EPISODE 8: The Pit
CHECKING IN: Norman (Freddie Highmore) fesses up as to his "mommy attraction", Norma (Vera Farminga) has to deal with a "pool" being dug up in front of her Motel, Dylan (Max Thieriot) goes on a gun-run with his dad/uncle (Kenny Johnson) while Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell) is looking for somebody to trust… with little luck… Busy time in Bates Land!
THE ROOM: THE PIT was for the most part a set-up episode for the hell that is to come in the last two entries of Season 3, but that didn’t make it any less gripping. It still covered lots of ground starting with the queasy “Norman wants to bang Momma” subplot. They took on the incestuous elements of the show head on thsi week, with Norman (Freddie Highmore knocking it out of the park again with his troubled showcase) checking out his moms butt and cleavage any chance he got and finally admitting his sexual attraction to her. It was pretty gross to be honest but yet it made for captivating television.
It seems Norma’s “It’s okay, you’re confused, everyone has feelings about their mother at 18” speech (once again, ideally acted by Vera Farminga) put the "kabish" on that storyline for now though. The way I saw it: Bates Motel peaked out its head with the unsettling incest stuff, smothered our faces in it and then hid back under its shell; once again content with being subtlety creepy (like the scene with Norman and Norma gazing into each other’s eyes with love…shudder…) as opposed to being overtly icky. You bet your ass they’re toying with us!
Awkward…cue in Porno music!
The Bob Paris (played by the love to hate him Kevin Rahm) subplot also made some headway this week and it looks like its heading into a bleak direction. I mean; the torture of Joshua Leonard’s shrink character (who then ran out of town – finally somebody doing the RIGHT move), Paris’ newly acquired info about Norman's past and the digging of a huge 23 feet deep pit in front of the Bates Motel (no it’s not a pool Norma, wise the f*ck up already) only spells MUCHO TROUBLE to come. Who will wind up in that pit? That is the question! Although I think Bob Paris is a grating "mustache twirling" evil character and probably the weakest link in Season 3 thus far, his presence has brought in some menace in terms of the Bates family unit and also has been resulting in more Romero onscreen and for me that’s always good news.
I felt for Romero in his episode! The man let his guard down (was cool to see Nestor Carbonell show a softer side) and did something nice for Norma (get her car back) and then got the rug pulled from under him when he asked for the truth (how her husband died) – and she lied to him… again. A little part of me was murdered when he said “goodbye” to her. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. I was digging where their relationship was going, and the ever-growing rapport between them – so yeah, it was a bit of a bummer to see it end (for now that is) this way. But hey Romero away from Norma romantically equals a Romero that stays motherf*cking alive! Gotta take the good with the bad!
I want you to LIVE Caleb… LIVE through Season 3… COME ON!
Finally we had Dylan’s story evolving two fold; one with Caleb on the gun-run and the other being his courtship of Emma (Olivia Cooke). The gun-run subplot was what it was (deal gone bad – bang-bang-bang), and was elevated by Max Thieriot and Kenny Johnson sharing scenes together. At this stage it’s a delight to see the two act together – they’re like a well oiled machine! It’s a bit of shame that with Caleb’s “being forgiven by Norma story arc” fairly out of the way, the character feels like a dead man walking. Man I hope I’m wrong. I want Caleb to stick around. Let somebody LIVE for a change BATES MOTEL! But I digress. Dylan’s relationship with Emma grew too. Although a bit too close to the Dylan-Bradley-Norman love triangle from Season 1 – it still had me going. Theriot and Cooke have an organic “awww, so cute” chemistry together. Alas, I keep sensing Emma’s number is also up and this episode convinced me even more of that! No money for operation, break up with psycho Norman, digging on Dylan – it doesn’t look good baby girl!
Although didn’t care for the ending (Nicola Anne Peltz back as Bradley? Meh…that character was over and done with for me and I was okay with that), this was yet another tip-top BATES MOTEL episode; one that mixed hard hitting drama with bleak humor and that wasn’t afraid to “go there”! SEASON 3 has been killer thw hole way through, hope it ends with a stab! Two to go!
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Being a big fan of the PYSCHO franchise, it was trip to see a wink to the films via Norman looking up at the house and seeing Mother’s shadow tin the top window
So is Bradley Martin REALLY back, or was that ending all in Norman’s head? I hope it's the latter. You?
Who’s winding up in that pit? Caleb? Emma? Bob Paris? Somebody else? Where’s your money at?
I’m adding Chick (Ryan Hurst) to my “soon to be dead" Bates Motel list… the writing is on the wall…
RATING ON 10
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