NOS4A2 Review: Chris McQueen (Season 2 Episode 8)
NOS4A2 Season 2 Episode 8, “Chris McQueen,” brings everything to a head to set up the end of the season.
“Chris McQueen” is a truly odd episode. It exists to bring about the season finale and to really get us to that place, but it’s also not a penultimate episode and there are still two episodes left after this that aren’t a two-parter. This would make more sense as an episode if the next one is the end but it’s really just another twist of the plot.
That’s one of the biggest problems with the show. It can never allow to much progression for the story or the characters. It’s this continuing cycle of Vic and Charlie battling each other and neither side really making any headway when it’s all said and done.
It is a constant reshuffling of the proverbial cards and that has grown tiresome. It’s not even that the antagonism between the two is the main part of the show; it’s the only part.
The title of the episode suggests that it might be about Vic’s dad, Chris, and it is, but only to a certain extent. More than anything, Chris feels like an afterthought, something added to the episode for padding, not because it’s a significant portion. Given that, it becomes a big blinking light that Chris would be killed off by the end of the episode.
It’s a slight resolution to a plot that has weighed the series down from the very start and the death of that character, especially at this stage and in this way, has absolutely no weight to it. That might be because it’s so completely telegraphed but there’s really nothing there to latch onto.
That’s a mainstay throughout this episode. There is no foothold here and certainly not one worth caring about. So much of “Chris McQueen” revolves around the interrogation of Bing and that’s not a character or dynamic that we have any emotional investment in. The show has put far too much work into making him unlikeable for us to have any interest at this point.
The same can be said for the dissolution of Maggie and Tabitha’s relationship. The main problem here is that the show would have us believe that this is a couple who have been together for many years but both just calmly walk away from each other. That doesn’t track whatsoever and indicates that the show actually didn’t care about this queer relationship very much.
This doesn’t feel like a breakup featuring actual people. It’s this sanitized, fantastical view of adults ending things, but that’s not how people are in these moments. There are more complicated, nuanced emotions that fly in times like that and Maggie especially would at least have a raised voice. There have been many good breakup scenes on television and this isn’t one.
This almost feels like a place-holder episode. It’s as if the show doesn’t want to quite get to what it has in store for the next two episodes so it’s running in place with “Chris McQueen.”
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.