Bates Motel 4.06
Apr. 20th, 2016 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Norma and Norman make emotional progress, even though only one of them is in therapy, and the actors (again) deserve all the awards.
Also, I'm pleased Dylan has rejoined the same show everyone else is in, manages to have conversations with all three people he's related to within an episode and finally discovers the Chekovian bunny waiting in the house. There's no way this can end well, of course, but that's why we watch. No matter what Dylan does with his discovery of Audrey's lengthy letter to her daughter, Audrey's toy for Emma and the fact that Audrey checked into the motel but never checked out, it will backfire on someone. Undoubtedly he'll first try to reach Audrey at the address she's given in the motel registry and will thus find out she never went back there. And he'll ask Norma about it, who is as likely to tell the truth (she told Audrey to leave and be gone by the time Norma came back, Audrey was) as to lie (because Norma knows Norman has claimed that she killed Audrey, she knows she didn't, which leaves...). And we still don't know where exactly Norman-as-Mother left the body. But whether Dylan decides to let sleeping dogs lie because as long as he doesn't know for sure, he can hope nobody killed Audrey (but then he'll have withheld the letter and the knowledge from Emma, who has a right to know), or whether he'll try to find out more (then eventually he will have to decide whether to reveal the truth to not just Emma but everyone, or have anyone Norman kills from this point onwards on his conscience), he's screwed.
Of course, Norman is currently doing what is one big reason why many people, including yours truly, can't help but feel for Norman Bates, serial killer: he's trying to confront and end the darkness within, he's really desperately trying to get better, and for now, he actually has one of tv's few competent therapists. Meaning this can't last, but right now, Dr. Edwards is really making progress, not withholding information from Norman (explaining dissassociative disorder, and who the personality manifesting during Norman's blackout claims to be), not pressing him too hard but work with what's there (i.e. asking Mother to tell him about Norman's childhood of Norman can't) in order to help his patient. And the particular memory Mother reveals is, while not exactly surprising (it's similar earlier Norman memory that resurfaced with Cody, of hiding in the closet with Norma while his father was rampaging, only magnified in badness by ten), still incredibly painful to visit, and certainly provides a plausible reason why child!Norman started to develop a secondary personality to cope with it. It's Norma trying to run from abusive Sam Bates, being brought back to the house at gun point, telling Norman to run and hide only for Norman to hide in exactly the worst place, under Norma's bed while Sam rapes her. And we see not just the horror but the co-dependency start when little Norman who probably at that point only understood his mother was getting hurt clings to her hand on the floor, the only part of her he could reach and see, and presses it, and Norma presses back. The "you and I against the world" likely started right then and there.
Of course, Norma as a child herself already was in a co-dependent "you and I against the world" circle with someone in order to survive in an abusive household, and that ended terribly, too. Norma isn't confronting one of her core traumas via therapist, she's doing it via Chick, whose scheme to blackmail her into getting Caleb back to Whitepine Bay (with presumably violent and/or lethal consequences) has surprising results. We thought we knew how this would go - Chick as the new menace of the season, leaning in on Norma, Norma after trying in vain to deal with it asking Alex and/or Dylan for help - but no. It's not that Norma can't track Caleb down if she wants to (she can, and she does), but that in the course of the episode when presented with two wrong alternatives (give into Chick's blackmail/ally with him or kill Chick), she chooses neither and after two classic Norma Bates blistering outbursts goes with honesty instead. Which not only results in Chick giving up (at least for now?) his attempt to use her against Caleb, but actually delivering the window she originally hired him for. (This is such a weird and great detail, btw.) While Alex Romero continues to be a champion of Morally Ambiguos Love Interests and has the absolutely perfect reaction to Norma's assumption that upon learning the truth, he'll be disgusted with her and no longer will want to be with her. "Were are we going" has to be the most romantic version to say "I love you and accept you" ever voiced on this show. (Not that the actual "I love you"s earlier were bad. It's also typical for Norma that she's only saying this to him when she assumes the relationship will be over, as soon as she tells him the truth.)
Last season's episode 6 was the last time everyone was in a good place (mostly) before things went to hell, as they're wont to do on the show, so I'm assuming this will happen now, too. For starters, Norman might be doing remarkably well in therapy for now, and has taken the news about Dylan/Emma well (this btw I wasn't surprised by, because Norman never came across as much sexually interested in Emma to me - he asked her out last season because she was his friend and he'd known she wanted it for ages), but he hasn't heard about Norma's marriage yet. And I ever much doubt that if he sees them together, he'll believe it's all about Romero's health insurance. And then there's Dylan's big discovery re: Audrey, which, see above.
Other speculation: Alex Romero, I can't decide whether you handed over that key to get rid of evidence incriminating you or whether you really want Rebecca to have the money and be content. You know, after all, that Rebecca is being investigated and under close surveillance, and when not being sweet to Norma, you can be ruthless enough to get rid of someone this way.
Also, I'm pleased Dylan has rejoined the same show everyone else is in, manages to have conversations with all three people he's related to within an episode and finally discovers the Chekovian bunny waiting in the house. There's no way this can end well, of course, but that's why we watch. No matter what Dylan does with his discovery of Audrey's lengthy letter to her daughter, Audrey's toy for Emma and the fact that Audrey checked into the motel but never checked out, it will backfire on someone. Undoubtedly he'll first try to reach Audrey at the address she's given in the motel registry and will thus find out she never went back there. And he'll ask Norma about it, who is as likely to tell the truth (she told Audrey to leave and be gone by the time Norma came back, Audrey was) as to lie (because Norma knows Norman has claimed that she killed Audrey, she knows she didn't, which leaves...). And we still don't know where exactly Norman-as-Mother left the body. But whether Dylan decides to let sleeping dogs lie because as long as he doesn't know for sure, he can hope nobody killed Audrey (but then he'll have withheld the letter and the knowledge from Emma, who has a right to know), or whether he'll try to find out more (then eventually he will have to decide whether to reveal the truth to not just Emma but everyone, or have anyone Norman kills from this point onwards on his conscience), he's screwed.
Of course, Norman is currently doing what is one big reason why many people, including yours truly, can't help but feel for Norman Bates, serial killer: he's trying to confront and end the darkness within, he's really desperately trying to get better, and for now, he actually has one of tv's few competent therapists. Meaning this can't last, but right now, Dr. Edwards is really making progress, not withholding information from Norman (explaining dissassociative disorder, and who the personality manifesting during Norman's blackout claims to be), not pressing him too hard but work with what's there (i.e. asking Mother to tell him about Norman's childhood of Norman can't) in order to help his patient. And the particular memory Mother reveals is, while not exactly surprising (it's similar earlier Norman memory that resurfaced with Cody, of hiding in the closet with Norma while his father was rampaging, only magnified in badness by ten), still incredibly painful to visit, and certainly provides a plausible reason why child!Norman started to develop a secondary personality to cope with it. It's Norma trying to run from abusive Sam Bates, being brought back to the house at gun point, telling Norman to run and hide only for Norman to hide in exactly the worst place, under Norma's bed while Sam rapes her. And we see not just the horror but the co-dependency start when little Norman who probably at that point only understood his mother was getting hurt clings to her hand on the floor, the only part of her he could reach and see, and presses it, and Norma presses back. The "you and I against the world" likely started right then and there.
Of course, Norma as a child herself already was in a co-dependent "you and I against the world" circle with someone in order to survive in an abusive household, and that ended terribly, too. Norma isn't confronting one of her core traumas via therapist, she's doing it via Chick, whose scheme to blackmail her into getting Caleb back to Whitepine Bay (with presumably violent and/or lethal consequences) has surprising results. We thought we knew how this would go - Chick as the new menace of the season, leaning in on Norma, Norma after trying in vain to deal with it asking Alex and/or Dylan for help - but no. It's not that Norma can't track Caleb down if she wants to (she can, and she does), but that in the course of the episode when presented with two wrong alternatives (give into Chick's blackmail/ally with him or kill Chick), she chooses neither and after two classic Norma Bates blistering outbursts goes with honesty instead. Which not only results in Chick giving up (at least for now?) his attempt to use her against Caleb, but actually delivering the window she originally hired him for. (This is such a weird and great detail, btw.) While Alex Romero continues to be a champion of Morally Ambiguos Love Interests and has the absolutely perfect reaction to Norma's assumption that upon learning the truth, he'll be disgusted with her and no longer will want to be with her. "Were are we going" has to be the most romantic version to say "I love you and accept you" ever voiced on this show. (Not that the actual "I love you"s earlier were bad. It's also typical for Norma that she's only saying this to him when she assumes the relationship will be over, as soon as she tells him the truth.)
Last season's episode 6 was the last time everyone was in a good place (mostly) before things went to hell, as they're wont to do on the show, so I'm assuming this will happen now, too. For starters, Norman might be doing remarkably well in therapy for now, and has taken the news about Dylan/Emma well (this btw I wasn't surprised by, because Norman never came across as much sexually interested in Emma to me - he asked her out last season because she was his friend and he'd known she wanted it for ages), but he hasn't heard about Norma's marriage yet. And I ever much doubt that if he sees them together, he'll believe it's all about Romero's health insurance. And then there's Dylan's big discovery re: Audrey, which, see above.
Other speculation: Alex Romero, I can't decide whether you handed over that key to get rid of evidence incriminating you or whether you really want Rebecca to have the money and be content. You know, after all, that Rebecca is being investigated and under close surveillance, and when not being sweet to Norma, you can be ruthless enough to get rid of someone this way.
