Bates Motel – “The Box”

The Box – Season 2, Episode 9 – original air date 4/28/2014

It’s kinda funny to see Norma tiptoeing in the house, like a teenager sneaking home after a night with her boyfriend.  Here she is, worried that she will disturb Norman.  Little does she know that there is no Norman to disturb.

Of course we knew who took Norman.  That was no surprise.   This was set up well in the last couple episodes.  It’s also no surprise that Norma would freak out, and immediately go to Dylan.  How about that look on Norma’s face, when Dylan tells her what Nick Ford wants him to do.  Obviously she was expecting something a little less violent, but to watch her face, as she goes from shock, to horror, to acceptance and resolve, all in a few seconds, is frightening.    It is one thing to be willing to kill for your son.  It’s another to ask one son to kill to save another.

And let’s not forget that Norma is the one that really got Norman into this mess.  She is the one who got in deep with Nick Ford.  Granted, she didn’t know who and what he was, at first, but for her to blame Dylan for Norman’s abduction is pretty sad.  But even worse than that is the way Norma so icily dismisses Emma, rather than confide in her.   Emma embodies everything that the Bates family is missing, and needs to find in themselves.

The outcome of the Dylan/Nick Ford meeting was not a big surprise, but it was pleasing; I was beginning to worry that Dylan might not make it to season three.    This doesn’t change the fact that Zane really needs to go.

It makes sense that Norman’s confinement in the box would lead to an amplification of his mental problems.  And the big reveal finally confirms what we figured was the truth.  All in all, a very good episode.

Vera Farmiga deserves an Emmy nomination for her excellent work this season, don’t ya think?

 

 

Bates Motel Season One recap: best, worst, unanswered questions

Bates Motel debuted in mid March with a lot of hype and a lot of anticipation.  Now that season one is wrapped up, let’s take a look back at some of the best and worst moments.

Best overall performance:    Freddie Highmore does a spectacular job as the young Norman Bates.  In many ways he follows in the footsteps of Anthony Perkins.  There is no deliberate attempt to mimic Perkins’ performance, but Highmore manages to create a very real character who generates a lot of sympathy from the viewers of the show.   Vera Farmiga probably has the most difficult role, because Norma Bates is certainly a contributing factor to Norman’s mental state, and it would have been easy to make her a villain.  But she is not.  It is very hard to vilify her, because we see her own struggles, and her genuine concern for her children, as misguided as it might be at times.

Best supporting character:   Olivia Cooke does a wonderful job as Emma.   When she first appeared on screen with her oxygen tank in tow I groaned and thought “Oh great!  The token character battling a serious illness.”  What a pleasant surprise to see that Emma is much more.  Her character is very endearing, and often provokes a much needed smile from the viewer, something this show needs from time to time.

Worst supporting character:   This is a minor quibble, because all of the supporting characters are good.  But Keith Summers, played by W. Earl Brown, is a shallow caricature at best.  Granted, his character is killed off in the first episode, so there is really no time for character development.  He almost has to step on screen portraying menace from the first second.  Still, it did not need to be so painfully obvious that he was going to do something bad, and be killed in the process.

Best episode:  Episode 6, titled “The Truth”, was a real standout.  It featured the Bates family members all uniting together to take down Deputy Shelby.   The family dynamic was believable;  it was nice to be rooting for the family unit as a whole.  And the tension level was very high.  I have seen season finales of other dramatic shows that could not compare to this mid-season episode.

Worst episode:    There is no really bad episode, but episode nine (“Underwater”), felt like the series was just treading water; there was no real ratcheting of the tension leading into the series finale.  And the ending “surprise”, with Jere Burns character Abernathy hiding in the back of Norma’s car with a gun, was predictably boring and cliched.

Best reference to the original Psycho movie:  There are several moments in this series that recall the original movie.  My personal favorite is the origin of Norman Bates interest in taxidermy.  Recalling the scene in Psycho when Norman Bates talks about how he likes “stuffing things”, one can almost imagine him recalling a dead dog from his childhood.  The shows’ writers managed to take what many would consider to be a creepy hobby and add an endearing touch.  Bravo!

Creepiest/most shocking moment:  There are plenty of choices here.  My favorite would be Deputy Shelby’s decomposing, post-autopsy corpse lying in Norma’s bed.  Truly shocking, and completely unexpected.  The runner-up moment would have to be Norman and his mother snuggled up together in Norman’s small bed.

Unanswered questions:   For starters, Sheriff Romero’s character is one giant enigma.  He was written and played very mysteriously all season, and even though viewers might have a little better understanding of him now, there is a lot we don’t know about him.   We have to assume he knows about and probably condones the pot-growing operation.  But what about all the deaths?  For a very small town, a lot of people die, many in gruesome fashion.  Does Romero have any real authority, or does Dylan’s boss run the town?  How could someone being hung upside-down and set on fire in the middle of town be such a ho-hum affair?  A similar event in a major metropolitan city would create a media frenzy.

Body count:  Keith Summers, Bradley’s father, the unnamed person hanging upside-down and on fire, Ethan (the Asian dude that is Dylan’s partner watching the pot fields), Jiao (the poor Chinese girl), Deputy Shelby, Jake Abernathy, Miss Watson.  Eight murders in one small town in a few short months.  That would almost certainly make the fictitious White Pines Bay the murder capital of America, yeah?

Overall rating:  Season one of Bates Motel gets a solid A rating.  It can appeal to fans of Hitchcock’s original film, and a younger generation of viewers that have never seen it.  It is both contemporary and classic.  It has good writing, great performances, and likable characters.  It channels its influences well (Psycho, Twin Peaks, Lost), while still being original.  We can only hope season two lives up to the high standards established here.

Bates Motel – Episode 10 (Season finale): “Midnight”

Midnight – Episode 10 – original airdate 5/20/2013 For the last three episodes, this show has been building up for a Norma/Abernathy showdown.  After the somewhat formulaic ending of last week’s episode (how many times have we seen the bad guy suddenly pop up in the back seat of the car and place a gun to the driver’s head?) it was natural to assume that this season would end with the Bates family facing off with the sinister sleazebag Abernathy.   Or would it?  There have also been plenty of surprises, so maybe the season would end with another didn’t-see-that-coming moment.   How about a little of both?

First off, hats off to writers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin, who also wrote the excellent episode 6, and the underwhelming episode 9.  This is a very well-written conclusion to the first season, and it  does just what a good season finale should do:  it answers some questions, provides some clues to others, and piques the viewers’ interest for next season.  Last week I questioned the relevance of the Norman/Miss Watson storyline,  saying that it was wasted screen time if it didn’t build to something.   Well the writers knew exactly what they were doing, because it builds to something pretty big, and completely unexpected.  

Nestor Carbonell continues to impress as Sheriff Romero.  His character has been hard to peg;  he has been written and played as a guy who may go either way.  Is he the good sheriff who cares about his town, or is he just another Shelby, or worse?  I found myself cheering for his actions in this episode, although I think there are still questions about him and his choices.

So lets review Norman’s last day of season one.  He asks Emma to the dance (or Emma tricks him into asking her); he overhears Miss Watson having a violent conversation on her cell phone, after which she gives him another of those awkward embraces; he sees Bradley and Dylan together and realizes that they are clearly attracted to each other;  his mother Norma confesses to him that her brother forced her to have sex with him while she was a teenager (really Norma?  while you are waiting with your son for his date to arrive, his date to his first ever school dance, that’s when you decide to spring that?  Granted, you are worried about your showdown with Abernathy, but still, how could you?); Norman stares at Bradley at the dance, prompting Emma to leave (way to be a jerk Norman, she is clearly the girl for you);  Bradley’s bf punches Norman in the face; Norman is walking home from the dance in the rain, when a car pulls up… (Pretty messed up day, huh?  Any wonder he has problems?)

The expected showdown is kind of a bait and switch by the writers, giving us what we wanted, and something else we didn’t expect, which left me pleased overall, and hungry for more.

Stay tuned next week for a season one summary, including some questions that didn’t get answered this season.

Bates Motel – Episode 9: “Underwater”

Underwater – Episode 9 – original airdate 5/13/2013

So last week’s episode ended with what has to be the creepiest, most shocking, what-the-hell moment yet in this series.  It was quite a present that Jake Abernathy left for Norma.   Deputy Shelby is such a cad,  he just can’t keep out of Norma’s bed, even post-autopsy.  That seemed to set this week’s episode up for some incredible tension, right?  The season finale is only one week away.  Instead, this episode kind of fizzled.

Norman has some further interaction with his English teacher, Miss Watson, played by Keegan Connor Tracy.   Miss Watson has popped up in a couple of previous episodes,  and she’s always trying to nurture Norman, to encourage him to step out.  There is something a bit awkward and off-putting in the way she looks and speaks to Norman.  It’s unclear whether the show’s writers are setting up something with this student/teacher relationship; if they are not, then it is really wasted screen time.

Dylan befriends Bradley, and even risks his job to help her out.  It’s pretty clear that there is mutual attraction between the two, and the implications of a Dylan/Bradley hook-up could not be good for anyone’s sake.    Emma eats a pot-laced cupcake, which was a cute moment, but a moment that seemed to exist only to provide a little comic relief.

Best line in this episode:  Norma asking the question “Why do crazy people keep gravitating towards me?”

Creepy mother/son moment:  Norma asks Norman if she can sleep in his room.  He offers to sleep on the floor, but mother is having none of that…she climbs right in bed with Norman.  Right into his small twin bed, the two of them snuggled up close.   It could almost be a sweet moment, were it any other mother and son.

Jere Burns’ evil character Jake Abernathy makes an appearance at the end that seems almost obligatory.  Really, as surprising as the last episode’s ending was, this one was equally predictable.   In a show that has been consistently strong, this is one of the weaker episodes to appear up to this point.    Fans will expect much more than this for the season finale, and I’m confident the show will deliver.