NOS4A2 (S02 E05) recap: The attempt to save Bruce Wayne McQueen

This week’s episode of NOS4A2 focused on Vic’s love for her son Wayne, the fury of Charlie Manx and the craziness of Bing Partridge.

NOS4A2 has brought character relationships to the forefront this season, and episode five was no exception. Throughout the episode, we see the same event from both Vic’s and Wayne’s points of view, which was something different from what we have seen so far.

We see a flashback of Bruce Wayne McQueen’s difficult cesarean birth, after which Vic lay, helplessly watching the doctors try to revive her infant, who was not breathing. Obviously, he was brought back from the brink. Then we jumped to Vic emerging from the Shorter Way Bridge and arriving at her father’s lake house.

By the time she gets there, Manx has arrived. We finally saw The Hourglass in action, as he hypnotizes two FBI agents, instructing them to kill everyone in the house except for the boy. They shoot and injure Chris, who in return kills both of them while Lou and Wayne hide inside.

Bing slips some of his gas into the house, and Wayne comments that it smells like cookies, which cues Lou in. Bing sneaks up and gasses Lou, throwing Wayne into the Wraith, and just as Manx is getting ready to whisk them off to Christmasland (which Wayne is no longer looking forward to), Vic shows up. As Wayne watches horrified from the front seat, Manx puts the pedal to the medal, hitting Vic and throwing her through the air.

As memories of her son flash through Vic’s mind, Manx proceeds to beat her with a metal hammer, repeatedly hitting her spine as we hear horrible cracking sounds. One of Vic’s visions is Wayne telling her she has armor to protect her, and we see an image of a metal plate in her back. Though clearly in pain, she repeatedly tries to get up to rescue Wayne, until her vision of him tells her to play dead.

Manx begins to scold her for being a bad mom, and tells her he is going to take good care of Wayne in Christmasland. Thankfully, Wayne is unconscious through all of this. After Manx got out of the car, Wayne began to verbally berate Bing, who suddenly turned into a petulant, nasty child, even telling the kid that he was going to take a bite out of his face and spit it at him. Then he gassed Wayne, who passed out.

As Manx turns to walk away from Vic, she gets up and manages to beat the snot out of him with his own hammer, then using the tool on the Wraith. Unfortunately, she is not the only one who has armor of sorts, because the hammer just keeps bouncing off the windows and she can’t get into the car to save her son, who is now conscious. She promises she will find him, no matter what happens.

Bing gets a gun and starts shooting at Vic, who runs straight off the dock into the lake, swimming deep underwater to escape the bullets. Lou shows up at the door of the Wraith, and manages to crack the glass on one of the windows before Manx begins to beat him and slam his head into the car. Poor Wayne has to bear witness to this brutal scene.

As Vic hides under the dock, Manx begins to taunt her, telling her she is a coward for running. Just for that, he is going to take Wayne AND Lou to Christmasland, where Lou will be a tasty snack for his children. Ashleigh Cummings is excellent in this scene, her anguish and emotional pain clearly showing, even while she is under water.

After Chris shows up and shoots at Manx and Bing, Charlie jumps in the car and takes off, with a panicky and bewildered Bing running after them. Lou still lays unconscious on the ground until Vic revives him. He tells her to go, Vic takes off after the Wraith on her bike, and ends up being hit by a car for the second time when The Hourglass shows up.

When Vic comes to in the hospital, she sees Lou and Chris being tended to, and begins to cry, knowing she failed to save Wayne. And that’s the end of NOS4A2 episode five! It was a harrowing hour that definitely left me on the edge of my seat.

NOS4A2 is really bringing us a lot of action and suspense this season, and I am looking forward to finding out what will happen next.

What did you think of episode five? Did you like the switching points of view? Let us know what you thought in the comments section.