In the latest Bates Motel recap, Norma begins to realize just how sick her son Norman really is but did she find out too late to save herself?
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Norma Bates wanted to believe more than anything that after her son bludgeoned his own father to death that his blackouts that typically turned into fits of rage would subside if they moved to a new town and essentially started a new life.
A few years later, Norman has progressively gotten worse, the body count has only gone higher and now Norma is not only certain that her son is a murderer, but he’s no longer just a danger to everyone else around him — he’s a danger to her as well.
The new season of Bates Motel kicked off a week ago and while the show has quickly become must see TV over the last few years, these latest episodes are truly the closest and scariest facsimiles to the original Psycho. Norman is crossing boundaries this season to a whole new level of sociopathic to the point of being down right frightful.
There were more than a couple of scenes in the new episode that should have put you on the edge of your seat, clutching the couch, wondering what was lurking around each and every corner. The most nerve racking part about a prequel series like this one is we already know how it all turns out — but the trip to arrive there might be the scariest thing you’ll ever witness.
With that said let’s recap the latest episode of Bates Motel titled ‘Goodnight, Mother’…
What’s in the Freezer?
Norma knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s time to get Norman help and there’s no amount of coddling or motherly love that will fix his fractured mind that has splintered into a severely damaged psyche.
The morning after Norman killed Emma’s mother, he wakes up and doesn’t remember a thing other than his mother locking him in her bedroom while she claims that it was just a precaution while she went out for groceries. Norma does her best to keep Norman calm and subdued, but he quickly begins having flashbacks to the night before where he murdered Emma’s mother and stuffed her in the icebox in the basement.
When Norman goes to the find the body, he discovers that the freezer is empty but all the dead animals originally put inside are now out. So something was definitely in this freezer within the last few hours.
Norma discovers her son in the basement and questions what he’s doing and that’s when he hits her with a startling revelation — Norman knows that this was his mother’s doing because she might have hurt someone and this is her attempt to cover it up.
Remember, Norman sees all his bad deeds through the eyes of his mother so he thinks she’s responsible for killing Emma’s mother and hiding the body.
Before Norma can deal with the situation at home, she receives a visit from Alex, who is there to check in on her after she randomly showed up at his place a day earlier and asked him to marry her for the sake of insurance. She promises that it’s all better now but Alex is concerned and asks if she’s safe at home with Norman.
Of course, Norma plays it off as if nothing is wrong because her maternal instinct is to always protect her son but who is going to protect her from him?
Breathe In, Breathe Out
Back at the hospital in Portland, Emma is having the breathing tube removed after her lung transplant so she can finally test out her new, healthy organs. A few gasps later, Emma is breathing on her own and it’s only a matter of time before she’s leading a normal life — for the first time since she was a child.
Dylan is concerned that he’s somehow in the way and while her father reassures him that his place is by his daughter’s side, he does mention that if he’s going to continue to be with Emma, he might want to think about a new career outside of the drug trade.
When Emma can finally speak on her own, Dylan is convinced that she’ll be ready to move onto her new life without him but she doesn’t want him to go anywhere.
We know there aren’t going to be many happy endings when Bates Motel comes to a close a season from now, but can we please keep Dylan and Emma together when it’s all said and done?
You Should Be Scared
Following his meeting with Norma at the house, Alex is convinced that he needs to help her out of this latest jam so he digs up some of the cash he took from a dead Bob Paris and proceeds to grease the wheels at Pineview to get Norman admitted immediately. He also tells the staff that Norman’s future bills will be covered by his insurance because Norma will soon be his wife.
A sweet gesture to say the least.
Back at the hotel after Norman has muttered about the latest dead body that he claims is due to his mother’s own murderous rage, Norma is convinced that her son killed somebody else and left it buried somewhere on the property.
The most logical place is in the bottom of that giant, gaping pit that’s still sitting in front of the hotel — remember the one that was supposed to be a swimming pool? — so Norman climbs down to the mucky bottom looking for the body she knows her son buried there. But instead of finding Emma’s mother buried in the mud, she only finds a single glove.
Before Norma can dig any deeper, a family shows up looking to check into the hotel and she’s startled when she climbs up the ladder and finds her son waiting for her. Once again he accuses her of wrongdoing and then insists that she gets cleaned up while he checks the guests into the hotel.
As a hotel manager, Norman is as cordial as a greeting card but after checking in the random traveling family, he sees a fax come through on the machine — it’s admittance papers to the Pineview — the mental institution where his mother wants him placed but he can only go immediately if he signs the forms for voluntary admission.
To make matters worse, Norman has a second voice appear in his head — it’s his father and he claims that Norma was the one who murdered him and now his job is clear — he needs to handle his mother before she does anything else.
Back at the house, Norman confronts Norma and immediately accuses her of a series of murders — starting with his father then moving onto Blair Watson and then Bradley Martin — all because of her jealous rage about somebody taking away her son’s attention. Of course, Norma knows she didn’t kill anyone but she now has full confirmation that Norman murdered all of them.
Norman ventures further and further into his own delusions as he tells his mother that he’s reached a rather disturbing place because he loves her but he’s also afraid of her — “and that’s a bad combination”. When Norma replies that she’s scared of him, Norman tells her without batting an eye that she should be scared.
Norma attempts to get the gun out of her bedroom but Norman was already one step ahead of her. Norma then shifts to creepy mother mode where she sort of attempts to seduce her own son to bring his guard down but he’s not having it. Finally, Norma runs to the attic where she calls Romero for help.
After some time passes, Norma doesn’t hear anything from outside the door and she finally goes back out into the house to find her son.
Downstairs a movie is playing on the computer while all the lights are off. Norma picks up a gigantic pair of scissors before wandering into the basement to look for her son. She finally finds Norman alone at his taxidermy table when he tells his mother that he knew this was the way to get her out of that room — because ignoring Norma is the only way he knows she’ll then pay attention to him.
He then begins to unravel a diatribe about how the two of them aren’t meant for this world and everybody would be better off if they just checked out now together.
Before Norman can wield the gun or do any other horrific thing to his mother, Romero bursts into the house and saves the day. They take Norman out of the house to get him checked in for psychiatric care but in one last desperate move to connect with her son, Norma finally gets him to sign the papers to Pineview so he can go to the top notch facility rather than that awful county hospital where she found him a week ago.
Norman rides off in a cruiser with Romero while Norma is left at the hotel wondering what she could have done differently to save her son. Unfortunately what Norma will find out one day very soon — and when it’s far too late — is that Norman was already lost and there was no bringing him back.
Bates Motel returns next Monday at 9pm ET with a brand new episode on A&E
