While this week’s episode of Bates Motel had it’s moments (mostly in the last ten minutes), it was a bit of a letdown after last week’s stellar episode. Not to sound like a broken record, but the best parts came from scenes involving Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, while all of the other scenes kind of dragged on.
It’s probably telling that an episode isn’t going to be the strongest when the main conflict is a large hole being dug in the ground. No seriously, the entire plot of this episode surrounds the “pool” that Bob Paris promised Norma he would dig for the motel. Of course this is no regular pool, it’s 23 feet deep! Needless to say, it’s not all that exciting (or particularly threatening).
The good that comes from all of this is that it distracts Norma enough for Bob to kidnap James and question him about Norma (that nail through the toe made me cringe, I admit). Thankfully (for the audience, not Norma), James tells Bob everything that Norma told him, and Bob tells Romero. I can’t be the only one who was hoping Norma would just break down and tell Romero the truth about how her husband died when he asked (especially since it was so obvious that he already knew), but it looks like Norma will be without a protector as the season heads to its end. Romero never registered much in the first two seasons, but he’s proving to be one of this season’s MVPs. Nestor Carbonell doesn’t get enough praise for his work, and he deserves it here.
Speaking of endings, this episode had a humdinger of one. After Norma discovered that Bob knew all of her dirty little secrets, she had no choice but to tell Norman. It was yet another stellar scene between Farmiga and Highmore, but the best part came when Mother appeared after Normal left the basement. Even though Farmiga and Highmore are not actually related, it was sufficiently creepy to see him slowly start to undress her. Luckily, he came to his senses and ran outside, only to find a stalled car with none other than BRADLEY standing next to it.
Bradley’s reappearance is weird. There’s no better way to put it. She was never a compelling character while she was on it in Bates Motel’s first season. That being said, it may prove to be much more interesting than some of the things going on with Dyland and Caleb (more on that in a bit). If they brought her back only to kill her off (which I suspect might be the case) I will be pretty annoyed, though.
Emma breaking up with Norman feels like something that should have happened a few episodes ago, as their brief romance never rang true to the series. It’s been a long time coming but it does call into question how much longer she will be around as a character. It’s looking like the show is leaning towards setting her up with Dylan, but that will probably not sit well with Norman.
In the (much) less interesting part of the episode (that took up way too much screen time), Caleb and Dylan go on a gun run for Chick and mayhem ensues. It wasn’t particularly surprising that the entire thing was a trap (the buyers were intent on killing Chick which is why he send Caleb and Dylan in his place), it’s just that now that that cat’s out of the bag, it seems that the final two episodes of the season will focus on getting rid of Chick. The level of “do not care” I have for that particular plot line is astounding. I admit that for a second, I thought Dylan might actually be killed, so there was some level of suspense. It just seems like the show would have been better off never introducing Chick and his gun-running subplot in the first place so that Bates Motel could focus on more important (read: exciting) things.
A perfectly average episode of Bates Motel, made only the more disappointing since the series was coming off hot after last week’s spectacular episode. With only two episodes left in the season, here’s hoping they pack a whallop and land a little more smoothly than this one did.
Random Notes
- “What the hell is goin’ on?” -Norma’s Southern accent slips out upon seeing the “pool” being dug, and it’s hilarious.
- So Norman is clearly going to kill Bob, right?
- “You’re the manager just go get some fencing!” -Norma throwing that manager position in Norman’s face just like she did two episodes ago.
- Norma, it’s not normal for Norman to be turned on by you. Just an FYI.
- Gunner is still into Emma, in case you were wondering.
- “You said I could tell you about anything and it would be safe!” -Norma, he had a nail shot into his feet. Cut the guy some slack.
- Here’s the promo for next week’s penultimate episode, “Crazy”