Bates Motel 2.08
Apr. 22nd, 2014 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Norman is a master at passive aggressive mindmessing but alas not at plausible denial towards the law, Nick Ford gives parenting advice to Norma and Dylan is a man much in demand, though not in a good way.
One of the many reasons why I love this show: it simultanously makes you feel for all the characters and appreciate the black humor. Norman's campaign to either drive his mother to tell him the truth or to punish her for withholding it or both by sheer relentless passive aggressive pseudo nice distance (and tactical placement of his stuffed animals which he knows creep her out) manages to both be funny and, in the long term and knowing about the inevitable ending for Norman and Norma, sinister. (BTW, for all that the gap between them has opened, it also shows how well Norman does know Norma. Him yelling at her would not nearly disconcert her that much as emotional withdrawal plus strategic tokens to demonstrate not-giving-a-damm-about-her-feelings.) Similarly, Norma's co dependent relationship with her younger son has rarely been shown so deeply dysfunctional as when she storms back to George and has sex with him solely because she's pissed off at Norman and wanting to make him jealous (how much more messed up can you get?), but the same time it's impossible for me not to feel a bit of gleeful Schadenfreude re: George because, George, this is so not about you at all. (I don't know what George did to make me so against him, other than being played byVaughn Michael Vartan, but there it is.)
Incidentally, setting aside Norma's messed up relationship with Norman, the earlier scene between Norma and George was interesting to me from a character pov both because it confirmed some things I had concluded from earlier eps about Norma's background beyond the family abuse stuff - i.e. that she never went to college, "barely finished high school" (given she got pregnant at 17 with Dylan and got married to Masset the yet unseen first husband and high school boyfriend, that would be the case) and is completely self educated otherwise. (I have some vague ideas for a story and I need to know these things, so this was useful.) Her outburst towards George had some raw truth beyond this and was, I think, not solely motivated by her Norman issues: what I mean is that parties like Christine's and dinner with George are attractive to Norma the same way the old movies she and Norman like so much are. They're daydreams. As Norman says to Emma in an early s1 episode, everyone looks great and seems to be better in the old movies, "even in the crappy ones" . Norma likes this as a daydream, a completely different world to hers, but not as a reality, not just because her primary emotional commitment will always be to her son but because in her heart she feels unworthy and not belonging in it. (See also her deep discomfort at Christine's dinner for four outing.) So even if there would not have been a Norman crisis right then, I think she'd have turned George down (though less abruptly). (Otoh without a Norman crisis she would not have slept with him. It's interesting that the show never played a moment of UST between Norma and George, on her end, anyway - even when she hugged him, it always came across as spontanous gratitude rather than anything else for her - whereas with Romero there is such tension.)
Meanwhile, Nick Ford does become an involuntary family uniter when demanding that Norma should arrange a meeting between him and Dylan. I appreciate that the show for all that Nick Ford being scary and ruthless is played up doesn't present him as Abernathy, Next Model; he's menacing Norma and making implicit threats, yes, but I also had the impression he meant it when he said he regretted being estranged from his daughter when she died, and that one should make up with one's child while that's still possible. (I.e. I think he was both making a threat and expressing an honest opinion.) In tandem with the Norma and Norman relationship getting worse, the Norma and Dylan one takes at last a turn for the better when Norma, upon still being unable to get Dylan on the phone, enlists Emma as her guide and visits Dylan at work. Resulting in an utter gem of a scene, in which Norma manages to express her deep worry for her son and to get sidetracked into giving health advice about cannabis because that's the way Norma's mind works. (I love her.) And Dylan, while still unable to talk about what happened between them, has stopped with the blaming-Norma-for-everything and instead is not only able to be matter of factly about the current drug war but stares after her downright longingly when she leaves, and gets protective on her behalf when finally meeting Nick Ford. (He does have a "nobody gets to hurt Norma but me" thing going, doesn't he?)
Considering Nick Ford point blank demands Dylan should kill Zane the Idiot and Jodi Morgan implicitly tells him to, I do wonder whether it will occur to Dylan that there is a non-lethal way to get rid of Zane; like, say, getting him arrested for the dozens of people he just co-killed in the warehouse? Because getting into prison for multiple murders would do the trick. This would necessitate a team-up with Alex Romero, of course, and I wonder whether that's why we got the short scene of Romero reminding Dylan of his existence this episode? Other than that, Romero is currently busy with Norma's other son, obviously hoping Norman is in denial about the whole having-had-sex-with-Miss-Watson thing for normal angsty teenager reasons (i.e. being seduced by your teacher who soon dies mysteriously after would be something most teens might be inclined to lie about to the authorities) rather than sinister having-killed-her-reasons, but not excluding the later. For Norman, coming as it does so shortly after finding out his mother is hiding something disturbing about his behavior when blacking out, this news is shattering. And that's before he's getting kidnapped, presumably by Nick Ford's men (Nick Ford having concluded that with Norman as leverage he can make Dylan and Norma do whatever he wants).
Speculation: whatever Dylan intended/intends to do re: Zane the Idiot, this has just ensured Nick Ford a place on my list of people not likely to survive the season. Whether or not Dylan will be the one to actually kill him. Other possibilities now include Norma or Alex Romero. Or Norman himself, because in this episode Norman found out Nick Ford is Blair Watson's father, remember, and Norman has just learned via Romero that he had sex with Miss Watson in the night of her death and is seriously freaked out about being her possible murderer. It may be Norman (while still himself) either deliberately or involuntary ends up revealing to Nick Ford, who wouldn't react peacably, leverage or no leverage, at which point "Mother" in Norman may take over because seriously threatening situations tend to bring out the blackouts.
Outstanding scene of the week: the "you changed the rules" scene between Norman and Norma, both for the emotional powerplay with Norman having the upper hand and for being the one with the most overt oedipal (sub? main?) text between Norman and Norma yet, which is saying something.
Trivia: Remo's reaction to seeing Norma reminded he hasn't met her before (that I recall) and probably formed a different (visual) picture from Dylan's occasional remarks about her.
One of the many reasons why I love this show: it simultanously makes you feel for all the characters and appreciate the black humor. Norman's campaign to either drive his mother to tell him the truth or to punish her for withholding it or both by sheer relentless passive aggressive pseudo nice distance (and tactical placement of his stuffed animals which he knows creep her out) manages to both be funny and, in the long term and knowing about the inevitable ending for Norman and Norma, sinister. (BTW, for all that the gap between them has opened, it also shows how well Norman does know Norma. Him yelling at her would not nearly disconcert her that much as emotional withdrawal plus strategic tokens to demonstrate not-giving-a-damm-about-her-feelings.) Similarly, Norma's co dependent relationship with her younger son has rarely been shown so deeply dysfunctional as when she storms back to George and has sex with him solely because she's pissed off at Norman and wanting to make him jealous (how much more messed up can you get?), but the same time it's impossible for me not to feel a bit of gleeful Schadenfreude re: George because, George, this is so not about you at all. (I don't know what George did to make me so against him, other than being played by
Incidentally, setting aside Norma's messed up relationship with Norman, the earlier scene between Norma and George was interesting to me from a character pov both because it confirmed some things I had concluded from earlier eps about Norma's background beyond the family abuse stuff - i.e. that she never went to college, "barely finished high school" (given she got pregnant at 17 with Dylan and got married to Masset the yet unseen first husband and high school boyfriend, that would be the case) and is completely self educated otherwise. (I have some vague ideas for a story and I need to know these things, so this was useful.) Her outburst towards George had some raw truth beyond this and was, I think, not solely motivated by her Norman issues: what I mean is that parties like Christine's and dinner with George are attractive to Norma the same way the old movies she and Norman like so much are. They're daydreams. As Norman says to Emma in an early s1 episode, everyone looks great and seems to be better in the old movies, "even in the crappy ones" . Norma likes this as a daydream, a completely different world to hers, but not as a reality, not just because her primary emotional commitment will always be to her son but because in her heart she feels unworthy and not belonging in it. (See also her deep discomfort at Christine's dinner for four outing.) So even if there would not have been a Norman crisis right then, I think she'd have turned George down (though less abruptly). (Otoh without a Norman crisis she would not have slept with him. It's interesting that the show never played a moment of UST between Norma and George, on her end, anyway - even when she hugged him, it always came across as spontanous gratitude rather than anything else for her - whereas with Romero there is such tension.)
Meanwhile, Nick Ford does become an involuntary family uniter when demanding that Norma should arrange a meeting between him and Dylan. I appreciate that the show for all that Nick Ford being scary and ruthless is played up doesn't present him as Abernathy, Next Model; he's menacing Norma and making implicit threats, yes, but I also had the impression he meant it when he said he regretted being estranged from his daughter when she died, and that one should make up with one's child while that's still possible. (I.e. I think he was both making a threat and expressing an honest opinion.) In tandem with the Norma and Norman relationship getting worse, the Norma and Dylan one takes at last a turn for the better when Norma, upon still being unable to get Dylan on the phone, enlists Emma as her guide and visits Dylan at work. Resulting in an utter gem of a scene, in which Norma manages to express her deep worry for her son and to get sidetracked into giving health advice about cannabis because that's the way Norma's mind works. (I love her.) And Dylan, while still unable to talk about what happened between them, has stopped with the blaming-Norma-for-everything and instead is not only able to be matter of factly about the current drug war but stares after her downright longingly when she leaves, and gets protective on her behalf when finally meeting Nick Ford. (He does have a "nobody gets to hurt Norma but me" thing going, doesn't he?)
Considering Nick Ford point blank demands Dylan should kill Zane the Idiot and Jodi Morgan implicitly tells him to, I do wonder whether it will occur to Dylan that there is a non-lethal way to get rid of Zane; like, say, getting him arrested for the dozens of people he just co-killed in the warehouse? Because getting into prison for multiple murders would do the trick. This would necessitate a team-up with Alex Romero, of course, and I wonder whether that's why we got the short scene of Romero reminding Dylan of his existence this episode? Other than that, Romero is currently busy with Norma's other son, obviously hoping Norman is in denial about the whole having-had-sex-with-Miss-Watson thing for normal angsty teenager reasons (i.e. being seduced by your teacher who soon dies mysteriously after would be something most teens might be inclined to lie about to the authorities) rather than sinister having-killed-her-reasons, but not excluding the later. For Norman, coming as it does so shortly after finding out his mother is hiding something disturbing about his behavior when blacking out, this news is shattering. And that's before he's getting kidnapped, presumably by Nick Ford's men (Nick Ford having concluded that with Norman as leverage he can make Dylan and Norma do whatever he wants).
Speculation: whatever Dylan intended/intends to do re: Zane the Idiot, this has just ensured Nick Ford a place on my list of people not likely to survive the season. Whether or not Dylan will be the one to actually kill him. Other possibilities now include Norma or Alex Romero. Or Norman himself, because in this episode Norman found out Nick Ford is Blair Watson's father, remember, and Norman has just learned via Romero that he had sex with Miss Watson in the night of her death and is seriously freaked out about being her possible murderer. It may be Norman (while still himself) either deliberately or involuntary ends up revealing to Nick Ford, who wouldn't react peacably, leverage or no leverage, at which point "Mother" in Norman may take over because seriously threatening situations tend to bring out the blackouts.
Outstanding scene of the week: the "you changed the rules" scene between Norman and Norma, both for the emotional powerplay with Norman having the upper hand and for being the one with the most overt oedipal (sub? main?) text between Norman and Norma yet, which is saying something.
Trivia: Remo's reaction to seeing Norma reminded he hasn't met her before (that I recall) and probably formed a different (visual) picture from Dylan's occasional remarks about her.
