Episode Title: “Plunge”
Writer: Kerry Ehrin
Director: Ed Bianchi
If Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) was not Norman Bates from Psycho and Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) was not the infamous “mother” then “Bates Motel” could have been a fairly conventional family drama. And if the weirdness of White Pine Bay had remained the same then it could have added some dark overtones to an otherwise ordinary show.
But “Bates Motel” is no ordinary show and Norman is not a conventional protagonist. He’s simultaneously a victim and a monster in the making. It still hasn’t been definitively determined if Norman was the one who murdered Miss Watson last season — and that subplot has completely disappeared in the last few episodes.
However, it’s clear that Norman’s condition is getting worse. And so many people know about it at this point that there may not be any way for the show to get that particular genie back in the bottle.
From this point on, there are full spoilers for “Plunge,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Bates Motel” then you should probably skip this review or else Norma will embarrass you.
With some distance from this episode, I’ve come to appreciate how the ending snuck up on the audience. All of the clues for a tragedy were there and we even saw the future murder victim inspire a blackout flashback for Norman. That side of Norman doesn’t just emerge for his own sake. It seems to respond to women who have been in danger or previously hurt: his mom, Miss Watson and Cody (Paloma Kwiatowski).
Cody has been a good match for Norman in that she almost makes him seem human. But Norman is so comfortable with Cody that he isn’t doing anything to hide who he really is. That’s why Cody is so visibly alarmed when Norman flies off the handle and rages at her for endangering Emma’s (Olivia Cooke) life.
Never mind that Emma choose to perform a dangerous stunt with very little prodding. Norman is so intensely angry that Cody doesn’t even try to reason with him. She just steps away. Now, any normal person would have taken that as their cue to steer clear of Norman Bates. However, Cody actually seems to care about him and she clues Emma in on his increasingly frequent blackouts… shortly before Emma shares the knowledge with Norma.
Norma’s plotline has become very enjoyable as she has found herself in the company of some powerful and potentially dangerous people. Even Norma realizes that Nick Ford (Michael O’Niell) is a threat after a mutual political enemy turns up dead. But Norma completely misses the implication that her new best friend, Christine (Rebecca Creskoff) and her husband are also players in the local drug trade.
Because she has the favor of both Christine and Ford, all Norma has to do to earn a seat on the White Pine Bay city council is show up to a meeting with the mayor. Norma gets her chance to turn down the appointment once she learns that Ford has already intimated that he wants her to have the seat and the mayor confirms that no one should ever cross Ford. That was Norma’s one and only chance to turn it down and run away. But Norma took the job and now Ford will feel that he owns her.
Imagine how Ford will react once he learns that Norma’s son is the most likely person to have killed his daughter, Blair Watson? That’s a major time bomb waiting to go off this season. Although I suspect that Norman will ultimately be cleared in that murder… seeing as he already has two to his name after this episode.
As much as “Bates Motel” is trying to push Christine’s brother, George (Michael Vartan) as Norma’s new love interest, the real sparks are flying between her and Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell). Norma and Romero are still extremely awkward around each other and not in the romantic comedy way. They legitimately hated each other last season. But it really does seem like the show is doing a slow burn on that pairing as they’re a lot more polite with each other… and the Sheriff warned Norma that her curtains aren’t hiding much at night.
Meanwhile, Dylan (Max Thieriot) is practically in his own spinoff as he recovers from being hit by a car during a shootout with the rival drug runners in White Pine Bay. Dylan’s new boss, Jodi Wilson (Kathleen Robertson) is so impressed that he saved her idiot brother’s life, that she takes Dylan to her home to recover. On top of that, Jodi wastes little time in placing Dylan in charge of her brother Zane’s (Michael Eklund) operation while keeping Zane in the dark.
Oh… and Jodi sleeps with Dylan too. Afterwards, they both seem to disappear from the episode.
Generally, Dylan works best as the sane member of the Bates family. When he’s disconnected from both Norman and Norma as he currently is, Dylan isn’t as compelling. I’m sure these storylines will come together at some point, but Norman and Norma are getting the bulk of the interesting material.
Norma makes one big and desperate move to protect Norman from his ever increasing blackouts by ruining his chances to get a driver’s license. In response, Norman nearly gets them into an accident before telling Norma off and walking away from her.
That’s always been Norma’s problem. She clings so tightly to Norman that she doesn’t see that it only makes things worse. I can’t say that it wasn’t hilarious to see Norma dramatically get in front of Cody’s car before demanding a word with her… but everything Norma has done backfires dramatically. This was no exception.
In a rage, Norman confronts Cody for revealing his secret by telling Emma. Then things get exponentially worse as Cody’s abusive father wakes up and gets physical with his daughter and Norman. Moments later, Norman has fatally pushed Cody’s dad down a flight of stairs.
I don’t know how the show is going to walk this one back. At the very least, Cody should break up with Norman and stay far, far away from him. But this is TV, and characters don’t often use logic when making their decisions on shows like this.
The implications of Norman’s latest murder are staggering and could potentially cost his mother her newfound political power. There’s no chance that Norman does time for this crime, as that would change the show too much. But Norman’s secrets have been leaking out and now Cody has become only the second person to see Norman go into a blackout and kill a man.
So, Cody’s chances of surviving the season have just dramatically dropped. But that was one hell of an episode, and I won’t forget it anytime soon.
