Bates Motel: Caleb Recap

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1P83iDOK9o]

Bates Motel: Caleb (2×03)

Synopsis: Norma and Norman make new friends. Dylan bonds with Uncle Caleb not knowing all the secrets that rest in the past there. And pot brownie boy is back!

Rating: ★★★★☆

I’m really loving this season of Bates Motel. Every episode adds a whole new dimension to the story. Every thing they do leaves you wondering just where they are going to go next. It’s exciting. You don’t really get to wonder that with a lot of shows. We’re too ‘episodic’ and procedural these days. That’s why Bates Motel along with shows like Hannibal, the Following, the Walking Dead, and others are great. We need that on-going storytelling. We need more shows like this.

Anyway, let’s talk about this episode.

Bradley’s “suicide” starts to effect the town and by ‘the people of town’ I really just mean Emma. She takes her death pretty hard for some reason and expects Norman to do the same which, you know, he doesn’t. Because he knows that she’s not really dead. Still, Emma goes about setting up a memorial for her and everything down by the lakeside where she allegedly committed suicide. That party winds up being nothing more than a reason for the local kids to drink and it turns into a crazy party. And then Norman goes and pretty much ditches Emma for some girl he met at the South Pacific auditions and decided to work on set design with. At least cupcake boy is back! Selling weed. GUNNAR + EMMA FOREVER. Smoke that weed, girl.

Norman’s new girl is nice or seems nice anyway. And by nice girl I mean stereotypical punk girl in a small town. She’s all about drinking and making out with random dudes. (Who then try to feel up Norman while making out with her…?) I’d say it would be good for Norman to let loose with a girl like her but it probably won’t be.

I mean, I love Emma but let’s be real here. I don’t want her dying and Norman like… stuffing her or something. I don’t know. My mind goes weird places watching shows like this.

I mean, it’s nice to see him making friends? Hopefully he won’t kill her. (He’s probably going to kill her.)

It’s good to at least see Norma making friends, too.

She may not have gotten a part in South Pacific either but the director decided to take her under her wing. Small town politics are always an issue and after one of the ladies working on the program decided to put her friend in the lead role the director quit and took Norma out drinking. Sometimes I feel for Norma. She really did get the short end of the stick as far as life goes and she deals with it as she can.  This director lady even seems genuine about wanting to be her friend. She’s that ‘town eccentric’ who collects interesting people and she thinks Norma is interesting.

Sadly, Norma’s happiness is dashed pretty quickly.

Remember Norma’s brother at the end of last episode? Yeah. He’s here and he’s in town and he’s trying to ‘reach out,’ he says. Dylan is the first to meet him and he buy’s Caleb’s story that Norma hates him for some reason he doesn’t quite understand. He tries to get them to talk to one another at the house and Norma goes batshit crazy and kicks him right out. You’d think Dylan would leave things well enough alone but he doesn’t. No, he decides to get to know Caleb and even gets him some money after he sell him some story about a friend selling him a place to live down in the Caribbean.

As if Dylan doesn’t have enough to deal with already.

He’s smack dab in the middle of what is about to blow up into a full scale drug war between the pot families in town.

Maybe that’s why he buys the story so easily. He’s looking for a way out. Probably should have thought about that sooner. He shares some ‘dark secrets’ about the family and the past but he spins it in his own way so that he comes on top and Norm – as Dylan always sees her – is the bad guy.

Not knowing that Caleb is still around, Norma goes to hang out with her director friend and gets to know all the other ‘town eccentrics.’ She actually finds herself fitting in. I’m kind of with her. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for this to all be some sort of joke or something. But it seems legit. I mean, the director even sends her brother (who is Michael Vartan and suddenly I’m in love with him all over again) to talk with her in an attempt to hook them up with one another.

Granted he’s a recent divorcee and she’s a recent widow so they part amicably but… they’re totally going to bang. Which makes me super sad because I totally want her to be with Sheriff Romero. But Michael Vartan works, too. She also gets to meet creepy dude who was (I think) Ms. Watson’s father or something. He talks small town politics with her all shadowy and secretive like because of course he does.

Everyone’s having a nice night by the end of the show. Norma’s feeling good. Norman got to hang with punk rock chic and walk her home. Dylans’ all buddy buddy with Caleb and determined to get Norma to talk to him again. Except, you know, Norma starts screaming and tries to tell him that Caleb raped her. But Dylan – having no reason to believe her because as she said she never had a choice in being his mother and she doesn’t hide that – doesn’t believe her. He starts screaming at her for lying. So she shoves him. Then Norman comes home and starts beating the crap out of Dylan with his superhuman psycho powers.

Of course, then Norma decides to stop the fight by dropping the bomb that, oh, by the way, Caleb is Dylan’s father.

And THEN we see the promo for next episode and ASDLFKJASLEJ.

Nope.

Sheriff Romero, get your town under control, dude!

Remember: Bates Motel is now at 10 PM, folks!

Also, to jack a meme from the Walking Dead: If Dylan Dies, I riot.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ1oCYMgWTQ]