NOS4A2 Episode 3 sees Manx searching Haverhill for the Strong Creative who has opened up the Shorter Way. Manx pays a visit to an old woman in the Essex County Psych Ward. Jolene and Manx had a run-in 50 years ago, when Jolene used her roller skates to travel her own inscape. Manx steps Jolene’s old skates onto her feet and he dances with her in the hospital room. He is equal parts disappointed and relieved to find that Jolene couldn’t possibly be the one who he senses in Haverhill, the one who has the potential to ruin his plans. Manx drops Jolene to the floor, paralyzing her, just for good measure and out of spite.
The Medium and the Strong Creative
The sheriff calls Maggie and tells her to drop looking into Danny’s disappearance, that she’s the closest thing he has to a daughter and wants her to have some stability in her life. Nevertheless, the Scrabble tiles call out to Maggie — something they never do — and tell her that The Wraith is hunting The Brat. Maggie flies to Haverhill to warn Vic, but Vic wants nothing that Maggie has to say to ruin her chance at getting out of Haverhill and putting her past behind her. Vic swears to Maggie that she’s never using the bridge again.
Maggie looks into the recent power outage at the Psych Ward, trying to figure out what Manx was doing there. Posing as local library outreach, Maggie searches the rooms until she is pointed to Jolene’s room. Though Jolene is unable to respond to Maggie’s questions, Maggie pieces together Jolene’s story. Maggie tries, unsuccessfully, all day to reach Vic. When she finally gets through, Maggie misreads her tiles, telling Vic that “Wraith hunts smitten”.
The Brat
Vic is working on her application to RISD, but has trouble filling out the financial forms. She goes to her dad for his tax forms, but Chris tells Vic that he gets paid off the books. Vic tries her mother, but encounters the same. Vic’s mother again tells Vic that this is why she can’t go to college and tries to pressure Vic into helping her clean houses for extra money.
Vic goes to Willa for help. Willa’s mother said that she knows someone in registration at RISD. Willa suggest that Vic forge the financial forms. When Vic resists, Willa agrees to take Vic to RISD to talk to the person her mother knows in registration. When Willa arrives to pick up Vic, she has a couple of guys from college with her.
Drew and Vic check out RISD together. They both love what they see and he decides to apply and transfer from Cambridge. Vic meets with the registrar, who tells Vic that her best option is to report abuse in the home and have herself legally emancipated. While the registrar speaks, Vic’s eye turns bloody and she has a vision of Manx searching for her.
Back at home, Vic forges and mails the financial documents, in spite of the fact that her father could be locked up for tax evasion if discovered. Vic receives a call that Haley and her mother are missing. Vic rides out to Haley’s house and finds Mittens’s name tag in the bushes.
The Gas Mask Man
Manx drives Bing out to where the Shorter Way bridge once stood. While there, thye encounter Haley looking for her cat Mittens. Manx tries to lure Haley to the Wraith, but she’s not taking candy from a stranger. Bing grabs Haley by the arm and Manx chastises him. Never hurt a child. This is Bing’s one and only warning.
Vic stops by the school as Bing is locking up for the day. She asks if he’ll let her inside to get her portfolio out of the art room. Bing says if anyone else had asked he’d have said no, but Vic has been kind to him, bringing Bing comics. Bing tells Vic he’s nervous about a new job he’s started. He has already screwed up once but is being given a second chance. Vic tells Bing that if he doesn’t believe in his own greatness, no one else will.
Bing unlocks his father’s army footlocker and takes out a gas mask. Bing breaks into Haley’s house and gasses her mother in the shower, then gasses a sleeping Haley. Bing carries Haley out to the Wraith, where she asks Manx if he’s Father Christmas. Bing loads Haley into the car, then goes back in to deal with her mother. Mittens returns and Manx kills the cat.
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