NOS4A2 Episode 2 Recap and Review

NOS4A2 Drags Along In

“The Graveyard of What Might Be”

In the graveyard of what might be, icy tombs on the ground encase children. It’s as if they stepped inside one of those full body sized grocery store freezers and are staring out from the frosted glass. Charlie Manx’s cheerful little cemetery is one of the major locations in this week’s second episode of NOS4A2.

The plot chugs along as the otherworldly Manx doesn’t miss a beat in recruiting his next lackey. This time the big lug is a school custodian and factory worker who’s berated for his lack of coffee brewing skills, and constantly dispatched to the loading docks which are defaced by drawings of dicks. Yes. He’s Vic’s comic book loving pal, Bing (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, The Widow)!!!!! And yes, when he’s not mopping up high school hallways Bing has to scrub off wall-sized graffitied penises. Which is when he has his meet-cute with Manx.  No longer a haggard smelly geezer, Charlie Manx is now hair shampoo commercial radiant with the sleek style of a metrosexual Haunted Mansion gentleman (Master Gracey, mayhaps!?) and he’s r-r-r-ready to rumble.

Looks like the letters Bing wrote to the serial child abductor, excuse me President of Fun, of Christmasland (which was oh so subtly advertised in one of the comics Vic gave him) begging for inquiring about a job there reached Manx after all. Might I add, the letters Bing wrote were followed by a string of rapid trippy AF scenes including:  

* a gas mask wearing man looming
* a flashback (?) of his father twirling his mother’s dead body while standing in the glow of a Christmas tree lit up with colored lights
* a moon with the most certifiably psycho face EVER grinning and winking.


In other words, and pardon my French, shit’s about to get real.  

Manx ends the meet-cute with taking Bing to his graveyard. Because VAMPIRE.

Oh, and the drive to Christmasland doesn’t take an entire episode this time, hooray!

ANYWAY, the catatonic frozen-behind-ice children, Manx tells Bing, are the children out there who need saving. The sweet baby angels that need to be abducted ‘rescued’ from their parents and expressed to Christmasland lest their fate be sealed. A touch Dickensian with its ominous vision of a future that may be, this discomforting scene is one that reminds us we’re watching a horror story unfold. Bing is on board with abducting rescuing children and also far too excited about the scores of chemicals he has access to including a sleeping gas he calls Gingerbread Smoke *cough*foreshadowing*cough*.  

Chris + Tiff 4everz!

Back in Massachusetts, Vic’s still scrubbing the toilets of Haverhill's bougie with her salty mom, her ‘rents are still practically clawing each other’s eyes out, and her mysterious bridge “teleporting” is really doing a number on her.

Vic’s dad, Chris (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Punisher) peaced out the last episode and is now canoodling with a flaky bartender named Tiffany (Jamie Neumann, The Deuce) who looks and sounds just like Vic’s mom, and, um, his wife. Chris is content to stay in boozy la la land where he stands in Tiffany’s backyard spraying her topless bewbies as she stands half naked and giggling in a kiddie pool, #class .

It’s in these moments that NOS4A2 shows us the ugliness, rawness, and the grittiness of Vic’s very real, underprivileged and unstable life. Her parents are so flawed, and the chances of Vic failing to thrive or rise above what they’ve accomplished in her own life is a very real possibility. It's a gut-wrenching portrayal rarely seen beyond indie films. Vic’s mom, Linda (Virginia Kull, Sneaky Pete) seems to have an untreated mental health condition, her dad has a history with alcoholism and addiction, and money is constantly in short supply. Yet, there’s no attempt on behalf of the writers or script to try to package these characters as likeable. That is one of the major ways NOS4A2 is kicking ass.

Unfortch’ NOS4A2’s pacing is still, well, plodding. The Graveyard of What Might Be is another episode that lays down the groundwork for the rest of the season to come without propelling the narrative forward significantly... aside from Vic meeting Maggie (more on that in a minute).   

Back in Here, Iowa Maggie, the tatted up riot grrl librarian (just look at her and tell me she’s not the poster child for creating and running a series of ‘zines, I dare you) tasks herself with getting the donut-munching police to get up off their laurels and make finding the abducted and now orphaned Danny a priority (as he freaking should be!)... and edumacating Vic about her unusual powers.

Maggie leads Vic back to her bibliophile’s fantasy of a library and gives her the scoop on all the WTFery going on in her life. Like the dilapidated fire hazard of a wooden bridge, one that was destroyed years ago, that pops out of thin air for Vic to speed through. It’s all due to one major thing which can be summed up as...

Maggie: Yer a Strong Creative, Vicky!

Vic:

Like a human glossary, Maggie explains Strong Creatives can not only conjure up inscapes (or thoughtworlds) but can also slash through the veil between reality and other dimensions or dream words with their “knife”. In Vic’s case, her inscapes can take her from one location to another, often unexpected, one in real time. Like fast-tracking her to the midwest and practically dropping her into the lap of Maggie Leigh’s part-time librarian, full-time seer in this episode.  

Maggie continues her tutorial by adding that her supernatural Scrabble tiles are her “knife.” Vic’s knife is her motorbike and Manx’s knife is his sleek, shiny child abducting deathmobile the Wraith. Actual knives are off the table (#lol).

It turns out that the disorientation-- the debilitating, buzzing headaches and the recurrent bloody trauma to her eye--that overcomes Vic after her travels is the price for using her abilities (which I predicted last week). Maggie’s, barely existent stutter is the consequence of her Scrabble tile divination. So it begs the question, that if Manx’s horrifying form is the toll it takes to maintain Christmasland and to travel through inscapes, how disturbing and demented is the vamps wicked wintery home base?

The phrase info dump is often tossed around to describe the kind of Maggie/Vic horror movie/show encounter that went down in this episode. NOS4A2 mostly dodges the over explaining but it does wrap itself in the chosen one, misfit hero, cliche and indulges in heavy-handed foreshadowing. Especially with Bing’s gas comment and when Vic sees the little girl she babysits holding a candy cane. As I predicted after the pilot, no doubt Manx is going to snatch Haley (Darby Camp, Big Little Lies) which will be the catalyst that gets Vic to reconnect with Maggie and hurl herself into Maggie’s mission impossible to find and save Danny and the other missing children.

Ashleigh Cummings phenomenal acting makes these cinema sins tolerable and has me eager to tune in to episode three. Cummings brings such heart, resiliency, and defiance, with plenty of sensitivity to Vic. She’s one of the most interesting lead characters I’m watching on tv today and one I keep rooting for.

Along with its commendable cinematography, production design, and powerful performances from all three leads NOS4A2 still shows promise. Fingers crossed that setting the stage will be largely wrapped up and not a major part of episode three. Hopefully we’ll be able to cut our teeth on a meatier, more substantial storyline. One where the star vampire isn’t just a glorified chauffeur.   

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