TV Review: The Arrow’s take on Bates Motel S2, Episode #7

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

EPISODE 7: Presumed Innocent

CHECKING IN: Norma (Vera Farminga) shows up at her new job, Norman (Freddie Higmore) gets arrested for Cody's dad's death-tumble and Dylan (Max Therriot) gets more than he can handle in terms of Zane's (Michael Eklund) violent business moves!

THE ROOM: Let the boiling begin! The shit started to hit the fan in this week's Bates Motel on pretty much every level. Although we didn't get to spend much time with Norma at her new job (which I have feeling won't go as smooth as she'd hope being that everybody knows she didn't earn the gig, she was planted there) we did spend a lot of time with Norman, which to me made for some pretty powerful drama, jacked up in impact by some solid performances. Norman being grilled at the Police Station was genius, made all the more gripping by the fact that at the end of the kill, Norman is actually a nice guy, one with a problem, but a nice guy nonetheless. I don't think I've rooted this much for Norman in Season 2 thus far. I felt for the lad here. He's going through a lot and the turn of events/revelations that keep popping up are making his already complicated life even harder. If I were him, I'd just never leave my house. Eveytime he tries to have a "normal" life, it always back-fires. Poor basterd!

Norma also had her moments, namely her "talk" with Cody (Paloma Kwiatkowski) about keeping Norman's black-outs on the down low. That was a well shot and well acted scene! And I gotta be honest, even though Cody kind of got on my nereves, now that she's leaving (or is she) I'm somewhat gonna miss her. The yap session between Norman and Emma (Olivia Cooke) was touching (same goes for the one Emma had with Norma) while the confrontation between Norman and Norma at the end packed quite a punch! Norma loves her son, but she knows the monster he can be. It's obvious that at this point she doesn't trust him anymore. And on Norman's end, he just wants to know "what's wrong with him". When Norma put her foot down about that jive, I sat up with glee. Talk about a scene that had me by the balls!  Now that's superior drama!

Random thought: I found it odd that George (Michael Vartan) just surfaced at the Police station out of the freaking blue. I mean what's this dude's angle? A crush on Norma would be the obvious answer, but my gut tells me he's more. He reeks of "serial killer" if you ask me. Is that the way they're gonna go with him? End of thought. Back to business! Sheriff "King Shit" Romero (Nestor Carbonell) got more screen time on this round which was a delight for yours truly. I don't know what is about the character and Nestor Carbonell's low-key performance that appeals to me so much, I find it hard to put my kitchen knife on it, but everytime he's onscreen, the show gets better! His go at it with both Norman and Norma were captivating to witness, I am sure the dude's gonna do all kinds of cover ups down the road to protect Norman. Why? He's in love with Norma. We'll see…

As for Dylan (Max Therriott), he was still trying to keep a leash on Zane and as per one of the last scenes of the episode, it's not panning out. I dig that Zane knows that he knocked boots with his sister. Kind of upped the ante of that subplot (which is the least interesting one in the show for me) and muddled their relationship a tad. Hopefully that will result in further sparks flying! Speaking of last scenes, the ending of the show left us with quite the whopper! Yup, it was Norman's semen that was found in RIP Miss Watson. Hey ho! What do we do with that? In my opinion, yeah he nailed her, but I still don't think he killed her.

Presumed Innocent was a step up from the last episode which I felt was fairly flat. What trully stood out for me on this round for some reason is that Norma, Norman, Romero, Emma, and Dylan are all GOOD people, some of them have severe mental problems, but still good. That makes me root for them, even when they muck up or the Pine Bay bad luck curse falls upon them. And of course the superior performances by all surely help as well! With 3 episodes left to the season, we're on a downward spiral now, everything is gonna go to hell and I can't wait to see how "hot" it gets! Here's to next week's Bates Motel! Watch a preview of it HERE!

RANDOM THOUGHTS:  So what do you think, is this the last we've seen of Cody for the season? Forever?

You think Norma's brother will return by the end of the Season? I found it odd that they would inrtoduce him and get rid of him so quickly.

What's George's angle, like really? Help me out over here! As I said before: I'll put five bucks down that he's a serial killer. He's just too freaking nice… it's kind of creepy….

RATING ON 10

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