OK, Bates Motel, you win. Sort of.
You gave me enough of the violent, incestuous, mouthbreathe-y things I wanted from a 2013 Norman Bates, plus more sweater-and-khaki sets that would look fetching on Corduroy the Bear. I can't say I'm intoxicated by the endless amounts of "eerie ambience" you're throwing at us in the form of contemptuous policemen, homicidal pot farmers, and a mysterious predilection towards arson, but I'm certainly enjoying Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) as she showcases her craziness in every obvious way possible, including enjoying herself at a lumberjack show.
Before we jump into a nutty recap of all things weird and pseudo-Hitchcockian about the second episode of Bates Motel, let's check in with the original Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins, to see his rating for this episode. Mr. Perkins gives this episode...
(source)
... A NERVOUS, BUT EMPHATIC SMILE!
And so do I. Here are the five most interesting things about last night's Bates Motel.
1. Freddie Highmore's performance: winningly freakish!
The scamp from Finding Neverland is turning the role of Norman Bates into a fascinating, believably cuckoo spectacle. He's cute and deranged, which Hitchcock would've loved. Hitch really found attractive murderers life-affirming. (See: Rope, Shadow of a Doubt, etc.) I thought we were going to have to wait weeks to see Norman show his first signs of a homicidal streak, but thankfully we witnessed some major anger in his precious doll eyes just before he attacked his surly half-brother. Ow, ow.
Turns out Norman is quite protective over his mother (SPOILER); when Norman's defiant, broke half-brother Dylan Massett (Max Thierot) came to crash at the motel, we noticed that Norman is wary of how contentious Dylan's relationship with Norma is. When Norman saw that Dylan listed Norma in his phone as "The Whore" (nice and subtle, guys), Norman flew into a rage and lunged at Dylan with a blunt kitchen utensil. Yes, the tantrum is worthy of an Afterschool Special, but Highmore's fury was neither cloying nor overdone. I just bought it. I didn't expect to dig Highmore's performance so much, but the kid is just the right balance of blank innocence and unchecked rage.
2. Norma, you're crazy! Or are you just... tired.
Though Vera Farmiga is a great actress, I have a harder time buying the dimensions her character has to offer. Norma's self-contained enough to act rationally (for the most part) and savvy enough to manipulate some nosy cops, but she's apparently weird enough to change her shirt in front of Norman and interrogate his new pal like a motherly version of Pembleton from Homicide: Life on the Street. We're still not sure how sane or psychotic Norma is, but the answer to both is probz "immensely."
We also learned this week that Norma will stop at nothing to get the cops off her back, because she's apparently dead-set against telling them she offed a rapist to save her own life. She began flirting with a hot blond cop this week, and according to the preview for next week, she'll be enjoying a makeout sesh with him in the Bates living room soon. Hopefully the cop will "stuff" Norma right there on the divan, Norman will walk in, and that'll be the beginning of his obsession with taxidermy. Why am I not the greatest screenwriter who ever lived.
3. Hey, Norman! Direct your incestuous feelings towards your hot brother, thanks.
I'm relieved to have Dylan become part of the Bates household's dynamic. He spurns his mother and half-brother into addictive little tizzies. So far we know that he's out of money, that he's suspicious of how Norma's last husband died, and that he really, really hates Norma. He also wears proper 2013 attire while Norman still dresses like a child receiving his first communion in 1889.
But come on. If Norman is going to express incestuous feelings towards his mother (which he did, as he couldn't tear his eyes away from her while she changed blouses), he may as well throw a little bit of repressed, libidinous angst at this comely stack of scruff. I hope Bates Motel is twisted enough to rope the whole Bates clan into a wicked, skin-crawlingly weird tension. I mean, why not? I'm not a big fan of this other storyline about Chinese sex slaves and shack crimes that Norman and his new gal pal have stumbled upon, so let's re-focus it towards making Bates Motel a Freud-boggling Oedipal carousel.
4. Oh, Bates Motel. You're being awfully cavalier about this cystic fibrosis situation.
This is Emma, Norman's new pal who is suddenly very interested in the grisly sketchbook he found under a rug in one of his vacant rooms. She has cystic fibrosis, and when she comes over to the Bates household to work on a school project with Norman, Norma sits down with her, eyes the tubes in her nose, and asks her a bunch of hilariously intrusive questions. "What is CF? I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is," she begins, before adding, "What is your life expectancy?"Naturally, Norma forgets to look sympathetic and instead looks visibly relieved that Emma won't live long enough to steal Norman away from her forever.
Later, when Emma and Norman run off to discover the world drawn in that dumb sketchbook, they find themselves fleeing from some angry, armed pot farmers. That would be sorta-interesting enough, but Emma's intense breathing and CF-related exhaustion made the scene unexpectedly suspenseful. Or just scary? Nervewracking? Clearly the CF will play a massive part in an upcoming episode, but for now, it's just making me tense in ways I'm not sure the creators intended. But that boldfaced awkwardness is why I watch this show, I guess.
5. So, what's up with the arson?
The episode began with Norman's other female friend Bradley (how very Hey Dude) discovering that her dad had been all but burnt alive. As the episode ended, Norma drove past a hanging dead guy who was on fire. That strikes me as a lot of fire for one episode. Could the two events possibly be related?! We need Veronica Mars Emma on the case.
I can't even guess what's going on here. Is Norma somehow responsible? Is it Dylan? Is it precious Norman? What about the nefarious cops? It's gotta be the cops, right? It's possible Nestor Carbonell simply walked down the street and passersby burst into flames, because he is scathingly hot. Any other guesses? I'm fresh out.
Your turn. Digging this show? I think it's campy and genuinely creepy enough to keep going. Tony Perkins would give it a gangly thumbs-up.
