Episode Title: “Shadow of a Doubt”
Writer: Kerry Ehrin
Director: Tucker Gates
Previously on “Bates Motel”:
I’m not sure if this parallel was intentional, but Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) letting Bradley Martin (Nicola Peltz) sleep in his basement seemed a lot like the way that the late Zack Shelby (Mike Vogel) kept sex slaves at the Bates Motel before the series began. The primary difference is that Bradley wasn’t a captive of anything more than her own growing mental instability.
Need proof that Bradley is well on her way to crazy town? When Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) goes looking for Norman in the basement, Bradley hides and keeps a knife in her hands as if she’s going to stab Norma if she had discovered Bradley’s hiding place.
Because Norman is so blindly devoted to Bradley, he barely blinks an eye when she tells him that she killed one of the local drug lords, Gil (Vincent Gale) because she thinks that he killed her father. In the aftermath, Bradley wants Norman’s help to skip town and he’s all too eager to help.
No one even suspects that Bradley committed the murder. Both the police and Gil’s drug organization believe that Gil’s death was a brazen hit from a rival drug family that means a drug war is now inevitable. That’s on the periphery of the story. For Norma, only two things matter: keeping Norman out of jail… and landing a role in South Pacific!
From this point on, there are full spoilers ahead for “Shadow of a Doubt,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Bates Motel” then you should probably skip this review or else you’ll lose your place in the audition line.
There’s something inherently hilarious about Norma’s idea that she can distract Norman from Miss Watson’s death and his own murderous impulses by getting both of them a part in the local production of South Pacific. It would be one thing if Norma only encouraged Norman to go out for a role. But she insists upon going out for a role with him as a way to exert her control over all aspects of Norman’s life. Norma’s failing is that she never realizes just how suffocating her actions are even when Norman angrily points out how closely tied they are in all aspects of his life.
In Norma’s defense, she’s scared to death that her son is a psycho killer. And that fear isn’t entirely unfounded, considering that she finds Miss Watson’s pearls in Norman’s bed and his explanation for why he has them is extremely weak. The alarming thing is that Norman doesn’t seem to realize the implications of having those pearls. It clearly marks him as the prime suspect in Miss Watson’s death.
The problem with treating Miss Watson’s murder as a mystery is that Norman is the only real suspect that the show has presented us with. I doubt that the recently killed Gil will be revealed as the murderer (that’s too anticlimactic) and now Bradley is out of the picture, which means that she probably didn’t kill Miss Watson either. That only leaves Norman to take the fall.
“Shadow of a Doubt” introduces Johnny B. (Chad Rook), another of Miss Watson’s former lovers who is one of two men who slept with her before she was killed. Obviously it’s not this guy, but Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) is willing to lay the murder on Johnny because he has no better options…. and he feels that Johnny deserves it for his past crimes.
Meanwhile, Norman’s brother, Dylan Massett (Max Thieriot) and his associate, Remo Wallace (Ian Tracey) deal with the fallout of Gil’s death as a new boss is installed. I enjoy the dynamic between Dylan and Remo, especially now that they’re saddled with Zane Carpenter (Michael Eklund), a lunatic who thinks he’s living in a gangster movie. Zane’s only been around for a single episode, but I can’t wait for him to be killed off. That’s probably the intended response, so I’ll hold off on judging Eklund’s performance.
The looming White Pine Bay drug war isn’t quite as interesting as the writer seems to believe that it is. “Bates Motel” is at its strongest when the plotlines revolve around Norman and Norma, but this story is completely outside of their own problems. It’s definitely bad news for Dylan, but it has little impact on the rest of the Bates’ family.
Because Norman can’t get away from the South Pacific auditions in time, he confesses to Dylan that Bradley is in the basement and that she needs a ride to the bus station because she killed Gil. Prior to that, Norman lied to Dylan about knowing Bradley’s whereabouts and he chillingly suggested that Bradley had committed suicide. Dylan usually seems pretty sharp, but he didn’t look especially horrified at how easily Norman mentioned the supposed death of the girl that he was fixated on.
Perhaps Dylan drew on inspiration from Norman’s suggestion as he had Bradley write a suicide note before she got out of town. I was surprised that “Bates Motel” wrote Bradley out of the series so quickly. Maybe Peltz needed time off to film Transformers: Age of Extinction. But it seemed like a premature ending to that storyline and it’s hard to see how Bradley can be easily brought back into the show if everyone except Norman and Dylan believe that she’s dead.
Back at the auditions, Norma nails her opportunity to sing in front of a crowd. We’re spared from seeing Norman’s tone deaf singing outside of his “Mr. Sandman” rendition with Norma, but Norma appears to actually have some musical talent. That might win her a few friends in the local theatre crowd.
The final scene in the episode introduces Kenny Johnson as Caleb Calhoun, Norma’s brother. That was about as ham-fisted and forced as any character introduction I’ve ever seen. Surely there was a better way to establish Caleb’s identity without having him tell a random stranger that he’s Norma Bates’ brother.
You may not recall this, but Norma did mention her brother during the first season… in the context of a harrowing tale about how he used to habitually rape her when she was a child. That might go a long way towards establishing why Norma is so screwed up. Bringing Caleb into the story does have potential and Johnson is a reliably strong performer. But his intro here felt like a missed opportunity to give Caleb a more meaningful first scene on the show.
“Shadow of a Doubt” felt like a transitional episode of “Bates Motel” that didn’t fully come together. There are some interesting developments to be sure, but it’s too early in the season for the show to be spinning its wheels like this.
