Bates Motel 4.02
Mar. 16th, 2016 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which, despite knowing it's only the second episode of the season and the show has already been renewed for a fifth (and final) one, the writers and actors managed to scare me with the prospect of...
...Norman killing Norma in this episode and Vera Farmiga playing Head!Norma for the rest of the show. I mean, I didn't believe that for most of the episode, but for a few moments in the basement? Absolutely.
Though the episode also furthered another theory that's been growing in me: that while the show has already altered Psycho canon so that Norma isn't Norman's first victim, she's going to be the first person he kills as Norman, with full knowledge of what he's doing, not in a blacked out "Norma" state. I mean, he pretty much has to, given he's going to both cover up her death and mummify her via taxidermy, and he can't pretend to himself it's "Mother" doing this. But in order to get to the point where he's willing to do this, he has to hate her as well as love her, and this episode pushes into that direction, with Norman believing not just that Norma killed all his victims and that she's framing him for it and betraying him by putting him in a psych ward. It's the later part he won't forgive her for, though considering we have most of this season and another season to go, I'm assuming the expensive Pineview will be able to temporarily return him into a more functional state for a while so he'll be released and Norma is going to delude herself one last time all can be well again.
She's not deluded right now. Norma's expression when Norman said "I love you and I'm scared of you - that's a bad combination" was only topped by Norma's expression when Norman lists all his victims and his belief that she killed them. Norma may have been able to delude herself about Blair Watson because Norman passed the lie detector test, she never knew Bradley Martin had returned, and if she didn't find Audrey Decody's corpse (the way she checks out the hole in front of the house makes me assume she really has no idea what became of the woman, just a strong suspicion after Alex reminded her of the hole) upon returning (which would also mean Norma as Norma/n cleaned up all the blood ), then she probably believed Audrey Decody left in the morning as she had told her to. But when Norman lists all three (and his father) as her victims, she has to realise he has killed three women already. And then there's final chilling, heartbreaking scene in the basement, where Norman's solution to believing his mother is a serial killer is to kill both of them. (A different thing from what he's eventually going to do, because in order to want to live without her, he has to hate her a bit more.) If Alex Romero hadn't arrived, he'd have done it, and I doubt Norma would have been able to defend herself with the iconic scissors, because I can't see her actually stabbing Norman (hitting him on the head, sure, and she's done that, but not stabbing), not even to save her life.
One more thing about Norman's hallucinations: for the first time, he manifests his father as well as his mother, which imo is because of my theory above. Norman has never directed his violence against Norma; how could he, when his inner version of her is what he manifests at that time? But the one thing we know about Sam Bates, other than his death and that he was Norma's second husband, is that he abused her at least in the later years of their relationship. So I think the new Sam hallucination is the part of Norman that wants to harm Norma, and it shows up for the first time directly after he reads the admission formula for Pineview, i.e. after he realises that she's betraying him (from his pov).
It was Gothic "the person I love is also a mad killer, and I'm locked in a house with him/her" horror for both mother and son, and incredibly suspenseful to watch. The Dylan and Emma scenes, by contrast, seemed to belong to another show. Mind you, I think they set up how Dylan will get reintegrated into the main plot, because after Mr. Decody gave him the "stop selling pot in order, Emma's future isn't with a drug dealer" speech, he's presumably be in need of another employment, and Norma is just out of help at the motel, so the solution is obvious. Which in turn will put him in a position to discover what happened to Audrey Decody.
Meanwhile, Alex Romero, whose mother committed suicide as was mentioned last season, with this episode adding that she was in and out of mental hospitals before that, after some more brooding and a front door meeting with Norma that, bad liar that she is, confirms she's both scared and pretty much out of options, decides to actually go for it and help her by marrying her. His scene with the Pineview official, and then the two telephone conversations with Norma, were heartbreaking for another reason than the Norma and Norman scenes in this episodes were. She's so stunned that he would actually do this for her, and there's this tiny bit of hope, and in her second message, after Norman's killer accusations, when she has reason to believe that she might die this night, the "thank you for all you've been for me".... awww. Somehow, Norma the damaged and Romero the corrupt sheriff ended up forming one of my few romantic pairings to root for. (Now complete with "arranged marriage with heroine realising she actually loves not-yet-husband" trope.) And they're so doomed as well.
...Norman killing Norma in this episode and Vera Farmiga playing Head!Norma for the rest of the show. I mean, I didn't believe that for most of the episode, but for a few moments in the basement? Absolutely.
Though the episode also furthered another theory that's been growing in me: that while the show has already altered Psycho canon so that Norma isn't Norman's first victim, she's going to be the first person he kills as Norman, with full knowledge of what he's doing, not in a blacked out "Norma" state. I mean, he pretty much has to, given he's going to both cover up her death and mummify her via taxidermy, and he can't pretend to himself it's "Mother" doing this. But in order to get to the point where he's willing to do this, he has to hate her as well as love her, and this episode pushes into that direction, with Norman believing not just that Norma killed all his victims and that she's framing him for it and betraying him by putting him in a psych ward. It's the later part he won't forgive her for, though considering we have most of this season and another season to go, I'm assuming the expensive Pineview will be able to temporarily return him into a more functional state for a while so he'll be released and Norma is going to delude herself one last time all can be well again.
She's not deluded right now. Norma's expression when Norman said "I love you and I'm scared of you - that's a bad combination" was only topped by Norma's expression when Norman lists all his victims and his belief that she killed them. Norma may have been able to delude herself about Blair Watson because Norman passed the lie detector test, she never knew Bradley Martin had returned, and if she didn't find Audrey Decody's corpse (the way she checks out the hole in front of the house makes me assume she really has no idea what became of the woman, just a strong suspicion after Alex reminded her of the hole) upon returning (which would also mean Norma as Norma/n cleaned up all the blood ), then she probably believed Audrey Decody left in the morning as she had told her to. But when Norman lists all three (and his father) as her victims, she has to realise he has killed three women already. And then there's final chilling, heartbreaking scene in the basement, where Norman's solution to believing his mother is a serial killer is to kill both of them. (A different thing from what he's eventually going to do, because in order to want to live without her, he has to hate her a bit more.) If Alex Romero hadn't arrived, he'd have done it, and I doubt Norma would have been able to defend herself with the iconic scissors, because I can't see her actually stabbing Norman (hitting him on the head, sure, and she's done that, but not stabbing), not even to save her life.
One more thing about Norman's hallucinations: for the first time, he manifests his father as well as his mother, which imo is because of my theory above. Norman has never directed his violence against Norma; how could he, when his inner version of her is what he manifests at that time? But the one thing we know about Sam Bates, other than his death and that he was Norma's second husband, is that he abused her at least in the later years of their relationship. So I think the new Sam hallucination is the part of Norman that wants to harm Norma, and it shows up for the first time directly after he reads the admission formula for Pineview, i.e. after he realises that she's betraying him (from his pov).
It was Gothic "the person I love is also a mad killer, and I'm locked in a house with him/her" horror for both mother and son, and incredibly suspenseful to watch. The Dylan and Emma scenes, by contrast, seemed to belong to another show. Mind you, I think they set up how Dylan will get reintegrated into the main plot, because after Mr. Decody gave him the "stop selling pot in order, Emma's future isn't with a drug dealer" speech, he's presumably be in need of another employment, and Norma is just out of help at the motel, so the solution is obvious. Which in turn will put him in a position to discover what happened to Audrey Decody.
Meanwhile, Alex Romero, whose mother committed suicide as was mentioned last season, with this episode adding that she was in and out of mental hospitals before that, after some more brooding and a front door meeting with Norma that, bad liar that she is, confirms she's both scared and pretty much out of options, decides to actually go for it and help her by marrying her. His scene with the Pineview official, and then the two telephone conversations with Norma, were heartbreaking for another reason than the Norma and Norman scenes in this episodes were. She's so stunned that he would actually do this for her, and there's this tiny bit of hope, and in her second message, after Norman's killer accusations, when she has reason to believe that she might die this night, the "thank you for all you've been for me".... awww. Somehow, Norma the damaged and Romero the corrupt sheriff ended up forming one of my few romantic pairings to root for. (Now complete with "arranged marriage with heroine realising she actually loves not-yet-husband" trope.) And they're so doomed as well.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 08:54 am (UTC)It's been a long time since I've seen Psycho or any of its sequels, what is the significance of the scissors?
There's been speculation that Norma will die this season and season five will just be Mother, but I don't see how the writers can kill off Emma, Alex, and Dylan so Norman can pass Norma off as a recluse. I do think a major character will die this season, if only to get things moving along.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-16 11:19 am (UTC)Mind you: I wouldn't be surprised if immediately afer Norma and Alex have had mutually satisfying, driven by affection sex, a released from Pineview Norman concludes that this marriage was why Norma wanted him hospitalized, i.e. that instead of understanding she married Alex in order to pay for Pineview, he'll think Pineview was so she could marry Alex. Any evidence that he's really in need of medical attention will come across as Norma gaslighting him to boot.
There's been speculation that Norma will die this season and season five will just be Mother, but I don't see how the writers can kill off Emma, Alex, and Dylan so Norman can pass Norma off as a recluse.
Precisely. Psycho is awesome as a movie, but you can't stretch that plot over an entire season, so I think Norma is safe until ca. the last but one episode of the show. Plus, as you say: they're not going to kill off their entire supporting cast with one more season to go, and while Emma on her lonesome might be tricked into believing Norma doesn't want to see her anymore, there's no way Dylan and Alex would buy the Norma the Recluse story. And while on a Watsonian level Dylan and Emma could just leave town, on a Doylist level the show won't write out two key cast members in a non lethal way, either.
Scissors: it's been years for me, too, but doesn't Norman-as-Norma try to kill Lila Crane with them in the showdown scene near the end?
no subject
Date: 2016-03-21 05:56 pm (UTC)But yeah, I agree--even if you could drag out that plot a whole season with the audience knowing the whole time it's a fake, I don't think they'd want to lose Vera Farminga to that extent. They'd want her playing Norma, not just Norman's idea of Norma.
I totally agree about the marriage looking to Norman like she got rid of him for it. Norma sometimes does the worst possible things. Actually she usually does the worst possible things!