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So after last week’s episode, we still don’t know if The Hourglass survived the stabbing from Maggie because there was no Maggie or Tabitha or Lou or Vic or any other assorted McQueens in this episode. This was another Charlie Manx episode that spanned the (long) past, present and ghosts from the past who are stuck in the present. I also had no idea what the title of this week’s episode meant, ‘Cripple Creek’, in relation to the episode. I know there’s a Bluegrass song with that title, but I assume that is the name of the town in Colorado where Charlie Manx grew up (and there may have been an on-screen mention that I missed while taking notes … apologies if I missed that).
The episode actually takes us back two episodes to when Charlie drove off with Wayne from the cabin at the lake, deserting Bing to fend for himself. Bing is all black and white in his perception of things, so if Charlie expects him to see the gray areas of being left behind, he’s sorely mistaken. Bing did manage to get away after being shot, and came upon a cemetery where he prayed to a statue of an angel for a sign — did Mr. Manx desert him and why isn’t he on the Nice List? He got a sign alright. A pigeon sitting on the statue shat in his mouth. But, a young gravedigger spies Bing and offers to give him a ride to the hospital and Bing thanks him by breaking the guy’s neck, stealing his car keys and rolling him into an open grave. That’s not how you get on the Nice List, Bing.
That scene forwards to the night Bing found Manx and gassed him with Wayne sitting in the car. Now Charlie is bound to a post in the garage and visibly older since Bing disconnected the ignition coil. Charlie tries to explain to Bing that he had to leave to save the child and that sacrifices have to be made. But Bing also knows Charlie’s weaknesses and he gasses Manx again. That puts Charlie into a dream state of his own childhood long ago. Like, Old West long ago where his mother worked in a saloon/whorehouse and Charlie danced on stage. When mom leaves with a customer, the owner of the general store suggests that since Charlie has a good relationship with the other boys in town, he should work for the man, recruiting the boys to come help around his store, and with that Charlie can earn enough to buy the sled he covets in the store’s window. Sounds like a good deal, but Charlie also seems to know there’s more to it.
Young Charlie goes about his business, getting new boys to work at the store with the promise that if they do a good job they might get invited to Mr. Tim’s house. But the boy tells Charlie that another boy said Mr. Tim was a creep and Charlis responds the boy is a liar and was a bad worker. The boy accepts the offer and Mr. Tim slides a nickel to Charlie, which his mother sees and asks if he’s been going to the store. He tells her he hasn’t, he’s just working for Mr. Tim to get help for the store so he can buy the sled. She tells him not to go to the store alone and when he has enough money saved they’ll go to the store together.
While Charlie is unconscious, Millie awaits a call at Christmasland but becomes concerned when the lights begin to flicker again so she goes to the house on the hill. This time she encounters the woman who can now speak. But someone is trying to open a door that Millie is standing near, and an arm pops out and grabs her, a voice asking to be let out. The voice also says ‘the best sledding is the hill beyond the grove’. The woman, Millie’s mother, wrestles the arm back into the room (or closet) the person attached to is, and then tells Millie that when her father died his mind became unstable and so did Christmasland, so that’s why the lights flicker. Millie says Charlie told her this house didn’t exist and mother responds that he’s buried it so deeply he may have forgotten about it, his deepest fears reside in this house. The two go into the parlor that’s decorated for Christmas and full of gifts under the tree. Millie opens a door and a young girl is inside. Millie makes a move to kill her but her mother stops her. The girl give Millie a doll and then the two have fun opening gifts.
When Charlie wakes up, Bing starts demanding answers about what happened to Mr. Manx’s other assistants. Charlie says the one before Bing, Peter Ives, died, but he admits to killing the two before that, throwing Cardinal O’Byrne from the Wraith and feeding Dewey Hansen to the children at Christmasland. Bing reasons those men were on the Naughty List but he’s helped Mr. Manx by saving children and Charlie’s life. Then he asks point blank if Charlie is taking him to Christmasland. Charlie responds how Bing probably expected at this point — No. It doesn’t go well from there. Bing begins to beat Charlie, no longer giving him the gas because he wants Charlie to feel every blow. Bing says Christmasland was all he had but Manx tells him the mission is what he had and that was to help save the children.
Charlie works overtime to save his life, telling Bing he’s special and that’s why he can’t go to Christmasland, just as is Charlie. He tells Bing about his ‘loathesome whore’ of a mother and a man who was like a father but used him and ‘mishandled’ him like Bing’s own father had done while neither of their mothers did a thing to stop them. Bing said his mother told him she loved him, and Charlie said his mother did too for all the good it did him, and that’s why the two of them are special — they are children unsaved whose innocence was stolen. So what is their place in Christmasland? They don’t have one, but they both know how important it is to save those who still have time. The moment Charlie got Bing’s letter he knew he’d be more than an assistant like Ives … he’d be Charlie’s partner. That finally sparked Bing as Charlie asked if he still believed in their good work. Of course he does, as Manx takes satisfaction in playing Bing like a fiddle.
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In the Wraith, Wayne is failing agains as his tooth is loose, but the spirit of Craig urges him to fight, to remember his mother, her favorite movie (Jaws), anything to help him fight. But Wayne is sure she’s not coming and when his new teeth come in he’ll be able to ride the Sleighcoaster at Christmasland. Craig tries to convince Wayne that Manx is lying to him and that his mother hasn’t forgotten about him. When Wayne asks how he knows her, Craig hesitates and just says she was his best friend. Craig asks about Wayne’s dad, and as they talk he realizes his tooth is no longer loose. But the longer Bing and Manx are away, the more ill he begins to feel, now with several teeth in his hand. Bing finally approaches the car and tells Wayne they’ll be at Christmasland soon but Wayne says he wants his mother. Bing says she’s a bad person and she hurt Wayne but Wayne says it was he and Mr. Manx who hurt him. That really hit Bing and he did not reconnect the ignition coil.
Back at the house on the hill, the two girls play and the human girl tells Millie she can’t wait to grow up and leave and no one can tell her what to do. She’ll be free so she can become a great explorer. Millie says her father has just one rule: never leave. And then she finally realizes the girl she’s been playing with is her. She leaves the girl and asks her mother why her father would leave them there. She tells Millie that she’s everything her father wants, a girl who only wants to have fun. He fears the other girl will grow up to be just like her mother, and because of that, any terrible thing he does he will blame on the nearest woman (which says a lot about his hatred of Vic McQueen). But Christmasland is coming apart, and if Charles (as she calls him) dies, so will Millie. Mother pleads with her to not die in her father’s sad fantasies and that if Charles loves her so much, Millie needs to ask him to take her away from that place because her future depends on it. And them Millie sees their human reflections in the mirror.
Tnen things get really ugly for Bing and Charlie. Bing tells him that Wayne is sick and wants his mother. Charlie says he’ll be ‘right as reindeer’ once they get to Christmasland. Bing says the Wraith is making Wayne cry, and Charlie says the transformation process does cause some discomfort. Bing says Charlie does nothing but lie because he gets better as the children get sick, and then tells him he’s a bad father but he can teach Charlie how to be a good one like Paul Demeter, the father of Bing’s friend Michael. He says Paul ‘knew what to do with his mouth’ and Charlie will learn to say, ‘I love you more than anything, Bing Partridge.’ Charlie is now truly horrified and demands to be let go. Bing tells Charlie he isn’t alone after all … he has the Gas Mask Man and he knows what to do with monsters. Charlie uses the old ‘I know you are but what am I?’ trick on Bing because Bing is the one who brought the children to Charlie, including his dear friend Michael. No one told Bing Paul Demeter was a bad father (side note: the Demeter was the name of the ship that brought Dracula to England in the Bram Stoker novel). The Graveyard of What Might Be never showed that Michael needed to be saved, and Bing had no great purpose to rape a man and steal his son. He just did it for his own desire to get into Christmasland. Bing destroyed families with his carnal urges and he is the depraved, degenerate monster. He is the one who used anyone to get what he wanted, and if Charlie deserves death then Bing deserves much, much worse. Shattered by all this truth, Bing agrees that they are both monsters and gasses Charlie again, and drags him to the Wraith, putting him in the back seat with Wayne.
Charlie dreams again of his young self, now a proud owner of that sled he wanted. It’s Christmas Day and no one is at the saloon but Mr. Tim. He asks Charlie to pour him a drink, and tells him he’s a special boy and that they should play a game because he’s earned some fun. We don’t see what happens but we can assume what Mr. Tim has in mind when he goes behind the bar with Charlie and the sound of clothing being removed is heard. Later, Mr. Tim tells Charlie the best sledding is at the grove behind his house … which means the person in the closet at the house on the hill is Mr. Tim, and that the house is his. But Charlie picks up the sled and smashes it across Mr. Tim’s back and beats him to death with one of the sled rails. Charlie’s mother comes upon the scene and says they need to find Boss to take care of things. Charlie is confused but she says everyone in town knows about Mr. Tim. Charlie asks if she knew. She replies that he knew, he helped get the boys. Charlie blames her for leaving him to fend for himself, she made him do it while she whored around. Then his eyes go white, evil snowmen peer in from the window, and Charlie impales his mother with the sled rail still in his hand.
Bing tells Charlie one more ride together and world will be rid of two monsters, keeping the children safe at Christmasland. But Charlie tells him if he dies, so do the children. Bing doesn’t believe him and goes to the panel that operates the crusher. Wayne is out of the car and next to Bing, asking is he can help but he tells Wayne to go to the street and find a policeman and tell him his mom is Vic McQueen. That clicks Wayne’s mind again and he says her favorite movie is Jaws, and that makes Bing happy. He tells Wayne to tell Vic that he’s very sorry, but he’s fixed everything and she doesn’t have to worry about Charlie Manx anymore. Bing has placed the open gas canister in the back with Manx, and Charlie pleads with Wayne to save him. Bing starts the crusher — and boy is this thing slooooooooow — and gets Charlie to say ‘I love you’ as he takes off his mask. But … Wayne stops the crusher after Bing falls asleep before the crusher touches the car’s roof, and opens the back seat door to awaken Charlie. Charlie says it’s time to play ‘Free Father Christmas’, he does and Charlie reconnects the ignition coil, returning his youth almost instantly. He says Bing will not be going with them to Christmasland and tells Wayne to get back in the car. But Craig is there and tells him not to get in. He does though, and as soon as Charlie locks the door, Wayne snaps out of it and realizes he’s made a terrible mistake. A panicked Craig tells him Vic is coming, he just has to keep remembering.
Bing has managed to get out of the car but his lumbering isn’t quite fast enough to escape Charlie, who catches up to him and stabs him, telling Bing he was right about Charlie being a liar. His words cut even deeper as he tells Bing he was never special, he’s just as slow as molasses and dumb as a box of hair. Charlie says Bing will die there if the police don’t find him first, but prison will be a better place for him than Hell. Then he smiles that Charlie Manx smile and tells Bing to remember him at Christmastime.
NOS4A2 airs Sundays at 10:00 PM on AMC.
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