#59
Post
by PhoenixHope » May 1st, 2013, 2:10 am
Bates Motel 1x07 The Man in Number 9
Norman be cray-cray. Of course, if you know anything about this story you'd know that already, but this is the first episode where we see Norman being cray-cray while awake and aware. And after a few episodes where Norma seemed mostly normal she's kinda back to crazy as well, but next to Norman she still seems pretty damn sane.
And in more YAY news - Guyline proves to be a decent guy, though that comes along with also being a lying liar that lies. But basically the last episode ended with him pulling up to the O.K. Motel. Shelby (a cop) is dead, Dylan is standing near him holding the smoking gun, but also bleeding from his own gunshot wound, Norma is heading to the car where Norman is still blissed out. Anyway, scene break then everyone's in the house where Norma has finished telling Guyliner everything (apparently she decided Dylan had a point about all the lying, though I assume she didn't tell him about Norman - just everything about Keith Summers and related crimes), and Guyliner decides that the truth is too much to handle and he tells them what the official version is going to be, which basically leaves everyone blameless. Apparently Shelby turned on Keith and killed him then Guyliner showed up and killed Shelby because he'd long suspected the sex slave ring.
So the first part of the storyline has been closed off and we are now transitioning into the new apparently. Oh, and to my dismay apparently Shelby had time to hunt down and kill his former slave before returning to join/start the shoot-out in the O.K. Motel.
Also to my dismay the episode seemed to start (after the teaser, of course) with Norman and Bradley in bed together and I was ready to go nuts because that's just not how that whole thing would play out, but it turns out Norman's basically having just a little "he" time that gets cut short when Norma bursts in. After this Norman finds a dog under the porch and I was ready to start screaming again, because you do NOT want to kill a puppy on me. Naturally as I suspected the puppy was doomed but for my sake he wasn't killed by Norman or Norma... Well, he was run over, and Norman blames himself because he was trying to get the puppy to cross the road but as puppies are sometimes wont to do she waited until a car was zooming down the road before deciding to cross the road.
But that's getting ahead of myself. So, Dylan is pissed that Guyliner basically stole his thunder, but the next morning Norma seems hell bent on including Dylan in the family, but Dylan pisses all over her renewed family dreams by informing her that he's still gonna move out as soon as his arm heals. So Norma goes from trying to please to the passive/agressive Norma way that works so well on Norman, but basically Dylan... Well, I was gonna say he ain't buying it, but I don't really know, because he takes the trash out talks to a strange dude, and then later comes back to talk with the strange dude again because they don't have his information and that's pretty much all the Dylan in this episode.
(But he does seem to understand that's her game, and he's walked away from it before, so I'm betting Norma's normal crap ain't gonna stop him this time either. I wonder what will.)
Anyway, at some point before all that Emma comes over to see Norman, but Norman still being an idiot thinking he and Bradley can has profound connections basically tells Norma to inform Emma that he's not feeling well. Norma is shocked and at this point starts to realize that Emma was not the one who took her child/husbands V-Card. Because Norma clearly thinks that Norman and Emma would be perfect together, mostly I think because sadly Emma does have a somewhat limited shelf-life, but still Norma is on Team Nemma and thinks Team Nadley sucks ass. Anyway, Emma tries to take it well, but stops on the way out and Norma tries to cheer her up by taking her shopping. Mostly this is so Norma can pick Emma's brains about who the hell took her child/husband's V-Card, though it certainly wouldn't seem like that from Emma's point of view. And, to be fair, Emma tries to play it like she doesn't know anything, but then breaks down because not only is Bradley pretty she's also nice so you can't even hate her for banging the virgin out of your crush. That will obviously not stop Norma from hating her (though Norma makes no mis-steps here with Emma, so Emma is still on Team Norma), but Emma is also a nice (not to mention sane) girl so she doesn't hate Bradley she's just hurt by it all really.
The reason you know Emma is still on Team Norma, because when Norma tries to tell Norman what a "bad" girl Bradley is Norman isn't having none of it (he still belives it's true love and why does everybody keep implying it was naught but a booty call - DAMN YOU ALL!) Norma confesses that she's hired Emma to help out around the motel a couple days a week. Anyway, I'd type what Norma says re: Bradley, but I've got something else playing on the TV right now and I can't remember exactly, but she doesn't actually use words like bad, slut, or whore - it's more just along the lines of implying all that. "What kind of girl shows up to ask a guy out the first night the guy's in town?" "What kind of girl has sex while mourning her dead parent?" Of course, Norma sorta repeats Emma as well "you aren't in a relationship with her [Bradley] because you don't see each other." Her words are important, because Norman after storming out in a hissy fit of epic proportions (not really just a tired cliche of teen angst) heads straight to Bradley's house to get Bradley to admit their love is forever. And it's as painful to watch as you'd expect - Norman is laying his heart out and Bradley clearly just wants him to stop because the things Norman feels about the sex are not remotely the things she feels about it.
The only mistake Bradley really makes here is not actually saying "Norman, you know I was depressed, right? I was tired of everyone wanting me to just cheer the hell up already, and you didn't do that. But at the same time I was also tired of being so damn sad all the time and when you came over I saw a way to distract myself for a moment." That might not have exactly been better, but it would've been a lot better than her saying she shouldn't have done that with Norman. Which what she meant was she shouldn't have used a virgin who's also a nice guy for a meaningless booty call (she's a smart girl, so, yes, she should've known better than that), but she didn't clarify that for him so he takes it very badly - like she thinks she shouldn't have done that with him because she thinks she's better than he is.
Now this is where Norma's words become important, as Norman storms away from Bradley all his dreams shattered all around him he repeats word for word his mother's words about Bradley (the first real Norman related hint of what's to come eventually, because the stuff with simply blacking out just wasn't quite that). However, because Bradley is actually a nice girl and an overall decent person she's come after Norman, which honestly had me fearing for her life, because instead of chasing him she really should be running away. Anyway, "Norman" says he doesn't think Bradley is a nice girl, and my blood pressure rises, but then Norman seems to come back to himself a little bit and just says he has to go now, and thankfully he does just that and Bradley (also thankfully) decides to let him go.
(Oh, and earlier there's a scene where Dylan and Norman encounter Bradley and Bradley has some wicked attraction to Dylan that I thought Norman was picking up on, but maybe he wasn't, I'm not really sure.)
And then we come to the next honest to goodness hint of things to come as the episode draws to a close and when the dog dies, and Norma doesn't even know/understand why Norman's reactions to that should honestly and totally freak her the hell right out. DANGER, NORMA BATES! DANGER! Is what the whole things screams to me, but to Norma there's only concern for Norman. Basically, and I don't believe I've mentioned this before but Emma's dad is one of those who makes those mounted stuffed animal thingies that hunters are so fond of. And Norman's all like "take me to Emma's - her dad can fix this," when in reality no, he really can't fix this, but while that seems obvious to everyone you know it kinda needs explaining to Norman, but I'm betting no one will ever do that, which I kinda like. It seems obvious that everyone would know that stuffing an animal is not the same as the animal still being alive so it wouldn't be something anyone would think would need explaining - an over-sight but a totally understandable one.
Next week - the man in number nine turns creepy, and I'm almost sure he's one of the "bad" guys from Justified (DUFFY! Seriously, if he ain't Duffy then he looks exactly like Duffy) so I find myself hoping he isn't as bad as Keith and can therefore hang around for awhile. Okay, he doesn't just suddenly turn creepy he was creepy all through this episode, but he promised Norma regular money coming in and good word of mouth so she was ignoring the creep factor - only Dylan was concerned about that.
(The reason why she needs good word of mouth is because despite her best efforts her motel has a reputation in town already and it's opening soon and so far the creepy guy is the only one who's in any way interested in the Bates Motel.)
Oh, and before I stop I want to mention the biggest red herring scene this episode had, and I suspect it was only there so the promos would look extra creepy and I find myself not liking it for that. Basically, there's completely useless scene where a door was left open and it started banging in the middle of the night so Norma grabs Micheal Myers (or I suppose her sons favorite) knife and wanders into the dark room to be creeped out. Like I say if this scene felt like it had a purpose/place other than tossed in so the promos could be made to look creepy I don't think I'd have a problem with it, but as near as I can promo related reasons are the only reason that scene was there.
Also on a weirdly interesting note - which show is trying to cash in on Bates Motel now? - or at least the Psycho franchise? Criminal Minds is advertising an episode with a motel where you check in but you don't check out. Weirdly enough I'm pretty sure a couple years ago Criminal Minds had an episode like that, so perhaps it's simply a sign that the people behind CM have simply ran out of fresh stories to tell. On the other hand, I'm glad I don't have to work tomorrow so that I can watch both Criminal Minds (just to see how close it'll be) and Supernatural (just because at this point I seem to be a glutten for punishment - okay, so the last episode was alright, but the overall season not so much).
Tim (needs lighter): ...and none of you smoke.
Art (looks at armada): Nobody smokes? This is Kentucky, not Sausalito. What's wrong with you people!
(
per capita in KY toss a cat u'll hit a smoker! So that's where
Justified puts the fiction in the show.)
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