Bates Motel Recap ‘Crazy’: Don’t Disappoint Mother

In the latest Bates Motel recap, Norman reconnects with Bradley, Norma tries to protect her son and Dylan says goodbye to someone he loves…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Season 3 of ‘Bates Motel’ is almost at an end as we reach the penultimate episode this week and the sure sign of a good series is when you hear things like ‘only one more to go’ and immediately get depressed.

I was a harsh critic of ‘Bates Motel’ season one — it just didn’t ring true to the kind of story telling and atmosphere that I expected after ‘Psycho’ was one of my favorite scary movies growing up but then season 2 came along and turned me around in a big way. The show started to develop Norman into the calm, cool and collected psychopath that would slip in and out of consciousness long enough to slice someone up with a butcher knife and then go to school the next morning.

Season 3 has been a direct continuation of that as the chasm in Norman’s already fractured psyche just grows larger by the week as you wait for him to finally lash out and silence the voices in his head. The voice in this case is his mother and at some point or another if this show is going to end up as ‘Psycho’, she’s got to go. Until then, Norman has plenty of places to put his murderous rage and by next week I’m beginning to think this show will have one less character to talk about.

With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Bates Motel’ titled ‘Crazy’:

Welcome Back, Bradley

Following a rough night where Norman ended up chasing his dead dog up the highway after learning that his mother sold him out by admitting to her shrink/lover that he was the one who actually killed his father, he runs into Bradley Martin, who has returned to White Pine Bay after leaving town following her ‘alleged’ suicide.

Bradley greets Norman and tells him that she’s desperate to restart her life because driving across the country in a piece of shit car with no money gets old real quick. He offers to put her up in the motel because no one is staying there anyways and there she asks him to help explain her death and sudden rebirth to her mother. Norman has such a kind soul and sweet face — what mother could turn him down??

Just look at him — he couldn’t harm a fly.

Norman agrees, but before he spills the beans about Bradley’s resurrection, they do a little scouting at her old house. It seems Bradley’s mom has gotten past the death of her father in quick order — she’s already got a new husband, she redecorated the house, the only picture of Bradley is one her daughter hated when she was still alive and her old bedroom was converted into a workout facility. Out of sight, out of mind.

Bradley’s crushed and so she decides that she will leave town. Clearly there’s nothing left for her in White Pine Bay and after witnessing Norman cowering at the thought of his mother finding out he wasn’t at home, she suggests that he go with her. What’s tying him to this one horse town anyways?

A Debt Paid

Caleb goes to see Chick to explain how he and Dylan were ambushed in Canada by his supposed gun buyers and they had to shoot their way free after the plan was to execute his son and send it back as a message. Caleb accuses him of being a rat, but Chick turns the tables and wonders if this was all some elaborate plan so he could sell the guns to another buyer and make off with all the money himself?

Chick pulls a gun, but Caleb catches him and the two end up in a knock down, drag out fight.

Caleb finally gets the upper hand and beats the living snot out of Chick, but doesn’t kill him. Instead he takes the $50,000 in cash he has in his garage and gives it to Dylan so he can help Emma get her transplant for a new lung. Caleb warns his son that Chick is still alive, but when and if he comes calling, just tell him that he split and has no idea where he headed. Caleb tells Dylan that he’s going to go to a spot where no one will find him. In a last moment embrace, Dylan makes sure that his father promises that he will return.

Dylan takes the money and goes to Emma’s house where he hands over the cash to her father so she can finally get the lung transplant that will save her life. Emma’s father is blown away by the generosity and promises to pay every dime back, but Dylan wants none of it. He even makes her father promise not to tell Emma where the money came from.

Before he leaves, Dylan goes upstairs to visit with Emma. When he tells her that he’s sad that Caleb left, she says she understands because that was his father after all. Dylan’s shocked that she knew this whole time, but Emma explains that Norman told her last summer when Caleb first arrived.

The two hold hands and for a moment it looked like Dylan was about to lay a kiss on her, but he resists. Given the thin line so many characters on this show are walking as we head into the season finale, Dylan may regret not giving her that kiss by the end of next week.

I Hate Everything About You

Following the revelation that Bob Paris now knows at least one of Norma’s dirty little secrets — you know that Norman killed his own father — she’s desperate to cover things up. She visits Bob to tell him that she’ll give back the flash drive, but he’s already lost interest in her promises. Bob explains that she might want to talk to Romero about who is in possession of the flash drive while also telling his brief extortionist that she no longer get to tell him to do anything.

He also warns her to be careful standing around that swimming pool he was digging because she might fall in and never get out again.

Norma’s totally freaked at this point, but when she visits Romero he shuns her with extreme prejudice. He’s tired of her lies and bullshit and tells her to get packing. He’s done with her for good.

While Norma scrambles for answers, Romero meets with the DEA liaison who is now in town to help him figure out what to do with the information on that mysterious flash drive. The agent is curious about his mother’s name being on the list of investors, but when he explains that it was actually his father’s doing, she doesn’t sound all that convinced. Actually, the DEA agent looks awfully suspicious of Romero as the town sheriff who supposedly allowed all this illegal drug trade to take place right under his nose for all these years.

Back at the motel, Norman comes home momentarily after spending time with Bradley to find his mother in the basement bagging up all of his taxidermy so she can throw them away in the garbage. Norma is convinced that Bob will eventually investigate her husband’s murder and when the cops come calling she doesn’t want her son to be indicted while he’s surrounded by a room full of dead animals.

Norman snaps and screams at his mother for throwing away his beautiful work. He even picks up a knife, which startles Norma at first, but then her son goes into a diatribe about how the cops might get the wrong idea entirely if they started to believe that it was his mother that killed his father. She had motive. She had opportunity. Maybe she’s the person who has been killing people while he’s supposedly blacked out. Norman is turning the tables on his mother and getting more brazen with every exchange. The knife was a nice touch as well — a precursor to the future maybe?

The last thing Norma tries is to ransack Romero’s house looking for the flash drive. When he arrives home with his gun drawn, Norma just keeps pushing and pushing while basically daring him to shoot. When he’s finally had enough and corners her, Romero tries to get Norman to finally echo the truth about the day her husband died. At first she comes clean and says she’s the one who did it, but Romero knows better than to buy that.

All he wants is the truth and she begs him not to make her say it. Just before the two nearly kiss in this hate filled shout fest, Norma storms out again still determined to clear her son’s name.

Don’t Disappoint Mother

Back in Bradley’s hotel room, she’s ready to split and trying to convince Norman to come with her when she finally remembers the day that he paid her a visit after the slept together back in high school. He professed his love for her and she turned him away while placing him ever so gently into what we like to call the friend zone. Now she begins to wonder if Norman ever felt that way, but more than anything she just wants to feel wanted right now.

Her father is dead and her mother has all but forgotten about her. Norman is the one connection she still has to her old life and she wants nothing more than to feel that again, even if it’s for just one night.

The two of them begin making out and then get to the bed where clothes start to go flying, but just before Norman seals the deal, he blinks and looks over and there’s Norma sitting in a chair a few feet away from them. He tries valiantly to get rid of her, but Norma just sits there staring at her son and telling him what a disappointment he’s being right now.

Finally, Norman freaks out and says that he can’t do this. He leaves Bradley on the bed as he makes a bee line for the house.

But before he gets there, Norma is already outside just waiting to greet him. She explains that Bradley is a problem and if she sticks around, she’s going to create even more problems. She has to go. Norman then agrees before they walk hand in imaginary hand up the stairs towards the house. With a giant pit just waiting there for someone to be buried alive, something tells me Bradley will get her wish to return home to White Pine Bay — and then never leave again.

When Norma (the real one this time) arrives home, she’s at her breaking point. She climbs to the top of the dirt mound currently surrounding her “pool” as she starts shoveling everything back into the giant hole that the construction crew left for her.

Caleb pulls into the motel and spots his sister losing her shit. He’s stopping by to drop off a guitar for Dylan while also explaining in so many words that despite his promise, Caleb is never coming back. He shares a moment with his sister before dropping one final bombshell on her before he leaves.

Remember last year when Caleb first showed up in town? Well, Norman went to his hotel late one night and when he knocked on the door he began accusing Caleb of raping him and being the source of all his pain. Caleb realized mid-rant that Norman wasn’t acting out — he was convinced that he was Norma!

Norma looks like she’s seen a ghost because now on two separate occasions she has accounts of people seeing Norman acting, talking, behaving and believing that he’s actually his own mother. Caleb’s leaving town and we know where Norma is going before this show is over — that just leaves Dylan as the only other person that has witnessed Norman’s transformation.

It probably doesn’t bode well for his long term health into season four.

Make sure to tune in next week for the season finale of ‘Bates Motel’ at 9pm ET on A&E and then come back for our full recap!