Spoilers

“Norma Louise”

“The Last Supper”

This was two really great episodes in a row.

So much happened after Norma stormed out of her house with a suitcase and a gun. Thankfully, the only person or thing that she shot was her cell phone.

She bought new clothes, she bought a new car and she had sex with her therapist. Spiraling.

It is always scary how she then turns on a dime, returns to her life and pushes everything down back inside.

We get a lot of development of Alex Romero too as he runs the gamut from finding out about his father using Alex’s dead mother’s name in a drug deal to being shot and then to kill the guy who was running against him for sheriff. I did not remember how much of a bad ass Romero was in my first watch of this show, but he straight up murdered fools during Bates Motel.

I have never seen such a “happy” family dinner, where nothing negative happened, that was as full of tension as this dinner was with Norma, Alex, Norman, Emma, Dylan and Caleb. I sat watching this just waiting for something to happen. It was a lovely moment, but the anxiety it built was off the charts. It was a great scene.

The scene with Norma and Caleb at the farm was so powerful. Norma coming back from her night out and dominating Norman and Dylan, demanding that they all head out to the farm to talk to Caleb. She was not taking any opposition from her kids and their shocked faces as they followed along was great.

It was also funny every time someone saw Norma’s new car. She definitely had buyer’s remorse over the car though.

Dylan is also one of the best characters on this show and he has turned his attention to Emma’s illness and trying to get her the lung transplant that she desperately needed. It is weird how Emma and Norman, who were dating, kind of stopped just out of the blue.

I believe season three has three more to go.

Spoilers

“The Deal”

Vera Farmiga is a fantastic actor and she endues Norma Bates with the ferocity of a force of nature. That was on display in a scene with Romero as she confessed to him about the flash drive she had been given by Annika. She was also stone cold with her bargaining with the criminal Bob Paris.

And to say that she did not react well to the news from Dylan that Caleb had been staying up at his farm would be a drastic understatement.

As Dylan and Norman were telling Norma about Caleb’s presence, I was really hoping that Norma would take the news well.

Of course, I knew that was not going to happen.

Norma Bates is anything but rational when she is upset. The ending of the episode, with Norma packing her bags, grabbing the gun and leaving in her car was powerful and scary.

At lest she did not seem to strike out to Dylan, whose whole thing has been trying to find the family that he had been desperate to have, and who had been making so much progress with Norma. Her anger seemed directed more at Caleb and the memory than at Dylan.

I do not remember what happened as the result of this, but things certainly do not look to be going well.

Spoilers

“Persuasion”

“Unbreak-Able”

Catching up with a couple of episodes of Bates Motel. Lots of drama in these two episodes as the storylines of season three started to take off.

Annika showed up alive, for at least a few moments and gave Norma a hard drive protected by a password before she died from a gunshot wound.

The body floating in the water at the end of the last episode turned out to be someone Annika knew, a friend, tied to Bob Parris. This Parris fellow seems to be the next big bad of the show.

Norman and Norma are growing apart as they simply have ceased to trust each other. Norma is just not sure what Norman is capable of doing and the idea that his mother does not trust him is driving Norman even further down the crazy train. Norman is becoming jealous of the relationship that has been developing between Norma and Dylan.

The whole Caleb secret is about to blow up in Dylan’s face as Norman discovered that Caleb is staying at Dylan’s farm and the fourth episode ended with Norman racing off to tell Mother. Dylan is just trying to figure out what to do and he is afraid that when Norma finds out the truth, everything that they had built would be ruined. Max Thierot was very solid with his performance in this episode.

Spoilers

“The Arcanum Club”

Norma seems a little more outwardly crazy these days and less inwardly crazy as she has been the entire series.

The disappearance of the woman Annika from the motel is in high gear and she is found a floating in a pond. Again, the show is trying to make it look as if Norman has struck again, but there is a big question with the Arcanum Club, a group of wealthy men who, as Romero says, does whatever they want.

I wonder if Emma, who I know does not wind up with Norman, would have been the calming, sobering factor in his life. He definitely appears to care for her, and Norma loves Emma, too. Could this character have been the hand that helped Norman from the insanity that is lurking inside his mind?

The introduction of Chick into Dylan’s story is obviously trouble coming. This did not feel like the character of Dylan. Dylan was a leader, a confident person, but he seemed to accept the secondary role to Caleb when they went to see Chick. Maybe he was just being cautious, which we know Dylan is, but he seemed to just kind of melt into the background when Chick and Caleb were facing off.

We see an awkward interaction between Norma and Romero as he was leaving the motel. I know they wind up together at a point in the series and I loved them as a couple, despite the tragic end that was coming. This early days of that relationship is nice. Norma clearly trusts him as she told Romero everything about the missing Annika, including how Norman was the last to see her. This feels like a big step for Norma, and I was pleased that Romero was there to prevent Norma from completing her plan of sneaking into the Arcanum Club party. That was a bad idea.

Norma’s crazed assault on the off-ramp sign was another piece of evidence that Norma’s life is getting to her.

The storylines are ramping back up again and we’ll have to see where it goes from here.

Spoilers

“A Death in the Family”

There is no doubt about it. Norma and Norman have a weird relationship.

Dylan called Norma out on it at the beginning of this episode, telling her that it was strange for her 18-year old son to be sleeping in the same bed as his mother. He was right, by the way. Especially cuddled up the way that Norman and Norma do.

The third season started off with a bunch of new storylines as the final episode of season two really felt like a cool conclusion.

• Norma’s brother came back to see Dylan.
• Dylan wants out of the drug business. Just growing the legal amount of pot for medicinal uses.
• Norman and Emma decide to begin dating.
• Norman is not going back to school- being homeschooled.
• A new woman comes to the motel, reveals herself to be a prostitute.
• Did Norman kill her already?
• Sheriff Romero showed off his bad-assery once again.
• Norma’s mother died off screen opening up old wounds for her.
• Emma’s lung capacity dropped dramatically.

There are some solid starts for the new season. No matter what, as long as this show featured Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, it will be great.

Spoilers

“The Immutable Truth”

What a season finale this was.

I wonder if this was meant to be potentially the end of the series, because this would have worked out for that with that final shot of Norman leading beautifully into what we know of the character.

Every storyline was to a point where it could have been wrapped up nicely. The whole Dylan/drug trade stuff came to a violent end with the death of just about everybody involved. Romero provided a story to cover the situation, leaving Dylan safe.

The Dylan/Norma drama was resolved too as Norma and Dylan had a great scene together where all of the baggage was finally put aside and Norma told Dylan how much she loved him and how sorry she was with the way she had treated him. She even proved it to him. She told Dylan that she had bought tickets to leave town to Montreal, a way to escape from Norman’s polygraph test, and that she had bought three tickets so Dylan could go too. The flash of recognition on Dylan’s face was amazing as he learned that his mother did love him. It’s all Dylan ever really wanted, despite how angry he had been.

Norman passes the polygraph because his other personality, Mother, told him that she had killed Miss Watson, making Norman able to say that he did not do it. Norman believed, so he could be truthful, in his mind.

The show did an amazing job of showing a young man who had decided to kill himself. He was very precise and started taking care of his life. He made a list of things to do and he went about it calmly. Perhaps the actual scene between Norman and Norma in the woods was more melodramatic than it should have been, but it showed prior that someone who is suicidal may not be out of control and this can give important information to anyone whose loved one might be considering such an action.

As I said, this could have easily been the end of the series. I wonder if they were unsure of a pick up and filmed this as a way to end the series if they were not renewed. There certainly is not many storylines, outside of Norman’s neuroses, remaining.

Spoilers

“Presumed Innocent”

I feel so bad for Norma Bates.

I mean, all she is trying to do is protect her son. Trying desperately to give him a chance at a normal life. She is going about it all wrong, of course, but her motivations are pure.

She does not know what her choices will lead to, and I wonder if she did know, would she do things differently?

Norman is starting to understand that his blackouts are a problem and that something happens to him during those times. The confrontation between him and Norma over the blackouts this episode was tense and spoke more to Norman than anything else.

More trouble is coming for Norman too as they identified his DNA in the semen found in Miss Watson on the night of her murder.

Dylan is in lots of trouble too as he is stuck in the war between rival weed dealers. Again, Dylan is just trying to get by and make things the best he can, but wild factors just keep popping up. Actually, Norma and Dylan are a lot more alike than either of them would care to admit.

Spoilers

“Caleb”

And with that, we understand why Norma has always had a bad relationship with Dylan despite him being her first born son.

The end of this episode dropped a major bomb as Norma revealed to Norman and Dylan, who were in the middle of a physical fight (that Norman was totally kicking his butt, by the way), that Caleb, her brother, was Dylan’s father.

Dylan had met with Caleb and befriended him and Caleb gave him a story about his own father, acting like that was why Norma had such a problem with him. When Dylan went to bat for him with Norma, she told him that Caleb had raped her for years, but Dylan did not believe it. This is what led to Norman and Dylan’s fight and Norma’s confession.

The rest of the episode had some building blocks for upcoming stories, but this was the biggest fire of the episode.

Clearly, Dylan is a memory of the rapes for Norma, which is the reason why she had treated him so differently than she treated Norman.