Bates Motel Recap: “Nice Town You Picked, Norma”

by Jessica Grafer:

Bates Motel Recap: “Nice Town You Picked, Norma”
Original Air Date (A&E): Monday March 25, 2013
Season 1 Episode 2

I am loving this series so far.  I know it’s only two episodes in and I may be a bit over eager.  Still.  If you’re not watching yet, get on this!

We start off with Norman looking the craziest that he has yet.  He’s laying in bed flicking a flashlight on/off, on/off, on/off while it’s focused on pictures of the sadistic manga he found in the motel.  It’s early  morning and there’s a knock at the door.  Hello Dylan!  Apparently, normal people come home when they lose their jobs and have no money or place to stay.  Dylan had to find his mom and brother though.  Seeing as they moved out-of-state without telling him.  Norma tells Dylan if he’s going to stick around he’s going to have to pitch in.

Norman is out meeting the girls before school again.  He actually does pretty well in social situations.  He can chat with the girlies.  A car comes speeding past.  It’s Bradley’s dads car.  It crashes up ahead and the kids run up to find Bradley’s dad behind the wheel, barely alive with burns all over his body.  Turns out someone set a fire at the warehouse he owns.  While the cops are their investigating the crash, they find Summer’s truck.  Romero starts asking Norma questions right away.  She’s not very good when it comes to answering persistent cops questions.

Dylan goes to a strip club and sees a big, burly guy crying.  Apparently his boss was burned in a fire and is going to die.  Dylan listens politely so the guy buys him a drink.  He pulls out a big wad of cash.  Dylan asks where in a town like this does he make cash like that.  Dylan ends up getting a job at the warehouse.  The first question they ask him is, can he handle a gun.  As much abuse as Dylan takes from Norma it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.  Norma calls her first-born ‘dumbass’ and says ‘I hate you’.  Dylan keeps suggesting that Norma coming into all this money is awfully curious.  Sam (Norman’s father) had substantial life insurance policies.  Well, isn’t that convenient Norma.

Norman and Emma need to work on an English project together.  Emma comes to the house and let me tell you.  Dads with shotguns have nothing on Norma Bates.  Poor Emma is subjected to a barrage of questions from what her ethnic background is to finally, the piece de resistance, what is your life expectancy?  Seriously.  Norma asked that.  Then she sent the two upstairs to work on their project.  While up there, Emma finds Norman’s creepy manga book.  She loves manga and asks if she can borrow it.

The cops come again and Romero is badgering Norma about the fact that she said she hadn’t seen Summers and a witness said they saw them having words the other day.  Norma tried to be slick and work on Deputy Shelby with her feminine wiles.  It kinda worked.  She did have to finally tell Romero he needs a search warrant if he wants to look around.  Norma has decided she needs to get in closer with Deputy Shelby so she makes a point to stop into town and see him.  They have a cup of coffee together and Shelby tells her that Romero and Summers were boyhood friends.  She just needs to cut him some slack.  Then he invites her to an exciting endeavor called the Woodchuck Festival.  Yee haw!  Norma decides that she needs to go so she can get in closer to Shelby.  While she’s getting ready she asks Norman what she should wear.  Then she changes her shirt right in front of him.  She tells him that she’s his mother, it’s no big deal.  The thing is she was making it a huge deal by her body language and words.  A serious Oedipus complex going on here.  Except that it’s coming stronger from the mother.  The vibe between the two of them was so real it was gross.

Norma goes to the festival and gets to see Deputy Shelby do some physical labor in a sawing contest.  When they are walking around after, Shelby is awfully talkative.  He points out that everyone in town has run of the mill jobs but all have big houses and fancy cars.  Isn’t that peculiar?  We find out that the law is more primal in White Pine Bay.  The people there deal with things in their own ways.  An eye for an eye.  This manages to creep out even our femme fatale Norma.

Dylan has Norma in his phone as “whore”.  When Norman finds this out he freaks out.  Dylan seems to feel a little bad for Norman.  I think Dylan is greatly underestimating Norman and Norma.  While his back is turned Norman grabs the meat tenderizer and tries to hit Dylan in the head with it.  Stupid and impulsive.  Lucky for Norman, Dylan sensed it and smacked him around a bit.  Dylan got no pleasure from it.  He seems to just want to knock some sense into his little brother.

One night Dylan is up late drinking and wakes Norma up.  The song that is playing is perfect.  Norma tells Dylan he has to leave.  After threatening to spill certain truths he knows about Norma and Sam, Norma seems defeated for the moment.  She goes back upstairs telling him only to keep the music down.  I was pretty scared for Dylan.  I really thought that might be it for him.  When Norma leaves Dylan the lyrics of the song are, “I need your love, I want your love”.  Dylan, despite hating how messed up his family is, desperately wants to be a part of it.

Emma has figured out what Normans book is.  It’s a story of 4 Chinese girls who are promised that if they go to the US and work for 7 years they will be free.  Instead these girls are used as sex slaves.  One is killed in a drug overdose and at least one of those girls is buried up on a mountain by a shed.  Emma tells Norman that she recognizes this area from the pictures.  She believes this story is real and wants to go find the graves.  Emma is so excited she kisses Norman.  Then she’s surprised because he does absolutely nothing in response.  Emma laughs it off and they decide to go hiking the next day.

Norman and Emma are having a good time hiking even with Emma’s CF.  They come to a clearing and…oops.  They have come upon a pot field.  Not good.  They have to run to escape the two, gun toting dimbulbs guarding the field.  Emma and Norman make it away but the thugs see Emma’s car.

The next day in the middle of town there is an old-fashioned upside down burning man.  In broad daylight.  I guess this is what Deputy Shelby meant when he said the people take care of things in their own way.

Nice town you picked, Norma.  Real nice.

Jessica Grafer has loved the “darker” things since she was old enough to pick her own books. She is a contributor for DarkMedia who covers Revenge and Bates Motel. She loves to walk the book store shelves and pick up whatever catches her eye. She is a movie lover with a great range in her tastes, and appreciation for all genres. Jessica is a writer and has several things in the works. You can follow her quirky Twitter posts at @scarletbe and check out her blog.