NOS4A2 :: A Partridge with a nail gun

AMC

Well, well, well. NOS4A2 finally got interesting with an episode that actually moved the story along and wasn’t three hours of exposition — and honestly, the first four episodes could have been condensed into two. But with the latest episode, ‘The House of Sleep’, it seems that all the moving parts are coming together.

I’ve always been confused about the relationship between Vic and that little girl Haley. Is this the first time it’s ever been mentioned that Vic was Haley’s babysitter? But the girls have another connection as well, both coming from less than stable home lives (is this the norm rather than the exception in Haverhill?). And while Vic was reluctant to join Maggie’s quest to save young Daniel from ‘The Wraith’, Vic is more vested in that mission now that Haley is missing (and Mittens is dead) only because of Vic’s Inscape. If she had never revealed the existence of that bridge to Haley, she’d still be hanging around … and her cat would be alive.

We thankfully got very little of Vic’s parental angst as she focused on finding who took Haley, and then she was surprised when the Inscape took her to Bing Partridge’s house, her janitor friend from school. At first she thought the bridge had taken her to the wrong place, but Maggie convinced her otherwise … and since it really wasn’t that far from her own house, Vic was able to pay a visit to Bing again without having to use the Inscape under the pretense of bringing him a comic book, but her suspicious behavior had all of his red flags at full staff.

Up to now, we haven’t known much about Bing except that he’s a little slow and he likes wearing a gas mask. And now we know why. Young Bing also came from an abusive home — again, the pattern of this in Haverhill is alarming — with a drill sergeant of a father (perhaps literally) who gave Bing a gas mask that was apparently a family heirloom (?) as a Christmas gift. Not something the kid wanted, but dad forced him to wear it as they played army in the living room. Teenage Bing was no less harassed by his father who treated him like dirt and called him offensive names (shockingly, the R-word), probably not the best course of action while the kid was using a nail gun to hang Christmas lights. One insult too many and dad ended up with a nail right between the eyes (he probably deserved more than one, honestly). Dragging dad into the garage and breaking down — or was it an act — things got even more twisted when Bing’s mom discovered them. Bing apparently raped his mother. Yuck. I needed to wash my brain with soap after that.

Interestingly, at one point Charlie Manx told Bing he wished he’d been able to save him all those years ago like he’s now ‘saved’ Daniel and Haley. But Bing is now the perfect henchman for Charlie, quite content to abduct Haley’s mother and gas her into worshipping him in his basement. Vic’s sudden arrival a few days earlier put Bing on high alert and when she returned, Vic was unable to find any evidence that Sharon Smith had been there. And then the phone rang. It was Charlie and he now knows Vic’s name courtesy of Haley, whom he’s been drawing her life essence from and turning her into his little monster. Assuring her that she’d always have friends and be loved at Christmasland, unlike she was at home with her horribly neglectful mother (and we really don’t know if she was, so we only have Charlie’s word on that … and I’m not sure he’s to be trusted), Haley finally revealed the name of the girl with the Inscape.

AMC

So when the phone rang, Charlie asked Bing to put Vic on so he could arrange a meeting with her, the Inscape in exchange for Haley … and, of course, he has no intention of turning Haley over to Vic. The question really is what is so important about the Inscape for Charlie? Does he plan to use it to gather more children more easily for Christmasland? And will he even be able to use the Inscape since it isn’t really the bridge that transports the chosen ones, but their method of travel like Vic’s bike and the old lady’s skates? Is his Wraith able to traverse an Inscape?

Finally some interesting plot developments have formed this week, and the show has also found a nice macabre humor as well as some shockingly horrifying moments. Not only did Bing use the nail gun on his dad (and his mom … he ‘nailed’ her twice … oh, that was a terrible pun), but he also gave Sharon a nail between the eyes as well and Vic found her in a shallow grave. There was the humor when Charlie stopped at a gas station to buy more than $40 worth of pine air fresheners for the car and while he was inside, we could see a woman approach the car with Haley inside. Haley now has fangs and is hungry and she pulled that woman in the car through the window and feasted, much to Charlie’s amusement.

And we finally got a glimpse of Christmasland as Charlie dropped Haley off at the gates, met there by Daniel who presented her with a gift: a large, shiny pair of scissors so they could play ‘Scissors for the Drifter’, whatever that is. After three weeks of dragging on and on, NOS4A2 finally picked up some steam this week. You can usually find one episode in the middle of these short seasons that is nothing but filler, but they top loaded this season with all the filler up front so hopefully this new forward momentum will continue through to the finale.

NOS4A2 airs Sundays at 10:00 PM on AMC.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Sound off in the comments below!

AMC