REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 2 Episode Two 'Shadow Of A Doubt'

 REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 2 Episode Two 'Shadow Of A Doubt'

If you said to a random stranger that one day there would be an episode of a Psycho prequel television series where Norman (Freddie Highmore) and Norma (Vera Farmiga) join a community theatre group, chances are nobody would believe you. And yet, here we are. Because that's exactly what happens in this second episode of Bates Motel's second season, and it's perhaps the least Hitchcockian idea to happen in this series so far.

And not only is it community theatre, but Norman and Norma are auditioning to star in a musical, of all things. There's just something so wonderfully absurd to imagine the infamous psychopath Norman Bates singing a musical number alongside his mother, but the show largely plays it straight, and it surprisingly works quite well. It allows us to dive deeper into the relationship between Norman and Norma Bates, and the ever so slightly off dynamic they share as mother and son. At times they feel more like husband and wife, which adds to the air of eeriness present throughout this series, and in the original film.

Vera Farmiga, strangely enough, gets a solo number as Norma auditions for her role. Norma sings Maybe This Time from the musical Cabaret, and Vera Farmiga actually has a decent singing voice. She gives a nice rendition of the song in a showstopping performance that's so impressive, you've got to wonder how long it will be before this actor is cast in a film musical. Maybe a potential casting possibility for the upcoming Wicked adaptation, perhaps?

This is also the episode where Norma starts to suspect her son is behind the murder from the end of Season 1's finale, and it makes for a compelling moment between mother and son. Their discussion really highlights this level of distrust that is starting to slowly creep its way in, as not even Norman can trust his own mind. Even Norman is unsure whether he committed the murder or not.

Perhaps this is one of the things that makes Norman and his former girlfriend Bradley (Nicola Peltz) so similar in the ongoing narrative right now. Both hold their fair share of mental instabilities, and it therefore makes total sense that Norman would help her by allowing her to hide away in his basement. He clearly sees a lot of himself in Bradley, allowing Norman's more loyal traits to appear.

An interesting choice also to have Norman's brother Dylan (Max Theiriot) continue to help Bradley. It's a good way to show the parallels between them as brothers. Both feel a sense of devotion to the same girl, and both are prepared to put everything on their line to help this tragic figure.

Dylan's new boss seems worse than Gile. Zane (Michael Eklund) is utterly ruthless, shooting a guy from a rival gang dead without any proof that he even killed Gile. This delve into gang warfare just goes to show how murky this world of Bates Motel truly is. It's a world where everybody has their secrets, and everybody has something to hide.

Overall, 'Shadow Of A Doubt' is an excellent addition to Bates Motel's second season. It features perhaps one of the unlikeliest scenarios in a Psycho prequel in having Norman and Norma join a community theatre, but does it in a way that doesn't come across as silly. Bradley continues to offer some interesting scenes this season, and we get more of the murky world that Dylan has allowed himself to become involved in. Bates Motel so far is proving to be a worthy prelude to the original Psycho movie, and one that surely Alfred Hitchcock himself would be proud to see sitting alongside his most iconic horror flick.

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What are your thoughts on the second episode of Bates Motel's second season? Let me know in the comments section.