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After last week’s intriguing episode of NOS4A2, the fifth episode of the season — the halfway point — ground all of the momentum to a screeching halt. Nothing happened this week and it was a fight to stay away throughout the episode (I even had to go back and rewatch the last couple of minutes because I did doze off).
It seemed that this week we would finally get some juicy interaction between Vix and Charlie Manx, but that scene was a long time coming in the episode … and not worth a lot. Yes, the pair did meet at a bus station of all places. And Manx does seem to know a lot more about Vic than she does him, and he does make her an offer to come to Christmasland. But then Maggie has to go and screw it all up, forcing the meeting to be cut short, after she spies his Wraith in the parking lot and tries to get into the car. Interestingly, it has a mind of its own and ends up running her down — though sadly it doesn’t kill her — but since Charlie demanded that Vic come to the meeting alone, whatever was about to happen was quickly put to an end. But Charlie is still certain to be keeping an eye on Vic because he says they are somehow connected.
But Vic is still having her own issues in the real world, pulled between her father and mother, and not feeling that she fits in anywhere … which makes her the perfect object of Manx’s obsession. Mom wants her to get rid of her dirt bike and get a car … but that would make it seriously difficult for her to travel across the bridge. Actually impossible since the bike is the vehicle that makes it all possible. Dad thinks the bike is fine and Vic is a good driver. Mom thinks her constantly bloody eye says different.
Vic’s mind kind of snaps one night and she goes to the garage and starts creating artwork depicting Manx and the Wraith, turning out dozens of prints overnight, unfortunately by carving up linoleum tiles her dad’s girlfriend had planned to use to retile the kitchen. The slap in the face came when she told Vic, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ Bouncing back to her mom’s house and arguing about the bike, she also threw in a dig at Vic suggesting that she believes she and her friend Craig are potheads. Vic just can’t catch a break … and neither can we from this drawn out family drama. At this point, Vic would be lucky to live at Christmasland, even if it meant getting her soul sucked out because her parents are doing a pretty good job at that as it is.
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The thing that caused her to snap was the encounter with Bing and the discovery of Sharon’s body buried in the field. For some reason, the police are giving her the third degree about how she found the body. Vic has tried to tell them that Bing is responsible, but the questioning always come around to suggestions of her and Bing’s relationship. Even when questioned himself, Bing’s reaction to the idea that he’s having a sexual relationship with a teenager — and she is 18 so it wouldn’t be illegal — is a bit creepy, even for him (and let’s not forget, as a teen he raped his own mother). But with a lack of evidence, Bing walks free and that only makes Vic’s life more difficult.
Vic and Maggie go to a party at Willa’s, and while Vic gets drunk and romantic with Drew, Maggie does her Scrabble bag trick for Willa. Seeing Vic starting to get a bit out of hand, though, Maggie has to call an end to their night so Vic can be clear-headed for her meeting with Manx the next day. In the end, though, Vic ends up ‘voluntarily’ committing herself for mental health observation — and if she hadn’t signed the form, her father would have, creating an even bigger rift between the two as she sees him putting his girlfriend ahead of his daughter — and that was where we end. It was all a big yawn of an episode and we have to wonder if the next five will bring us any action or resolution.
NOS4A2 airs Sundays at 10:00 PM on AMC.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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