In the latest ‘Bates Motel’ recap, Norman goes on a precarious double date, Caleb goes to find his sister and Chick stumbles on somebody’s secret…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s almost criminal at this point that more of the performances in ‘Bates Motel’ haven’t been recognizes for at least a few awards.
Vera Farmiga has been outstanding for the past four seasons playing troubled mother Norma Bates but season five will undoubtedly serves as a wake up call to critics as they watch Freddie Highmore transform from mild mannered Norman Bates into the butcher knife wielding serial killer that we all first met in ‘Psycho’.
When ‘Bates Motel’ first started, those that grew up frightened of that haunted house on the hill in the original ‘Psycho’ movie never imagined anyone could even come close to the depths of depravity that Anthony Perkins displayed in the role as Norman Bates. Somehow, Highmore added all new layers to the character that started with sympathy through the early seasons to the point where he’s now easily one of the most despicable people on television.
It’s an amazing transformation — one that Highmore has executed flawlessly — and his display switching back and forth between Norma and Norman in the second episode of the final season was subtle yet so unbelievably real, which only makes it that much more disturbing.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Bates Motel’ titled ‘The Convergence of the Twain’…
Best Served Cold
After last week’s episode ended with Norman discovering that the man he killed — while acting as Norma — was a hitman sent to kill him by his stepfather Alex Romero, he decides to go see daddy dearest in prison.
Alex was sent to jail for five years on perjury charges but his reach outside the walls was still long enough to send someone after Norman because he won’t rest until he pays for what he did to his mother. Norman’s visit is rather unsettling as he all but tells Romero that he won’t be receiving a call back from his would-be assassin.
In return, Romero promises that he will exact his revenge one way or another so Norman shouldn’t get too comfortable up on the hill in that house where he lives all by himself.
The meeting with Norman results in Romero lashing out at a prisoner before getting his ass kicked in return. Romero later meets with his lawyer and lies while saying that he was attacked when the other inmates found out he used to be a cop. He’s hoping this revelation will allow for a transfer into a different facility and perhaps get him that much closer to release so he can exact his revenge on Norman.
As for Norman, he spends the rest of the morning hunkered down in a coffee shop across the street from Loomis’ Hardware store where he’s keeping a watchful eye for his new friend Madeleine. Norman’s stalking results in another encounter with Madeleine when she decides to get her morning coffee from the same shop and the two of them engage in a conversation that ends with her trying to set up a double date with a friend of hers who would be just perfect for Norman.
Of course, Norman only has eyes for Madeleine and his vision for her only gets clearer when he meets her husband the first time. Norman first met him as “David Davidson” the in-a-rush traveler who was looking to rent a room by the hour at the Bates Motel. This time around Norman is introduced to him as Sam Loomis — a real estate developer from Seattle, part business owner in White Pine Bay, Oregon and now an adulterer as well.
Norman plays it off as best he can but knowing that Madeleine is married to a guy like Sam only makes him that much more interested in her. Remember, Norman has always had a hero complex in his own mind and those are the people he’s attracted to the most. Granted most of those people end up dead when ‘Mother’ comes out to play but it’s rather evident that Madeleine is getting plenty of Norman’s attention this season.
Back at home, Norman encounters his mother teaching herself how to speak French because she gets bored pretending to be dead all day long. The conversation soon turns to Norman’s visit to the prison where he confronted Romero, which means he’s suffering from some kind of internal conflict over the talk he shared with his stepfather as well. Perhaps Norman’s guilt over the death of his mother is manifesting in the justified revenge that Romero is seeking and that’s partially why he’s conflicted about the meeting when chatting with his ‘mother’.
Before he can get too deep into conversation with his mother, Chick Hogan shows up with a box full of apples and a business offer for Norman. It seems Norman and Chick have become fast friends since he offered his condolences following Norma’s death last season. While Chick stops by from time to time to check on Norman — while clearly hearing him talk to himself before opening the front door — this time around he’s presenting him with a unique opportunity.
Chick throws down a rare dead bird and asks if Norman could use his taxidermy skills to turn it into art. His idea is that he would serve as a broker to provide Norman with animals and then he could turn around and sell them to an art dealer he knows in Portland. It also seems since wrestling with Caleb a season ago that ended in his near death, Chick has lost all means to provide for himself and this is a last ditch effort to make ends meet. Norman agrees to the partnership, but more importantly he may have found his first true friend in a really long time.
Date Night
Before Norman can go on his double date with Madeleine and her friend, he’s first visited by Sam Loomis who passes along a warning to the motel owner with a secret to tell. Sam tells Norman to mind his own business and keep his nose out of other people’s affairs — quite literally in this case — and if he can’t listen then he’s happy to drag him out into the parking lot and beat a little common sense into him.
Sam’s threat likely does two things — only wants to make Norman expose him that much more and a better than average shot that this guy won’t make it until the final episode this season.
At dinner that night, the conversation is tense and awkward as Norman exchanges pleasantries with his date while still poking and prodding at Sam. When the topic of his mother comes up, everyone passes along their sympathy but talking about Norma sends Norman into a bit of emotional turmoil and he makes an excuse to leave the table to visit the bathroom.
Inside the bathroom, Norman is visited by his mother, who says she escaped while proving that he was lying to her about going to business meeting rather than spending time on a double date. Once again this speaks to the internal strive in Norman as he struggles with his feelings for Madeleine while understanding that she’s out of reach right now as a married woman while also dealing with the guilt for the sexual tension that is building up inside him right now.
Of course, Norman is furious that Norma ‘escaped’ and he makes her go out the window until he meets up with her after dinner. In the car, Norma spots Madeleine and comments how she looks like a 10-year younger version of her, which once again proves the feelings that Norman has for his mother’s doppelganger. That odd connection that Norman and Norma had for four seasons is clearly much deeper — and stranger — than the typical relationship between mother and son.
Angry with her son’s decisions, ‘Mother’ decides to go have a drink and this is where things take a turn for the psychotic as Norman walks into the bar and that’s the person everyone sees. In the mirror, however, we see it as Norma because he’s completely transformed into her while complaining to the bartender how he’s fed up with his job taking care of mentally ill person who doesn’t seem to like him very much anymore. It’s bizarre and twisted, but also shows just how much Norman’s poor mind has splintered over the past 18 months since his mother’s passing.
He Ain’t Heavy
Back in Seattle, Dylan and Emma find a note from Caleb explaining his exit and how it wouldn’t be right for him to stick around while his son raises his own daughter. It’s certainly awkward dinner conversation to explain how your father is also your uncle and it only gets weirder from there.
Emma tells him that she spoke to Caleb and he understood why he had to go and Dylan can’t help but feel guilty yet relieved that he’s gone. Emma then talks about how she’s a little sad that their daughter Katie won’t have a lot in the grandparents department with Dylan estranged from his mother and father (remember he doesn’t know Norma is dead) and she only has her father and an estranged mother (remember, Emma doesn’t know her mother is dead).
Thankfully, Emma knows that there are no secrets between her and Dylan and that bond will help keep them together while raising their daughter. Of course, Dylan had a lot of suspicions about what happened to Emma’s mother a season ago and her disappearance from the Bates Motel but he never bothered to tell the woman he loves.
Meanwhile, Caleb’s exit from Seattle brings him right back to White Pine Bay and the front door of his sister’s house. When no one answers, Caleb lets himself in and that’s where he finds a very odd scene.
He finds two half eaten sandwiches at a dirty dinner table and a book called ‘The Lost Art of Mummification’ on Norman’s bed — a warning sign that something bad is happening but Caleb is more concerned about seeing his sister but she’s nowhere to be found.
Unfortunately, Caleb finds out the sad news about Norma when checking into a different motel in town and the clerk has to break it to him that she committed suicide more than a year ago. Caleb sobs by her grave after finding where she was buried before visiting a local bar to drown his sorrows in some booze.
There Caleb runs into his old pal Chick Hogan — who was writing about Norman’s split personality disorder in his journal at the time so he clearly has ideas about what his new friend and business partner has been dealing with since his mother’s passing.
Caleb erupts when Chick reminds him how he broke him and stole everything he ever had. While Caleb threatens to take his life, Chick looks and him and realizes that he just found out that his sister is dead.
Outside the bar, Caleb rants about Norma’s death and how she would never kill herself and this all had to be thanks to Norman. He explodes about his warnings to Norma that one day her son would snap and she would become collateral damage. Now she’s dead and Caleb knows that Norman is to blame for it.
Caleb makes a mad dash for the house before breaking in and searching in every room for Norman. Little does he know that Norman returned home hours before from his drink at the bar while fully transforming into ‘Mother’ complete with a wig and her dress. Finally, Caleb makes it down to the basement where he opens a closed door and to his horror he sees Norma in a chair, stuffed like one of her son’s pieces of taxidermy and propped up to look like she’s the living dead.
A moment later Norman appears and strikes Caleb down. Norman — dressed as ‘Mother’ — stands over Caleb on the ground before Chick bursts into the basement to find him there with a weapon in hand. ‘Mother’ turns around and sees Chick before addressing him.
“Well Chick now you know…I’m still alive”
Chick already knew that Norman’s fractured mind had him speaking to his dead mother but now he knows that she’s fully manifested as a completely separate personality. Given Chick’s adoration for Norman and his disdain for Caleb, there’s a better than average chance that the body count in White Pine Bay is about to get one higher by the end of the next episode.
The new episode of ‘Bates Motel’ airs next Monday night at 10pm ET on A&E.
