Bates Motel 5.04 - 5.07
Apr. 10th, 2017 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe episodes tend to blurr in my head now, but that doesn't mean they're not all excellent. This season promises to finish the show in top form, and save that I desperately miss SPOILER, which will forever prevent it from being my favourite, I continue to be impressed as hell.
Obviously, with "Marion" and "Inseparable", we've entered Psycho territory, and the show's twists manage that high, elusive goal, at once paying homage to the movie and yet creating something original, and something worthy of what the previous seasons have built up, instead of a lame old remake of a classic. But before I get to how it pulls off that one, a few observations on other aspects:
Alex Romero doesn't recuperate with the kid who shot him; instead, he spends his "it's not yet the finale" time with Maggie the sister of either Bob or Keith Summers, I can't remember which of the local creeps, but I do recall her showing up before. Looks like we might or might not enter Stephen King territory here, or maybe I'm just paranoid.
Emma and Dylan continue to prove they're a gazillion times more compelling as soon as they're more directly involved with anyone named Bates instead of having their romance in a separate plot thread, like last season, or being happy elsehwere, as in this one. The scene where Dylan 'fesses up about Emma's mother led the way, and Emma then did some investigating which gave me fond s1 memories. On the one hand. On the other, the fact that Emma with some googling immediately discovered that Norma is dead also reminded me that we're supposed to believe Emma did nothing of the sort for 18 months, and that leads to my one remaining pet peeve with the show: the marginalization of Emma to Dylan's love interest and ignoring of her own relationships with Norma and Norman. Anyway, Dylan's reaction to this news was Max Thierot's best scene for a while, though it was topped an episode later when Dylan returned to White Pines Bay, about which more in a moment. A friend of mine had speculated Emma would get the Lila Crane role of investigator this season, and while it's theoretically still possible, in practice the last episode's events make it redundant, so I'm reduced to hoping she'll at least get one more scene of her own with Norman. Can we remember she was his first friend (and vice versa)? Pretty please?
On to the good stuff. Norman's encounter with Dr. Edwards, triggering his rememberance/realisation from what his therapy last season had confronted him with, that he at times sees his mother when she's not there, and at other times becomes her, was a fine scene on its own. The revelation two episodes later that Dr. Edwards has been missing for a year, which means Norman must have hallucinated it, gives it another disturbing layer but also deals with something I had been wondering - Dr. Edwards in season 4 had been written as a very responsible psychiatrist (unlike season 3's idiot) who was very clear on Norman's problems, so wouldn't he at the very least upon hearing about the supposed attempted murder-suicide in combination with Norman not asking for any more prescriptions try to get in touch? Well, not if he's "missing". And it makes perfect sense for Mother to have killed him, too; he knows about her, more than any other person on the planet, and Norman on medication removes her, so Dr. Edwards is an existential threat, not to Norman, but to her.
As to why Norman would hallucinate this encounter which in turn makes him confront the Mother personality and triggers self awareness to the point where, we'll get to that: I vote subconscious fight for survival as well. Mother has become so very present that she's in danger of taking over altogether, and a part of Norman knows that. Which would destroy his original personality, which is why his subconscious produced Dr. Edwards.
And then: enter Marion Crane. Clever, clever show. Marion's encounter with her boss, with Sam, and her first two conversations with Norman more or less followed the movie's script. The context already made them different, with the audience and Norman knowing Sam Loomis was married and cheating on his wife while Marion does not, and of course knowing, as opposed to the original Psycho audience, that Norman had just found out/remembered again he's certifiable and a killer, and that Marion is pop culture's most famous serial killer victim.
The "Marion lives!" twist is satisfying on its own, but again, the context is what makes even better, because it's all about realising the truth about yourself and those around you for both Norman and Marion, and about acting on that information. Which you can't when you're dead. Plus one key component of what makes Norman Bates so memorable a character is that the audience is capable of retaining an odd sympathy for him despite his awful deeds, and that in turn is dependent on him (well, part of him) not wanting to kill. So Norman successfully fighting the compulsion to hurt Marion because he's attracted to her and instead aiding her escape not just from the dangerous situation she doesn't know she's in, but from the messed up one she does know about, was great - and ic for the Norman we've been watching these last seasons. Otoh Norman didn't create Mother out of alien material. There's a part of him which does want to kill. And Sam Loomis has been built up through the previous seasons as a jerk reminding him of his father just as Madelaine is a younger Norma doppelganger. So Sam, not Marion, being the one who ends up dead in the shower, complete with iconic eye shot, was perfect - and again, with "Mother, what have I done?" not "Mother, what have you done?" as fitting Bates Motel.
Making this murder the first one Norman commits as Norman, knowingly: I knew there would be one, but I never guessed it would be this one (my money was on Dylan, but no, rather the reverse on that front, more in a minute). It fits, again, not just with the "truth" but with the "responsibility" theme. Norman has just confronted himself with the truth about his other half. "Mother, what have you done?" would have been a step back into the safe delusion. He's already done that at the very end of season 4, when after for a brief while acknowledging that he killed Norma, that she truly was dead, Mother returned and he surrendered to the comfort of insanity again.
Then: Dylan comes back. And both the scenes with Norman are sooooo gooood, and so's the one of Dylan alone in Norma's room, crying for her and asking his dead mother for forgiveness. Again: Dylan & either Norma or Norman = magic. Dylan sans family member: okay-ish. It's not just that Dylan, just like Alex Romero and Caleb, is aware Norma wouldn't have committed suicide and definitely would never have wanted to kill Norman while she was at it. It's the intensity of messed up emotions towards his mother and brother, and the fact that he's capable of seeing clearly how deeply wrong things are with Norman, not giving up on him and not wanting to enable Norman going on this way, either. Half my irritation with Dylan was that he was aware or at least as good as knew Norman killed, more than once, and still washed his hands when leaving, because that made him co-responsible for further victims. Now that he's busy med organizing and confronting Norman in a loving way, my resentment melts into the old affection. And that's before Mother's survival sense makes her attack Dylan and Norman in turn literally wrestles his alter ego into temporary submission and then does the radical yet entirely sense making thing, the one method he can guarantee he won't try to kill again: calling the cops with a confession. It's fitting that what gives Norman the strength to do this is love for a family member, which is his doom and saving grace, just as it has been Norma's.
Dylan mourning for Norma and Norman, earlier, removing her corpse from the house and burying her after sending Mother away reminded me all over again how much I miss the real Norma, though. Mother is still excellent Vera Farmiga, but fitting for what and who she is, she's without what made Norma human and so affecting other people. She has her mannerisms, she's vivid, she can be charming if she wants to, but she's entirely without empathy or compassion for others, or confused emotions. (She can be moody, which is a different thing.) What Mother feels is always clear and single minded. Norma never was like that - she was torn apart by conflicting emotions so often. Her strength came from someone with so many scars, weaknesses and flaws; Mother was made to be strong in the sense the child Norman understood it. So: Norma's sons mourning her: so with you there, fellows. So with you. Still.
Now: will Mother overtake and force Norman to retract that confession? (I don't think it's going to be that simple.) What will happen during the last three episodes? Can't wait to find out.
Obviously, with "Marion" and "Inseparable", we've entered Psycho territory, and the show's twists manage that high, elusive goal, at once paying homage to the movie and yet creating something original, and something worthy of what the previous seasons have built up, instead of a lame old remake of a classic. But before I get to how it pulls off that one, a few observations on other aspects:
Alex Romero doesn't recuperate with the kid who shot him; instead, he spends his "it's not yet the finale" time with Maggie the sister of either Bob or Keith Summers, I can't remember which of the local creeps, but I do recall her showing up before. Looks like we might or might not enter Stephen King territory here, or maybe I'm just paranoid.
Emma and Dylan continue to prove they're a gazillion times more compelling as soon as they're more directly involved with anyone named Bates instead of having their romance in a separate plot thread, like last season, or being happy elsehwere, as in this one. The scene where Dylan 'fesses up about Emma's mother led the way, and Emma then did some investigating which gave me fond s1 memories. On the one hand. On the other, the fact that Emma with some googling immediately discovered that Norma is dead also reminded me that we're supposed to believe Emma did nothing of the sort for 18 months, and that leads to my one remaining pet peeve with the show: the marginalization of Emma to Dylan's love interest and ignoring of her own relationships with Norma and Norman. Anyway, Dylan's reaction to this news was Max Thierot's best scene for a while, though it was topped an episode later when Dylan returned to White Pines Bay, about which more in a moment. A friend of mine had speculated Emma would get the Lila Crane role of investigator this season, and while it's theoretically still possible, in practice the last episode's events make it redundant, so I'm reduced to hoping she'll at least get one more scene of her own with Norman. Can we remember she was his first friend (and vice versa)? Pretty please?
On to the good stuff. Norman's encounter with Dr. Edwards, triggering his rememberance/realisation from what his therapy last season had confronted him with, that he at times sees his mother when she's not there, and at other times becomes her, was a fine scene on its own. The revelation two episodes later that Dr. Edwards has been missing for a year, which means Norman must have hallucinated it, gives it another disturbing layer but also deals with something I had been wondering - Dr. Edwards in season 4 had been written as a very responsible psychiatrist (unlike season 3's idiot) who was very clear on Norman's problems, so wouldn't he at the very least upon hearing about the supposed attempted murder-suicide in combination with Norman not asking for any more prescriptions try to get in touch? Well, not if he's "missing". And it makes perfect sense for Mother to have killed him, too; he knows about her, more than any other person on the planet, and Norman on medication removes her, so Dr. Edwards is an existential threat, not to Norman, but to her.
As to why Norman would hallucinate this encounter which in turn makes him confront the Mother personality and triggers self awareness to the point where, we'll get to that: I vote subconscious fight for survival as well. Mother has become so very present that she's in danger of taking over altogether, and a part of Norman knows that. Which would destroy his original personality, which is why his subconscious produced Dr. Edwards.
And then: enter Marion Crane. Clever, clever show. Marion's encounter with her boss, with Sam, and her first two conversations with Norman more or less followed the movie's script. The context already made them different, with the audience and Norman knowing Sam Loomis was married and cheating on his wife while Marion does not, and of course knowing, as opposed to the original Psycho audience, that Norman had just found out/remembered again he's certifiable and a killer, and that Marion is pop culture's most famous serial killer victim.
The "Marion lives!" twist is satisfying on its own, but again, the context is what makes even better, because it's all about realising the truth about yourself and those around you for both Norman and Marion, and about acting on that information. Which you can't when you're dead. Plus one key component of what makes Norman Bates so memorable a character is that the audience is capable of retaining an odd sympathy for him despite his awful deeds, and that in turn is dependent on him (well, part of him) not wanting to kill. So Norman successfully fighting the compulsion to hurt Marion because he's attracted to her and instead aiding her escape not just from the dangerous situation she doesn't know she's in, but from the messed up one she does know about, was great - and ic for the Norman we've been watching these last seasons. Otoh Norman didn't create Mother out of alien material. There's a part of him which does want to kill. And Sam Loomis has been built up through the previous seasons as a jerk reminding him of his father just as Madelaine is a younger Norma doppelganger. So Sam, not Marion, being the one who ends up dead in the shower, complete with iconic eye shot, was perfect - and again, with "Mother, what have I done?" not "Mother, what have you done?" as fitting Bates Motel.
Making this murder the first one Norman commits as Norman, knowingly: I knew there would be one, but I never guessed it would be this one (my money was on Dylan, but no, rather the reverse on that front, more in a minute). It fits, again, not just with the "truth" but with the "responsibility" theme. Norman has just confronted himself with the truth about his other half. "Mother, what have you done?" would have been a step back into the safe delusion. He's already done that at the very end of season 4, when after for a brief while acknowledging that he killed Norma, that she truly was dead, Mother returned and he surrendered to the comfort of insanity again.
Then: Dylan comes back. And both the scenes with Norman are sooooo gooood, and so's the one of Dylan alone in Norma's room, crying for her and asking his dead mother for forgiveness. Again: Dylan & either Norma or Norman = magic. Dylan sans family member: okay-ish. It's not just that Dylan, just like Alex Romero and Caleb, is aware Norma wouldn't have committed suicide and definitely would never have wanted to kill Norman while she was at it. It's the intensity of messed up emotions towards his mother and brother, and the fact that he's capable of seeing clearly how deeply wrong things are with Norman, not giving up on him and not wanting to enable Norman going on this way, either. Half my irritation with Dylan was that he was aware or at least as good as knew Norman killed, more than once, and still washed his hands when leaving, because that made him co-responsible for further victims. Now that he's busy med organizing and confronting Norman in a loving way, my resentment melts into the old affection. And that's before Mother's survival sense makes her attack Dylan and Norman in turn literally wrestles his alter ego into temporary submission and then does the radical yet entirely sense making thing, the one method he can guarantee he won't try to kill again: calling the cops with a confession. It's fitting that what gives Norman the strength to do this is love for a family member, which is his doom and saving grace, just as it has been Norma's.
Dylan mourning for Norma and Norman, earlier, removing her corpse from the house and burying her after sending Mother away reminded me all over again how much I miss the real Norma, though. Mother is still excellent Vera Farmiga, but fitting for what and who she is, she's without what made Norma human and so affecting other people. She has her mannerisms, she's vivid, she can be charming if she wants to, but she's entirely without empathy or compassion for others, or confused emotions. (She can be moody, which is a different thing.) What Mother feels is always clear and single minded. Norma never was like that - she was torn apart by conflicting emotions so often. Her strength came from someone with so many scars, weaknesses and flaws; Mother was made to be strong in the sense the child Norman understood it. So: Norma's sons mourning her: so with you there, fellows. So with you. Still.
Now: will Mother overtake and force Norman to retract that confession? (I don't think it's going to be that simple.) What will happen during the last three episodes? Can't wait to find out.
