Bates Motel – Dreams Die First

By: Kelly Kearney

Since the very first episode of “Bates Motel” fans were always aware of the path this show would take. How they got there was anybody’s guess, but we all knew the series would eventually lead us to Marion Crane and that famous shower scene. The episode Dreams Die First was the start of what would be a terrifying tumble into the darkness of Norman’s Psycho mind.

White Horse Bar

When episode five begins Norman (Freddie Highmore) wakes with a serious hangover and still no signs of Mother (Vera Farmiga). A hangover wouldn’t be out of the ordinary except Norman has no recollection of the night before. While searching the house for any signs of how he ended up with his head in the toilet, first thing in the morning, Norman finds a pack of matches from a bar called the White Horse. Before he has a chance to process the mystery matches, Sheriff Greene (Brooke Smith) is on the phone and wants Norman to come down to the station to answer some questions about Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell). Awkwardly, he agrees and heads to the station for a little game of cat and mouse. Does the sheriff know more about Norman’s problems then she’s letting on?

While Norman is under the pressure of the local police, Dylan (Max Theiriot) is under his own kind of pressure in Seattle. Emma (Olivia Cooke) has no idea the reasoning behind Dylan and Norma’s rift and the guilt is eating him up. While staring at Emma’s mother’s earing, he seems to be contemplating a confession, but how do you tell the love of your life your brother probably murdered her mother?

Over at the station, Norman is nervously barreling through the sheriff’s questions and offers her his own take on his stepfather Alex. He tells her that Alex was lonely and had no friends and therefore he clung to Norma and what eventually led to her demise. He blames the disgraced Sheriff Romero for his mother’s death, but when Greene tells him Alex thought Norman killed his mother the nervous young man says, “Who better to blame than the kid who just got out of the mental hospital.” Unfortunately for Norman, Sheriff Greene is very observant and asks why he told her he hadn’t heard from Alex if he visited him in jail the day before he escaped. Using a play on words, Norman tires to outsmart Greene by saying he hadn’t heard from Alex, he chose to visit him and it slipped his mind. She takes that for what it is, but can’t let go of the connection between Jim Blackwell (John Hainsworth) and Romero’s escape. Norman plays dumb and the meeting is over, but not before the sheriff gives him a warning: Alex might be coming for him and he’s armed.

After the tense meeting with Sheriff Greene, Norman heads home to look for Mother. He calls the White Horse Bar and asks the bartender (Brendon Taylor) if a woman named Norma had been seen there the night before. The bartender says yes and she left with a man and her car was still there. Confused and shaky, Norman thanks him and says he’s a friend of Norma’s and he will pick up her car. If Norma was at the bar, it makes sense that Norman woke up with a hangover, but what was she/he doing at a bar? Was Norman, dressed as Norma, picking up men? HOLY BISEXUAL PLOT TWIST NORMAN BATES! That’s exactly what he was doing but Norman still is a little foggy on the details or the separation of himself and his alter. All he knows is this news is quite upsetting and he needs to get to the bottom of things.

Guilt Brews Anger

After starring at Emma’s mother’s earing all day, Dylan is tense. When Emma notices his mood, she chalks it up to Dylan missing his mother since she assumes the earing belongs to Norma. She tells him that maybe it’s time to bury the hatchet and Dylan snaps back to mind her own business, she can’t fix this. Emma is visibly upset and has no idea what Dylan is dealing with.

Dylan and Emma aren’t the only happy couple on the outs. Madeleine (Isabelle McNally) gives Norman a ride to pick up Mother’s car and the two have an awkward chat about their kiss. Norman is cold to her and tells her that maybe she should talk to her husband about how lonely she is, there’s probably a reason she’s not aware of. That reason is Marion Crane (Rihanna) and we see Sam (Austin Nichols) and Marion in a loving embrace in a Seattle motel.

Much like the film Psycho, Marion is the unknowing mistress of Sam and wants an upgrade in her status from girlfriend to wife. Sam beats around the bush and tells her that he’s just about to make it big at work and he wants to be able to take care of her the way she deserves. Marion reminds him that she could have anyone she wants, but that she will wait for him because she loves him. Sam is a snake. Not only is he lying to his wife, but he’s also lying to his mistress – the same mistress Norman witnessed with “Dave Davidson” at the Bates Motel.

Later, at her job as a notary public, Marion gets the chance of a lifetime. After a failed conversation over a raise with her jerk of a boss Mr. Lowery (Raphael Sbarge), Marion decides to give herself a raise when she steals a suitcase of cash her boss asked her to deposit. With $400,000 in a briefcase, it looks like Marion has the nest egg that her and Sam have been waiting for.

Secrets Revealed

Marion might be in the dark about Madeleine, but Madeleine soon finds out what Sam has been up to when Norman tells her he knew Sam before they met. He tells her Sam checked in with another woman and Madeleine is shocked! She starts crying, calls him a liar and throws him out of her vintage truck right into the parking lot of the White Horse bar. Norman spots his mother’s Mercedes and decides to ask the bartender what he saw the previous night.

Inside, Norman spots the bartender who immediately recognizes him. Odd since Norman thinks he’s never been here before, but he asks the man if Norma left with anyone last night. Confused, the bartender chuckles and says yes, she was with a man. Norman asks if this man was tall, dark and broody and looked like an escaped convict. The bartender isn’t sure how to answer this and Norman leaves, only to find a pair of pink lacey panties in the backseat of Norma’s car!

Obviously, the realization that you might be dressing as your mother going to bars and picking up men for possible random hook ups is upsetting and who better to talk to than his former doctor, Dr. Edwards (Damon Gupton). Norman runs into him on his drive home from the bar and the two chat about how he’s doing. Edwards feels like maybe he pushed Norman too hard about his mother alter and asks why the young man left his care? Norman lies and says he’s seeing someone new, but when the topic of Mother comes up Norman bolts, leaving the doctor more concerned than ever.

As the secret of Norman’s alters begin to unravel, Marion is about to out her man Sam’s infidelity. With the briefcase in her car, she takes off for Pine Bay to share the good news with her love. Even when she gets pulled over by a highway patrol officer (Bates Motel executive producer Carlton Cruse) for a minor infraction, can’t dampen her mood. She’s rich, in love and ready to share her life with Sam. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, is not feeling so great when Marion calls, interrupting his dinner with Madeleine and announces she’s thirty minutes outside on Pine Bay! Sam tells her she can’t come to his nasty apartment he shares with another guy, but that he will meet her later at the Bates Motel. Inside, Madeleine heard the whole thing and confronts Sam about the other woman.

Norman, What Have You Done?

If that secret wasn’t big enough, Dylan finally comes clean to Emma about why he distanced himself from Norma. He explains that Norman killed his father to protect their mother from his abusive step dad and he thought that was the end of his violent rages. After being a suspect in Miss Watson’s murder and winding up in a mental hospital, Dylan confronted Norma. Like always, his mother shrugged off his concerns, but when he found the earing he knew Norman did something, especially since the woman never checked out of the motel and hasn’t been seen from since! Emma cannot believe it! She is devastated and tells Dylan to take a walk before she screams and wakes the baby. Later, while looking for information about her mother, Emma comes across Norma’s obituary and is shocked to tears. Dylan had no idea and with this news about his brother being a possible murderer, there is no doubt this will send Emma, Dylan and baby Kate back to Pine Bay for answers.

It turns out the White Horse bar isn’t your average, rural American watering hole. From the looks of things, Norma/Norman went to pick up men at a gay bar. Slowly the truth starts sinking in when fellow a patron barely recognizes him in men’s clothing and asks “Norma,” if she got home ok. The man thinks Norman was dressed in drag and he freaks out and heads to the bathroom to clear his head. That’s when the flashbacks from the previous night make it into the forefront of Norman’s mind. He remembers meeting an attractive man (Michael Doonan) and having passionate sex in the back seat of Mother’s car. Panicking, Norman is trying to make sense of this new revelation when the very man from the backseat approaches him with a kiss! Norman goes into full panic mode! He’s beyond confused and begs the man to call his Mother. As the walls begin to close in on him, the frightened motel manager has flashes of a beautiful and young Norma that transforms into the cold dead corpse hiding in his basement. He flees the bathroom and drives off from the bar with the very real reality that Norma is dead and the Norma from the backseat was him.

The episode ends the way Psycho begins with Marion Crane and her briefcase full of stolen cash pulling into the Bates Motel parking lot, looking for a room and a start to her new life with Sam. Will Norman ruin those new shower curtains with Marion’s blood? Will Sam follow through on his threat to kill Norman if he told Madeleine about his affair? Will Dylan and Emma get to the bottom of the horrors in the house on top of the hill? Find out the answers to these questions and more, on next week’s “Bates Motel.”