‘NOS4A2’: S02.E06. “The Hourglass”
By: Shain E. Thomas
Tags: Nos4a2, Television, Horror, BBC, Amc

The latest episode, opening with a deadly dark sequence, opens with Jonathan ‘The Hourglass’ Beckett (Paul Schneider) manipulating Doctor Gregory (Norm Lewis) into attempting to kill Victoria ‘Vic’ McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings).

The doctor, like the two FBI agents in the previous episode, killed himself shortly after doing what he was ordered to do. It doesn’t take long for Maggie ‘Mags’ Leigh (Jahkara Smith) to figure out there is a dark creative working with Charles ‘Charlie’ Manx (Zachary Quinto).

FBI Special Agent Tabitha ‘Tab’ Hutter (Ashley Romans) isn’t allowed to return to work because she didn’t wait for backup to arrive at the church before entering the building. FBI Special Agent Chitra Surinam (Sweta Keswani), concerned about Tab, is concerned the agent is placing herself in unnecessary danger.

Later, in a conversation with FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Daltry (Murphy Guyer), Tab tries to explain her actions. The conversation doesn’t go well. Tab is officially removed from the case. She has no choice but to hand in her badge and gun.

Image Credit: IMDb.com

Mags, in a bar, goes looking for the dark creative and soon finds him. Beckett amusingly quotes the film Casablanca. Creatives, as Beckett correctly observes, are hard to love. Beckett shows Mags his hourglass. It is this hourglass that Beckett uses to control people and have them. Beckett uses his hourglass to get the bartender (Jaison Hunter) to give him the best bottle of bourbon in the bar on the house.

Mags learns from Beckett that, when he uses the hourglass, he must take lives in order for him to keep his memories in tact. We saw Beckett have the FBI agents in the previous episode kill themselves.

In this episode, noting how the doctor killed himself, he did the same again. With him having allowed the bartender to remain alive, despite him gaining an expensive bottle of bourbon, Beckett lost memories. This is the toll the hourglass has on Beckett when he doesn’t take a life.

Beckett wants to know if he’s achieve immortality. Not getting the answer he wants, realising he can force Mags to use her tiles again, Beckett looks for his hourglass. He soon comes to understand Mags is there is steal his hourglass. Their confrontation leads to Beckett pushing Mags into a mirror.

Shards of broken mirror go almost everywhere. Reaching for one of the shards, struggling with Beckett, Mags stabs him. Mags, wasting no time, smashes the hourglass under her foot. Noting how this action is for Vic, with a modicum of satisfaction, Mags leaves him dying on the floor.

Linda McQueen (Virginia Kull) doesn’t want to believe that her daughter, Vic, could possibly have magical powers. Even though Chris McQueen (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Lou Carmody (Jonathan Langdon) believes in her abilities, noting Linda’s reaction, it takes significant time for her to understand what is truly happening.

Later, at home, Linda admits she never really understood Vic. She never felt her daughter needed her. Linda, needing to know how the gift works, doesn’t get a direct answer because Vic doesn’t understand it herself.

Vic worries that, when they find Wayne, he might not be the same as they remember him. She doesn’t want her son transforming in the same way Charlie’s previous victims have done.

Wayne McQueen (Jason David), being held captive in the back of Charlie’s Rolls-Royce Wrath, sees his father Craig (Dalton Harrod). Craig, having burned to death in the first season finale, is ghost Charlie doesn’t see. Wanye’s biological connection to Craig could be the reason he sees him.

The next time we see Wayne, with Charlie having apparently stopped for a pit-stop, a modicum of blood can be seen on his lips. Wayne spits from his mouth a tooth. In previous episodes, recalling what happened in the first season, we saw similar soul and body degradation occur with other children.

The car allows a butterfly to enter the passenger compartment. After naming the butterfly Sunny, noting a quick change of facial expression, Wayne rips it apart. The very thing Vic doesn’t want happening with her son has begun.

Bing Partridge (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) doing something no one could have possibly seen coming uses his Sevoflurane on Charlie. There is a good chance Bing has grown tied of waiting for his trip to Christmasland.

Craig, as Bing drags Charlie’s body away into the distance, appears to Wayne and tells him to call his mother. Wayne manages to tell his mother the vehicle is located on a junkyard. He also makes a reference to having killed a butterfly. This is where the episode leaves the story.

Previously …