Bates Motel – The Body

By: Kelly Kearney

The Confession…

In the eighth episode entitled The Body, Freddie Highmore directs a brilliant epilogue to the famous ending of the film Psycho. It begins with Norman (Freddie Highmore), who has just confessed to killing Sam Loomis (Austin Nichols) after clocking his brother Dylan (Max Thieriot) over the head with a glass and wrestling a knife out of a homicidal mother’s hand. This is a strange celebration of National Siblings Day, but right on par with the oddity that is the Bates family. Of course, Sheriff Green (Brooke Smith) shows up at the house to question a visibly shaken Norman about his confession and doesn’t seem to be getting far in her interrogation. Norman, with his eyes closed to block out a stalking and angry Mother (Vera Farmiga), demands his medication and asks to be taken to the station – anything to get out of this house of horrors. Greene and her deputy escort Norman to the police cruiser and a battered Dylan runs after him to let him know he will hire his brother a lawyer. Unfortunately, Norman isn’t in his right state of mind and refuses a lawyer, something that he will later use to try and get out of the murder charges.

At the station, Greene isn’t buying Norman’s confession and it certainly doesn’t help that the young suspect keeps pointing out conflicting locations to where Sam’s body was dumped. Knowing that Norman must be lonely after his mother died, the sheriff wonders if his confession is out of loneliness and the need for attention. Upset, Norman assures her it was him that killed Sam, as for the two bodies pulled from the lake, he doesn’t know if he killed them or not. Norman admits he’s still putting the pieces together, but the Sheriff has no idea of the young man’s mental illness or the reality of Mother. She shrugs off his confusion and admits that he seems like a kid who is playing adult games.

Speaking of Mother, after Sheriff Greene questions Norman her deputy gives him his medication and locks him in a cell. Before the pills can kick in, Mother appears and she throws Norman to the floor, demanding to know why he turned them in. She is angry and violent. In order to remain in control, she shoves her fingers down her alters throat forcing him to expel the pills into the cell’s toilet. Traumatized and seemingly helpless to stop Mother’s control, Norman listens as Mother holds him and explains why she’s the one that needs to fix this. After a few kisses she shockingly bashes Norman’s head into the toilet, knocking him out and taking the lead with little to no remorse. This is life or death for Mother because if Norman goes down she disappears and she’s not leaving without a fight.

What’s best for Norman?

While Norman is bouncing himself around his cell, Dylan meets with lawyer Julia Ramos (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) in hopes she will take his brother’s case. Julia is a tough prosecutor and after Dylan explains Norman’s illness and need for hospitalization, she agrees to defend him. A defense he will certainly need after Sheriff Greene formally arrests Norman/ Mother, after she demands to be released. Mother tries telling the Sheriff that they denied him his meds and thus he made up this crazy and delusional story, but he’s better now and would like to go home. Obviously, that’s not how a murder confession works and even without Sam’s body the police have a right to keep him behind bars for twenty-four hours. With formal charges filed, Ramos meets with her client and Mother is seems unimpressed. She tells Julia that she knows Dylan filled her head with lies about her/his mental health and wants him locked away in a hospital, but that’s not what Norman wants. As the two talk strategy, its clear Mother is plotting and planning to pin Sam’s murder on someone else and use the confession Norman gave to cover up for the real murderer. Mother is smart and conniving, it’s how Norman has gotten away with so much. Will he get away with this, too?

While Norman is holed up at the White Pine Bay PD, his old friend Chick (Ryan Hurst) pulls in to a police barricaded Bates Motel. Playing it cool, Chick asks what’s going on and immediately assumes Norman killed himself. He’s relieved when he hears his friend and business partner is alive, but turns angry when he realizes this is a murder investigation. With Norman behind bars, where does that leave his future bestselling true crime novel?

Mother’s Plan…

After a touching phone call between Emma (Olivia Cooke) and Dylan where he explains the drama with Norman will keep him in town longer than he expected, we find Norman/Mother spinning a web of lies that might bite Madeleine Loomis (Isabelle McNally) in the back side. On tape in the interrogation room, Norman tries pinning the murder on a distraught and jealous Madeleine. He explains that Sam was having an affair and Madeleine killed him because of it. He admits he confessed because he is infatuated with the woman and thought he could take the blame to protect her. The story is ludicrous and Norman seems to be making it up as he goes along so the sheriff questions Madeleine and wonders why Norman would make this up. Madeleine is at a loss and admits they are friendly and maybe he has a crush on her. Without the body, there is no proof of a murder so Madeleine leaves, but not before she gets a glimpse of Norman psychotically staring at her in a way that says, “GOTCHA!”

Speaking of psychotic plots, Alex (Nestor Carbonell) find his gun while Maggie (Jillian Fargey) is sleeping and sneaks out undetected. He makes it to the Bates Motel in the dead of a wintery and desolate night. In fear someone will see him from the road, Alex skips the house steps and climbs the snowy hill to the house, breaks the police tape and goes inside. While looking for any evidence he can find, Romero has a vision of Norma climbing the stairs. Following his beloved wife’s ghost to the landing where he desperately tried reviving her, he spots Norma again – only this time giving him a loving glance from her bedroom’s vanity. Distraught and seeing ghosts, Alex takes a nap in his Norma’s bed only to wake hours later to the sound of Norman’s voice and a typewriter. Gun drawn, he heads to the basement where he finds Chick transposing his recordings.

Back in town, the sheriff gets the DNA report from the unidentified body they found in the lake and goes to tell Dylan its Audrey (Karina Logue), Emma’s mother. She thought he would want to be the one to tell his wife, but Dylan thinks she just wanted to judge his reaction. Greene tries to reason with Dylan and says she gets family loyalty, but she’s seen many family members torn apart over less and asks him to consider cooperating with the investigation. Dylan is all that his brother has left and he’s more than aware of who Norman is. He’s a sweet kid, but is also terribly ill and Dylan is all he has left. Turning on him in his time of need seems out of the question and so he declines the sheriff’s offer, even if it means putting strain on his marriage.

Alex learns the truth…

At the Bates house, a saddened Alex turns lethal when he asks Chick what he’s doing in the basement. In the only way Chick can, he rambles on about his friendship with Norman and how it came to be. He refuses to agree that the young man is crazy and Alex, while pointing a gun to his head, asks how he can say that when Norman killed his mother. Chick has a much broader idea about this and says yes, he did but he also loved her. He calls Norman an artist and infuriates Alex when he mentions Norman confessed to Sam Loomis’ murder. Of course, this doesn’t fit in with Alex revenge plans and Chick mocks him for it, as well as drops the biggest news on Alex yet – Norman dug Norma up and kept her in the very room they’re standing in. Chick explains that this is the reason he’s down there as he’s communing with the dead and getting a feel for what it’s like to be worshipped in the way Norman did Norma. Feeling those vibes is what will help make his book a best seller he tells the crazed man holding a gun on him. With nothing left to lose and a need to make someone pay, Alex is done listening to Chick deconstruct the very nightmare that took Norma from him. Alex, fueled with rage and shock, shoots the would-be author in the head killing him instantly.

The episode ends with the police departments search and rescue dogs locating the well Sam’s body was dumped in. Wrapped in a Bates Motel shower curtain, they hoist the body from the well and finally have the evidence to put the young motel owner away for life. Sheriff Greene heads back to the station where she arrests Norman again, not just for Sam’s murder but for Jim Blackwell’s (John Hainsworth) and Audrey Ellis’ as well.

Can Mother stay in control long enough to beat three murder charges? Will Alex ever get his revenge now that he killed Chick in the basement of a crime scene with a stolen police gun? Will Bates Motel end in a straight-jacket or a lethal injection? Find out what happens in the last two episodes of “Bates Motel.”