Vic McQueen

“	You know, I was so confused when my Bridge brought me to you. I burn down the house, I abandon my family, and then that Bridge brings me back to New England, of all places. Like, what the hell do I need to find there? Truth is, with you, I was a kid who had... who had dreams I was gonna be an artist. I was gonna have a family. I was gonna be a better parent than you guys were, provide a more stable home for my kid than the one I grew up in. None of that happened.	”
	— Vic to Chris

Victoria "Vic" McQueen is the main protagonist of AMC's NOS4A2. She is portrayed by Ashleigh Cummings.^[1]

Vic is a young, working-class artist whose creativity awakens a supernatural ability to track the seemingly immortal Charlie Manx. She lacks social confidence, but she makes up for it in courage, humor, and tough-as-nails grit.^[1]

Early Life[]

Vic was born and raised in Haverhill, Massachusetts by her parents Linda and Chris McQueen. During her adolescence, Vic was much closer to her dad. The two shared a love and passion for bikes. Mostly an outsider, Vic only had two notable friends growing up, Craig Harrison and Willa Brewster. However, she lost contact with the Willa after she was accepted into Exeter Academy.

Throughout the Series[]

Powers and Abilities[]

Vic's abilities first manifested during her senior year of high school. As a Strong Creative, Vic has the ability to conjure an old bridge that was torn down decades ago, known as "The Shorter Way." This is Vic's Inscape, which she can only access through her Knife, which was originally a red motorbike that she was gifted by her father as a child, that she named "Big Red." For all the power she was granted, the use of her bike did come at a cost. She would develop unbearable migraines and her left eye would bleed. Charlie Manx also warned Vic to be careful of the bats within her Bridge. Their Inscapes are manifestations of their minds, so if all the bats fly out of Vic’s Bridge, she’ll lose her mind.

During her encounter with Manx at the Sleigh House, her Knife was destroyed. He took her bike and threw it onto her bridge, causing both to disappear. Not only did this act bring Vic excruciating pain, but it would be 8 long years before she'd ever see the Shorter Way again. Upon the news of Manx's death after spending nearly a decade in a coma, Vic conjured a new knife, a Triumph, which she used to ride the Shorter Way and ensure that Manx was actually dead.

Physical Appearance[]

During the first season, Vic was an 18 year old with shoulder length brown hair and light brown eyes. She often wore graphic t-shirts and leather jackets. 8 years later, during the second season, not much has changed with the exception of a sleeve of tattoos.

Personality[]

When Vic was young, she was a withdrawn artist, friendly but reserved, under strain due to her family's troubles--an alcoholic, cheating father who beats her mom, who in turn beats Vic and wants to keep her close; all parties involved still love each other, which she can't talk about and is torn between feeling a responsibility to keep things calm and the need to escape. She had ambitions to attend art school and get out of Haverhill, but between financial obstacles and her family, she struggled with doubts as to whether she belonged in that kind of life. She feared being stuck in the patterns of what she had experienced so far, the feeling that maybe she should give up on what she wanted for herself, and that what she wanted to avoid was the only realistic path for her. Having drifted apart from friends her own age, she befriended and empathized with Haley Smith, a little girl with artistic inclinations, and Bing Partridge, a janitor with whom she traded comics.

The cracks in her life started to widen when Charlie Manx sensed her power and showed up to do something about it. He recruited Bing, and the things they did together traumatized Vic in a way that left her more isolated and alienated from her loved ones and the life she was trying to achieve. She connected with other Strong Creative like Maggie Leigh and Jolene July, but what happened to them, as well as herself, drove Vic to stop him at all costs. Reeling from this and her grief, she renewed a connection with Craig Harrison, finding solace in his unconditional support, only to have that shaken after a rape attempt from Bing and the subsequent kidnapping of Craig. Having to watch him and a kidnapped child die in the process of trying to rescue them from Manx and being pregnant with Craig's kid left her feeling unable to fulfill her ambitions of escaping into college life in favor of the obligation to save all the other abducted children.

Years later, Vic develops love for Lou Carmody, someone who, like Craig, offered her unconditional support in the face of her struggles with Manx, and her son, Wayne McQueen. But the silence which has dominated her life from childhood, along with the grief and suffering inflicted by Manx and Bing, her self-blame, and the invasion of continuing calls from the children Manx stole, whom she had been unable to find over the years, makes it difficult for her to be present with Lou and Wayne. This drives her to live as a recluse, falling mostly out of contact with her other loved ones. Her coping method of drinking, like her father before her, only makes it more difficult for her to project the strong, happy person she wants to be for Lou and Wayne. She becomes convinced that she's broken, can't be fixed, and is toxic for her family at best, dangerous at worst. Vic sees herself not as someone who went through a rough time and can have better ones, but as someone wholly disconnected from who she was and wants to be: stuck in her grief, hating herself and Manx for doing this to her, all the more because she knows how it affects her family and still can't see a way out of it, especially once she thinks Manx is dead after years of believing she needed to do more to finish the job. Her mission gone and her pain remaining, she is adrift, not knowing what to do with herself.

Her determination to stop Manx when he arrives in her life once more, however, gives her more opportunities to reconnect with the people she loves, be present with them and allow them to support her, until she can come to a place where she sees her suffering, and that of her family, can be lived with, and shared, instead of letting it isolate her, as she watches her son go through his own trauma regarding family and Manx and Christmasland.

Quotes[]

“	There's a bridge called the Shorter Way that I can build in my mind. It helps me find lost things. I thought I could help you find those children.	”
	— Vic to Tabitha

“	The truth is, Charlie Manx isn't a real man. He doesn't drive a real car or live in the real world. He lives in Christmasland. A figment of imagination. Just like my Bridge. When I felt lost, I'd imagine it and it would appear, and when I went over that Bridge, I felt different than I'd ever felt in my life, like I'd, you know, left reality behind and been transported to a world where anything you can imagine is possible. A World of Thought.	”
	— Vic to Dr. Nathaniel Janes

“	I believed I was the only one with the power to stop him. I believed I needed to find a way into Christmasland, so I could kill Charlie Manx and save them all. I wasn't going to stop until I did, no matter the cost. That was my reality. But the truth is all I've been trying to do is escape my reality. Where Haley is gone and isn't coming back. Where Maggie was run over and nearly died. Where I don't have the power to save anyone. You know, watch... watching the people I love in pain, it got to be too much, so I just... I... I created a fictional reality to escape it.	”
	— Vic to Dr. Nathaniel Janes

“	Okay, I'm a drunk, I'm a screw-up, and I know... I know I sound crazy, but I am just trying to protect my son the best I can. So, please, Dad, do you have any freakin' ANFO?	”
	— Vic to Chris

“	I tore the fabric between the Real World and... and the World of Thought. And I can do it again to find Wayne.	”
	— Vic to Linda

“	You know, I was so confused when my Bridge brought me to you. I burn down the house, I abandon my family, and then that Bridge brings me back to New England, of all places. Like, what the hell do I need to find there? Truth is, with you, I was a kid who had... who had dreams I was gonna be an artist. I was gonna have a family. I was gonna be a better parent than you guys were, provide a more stable home for my kid than the one I grew up in. None of that happened.	”
	— Vic to Chris

“	It's okay to feel that way. You know, I-I feel that way about myself all the time. That's why I... I-I chased after Charlie Manx. It's why I drank too much. It's why I ran away from you and Dad. Do you think maybe that's why you ran away, too? Why you want to go back to Christmasland?	”
	— Vic to Wayne