Bates Motel: Recap of Episode 3.08 – The Pit; First Details on Episode 3.09 – Crazy
Yours truly was off recap duty last week, but now I’m back and will be around through the season finale. So… where were we?
Previously, on “Bates Motel”: Norma used the incriminating flash drive in her possession to blackmail Bob Paris to benefit her motel business (including the inclusion of a swimming pool to be installed at the Bates at Bob Paris’ expense); Dylan found himself growing closer to Emma, even as he learned from her father about the (rather expensive) possibility of moving Emma’s name to the top of the organ donor list – leading Dylan to take a dangerous gunrunning job from mountain man Chick, all to Caleb’s consternation; Norma, in a moment of weakness, spilled the beans about Norman’s culpability in the death of his father to James Finnigan, whom she enlists to speak with Norman – a meeting that finds the would-be shrink suggesting to Norman that he might be sexually attracted to his mother, a suggestion that enrages Norman to such a degree that he attacks Finnigan and sends him racing from the home; the Bates House saw a large gathering of visitors sit down to a meal with one another, including the previously estranged Caleb and the currently Norma-smitten Sheriff Romero; the last episode then ended with a rather (okay… extremely) creepy moment of Norman caressing a sleeping Norma’s thigh.
As tonight’s episode (#3.08 – “The Pit”) opens, we find Dylan reminding Norma that something must be done about Norman, just before she notices a work crew in the front lot of her motel, digging up the ground for – as they insist – her swimming pool, compliments of Bob Paris. Meanwhile, Romero retrieves Norma’s old car from the dealership where she’d traded it in during her flight from sanity. He returns the car to a grateful Norma and takes a quick break from their burgeoning sexual tension to notice the hole being dug for her swimming pool – a hole that is so large and deep, it seems more like a mass grave. And a message.
Romero pays a visit to Bob Paris to discuss this vague threat, even as Paris had spent the morning questioning (and torturing) Finnigan for any information regarding Norma’s flash drive, or really anything that might give him some manner of leverage over Norma. Paris uses one vital piece of gained info (that Norman murdered his father and that Norma had been lying all this time to keep that fact a secret) to manipulate Romero and turn him against Norma. When Romero pays her a visit to question her about this, she lies yet again – fully severing their friendship and sending Romero away in a huff.
As all of this plays out, Dylan is prepped by Chick for his gunrunning job. Caleb appears and eventually just insists that he ride along with Dylan to the meet. Emma breaks up with Norman – even as she grows closer and closer to Dylan – leading Norman to brood in his room and hallucinate yet again (his deceased dog, this time). Dylan and Caleb eventually take their trip, only to find themselves in a gunfight with their double-crossing contacts at the drop point.
Back at the Bates house, Norman eventually confides in Norma the assumptions that Finnigan made about his attraction to her. Norma, bless her heart, tries to excuse this in the worst possible way – insisting that there’s nothing wrong with him before bear-hugging the poor boy and dragging him into bed alongside her. Norma eventually seeks out Finnigan, only to find him beaten, bruised, and well on his way to leaving town. Before he departs, he informs her that he revealed Norman’s role in his father’s death to Paris as he was being tortured. Norma tells Norman this, leading to a heated conversation between the two that eventually finds Norma exploding on him – shouting out that the stress of being his mother is killing her: ”You’re killing me, Norman!” (mind the tea, Norma).
Norman, devastated, is soon visited by Figment Norma. This imaginary version of his mother attempts to seduce him, sending him racing away into the night – down the dark road right into town, right up to a solitary figure standing just inside the town limits: Bradley Martin, returned home at long last.
Overall, tonight’s episode of “Bates Motel” was solid if not spectacular, boasting the handsome production values and uniformly excellent performances one expects from this show, while dropping the ball a bit when it came to the show’s momentum. That’s not to say that nothing happened – indeed, there was plenty of plot to chew over by episode’s end. However, the lack of urgency in this episode reminds one of this season’s somewhat middling initial installment. Worse than that, the episode’s gunfight seemed as hilariously out of place in this show as any moment in last season’s pot wars storyline.
If there’s one major issue I have with this series (which I otherwise love), it’s its tendency to go too far over the top with the crime/drug/noir angle the show insists on featuring. It’s a shame, as Dylan and Caleb are two of the show’s most fascinating characters and are strong enough to carry a subplot without the need to resort to ho-hum action sequences.
Still, for all that, the episode was very much worth the watch. And, with only two episodes left this season, one imagines the following installments will manage to successfully ratchet up the show’s tension considerably. Here’s looking forward to them.
“Bates Motel” Episode 3.09 – “Crazy” (airs 5/4/15)
Norman spends the day with a surprising visitor. Norma struggles to keep secrets contained. While at the farm, Caleb helps Dylan follow through on a good deed, but at a cost.
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