Bates Motel 2.09
Apr. 29th, 2014 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakLike most pre-finale episodes, cliffhangery frustrating in an intended way.
To get a slight frustration that has nothing to do with cliffhangers out of the way first, I get that Romero's idea of using a polygraph on Norman is meant to show us that Romero, morally ambiguous as he is, does care about having a potential murderer run around free, and about just what the truth is. However, considering even layperson me knows the reason why a polygraph test isn't admissable these days in court is that it's unreliable, using this particular ploy is illogical. I mean, a teenage boy who isn't Norman Bates but scared could give a false positive simply because his pulse is going faster due to his fear, and someone as experienced as Romero would know that. So I think the writers should have made him come up with another idea to figure out what is really up with Norman (academic right now due to Norman being kidnapped, but presumably Romero will get around to it sooner or later).
Now, on to what actually happens in the episode: huh. I would not have expected the show to kill off Nick Ford before the finale! I mean, it makes total sense why it happened on a Watsonian level - Zane the Idiot suddenly having developed survival brains and having armed henchmen around him all the time, Dylan had no way of assasinating him, Ford had threatened to kill Norman within a day if Zane's dead body wasn't delivered, so killing Ford (who as opposed to Zane did leave his henchmen outside for his conversation with Dylan) was the next step. But on a Doylist level it is very surprising, given that the episode itself made the episode bring the two plot threads of Miss Watson's death and Nick Ford together and let Nick Ford find out (via the pearls, as I thought) that Norman had something to do with his dead daughter. And now Nick Ford never gets to react? Huh. (Unless he's set things in motion between his henchman - Eric? - bringing him the pearls and Dylan arriving which we'll only find out later, but that seems unlikely, given that Norman was in his power at the time, and Ford had no reason not to act on Norman himself if he wanted to.) Well, I suppose one reason for this choice may be so the finale could focus not so much on an external threat (i.e. Nick Ford) but on an internal (Norman having now remembered about Miss Watson, courtesy of being locked up in a coffin like box for 24 hours at least). (There's still Zane and Ford's people as far as external threats to Dylan, if not the rest of the family, go, but persumably that's where Romero will come in.)
Poor Emma. Poor, poor Emma. I mean, her timing was horrible - chances are Norma wouldn't have told her about the more usual type of Bates family quarrel, either, but there was no way she'd confide in Emma under these particular circumstances, with Nick Ford having threatened to kill Norman if she told anyone - but you could see how much it hurt her when Norma just accepted her quitting instead of protesting, trying to dissuade her and/or confide in her. Emma has made Norma into her replacement mother, and it was never more visible than when she decided to stay anyway instead of driving off when George showed up, instead returning to Norma and hugging her.
Speaking of George: I assume that's it. (Unless he's revealed as taking over Nick Ford's organisation at the end of the finale.) Can't say I'm sorry, and Norma's outburst about him not being real pretty much goes with my headcanon on how she sees him.
Norma was pretty much condemmed to reacting through the episode, and I hope in the finale she'll get to do something active again. My guess is Norman will be liberated early on in the finale rather than the show doing a "will they find Norman in time?" plot, which would be silly - we know Norman can't die, even if the characters don't, he's the sole character whose survival is ironclad guaranteed. So one question will be how Norma, once Norman's life isn't under immediate threat anymore, will respond to the latest confirmation/revelation from Romero re: Norman in the night of Blair Watson's death. Because this is different from Norman's other outbursts of violence when blacking out. (BTW, that scene where Norma after closing the door behind her breaks down in that mixture of taking breaths, sobs and hiccups was fantastic acting on Vera Farmiga's part again.) This had nothing to do with him wanting to protect someone. I suppose Norma might still try to tell herself Norman having had sex with Miss Watson doesn't mean he also killed her, because Norma is the queen of denial, but that's not what this scene looked like to me.
Which brings me to: Norman at last having the flashbacks (complete with his hallucinated inner Mother) to the night of Blar Watson's death. So he did kill her her after all. I have the very strong suspicion, that since Norman canonically can't tell apart his hallucinations of Norma from the real thing (we could see that in season 1 when he insisted that she'd told him to get the belt from Shelby, which the audience knew she hadn't; his hallucination had), that his way of coping with the horror of that realization is going to be that he'll insist Norma told him to do it. And won't believe her if she says she didn't, not least because she didn't tell him about his blackouts. Which fits with the show's theme of Norma's efforts to help her son contributing to his doom, and thus also hers.
To get a slight frustration that has nothing to do with cliffhangers out of the way first, I get that Romero's idea of using a polygraph on Norman is meant to show us that Romero, morally ambiguous as he is, does care about having a potential murderer run around free, and about just what the truth is. However, considering even layperson me knows the reason why a polygraph test isn't admissable these days in court is that it's unreliable, using this particular ploy is illogical. I mean, a teenage boy who isn't Norman Bates but scared could give a false positive simply because his pulse is going faster due to his fear, and someone as experienced as Romero would know that. So I think the writers should have made him come up with another idea to figure out what is really up with Norman (academic right now due to Norman being kidnapped, but presumably Romero will get around to it sooner or later).
Now, on to what actually happens in the episode: huh. I would not have expected the show to kill off Nick Ford before the finale! I mean, it makes total sense why it happened on a Watsonian level - Zane the Idiot suddenly having developed survival brains and having armed henchmen around him all the time, Dylan had no way of assasinating him, Ford had threatened to kill Norman within a day if Zane's dead body wasn't delivered, so killing Ford (who as opposed to Zane did leave his henchmen outside for his conversation with Dylan) was the next step. But on a Doylist level it is very surprising, given that the episode itself made the episode bring the two plot threads of Miss Watson's death and Nick Ford together and let Nick Ford find out (via the pearls, as I thought) that Norman had something to do with his dead daughter. And now Nick Ford never gets to react? Huh. (Unless he's set things in motion between his henchman - Eric? - bringing him the pearls and Dylan arriving which we'll only find out later, but that seems unlikely, given that Norman was in his power at the time, and Ford had no reason not to act on Norman himself if he wanted to.) Well, I suppose one reason for this choice may be so the finale could focus not so much on an external threat (i.e. Nick Ford) but on an internal (Norman having now remembered about Miss Watson, courtesy of being locked up in a coffin like box for 24 hours at least). (There's still Zane and Ford's people as far as external threats to Dylan, if not the rest of the family, go, but persumably that's where Romero will come in.)
Poor Emma. Poor, poor Emma. I mean, her timing was horrible - chances are Norma wouldn't have told her about the more usual type of Bates family quarrel, either, but there was no way she'd confide in Emma under these particular circumstances, with Nick Ford having threatened to kill Norman if she told anyone - but you could see how much it hurt her when Norma just accepted her quitting instead of protesting, trying to dissuade her and/or confide in her. Emma has made Norma into her replacement mother, and it was never more visible than when she decided to stay anyway instead of driving off when George showed up, instead returning to Norma and hugging her.
Speaking of George: I assume that's it. (Unless he's revealed as taking over Nick Ford's organisation at the end of the finale.) Can't say I'm sorry, and Norma's outburst about him not being real pretty much goes with my headcanon on how she sees him.
Norma was pretty much condemmed to reacting through the episode, and I hope in the finale she'll get to do something active again. My guess is Norman will be liberated early on in the finale rather than the show doing a "will they find Norman in time?" plot, which would be silly - we know Norman can't die, even if the characters don't, he's the sole character whose survival is ironclad guaranteed. So one question will be how Norma, once Norman's life isn't under immediate threat anymore, will respond to the latest confirmation/revelation from Romero re: Norman in the night of Blair Watson's death. Because this is different from Norman's other outbursts of violence when blacking out. (BTW, that scene where Norma after closing the door behind her breaks down in that mixture of taking breaths, sobs and hiccups was fantastic acting on Vera Farmiga's part again.) This had nothing to do with him wanting to protect someone. I suppose Norma might still try to tell herself Norman having had sex with Miss Watson doesn't mean he also killed her, because Norma is the queen of denial, but that's not what this scene looked like to me.
Which brings me to: Norman at last having the flashbacks (complete with his hallucinated inner Mother) to the night of Blar Watson's death. So he did kill her her after all. I have the very strong suspicion, that since Norman canonically can't tell apart his hallucinations of Norma from the real thing (we could see that in season 1 when he insisted that she'd told him to get the belt from Shelby, which the audience knew she hadn't; his hallucination had), that his way of coping with the horror of that realization is going to be that he'll insist Norma told him to do it. And won't believe her if she says she didn't, not least because she didn't tell him about his blackouts. Which fits with the show's theme of Norma's efforts to help her son contributing to his doom, and thus also hers.
