In the latest ‘Bates Motel’ recap, Norman and Chick deal with a captive Caleb and Romero makes his move to get back to White Pine Bay…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
No one seems to be able to get too close to Norman Bates without winding up dead.
If there’s one central theme to ‘Bates Motel’ during the past four seasons that’s it because Norman’s connections outside of his mother have ultimately ended with blood being shed.
So what happens when someone discovers Norman’s split with reality but instead of trying to “fix” him, they embrace it? That’s what Chick Hogan does after finding out that Norman’s blackouts lead him to become ‘Mother’ — a split personality manifestation of his dead mom, Norma Bates.
Chick saw Norman’s transformation into ‘Mother’ last week when he knocked out Caleb, who had discovered his sister’s mummified body in the basement of the Bates family home. Rather than panic or trying to shake Norman back to sanity, Chick acts like everything is normal and rather than running away in terror, he actually asks to get closer to the entire insane mess.
Of course, Chick is secretly working on a true crime novel — one he may never finish given the murder rate for anyone who stays in this house for too long — but his mission isn’t as noble as it first might seem.
The dynamic of Chick living with Norman and ‘Mother’ was certainly fascinating and it will be interesting to see how long this whole thing lasts. They say knowledge is power but power is corrupt so what will ultimately happen to Chick now that he knows Norman’s biggest secret?
Time will only tell.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Bates Motel’ titled ‘Bad Blood’…
Hello Mother
Caleb wakes up on the floor of the basement, handcuffed to a pole and seeing visions of his sister in front of him. Perhaps it’s the concussion talking, but Caleb looks right at Norma before the haziness lifts and he sees that he’s actually speaking to his nephew Norman in a dress with a blonde wig on his head.
Rather than scream at Norman to stop playing pretend, Caleb speaks to ‘Mother’ just like he would his sister while explaining why he returned to White Pine Bay. Caleb mentions Dylan and Emma and their new daughter Catherine — perhaps in hopes of making a connection with ‘Mother’ through her son and new granddaughter.
That plan doesn’t work because ‘Mother’ is more concerned about what she can do with him now that he knows she’s alive. In reality, Norman’s ‘Mother’ persona is still struggling to deal with the love/hate relationship she shared with Caleb. With ‘Mother’ conflicted, that leaves Norman as the one who has to deal with his uncle and remember anytime a life has been taken, it’s ‘Mother’ who finishes the job.
But what happens when ‘Mother’ can’t kill?
While that situation is still ongoing, Chick is a new problem that ‘Mother’ has to deal with now. Of course, ‘Mother’ can’t know for certain if Chick can be trusted but he assures her that he’s not there to harm her or Norman. Much like Caleb, Chick speaks directly to ‘Mother’ without ever acknowledging that it’s actually Norman, which helps his damaged psyche from completely splintering into a million different directions — all of which seem to land on sociopathic when it’s all said and done.
Chick convinces ‘Mother’ that he can be trusted with her secret and even offers to stay the night to make sure Caleb is handled so Norman never has to know what happened.
The next morning, Norman wakes up in his own bed with no memory of what happened the night before. ‘Mother’ joins him and apologizes for the fight they had at the restaurant but then instructs him to avoid the basement because she’s doing some work down there.
Finally, Chick brings Norman some breakfast and of course he doesn’t remember inviting him to stay the night. Chick then informs Norman that he knows that Norma is still alive and he’s happy to keep their secret. Norman is shocked to find out that someone else knows about his mother, but Chick promises that he can be trusted and means them no harm at all.
Given his reason for sticking around, that could certainly be debated.
House Guests
As Caleb slips between waking and slumber while on the floor in the basement, he sees visions of his sister and flashes back to the time when they were children and all they had in this world was each other. That concept actually carried over into adulthood for Norma except after letting go of her brother, she latched onto her son and that’s why the two of them were so inseparable. It’s really the idea behind this entire series — no one matters more to Norman and Norma than they do to each other.
When Caleb finally snaps out of his haze, he finds Chick in the basement with him eating a bowl of soup and asking questions. Now you’d think Caleb would resist or react to a guy he nearly beat to death casually quizzing him about his family’s history, but for some reason he plays along.
Caleb tells Chick about growing up with Norma but won’t discuss how he raped her when they were teenagers. He’s happy to talk about anything other than those horrific events.
Back upstairs, Chick witnesses Norman’s split psyche at work when he accidentally knocks over a photo frame and it’s ‘Mother’ who berates him while sitting on the couch while he’s actually talking to Norman a few feet away. See, ‘Mother’ isn’t actually sitting on the couch but he realizes that Norman believes she’s right there in front of him. Chick is starting to understand how Norman’s damage mind works — he sees his mother when he’s awake and when he blacks out, he literally becomes her.
Later that night, Chick prepares dinner for the family and asks Norman if he could stay as a houseguest to help them out and keep make sure no one causes them trouble. ‘Mother’ agrees but this is another dynamic Chick has to play to his advantage because he can’t hear anything she says because she’s not actually there.
Instead, Chick picks up on some secondary conversation from Norman and then fakes that his right ear doesn’t hear so well so he can pretend he doesn’t hear ‘Mother’ when she speaks. The end result is that Norman and ‘Mother’ agree that Chick can stay while he has secretly been recording this entire conversation.
Chick has been taking notes throughout his interactions with Norman and after buying a typewriter in town, we find out that he’s actually planning a true crime novel based on his interactions with the entire Bates family. From the rapist brother to the dead mother to the psychologically damaged Norman, this story has a little bit of everything and Chick is very excited to tell it.
Don’t Bring Cookies
Just after Chick is invited to be a semi-permanent houseguest, he runs into Madeleine, who has shown up at the house to give Norman some cookies as a thank you for going on that horrendous double date a couple of nights ago.
Norman quickly pulls Madeleine away from an interaction with Chick before they reconvene at the hotel where he has a cookie and they share a conversation. It’s there when Madeleine reveals that she’s growing apart from her husband Sam and how it’s been even more distant lately with his business trips and absence from their marriage.
Of course, Norman knows that Sam is a cheating bastard but he doesn’t tell her. Instead, Norman offers his sympathy as she pours her heart out to him. Before inviting Madeleine to go on a walk with him in the woods, Norman finally tells her that she reminds him so much of his mother. She wonders if that’s a good thing but in Norman’s mind it’s perfect because Madeleine is the physical manifestation of the person he loves most in the world.
One theory — we know that Marion Crane — aka the other woman in Sam Loomis’ life — will eventually be an occupant at the Bates Motel. Perhaps Norman’s relationship with Sam’s wife will be the breaking point where he finally exacts revenge on the people who have hurt her the most. Namely Madeleine’s cheating husband and his mistress. Food for thought.
The Road to Perdition
Following his savage beat down in prison, Romero has managed to orchestrate a transfer from his current prison to a different facility where he will be safer. He lied and said that he got beat up because he was an ex-cop but in reality Romero just snapped following a visit from his stepson Norman earlier that day.
Still, Romero takes advantage of the opportunity, especially when he gets the drop on one of the guards taking him to the bathroom during the road trip to the new prison. Romero steals his gun and coat before taking a random passer by hostage and going for a drive.
Romero eventually lets the man go but on the road back to White Pine Bay, he gets a flat tire and he’s once again at the mercy of strangers.
Romero finds his way to a farm out in the middle of nowhere when he discovers a car with the keys still left inside. He believes this will be the perfect way to escape, but Romero is soon faced down with a kid holding a gun on him for trying to steal their car.
Romero does his best to talk his way out of the situation by pretending he’s an injured hiker, but one step too man results in the boy firing the gun and blasting the former sheriff right in the stomach. As Romero lays there bleeding, the boy panics when he realizes he actually just shot a man and it’s clear that trip back to the Bates Motel is going to take a little longer than expected.
It’s Your Turn
Back at the Bates’ house, Caleb is finally fed up with his captivity and he starts banging on the pipes in the basement while shouting Norman’s name as loud as possible. Chick is forced to explain what happened — Caleb showed up out of nowhere and he’s fairly certain it was with the intent to kill Norman so now he’s chained up in the basement.
Norman freaks out but ‘Mother’ is nowhere to be found. Norman demands that Chick look around the house to find her while making sure that she didn’t leave somehow. Of course, Chick plays along as not to upset the psychotic fantasy land where Norman lives.
Meanwhile, Norman saunters down the basement but by the time he sets eyes on Caleb, he’s switched back into the ‘Mother’ persona.
‘Mother’ is clearly conflicted about what to do with her brother and Caleb pleads for mercy and even offers to get Norman the help that he needs. Ultimately, ‘Mother’ decides that this family dynamic will never work because both Caleb and Norman are in love with her. So ‘Mother’ declares that Norman will have to kill him because she can’t do the deed herself.
For the first time, ‘Mother’ can’t kill.
This once again speaks to the fractured personalities because everybody that ‘Mother’ has killed has been in an attempt to “protect” Norman. Maybe because Norman knows deep down that Norma was so conflicted about her relationship with her brother, he knows that ‘Mother’ could never kill him herself and thus that decision manifests itself in the conversation.
Regardless, ‘Mother’ then tells Norman that he’s going to have to kill his uncle. It’s finally his turn to protect them both.
Norman goes downstairs with the gun, takes the handcuffs off his uncle and tells him to run. Norman has never willingly taken a life and he can’t do it here either. Caleb finally listens and makes a run for his life, but that decision shifts Norman back to ‘Mother’ mode where ‘she’ grabs the gun and starts firing at him as he tries to escape this house of horrors.
Just when it looks like Caleb will get away, Chick comes barreling down the road in his car, oblivious to the person who just jumped out in front of him asking for help. A second later, Chick plows into Caleb, who dies on impact before crashing on the ground.
Norman, ‘Mother’ and Chick all stand overtop of Caleb’s fallen body. At least that’s one problem out of the way.
‘Bates Motel’ returns with a brand new episode next Monday night at 10pm ET on A&E.
