Harold Perrineau Explains Boyd’s Devastating Breakdown in 'From' Season 4 Premiere

Harold Perrineau, star and executive producer of From, has shed light on the emotional breakdown of his character Boyd in the Season 4 premiere. Boyd, the longtime leader of the haunted town, is shown unraveling in a way viewers have never seen before.

“It’s so dark, but this year is dark,” Perrineau told TheWrap about the intensity of Season 4. “We start to learn how the pushback from the town, how rigorous it is, how strong it is, and how we all have to deal with it when [the people in the town are] all already broken. Boyd is broken, and then how we have to deal with it together.”

After nearly two years off-screen, From resumed where Season 3 left off. Boyd emerges from the caves where he witnessed Smiley’s (Jamie McGuire) rebirth. Overwhelmed by shock and anger at the night people’s apparent immortality, he collapses into his son Ellis’ arms (Corteon Moore) and sobs uncontrollably. Despite his resilience, Boyd has never been this shattered.

“When I started the show I knew [that Harold’s] the guy that’s going to save everybody, so he’s going to get beat up and tossed up a hill and kicked in the guts, and he’s going to get up and keep walking forward,” Perrineau explained. “After three years of all the stuff — he’s been shot at, he’s been clawed, he watched Tian-Chen Liu (Elizabeth Moy) die — he’s been through all of it … And what happens is, he goes, ‘Bro, I can’t take it.’ I think it’s so satisfying for the audience … If I had to be that kind of broken in front of my daughters, it would look a lot like what it looked like for Boyd in front of Ellis.”

Perrineau noted that Boyd was already nearing his breaking point by the end of Season 3. “When he had to do what he did to Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons) at the end of Season 3, that for him, it’s shocking for him,” he said. “And his son and daughter just had some weird baby taken away from them by a monster — again more shocking. Then, after that Smiley is back? The thing I killed and burned? I burned that mother— and he’s back? Your mind shatters, your spirits shatter. You can’t find hope, and that’s what he feels.”

From has already been renewed for a fifth and final season. Perrineau teased that fans will learn more about the town and the Man in Yellow (Douglas E. Hughes). “The type of power the Man in Yellow has is infinitely more [than the night people.] And I think the audience will get really tickled by how the man in yellow manifests on the show — I was tickled by it.