Goood Eeeevning, Addicts. Welcome back to A&E’s best new
show, and guess what. It’s not a reality show about duck guys! I’ll be very
surprised if Vera and Freddie aren’t both nominated for Emmy’s. Last time we
all gathered round the bowl of popcorn to watch this family, we met Jake
Abernathy, one of Keith’s former sex-fiend friends. He made arrangements to
stay in the motel the first week of every other month. Shelby died and Romero
wiped the slate clean. Norman gets a little attached to a dog when he realizes
that Bradley has been playing him for a fool. The dog dies and he freaks the
hell out.
Norman is with Emma’s Dad as they are preparing to stuff the
dog that died. Dad is giving him lessons on how it’s all done. Norman is
enthralled with the business and accepts the offer to come and work at the shop
on a regular basis to learn the trade.
Emma runs to the bathroom in a full on coughing fit. While
she’s in the stall she hears a group of girls, probably more of the coven come
into the bathroom and talk shit about Norman. They say how socially awkward he
is and that the only reason Bradley would spend time with him is because she
feels bad for him. When the girls suggest there’s no way in hell Bradley would
ever ride the Norman Bates train, Emma can’t take it anymore and comes out of
the stall and confirms that yet, the two of them did bone.
Mother is finished reading a paper that talks about the new
bypass they’re trying to put in that would ruin any traffic she would get to
her motel. She gets on the phone to call Romero and sees Jake staring up at the
house. Romero isn’t available to talk so she leaves a message.
Up at the pot farms Remo and Dylan get a phone call from Gil
that the trimmers will be ready to be picked up tomorrow. Remo makes fun of Dylan
for not knowing what trimmers are. They’re shift is over and they have to go
home and pack because it’s an overnight trip.
At school Bradley finds Norman and asks why he told everyone
about their sex. “It’s just not cool, Norman.” He doesn’t understand why it
shouldn’t have happened. She tells him to forget that the sex happened at all.
He then makes a bolt for the door. His teacher sees him and follows him outside
to stop him. He’s visibly upset. When she tells him he needs to have a note or
he’ll get a truancy ticket he screams at her that he doesn’t care. She goes to
grab his arm and he freaks out. Don’t touch Norman. He runs off. Maybe it was
just my high school, but I don’t think any of my teachers would’ve hauled off
after me for walking out of the building.
Mother goes and knocks on Jake’s door for housekeeping. Jake
tells her she can come in and clean now while he’s here. She offers to come
back when he’s gone but he says he’d like it done now. He tells her that he’d
heard some rumors around town that Shelby was shot at the motel. Mother is
changing the linen and admits that the rumor is true. Jake pretends to be
surprised about the sex trade. Mother then “accidentally” breaks a lamp. I’m
not sure if it was real or not. Jake asks if she knew Shelby and she says a
little. “Kind of like you knew Keith Summers.” It’s tense. Both know the other
knows more than they’re telling. Mother tries to find a way out by saying she
has to take Norman somewhere and Jake tells her that Norman isn’t at home, he’s
at school. She tries to bolt, but he stops her and takes 2 towels off her cart
then lets her go. She knows something is wrong. I should hope so! Look at the
man!!
Mother is now down in Romero’s office. She’s there to call
in a sort of “favor” from the Sheriff. She wants to know if there’s any sort of
help he can give her an in getting on the city planning committee. She thinks
if he nominates her, it will give her clout. Romero is not impressed, and not
having any of it. He tells her they don’t owe each other anything and they’re
not friends. He tells her he saved her ass and she denounces that by saying he
saved his own ass. He tells her that if she thinks she has leverage on him, she’s
sadly mistaken. “I may have to burn you down to the ground, if you know what I’m
saying.” He scares the shit out of her, and rightly so, to a certain extent.
That was a ballsy move on her part, and I don’t really know why she thought it
would work. He sends her home and she gets a call from the school that Norman
has been behaving oddly.
At the chateau de dead animals, Norman comes in to find Emma
on the computer. He calls her out for telling the girls about the sex. “It just
came up.” I feel bad for Emma. She was trying to save face for the guy she
likes. She apologizes and then sort of brushes it off. They sort of make nice,
but Emma’s feelings are still hurt that the sex happened at all.
Mother is told that leaving school will result in Norman
being suspended for 3 days. Really? Am I crazy to think that’s a little
extreme? I guess, probably yeah I am. It’s set up so it almost feels like she’s
being scolded. It feels weird. The teacher tells Mother about his strange physical
behavior. The other administrator thinks Norman is unstable and needs to see
the school psychologist. Mother isn’t on board. When pushed for why, she sort
of stumbled to an answer but comes up with the answer that she would like to
pick the therapist herself. The teacher wants the name of the therapist so she
can give a full account of Norman. Mother leaves in a hurry and is scared.
Remo and Dylan are at a bar. Remo is drunk and is still
annoyed that he’s been working for 23 years with Gil and now he’s working for
some punk kid. Dylan thinks he knows why, and he pushes that button with Remo.
Remo punches him in the face and they get into a brawl. The bartender couldn’t give
a shit and just lets it all happen. Remo
warns him he better watch out, because Gil will destroy him. Remo had a chance
to step up at one point as a leader but he’s not “consistently reliable” and
people tend to not like or respect him. Remo lets it slip that there’s a boss
above Gil. Dylan suggests that Remo quit, but this is laughed off as not a real
possibility in their line of work.
Mother is cleaning the house and stops to admire a picture
of Norman. When he comes downstairs to find her he apologizes for what happened
at school. He says he got upset but doesn’t want to talk about it. He promises it
won’t happen again and Mother tells him about the therapist he has to see now.
Norman says he thinks he fits in. Ha! Right! He asks for a ride to Emma’s house
because her dad is teaching him taxidermy. He says this with the biggest grin
on his face. Good hell.
GAH! That was rather horrifying. I would never get an animal
stuffed. When they arrive Mother asks to speak with Will (the Dad) alone. She
says she doesn’t think this is a good hobby for him to have. Norman is already unusual
and doesn’t need another thing for kids to call him a freak for. Will takes a
bit of offense to her thinking taxidermy makes someone a freak. “Not many
people write poetry but we still have to have poets.” He says they’re not
hurting anyone, so why not let Norman follow his passion. “What could go wrong
with that?” Oh, sir, there are so many things that could go wrong, and I have a
movie for you to watch later…
The trimmers are ready to be picked up. Dylan is a bit naïve
in his dialogue with them. There are quite of few of them that are going to
squash into that van. Remo tells Dylan that the main guy with the guitar is a
real douchebag. They worked with him last year and he wasn’t a fan. Dylan says
he’ll take care of it.
Scaring visuals of Will sewing in the eyes of the dog. They
share a little history about his failed marriage.
Mother pulls up to the motel and then sees that Jake is
getting in his car to leave. Instead of leaving well enough alone, she decides
to follow him, because that can only
end well. They drive and end up at the marina where the girl was kept. She
doesn’t do a very good job of hiding herself. Jake gets out and walks onto
Keith’s boat and is looking around for something. I’m not really sure what it
is. Maybe the journal? Whatever it is, he doesn’t find it and he’s irritated
about it. He sees Mother hiding before she can duck behind another boat. When
she runs to go back to her car, he cuts her off. He says he knows she’s
following him and that she knows what he’s looking for. She says no.
“Where is it? Where’d you hide it?” She doesn’t know what he’s
talking about. He tells her he knows about her and Shelby having dirty sex in
the motel. “Do you think I’m just gonna walk away from this?” He was apparently
on the top rung of the operation. He tells her to come by the motel room when
she figures out what she knows. Holy shit. This guy gives me the heebee jeebees.
Norman is having his session with his therapist and Mother
keeps cutting in and answering for him. Clearly the therapist is annoyed that this
is happening. That would definitely piss me off. Norman isn’t very specific
with his answers so Mother answers for him. Such a dysfunctional relationship.
On the drive back with the trimmers the guitar guy is
singing and it’s annoying Remo. Remo tells them to shut up and put the guitar
away. He’s hung over and pissed off. Guitar guy says that he doesn’t like Remo
either and he’s gonna tell Gil they won’t come back next year, and oh yeah, it’s
passed lunch, they’re owed a meal. He’s speaking for the whole group,
apparently. Dylan tells Remo to pull over. He tells Guitar guy to get out,
pointing a gun in his face. The guy tries to back pedal and keep his place in
the van, but Dylan isn’t having it. The guy gets out and they drive off without
him.
Mother writes a check for the doctor and when he tries to
make another appointment, Mother sidesteps and says she’ll call and make an
appointment when the time is right. He wants to talk to Mother alone and he
tells her that Norman should come alone next time. She says she’s not
comfortable with that because she doesn’t know him. He asks if she has ever
been in therapy and she sort of takes offense. He offers to have her come and
have her own sessions, alone. He sees that she needs to be in control. When he
suggests that as Norman gets older she needs to let go of things she says “I
feel completely in control of everything in my life.” She is a clear case for
what he just talked about.
When they get home from therapy she sends Norman up to the
house and then goes to find Jake. She throws his money back in his face and tells
him to get out of her motel and that his arrangement is no longer valid. “You
need to dial it down right now, Norma before I get truly annoyed.” She
threatens to go to the police about what she knows about him and who he knew.
She very unconvincingly tells him she’s not afraid of him. He toys with her by
suggesting she, of course, knew what was going on there. She gives him 5
minutes and then she’ll call the police. He agrees that they’re now both
playing a game together. He does leave, true to the agreement, but I’m sure
this is far from over. She’s just about in tears out of fear.
Norman is “playing” with his dog that he will now have till
the end of time. Emma comes in to talk to him about why she told the girls
about the sex. She’s very honest about what the girls were saying about him. He
takes it with dignity. She tells him how special she thinks he is. She admits
that she does have feelings for him but that her motive was never to hurt him.
She doesn’t care if they won’t be together, she’s just going to make the best
of their friendship if that’s all they’ll have. She says she feels safe with
him and doesn’t want to lose him. “I don’t have many real friends.” Aww, Emma!
Hugs all around! He accepts her apology.
Mother is in cleaning Jake’s room, trying to get rid of
every bit of him, surely. Dylan pulls up with his van of trimmers. He asks how
many rooms are available and she says they’re all open because Dylan was right
about Jake. There are 7 people that need rooms and they need to stay for 2
weeks. Mother is very grateful and happy to have legitimate business. Ha! Well,
sort of. She comes back and asks Dylan if he’d like to go for dinner with her
since Norman is staying with Emma. She goes upstairs to get changed and settle
everyone in. When she gets to her room
there is a very unwelcome guest waiting for her.
SHELBY!!!!! Sick! She screams bloody murder for Norman. That
doesn’t make any sense. Next week is the showdown between Jake and Mother.
Mother says they’re moving and Norman won’t do it. She says that she wasn’t
prepared for the freak show that this new town was going to be. There are only
2 episodes left for the season! I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I
am with this show!! There are no dull moments. Ever.
