Bates Motel 3.06.
Apr. 15th, 2015 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which 24 hours without Norma turn out to be more than her sons can bear, but luckily the tv viewer doesn't have to bear it because we get to follow her and watch Vera Farmiga being fantastic some more.
Mind you, not that the boys were slackers in the acting department. Freddy Highmore continues to amaze me this season. Now the tv viewer has seen Norman-as-Norma before, last season in his scene with Caleb at the motel, but back then the change happened while he was talking to Caleb. This time, Dylan arrived in the kitchen for find Norman already fully transformed, complete with wearing Norma's dress and echoing her mannerisms, and it says something about the show - which isn't afraid of dark humor and often uses it - that this particular scene was completely straight, not going for camp at all, and because it was shot from Dylan's pov the emotional horror as he realises quite how far gone Norman is was devastating. (BTW: also the first time Norman manifests Mother in a non-violent context, isn't it? Not just on the show but also if you count the Psycho movies. I mean, the reason he manifests her is an unhappy one - he thinks Norma has left him - but the emotion he feels once he manifests her isn't agression or misery but happiness, which he wants to share with Dylan. Begs the question as to whether Norman's brand of schizophrenia could be if not treated than at least channelled in a not violent way were he not living in a serial killer prequel.
Dylan at the end of that long day and night sharing Norma's bed with Norman manages to be both incredibly sweet and incredibly screwed up which is par the course for this family.
No one is having a good day or night in this episode, but Alex Romero, between getting shot at while shopping, told his life only is safe if he agrees to become a minion to his wannabe successor and ending it with killing the guy (because that's how he rolls, our morally ambigous Sheriff) certainly compete with the Bates-Masset clan on this occasion. I note with approval that the first thing he does upon regaining consciousness is to call Norma in order to warn her that Creepy Bob is out there gunning for them and she could be terrible danger, but unluckily, Norma has just shot her cell phone and thus probably will never hear the message.
Norma responding to her sons' revelation/request last episode with running and trying to be someone else for a night is following a life long pattern - as Norman notes, she always runs -, but of course it doesn't work, and she must have known it wouldn't, otherwise she'd have gone far further than Portland if it had been a serious escape attempt. Still, she tries, changing her clothes, her car, using her maiden name again, getting drunk, picking up a guy, rejecting the guy and finally arriving at Finnegan the therapist's doorstep, where the degree of drunkenness and nervous breakdown finally makes her spill about Norman's blackouts and his father's death to a non-family member. Which would actually be not bad had it happened in another context, but alas, Finnegan the therapist proceeds to be horribly unprofessional by responding to Norman's kiss with a weak "I could lose my licence" and then has sex with her anyway. You SHOULD lose your licence, Finnegan the therapist. I mean, you even said she doesn't need a lover right then, she needs a therapist. Which would be true of Norma sober and calm, too, btw. But a woman very drunk and having a nervous breakdown REALLY is not someone whom a psychotherapist should even consider having sex with. Boo, Finnegan. Boo, hiss. Exit Norma post haste the next morning, of course.
BTW: Finnegan has just joined my list of people unlikely to survive the season. Because Norma told him about the blacikouts and about Sam Bates. Yes, theoretically he's bound to keep the conversation confidential, but she's just observed first hand his professional ethics are flexible, to put it euphemistically, and at any rate, aren't doctors and therapist allowed to be break patient confidentiality if they think someone's life is at stake? Now the queston is: a) is Norma capable of premeditated murder? (The one time we definitely know she killed someone, in the pilot,the man had raped her a few minutes previously, and there was nothing premeditated about it. Deciding that she can't risk Finnegan the therapist spilling the beans and proceeding to kill him would be a very different act.) and b) If not Norma, could it be that someone else after finding out what she confessed - Norman? But so far he hasn't killed premeditated, either; Caleb as a misguided way to atone/help? - will do it?
But even had Finnagan been a responsible therapist, Norma would still have gone back the next morning. Like I said, even if she didn't live in a prequel, the character as shown simply is incapable of truly leaving Norman. (Though it might have saved both their lives had she done so.) What, however, WAS unexpected was that Norma didn't just go back. She stopped running in another way, too, packed her sons in the new car (btw, loved that Norman commented on the car but not the clothes) and drove to to talk to her brother. This was her decision (Dylan had stopped thinking this had been a good idea before she had finished leaving the house), and it led to the amazing climactic scene at the end.
Now the way the previouslies had been edited made me fear a bit that the show would change Norma's backstory to a "she only pretended to be raped" story, which would have made me very furious. Anything but this, thought I, and fortunately it was. Norma having good memories of Caleb pre rape and having loved him in their shared horrible childhood is okay by me, and Caleb's not-justifying-any-longer apology, which was just this, a confession of remorse and guilt, not a "but I didn't thiink you saw it that way" or a claim on her forgiveness, made me okay with the embrace expressing that forgiveness. This was another of those Bates Motel moments which could so easily feel unrealistic, but the two actors truly sold me on it. (Also the script-directing decision of using minimal dialogue - just Caleb's saying her name and declaration of remorse" - and doing it all over body language, both Norma's silent reaction and Caleb's counter reaction.
Speaking of silent reactions: between Dylan's wonder and beaming and Norman's murderous look, the entire spectrum was covered.
Mind you, not that the boys were slackers in the acting department. Freddy Highmore continues to amaze me this season. Now the tv viewer has seen Norman-as-Norma before, last season in his scene with Caleb at the motel, but back then the change happened while he was talking to Caleb. This time, Dylan arrived in the kitchen for find Norman already fully transformed, complete with wearing Norma's dress and echoing her mannerisms, and it says something about the show - which isn't afraid of dark humor and often uses it - that this particular scene was completely straight, not going for camp at all, and because it was shot from Dylan's pov the emotional horror as he realises quite how far gone Norman is was devastating. (BTW: also the first time Norman manifests Mother in a non-violent context, isn't it? Not just on the show but also if you count the Psycho movies. I mean, the reason he manifests her is an unhappy one - he thinks Norma has left him - but the emotion he feels once he manifests her isn't agression or misery but happiness, which he wants to share with Dylan. Begs the question as to whether Norman's brand of schizophrenia could be if not treated than at least channelled in a not violent way were he not living in a serial killer prequel.
Dylan at the end of that long day and night sharing Norma's bed with Norman manages to be both incredibly sweet and incredibly screwed up which is par the course for this family.
No one is having a good day or night in this episode, but Alex Romero, between getting shot at while shopping, told his life only is safe if he agrees to become a minion to his wannabe successor and ending it with killing the guy (because that's how he rolls, our morally ambigous Sheriff) certainly compete with the Bates-Masset clan on this occasion. I note with approval that the first thing he does upon regaining consciousness is to call Norma in order to warn her that Creepy Bob is out there gunning for them and she could be terrible danger, but unluckily, Norma has just shot her cell phone and thus probably will never hear the message.
Norma responding to her sons' revelation/request last episode with running and trying to be someone else for a night is following a life long pattern - as Norman notes, she always runs -, but of course it doesn't work, and she must have known it wouldn't, otherwise she'd have gone far further than Portland if it had been a serious escape attempt. Still, she tries, changing her clothes, her car, using her maiden name again, getting drunk, picking up a guy, rejecting the guy and finally arriving at Finnegan the therapist's doorstep, where the degree of drunkenness and nervous breakdown finally makes her spill about Norman's blackouts and his father's death to a non-family member. Which would actually be not bad had it happened in another context, but alas, Finnegan the therapist proceeds to be horribly unprofessional by responding to Norman's kiss with a weak "I could lose my licence" and then has sex with her anyway. You SHOULD lose your licence, Finnegan the therapist. I mean, you even said she doesn't need a lover right then, she needs a therapist. Which would be true of Norma sober and calm, too, btw. But a woman very drunk and having a nervous breakdown REALLY is not someone whom a psychotherapist should even consider having sex with. Boo, Finnegan. Boo, hiss. Exit Norma post haste the next morning, of course.
BTW: Finnegan has just joined my list of people unlikely to survive the season. Because Norma told him about the blacikouts and about Sam Bates. Yes, theoretically he's bound to keep the conversation confidential, but she's just observed first hand his professional ethics are flexible, to put it euphemistically, and at any rate, aren't doctors and therapist allowed to be break patient confidentiality if they think someone's life is at stake? Now the queston is: a) is Norma capable of premeditated murder? (The one time we definitely know she killed someone, in the pilot,the man had raped her a few minutes previously, and there was nothing premeditated about it. Deciding that she can't risk Finnegan the therapist spilling the beans and proceeding to kill him would be a very different act.) and b) If not Norma, could it be that someone else after finding out what she confessed - Norman? But so far he hasn't killed premeditated, either; Caleb as a misguided way to atone/help? - will do it?
But even had Finnagan been a responsible therapist, Norma would still have gone back the next morning. Like I said, even if she didn't live in a prequel, the character as shown simply is incapable of truly leaving Norman. (Though it might have saved both their lives had she done so.) What, however, WAS unexpected was that Norma didn't just go back. She stopped running in another way, too, packed her sons in the new car (btw, loved that Norman commented on the car but not the clothes) and drove to to talk to her brother. This was her decision (Dylan had stopped thinking this had been a good idea before she had finished leaving the house), and it led to the amazing climactic scene at the end.
Now the way the previouslies had been edited made me fear a bit that the show would change Norma's backstory to a "she only pretended to be raped" story, which would have made me very furious. Anything but this, thought I, and fortunately it was. Norma having good memories of Caleb pre rape and having loved him in their shared horrible childhood is okay by me, and Caleb's not-justifying-any-longer apology, which was just this, a confession of remorse and guilt, not a "but I didn't thiink you saw it that way" or a claim on her forgiveness, made me okay with the embrace expressing that forgiveness. This was another of those Bates Motel moments which could so easily feel unrealistic, but the two actors truly sold me on it. (Also the script-directing decision of using minimal dialogue - just Caleb's saying her name and declaration of remorse" - and doing it all over body language, both Norma's silent reaction and Caleb's counter reaction.
Speaking of silent reactions: between Dylan's wonder and beaming and Norman's murderous look, the entire spectrum was covered.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-15 04:32 pm (UTC)I'm a bit fascinated by the way Norma approaches sex and commitment, which sort of fits the profile for an abuse victim. She used the psychiatrist for sex and then "dumped him" afterwards, which is similar to what occurred with George last season. (Although George the situation with George was not as icky.) The longest lasting relationship we've seen Norma have on this show is with Shelby, who she was originally using to get off on murder charges.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-16 05:34 am (UTC)Re: Norma, sex and commitment: yes, though in terms of backstory, not just on screen show events chronology, there's the 17 years at least she must have been with Sam Bates (i.e. Norman's life span up until Sam's death, assuming Norma got pregnant with Norman shortly after meeting Sam, otherwise the time would be even longer) which is her longest lasting sexual relationship with man to date. It's a pretty safe bet Norman is the reason why it lasted that long (i.e. the "father of my son" factor), though it might also be that Norma was afraid/thought herself incapable of living alone, because until the show era, if you think about it, she never has. She went from her family situation to a brief marriage with John Masset (who can't be that great a guy if Dylan is no longer on speaking terms with him in season 1 and prefers to go Norma for help, whom he's on name calling catastrophic terms at that point) to a long (and abusive) marriage with Sam Bates non stop, and the show era is really the first time in her life she's living as a single woman.
Re: George and Finnegan the psychiatrist, she also slept with both after a fallout with Norman - there's the sex as methadone/confirmation of worth element -, and leaving the morning after also had something of exerting control, though I think one difference between the George and the pyschiatrist situation is that George for her was makebelieve, like someoone out of the old movies she loved to watch in s1 or out of a musical - the handsome rich stranger wooing her. He was an escape mechanism, a fantasy. (And she told him a fairy tale about her backstory, too.) But having sex was the step to having an actual long term relationship, not a fantasy, and I think Norma's outburst at him when he came to the motel about how he wasn't real and had no idea who she really was was the most honest thing she ever said to him, so even if there hadn't been a corresponding Norman kidnapping crisis, imo, she'd have broken the relationship off at that point While the psychiatrist wasn't a fantasy - that was her Portland escape earlier - but he was also methadone and an attempt to unload, and I wouldn't be surprised if the sex hadn't also been at least partly motivated by trying to regain some control. Even drunk and in a breakdown she had to be aware she just told him something enormous, breaking one of her most severe inner rules, but she knew he was attracted to her, so she made him break a rule as well.