Bates Motel – Dark Paradise

By: Kelly Kearney

The Norman/Mother transformation is complete!

When we last saw “Bates Motel,” Norman (Freddie Highmore) was burying his beloved mother after his murder/suicide plan went drastically wrong. Season Five picks up about nineteen months after Norma’s (Vera Farmiga) death and it seems, at least in Norman’s head, like nothing happened at all.

The premiere begins with Norman waking up in Norma’s bed to his kissy faced stuffed dog, Juno. It seems like a normal day in the Bates household. Norman is getting ready for work at the motel and Mother is in the kitchen, whipping up a fantasy breakfast. With Norma dead, Mother has become a full flushed out character with the same drama and intensity that Norma had but with her own extra added Norman flair. Mother seems to be the gatekeeper to Norman’s illness and homicidal rage and, just like Norma, is desperate to protect her mentally ill son. With breakfast, over, Mother and Norman say their goodbyes but as the camera pans through the house, Mother fades into the shadows and the happy home turns into a dank, dirty and depressive cave.

At the end of last season, Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) was arrested for being a dirty cop and he is still behind bars. It seems that his prison sentence has done nothing to curb his anger towards Norman for what he did to Norma. But being behind bars limits what he can do…or does it? Being a police officer in a town that runs on crime gives Alex the opportunity to deal with his stepson from behind bars. Unfortunately, when he tries to contact his man on the outside the number is disconnected. Did Norman strike again?

Look- A-Likes and New Beginnings

Back in Pine Bay, Norman has plans to renovate the motel and meets a young Norma look-a-like in Madeline Loomis (Isabelle McNally), the hardware store owner. The two seem to hit it off over some paint samples until Norman goes to the register to pay and finds a wallet that doesn’t belong to him but a man name Joe Blackwell (John Hainsworth). Who is Jim and how did Norman get his wallet?

With no means of paying and slightly confused, Norman goes home and questions Mother about the wallet. If it belongs to a guest, he doesn’t remember checking this person in. Mother convinces him to put it in the office safe in case someone comes looking for it. Mother, is of course, hiding something and Norman remains suspicious. In a small moment of clarity, he asks his Mother is she ever felt like she was reliving the same nightmare over and over. Cheerily, Mother says no and this is the first time you can really tell Mother is the alter whose sole purpose is to protect Norman from himself.

As Norman is living an anything but normal existence, Dylan (Max Thieriot) finally found some normalcy in a life with Emma (Olivia Cooke). That’s why it’s no surprise to see them successfully navigating a life in Seattle with their new baby girl, Kate. Life is good for the couple…until Caleb (Kenny Johnson) shows up bringing that old Bates baggage with him. Caleb is looking for a place to stay and Dylan is torn. He tells Emma that they’re Caleb’s only family and his father went above and beyond to help pay for Emma’s surgery, something she did not know. Letting Caleb stay isn’t as easy as a happy family reunion and Emma knows this. That’s why later she thanks Caleb for saving her life, but tells him he can’t stay. Staying would mean Dylan would have to lie to their daughter about how she was conceived and live that lie for a lifetime. Caleb is crushed, but quietly accepts the truth that sometimes we make mistakes we can’t ever make right.

Corpses and Luminal

With no luck finding any record of Joe in the motel guest book, Norman uncovers another mystery: an order for Luminol, a typical forensics tool for illuminating blood splatter at crime scenes. Norman has no recollection of ordering this and the very thought of it makes him flustered.

Speaking of flustered, fresh off the Luminol confusion a guest enters (Austin Nichols) the office looking for an hourly room rate. Offended that someone would think the Bates Motel is a “No-tell Motel,” Norman gives him a room for the night conveniently right next to the office. The male guest and his female lover give Norman a show as he watches on with voyeuristic pleasure through his own personal peep hole hidden behind the office paintings. While watching the couple, Mother calls and interrupts her overly excited son’s “me time” and the dutiful boy returns to the house on the hill for a lavishly prepared dinner. It’s a dinner that gets spoiled the minute Norman tells Mother about Madeline Loomis. Much like Norma, Mother comes off as jealous and petty when it comes to the young blond that captured her son’s attention. The two argue over Loomis as well as Mother’s sacrifice to keep her son safe. Dinner ends with the seeds of Pyscho planted. Norman sees his Mother as over bearing but Mother is Norman’s conscience, who’s always trying to remind him that he’s not well and downright dangerous. The resentment Norman feels for his own subconscious is evident when Norma storms off from the dinner table.

Later that night, Mother and Norman go to bed, but the young man can’t sleep. After gazing at his sleeping obsession, Norman gets up and wanders to the basement where he’s been keeping Norma’s stuffed body! Surrounded by flowers and bottles of Luminol, the grieving son lays his head on Norma’s lifeless lap and asks her, “What dream this is?” Norman is living two different realities thanks to his illness and can no longer tell which reality is a dream – the one where Mother is dead or the one where she is alive and driving him crazy. As reality tries to work its way in to Norman’s brain, the Mother alter bats it away and protects him from the murderous truth.

 The Family that slays Together, Stays together

With still no clues on the wallet owner, Norman makes plans for a night out with Madeline at the local small businesses meeting in town. Mother seems ok with it, but insists Norman not drive due to his blackouts. The two argue and Norman takes off only to be stopped by Mother outside the Motel. She is livid that he keeps making her job harder. She keeps trying to protect him, but Norman insists no one is out to hurt him. Frustrated, Mother drags Norman by the ear up to the house and down to the basement where Joe (the mystery man’s body) is on ice. Norman doesn’t want to face it, but Mother tells him that this man tried to kill him and she stepped in to protect her son. The flashback to the murder is violent, leaving Mother covered in blood and Norman triggered. He screams “What is wrong with us, Mother?” This is the exact second that Mother and son become one. Norman is starting to remember and the two drag the body outside and load it into the car, just like old times. In a throwback to the series pilot, Norman and Mother take the body out to the lake and just before they throw the body overboard Joe’s phone rings. Norman quickly grabs it and answers, much to his Mother’s dismay, only to hear Alex Romero on the other line looking for Jim! That’s right, Joe the corpse is the same Jim that Alex was trying to call from the prison. It looks like Alex hired Jim/Joe to kill Norman, but Mother got to him first. The episode ends with the two dumping the body while a confused Alex appears to be concerned as to the whereabouts of his killer for hire.

Will Alex find out what Norman did from behind bars? How many victims are dumped in that lake and will they ever be found? Will Madeline be Norman’s next victim? Find out the answers to this and more on the next “Bates Motel.”