2.9 The Box This is especially true of Norman, who spends most of this episode literally trapped in a small, damp box in the middle of the forest. His captors, agents of the nefarious Mr Ford have him there as collateral to ensure that his brother complies with the not-a-question, but the emergence of new information about his involvement with Blair makes it more personal still. The image of the box is a smart one, symbolising the claustrophobic dramatic atmosphere that is emerging as the varied plot strands weave ever tighter. Note how Ford’s plan involves all three of the central family, using Norma’s love for Norman as a lever by which to press Dylan. This naturally brings her closer to her eldest, despite their differences, and finds strain in the history that currently sees them estranged. It spills over into other relationships, leading to Norma’s aggressive dismissal of the affections of the romantically confused George, who was pretty much the only person she had left to kick against. That darkness, naturally, emerged from the central device of Norman’s entrapment and its other emergent device, that of locking the boy in with himself. And his other self. I admire the restraint in not having too much dialogue with his ‘inner mother’, just enough to explore his distress and remind us that the greater villain may be an internal one. It set things up nicely for the Blair Watson reveal, an appropriate flashback that settled one particular question for the viewer, just as Romero gets closer to the truth of things. The confirmation that Norman was indeed Miss Watson’s killer is an important one. Bates Motel has demonstrated considerable smartness in teasing Norman’s involvement for this long. We know his destiny, so it would be reductive to simply portray him as an apprentice serial killer with a victim of the week (or even the season). The approach of allowing the audience to be as confused as him is a good one, but it was right to end it. The expanding circle of people who know about Norman’s ‘blackouts’, allied with Romero’s pursuit of the truth and Norman’s own self-doubt means that there’s sufficient dramatic mileage to be followed even without the ‘did he/didn’t he’ question clouding things. The scales also dropped from Ford’s eyes and he at least had the satisfaction of knowing what happened to his daughter before he too died at the hands of one of Norma’s sons. His death, while possibly deserved, was accidental, the result of the tightening of plots around one another. The real target, Zane, dodged the bullet once again, literally and figuratively. Dylan’s assassination attempt was as half-baked as its target’s storyline, the villainy-by-numbers that I hope doesn’t make it beyond next week’s finale. If there can be any justification for the well-established Ford’s selection of a reputationless amateur as his assassin, it’s that Zane really isn’t worth the effort, the one mis-step in a season that has been getting tighter and tighter with every passing week. Read Michael’s review of the previous episode, Meltdown, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
