The Bates Motel - Nice Town You Picked, Norma

Just off the top. I'll add pics later.

There’s this one particular scene, late in the episode, which pretty much solidifies why I think Farmiga is absolutely perfect in this show and will be so compelling for the duration of Bates Motel. I think it is a brilliant piece of acting. Max Theriot’s character shows up on Norma’s doorstep, having called her in the previous episode. I was indifferent towards him when he first turns up in the episode, but when we get to the brilliant piece of acting from Farmiga, I knew he would add a unique spin to the formula involving Mama and Son Bates. Max Theriot is Norma’s other son, Dylan Bates. He’s a bad dude the moment you see him. I thought to myself, one word, when he pops up for the first time on screen, “Trouble.” But you know, there’s something to him. He’s not just some troublemaker who wants to cause nonstop misery. He seems to be on a certain mission (besides his being broke and no place else to go…) to rescue Norman from Norma (he seems to enjoy calling her by her name and she seems infuriatingly annoyed by it each time). Towards the end, Dylan is listening to a record player and “chillin’” when she disrupts his late night relaxation in the living room. Prior to this encounter, Norma arrives home from attending a “woodcutters festival” to find Norman’s face bruised after a violent scuffle (that was certainly one-sided) with Dylan. Dylan has labeled Norma’s name (number) on his cell “Whore” and it enrages Norman. How dare Dylan even remotely consider her a Whore. Norman is so incensed that he picks up a meat tenderizer and attempts to bash Dylan’s head in with it. I’ll tell you, for a brief moment, I thought Dylan was in deep shit. Dylan couldn’t possibly exit this picture just yet, though. But it does say that Norman will defend his mother’s honor even if he doesn’t realize she’s not exactly the model of moral turpitude he so covets in his heart. When Norma demands Dylan leave the house because of how toxic he is, the young man lays out a not-so-subtle blackmail. Dylan provokes a response, let me tell you. The response is what I thought was brilliant. Dylan mentions how Norman’s pops, Sam, might not have died as it seemed, and he hints that he could just mention to the authorities how it wasn’t exactly a household of affection and warmth. Norma soaks it in (I mean she literally shows us the impact Dylan has on her with those choice words of warning), contemplates for about a few seconds (she takes a deep breath and I thought you could see her allowing his words of threatening to gain merit), and then tells him to not listen to the music so loud. I thought it was brilliant because you don’t get a heated exchange (they have them, sure, plenty of back and forth animosity and verbal strikes at each other) between the two, but what Dylan proposes is viable and realistic. Her character knows he could crumble all she is starting to build for her and Norman. It is so brief, but I think what an actress of Farmiga’s caliber can do so many other less capable actresses couldn’t with lines and lines of dialogue.

The show, for me, is so captivating due to how it lays out subtle hints and clues as to potential character arcs on the horizon. We learn in conversations between Norma and Deputy Shelby (Mike Vogel; what I thought in the first episode is further developed here in regards to his character and Norma having a fling with each other) that the sheriff was good childhood friends with Summers. The sheriff once again is an asshole to Norma, but at least we now know why he’s so off-putting towards her. He mentions when approaching her door with questions about a meeting she had with Summers that she had stolen the property out from under him at a foreclosure sale. We saw what Summers was capable of when he raped Norma in the previous episode, and how he trashed her; not to mention, the way he exploded with all that rage and bitching upon their very first meeting in what was once his yard to Norma. So if Summers is this way—to keep such sorry company—what does that say about the sheriff? He does tell Norma that she doesn’t want him for an enemy. They find Summers truck and the search for him is on. This wasn’t just some story that was to flee all because he took a powder once the show no longer needed him. His death isn’t just about to fade into the forgotten. His body will probably surface eventually; when it does, what will the sheriff be like then?

The writers use Vogel as kind of a voice of the town. There’s known corruption (we later see marijuana growers, who speak Spanish…) in White Pine Bay. The logging was stopped “by the tree huggers” and so illegal activity (drugs) keeps the town alive. Soon Dylan will get involved with those who traffic drugs. Will Norma and Norman be able to avoid those Dylan gets heavily involved with?

There’s a man burned damn near alive, Bradley’s father, who “owns a warehouse”, crashing his car and nearly hitting Norman in the process. Bradley’s “boyfriend” (I guess that is what he is; he gives Norman the cold shoulder when he brings a flower for Bradley) tells Norman he’ll see she gets his flower delivered in person to the hospital. I guess we can figure after watching the episode complete that his warehouse has drug trafficking involved. Late in the episode, a man is burning, hanging upside down, a possible warning sign that all is not well in White Pine Bay. Vogel’s Shelby speaks for the writers in that this town will do what it takes to survive. Shelby indeed admits to Norma that the police department knowingly looks the other way, allowing criminal activity to continue. Not in so blunt terms, but he says enough to convince Norma (and us) that because of the absence of log cutting, a strong economic source for the town, there has to be money made and that those “fancy European cars” and nice suburban homes were bought and paid for somehow.

Another character arc emphasized in Emma with her cystic fibrosis and fixation on the bondage book Norman finds in the hotel room he was pulling carpet, with drawings of women to be used as sex slaves, a murder, a shed, and a burial. This was how Norman and Emma find themselves running through the woods from Spanish machine-gun toting marijuana security. There’s an awkward, really uncomfortable scene where Emma comes over to meet with Norman in preparing a partnership poem for their language arts class. Norma wonders about Emma’s condition, even asking her about the life expectancy! Even Dylan is taken aback by such nerve. I think Norma even glimmers and nearly smirks when Emma says, 27. It is a peek into the less civilized Norma. As is White Pine Bay, Norma has iniquity. Sam’s fate, the bondage art book, marijuana, burned bodies, plenty of darkness exists. Within the episode, there’s a tender moment where Emma kisses Norman, and he’s giddy about it. It is that one moment within such a really dark episode, and the writers and direction certainly wants us to see sympathize with Emma and embrace her. With so much darkness, a little light isn’t bad, is it?