NOS4A2 Review: Good Father (Season 2 Episode 2)
NOS4A2 Season 2 Episode 2, “Good Father,” centers the attention back on Charlie Manx and tells the story of how he came to be how he is today.
There’s a rule with flashbacks, which is that it needs to illuminate something about a character or circumstance that we didn’t know before. That’s the lowest bar that one has to clear to have any shot at being successful.
For example, there’s an episode early in Lost ‘s run entitled “Walkabout,” which is considered the height of what a flashback can do because it sheds light on a character while also telling us something about them that we didn’t know before. It doesn’t just show us something for the sake of showing us it, there is a very clear purpose to it.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for “Good Father.” It spends a good chunk of the episode presenting us with Charlie’s life prior to and during the Great Depression, along with his first use of the Wraith against his wife and his daughter. It answers that question just for the sake of answering and we don’t ultimately glean anything from it.
It is as pointless of an endeavor as it gets and leaves us largely wondering why it is so important for the audience. It doesn’t contribute anything to our understanding of Charlie Manx. He’s still exactly who we thought he was prior to this and really this is just misery porn so we can see how his monstrousness cost his wife and daughter their lives.
As for the other parts of the episode, a lot of is centered around this idea of just following Charlie in his rotted, peak vampire form and there’s not a lot there to hate. The effect of Charlie slink around hallways in his Nosferatu mode pretty much works (note: that line from his wife is just the worst) and gives the episode a much-needed horror vibe.
At the same time, the episode seems to forget what the actual rules are for Charlie’s regeneration via the Wraith and that’s less forgivable. In the past, the process of him sapping the life force from the kids using his Knife is a very gradual one but “Good Father” forgoes that for a quick and dirty dramatic reveal.
If the show wants to say there are no more rules anymore or that they don’t apply, that’s perfectly fine, but it’s clear these rules still exist. The show wants to have its cake and eat it too as far as its interior logic goes and that just doesn’t fly.
A show like this one needs rules and if it’s going to suddenly decide that they can be altered at the show’s convenience at a moment’s notice, then that severely diminishes the faith that audience can have in the writing of this series, not that we had much of that to begin with.
Another part of the episode that doesn’t work very well — or, at least, not as well as the show wants it to — is getting us to be on Bing’s side by rescuing a child from what is clearly an abusive and homophobic environment. Granted, he does still sacrifice the boy to save Charlie, but the scene allows Bing to have this righteousness that doesn’t play very well.
This might be minor but the show can’t demonstrate over and over again all of the ways that Bing is bad and then have this mildly redemptive moment for him.
What did you think of this episode of NOS4A2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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NOS4A2 airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.