Bates Motel 3.08
May. 1st, 2015 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBack in Munich, and starting to try and catch up with my fannish stuff. Of course, I go for the neurotic family to end all neurotic prequel families first.
I'll say this for Bob the Creep; he does know how to make seemingly harmless and legal actions far more disturbing a threat than torturing lousy therapists. That pit which provided the episode with its title was nothing but a whole in the ground and yet it freaked everyone out, excluding Norma's brief moment of happiness when she thinks this actually WILL be the pool she asked for. Come to think of it, the episode starts well for Norma on several fronts - she wakes up happily, gets a fond goodbye from Dylan (though with a "we need to do something about Norman" reminder), and then Alex Romero makes her day by bringing her traded-in-on-a-freakout Mercedes back, because he's cool and smitten like that. And gets a kiss on the cheek for his trouble that's solely not a kiss on the mouth because Norma didn't move one or two milimeters sideways. Not to mention that she was so unabashedly delighted to see him. Of course it had to go downhill from there.
James Finnegan the lousy therapist caves to torture, which is understandable, but results not solely in Bob having leverage on Norma now that balances her leverage on him, but in Bob ruining the budding Alex/Norma romance because he can. (And because Sheriff Romero has just proven again he's not shy of killing your minions if he's not on your side.) Mind you, Norma could have saved the situation if she'd told Alex the truth re: Sam Bates after the point blank asking (twice), but this is Norma sober and as stable as she gets. No way she won't go for the lie first when it comes to violence committed by Norman. Staging the whole encounter on the porch where Norma and Alex first met was perfect, but not just for the reason Alex Romero thinks, i.e. she was lying to him then, she's lying to him now. Because, you know, she had a very good reason to lie to him then. His self-admitted buddy had just raped her and boasted about having the police in his pocket before she (not Norman, and it occurs to me, did Romero ever find out about that?) killed him. Trusting a strange man in authority who confirms he was friends with the guy who just raped you with the truth under these circumstances would have been unlikely for people far less paranoid than Norma. And yes, two years later he's not a stranger anymore, they've become close and he helped her through hellish situations, risking his own life repeatedly, which does give her good reason to trust him. But the reason why he has and for now keeps the position he has in the town is that he can and does use lethal violence if it suits him, and that he's pals (or was, if they're deceased) with a lot of the local most abusive creeps. So Norma being a liar (again) in this situation isn't exactly the surprise or betrayal of the year. Mind you, I'm very curious indeed where the show will go from here, because there's no way Romero is going to stick to his "Goodbye, Norma" resolution given that would mean no more scenes between them, but otoh if he's simply going to change his mind in the very next episode he becomes unbelievable on both a Watsonian and Doylist level. I could see him getting over it if Norma does something crucial for him without being asked to, but am lost as to what this could be, considering she doesn't have the flash drive anymore, he does, and she's about to ask him for it now that Bob knows about Norman.
Meanwhile, Dylan's and Caleb's gun running outing goes as well as Dylan's solo plots with the criminal underworld always go, though it does reveal Caleb is a great shot and doesn't, as I expected, die dramatically to save his son. Am still betting on Caleb not surviving the season, though.
Did Emma ever officially end things with Gunner, on screen, I mean? Because I don't remember such a scene last season, which is why the show only now bringing uip they used to date got a "thanks for clearing this up" reaction from me. Her officially ending things with Norman was very sensiible and I think she'd have done it even if she hadn't been interested in Dylan by now. But the fact that she is isn't going to sit well with Norman once he finds out, given his hang-ups. Then again, Norman is so thoroughly preoccupied with his exploding psyche that he might not even notice for a while. Elements like the scene with Norman and Norma where he confides in her what Finnegan the lousy therapist said to him and what his reaction was are what makes this show so unique. Because it emphasizes again that beneath all the Freudian mess, these two co-dependents love each other as the mother and son they are. He so desperately doesn't want to be a monster. Her reaction and the way she comforts him would have been great... for anyone but Norman Bates. The tenderness between them is real, but so is the horror that comes to the fore late in the episode when Norma is the one who has to make a confession, in her case about telling Finnegan Norman's secret, and the argument between them that results escaletes into her yelling that being his mother is going to kill her. Once said, it can't be taken back, even though Norma wants to. And it will, one day. This is the first time we see Mother, Norman's Head!Norma, replacing real Norma immediately without hardly a breath in between once Norma has left the room. Also the first time that Norman truly knows he's talking to a hallucination - she's wearing his favourite dress, the one he took from real Norma. He's not yet preferring his internalized Norma to the genuine article, as this scene ends with him saying "leave me alone" and another Psycho homage of a scene as he rushes out and sees imaginary Norma at the window, but he's getting there. And once he does, it will be real Norma's death.
Lastly, return of Bradley or not? At this point, we have no idea whether Norman is imagining her - he could very well be, since he was following his dead dog after talking to his imaginary mother -, or whether she actually did return, since this is the bridge where she tried to commit suicide in the s2 opener. Either is possible.
I'll say this for Bob the Creep; he does know how to make seemingly harmless and legal actions far more disturbing a threat than torturing lousy therapists. That pit which provided the episode with its title was nothing but a whole in the ground and yet it freaked everyone out, excluding Norma's brief moment of happiness when she thinks this actually WILL be the pool she asked for. Come to think of it, the episode starts well for Norma on several fronts - she wakes up happily, gets a fond goodbye from Dylan (though with a "we need to do something about Norman" reminder), and then Alex Romero makes her day by bringing her traded-in-on-a-freakout Mercedes back, because he's cool and smitten like that. And gets a kiss on the cheek for his trouble that's solely not a kiss on the mouth because Norma didn't move one or two milimeters sideways. Not to mention that she was so unabashedly delighted to see him. Of course it had to go downhill from there.
James Finnegan the lousy therapist caves to torture, which is understandable, but results not solely in Bob having leverage on Norma now that balances her leverage on him, but in Bob ruining the budding Alex/Norma romance because he can. (And because Sheriff Romero has just proven again he's not shy of killing your minions if he's not on your side.) Mind you, Norma could have saved the situation if she'd told Alex the truth re: Sam Bates after the point blank asking (twice), but this is Norma sober and as stable as she gets. No way she won't go for the lie first when it comes to violence committed by Norman. Staging the whole encounter on the porch where Norma and Alex first met was perfect, but not just for the reason Alex Romero thinks, i.e. she was lying to him then, she's lying to him now. Because, you know, she had a very good reason to lie to him then. His self-admitted buddy had just raped her and boasted about having the police in his pocket before she (not Norman, and it occurs to me, did Romero ever find out about that?) killed him. Trusting a strange man in authority who confirms he was friends with the guy who just raped you with the truth under these circumstances would have been unlikely for people far less paranoid than Norma. And yes, two years later he's not a stranger anymore, they've become close and he helped her through hellish situations, risking his own life repeatedly, which does give her good reason to trust him. But the reason why he has and for now keeps the position he has in the town is that he can and does use lethal violence if it suits him, and that he's pals (or was, if they're deceased) with a lot of the local most abusive creeps. So Norma being a liar (again) in this situation isn't exactly the surprise or betrayal of the year. Mind you, I'm very curious indeed where the show will go from here, because there's no way Romero is going to stick to his "Goodbye, Norma" resolution given that would mean no more scenes between them, but otoh if he's simply going to change his mind in the very next episode he becomes unbelievable on both a Watsonian and Doylist level. I could see him getting over it if Norma does something crucial for him without being asked to, but am lost as to what this could be, considering she doesn't have the flash drive anymore, he does, and she's about to ask him for it now that Bob knows about Norman.
Meanwhile, Dylan's and Caleb's gun running outing goes as well as Dylan's solo plots with the criminal underworld always go, though it does reveal Caleb is a great shot and doesn't, as I expected, die dramatically to save his son. Am still betting on Caleb not surviving the season, though.
Did Emma ever officially end things with Gunner, on screen, I mean? Because I don't remember such a scene last season, which is why the show only now bringing uip they used to date got a "thanks for clearing this up" reaction from me. Her officially ending things with Norman was very sensiible and I think she'd have done it even if she hadn't been interested in Dylan by now. But the fact that she is isn't going to sit well with Norman once he finds out, given his hang-ups. Then again, Norman is so thoroughly preoccupied with his exploding psyche that he might not even notice for a while. Elements like the scene with Norman and Norma where he confides in her what Finnegan the lousy therapist said to him and what his reaction was are what makes this show so unique. Because it emphasizes again that beneath all the Freudian mess, these two co-dependents love each other as the mother and son they are. He so desperately doesn't want to be a monster. Her reaction and the way she comforts him would have been great... for anyone but Norman Bates. The tenderness between them is real, but so is the horror that comes to the fore late in the episode when Norma is the one who has to make a confession, in her case about telling Finnegan Norman's secret, and the argument between them that results escaletes into her yelling that being his mother is going to kill her. Once said, it can't be taken back, even though Norma wants to. And it will, one day. This is the first time we see Mother, Norman's Head!Norma, replacing real Norma immediately without hardly a breath in between once Norma has left the room. Also the first time that Norman truly knows he's talking to a hallucination - she's wearing his favourite dress, the one he took from real Norma. He's not yet preferring his internalized Norma to the genuine article, as this scene ends with him saying "leave me alone" and another Psycho homage of a scene as he rushes out and sees imaginary Norma at the window, but he's getting there. And once he does, it will be real Norma's death.
Lastly, return of Bradley or not? At this point, we have no idea whether Norman is imagining her - he could very well be, since he was following his dead dog after talking to his imaginary mother -, or whether she actually did return, since this is the bridge where she tried to commit suicide in the s2 opener. Either is possible.
