NOS4A2 Review: Bats (Season 2 Episode 10)
The sophomore season of NOS4A2 comes to an anticlimactic close with Season 2 Episode 10, “Bats.”
There are generally two types of episodes, especially now where television is more of a macro entity. There are the ones that work well as installments but not as effective as a piece of the overall season and there’s the reverse where it’s good as part of the arc and not as well on an episode level.
“Bats” somehow manages to be both and neither of those categories. This is supposed to be a culmination of the grander conflict between Vic and Charlie that has lasted over twenty episodes now and you would expect a satisfying conclusion from that. After all, this has been the very thing that’s been driving the entire show.
Instead, we get an ending here that is less of an explosive climax and more of a whimper. There’s no real excitement or thrill to it; it just happens and leaves us feeling underwhelmed. There’s a kind of incredulity to it that it leaves us with. This is the payoff of a two seasons-long arc? There’s not something more there, even on a small scale?
There’s only so much we can complain, though, because this is the spot to move on from Charlie Manx. Zachary Quinto’s performance as him has been a standout of the series but the show has certainly realized by this point that they’ve taken this character as far as they reasonably can.
On a conceptual level, how the series gets rid of him makes sense, too. It’s a good move to have him be killed within The Shorter Way while he’s in his Wraith, the collision of two knives. It makes sense and we can’t fault the show for wanting to do that. The temptation would have been too great.
It’s simply missing something. A part of this might be that it would’ve played far better if it had been paired with “Welcome to Christmasland,” because those are two halves of the same episode. If that had been the case, it wouldn’t feel so strongly like Charlie’s death is too easy.
The problem is that NOS4A2 is ostensibly a horror show. Very rarely has it been that but the idea is that it’s supposed to be of that genre. The failing there then is that his death comes too simply. There’s no moment where you think you’ve killed and seen the last of him only to have him pop up one last time.
Now, the argument could be made that we had that moment at the beginning of the season but our counter is that doesn’t count because it was too long ago within the series. No, this death of the villain fails one of the fundamental tenants of the genre and that’s an unforgivable sin.
NOS4A2 has never truly cared about being a terrifying show, though. This is just a great reminder at the end of that fact.
Stray Thoughts:
- Very seriously worried about Maggie. Just go back to Tabitha.
- Millie is a weirdly inconsistent character and it’s not totally clear what she expected out of all of this.
- Half expected the Wraith to break the car smasher. That’s how that works, right?
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.