NOS4A2 Episode 6: The Dark Tunnels
This week, we start again by going back in time to Saugus, Massachusetts. It is 1954 where we’re introduced to a younger Jo, who is working at Adventure Car Hop when a familiar Wraith pulls up and beeps its horn. Roller skating to where Charlie waits, it’s clear the two of them are in some sort of relationship.
It’s a different Charlie than we are used to. He starts out sweet, declaring his love for her and asking for Jo to come with him. They’re definitely in a relationship. He repeats she just has to say yes. Jo asks about the children and why she has never seen them. He has an answer, but she admits she’s been following him. That she can’t go with him because then she would really know what he is up to. So, like Vic, he’s trying to convince her to come be with him… perhaps be the mother to the kids?
It’s incredible how fast his demeanor changes, how we see a more familiar Charlie in just seconds. He locks the car door but does eventually let her out. Sometime later, when it’s dark we see Jo leaving for the night. She’s alone in the parking lot when headlights pop on and the Wraith begins to chase her, Charlie behind the wheel. Jo takes off in her skates, the static of the car growing louder while both their paces pick up. Just before he catches her, she disappears into thin air, and Charlie crashes into her car.
Present Day
At the mental health hospital, Vic is questioned by various doctors. They ask her about her eye and mental state, to which Vic answers, albeit a bit begrudgingly. She tells the psychiatrist that she has things to do and is ready to leave. He disagrees and asks her about Charlie Manx, says that when people are under stress sometimes they create situations to deal with them.
Vic grows frustrated, getting up and trying to leave. The doctor tells her that he can extend her voluntary stay for up to 90 days, it was part of her terms when she signed the paperwork. She grows more agitated as she eludes she didn’t want to sign it, but then when he questions if Chris forced her to, she tells him she is 18 and that it was her decision.
Why are psychiatrists always so annoying in shows? This one is definitely stereotypical, sit on a couch and tell me your life kind of doctor. Vic obviously isn’t going to open up to him.
Strong Creative Meets Strong Creative
After the doctor tells her they’re done for the day, Vic heads out to the hallway and right to Jo’s room. Whether she went there by instinct or by choice, it isn’t clear. A nurse is adjusting the woman as static plays on the radio that he can’t seem to fix. He then tells her that she hit the roommate jackpot, as Jo hasn’t said a word in ages. So, they’re roommates. Well, that’s just perfect.
The static on the radio switches to the music in the opening sequence and Jo beckons her closer. Vic gets to her ear and Jo whispers, “Charlie Manx”, leaving a look of shock on our young heroine’s face.
A Possible Solution
She asks if Maggie came to see her, then if she is a strong creative. While Jo doesn’t speak anymore, she squeezes Vic’s hand for answers, and when she asks her about Christmasland, seems equally horrified. A nurse bringing medication stops the conversation. Much to Vic’s surprise, they have medication for her. Lorazepam and Imitrex, one to relax her and one for her headaches.
She doesn’t want to take it, but the nurse says failure to comply will extend her stay at the hospital.
It is Jo who will not take her medication now, and the nurse leaves the pills on the table to go find another way to give them to her. Vic rushes to throw them down the sink, but when she comes back tells the nurse that Jo took them. The nurse tells her that Jo is a paranoid schizophrenic and that without her medication, they would know soon.
Interesting… is she really mentally ill or is that just what others believe because of her powers? I’m willing to bet without the medication we see a Jo that is capable of more than just whispering and frail movement.
The Next Morning
Vic is back in the room with the doctor, and he tells her that Maggie pulled through the surgery and will make a full recovery, so she has nowhere to be or anyone to worry about. He then begins to ask her about art school and why it is so important to her after he shows her a picture she drew on his tablet of Charlie Manx.
This leads to a conversation about her parents and if it ever got violent in her home. She believes that art school is her ticket out of repeating their lives. She admits that her parents fought and that it got physical, though she blames both of them. The doctor tells her that victims of violence sometimes also victimize their own children.
Vic tells him that her father never hit her, and only hit her mother after a bender. The doctor asks her if she believes alcohol use excuses abuse. We see Vic uncomfortable after this question as if she never thought of it that way.
Later, Vic’s mother brings her some things and she asks where her father is. She tells her that only Tiffany was there, and Chris wasn’t around. Vic asks where he would be, and her mother suggests a bar. Vic asks if that is his excuse like the doctor said to her earlier. Her mother tells her she never needs one to come home.
Escape to the Dark Tunnels
In her room, Jo is telling Vic she’s going to be late. She tells her to grab her skates and they can go. Vic gets her into a wheelchair and asks how fast they need to go. She tells her fast and the two take off down the hospital hallway as the lights start to flicker. Within seconds, much like when Manx was chasing her in the beginning of the episode, they disappear.
They end up in the Dark Tunnels, where Jo shows Vic a wall of missing children that seems to go on for ages. She tells her that she’s been tracking Charlie since the 50s and that none of these children have been seen since. That is absolute insanity to think that he has gotten away with it for that long and no one has noticed except for a select few.
We also learn in this scene that your knife can change. Roller skates used to be Jo’s, but when Charlie stole them, she had to use the wheelchair. Jo admits that no other strong creative has ever seen Christmasland other than Manx.
Vic asks Jo what her magic trick is and replies, “Up for a ride?”
Up for a Ride
Vic takes Jo’s hand and their eyes turn static white before they both collapse, and they seemingly jump into the same static their eyes turned to. Unfortunately, this noise also starts to play in the Wraith, where we see Charlie sleeping near a barn. The music that is attached to Jo starts to play and wakes him up.
Quick shots of Jo seem to tease Charlie as she continues to mess with his radio, car horn, and windshield wipers. The music taunts him and we see a flash of Vic watching, too. Exhaust of some sort begins to fill the barn where he was resting, making it hard for him to breathe, but the door is locked. Is this the end of Manx? Is this why he wanted Jo locked up?
It would seem she has the power to make his life hell.
He escapes the car with seconds to spare and crashes out of the barn… but the damage is done? Charlie begins to age rapidly in front of Vic, losing his hair and his skin wrinkling. He continues to breathe heavily as he splashes water from a hose on the Wraith. He tells Jo that he knows she is there and calls her a dirty little whore, but it is Vic who is standing in front of him.
The Aftermath
The two strong creatives collapse back in the tunnels where Vic admits she feels fantastic after watching him age. Jo admits that she destroyed his engine, but it was the best she could do. What does Vic need to do to stop Charlie Manx? Destroy the car entirely.
Vic wants her help, but she tells her that her fight is long over. She is tired, but she knows that Vic can stop him. After all, Charlie visited her to see if she knew who had “the Shorter Way”. Jo says he fears her.
Jo tells her that she isn’t coming back, but Vic needs to tell the doctors what they need to hear so she can escape. She also explains that she once loved Charlie, but he paid the deepest price as a strong creative, he gave his soul. She hoped one day he would be the father to her kids, but now she wants him dead. It is up to Vic.
She tells her that it is up to Vic to stop the cycle, then she dies.
Free to Go
Vic does what Jo tells her and explains that Charlie Manx was a part of her imagination created to deal with the stress of her life and having no control over saving people who were hurting in it. The doctor tells her that he will release her on two conditions: she has to fill a prescription for lorazepam and change her living arrangements.
When Vic protests, he tells her that her emotional health is just as important as her physical health and that she cannot save her father, either.
Vic says she has somewhere to go, and we see her meet up with Maggie who is also being released. But, much to Vic’s surprise, Maggie is done. She doesn’t think they can beat Manx and wants to give up. She says she saw Daniel when she was out and that he was not the same child. Despite Vic’s begging, Maggie says she’s going home. We see her get onto a bus, but before that tosses her tiles into the garbage.
Vic heads home with her mother and stands over the sink, holding two capsules. It seems she contemplates taking them but then dumps the bottle down the sink. She isn’t ready to stop chasing Charlie Manx, clearly.
Thoughts
This was an awesome episode, the best of the season actually. Besides some kick ass special effects, it was packed full of information and basically nonstop! We learned a bit about how strong creatives work and how everything isn’t as rigid as it seems. We also see two powerful women teaming up to kick Manx’s ass, even if it’s temporary. I love that Vic is now on board.
It also gave us a little background on Manx, and I hope we get more of that in the next few. It would seem he wasn’t always the person he is today. But, It also shows us that he can be killed, too. Taking away the knife is the key.
Will Maggie change her mind? I hope so; she is a powerful asset to Vic and I truly think they can do more together. With only a few episodes left of the first season, will the demise of Charlie Manx happen, or will our young strong creative fail?
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