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tv_talk2014-02-23 02:12 pm
eevilalice) wrote in tv_talk2014-02-23 02:12 pm
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Bates Motel: Primer and Homebase
Welcome to the homebase for the A&E series, Bates Motel. Each week you'll find a thread for the newest episode, so we can discuss its twists and horrors together.
First, a primer.
Bates Motel is a modern day prequel to Hitchcock's Psycho, centering on Norman and his mother, Norma, as they move to the titular motel in a coastal Oregon town. Norma is hoping for a new start for herself and Norman after her husband's death, and buying and running the run-down motel is her plan. Of course, there are plenty of unforeseen complications, especially since the town has a touch of Twin Peaks strangeness and corruption to it.
I know what you're thinking. A Psycho prequel? Really? Two things should convince you to give the show a shot: its pedigree and its cast. Among others, the series is (executive) produced by Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (Friday Night Lights). It both builds intrigue and mysteries while creating complex characters. And then it scares the crap out of you.
Cast/Characters (As of Season 2)
Vera Farmiga plays Norma Bates.
She's high-strung, cloying, yet honestly put-upon and sincerely caring. She's smart but vulnerable at times. You may not be able to stand her at all, and you may deeply sympathize with her, all within one episode.
Freddie Highmore plays Norman Bates.
Like Norma, you might feel sorry for Norman or be terrified or horribly creeped out by him in the space of a breath. Often he's simply a normal teenage boy by all appearances, crushing on girls, wanting his own space, sneaking out late at night. Buuut then there's the blackouts and weird stuff he keeps under his bed...
Max Thieriot plays Dylan Massett.
Dylan is Norma's other, older son, and Norman's half-brother. He's more of an outsider, and drifts into town and into their lives against Norma's wishes. He clashes with the family, especially when he urges Norman to live his own life, but he proves indispensable, too.
Olivia Cooke plays Emma Decody.
Emma is a smart, inquisitive girl in Norman's class who quickly develops an interest in him. She has cystic fibrosis and sees Norman's own strange health issues and outsider-y status as something akin to hers.
Nestor Carbonell plays Sheriff Alex Romero.
As sheriff, Romero and Norma butt heads as she struggles to accomplish what she wants with the motel and deals with, er, other complications. Given the town's penchant for ongoing shady activities, Romero is someone who is tough to read.
You can stream Season 1 episodes on Netflix, Amazon, and at the A&E site.
The second season begins Monday, March 3rd! Episodes air at
2.09 The Box
Re: 2.09 The Box
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.
Re: 2.09 The Box
You mention Romero's obsessiveness (or, well, it felt like obsessiveness to me) regarding using a polygraph to learn the truth about Norman's role the night Miss Watson was killed. It wasn't the polygraph aspect that bugged me; it was the weird way in which they framed Romero's desire for the truth, like he was some Mulder (from The X-Files) figure who's on the crusade for it. He does mention having put someone else away for the crime, though that doesn't seem to be his prime motivation. It's like an ingrained need to know I don't believe we've seen from him before, to the point where I started wondering if there was something else going on (did he have a thing with Miss Watson, etc.). Ultimately, it felt like a wrench thrown in the works to keep the tension up (like, "Uh oh, Romero's onto Norman while all this other crap is happening! What's Norma going to do?"). I'm guessing Romero will have a role in finding Norman.
Also feeling contrived to me this episode, though it was set up last week was Ford's thugs finding Miss Watson's necklace AND, conveniently, the newspaper article on her in Norman's pocket. The fact that Dylan kills Nick Ford (and it's unclear to me how on purpose that was since he was trying to ask him where Norman was) before anything happens with that was unexpected to say the least. The only thing I can think is maybe Romero finds it? Could he go to Ford's knowing (from Norma) that he has Norman, discover him dead (talking or otherwise getting his way past Ford's people), and find the pearls and article?
I thought perhaps Zane is less of an idiot than we thought. His little interrogation of Dylan along those lines indicated that he's aware what Dylan and his sister think of him. Ultimately, he may turn out to be right about Ford (regardless, that dude's dead; will the war shift to a civil one between Zane and Jodi?).
I like your suggestion in the last paragraph on how things might go--Norman actually thinking Norma told him to kill Miss Watson. Especially because now that we know Norman did do it (and it's funny to me that I basically discounted that)--and I don't think there's wiggle room in that interpretation--I'm remembering how I was not a fan of that idea at the end of last season. It felt both too soon and somehow psychologically without motivation? The events of this season have only made it feel less probable to me that he killed her. I'm having a hard time figuring out in my own head why, so it's difficult to articulate. But thinking about it in terms of him believing Norma told him to makes it more plausible.
I don't believe Norma will be in denial about Norman killing Miss Watson. If you think about "Presumed Innocent," the problem was that when it comes to him and his blackouts, it's the one area where she accepts and readily believes that Norman is capable of murder because of what happened with Mr. Bates. When she initially learns Norman was at Miss Watson's that night she has that fear. She's only relieved when someone else is convicted. Does she deny this knowledge to Norman's face? Yes. Does she pretend outwardly that things are fine? For the most part, yes. But in this area she definitely doesn't doubt what her son is capable of, and it's one of her chief motivators for not telling Norman about his blackouts.
Re: 2.09 The Box
Hm, that actually wasn't my impression. I think it wasn't a Mulderish desire for the truth per se but a mixture of practical and emotional reasons. First of all, he's all about control and making the trains arrive on time in his town, so to speak, in general. He seems to be okay with the drug business as long as it's not escalating into gang warfare. (Sex trade also seems to be on the wrong side of the line for him, given Shelby had to do it behind his back and that he killed Abarnathy.) He was ready to put Miss Watson's other lover away despite the possibility the guy may not have had committed this particular murder because Romero knew him to be guilty of other murders; which would indicate a dislike of having loose canon killers in town. Now if Norman, whom so far he's seen as good kid, killed Miss Watson after having had sex with her, there is something seriously wrong with Norman, and he would definitely be a loose canon. Plus Norman is Norma's son; whether or not Romero has developed feelings for Norma, he has a certain history with her now (that includes the whole Shelby business and Romero taking part in a cover up, and she saw him shoot a man point blank) which presumably he would not want to go public. So yes, I understand why Romero wants to be certain whether or not Norman did it. But not via a polygraph!
Could he go to Ford's knowing (from Norma) that he has Norman, discover him dead (talking or otherwise getting his way past Ford's people), and find the pearls and article?
Unless the show asks us to believe Dylan can make a quick getaway on his lonesome from Nick Ford's property without any of his henchmen discovering he just killed their boss, I'm thinking Romero pretty much HAS to go to Ford next. Since he's the sheriff, he's the one person the henchmen would plausibly let in without being authorized to by Nick Ford. And it would make sense, given what he's just been told by Norma.
re: Norman killing Miss Watson - I know what you mean with "too soon", though the motivation sort of works given that Norman was in a state of humiliation and sexual frustration (Bradley's boyfriend had punched him, Bradley had made it clear she had no further interest in him), and he felt guilty about being attracted to Miss Watson (otherwise "Mother" wouldn't have shown up in his mind to remark on it in the first place), and about sharing a secret with her (the story he'd written) which he saw as somehow betraying his mother to her. (Norman told Miss Watson his mother wouldn't want him to publish the story even though he actually never spoke with Norma about it, and she to this day has no idea he's written it.) When he became Mother in the Caleb case, he enacted what he thought Norma wanted to do but couldn't (confront Caleb with what Caleb had done, then try to kill him). So I could see his psychosis telling him that Norma would want him to kill Miss Watson (for being a sexual rival mother figure). And yes, that Norman can't actually tell his hallucinations apart from the reality is bound to come into this, imo. I'm also remembering that Norman still doesn't know about his father but does know Dylan's original theory about Norma having killed him. Yes, Norma denied having done it, but now he doesn't trust her anymore the way he used to. And he doesn't know - or does he? - what Norma did in the night of Miss Watson's murder. I mean, the audience knows she was busy at the docks with Abernathy and Romero, but Norman came out of his blackout only when Norma found him running on the road, i.e. he doesn't know for sure she can't have been with him earlier.
I don't believe Norma will be in denial about Norman killing Miss Watson. If you think about "Presumed Innocent," the problem was that when it comes to him and his blackouts, it's the one area where she accepts and readily believes that Norman is capable of murder because of what happened with Mr. Bates. When she initially learns Norman was at Miss Watson's that night she has that fear.
Agreed. And like I said, her reaction once she's closed the door and is alone definitely looks like full awareness of what Romero's words mean about Norman.