Bates Motel - Season 2 - A look back and review

Season 3 of Bates Motel is fast approaching. Due to technical issues during the airing of Season 2, I did not get to do as many reviews as I would have liked. So I figured that I’d make this post to do a quick catch up on the main storylines of the season and voice my personal opinions.

NORMAN

During Season 2, Norman takes it amongst himself to find Miss Watson’s killer. He helps Bradley fake her own death and leave the town after she shot Gil dead for killing her father. Once she is gone, he quickly finds a new love interest in a girl named Cody Brennen. Cody probably isn’t the best role model for Norman as she is a little bit of a wild child. One night he goes to his Uncle Caleb’s motel room and abuses him for what he put Norma through when she was younger. Caleb punches him unconscious and leaves. Cody picks Norman up but he doesn’t remember anything. It is obvious that his black-outs are becoming more frequent. Norman goes to Cody’s house where he gets into an argument with her drunk dad. He falls down the stairs and dies. Cody who is now an orphan is taken to India to live with her aunt. Norman’s DNA is taken which is then discovered to match the DNA of a sperm sample left inside Miss Watson. Before he can be arrested, he is kidnapped and locked in a hatch in the middle of a field. Whilst locked inside he has visions of Norma telling him that everything is going to be alright. He also remembers the blackout he had the night that he murdered Miss Watson. Hours pass. Romero finds Norman and he is taken to hospital. At the hospital he tells Norma that it was him that killed Miss Watson. She tells him not to worry about it and to get some rest. When he returns home he says his goodbyes to Emma and heads out into the woods planning to commit suicide. Norma stops him and takes him to have a polygraph test which Romero lead. When asked if he killed Blair Watson he replied with ‘No’. It seemed to have worked as he passed the test. He has an evil smile on his face as the season comes to a close.

PERSONAL OPINION ON NORMAN’S STORYLINE

I’d be lying if I said that I was impressed. In comparison to almost everyone else this season, Norman had the weakest storylines in my personal opinion – which is pretty bad considering the first thing that comes to mind when someone says mentions ‘Psycho’ is Norman Bates. I really hope that Season 3 improves on this problem.

NORMA

Norma is worried about Normans obsession with Miss Watson’s death. To distract Norman she signs them both up to the community musical – Despite Norman wanting no part in it. Her brother Caleb rocks up at the hotel unannounced and she throws him out. Later she gets into a fight with Dylan after he stood up for Caleb. It is revealed during this argument that Caleb is Dylan’s father. She is hurt and upset at the memories that this brings back and also at the fact that Dylan now refuses to talk to her. She befriends the former musical director Christine as well as her brother, George. She teams up with a man by the name of Nick Ford. Nick helps her delay the bypass that was being planned which would take traffic away from the motel. Once she does this she separates herself from Nick. Christine encourages her to apply for an empty spot with the city council. In amongst all this she begins to date George. She gets into a fight with Norman and then has sex with George. When Norman is kidnapped, Nick Ford tells Norma to tell Dylan that he has to kill Zane (Dylan’s insane boss) otherwise he will Kill Norman. Norma gets into contact with Dylan and delivers the message. When Romero arrives and tells Norma that Normans sperm was inside Miss Watson when she died, Norma breaks down and admits that Norman has been kidnapped. Once Romero saves and takes him to hospital, Norman tells Norma that he killed Miss Watson. She tells him to get some rest and to not worry. Later when Norman tries to shoot himself she stops him and takes him to have a polygraph test. She was expecting him to fail and planned to leave the country with him and Dylan although in the end Norman passed.

PERSONAL OPINION ON NORMA’S STORYLINE

I love Norma. I’m happy with the way that her character was handled this season. There was a point where I was annoyed with her because she did spend a while moping around whinging about the argument with Dylan. Vera Farmiga deserves an Emmy. She is absolutely brilliant in the role. I dread the day when she leaves the show (Without giving it away, anyone that has seen the ‘Psycho’ movie knows what happens to Norma).

DYLAN

Dylan’s storyline this season began when he informed Bradley that her father was having an affair with Miss Watson and that Gil (who was Miss Watson’s partner) killed him when he found out. After Bradley killed Gil, Dylan helped her leave town. After Norma kicked Caleb out, Dylan wanted to know more about him so the two began to hang out. Dylan got into a fight with Norma when he started to defend Caleb. During this argument Dylan finds out that Caleb is actually his father and that he (Caleb) had constantly raped Norma as a kid. Dylan leaves the motel furious, accusing Norma of using the pregnancy to move in with her high school love and get married. A few days later Dylan got shot in a drive by shooting whilst protecting his new boss, Zane Morgan (Who just so happens to be a massive psycho – starting a war with a neighbouring drug dealer). He is taken to a secret location to be hospitalized. It is here that he meets the big boss Jodi, she is Zane’s sister. She is aware that Zane is a psychopath and asks Dylan to try to control him without him knowing it. Later Zane decides to raid Nick Ford’s warehouse. Dylan tries to stop him but Zane knocks him unconscious and leaves him outside. Dylan meets with Nick who tells him to kill Zane and threatens that if he doesn’t do it, the Bates family is in danger. When Norman is kidnapped, Norma delivers Nick’s message to Dylan – although Dylan has already heard it. He has to kill Zane. He tries but is unable to. He meets again with Nick and in a fit of rage kills him before finding out Norman’s location. Dylan is later Jodi’s place when Zane kills her. Romero comes in an kills him and gives Dylan an out. He takes it.

PERSONAL OPINION ON DYLAN’S STORYLINE

I like Dylan. I really do. However I feel that him and the drug trafficking was the main storyline this season. I feel like there was just too much. The season pretty much focused around him and Zane (Who I was so pleased to see die). I hope that next season takes a step back and has this as a sort of background storyline.

EMMA

Throughout this season Emma felt left out. She was going to quit working at the motel because the Bates family never included her in anything. Norma told her that she would be missed. In the season finale before Norman attempted his suicide he visited her and told her everything that had happened with Norma and Dylan. He asked her to continue working at the motel and she said that she would consider it. Also this season she began dating Gunner – a local pot head that made her a marijuana cupcake.

PERSONAL OPINION ON EMMA’S STORYLINE

What storyline? She was pretty much the Belle from Once Upon a Time this season – lucky to get 2 seconds of screen time each episode. Hopefully she has a bigger role in Season 3.

ROMERO

Romero spent a majority of the season trying to track down Miss Watson’s killer. When Gil was murdered, Romero visited Nick Ford asking him if he had anything to do with it. Gil informed Romero that he seems to be spending more time investigating Gil’s murder rather than his daughter (Blair Watson). As a result of this, Romero arrested and charged Kyle Miller (Who was also in a relationship with Miss Watson) for her murder. Romero’s house was burnt down by Zane after Romero saw him and warned him about taking over the drug business from Gil. As a result of this, Romero is now staying at the Bates Motel. The next time he say Zane he beat him up. Norma cleaned up his face and he gave her a warning to stay away from Nick Ford. After Cody’s father died, Romero declared it an accident and let Norman go. He was unaware that a fellow deputy took some DNA samples from Norman and ran them through the system which revealed a match to the sperm found in Miss Watson. When he tried to question Norman about the night of Miss Watson’s death, Norman ran away. He warned Norman that this wouldn’t go away. He also became determined to find Zane who had now disappeared. He pulled Dylan up to try to get information out of him which lead to no results. He got into contact with an old friend of his fathers to set up a polygraph test to find out if Norman really did kill Miss Watson. When he went to the Bates house to fetch Norman but Norma kept denying him entry. Eventually Romero pushed passed Norma but when he couldn’t find Norman, Norma admitted to him that he had been kidnapped by Nick. Romero promised to get Norman back. Romero found Dylan on the side of the road. Dylan told Romero that Nick was dead. Dylan took Romero back to Nick’s house where he tortured one of Nick’s employees who revealed Norman’s location to him. Romero saves Norman and takes him to hospital. Dylan and Romero then went to Jodi’s house where they heard Jodi and Zane having an argument. Zane shots Jodi dead. Romero then ambushed the house shooting Zane dead as well. He gives Dylan an ‘out’ making up a story about what happened and Dylan takes it. Later he does the polygraph test on Norman, who passes.

PERSONAL OPINION ON ROMERO’S STORYLINE
He was awesome. He had just the right amount of screen time this season. His presence was known but it wasn’t too in your face. It’s always fun when Romero and Norma have scenes together – which they had plenty of. Hoping this continues in Season 3.