Category Archives: Prime

Bates Motel S4 E9, E10

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Forever”

“Norman”

In my mind, I thought I remembered that the whole gas thing was an accident. I misremembered that because, seeing episode nine again, it was painfully clear that Norman had intended for them both to have died in that room. Had it not been for Romero, they both would be dead.

I will forever remember Alex desperately trying to give Norma CPR and holding her corpse, sobbing uncontrollably. It was a horrific punctuation to this relationship that, in very short order, became one of my favorite relationships in the history of TV.

Norman really goes crazy in the season finale as he kept waiting for Norma to tell him the plan and eventually digs her up out of her grave. We know that Norman from Psycho did dig up his mother’s corpse, although it sounded as if his relationship with his mother was considerably different than the TV show. In Psycho II, Norman says he poisoned his mother when he was young. I know that Bates Motel Norman may not be exactly the same version of Norman Bates from Psycho. Perhaps he is a multiversal variant.

The cruelty of Norman not telling Dylan about his mother was unbelievable. Yes, there were some strange coincidences with Dylan, so he remains unaware of the death. They felt a little too on the nose, but I know it works for the story.

When Norman glued Norma’s eyes open… I mean… how creepy was that. Was that Vera Farmiga being the dead body because, if so, she was brilliant.

When I originally watched this show, I really thought that these episodes ended the series, but there is a whole fifth season to go. This felt like a good wrap up for the series, at least for Norman and Norma, but there are 10 more episodes to go. The side characters all need more of a wrap up, but I could see this having been the end of Bates Motel.

Not sure I liked the Christmas lights popping on at the end of the episode though.

Bates Motel S4 E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Unfaithful”

Norman’s presence back home causes strife for Norma, who is scared to tell him about Romero.

Norman is trying to establish his own place by going to see Romero and telling him that he can start divorce proceedings. Romero was not happy about it, and he told Norma that she was going to have to take care of it. Norma said that she was not giving him up.

When the secret came out (sort of, though. Norma told Norman that she ‘liked’ Alex), Norman did not take it well. He has so much jealousy directed toward them that you can see his anger was clearly coming through.

The dinner with Norma, Alex and Norman was remarkably tense. The blow up between Norman and Norma was rough to watch.

All it did was reaffirm how much I love the relationship between Romero and Norma. He was in such control during Norman’s rampage and all he thought of was Norma’s safety.

They also teased what’s coming up. A little foreshadowing with the heater repair guy.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E18

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Downloaded”

This episode showed us what it was like for the Cylon resurrection. We saw the rebirth of Six after the initial attack on Caprica and the rebirth of Sharon after she was shot aboard Galactica. Both were very traumatic for the Cylons.

Sharon had her baby on Galactica and President Roslin decided that the baby girl could not be raised by a Cylon and so she had the doctor pretend that the baby died, and she had the baby given to another person, secretly. This felt like a cruel decision from Roslin because the show has done such a good job of redeeming Sharon from the early days of her betrayal.

However, Sharon had serious reaction to the baby’s supposed death as she believed that they had killed the baby. She had no idea about the truth of the situation.

We also got some connection between Six and Sharon on Caprica. Funnily, the Six that was reborn after the initial explosion was also seeing Gaius Baltar in her head just like he was seeing Six in his aboard Galactica. That was not what I was expecting and it changed my POV of that character as well. Six and Sharon both admitted to their love for human men and have decided to try and make it better. Not sure how that is going to come about or how the news of the baby’s ‘death’ will change that perspective.

It had been a long time since I saw the last episode of Battlestar Galactica, so it was awesome coming back to the series.

Bates Motel S4 E7

Posted on by

Spoilers

“There’s No Place Like Home”

Norman discovers the truth about Norma and Alex’s wedding and that inspires the jealous little jerk to insist on checking himself out of the mental hospital.

I call him a little jerk because I so love Norma and Alex together and I know that this is the beginning of the end for them.

Norman finds the picture of Alex and Norma together while he was doing his paper mache dog and it started him into his manipulative state.

Dr. Edwards was not a fan of the idea, but Norman is able to convince him. I think it was as much Norma’s fault because she has done so much to enable Norman for so long that she just does not know what she needs to do.

Actually, Norma knows exactly what she should do, but she is too afraid of what might happen that she doesn’t have the strength to do what she has to when it comes to Norman. Just telling him that her marriage to Alex was only for the insurance money (even though that is how it started) says that she still allows Norman’s insanity to rule her life.

It only makes it more tragic with every scene of bliss that is between Alex and Norma. Alex told her about the money he took from Bob. Norma immediately told him about the Norman situation. The relationship is easily the only healthy one Norma has ever had.

All the more tragic.

Bates Motel S4 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Vault”

The storyline between Norma and Chick came to a dramatic conclusion (or at least seems to have) as things came to a head. Chick had pressured Norma into telling him where Caleb was. Norma did not know, but she was able to find out. She met Chick on a bridge one rainy night, bringing out her gun. She had planned on shooting him, but she realized that she couldn’t do it. She screamed that she did not want Caleb hurt, but she could not kill him so Chick should just do what he was going to do… which was tell Alex the truth about Norma and Caleb as children.

This was a tremendous episode for Vera Farmiga, facing down Chick on the bridge and then ripping him a new one when he brought the window to her house. She ripped him a new one in front of Alex, which shocked him. He asked what was going on, and Norma told him the truth. All of it, about her teenage years and her brother. She expected Alex to leave her.

She told him to go pack his bag.

Alex said okay…. adding, “Where are we going?”

Such an amazing moment between these two broken characters, two people who found each other and have formed an amazing relationship. It was one that was unexpected, but they are truly in love. I have said it before, but this relationship between Norma and Alex is maybe my favorite relationship in all of TV. Maybe Penny and Desmond from LOST matches it, but nothing else in my head comes close.

Norma’s kids are going to be causing more issues soon. Norman, in his DID personality of Mother, is threatening Dr. Edwards in therapy sessions. Norman, as Mother, recounted a horrific memory of Norman’s father raping Norma. Norma has clearly had a terrible life, which makes the happiness she has found with Alex all the more special.

Dylan found the letter left with Norma by Emma’s mother and it has tweaked his curiosity. Bad tidings will be coming for this too.

I know there is not much more time left for Norma and every second of her time with Alex is precious, and will make the loss only all the more tragic.

Bates Motel S4 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Refraction”

Sometimes this show catches me off-guard. Chick followed Norma for awhile, and wound up coming to see her, offering to fix the stained-glass window that was broken during the break in. It was very stalker-like, but during the episode, Chick almost had me convinced that he was going to turn over a new leaf and just fix the stained glass and redeem himself for his past sins.

Nope. At the end of the episode, he comes to Norma and tells her the truth. That he wants to find her brother Caleb. When they were speaking before, Norma called Caleb her brother and Chick was able to piece it together since Caleb had introduced himself to Chick originally as Dylan’s father. Chick took this info and tried to play on Norma’s uncertainty, her deep seeded pain over what had happened to her. He was manipulating Norma and suddenly the good tidings that he had earned in this episode went right out the broken stained-glass window.

I really felt for Norma in that moment. Its as if she can never fully catch a break. She has just started to connect with Romero, so much so that she even asked him if he had killed Bob Paris. His response was that he had no choice, but you could see the truth in his face. He killed him because Bob was a danger to Norma. It was to protect her that Romero had no choice. Norma could see that. I say this every episode write-up but I loved Romero and Norma as a couple which makes what I know is coming up later this season all the worse.

Dr. Edwards met Norman’s Mother personality as Norman blacked out during a session. Edwards had pushed Norman about an imagined meeting Norman had with Norma at the mental institution which happened in Norman’s head and Norman flipped out. Freddie Highmore does a great job switching into Mother. The way he moves, the glint in his eyes, the tilt of a head. Highmore is exceptional in playing the role.

There was a sweet scene between Dylan and Emma where Emma showed Dylan her scar. She was embarrassed by it, but she wanted to get past it. Dylan handled it wonderfully, showing Emma the scars across his body from gunshots and other moments from the drug running career he had been involved in. Another fun moment was when Dylan interviewed for a real, honest job and told the interviewer the truth about his past in the drug trade. Amazingly, it seems as if the truth may have worked out for him.

We have gone past the halfway point in season four and I am not thinking that Chick is long for this world.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E17

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Captain’s Hand”

We’re back with more trouble aboard the Pegasus. Some of their Viper pilots disappeared and this led to conflict for Commander Garner and Starbuck, as well as Lee who arrived from Galactica as aid.

It seems like everyone on Pegasus has been hard-headed and stubborn, and Garner fell right into that category. Of course, Starbuck was not trying to keep out of trouble either.

It was clear that things were not going to go well for Garner as it seemed like every decision he made went against our main characters and that never is a way to ingratiate them into the good graces of the audience. Garner winds up dead at the end of the episode, showing that is the case.

Lee is appointed as new Commander of Pegasus by his father and that can only be a positive, right?

Lee and Anastasia Dualla’s relationship still feels quite forced to me. They kicked off the episode in bed together and I just am not sure where this entire relationship came from, outside of the last few episodes.

There was an abortion side plot going on that leads to Baltar to proclaim his candidacy for the Presidency. He surprised Roslin with his announcement at a press conference. Baltar has the backing of Tom Zarek, who realizes that Baltar has a much better chance to defeat Roslin than he does. Baltar really is a slimy dude.

Battlestar Galactica continues to be a fantastic sci-fi series with very few episodes missing the mark.

The Greatest American Hero S2 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Hog Wild”

Ralph and Bill are on the way back from a communication seminar and they come across a biker gang that was itching for trouble.

Now, Bill is anything but subtle and his borderline obnoxious personality ended up getting him three broken ribs and taken hostage by the gang.

Oh, and the gang wound up with the suit.

Of course, it only works on Ralph, but it still led to a whole bunch of trouble as the biker gang returned to a town that had run them off the day before and blackmailed Ralph into being their “muscle.”

Bill was really over the edge in this episode, displaying how he is too stubborn and hard headed in most situations. Ralph, although too involved with the communication from the seminar, does a great job doing what he could. I liked how Ralph and Bill used some other characters in the show to help the overall scenario. It was neat to see Ralph working with others without having to hide the suit.

I do think that Ralph could have taken this biker gang out much easier than he did, but I understand they needed to stretch the story to make it a full length episode. Overall, it was a fun show, but probably the weakest episode of the second season so far.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E16

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Sacrifice”

Intense episode. Dana Delany took a longue full of people hostage in an attempt to get Adama to give over the Cylon onboard the Galactica… aka Sharon.

I thought this was a solid episode but I was not sure some of the plans that were hatched by Lee, Kara and Adama made a whole lot of sense.

I still feel as if the relationship between Lee and Dee came out of nowhere and this did not feel as earned as it could have been. However, the killing of Billy was shocking and put a serious stake on the episode.

I was not a fan of Kara shooting Lee during “friendly fire.” Starbucks just has not been portrayed recently as the kick ass pilot that she had always been and this error really brought that home. Perhaps it will lead to some serious drama between the pair, but we’ll have to see.

The other thing that I disliked was when Dana Delany told Lee that she did not believe that he would kill the man he held at gunpoint and Lee eventually dropped his gun. Did I not just see Lee shoot an unarmed crimeboss in the previous episode? I believed he absolutely would blow this guy’s head off, but he surrendered his firearm immediately.

I do believe that Lee’s character has been written inconsistently during this season, and I hope they can get him back on track, since he should be one of the top characters on the show.

Bates Motel S4 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Lights of Winter”

I’m having a tough time falling asleep, so I figured to give Norman Bates a chance to help with the shut eye. Should have guessed that it would not be the best choice.

Norman and his friend at the mental institution Julian sneaked out in the night and went to a strip club. If you knew of Norman’s proclivity to turn into his mother and murder women when he is placed in sexual situations, you could guess this was not the best idea. Thankfully, no one got murdered.

Of course, that was probably only because Julian got into a scrape with the bouncers at the strip club. Norman was in full blackout and in the personal of Mother at the time.

This led to Norman tearfully accepting whatever help Dr. Edwards was able to give him, as he realized that he was not sure what was real or not.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Norma and Alex picked up as they attended the “Lights of Winter” in town. Norma had gone to Portland to visit Emma and my first thought was… who’s running the motel? If Norma is gone and Norman is locked up and Emma is in the hospital, who is left?

Anyway, there is a woman from the bank named Rebecca, who had been having some kind of relationship with Romero prior to his marrying Norma. Rebecca had ties to Bob Paris and believed that Romero had killed him. She told Romero that Bib had a safety deposit box full of laundered money that was there for the taking, if Bob’s killer would just have the key. Romero is too smart to incriminate himself, but after the Lights of Winter, Romero and Norma discovered the house had been ransacked (perhaps someone looking for the key).

Well, that’s enough for now. I’m going to try to shut my eyes again. Here’s hoping.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E15

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Scar”

A Battlestar Galactica Starbuck-centric episode is always great. Starbuck is simply been put through the wringer for this entire series and she has been slipping into the bottle more. Her guilt over Anders and being unable to get a rescue mission back to Caprica, as well as her guilt over the deaths of other pilots have pushed her into being very brittle.

Scar is that Cylon Raider ship that has been targeting and killing pilots in a manner unlike other Cylons. Scar is known as the “Ace of aces” and a master of sneak attacks.

The show featured the conflict between Starbuck and Kat, as the two women showed their anger with one another over just about everything.

Katee Sackhoff was exceptional in the episode, being able to play up the myriad of flaws displayed by Starbuck and still be a dominant force on Galactica.

The show told the story out of order, as it flashed from the confrontation of Starbuck and Kat with Scar, back to the time before they headed out.

There are some great action scenes in the episode too.

The Greatest American Hero S2 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Don’t Mess Around with Jim”

Did Tony flunk?

I ask because at the beginning of this episode of The Greatest American Hero, Ralph was getting after Tony to meet him at his house an hour after school let out in order for them to work together so Tony would not flunk. Tony wasn’t excited about the extra work, but he eventually agreed to Ralph’s pressure (Sure felt like blackmail to me). However, Ralph was kidnapped in the school parking lot after school and taken away.

And there was not one mention of Tony after that.

I really expected that there would be some kind of tag at the end with this dangling plot point, but there was not. So I can only assume that Tony was going to flunk.

The episode was pretty good in-between the fate of Tony. The man who had Ralph (and Bill) kidnapped was a man who had just faked his own death. A man who was big enough of a figure in the world whose funeral would be aired on live TV. This man had his will taken and needed Ralph and Bill to help him reclaim it.

The truth was mixed though. The man knew about the suit from the “little green guys” and his friend was able to tell Ralph how to use the suit’s telekinesis.

Turned out, the man who had faked his own death, at one time, had a suit of his own from the aliens. He apparently abused the power and the aliens took it away from him.

The idea that Ralph was not the first to be approached by the aliens is a fascinating idea and helped to build the world even more.

This episode was really solid and shows that this show had spent time doing more than just breaking cases. This episode was a development for both Ralph and Bill. This was the third really good episode in season two.

Bates Motel S4 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Til Death Do You Part”

Every episode that sees Norma and Romero getting closer reminds me of how much I loved them as a couple and how I wanted to root for them, despite the fact that I knew this was doomed from the start.

Their relationship feels as if it has been built since day one. While it may seem as if it were tossed together in one moment, the truth is that they have had interactions with each other since the first season and this all makes sense.

Norman is totally frightening as he is dealing with his anger at Norma for putting him in the psychiatric home. His ability to manipulate is being shown, and it is still up in the air if anyone around there believes him. Dr. Edwards seems to be very low-key and calm when dealing with Norman, but even he gave a look at the end when Norman was accusing his mother of murder that made me wonder where he was going to fall on it.

It was good to have Dylan return to lend an ear for Norma and to face off with Chick. His time with Emma has been great, but he belongs in the Bates craziness too.

Tension is building this season and I can’t wait to see what is going to happen once again.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E14

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Black Market”

The black market of goods aboard the fleet is given some light in this episode that focuses on Lee and his recent struggles since the ejection of the blackbird.

Truth be told, the whole Apollo arch feels sloppy. Much of what was going on, things that seemed to be a huge problem for Lee felt like it just showed up now and did not seem to fit in to what I knew of the character. There were a bunch of things in this episode like that. One in particular is Lee who had been taking up with a prostitute on Cloud Nine, a prostitute who had a child. I was not sure where this was supposed to have come from and it was jarring when she was there.

It was the same thing about the flashbacks to Lee’s former girlfriend prior to the Cylon attack. I knew little to nothing about this woman and, because of that, I had little to no emotional connection to her.

I also was not sure about the relationship between Apollo and Dee. This did not seem like much of a relationship before. It always felt as if Apollo was more with Starbuck, and Dee was with Billy. Maybe I missed something important, but it just felt lacking.

The stare down with Apollo and black market head Phelan was intense and ended surprisingly. I kind of liked that, even if it felt like it went against Apollo’s character. At least that felt like a choice he made to make things better.

Overall, this was not a strong episode and felt as if it lacked the narrative that this show is used to presenting.

Bates Motel S4 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Goodnight Mother”

I really love the relationship that developed in this series between Norma Bates and Alex Romero. Alex, who is anything but an angel, goes to such lengths to help Norma.

Freddie Highmore is exceptional. You can see how he is slipping deeper into his own insanity with every scene. Despite what we know of the eventual fate of Norman Bates, you can’t help but hope he makes it through.

That said, Norman’s mental break this episode was absolutely frightening. You could tell that Norman really believed that Norma was the person who had killed all the other women, even though none of that made any sense. It just fueled his rage and Highmore was compelling the whole time.

The show then juxtaposed Norman’s story of downward spiral with the new hope given to Emma after the lung transplant. The scene of Emma taking her first breaths in the hospital was just as powerful and engaging as the scenes of Norman and Norma.

With all her flaws and lack of trust, Norma Bates truly loves Norman, which makes everything that goes down here even more tragic. Bates Motel succeeds dramatically at making Norma Bates a deeply three-dimensional character and the fact that she winds up dead and in an attic is even more tragic. It provided even more layers to the film Psycho than it had before.