NOS4A2 E10 finale: Gun Barrel will blow you away

Episode 9 of NOS4A2 was a wild ride, and episode 10 gets even wilder. When we left Vic, she had just escaped Charlie Manx’s Sleigh House, only to find that Manx and the Wraith had taken off with Craig in the trunk.

In episode 10 of NOS4A2, Vic flees the Sleigh House, and en route to the road, she sees Christmas ornaments hanging from the trees. She notices the kitten ornament that belonged to Haley right away. As she stumbles into the road, a young man named Lou Carmody pulls up on his motorcycle. As we will soon find out, there is no better ally for Vic than this guy.

Meanwhile, Craig is travelling in the trunk of the Wraith, desperately looking for a way out. There is a crowbar, but he can’t get it to open the trunk. Instead, he stabs it through the Wraith’s gas tank, puncturing it, which causes gas to leak out, and we see Charlie develop a sudden nosebleed.

Maggie has another meeting with Detective Hutter, who is starting to become a believer. She shows her the bag of Scrabble tiles, and tells her they tear the fabric between the real world and the world of thought.

Vic calls Maggie and asks her to find out where she can find the Wraith, and the tiles answer “Gun Barrel”, which, as it turns out, is the name of the town Vic is in…and it’s in Colorado. That’s a long way from Haverhill.

Vic sees the Wraith pull into the gas station, and quickly forms a plan. She asks the store owner if he has a gun, which he provides, and she tells Lou to hold it on Manx while she gets Craig out of the Wraith. It’s a good plan, but Craig can only get out of the trunk by ripping through the back seat with the crow bar, at which point Bradley starts trying to eat him.

Vic douses the Wraith in gasoline and lights it up, while Manx taunts Lou about what a loser he is. When it starts to burn (in a nice little moment, we focus on the NOS4A2 license tag surrounded by flames), Manx starts to wither away, and Vic jumps in the front seat to pull Craig up with her. Unfortunately, there is some sort of barrier that prevents it, and Craig tells her to save herself. Vic jumps out and the Wraith explodes with Craig still inside.

Hutter asks Maggie to ask the tiles where Bing is, and the answer is “House of Sleep Two.” Uh-oh. Cut to Bing shaving off his distinctive beard, he is obviously going undercover in what appears to be a second house of evil.

When Vic awakens in the hospital, Lou is there. He tells her that the Wraith is in police custody, but not completely destroyed, and Manx is handcuffed to a hospital bed and in a coma. Lou tells Vic that she is a super hero, and he would love to be her side kick. He totally believes her entire story because he reads a lot of comics. I love this guy! After he leaves, a doctor stops in to give Vic a rundown on her mostly minor injuries, and then tells her that, oh, by the way, she is pregnant. I did not see that one coming.

Vic pops into Manx’s hospital room, where he is indeed handcuffed and looking near death. She leans in and whispers to him that she is going to find Christmasland and burn it down, just like she did the Wraith.

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At Craig’s funeral, Vic asks Linda what she would have done if Chris had been killed in the war, and she had become a single mother. Linda responds that she and Vic would have had to move in with her mother. When Vic tells Chris that she is pregnant, he is not angry, but also is not bubbling over with parental concern.

Vic jumps on Chris’s bike and heads over to what used to be the Shorter Way Bridge. Of course it’s not there anymore, but Maggie soon joins her, and the two young women have a chat. Maggie is planning to help Hutter track down Bing, but she just got a blank tile when she asked about how to get to Christmasland. Vic doesn’t want to stay in Haverhill. They talk about the losses they have suffered due to Charlie and Bing, and I am again reminded how much I love these two when they share scenes together.

Six months later, Vic is in Colorado with Lou, and they are gazing at the road that leads to Charlie’s Sleigh House. She is visibly pregnant, and I’m happy to see Lou by her side.

Cut to Bing, he is doing janitorial work in a Dentist’s office, yikes. When a little girl asks the dentist for candy and is rebuffed, Bing sneaks her a candy cane.

The Wraith is being inspected and worked on by someone, and we see Manx in his hospital bed, still looking bad. When a nurse comes in to give him a blood transfusion he grabs her hand and proceeds to tell her what a horrible mother she is, and how her child would be better off without her. Oh, Charlie, you old sweet talker you!

As the end credits roll, I can finally take a breath. I have to admit, this series really pulled me in and kept me guessing, despite the fact that I have read the book several times. While I griped about the slow pace in the beginning, it sure did pick up the pace during the last four or five episodes!

I look forward to seeing what season two brings us, and to seeing this awesome cast come back and work their magic again. In the meantime, you can watch NOS4A2 commercial-free on Shudder later this month.

What say you, readers? Did you enjoy the first season of NOS4A2, and will you be tuning back in for season two? Let me know what you think in the comments section.