Everyone at Bates Motel is getting a little crazy right now. Emma desperately wants to take the Chinese girl from Shelby’s basement to the cops and tell them all about the sex slave ring but Norma won’t hear it. Norma flips her shit a little bit and Norman tries to calm her down while she does donuts in the parking lot. They sort of leave things alone that night and the next morning when Emma comes back Norma lies and says they need to wait because the girl won’t wake up. She’s tired, she needs to rest. She’ll be able to talk the cops better when she’s rested.
Basically she makes up all kinds of excuses because they can’t take the girl to the cops until they have the belt that Shelby took. They can turn Shelby in but he can turn right back around and get Norma sent away, too.
Dylan comes around to save the day, though. He had to deal with the aftermath of running down Ethan’s killer (yes, sadly, Ethan died – Noooooo!) which actually went really well for him. He called up their boss and told him what happened – about Ethan being attacked and killing the guy that did it – and their boss was pretty damn pleased. So much so that he’s seemingly elevated Dylan in the organization. After he sends Dylan out to torch Ethan’s truck in the hills he sends this low level guy whose been working for him for two or three decades to pick him up and the guy tells him that it’s not him that’s in charge but Dylan.
Look at you, Dylan. Such an upstart! You’re gonna go places kid.
But for now you’re going back to Keith’s boat to find the belt. Which he does! And while he does that he talks to Norman and they actually get to a point where Norman agrees to come move in with him and leave Norma behind. Mostly because Dylan plants a seed of doubt in Norman’s mind that she killed his father.
Unfortunately, back at the house, Shelby shows up to have sexy time with Norma. They go down to the motel and are having this awkward sort of moment where Norma is clearly hiding something and Shelby just wants to bang her. He hears water running in the pipes and freaks and starts banging on motel room doors. Norma tries very half heartedly to explain the noise away but then he knocks on one door and the girl from his basements answers. She freaks out and takes off into the woods while he chases after her with a gun. Norma tries to stop him but he goes after her.
Then the boys come back but oh snap! So does Shelby. He disarms Dylan because apparently he knows who he works for and I feel like so does most of the rest of the town but no one seems to try and get him arrested. Then he marches them up to the house at gunpoint where Shelby blames Norman for everything and snooping around. Which, you know, isn’t entirely wrong. Norma gets all whiny and it’s pretty annoying. And obviously fake. Shelby pistol whips her and then Norman goes all hazy eyed and crazy and tries to be a hero because they are yelling and Shelby attacks her. Which considering how scrawny he is doesn’t work out very well. He gets his head banged up pretty bad but at least buys Dylan time to get his gun back.
An epic gun battle ensues between Shelby and Dylan while Norma gets Norman out of the house. Unfortunately the dumbass for got the keys to the car. Great job Norma. Back in the house Dylan takes a bullet to the shoulder and Shelby gets hit in the leg. But Dylan runs out of bullets so he runs upstairs to reload. We just see three flashes and hear three shots and then someone comes shambling out of the house. It’s Shelby. But he looks like crap. The dud literally has two holes through his chest and one through his eye which really makes me question how he got from the second floor down to the parking lot in that condition. Seriously. He’s like the freakin’ Terminator. Dylan comes running down after him and Norma hugs him. She actually hugs him. Which is so touching and emotional. Your mom really does love you deep down, Dylan.
Norma called the cops so they have to figure out what to do now. Dylan says they need to tell him the truth but Norma tells him that he really doesn’t know the truth about anything. Turns out, Norman killed his father. I called that back in episode one. I think we all did. His father and Norma were fighting and Norman went crazy eyed and blacked out and got all murderous. So Norma orchestrated the whole accident and everything to protect him because apparently he just does stuff like this and loses his shit. She tells Dylan he can either help him protect Norman or he can leave them alone.
Seriously, though. Norma. You really need to get this kid help.
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