WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for NOS4A2 Episode 2, "The Graveyard of What Might Be," which premiered Sunday on AMC.
In its pilot episode, NOS4A2 introduced two central conceits: that the sinister Charlie Manx prowls the byways of America in his Rolls-Royce Wraith, abducting children and draining their life force en route to the fabled Christmasland; and, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, restless teen Victoria "Vic" McQueen can summon a dilapidated covered bridge out of thin air that transports her to the locations of lost things. With its second episode, the series begins to explain how the two are connected.
Of course, in doing so, the supernatural horror drama loses some of its mystery, replacing it with an offbeat mythology that adulates creative minds.
As aspiring artist Vic (Ashleigh Cummings) seeks an escape from her parents' crumbling marriage and from the working-class life laid out for her, she turns again and again to the Shorter Way Bridge, despite the physical toll using the passage exacts on her. First it delivers her to the location of her father's lost watch, and then to his girlfriend's house. Then, whether to prove something to herself or to her sort-of boyfriend Craig (Dalton Harrod), Vic uses the bridge to find the beloved stuff rabbit he lost as a child.
Her fourth journey across the Shorter Bridge takes Vic well beyond the town landfill, however, all the way to Iowa and to Maggie Smith (Jahkara J. Smith), the young medium on the trail of Charlie Manx -- or "the Wraith," as calls him -- who abducted her friend Danny in the pilot. It's Maggie who clues in Vic, and the audience, to what's going on in a clumsy, but necessary, info-dump.
The world of NOS4A2 has its own glossary of terms, with "inscapes," "strong creatives" and "knives."
As Maggie explains it, "Some people are movie stars. Some people speak a dozen foreign languages or are amazing cooks, and some people are strong creatives." Those relative few who fall into the latter category are able to bring the world created by their imagination -- or, their inscape -- into reality. Vic's inscape is the Shorter Way Bridge; Maggie's is the bag of Scrabble tiles that spell out the clues to what she seeks (no proper names, though, in keeping with the game's rules).
"Everybody has them," Maggie says, referring to inscapes, "but only strong creatives can pull them into the real world, with the help of a knife." Vic's knife is her dirt bike. "It cuts the fabric between the real world and the world of thought," Maggie continues, "and allows you to access your bridge."
Like Vic and Maggie, Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) is also a "strong creative," which chips away significantly at the facade of author Joe Hill's "Dracula of the American highways." Viewers can presume, then, that the Rolls-Royce Wraith is his knife, and Christmasland his inscape. But why does Charlie need to drain the essence from abducted children to restore his youth and vitality? Maggie provides some clues to that, too.
The gift comes at a physical cost to the strong creative. Every time Vic crosses the Shorter Way, she suffers horrible headaches, and a stabbing pain in her left eye. Maggie developed a stutter after she began using her bag. It follows, then, that by maintaining Christmasland, Charlie pays a far greater toll than a headache or a speech impediment.
Airing Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on AMC, NOS4A2 stars Zachary Quinto, Ashley Cummings, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Virginia Kull, Jahkara Smith and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.