Bates Motel 5.02.
Mar. 1st, 2017 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Norman encounters two men who also loved Norma. It doesn't end well.
But first to the more trivial: to no one's surprise, David Davidson turned out to be Sam Loomis, who, embarassed by the discovery that his wife's new acquaintance is none other than the motel owner whose establishment he has used to cheat on his wife, reveals himself as a jerk. And I suddenly realise why the late Mr. Bates, Norman's father, was called Sam. The parallels between Madelaine Loomis and young Norma, they're running ever stronger in Norman's mind, and it didn't need Mother to point this out, though that was a funny scene. Meanwhile, Madelaine's friend whom she tried to set Norman up with seems blessedly normal and doesn't know how lucky she is he's not interested in her.
Speaking of that dinner, Norman ordering the wine with an okay-ish French pronounciation was my favourite detail, because of the implication. Since most of the Norman-Mother scenes are staged with both Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga, it's tempting to lose sight of the fact that Norman is talking to himself on all these occasions, especially since we're in his pov more often than not, and there was at least one visual cheat - Mother lighting up a cigarette after Norman has left the room, though you can declare it's Norman imaginining this. However, the series is also careful with these little reminders of the truth, in this case: first Caleb finds the laptop on the kitchen table when he first enters the empty house (and he and the audience see it as it really is. Later, when we're in Norman's pov and the house is its bright, imaginery clean shape, Norman and the audience see Mother using the laptop to learn French. And in the evening, Norman uses the practiced French pronounciation to order something. Because there is no more Norma. She's dead. It's Norman who's been trying to teach himself French, Norman with the personality who takes up more and more space in his head.
Dylan and Emma get a single scene in the episode with a reminder that Dylan is a lying liar who lies as Emma talks obliviously about how important it is that they're honest to each other and their kid will grow up with honesty, hence no Caleb and no her own mother, either. You know, the one Dylan knows to be murdered and whom he's let her believe abandoned her yet again. Methinks that particular chicken will finally come home to roost, and that's how either Dylan or Emma or both will end up back in White Pine Bay.
Where a lot of people were and are headed to. Norman responding to the discovery that the imprisoned (ex)Sheriff Romero sent someone after him by showing up in prison is such an adolescent male move, I can't. Having to rub it in that a) he's alive and b) Romero is in jail. Never mind that Mother points out it would have been the sane and safe thing to do to let Alex assume the late Jim's mission succeeded and Norman is dead. But here's the interesting thing. Mother doesn't hate Alex Romero. Only Norman does. Mother, on the contrary, has feelings for him.
Several possible explanations: a) no matter what he told people in last season's finale, Norman is on some level aware Norma did love Alex Romero, that the relationship between them was real, and he can't imagine a version of her who doesn't reflect this fact if he wants to maintain the illusion that she's alive which he so desperately needs.
b) Mother is growing as a personality. She was originally created for the sole purpose to protect Norman, both physically and by keeping unbearable memories away from him. But those were only brief appearances. Now that real Norma is gone, Norman needs Mother all the time, which means he has to be Mother (in addition to being himself) all the time. And more and more, it seems, it's just easier to be Mother (minus himself). However, if Mother isn't having a Norman to protect, she needs other things to do. She may develop other emotions, too, and since she was originally modelled on Norma, it makes sense that the first emotion falling outside the "protect Norman, kill anyone who is a danger" pattern would be directed at someone real Norma fell for, too. My big argument for this interpretation is the scene in the bar, which is also the first time this season we see Freddie Highmore playing Mother, not solely Vera Farmiga, and it's explicitly a "I want more out of life than just caring for Norman" scene.
Since Alex Romero has just arranged for himself to be transferred to another prison and is probably planning a jail break, I suspect that if and when he finally does show up in person at the Bates Motel to take his revenge on Norman, he'll be met by Mother, and not (at least not immediately) by a knife. Which should be... interesting.
Of course, in this episode, a man who loved Norma obsessively and whom she, in her way, loved as well back in the day already shows up in her house. It's amazing how the show has made one feel for Caleb without taking back what he did (and in this episode, we get another textual reminder, courtesy of Chick). The one thing that surprised me was that he didn't immediately realise Norma had to be dead after seeing the house in that state. Having grown up with her, he should know she would never. But I guess he didn't want to believe it, and so it takes the clerk from the Other motel in town (the one where he stayed when Norman first physically became Mother and attacked him) to update Caleb on his sister's state of being. The scene with him at her tombstone mirrors their silent reconcliation scene with its keening grief when he knelt, too, but she was there then, and now she's gone. Like Alex, Caleb of course immediately knows that no matter the official story, there's no way Norma would have committed suicide, which means Norman must have killed her. That he goes to her tombstone first before going back to the house is a good priority, but not enough, as that stop in the bar in between to get drunk assures he runs into Chick, which means the episode ends with a whammy in more than one sense.
The show is treading a balance with Chick, too. When he first showed up with the apples at Norman's, I thought they were overdoing it with his transformation into a good neighbour, but no, Chick is broke and reminds Norman with the question about the freezer that he knows certain things. (Mind you, at this point what Chick knows - that Norman is keeping his mother's dead body around - is completely harmless in comparison to what he COULD know, but that's going to change soon.) While I'm not sure whether or not we're supposed to believe his statement he can't work any longer as literal (he had no problem creating a new stained glass window for Norma and installing it last season, both not easy tasks) or to see it as an excuse, or whether he simply means he can't work in crime any longer, either way, Norman accepts the partnership for dead animal selling offer after the freezer reminder, and I think at this point Chick is motivated mainly by actual need of money, plus, he also had developed some respect for Norma and an odd liking for her weird kid. But the Caleb hate is of course still there, and so of course the encounter in the bar isn't enough, Chick follows Caleb back to the Bates house. Where they both encounter first Norma's corpse and then Mother.
Now I'm not sure whether Norman-as-Mother just knocked Caleb out, or whether he stabbed him, classic Psycho style, but for now, I'm temptatively going with "knocked him out", not because I think Caleb is going to survive this (no way), but because I think he might still get one last scene and/or a possibility to send a message to Dylan. Also because it would be fitting to let Caleb's last scene be with Norman-as-Mother (but with dialogue), since the stunning first time Freddie Highmore played Mother had been a Caleb scene, see above. So he might die in the next episode. I could be wrong, of course, in which case the next will already start with Chick helping Norman to dispose of the body. (Because I very much doubt Norman is going to allow Caleb's body to remain at Norma's side in the basement.)
Outside possibility: Mother has mixed feelings about Caleb, too. But I don't think so. Alex, yes. Caleb, no. (Norma, of course, DIDN'T want Caleb dead, as we saw last season when she rejected Chick's blackmail, because Norma was a human being with tangled and complicated emotions, and the understanding that while she didn't want her brother permanently back in her life because of what he'd done, she didn't want him dead, either. But Mother isn't Norma, she's Norman's secondary personality in development, and the first time she manifested clearly enough to talk was when Norman wanted to avenge his mother on Caleb, so... I doubt Mother is going to prolong Caleb's life much.
Chick's future: also limited, unless he takes this latest development and the reveal Norman doesn't just keep his mother's corpse around, he's crazy enough to believe he IS his mother, to get out of White Pines Bay. He may be useful, but I doubt Mother is going to let him survive with the knowledge he now has for long, either. However, I doubt he'll die soon, because I think Chick will take the blame for Caleb's death and whoever else will die before Marion Crane, so my guess is he'll die two thirds into the season, with the last few episodes reserved for the show's twist on the Psycho ending.
But first to the more trivial: to no one's surprise, David Davidson turned out to be Sam Loomis, who, embarassed by the discovery that his wife's new acquaintance is none other than the motel owner whose establishment he has used to cheat on his wife, reveals himself as a jerk. And I suddenly realise why the late Mr. Bates, Norman's father, was called Sam. The parallels between Madelaine Loomis and young Norma, they're running ever stronger in Norman's mind, and it didn't need Mother to point this out, though that was a funny scene. Meanwhile, Madelaine's friend whom she tried to set Norman up with seems blessedly normal and doesn't know how lucky she is he's not interested in her.
Speaking of that dinner, Norman ordering the wine with an okay-ish French pronounciation was my favourite detail, because of the implication. Since most of the Norman-Mother scenes are staged with both Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga, it's tempting to lose sight of the fact that Norman is talking to himself on all these occasions, especially since we're in his pov more often than not, and there was at least one visual cheat - Mother lighting up a cigarette after Norman has left the room, though you can declare it's Norman imaginining this. However, the series is also careful with these little reminders of the truth, in this case: first Caleb finds the laptop on the kitchen table when he first enters the empty house (and he and the audience see it as it really is. Later, when we're in Norman's pov and the house is its bright, imaginery clean shape, Norman and the audience see Mother using the laptop to learn French. And in the evening, Norman uses the practiced French pronounciation to order something. Because there is no more Norma. She's dead. It's Norman who's been trying to teach himself French, Norman with the personality who takes up more and more space in his head.
Dylan and Emma get a single scene in the episode with a reminder that Dylan is a lying liar who lies as Emma talks obliviously about how important it is that they're honest to each other and their kid will grow up with honesty, hence no Caleb and no her own mother, either. You know, the one Dylan knows to be murdered and whom he's let her believe abandoned her yet again. Methinks that particular chicken will finally come home to roost, and that's how either Dylan or Emma or both will end up back in White Pine Bay.
Where a lot of people were and are headed to. Norman responding to the discovery that the imprisoned (ex)Sheriff Romero sent someone after him by showing up in prison is such an adolescent male move, I can't. Having to rub it in that a) he's alive and b) Romero is in jail. Never mind that Mother points out it would have been the sane and safe thing to do to let Alex assume the late Jim's mission succeeded and Norman is dead. But here's the interesting thing. Mother doesn't hate Alex Romero. Only Norman does. Mother, on the contrary, has feelings for him.
Several possible explanations: a) no matter what he told people in last season's finale, Norman is on some level aware Norma did love Alex Romero, that the relationship between them was real, and he can't imagine a version of her who doesn't reflect this fact if he wants to maintain the illusion that she's alive which he so desperately needs.
b) Mother is growing as a personality. She was originally created for the sole purpose to protect Norman, both physically and by keeping unbearable memories away from him. But those were only brief appearances. Now that real Norma is gone, Norman needs Mother all the time, which means he has to be Mother (in addition to being himself) all the time. And more and more, it seems, it's just easier to be Mother (minus himself). However, if Mother isn't having a Norman to protect, she needs other things to do. She may develop other emotions, too, and since she was originally modelled on Norma, it makes sense that the first emotion falling outside the "protect Norman, kill anyone who is a danger" pattern would be directed at someone real Norma fell for, too. My big argument for this interpretation is the scene in the bar, which is also the first time this season we see Freddie Highmore playing Mother, not solely Vera Farmiga, and it's explicitly a "I want more out of life than just caring for Norman" scene.
Since Alex Romero has just arranged for himself to be transferred to another prison and is probably planning a jail break, I suspect that if and when he finally does show up in person at the Bates Motel to take his revenge on Norman, he'll be met by Mother, and not (at least not immediately) by a knife. Which should be... interesting.
Of course, in this episode, a man who loved Norma obsessively and whom she, in her way, loved as well back in the day already shows up in her house. It's amazing how the show has made one feel for Caleb without taking back what he did (and in this episode, we get another textual reminder, courtesy of Chick). The one thing that surprised me was that he didn't immediately realise Norma had to be dead after seeing the house in that state. Having grown up with her, he should know she would never. But I guess he didn't want to believe it, and so it takes the clerk from the Other motel in town (the one where he stayed when Norman first physically became Mother and attacked him) to update Caleb on his sister's state of being. The scene with him at her tombstone mirrors their silent reconcliation scene with its keening grief when he knelt, too, but she was there then, and now she's gone. Like Alex, Caleb of course immediately knows that no matter the official story, there's no way Norma would have committed suicide, which means Norman must have killed her. That he goes to her tombstone first before going back to the house is a good priority, but not enough, as that stop in the bar in between to get drunk assures he runs into Chick, which means the episode ends with a whammy in more than one sense.
The show is treading a balance with Chick, too. When he first showed up with the apples at Norman's, I thought they were overdoing it with his transformation into a good neighbour, but no, Chick is broke and reminds Norman with the question about the freezer that he knows certain things. (Mind you, at this point what Chick knows - that Norman is keeping his mother's dead body around - is completely harmless in comparison to what he COULD know, but that's going to change soon.) While I'm not sure whether or not we're supposed to believe his statement he can't work any longer as literal (he had no problem creating a new stained glass window for Norma and installing it last season, both not easy tasks) or to see it as an excuse, or whether he simply means he can't work in crime any longer, either way, Norman accepts the partnership for dead animal selling offer after the freezer reminder, and I think at this point Chick is motivated mainly by actual need of money, plus, he also had developed some respect for Norma and an odd liking for her weird kid. But the Caleb hate is of course still there, and so of course the encounter in the bar isn't enough, Chick follows Caleb back to the Bates house. Where they both encounter first Norma's corpse and then Mother.
Now I'm not sure whether Norman-as-Mother just knocked Caleb out, or whether he stabbed him, classic Psycho style, but for now, I'm temptatively going with "knocked him out", not because I think Caleb is going to survive this (no way), but because I think he might still get one last scene and/or a possibility to send a message to Dylan. Also because it would be fitting to let Caleb's last scene be with Norman-as-Mother (but with dialogue), since the stunning first time Freddie Highmore played Mother had been a Caleb scene, see above. So he might die in the next episode. I could be wrong, of course, in which case the next will already start with Chick helping Norman to dispose of the body. (Because I very much doubt Norman is going to allow Caleb's body to remain at Norma's side in the basement.)
Outside possibility: Mother has mixed feelings about Caleb, too. But I don't think so. Alex, yes. Caleb, no. (Norma, of course, DIDN'T want Caleb dead, as we saw last season when she rejected Chick's blackmail, because Norma was a human being with tangled and complicated emotions, and the understanding that while she didn't want her brother permanently back in her life because of what he'd done, she didn't want him dead, either. But Mother isn't Norma, she's Norman's secondary personality in development, and the first time she manifested clearly enough to talk was when Norman wanted to avenge his mother on Caleb, so... I doubt Mother is going to prolong Caleb's life much.
Chick's future: also limited, unless he takes this latest development and the reveal Norman doesn't just keep his mother's corpse around, he's crazy enough to believe he IS his mother, to get out of White Pines Bay. He may be useful, but I doubt Mother is going to let him survive with the knowledge he now has for long, either. However, I doubt he'll die soon, because I think Chick will take the blame for Caleb's death and whoever else will die before Marion Crane, so my guess is he'll die two thirds into the season, with the last few episodes reserved for the show's twist on the Psycho ending.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-04 01:59 am (UTC)It looks like he'll at least be back for the next episode, courtesy of the preview. I do hope he'll at least make it through to mid-season, though I'm not sure how he'll manage that. (I don't see it until Tuesday night so you will probably get a reply that is mainly incomprehensible one way or the other around then! :P) Then again, Caleb can be wilier than he looks. I wonder if he'll find a way to reason with Mother (apparently there was a deleted scene in s2 where he tried to comfort "her") or turn her or Norman against Chick. I also predict that Chick's plan is to smuggle drugs or other contraband via the taxidermy, and maybe that's what Caleb can figure out to turn them against each other. Either way, I'm so fed up with Chick - much as I love his character - and his desire to blame Caleb for stuff that was entirely his own fault. I also wonder if Chick will get Norman to keep Caleb around so Chick can torture him U_U which could end up being good for Caleb in the long term, as it gives him an opportunity to get the hell out.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-04 11:14 am (UTC)Caleb called Chick out on the fact (re: whose fault it was), but you know, I don't think lengthy torture sessions are in store - for the mundane Doylist reason that there's so much else this last season has to cover that we really don't have time for leaving Caleb's fate handing for several episodes and devote an entire subplot to Chick torture him. Both Caleb and Chick being minor recurring characters. So I'm 99% sure Caleb's fate will be decided in the next episode.
Now I do like your idea that he'll reason with Mother or try to connect to her emotionally. The problem with turning her or Norman or both against Chick though is that this isn't going to change Caleb's fate. At this point, Norman cannot afford to leave him alive, it's as simple as that. Not only has Caleb seen Norma's body (and storing corpses in your basement is definitely illegal), but he's been yelling loudly that he knows Norman killed Norma. Whether or not Norman will keep Chick as an ally for several episodes longer (and I think he will), Caleb is dead. Not because Chick wants it, because Norman is aware that if Caleb lives and is at liberty, his own days will be numbered. And this, Mother will never permit. (Unless Norman is feeling suicidally guilty, but for this to happen he'd have to face what he's done long enough for it to sink in, and so far every time it did Mother came to the rescue.)