NOS4A2 (S02 E10) recap: Bats on the Shorter Way Bridge

The second-season finale of NOS4A2 was titled Bats, and it left more questions than answers. Still, it was satisfying in several ways.

NOS4A2 gave us the joy of finally watching Christmasland burn, but Wayne is still a little conflicted about leaving. He snarls at Maggie, who is distraught because her Scrabble tiles are missing. Vic and Wayne tear through the Shorter Way Bridge, taking notice of the thousands of bats milling around. This was a nice homage to Batman, Wayne’s namesake.

Vic drops off Wayne with Lou and Tabitha, and the kid is still all snarly, so Tabitha actually has to handcuff him. As Vic arrives back at Christmasland to pick up the injured Maggie, we see Manx in the Wraith at the gates to Christmasland. His trusty radio cues him in that Vic is in the area, and he follows the two into the bridge.

Back in the real world, Lou, Tabitha and Wayne can hear the sounds of Christmasland falling apart. Wayne pulls away and finds his ornament (which is a bat, naturally), and Tabitha starts to put some puzzle pieces together. The children’s souls are trapped in their ornaments, and Maggie’s tiles had spelled out “WHEN SOULS FALL.” She stomps Wayne’s bat, and he starts holding his stomach and vomiting blood. Tabitha starts pulling ornaments out of the trees and crushing them.

Halfway through the bridge with Manx on their tail, Vic stops the bike. She says if they leave the bridge, Manx will follow them. She turns the bike around to face the Wraith, and the bats start flying at Manx. Suddenly, the car breaks through the rotting floor of the bridge, and plunges down with Manx behind the wheel. Vic and Maggie make their way through the bridge.

Both girls are injured, but Wayne runs to Vic as Tabitha calls for an ambulance. She then has to request Social Services as several of the Christmasland kids walk out of the woods, asking for Father Christmas. We then see Millie standing out of sight, holding an ornament with an angry look on her face. Guess she decided the real world doesn’t sound so great after all.

The NOS4A2 timeline jumps forward a month, and we see Vic, Lou and Wayne joking around at the dinner table. Something is still not right with Wayne, however, as he has been refusing to eat anything resembling a healthy meal. Later that night, Vic sketches a hero robot to protect her son, shortly before finding him standing on the kitchen counter eating sugar directly from the bag.

While brushing his teeth, Wayne starts to spit blood, but Vic remains calm and tucks him into bed. He is worried, and wants to know if he is going to be ok. When Charlie Manx hurt Vic, did she get better? She says yes, but looks concerned.

Later, Wayne sneaks out, riding his bike to the forest, where he finds Millie eating a dead animal. He tells her he wants to go back to Christmasland, he wasn’t there long enough. Millie says she hasn’t found a way back in. Christmasland was wonderful, she was boss of all the kids and got to eat candy all the time. She looks at Wayne accusingly, “Your mother killed my father.” She says this world is lonesome.