Culture of Pop

Bates Motel Review: 3.3: Persuasion

Bates Motel season 3 continued last night with another great episode. This one had Norma and Norman fighting as Romero keeps asking them questions about Annika Johnson. Norma also started school again and met James Finnigan, a psychology teacher who takes an interest in her.

Professor Finnigan seems like a nice enough guy, but very pushy and downright presumptuous with his assumptions about who Norma is. I would accept him as a love interest since it’s basically a given that no Norma love interest is actually going to be right for her. This show is too deeply sad for that.

Someone delivered Dylan’s marijuana plants to the motel, so Emma had to transport them to his farm. While there, she found out that Caleb is hanging around. Dylan asked her not to tell Norma or Norman, but I’m guessing she cares about Norma too much to let it slide that her abuser is in town and spending time with Dylan. I hope there’s a big pay off to this storyline. The plot about Dylan dealing with the marijuana industry has always felt out of place, and now there’s an added discomfort to it with him allowing Caleb’s involvement. I like Dylan as a character a lot and hope they bring him back to the main story more. He’s obviously best when he’s dealing with Norma and Norman, not off in his own world.

We’re also watching Romero deal with people who no longer want him to be Sheriff and are opposing him in the next election. This also feels a little out of place, although, like Dylan, I love Romero when he’s interacting with the Bates family.

Norman blew up with Norma because he feels like she always acts like he’s guilty. He’s obviously getting confused between how people treat him, his memories and his delusion of Norma. He takes all of his confusion out on Norma. He tells her, “One of us has a problem and I’m tired of the assumption being that it’s me.”

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