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'NOS4A2' Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Manx, the 'supernatural kidnapper', sends Vic and Wayne into hiding

It was definitely crazy to see how a family that has very real problems to deal with have to focus on a supernatural entity wanting to murder the youngest of the McQueen family
PUBLISHED JUL 13, 2020
Wayne McQueen (AMC)
Wayne McQueen (AMC)

Spoilers for 'NOS4A2' Season 2 Episode 4 'The Lake House'

This episode definitely had our hearts racing considering that Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) manages to manipulate Wayne McQueen (Jason David) to give him the location at which the entire gang is hiding. 'The Lake House' immediately picks up where Episode 3 titled 'The Night Road' ended with Lou Carmody (Jonathan Langdon), Wayne, and Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings) safe at Maggie Leigh's (Jahkara Smith) and her girlfriend FBI Agent Tabitha Hutter's (Ashley Romans) home. After the police were called when Manx tried to kidnap Wayne and Bing Partridge ( Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) tried to kill Lou in Episode 3, they were only told of Bing, of course, considering Manx is a supernatural being. 'The Lake House' doesn't waste time in showing how easy it is for Manx to grab hold of Wayne's mind. 

Wayne, yet again, hears the 'Silent Night' Christmas carol as he is drawn towards the living room window in his sleep. He sees the creepy children of Christmasland singing carols asking him to come to play with them. Vic goes to Wayne as he opens the front door to Manx, who only he can see. Vic continues to try to wake him up and was able to do so after a while and during this time he was stuck in an intense trance with Manx asking him for a favor.  Vic is worried because Wayne has never sleepwalked before but she, like everyone, is unaware that Wayne is speaking to Manx. Vic and Lou decide to take Wayne to Chris McQueen (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) Lakehouse to hide from Manx along with the FBI agents provided by Tabitha. Lou tells Vic that Wayne is probably reacting this way because the family is on the run from a "supernatural kidnapper." While Maggie decides to go with the gang because she can help them with their scrabble tiles that can tell her if the Manx's Wraith is coming, Tabitha is not too keen on having Vic back in their lives. In her defense, this was really dangerous game to be part of, again. 

The Children of Christmasland (AMC)

Chris meets Lou and his grandson for the first time as the gang makes it to the lake house, but Wayne seems to be caught up in other things. When he touches the candy cane, he is able to see Christmas ornaments on ordinary trees that appear and then disappear. He reveals nothing of these happenings to either of his parents. Since the season started Vic had been a drunk and a bit stir crazy and we saw her leave her man and son behind in Episode 1 only to return when she found out that they were in danger back in Colorado (Episode 3) when Bing and Manx had paid her family a visit. She's not the 'mother of the year' and Lou calls her out on it expressing that he wants to officially adopt Wayne. This way, should anything happen to Vic on one of her "suicide mission," he wouldn't lose Wayne. "I can't lose my son," he tells Vic with probably the most intensity we've seen out of him all season. The power struggle between Lou and Vic brings a great dynamic to the series as they try to raise Wayne under supernatural circumstances as they deal with very real relationships and addiction issues. Lou threatening Vic with a breakup if she doesn't figure her stuff out for the sake of Wayne is a huge father moment we see. Even Vic knows it, because she replied, "He needs his mother too."

Wayne continues to have instances of sleepwalking and on one night as Chris, Lou and Vic bury bombs in front of the house to detonate should the Wraith approach, they see Wayne walking towards the water on the Lake's bridge. Wayne seems to oddly be part of two worlds - his dream and reality. In his dreams, he's speaking to Manx walking on the bridge while in reality, Vic is trying to walk him back to the house. Of course, the dream is real because Manx is speaking to Wayne through that portal.  "I'm tired of hiding, I'm tired of my parents being messed up and weird," Wayne tells Manx who asks Wayne to tell him where he is so he can pick him up. Vic hears Wayne say "we're at grandpas house" as Wayne tells Manx the exact location. Once Wayne starts to hum 'Silent Night' and Vic finds the candy cane in his hands, she had the inclination that Manx is in on this somehow. With Manx now aware of Wayne's hiding spot, he tells his faithful disciple, "Get the gas Bing, it's time to load up the Wraith." 

Wayne McQueen (AMC)

In bed, Wayne admits to Vic that Manx had given him the candy cane which scared Vic into getting angry telling Wayne he should not take anything from Manx because he' a "bad scary man." Wayne replies, "No, you are. you lie, you disappear and you make dad sad. You suck. I want a regular mom with a regular home." While that was devastating to Vic, she admits to Wayne that she's been a "crappy mom" and that she'll try her best to give him a regular home but it will take time. This is the first in a while that we see Wayne bond a bit with his usual runaway mother. 

Meanwhile, Tabitha tries to hunt her lead on Bing down, and with the man using Ethan Anderson as an alias Tabitha was able to track down a place where the serial killer worked as a janitor. Once there, it was discovered that dangerous gases from the place had been missing - Bing had stolen them. The investigation revealed that Bing is most likely living in an abandoned church and the episode shows us Tabitha outside of the location waiting on to see Bing. After seeing Bing, Tabitha calls for local backup at 14 Evergreen road but ends up going in by herself making sure to have her gun out and mouth and nose covered. In the quiet home, Tabitha finds nothing but Christmas paraphernalia dedicated to Manx as she struggles to find Bing.

Vic McQueen

Maggie who has been unable to contact Tabitha decides to ask her tiles if her girlfriend is safe and the tiles read 'House of Sleep.' After Maggie recovers from her seizure that she gets every time she consults her tiles, she reveals to Lou and Vic that she and Tabitha had tried to find the 'House of Sleep' for years but couldn't. Vic says she can because she's able to find lost things using The Shorter Way and Maggie and Vic make their way to save Tabitha. In the 'House of Sleep,' Bing sneaks up on Tabitha hurting her but she manages to make sure Bing is hurt enough that he can't stand up. While she tries to handcuff him, she's greeted with a cold metal hit from Manx that looks to have broken her shoulder. "So unfortunately I have to kill you here because my children do enjoy eating pig for dinner," Manx tells the FBI agent. At that moment, Tabitha pulls out her gun and shoots Manx. While Tabitha makes it out of the home, the Wraith engine starts, awakening Manx who pulls the bullet out of his head. Maggie and Vic make it to Tabitha as Vic gets a call from Lou who tells her that Wayne had admitted to doing a "bad thing." "Wayne's been talking to Manx. He's been visiting Wayne in his dreams. He knows where we are Vic, Wayne told him," Lou tells Vic who's already on her way to rescue her son. 

There were a lot of bonding scenes in this episode, calming the drama a bit - we saw Maggie and Vic speak of how their powers have gotten in the way with Maggie reassuring Vic that it doesn't have to, we see Chris tell his daughter to not be like him, and either let Lou go or fight for him and we see Vic and Lou speak of moving forward in their relationship as Vic promises to curb her alcohol addiction for good. It was definitely crazy to see how a family that has very real problems to deal with focus on a supernatural entity wanting to murder the youngest of the McQueen family.

'NOS4A2' Season 2 episodes air Sundays at 10 pm ET on AMC. 

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