Episode Title: “Caleb”
Writer: Kerry Ehrin
Director: Tucker Gates
Previously on “Bates Motel”:
This week’s “Bates Motel” ended with a twist that was very uncool. And yet, doesn’t it make perfect sense? Dylan Massett (Max Thieriot) has always been the odd man out in the Bates family. Compared to Norma (Vera Farmiga) and Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore), he’s the sane one!
Think back to the first season and even the very first episode of “Bates Motel.” Norma had skipped town without even letting Dylan know that she had moved. She focused on Norman to an unhealthy extent while openly resenting Dylan. Now we know where that resentment came from and why.
Dylan and Norma have actually gotten closer to each other since his introduction in the series. There’s even a moment in last night’s episode in which he even calls her “mom.” But who knows if he’ll ever call her that again after hearing her admit something in the closing seconds.
There are full spoilers ahead for “Caleb,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Bates Motel” then you should probably skip this review or else you’ll make bad life choices with Emma.
So… Dylan is Norma’s son by her brother, Caleb (Kenny Johnson). Therefore, Dylan is her son and her nephew. He’s also a child of rape; which only furthered Norma’s conflicted feelings towards him. Regardless of that, Norma takes no joy in telling Dylan the truth. It actually seems to break her heart. I mean, who wants to learn that they’re the result of incest? From the look on Dylan’s face, he’s instantly forgotten that Norman just went Psycho on him again.
If Norma wanted to do Dylan any favors, she could have perhaps shared this information with him before he handed Caleb $11,000 for a motel in Costa Rica. That’s money I’m sure that Dylan will never see again. Dylan’s mistake was that he wanted to believe that Caleb was the first member of his family that he could truly relate to. There was an easy onscreen chemistry between Thieriot and Johnson that helped sell that idea.
I had actually been wondering why “Bates Motel” never dealt with Dylan’s father. But this turn was foreshadowed when Norma shared the story of being raped by her brother with Norman late in the first season. Dylan’s initial disbelief of his mother’s rape stems from a lifetime of watching her emotionally manipulate his brother. He can’t even recognize it when Norma is telling the truth.
The reason that Dylan was quick to hand over his money to Caleb is that he’s probably looking to skip town before his new drug boss, Zane Carpenter (Michael Eklund) gets his crew killed in a pointless war with their rivals. I can’t wait for Zane to get killed off as I find his character to be very annoying. But that would be too simple, so I expect that Zane will be sticking around through most of this season.
For a moment, it almost seems like Zane will take Dylan’s reasonable advice on how to handle the retaliation murder of two of their crew. Dylan recognizes that there’s nothing to be gained from an endless cycle of retribution. It’s just bad for business. However, Zane may actually be insane. He seems to welcome the war.
After Bradley Martin (Nicola Peltz) skipped town last week, Dylan made it look like she was dead. This week, Emma Decody (Olivia Cooke) plans a beachside memorial for Bradley even though she admits to Norman that she still doesn’t like Bradley even in death. I kind of wish that the show would just put Norman together with Emma simply because she’s not as interesting when she has her own plotline. Watching Emma “make bad life choices” with the guy who got her high last season isn’t exactly riveting television.
At least Norman’s plot had an amusing moment when Cody Brennan (Paloma Kwiatowski) and her male companion assumed that he was gay and acted accordingly. Norman’s already intimidated by heterosexuality, so of course he’s going to react badly when another guy shows romantic interest in him.
Cody seems to be the latest girl in White Pine Bay to take an unrealistic interest in Norman, but she already seems more interesting than Bradley did in season one. It doesn’t take much from Cody to convince Norman to stick around as a behind-the-scenes player on the South Pacific production. Whether Norman can admit it or not, he’s attracted to Cody. That doesn’t tend to end well for the girls.
Meanwhile, Norma has her first really good day in White Pine Bay thanks to Christine Heldens, as charmingly played Rebecca Creskoff. Christine instantly clicks with Norma and she even resigns as the South Pacific director because she wasn’t allowed to give Norma the lead role. Giving Norma a best friend could have been a misstep, but Christine’s formal introduction was a winner. This is “Bates Motel,” so Christine probably has some dark, terrible secret. But for now, I really enjoyed her character.
For once, we actually see Norma as the life of the party. And if we’re to believe Nick Ford (Michael O’Niell), word has already spread about the way that Norma called out the White Pine Bay city council in the first episode of the season. In Nick, Norma believes that she’s found her first ally in the battle against the overpass that may destroy her business. What she doesn’t know is that Nick is one of the town’s rival drug lords and he’s also Miss Watson’s father. The question is whether Nick knows that Norma’s son may have killed his daughter. If he doesn’t know now, expect Nick to eventually figure it out.
Michael Vartan also makes his “Bates Motel” debut in this episode as George Heldens, Christine’s divorced brother who already has eyes for Norma. Again, dark secrets probably lie beneath George’s friendly personality. We know which show this is. But George is clearly being positioned as Norma’s new love interest. However, Vartan is given so little to do here that it’s hard to tell if George and Norma will have any real chemistry together.
As you might expect, Farmiga had the standout performance of the episode. She can turn Norma’s mood on dime and she made Norma sympathetic in her scenes with Dylan and Caleb. Norma is a very compelling character to watch and that’s all on Farmiga. That cliffhanger revelation wouldn’t have worked without the way her voice faltered while Norma told Dylan the truth.
In terms of story progression, “Caleb” didn’t really push the season forward. But the introduction of at least three major new characters has a lot of promise. Things are always crazy in “Bates Motel.” And there’s more insanity ahead.
