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'NOS4A2' Season 2 Episode 5 Review: 'He's gone Mama' cries Vic as Manx wins the battle this perspective round

There were definitely tears while watching 'Bruce Wayne McQueen' and we know Vic won't rest until her son is in her arms. Neither will we
PUBLISHED JUL 20, 2020
(AMC)
(AMC)

Spoilers for 'NOS4A2' Season 2 Episode 5 'Bruce Wayne McQueen'

The midseason episode of 'NOS4A2' titled 'Bruce Wayne McQueen' was as exciting as promised with enough gore and supernatural drama to have us begging for answers. As suspected, we were left with an intense cliffhanger, as Wayne McQueen's (Jason David) life now hangs in the balance — even more than we initially thought.

The start of the episode saw the day Wayne was born though C-section and wasn't able to breathe initially before doctors saved him. The intensity of this scene matches the end of the episode as Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings) cries for her child to be brought back to her but more on this later. The episode is a perspective-oriented one where we see the same events unfold through Vic's and Wayne's perspectives as Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) and Bing Partridge (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) come to exact revenge.

Vic McQueen (AMC)

After we're shown the birth of Wayne, the episode takes us back to the ending of Episode 4 'The Lake House' where Wayne had admitted to his dad Lou Carmody (Jonathan Langdon) that not only had he been speaking to Manx in his dreams, but also had told the "psychic vampire" where the family was hiding. Lou, Vic, Wayne and Chris McQueen (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) seemed to be safe at the Lake House with FBI agents posted outside and bombs set to destroy the Wraith that may approach but now their safety is compromised for two reasons — Manx knows where they are and Vic is not home from saving Tabitha Hutter (Ashley Romans) yet. With Lou comforting Wayne, Chris insists on going out to tell the agents that their whereabouts are now known, even after Lou and Wayne beg him to stay in the house telling him that Manx was still alive. 

Meanwhile, on the edge of the entrance to the lake, the feds stop the Hourglass man as he tries to make his way to the McQueen household. Being a Strong Creative and using an hourglass that he carries, the Hourglass man was able to put both feds in a trance telling them to kill everyone except one boy at the home. "Spare the child, the boy shouldn't be touched. You have your instructions, go," he says. So, when Chris approached the officers, they undeniably started shooting at him sending Lou and Wayne into hiding in the home.

Apparently, the cops only stay in their trance till the sand in the Hourglass man's hourglass goes completely through and while Chris manages to shoot one cop, the other cop shot himself after the sand stopped dropping. In the house, a gas that smelled like cookies starts to seep in and Lou immediately realizes that Bing, the Gas Mask Man, was there and takes Wayne outside the home only to be ambushed by Bing with gas. Wayne doesn't make it far and is captured and trapped in the Wraith. We then hear mama bear Vic scream, "MANX, LET HIM GO" as she stood there with the bomb detonator in her hand.

Vic McQueen (AMC)

Vic's Perspective

As Vic made her way to the Lake House through The Shorter Way, she is welcomed by an eerie quiet and sees Bing's gas hose near the home and Lou passed out on the floor. Lou tells Vic where Bing took Wayne and now we see how she ended up on the road in front of the Wraith demanding Manx free her son. Manx follows Vic with the Wraith knocking her to the ground where she lay as he used a hammer to continually injure her.

Here she has a flashback from Episode 1 where Wayne asks his mother to take her jacket with her as she ran away because it had "armor" in it to keep her safe. Thankfully, Manx was hammering into the armor he didn't know was clothing Vic's back. After Vic plays dead for a bit with Manx' throwing insults at her, she was able to hit him with the hammer enough to keep down on the floor as she then moved to hammer into the Wraith. If she could destroy the Wraith, Manx would die. Unfortunately, she is unable to break the windows of the Wraith and save her son before Bing comes after her with a gun. After telling her son she promises to bring him home, Vic runs into the lake to dodge the erratic bullets coming her way.

Wayne's Perspective

Wayne McQueen (AMC)

The episode now switches to Wayne's perspective as he's in the Wraith when Manx starts gunning for his mother at high speed. Banging the windows, he begs Manx to not hurt his other only for Manx to order Bing to put the "child down for a nap." As Wayne sees his mother being smacked with a hammer, Bings puts on a gas mask letting the gas-air into the Wraith sending Wayne into a deep sleep. He then wakes up to his mother banging on the Wraith.

With Bing after Vic and Manx on the floor with hammer wounds, Wayne tries to make it to the front seats of the Wraith but is pushed back by what seems like a force field. The poor child tries to text his father to no avail, but Lou does find Way to the Wraith and attempts to break the windows in the front seat. As he gets some hits in, Wayne watches as Manx creeps up behind his father and continually rams Lou's head into the Wraith leaving poor Wayne still trapped in it. "Good news Wayne, your father is coming with you to Christmasland," Manx tells Wayne.

Vic's Perspective — The Lake

As Vic swims underwater dogging bullets she thinks of old times with her son before making it to a lake post and hiding. In that position, she is able to see Bing yelling at her with Manx joining in with insults. We are then shown that Lou had woken up from being gassed earlier and had seen Bing and Manx at the lake, and took that opportunity to run to Wayne (we had seen this part in Wayne's perspective). Vic then decides to swim underwater making her way under the bridge on which Bing was standing — a perfect hiding position.

Here Vic had witnessed Lou's head being banged into the Wraith as Manx yells, "It's unfortunate the kids didn't get to snack on Craig Harrison (Wayne's father) but they will feast on Lou Carmody for weeks." Screaming underwater in desperation, Vic continues to hide and then notices that her father Chris shot Bing who starts to shoot back at Chris giving Vic time to get out of the lake. Chris also tries to shoot at the Wraith but that doesn't stop Manx from riding away with Wayne in the Wraith leaving Chris, Vic and Bing behind. Bing runs away of course after he realizes his master had left him too. 

Charlie Manx (AMC)

With Wayne now in the Wraith, Vic takes her motorbike to stop him but is hit by the Hourglass man's car who just conveniently happened to be there. "Your mother can't hurt you anymore Wayne, thanks to the Hourglass man," Manx devilishly tells Vic's terrified son. As Vic wakes up in the ER with Lou and her father at a close distance, she realizes that she wasn't able to save Manx and screams to her mother, "He's gone mama" ending what we think was probably the best episode this season. 

The episode was definitely an interesting one because we are shown how deeply seeded Vic's relationship is with her son — it may have even saved her life. Our favorite would have to be how it went full circle with Vic fearing for Wayne's life and screaming for him when he was born and not breathing, to her doing the exact same at the end when she's unable to save him.

The directorial excellence in this episode is unmatched, not to mention the actors who do a phenomenal job bringing the pain of a supernatural kidnapping to life. The character arcs in this episode are also to be applauded as we see Vic work together with Lou who had gone from telling Vic to forget about Manx and focus on her family to telling her "Find him and kill him." Also, Chris McQueen looks like he finally stepped up as a father which s a wild thing considering how bad Vic's childhood was. 

There were definitely tears while watching 'Bruce Wayne McQueen' and even though the boy is on his way to Christmasland, we know Vic won't rest until her son is in her arms. Neither will we. 'NOS4A2' Season 2 episodes air on Sundays at 10 pm ET on AMC.

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