‘Bates Motel’ season 2 premiere review: Freddie Highmore, Vera Farmiga do not disappoint
You’ve waited a long time for “Bates Motel” to be re-opened for the season and finally that time has come. Last season the show left us with a pretty big cliffhanger… did Norman Bates kill his teacher Miss Watson? The show definitely wanted us to believe that he did, but if you remember to earlier in the episode, his teacher had a pretty heated (and scary) conversation with a man named Eric on the phone, so there is more then one suspect. Is this going to be the mystery of the whole season, or will the masterminds behind the show reveal the killer in tonight’s season 2 premiere?
It has been four months since the death of Miss Watson and Norman can’t get over her death. Norma on the other hand is trying to push Norman to not only get over it, but also to give up some of the morbid activities he’s been involved in (like taxidermy). Even though Norma has tried to discourage Norman from visiting Miss Watson’s grave, he does so anyways and finds a man there. Norman brings pictures of the man to Sheriff Romero as a possible suspect (as he may be the mysterious Eric she was fighting with before she was killed).
When Norma learns that Norman not only disobeyed her by going back to Miss Watson’s grave, but also went to Romero with the photos she confronts him about it. He tells Norma the truth about what happened that night Miss Watson died, revealing that he was there and that he doesn’t remember what happened in between her undressing and him running home. He feels incredible guilt over leaving Miss Watson in the house alone, because if he had stayed there he might have been able to save her from whoever killed her.
Bradley has been in an institution the past few months (after trying to kill herself) and now that she’s out she wants to know who killed her dad and she’s not going to stop until she gets answers. She asks an old colleague of her father’s (Gil) for answers, but not only will he not give them, he also advises the staff at the warehouse (including Dylan) not to give any information about him. It is also revealed that not only was Gil was dating Miss Watson, but Bradley’s father was sleeping with her behind Gil’s back. Bradley decides to go back and see Gil again, offering to trade sex for information about her dad, but her real plan was to shoot Gil dead.
Even though Bradley treated Norman like garbage, he still made the effort to let her know that no matter what they’ve gone through, he’ll always be there for her as a friend. After killing Gil, she turns to Norman for help, but is he really going to help her or has he learned that this girl is trouble?
Norma and Norman still have the same creepy relationship we’ve missed this past year… they did not disappoint, but Bradley is still a character that we don’t care for as much as the show wants us to and there was way too much focus on her in the premiere. (We were happy to see Dylan tell Bradley that he’s not going to be with her because of Norman’s feelings for her). Also, there was not nearly enough Norman this episode, bring us more Norman! Episode grade: B-
What did you think of the premiere for “Bates Motel” season 2? Was it worth the year long wait? If you want to read a little bit more on what’s coming up this season, just head over to the link here where you can read some of what Vera Farmiga (Norma Bates) told us in a conference call a few weeks ago. Also if you want even more great TV coverage on all of the shows we cover here at CarterMatt then be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Photo: A&E