Hayley’s Transformation
After last week’s cliffhanger ending, NOS4A2 begins with a brief flashback of Bing as a child. We see him with a gas mask on and eventually he snaps, killing his Father by shooting him in the head. We then cut back to present day and, still reeling over the kidnapping, Vic snaps and travels in the tunnel again. This time she ends up at Bing’s house. After a casual conversation outside, Vic refuses to believe that Bing is really the wraith and heads back through the tunnel. Exhausted, she lies down on her bed and falls asleep. Bing, meanwhile, has Hayley’s mum locked up while Hayley herself wakes up in Charlie Manx’s car. She’s being taken to Christmas Land but he wants to know whose been using the tunnel first. She doesn’t tell him everything but does let slip that it’s a girl that’s been using it. As she reaches in her mouth, it turns out her teeth are starting to come out, just like with Danny from before. As Hayley begins to slowly age, Manx becomes younger. Vic decides to pay Bing a visit again after a conversation with Maggie. He acts shifty which prompts her to hastily look around his house while he’s distracted and try to figure out what’s happened to Hayley. She heads down to the basement but fails to find anything. However, Bing arrives at the doorway and threatens her. The jig is up. Manx then phones Bing before he can do anything drastic, prompting him to hand the phone over where he requests to see her in person. Manx stops to pick up some goods from a gas station while Hayley grabs a woman and drags her into the car, prompting her to gouge on the woman’s flesh while blood spatters up the windows. Having grown menacing, sharp teeth, her descent into animalistic tendencies appear to match that of Danny from before. Unable to deal with Bing as a killer, Vic escapes and drives through the tunnel again to the other side, finding Hayley’s mum dead in the woods. Vic tries to hide her grief from her parents latyer that night while her Dad tells her she’s safe. The episode then ends with Hayley arriving at Christmas Land. The gates open and Danny greets her with a present – a pair of scissors. As she heads inside, Manx grins maniacally. Nos4a2 delivers a really good episode this week, one where we see more about Bing and understand his mental instabiltiy with a very welcome flashback sequence. With Vic now driven by purpose, the hunt appears to be on and given the ending we receive here with Christmas Land, I genuinely have no idea what direction this show will go next. While I’m not a massive fan of Zachary Quinto’s old-man persona, it’s believable enough to keep you invested in the story, which is really the highlight of the show so far. With the halfway point fast approaching, Nos4a2 looks set to kick things into high gear and deliver a dramatic finish to this adapted novel. Whether it’ll end with a festive roar remains to be seen but for now, all the pieces are here to certainly make good on that promise.
