Bates Motel: Season 2/ Episode 1 “Gone But Not Forgotten” [Season Premiere] – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

Bates Motel returns and while the episode starts off very ho hum, it ends with blood splatter.

Review (with Spoilers)

It has been a year since the first season premiered, and damn did I miss it. Highmore continues to show an emotional complexity which makes you wonder when he will become the famed Norman Bates, and everyone else remains their creepy complex selves. But, as for this season, it seems between the death of Ms. Watson, and someone else who dies, spoilers below, the show is ready to bring back the mystery, and unease, that made the first season so lovable.

Topic 1: A Grieving Person

With the death of Ms. Watson comes a lot of questions. For one, can Norman, without any doubt, possibly be the one who killed her? Or, could it be the only other suspect presented, which is Gil? You see, Gil was the man, well the likely one, Ms. Watson was arguing with last season. But, what makes things even more interesting is that Bradley’s dad was having sex with her, while Gil was dating her. More on that in Topic 2 though. Anyway, as Norman grieves, a bit more than both his mother and the sheriff are comfortable with, you get this eerie feeling that as he begins working on animals for taxidermy, eventually he will likely dig up Ms. Watson and have her be his first human.

Norman’s eccentricities aside, he is of the opinion Gil likely killed Ms. Watson, but there lies a problem of him blacking out. All he remembers from the night she was killed was seeing her undress, in a way which he makes sound seductive, and then him running home. And, as we know, somewhere between that time gap Ms. Watson was murdered. Now, when under stress, Norman does snap but considering how many sex dreams he has had, though those had Bradley, you’d think his other, sort of, crush, Ms. Watson, wouldn’t have made him so flustered to the point of killing her. Though I haven’t seen the final episode of last season more than once, so maybe I need to again to fully remember what happened.

Topic 2: A Grieving Girl

Now going back to Bradley, Norman’s crush, and Dylan’s jailbait, we learn she attempted to commit suicide by drowning, and then got locked up in a mental facility for four months, and nearly shoots herself in the head the day when she gets out. But, after meeting with Gil, and meeting with Dylan, she found purpose in her life. Much less, a very sweet conversation with Norman, seems to have renewed, in some way, her lease on life.

For, you see, part of the reason she tried to kill herself seemingly dealt with what has been going on in her family, and also Dylan cutting her off because of Norman. But, getting back to her renewed lease on life, seemingly she made her new life’s purpose being that of revenge and also learning more about her dad. Dylan is the one though who provides the pertinent information. Most of which is listed in Topic 1, the whole Gil and Ms. Watson dating, and how her dad was bonking her. With this information, and a gun, Bradley goes to Gil’s house under the ruse of being a young girl who has a thing for him, but after some kissing, and this man having some confessions, right before it seems like he is about to get a BJ she pulls out her dad’s gun and shoots him in the head. Leading her to run to Norman who, as we have seen, is pretty decent at covering up murders.

Topic 3: A Questionable Future

Leaving us with the only person left worth talking about: Norma. In the episode, we do a 4-month leap forward and with this leap we see Bates Motel booming. There are no vacancies, Norma is smiling, and her and Dylan’s relationship even seems to be good. Pretty much, her life is damn near perfect. However, she finds out that bypass is back on and with that, her business is threatened once more. So, having more passion than preparedness, she decides to go to the city council and basically gets degraded after she airs her grievances. And, not being one to take an insult, she calls the council president a dick and, as usual, probably has made it so she has more enemies than allies. Though really, at this point, outside of her sons, who is really Norma’s ally?

Making for an overall episode in which the only disappointed was Emma was barely in it. But, with Bradley killing someone, Ms. Watson’s murder mystery, and Norma saying out loud how the town is built upon drug money, she (Emma) may likely end up lost in the mix. Plus, it is summer so outside of seeing her at the motel, and maybe around her dad’s shop, it seems Bradley may take up the screen time as Norman may get some of his feelings reciprocated due to his loyalty.