NOS4A2 Season 1 introduced the world to the war between Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) and Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings). Manx, an energy vampire that feeds on the souls of children, took a friend of Vic’s, an ordinary teenage girl from a broken home. It was about that time that Vic found her supernatural powers in her ‘knife,’ her motorcycle. She used the knife to open a portal, an actual bridge to find anything she was looking for. With the help of her friend Maggie Leigh (Jahkara Smith), they found Manx in Season 1 of NOS4A2 and hurt him pretty bad.
Manx trapped children in his Rolls Royce Wraith after promising them lots of candy and toys in Christmasland. Manx’s daughter Millie (Mattea Conforti) lives there. As he drains their souls, he becomes more youthful. And the children become monstrous.
Manx knows Vic can hurt him. She burned him by setting his Wraith on fire last season. He’s been in a coma for the last eight years, but Manx has help to bring him back. Bing Partridge (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) wants nothing more than to go to Christmasland and will do whatever Manx tells him to do.
Eight years passed. Charlie Manx is still in a coma. The Wraith is still missing. And Vic is a mother now.
RELATED: Catch Up on NOS4A2 Season One Here!
CHRISTMASLAND
Season 2 of NOS4A2 begins with Millie Manx and the children of Christmasland playing a game of catch when the lights begin to flicker. They hear voices from the woods and investigate. There is a group of teens on the other side of the barrier that children see. The teens are led by a boy telling stories of Charlie Manx and his murderous deeds at the Sleigh House.
The teens stop when they hear a small voice talking about how much fun they look. Millie pushes her sword through the barrier and gets an idea. She sends one of the small boys through the barrier. The teens scream when they see the boy and run away, all except the leader. He stares at the boy and the boy smiles back, revealing his vampire teeth. The boy runs after the teens but disappears into thin air when he gets too far from the barrier.
Millie and the other children get scared and run back to Christmasland. As soon as they enter, the lights go out and the carnival rides stop. Millie feels something painful in her chest and falls to her knees. Something is wrong with her father.
GUNBARREL, COLORADO
Vic McQueen is using her artistic skills these days to decorate motorcycles. She lives in Gunbarrel, Colorado with Lou Carmody (Jonathan Livingston) and their son, Wayne (Jason David). They all seem very happy until Wayne asks, “Who’s Charlie Manx?” He’s watching a news report that Charlie Manx is officially dead after being in a coma for eight years. Vic starts having flashbacks of her final battle with Manx and Lou turns off the TV. Vic promises that she’s okay but goes for a drive to clear her head.
Back in Haverhill, MA, Maggie Leigh starts her day with her girlfriend, FBI agent Tabitha Hunter (Ashley Romans). Tabitha was a police detective in Season 1. Vic calls and they both know something is wrong. Vic asks Maggie to check with her tiles to make sure that Manx is dead, but Maggie doesn’t use the tiles anymore. She suggests that Vic accept that he’s dead and move one. She has an amazing boyfriend and a really cute kid.
After they hang up, Vic can’t get the images of the fire that killed her boyfriend Craig and burned Manx into a coma. She starts drinking and starts to drive, hearing voices in her head. She speeds up, hoping to open the bridge. Vic slows down when Wayne calls. Someone has a bike for Lou and they need the truck to pick it up. When Vic picks up the bike, she finds it’s exactly like her knife. As soon as she sits on the bike, lights start flickering.
THE KNIFE
Bing found the Wraith. An artist (Tim Guinee) bought it, restored it and then replaced the engine with flowers. When Bing finds the artist, he immediately offers to buy it. The artist knows exactly who the car used to belong to. It’s a feature in his upcoming show. He tells Bing that he can purchase the car at the show. They are interrupted by the artist’s son (John James Cronin), who is complaining about having to spend the night with his step-brother. The step-brother is a bully and Bing knows all about bullies. He empathizes with the kid and tells him about how mean Vic McQueen used to be. The artist gets uncomfortable, so Bing leaves.
As soon as Vic gets home, she starts working on the bike. Lou is excited that she found the same type of motorcycle to use her powers. Until she says she’s going to use it to find Charlie Manx. Vic hasn’t dealt with the trauma from her ordeal with Manx well. She drinks heavily around Christmas and is very anxious when the phone rings. Lou reminds her that Manx is dead and they need to move forward with their lives. He wants to get married. Vic takes a moment and agrees. Lou has to go to work, so Vic continues to work on the bike. She promises to pick up Wayne from school as Lou tries to come up with a team name for the couple.
In Haverhill, Maggie reads about Manx’s death and decides to make sure he’s dead. First she calls 911 to report a librarian is hurt in the basement of the library. She digs into the bag and the lights flicker. Maggie asks if the Wraith is dead. She pulls out three tiles: YES. Maggie sighs, but then falls to the floor. The tiles make Maggie have seizures.
TEAM MCCARMODY
Vic is in the middle of work when she hears Christmas music. She stops and the phone starts ringing. Vic goes to pick it up, but it’s covered in ice. Lou and Wayne show up. Vic forgot to pick him up. She apologizes and Wayne is okay. He’s more concerned if she will be at his basketball game that weekend. He leaves to shoot around and Lou stays to talk to Vic.
Lou is hurt. He knows she’s preoccupied about the bike. He doesn’t know what she’s looking for, but he hoped he and Wayne would be enough. That makes Vic feel really guilty. So guilty, the next morning she promises to focus only on them. She says they are more than she deserves. They come up with a team name, Team McCarmody. The lovey-dovey mood is cut short when the phone rings and Lou has to go to work. Vic decides to play hookey with Wayne and they eat ice cream for breakfast. Meanwhile, Bing returns to the artist’s studio and knocks him out.
The day is a success for Vic and Wayne. While they play basketball, Wayne asks about Charlie Manx again. Vic tells him that Manx is a bad man who took children from their parents. She and Wayne have a password, 1048 Fairbanks, the code to the Batcave and he should never go with anyone that doesn’t know it. Wayne asks if Manx killed his biological father, Craig. Vic admits that Craig died in Manx’s car. She promises to never let anything like that happen to Wayne.
A CALL FROM BEYOND
A phone starts ringing and Vic asks Wayne if he hears it too. He doesn’t, so she knows it’s coming from Manx. She cuts the line to the phone in the garage and in the house. She turns on the oven and puts the house phone, her cell phone and Wayne’s cell phone inside. Wayne gets scared and runs to his room, locking the door behind him.
Vic grabs a bottle of liquor and takes a shot to calm her nerves. She hears another phone ring. She looks around and finds that it’s coming from Wayne’s room, but he locked the door. Vic bursts into the room, scaring Wayne. He has an alligator toy phone. Vic answers it and immediately tells Manx to stop calling her. But it’s not Charlie Manx, it’s Millie Manx.
Millie and Vic trade threats, telling the other to leave their families alone. Vic has the final word saying to tell Father Christma that she’s coming for him. And if Millie doesn’t stop calling, she will light her up too. Vic throws the phone in the oven, runs to the garage and rides away on her motorcycle.
She hears several voices in her head as she rides. The voices stop when she sees a bridge. She hesitates and then rides through. The words “the morgue” appear on the wall. Vic is going to find Manx’s body. She arrives in the hallway of a hospital. No one is in there, so she pushes her bike to the morgue. She opens the compartment with Manx’s name on it and it’s empty. Next she goes into the autopsy room and sees a body on the table covered with a sheet.
Vic picks up a scalpel and pulls the sheet back. Manx is on the table, but his chest is open, revealing his organs. She checks for breathing and then stabs Manx’s heart. She leaves to return home.
BAD MOTHER
When she gets home, Vic’s house is on fire. Lou and Wayne are safe, but angry. They go to a hotel for the night and Vic continually apologizes. Lou is very upset with her, but calm. He lists all of the strange behavior, saying she always has one foot out the door. He says he and Wayne can handle it. But on this night, she got drunk in front of Wayne and burned down the house.
Vic says she finally accepts that Manx is dead. She had to see it for herself. She never really got over the day that Craig died. It tore her apart in ways she can’t understand and she doesn’t think she can be put back together. Lou says she can and he will help her get the help she needs, even if he has to sell his bikes. Lou also asks her to stop drinking. She hugs him and they go to bed.
Vic gets up in the middle of the night, deciding to leave. Wayne wakes up and asks if she’s leaving because of Charlie Manx, but she admits she is leaving because of her. He reminds her to take her jacket, it’s her armor. She tells him to be good and she loves him and leaves. Vic only hears Wayne’s voice as she rides. The bridge appears and she enters. The words, “the Lake” appear on the wall.
Bing yells at the artist for taking out the engine in the Wraith. He makes the man help him as he lowers the engine back into the car. The lights flicker a bit when the engine is finally in. Charlie Manx’s heart starts beating again. The lights come back on in Christmasland.
RELATED: NOS4A2: The Battle Continues in Season 2 Spoiler Free Review
THOUGHTS
NOS4A2 Season 2 starts off kind of slow. Eight years is a long time to ignore a problem with PTSD, but I guess people do it all the time in the real world. It is frustrating to watch someone risk losing everything and everyone they love for something that will ultimately tear them apart. I’m not just talking about Vic’s obsession with Manx. Her drinking is obviously an issue as well.
It was hard to watch Maggie use her tiles and then have a seizure. As we all know, there is a price to magic. And it looks like everyone is going to have to pay on this season of NOS4A2.
NOS4A2 does a great job of reminding us how dangerous people can be. Bing Partridge looks so normal that its creepy. The next few episodes in the coming weeks will be just as slow, but will provide lots of information about Charlie Manx.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E07) I Could Not Prevent It - June 24, 2024
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E06) Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light - June 17, 2024
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E05) Don’t Be Afraid, Just Start The Tape - June 10, 2024
