunion promised a glimmer of hope in a world shrouded in darkness, but as fans of the series know all too well, nothing in this town stays happy for long.
Mama’s Geeky caught up with stars Robert Joy and Scott McCord to dive deep into the heartbreaking evolution of Henry and Victor’s relationship in FROM Season 4. With the stakes higher than ever, the actors opened up about the crushing disappointments, the terror of playing alternate versions of their characters, and how they workshop the show’s intense, brilliant scripts over meals in Halifax. Read on for our full conversation with the duo about navigating the existential struggles of the final season.
Robert Joy & Scott McCord On FROM Season 4
Tessa Smith: What surprises Henry and Victor most about getting to finally spend time together this season?
Robert Joy: Well, the big surprise for Henry is that he thinks it’s going to be possible to become a good dad. And the big surprise is it’s not possible. Because he has to deal with these seductive delusions, hallucinations that put doubt in his mind. And to love anybody through doubt is almost impossible. You’re not even here. These hallucinations make me think that I’m talking to you but maybe you don’t even exist. It doesn’t get more basic than that. That’s the big surprise.
Scott McCord: I would say that I think it’s everything that’s as complicated as this relationship is and it’s trying to find itself. There are promises made by Henry in the beginning, a certain kind of love that comes. And I think Victor’s really encountering a lot of crushing disappointment in this, right to his soul, because of where this is all going and where it goes by the end.
Tessa Smith: I watched the finale last night and was so shocked. It definitely wasn’t what Henry was promising at the beginning.
Robert Joy: “I’m always here for you. You can tell me everything.” No, you can’t. And I will say that it’s not that I think that you and I ever thought at the end of the last season, for instance, when this story was coming, that we were going to be walking around hand in hand and doing Snow Angels together or anything. I knew that there was a good possibility there was going to be continuous struggle as these two navigate from. But the type of struggle I had, we had no idea. It’s existential and surprises the word, you know, it’s crazy scene. It’s heartbreaking.
Tessa Smith: Scott, what was it like playing this other, more grown-up version of Victor, rather than the childish version we are used to?
Scott McCord: I know it was hard. It was very hard and scary. Tessa, I’m not going to lie. It was it was very scary. But I had this guy of this this guy to we we love working together, of course, and we spend a lot of time offset together as well. And we we really got into it. You know, we got into it to kind of lean into each other to kind of build this this world. But as far as yeah, like, you know, with the limited time that you have, you know, you just got to make the most of it. And I and I just did a lot of work off the page to try and to try and get down to the molecules of this guy. And also because the scripts, you know, we only have and we know as much as we know with each script. So, Rob, we didn’t know how many times this was going to happen.
Robert Joy: No. Once, twice, three times, you know what I mean?
Scott McCord: But we still had to build that world in that reality. And in the earlier and the early slipping from one reality into like a 10 second…
Robert Joy: Oh, yeah.
Scott McCord: …you know, flash of the other alternate reality. I had no idea that it would lead to me, you know, wanting to do harm. Yeah.
Tessa Smith: That scene is so heartbreaking, especially when Victor says they moved Henry’s bed in so they could be roommates. It made me want to cry.
Scott McCord: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a lot. That’s the gift of the gift of the writing that we talk about. That’s John’s brilliant. You know, it’s all this, you know, that these guys bring to the table and Jeff and and Jack. It’s it’s what a what an honor, really. Right. You know, it’s an honor to grapple with this kind of writing. You know, it’s rare and a wonderful thing for really, really rare. And we’d like to workshop everything.
Robert Joy: You get to rehearse for maybe 10 minutes before you shoot in a TV show. But that’s not enough for Scotty and me. We need to workshop it, you know, two or three meals together.
Scott McCord: That’s right. Or I was I was saying earlier today, Tess, it’s here that if you ever come to Halifax and see Bob and I wandering around down by the waterfront, and it looks like we’re in something like it’s just he and I probably improvising or working through something that we’re trying to figure out in this relationship just because we love it and we love it so much. These are really rich, rich characters and storylines. And, you know, yeah, we could do this all day and all night. We just love it so much.
To see the full conversation and hear more behind-the-scenes secrets about the final season from the cast, be sure to watch the full interview video.
