BATES MOTEL Season 2 Episode 10
Episode Title: “The Immutable Truth”
Writers: Kerry Ehrin & Carlton Cuse
Director: Tucker Gates
Previously on ‘Bates Motel’:
One of the central questions of “Bates Motel” is how do we reconcile the Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) who is a relatively nice kid with the killer that he is destined to become?
The answer is that we can’t. Nor can Norman accept that he is a danger to others. At this point in time, Norman is still good enough to want to prevent other people from being hurt in the only way that he can. Last week, Norman was locked in a box by local drug lord Nick Ford (Michael O’Neill) and he was given far too much time to think about his life and what really happened to Blair Watson (Keegan Connor Tracy). Now even Norman knows that he killed the teacher who seduced him last season.
From this point on, there are full spoilers ahead for “The Immutable Truth,” so if you missed last night’s second season finale of “Bates Motel” then you should probably skip this review or else Norman won’t get to the rest of his list.
“The Immutable Truth” treats the drug war in White Pine Bay as if it was largely inconsequential to the story of “Bates Motel.” And it was. Only in these last few episodes was Nick Ford presented as a real threat to Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) and her sons. But even that fizzled out quickly when Norma’s other son, Dylan Massett (Max Thieriot) killed Nick last week.
This led to the unlikely team up of Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) and Dylan. Note that Romero was heading to Nick Ford’s place for a solo showdown even before Dylan ran out of the brush and confessed to killing Ford. One easily interrogated thug later, Dylan and Romero find Norman and set him free. More tellingly, Dylan embraces Norman more intensely than we’ve ever seen before.
This episode brought Norma and Dylan to a surprisingly warm place with each other. Most of Norma’s issues with Dylan stem from the fact that her brother raped her and fathered Dylan, whereas Dylan has always felt that resentment from Norma and answered it with some his own. For now, the divide between them is gone and Norma feels so close to Dylan that she actually buys three tickets to Canada so they can flee the country as a family. It’s a crazy gesture of love, but Dylan seems to appreciate it even as he talks Norma into staying.
Norma isn’t quite so lucky with her other relationships. After Norma’s choice words for George Heldens (Michael Vartan), his sister (and Norma’s only real friend) Christine Heldens (Rebecca Creskoff) wastes little time telling Norma off and dissolving their friendship. It was broadly hinted throughout the season that the Helden family had influence almost on par with Nick Ford, and Christine intimates that she will use that influence to get Norma booted off of the City Council.
In more bad news for Norma, Romero won’t let go of the idea that Norman may have killed Blair Watson and she reluctantly agrees to let Norman take a polygraph test to determine if Romero should reopen the case. But the larger problem is that Norman isn’t willing to live with himself if he is truly a murderer. So, Norman sets up a list of things to do before killing himself. And one of the first items on the list is to reconcile with Emma Decody (Olivia Cooke) and convince her to stay with the Bates Motel.
Norman may have the best of intentions for Emma, but she’s suitably horrified when she learns the truth about Dylan’s parentage. Norman is only trying to make sure that Norma has companionship when he dies, but it’s a huge miscalculation for him to unload Dylan’s secret on Emma. She hasn’t exactly been very good at keeping secrets in the past, so this will inevitably blow up and put Dylan at odds with Norman again.
For what he thinks is his last night on Earth, Norman makes up with his mom and dances with her inside of their home. The next day, Norma finally realizes what Norman plans to do and she goes through a very Alfred Hitchcock-ian inspired chase through the woods to prevent Norman from blowing his brains out.
Along the way, Norma also admits to Norman that he killed his own father while protecting her from abuse. More shockingly, Norma kisses Norman full on the lips and once again states that they are the same person and she can’t live without him. The “Bates Motel” creative team really played up the Psycho elements in this episode. Norma was even in a rocking chair while waiting for Norman to wake up.
Meanwhile, in the plot that very few people care about, Dylan and Romero convince Jodi Wilson (Kathleen Robertson) to lure her idiot brother, Zane Carpenter (Michael Eklund) over to her house. In turn, Zane takes a run at his sister and he fatally shoots her before Romero puts him down for good. It’s a shame that Jodi died before getting any real characterization, but I doubt that many people will miss Zane. He was the most ill-conceived and cartoonish character on a show about a future serial killer who hallucinates his mother as another persona in his mind.
The only really interesting thing to emerge out of the drug war storyline is the idea that Dylan may be running the whole business next season. Note that Romero didn’t enlist any of his other deputies to help him take out Zane and Ford. Romero thinks that Dylan is more controllable and more reasonable than the previous drug lords and a much better alternative than someone new coming in.
On the day of the polygraph test, both Norma and Dylan accompany Norman to the undisclosed location. There was good tension here as I was very curious about how Norman would get out of admitting that he killed Blair Watson. The answer was obvious all along, but I didn’t see it coming. Norman’s inner “mother” told him that she killed Blair Watson, which freed Norman’s real personality to say that he didn’t do it because that’s what he really believed.
That was perhaps the only way for this show to continue. If Romero believed that Norman was a killer then he would have been hounding Norman through to the end of the series. This outcome frees Norman to eventually kill again while Romero can now get closer to Norma. After being rejected by Christine, Norma may be a social pariah again. But perhaps dating the Sheriff of White Pine Bay may get Norma an uptick in her social status.
I think that the tragedy of “Bates Motel” is that the characters would have truly been better off if Norman had gone through with his suicide attempt. It was already too late to save Norman. Killing his abusive father in defense of his mother is one thing. But murdering Blair Watson was indefensible. Whatever good is in Norman isn’t worth the monster that also lives within him. It’s inevitable that Norman will kill again and again. That is simply who he is and where he is going.
We have a good idea of what Norman’s future looks like from the Psycho films. But “Bates Motel” has been telling this story in such an entertaining way that knowing the outcome hasn’t detracted from the experience. Things threatened to go off the rails with the drug wars this season, but the family drama between Norman, Norma and Dylan has been gold.
