We are just one more season away from the finale of Bates Motel and It is going to be interesting how they follow up from this season!
I think my biggest surprise this season was how little actually happened. The previous season there would always be so much going on and you would always wonder how anyone would get out of the situation they were in. This season slowed it down and just focused on Normans psych as well as setting up for the final season. Which I can only assume will start to connect with the events of Psycho.
Unfortunately the main chunk of this season isn't all that exciting and is ultimately resulted to just setting up the finale. There are minor sub plots like Emma's mother, which goes no where. Norman dealing with his black out, which goes no where. As well as Norma's and Romero's marriage, which is cut short. It isn't that none of these sub plots aren't resolved its just that they didn't use any of them to their full potential. Some, only happening just so they can keep the tension up but that only works when they are delivered.
Looking back at the season as a whole, the one plot I would've liked spent a bit more time on was the marriage between Norma and Romero, especially when Norman is back in the picture. This was something explored a bit better in the TV film of Psycho that dived into the past of Norman Bates and really, the inspiration for this show. In that film you really get to see the event of Norman having to deal with his new step father and how that was fueling the Psycho in him. They really could've added to this dynamic in this season instead of focusing so much of Norman at the mental care trying to figure out if he is away of his blackouts or not.
Season 4 of Bates Motel wasn't the most memorable and had a lot of promise to what they could've done. They just took a very safe route and didn't focus on a main plot for me to grab onto to keep me invested. A lot having to be blamed on setting up the final season. Depending on how the final season delivers, will reflect this season and the build up, this season spent so much time developing.
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Norman is actually sent to Pinewood??
The episode had a turn that I didn't not expect from this series. As the paranoia of both Norman and Norma play off of each other and their actions. Norman begins to get the thinking that Norma is responsible for all the deaths that have happened on this show, really believing that she not only did it but is also covering it up and keeping it from him. Norma on the other hand is trying to find a way to get Norman into Pinewood so he can get the help that he needs.
What is interesting is that by the end of the episode it is made very clear that Norman has the upper hand and is even becoming threatening to Norma. He does some investigation on trying to find the body of Emma's mother which is think his mother has done away with. In his visions it is possibly shown that her mother is alive and may have escaped in some way. Romero decides he wants to help Norma by help paying for Norman's treatment to get into the Pinewood facility but by doing so, leads to Norman finding out about it.
This leads to an interesting end of the episode where Norman tries to get his mother to stop lying to him and tell the truth. But not the same truth that he was thinking. Norma calls Romero because she feels threaten by having Norman there and he shows up to take him away.
I like how much they are going a different route with this show, I never would have expected Norma to do this because up to this point of the show she has protected Norman from just about everything. What is more interesting is the fact that Norman is very much convinced he is being framed and will most likely be putting the blame on his mother in some way. Either way the outcome from this episode is going to be quite the watch and I can't way to see what happens next!
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Season 3 of Bates Motel furthers the story of how Norman Bates becomes the Psycho we all know from the movies. This one gets closer to than than the two other previous seasons
The only problem I did have with this season was mostly the villains. There was one clear villain who seemed to have a bigger connection but it turns out its not as big as it may have seemed in the beginning. There is also the neighbor to Dylan's new farm Chip, who may or may not be a villain, it wasn't completely clear and it didn't really follow through much with that. I'm expecting him to return next season in some way.
It seems from this show, that is someone doesn't die, they will return later on only to die then. They haven't done it much, but its starting to feel that way and I hope they try to turn away from that. Just so it can feel different and unpredictable.
I did like how Norman is getting closer to the Psycho we know and how he is actually seeing Norma in more places now. Which leads me to believe how its going to affect their relationship for the next season. But here you see little hints how he thinks she has done things that she actually hasn't.
Overall this was a solid season and It feel like this was only leading up to the climax season, which hopefully will be the next one. I only wish that there was more of a villain but the direction this is heading its pretty obvious who the villain is going to be from now on.
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Episode: Unconscious
Today was the season finale of Bates Motel, and the way this episode ends, I already can't wait to see what is going to happen next season.
Surprisingly this episode did seem to focus a bit more on Emma's side, she finds out that she is able to have the lung transplant much sooner than she expected. This leads her off to getting into sorta a depression until Dylan meets up with her. This ends up calming her down and what I assume is less depressed about going through with the surgery. I was expecting Dylan to tell her about how he got the money for her to even get the surgery, but he didn't and I think it probably better on his part.
Things also close down with Bob Harris who manages to escape from the DEA because of Romero's call. At first it didn't seem like he did this so he couldn't incriminate Norma and himself but the way he handled it reminded me of how Jack Bauer would handle things. Norma also finds a facility to help Norman with. She finds out it not as bad as it looks, but she gets noticeable worried about how much it costs, I only assume its because they don't have insurance. But when she tells Norman about it he gets mad and feels like she has given up on him.
This was just motivation for him to leave and run away with Bradley which she been trying to convince him to do. But he tries to leave he gets in a altercation with Norma that leads to her knocking him out with a heavy object, enough for you to know that it did damage. He ends up escaping easily and meet up with Bradley, but of course its not to long until he begins to see Norma in the car and starts to have a argument with her. Its interesting how now he doesn't doesn't go through any black out phase and the transition is seamless.
*Spoiler*
It was pretty obvious from the moment she showed back up in this season that she wasn't going to make it out this season. I also thought it would've been smart for he to drive off when Norman/Norma was trying to take her out of the car. But someone need to go who wouldn't be noticed by anyone else and the way he does handle it, I don't thing anyone will be searching. Also Bob Harris died. We all pretty much knew that was going to happen a long time ago.
Overall, this was a great finale and was a real transition for Norman than ever before. I'm a little surprised that he became the Psycho so soon but its just going to make things interesting for the future. The way this episode ends, I already can't wait to see how Season 4 is going to play out. Especially seeing how the dynamic between Norman and Norma is going to change or be from now on.
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What did you think of the finale and what do you want to happen in the next season?
Also will be posting my review and overall thoughts for Season 3 tomorrow.
Episode: Crazy
Bradley returns from the life of pretending to be dead. She realized just how hard living that sort of life really is. Norman helps her try to meet her mother, but when they get there they realized how her time away has affected everyone and how they have moved on from her. The whole episode we can tell that she is a little off, but it really isn't until the end of the episode where we see her taking some sort of medication where the signals really go off. Even by the end up the episode she asks Norman to run away with her, but you can tell its because she isn't thinking clearly.
Norma also is trying to find the flash drive again after meeting with Bob Harris, who knows the truth about Norman and is threatening to expose the truth. She ends up breaking into Romeros house only to find out he has given it to DEA agents to try and take down the entire group. Dylan and Kaleb both are about to go into hiding after what went down in last weeks episode and after talking with Chip, who thinks that they just tricked him to get the money. It looks like things are about to escalate on their part that has forced them to go into hiding.
We are also beginning to see more and more of Normans crazy side as he is seeing Norma much more often now and is affecting the way he is treating his real mother. It also seems that everyone around Norma has accepted what Norman really is except for her, or at least in this episode she was just not realizing some of it.
Either way Crazy was a good way to describe this episode and something big is definitely going to happen, each to all the characters and its going to be interesting see how it will play out.
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Episode: The Pitt
In this weeks episode of Bates Motel, relationships are defined in this episode. Emma breaks up with Norman, Dylan and Kaleb go on an dangerous road trip together and Norma and Norman get a little bit closer.
Dylan and Kaleb go on a run for chip and it seems to go easy until they actually meet the people who are supposed to give them the guns. They don't trust them very much because they were expecting chip to come. Not to long later they are being ambushed by someone and it leads to a shoot out. They escape but there is kinda some mystery about the whole situation that I think will be followed up.
Emma also breaks up with Norman, which was no surprise since it was obvious that it was only to get back at Norma. This does lead to Norman kinda releasing what he has been doing this whole time and confronting Norma about it.
Romero also finds out that Norma has been lying to him this whole time to protect Norma, I don't think he is going to do anything about it due to not really having any evidence. But it will be interesting for what ever happens in the future.
By the ending of the episode Norman definitely looses it and it almost seems like he is going to be like this for the rest of the season. Anything could change due to a character returning that we will see more of next week.
But overall we did actually are seeing sorta the collapse of everyone trusting each other. Especially since now a lot more people know about Normans condition. How this will all play out is going to be interesting to see.
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Episode: The Last Supper
This week its seems that everyone is finally making up and getting together to move on for the better...Except for Norman.
We follow up from last week where Norma gets a new phone and sees all the calls she had missed including one from Romero. He asks he about the flash drive, and when he finally gets to it he notices that his mothers name is on one of the checks on the flash drive. This leads to him confronting his father who's in prison and finds out that he is the one to put his mothers name in there. So basically he is kinda stuck in this situation because anyone can implicate him at any moment if he were to actually stop this group.
Later the Psychologist talks to Norman and he definitely see a darker side of Norma I don't think he expected to see. Its unsure if he will return later, but it is interesting to know now that someone outside the family knows about his condition.
We also find out about Emma's lung problem being help but only if they can get around $20,000, which happens to fit perfectly with a job offer from Chip. Dylan wants to take it, but Kaleb prevents him from doing it, know that it will be more trouble he doesn't need. But if her condition gets worse I don't see why Dylan wouldn't sneak to do the job just to get the money.
Overall this was a great episode this week and based on the way it ended leaves me wondering if this is the last happy moment that we are getting this season. That or the finale is coming up soon.
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Episode: Norma Louise
In this weeks episode, Norman definitely begins to transition to the Norman Bates we see in the movies. We of course are not the only ones who know about it as Dylan see's Norman acting like Norma a few hours after where the last episode left off. Its only one scene but I think it will be happening more frequently from now on.
Romero gets shot by someone in an unknown car, he wakes up in a hospital and tries to call Norma to let her know. He is visited by the man from a few episode ago who is going to be replacing him as sheriff. But as soon as he leaves Romero takes him out. From the look of things he might be taking out this new group by himself.
Norma also ends up telling the professor about Normans condition, she was drunk but it will be interesting now that she has told someone about it. In the end she decides to go confront her brother because that is what caused all this mess in the first place.
From the way the episode ends it seems the dynamic between them could change. With Normans condition getting worse this could ending up causing problems for the future. Not to mention that a group is after them for the flash drive they have.
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Episode: The Deal
In this weeks episode, we get some pretty good set up for altercations that could happen in the next episode.
We finally find out whats on the flash drive that Dylan hid at his farm, and this leads to Norma telling Romero that she has had it and even found out what was on it. They come up with a plan to meet with the person who has been looking for the flash drive. She makes a deal with him promising not to reveal what was on the flash drive. But the whole time you get the feeling that he still has the edge and there really isn't any reason for him not to just find a new way to get it.
Norman also has a blackout leaving him to think that he told Norma about her Brother staying with Dylan. This does give him some time to really think about it and he decides not to tell her until Dylan does, and when he does tell Norma he joins him.
I think in the next episode we are really going to see all the tension built up regarding Norma brother. We do see in the beginning of the episode that he does feel guilty about what he has done. He even gets a job offer from the strange neighbor to become a driver for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up taking the job.
But overall it was good episode with an ending that leaves me wondering what is going to happen next week and how this flash drive plot is going to be following through from now on.
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Episode: "Unbreak-Able"
In this weeks episode of Bates Motel, we get a few new conflicts that will be affecting all the main characters in a way that will possible change in everything with the way they interact in the future.
Norma tries to figure out was is on the flash drive that Annika had given her from the previous episode, but she finds out that the password is very specific and will be hard to crack through without it. She does start to get paranoid on who is looking for it and when Romero asks her if she new anything about what Annika was trying to get she doesn't reveal about the flash drive. She ends up giving it to Dylan to hide somewhere.
But later in the episode a couple of men end up searching around the motel looking for the flash drive, and when Dylan catches them, they warn him that they will most likely come back to get it later on. So in response Dylan takes the flash drive back to his farm to hide it in a place they won't find it.
Norma and Dylan discuss a lot about what to do with the flash light, and Norman ends up ease dropping on all their conversations. Its almost as if he is jealous that Dylan and Norma are getting closer. He ends up following Dylan back to his farm and finds out that his uncle is staying with him. This causes a fight between them with Norman telling him that he is going to tell Norma in hopes of breaking off their relationship.
Romero is also investigating more about the murder of the two women who are both connected to this group in the city. He pretty much gets a confirmation that the person he is after is the culprite but from now is its about how he gets the evidence. Which is most likly on the flash drive that Norma has.
Overall this weeks episode was good, and its nice to see some things becoming more clear. You can easily tell that this is also the point where Norman is turning over to the dark side in a sense.
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Episode: "The Arcanum Club"
In this weeks episode, we followed to the events from the last episode with Norma being worried about the women, Annika who had mysteriously disappeared.
You get the feeling that she deep downs knows that Norman is responisble but she trys to figure what happened on her own. Whether its for not wanting to think that he is resonpible for her disapearance or that she wants to help cover up evidence.
This leads to Norma going to a party that Annika was meant to attend. Because she doesn't know that password she if forced to sneak in. She does run into Sheriff Romero and she tells him everything that she know about Annika, hoping that he would help.
After that she ends up driving to the pass that will ultimatly lead to the motel no longer receiving anymore business. In a rage she decided to run over the side and a few of the cones used in the consruction.
We also focus on Dylan and his father, Caleb as one of their guard dogs gets attacked by a random dog that at was trying to start a fight. This leads to Caleb shooting that dog and the next day the presumed owner comes to look for it.
His name is Chick Hogan and he meets with both Dylan and Caleb to discuss about the new marijuana crop. Which could mean he was somehow involved with them beforehand and possible could in the future.
This episode did feel like another set up episode, but its fine for only being the second episode of the season. Based on the way this weeks episode ended, I have a feeling much more interesting things will happen next week.
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