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It’s hard to believe but I’m actually starting to enjoy NOS4A2, looking forward to what’s going to happen each week. I think that’s due mainly to more of a focus on Charlie Manx, Millie and Christmasland (although we got no Millie or the mysterious house on the hill this week), and the introduction of young Wayne McQueen. His mother Vic was not a compelling character as she battled Manx on her own, and she only had tenuous connections to the children he absconded with in the first season so she had no reason not to turn into a terrible person, especially after he plans to attend RISD were scuttled and Craig died. Now with a kid, and the best boyfriend in the world, Lou, Vic actually has something meaningful in her life to fight for. And, thankfully, that’s making her a better person, telling Lou this week that she wants to quit drinking.
And she’s going to need to have her wits about her because Charlie has his talons deep into Wayne’s psyche this week thanks to that magic candy cane Wayne hasn’t yet parted with. While the family is still camped out at Maggie and Tabitha’s house, Wayne sleepwalks and has a vision of the children of Christmasland singing to him. He opens the front door to see Charlie there as well and Charlie offers him the chance to come to Christmasland but before Wayne can do or say anything else, Vic manages to shake him out of his stupor. The next day they pack up and head to Chris’ cabin on the lake, with Maggie volunteering to tag along so she can help Vic with her tiles. Tabitha isn’t too happy about it, thinking Vic asked her to come, but Maggie assured her that she volunteered so Tabitha reluctantly let her go.
Now there was some question last week as to why Lou ignored the call from ‘Vic’s Mom’ which had some wondering if they had a bad relationship. As I suspected, neither Lou nor Wayne have ever met either of Vic’s parents as we learn upon their arrival at the cabin. While everyone is making small talk, Wayne touches that candy cane again and sees ornaments hanging from the tree above him (I’d love to have that one that looks like a bat). It’s not long before Vic and Chris are making bombs to line the driveway for when Manx inevitably shows up. Which may be sooner rather than later after Wayne blurts out to Manx exactly where they are in one of his dream-states.
Vic believes she’s in the process of losing her family because of all the Manx business and her terrible behavior. During one of Wayne’s dream episodes, he whispers to Charlie — and to his mother — ‘Sometimes mom doesn’t like us.’ Ouch. Chris tells his daughter that if she wants Lou she has to fight for him. At one point she finally let’s go of everything holding her back and actually enjoys some fun in the lake with Lou and Wayne, and she tells Lou she doesn’t want to lose him. Then Lou hits her with the hard question — if they had met under any other circumstance, would she have still chosen him? Vic honestly says she doesn’t know but states she’s glad she did and she’d do it again. She asks him the same question and his too long of a pause is what prompts her to tell him she wants to quick drinking. Lou says she has to show him she’s serious.
After Wayne tells Charlie where they are so he can come pick him up, and Vic spotted Wayne walking on the pier during this sleepwalking episode, she finds the candy cane and knows it was from Manx and that’s how he’s been communicating with Wayne. Vic tells Wayne that Charlie is a bad person and Wayne spits back that she’s a bad person and that she sucks and makes Lou sad, and he wants a regular mom and a regular home. And Vic admits she’s been a crappy mom and promises to change.
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And while Vic and Wayne are having their heart-to-heart, Charlie wakes up in the Wraith and tells Bing to get the gas, it’s time to load up the car. Bing is extra excited. What he doesn’t know is that Tabitha has been tracking him by his alias Ethan Anderson and learned that he worked at a hospital as a janitor and was living in one of the many abandoned churches around town (in Maine … Castle Rock, perhaps?). Tabitha and an administrator discover all of the Sevoflurane supply has gone missing, the gas Bing uses to knock people out. Tabitha happens to find the church and sees Bing bring the canisters of gas outside before going back in. She calls for back-up but decides to try and subdue him before he gets away.
Maggie has tried to call Tabitha several times but the calls have gone unanswered so she pulls out her tiles in the presence of Lou and Vic to ask if Tabitha is okay. The tiles reveal she’s at the House of Sleep, Maggie has a seizure and when she recovers she says that’s the place they’d tried to find for years but couldn’t. Vic says she can find it and Lou tells her she has to go and Maggie says she’s coming along too and they hop on the bike and take off. Lou sends them off with ‘May the Force be with you.’ That’s so Lou.
Tabitha makes her way to the basement of the church but is surprised by Bing. She tries to fight back but he knocks her gun out of her hand and tosses her around the room like a rag doll. She manages to grab a small weight and whacks him in the shin hard enough to bring him down, and she lets him have it a couple more times to make sure he’s subdued enough for her to cuff him. But … Charlie appears from the shadows, approaching Tabitha and telling her he hates having to kill her there because ‘my children love eating pig for dinner.’ Charlie hits Tabitha in the shoulder area with what looks like a rock hammer and moves in for the kill, but she manages to pull her gun on him and shoot him in the head. With both Bing and Charlie down, Tabitha manages to drag herself out of the church. Outside, the Wraith starts and Charlie is revived, sitting up, pulling the bullet from the back of his head, laughing evilly (as described by the closed captions).
Vic and Maggie get there just as Tabitha is about to be loaded into the ambulance, and she tells Maggie it was both a stupid and romantic thing she did to come find her, but she reveals that Charlie and Vic got away. Back at the cabin, Wayne wakes up and asks his dad where his mom is, and then he says he thinks he did something really bad. Lou immediately calls Vic and tells her Wayne has been talking to Manx in his dreams and now he knows where they are. Vic says she’s on her way back and to not let Wayne get in that car.
It took 14 episodes for the show to really find a balance and make Vic the hero of the story she was meant to be, but it looks like NOS4A2 is finally on a good track for an exciting rest of the season.
NOS4A2 airs Sundays at 10:00 PM on AMC.
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